She Only Had Eyes For Hitler

Whilst we were out Hitler turned round to Sauckel, who was walking behind us with a group of other party leaders.

‘See that we have some female companionship at the table tonight Saukel. All day long I’m surrounded by men, and I’d like to hear women’s voices for a change.’

At 17.00 hours we were sitting together on the Schloss terrace, and Saukel had produced about fifteen girls between eighteen and twenty-three years old. In the meantime the news of Hitler presence in Weimar had gotten around, and crowds were beginning to gather to see him, whilst cars were being driven slowly past. A little while before when I was sitting alone on the terrace with Hitler an attractive woman drove by in a car. Hitler spotted her at once.

‘Look Baur: there’s a lovely little woman for you! As pretty as a picture!’

I didn’t know much about Hitler’s private life in those days, or what his attitude to women was, but the eagerness in his voice made me reply:

‘I feel quite sorry for you.’

‘Why, what do you mean, Baur?’

‘I mean that it sounds as though women were something only at a distance for you.’

‘As a matter of fact you’re right,’ he said reflectively. ‘And I have to keep it that way. I’m in the spotlight of publicity, and anything of that sort could be very damaging. Now it you were to have a passing affair, no one would bother his head about it, but if I did there’d be the devil to pay. And women can never keep their mouth shut.’

Afterwards I saw Hitler surrounded by a group of attractive girls. At first they had been a little shy, but then they began to chatter away merrily. I tried to start a conversation with one of them, but she had no time for me—only for Hitler. And the same thing happened to everyone else. None of the girls had eyes for anyone but him: they were all around him in a circle now. But when Hitler noticed that he was the center of attention he became less and less talkative, and finally declared the coffee interlude at an end—though he invited them all to come on afterwards to the Kunstler Café as his guests, an invitation they joyfully accepted. Once again he was surrounded by women, but after a while he asked Dr. Hanfstaengel, who was an excellent pianist, to play something: Hitler then left the company of the women and stood by the piano. Soon after that he said goodbye to the party and went away. 

I wondered what women really thought about him, and from time to time I questioned some of them. Without exception they were enthusiastic about him, some of the fanatically so, even to the point of hysteria. On that particular evening I talked to the girl who was sitting beside me. She was twenty-two, and very attractive, but she told me she was afraid she would never get married, because when she compared all the men she had ever met to Hitler they were so far inferior to him that none could possibly satisfy her. 

I was malicious enough to tell her what Hitler had said about women: that none of them could hold their tongue. She stared at me almost in horror. 

‘He said that! Oh, how mistaken he is! Please, please tell him that I could. I’d sooner have my tongue cut out than whisper a word.’

I had to laugh at her, but she was very serious. When I told Hitler about it the next day, he laughed too.

I mention this in itself unimportant incident, because it is typical of Hitler’s relationship to the many women we met—he meticulously avoided anything which might have damaged his reputation. 

-excerpted from “I Was Hitler’s Pilot” by Hans Baur (1958)