Rochus Misch was born in a small town of Alt Schalkowitz and what is now Poland, on July 29, 1917 and both his parents passed away when he was very young. He joined the SS when he was 20.
He then decided to enlist for the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, a unit founded as the Fuhrer’s personal bodyguard, insisting that he signed up against Stalin and not for Hitler. After getting wounded during a negotiation, he was sent to Germany to recover.
In May 1940, he was selected to be one of the two SS men, Hitler’s bodyguards and personal assistants. They would answer the phone, greet politicians and buy flowers for the Fuhrer’s friends.
The loyal bodyguard and the other SS man, Johanes Hentschel, went everywhere with Hitler; even at his Alpine retreat in Berchtesgaden. “I lived with him for five years. We were the closest people who worked with him … we were always there. Hitler was never without us day and night,” said Misch, The Greatest Story Never Told reports.
During the last days of Hitler’s life, Misch went on to live with him in some underground reinforced concrete ceilings. Jim was responsible for the lights, air and water and Misch was answering and making phone calls.
it was so small, if someone would come downstairs, they wouldn’t have a place to sit down.
On the 22 April, Misch remembers it was two days before the Soviets took over the city and the day Hitler insisted that the war is lost and everybody should go home.
On the April 28, he saw a man he’s never seen before, entering Hitler’s bunker. When he asked who that was, they said he’s there to perform the Fuhrer’s marriage. Hitler and Eva Brown were going to get married that day.
Two days later, he saw the same faces, the same men that accompanied the civil magistrate to Hitler’s room, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbeld and Martin Bromann, and he heard someone saying that the ‘boss’ shouldn’t be disturbed.
He knew that was the end and something was going to happen, but he doesn’t remember hearing anything. No shot, nothing. Everything was quiet. Somebody opened the door and then they all waited. When the second door was open, Misch saw Hitler lying on the table, and Eva was on the sofa, “her head to him”.
Eva had died by drinking poison and Hitler had used a gun to shoot himself.
Scared of the idea that he could get killed, Misch packed his rucksack and left for Berlin. He stumbled upon some civilians playing music and decided to follow them. Later on he heard voices of people speaking German and he climbed through an air ventilation shaft to get to them.
It turned up that the voices came from around 300 German prisoners, kept hidden by the Soviets who captured him as well.
On the 7th of May, after Germany surrendered, he was taken to the Soviet Union, where he stayed in prison for 9 years. in 1954 he went back home to his wife Gerda and they opened up a shop together. She died in 1997.