No more autographs by Hitler's last bodyguard

Published on Wednesday 26 January 2011 15:55

More than 65 years after the Second World War, Adolf Hitler's last surviving bodyguard has said that he can no longer respond to the continuous deluge of fan mail he receives from around the world, because of his advanced age.

Rochus Misch is now 93 and uses a walking frame to move around his apartment. He told the Berliner Kurier tabloid that, with most of the letters he receives asking for autographs, it was "no longer possible" to reply because of his age.

"They (the letters] come from Korea, from Knoxville, Tennessee, from Finland and Iceland - and not one has a bad word to say," said Mr Misch, who is believed to be the last man alive to have seen Hitler and other top-ranking Nazis in the flesh.

In the past Mr Misch used to send fans autographed copies of wartime photos of himself in SS uniform. He held the rank of Oberscharfhrer in the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte.

Now the letters and packages pile up in his flat in south Berlin's leafy Rudow neighbourhood.

Mr Misch also served as Hitler's telephone operator and courier and was present in the Nazi leader's bunker in the final days of the conflict. His memoirs, The Last Witness, were published in 2008 in Germany and are set to be made into a film.