Last Witness of Hitler's Bunker Passes Away

At the age of 94, Johanna Ruf, who witnessed the final days of Nazi Germany's leaders while serving as an aide in Adolf Hitler's bunker, has passed away. She remained in the bunker until the day of his death.

This news was reported by Newsweek.

Johanna Ruf, a person who bore witness to the last days of Nazi Germany's leaders while residing in Adolf Hitler's bunker, passed away at the age of 94 on June 21, as announced by journalist Wiland Giebel, who worked with her on her memoirs.

Ruf worked as an assistant in the Berlin bunker, where Hitler and many high-ranking Nazi officials spent their final days as Soviet forces advanced towards the city.

She worked alongside approximately 30 other members of the Federation of German Girls from April 27, 1945, and was among the last to see the six children of chief Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels before their parents killed them.

Reportedly, Ruf documented her observations in the bunker on scraps of paper.

In 2016, she met Wiland Giebel, who began assisting her in editing her old diaries for publication as memoirs.

"I met Johanna Ruf in 2016 when a TV station took her to the bunker and had her tell the story of the Reich Chancellery and the Führerbunker," he told Newsweek via email. "But that was so exhausting for her and went so fast that she couldn't even tell the whole story. 

"Everything became clear to me only during my second visit to her at the elderly home when she pulled out her diary from that time. It immediately became clear to me the tremendous weight it carries. We together finalized the text. Through further conversations, I learned about her family's background and events in her life afterward. Now her book serves as a document of how young people grew up in a dictatorship."

Giebel stated that the testimonies of Ruf and other individuals who were in the bunker during the final days of Nazi Germany definitively debunked conspiracy theories suggesting that Hitler somehow survived.

"The doctor informed young women that the Führer had died. Young soldiers spoke of burned bodies," Giebel quoted from Ruf's diary.

In 2017, her memoirs, titled "A Slap for the Goebbels Kid: Berlin 1945 From the Diary of a 15-Year-Old. The Last and First Days," were published with Giebel's help.

Giebel initially had reservations about sharing Ruf's account, as he did not want to promote Nazi propaganda. However, he believed it was important to depict events as they unfolded at that time.

He noted that she consistently rejected Nazism and never accused others of their involvement in the regime. 

"Throughout the time I knew her, she firmly stood against National Socialism and never placed blame on others, meaning she never claimed she was tempted or deceived by Hitler," praised the journalist.

Now her book serves as a testament to how young people grow up in a dictatorship

Hitler and Goebbels died by suicide before the bunker was captured by Soviet soldiers.

Nazi Germany would sign its unconditional surrender on May 7, 1945, marking the end of the WWII in Europe.