Gretl Braun

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[Adolf Hitler] was very close-mouthed, he was the most private individual I have ever seen, very secretive.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Individual
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[Adolf Hitler] was always intensely worried about security and people watching or being nosy, intruding on his private life.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: People
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This was all very early on, there was no romance between them then,[Adolf] Hitler was living with Geli Raubal and made a very big display over her, that she was his great love and so forth.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Great Love
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I don't think they [Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler] quarreled during the war, he was so completely absorbed in his duties that disagreements just didn't crop up anymore, they were much settled down together by then.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: War
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After [Adolf] Hitler took power, Hoffmann moved to a grander place on the Ebersbergerstrasse. I never saw the first house, I was never there. It was at the Schnorrstrasse that Eva [Braun] and he first really got to know each other. Some of this was before Geli Raubal's death, much of it was after that event.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: House
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Hitler was flirting and courting Eva [Braun] I would say, but he was not serious about her yet. That took awhile to develop.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Flirting
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I have also seen [Adolf] Hitler upset when they had been having words. He was not immune from being bothered or upset by their relationship.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Upset
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[Adolf Hitler] hardly ever called [Eva Braun] "Eva." He had many Austrian diminutives for her. He called her "Evi" quite often as well as Schatzerl, Evchen, as well as other Austrian expressions.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Expression
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I didn't experience the negative side of [Adolf] Hitler. My sister [Eva Braun] did, that's a big distinction.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Negative
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I wish I had [letters], can you imagine their value, and I don't mean merely financially. I am sure they were accidentally destroyed or that Schaub found them and destroyed them. [Adolf] Hitler didn't want those letters read by anyone but Eva [Braun] and had made that point clear in the course of the years.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Mean
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She [Eva Braun] was always complaining later on, "I know nothing that's going on." They [with Adolf Hitler] talked about other things: dogs, movies, music, Munich gossip, who was going with who, who was cheating on their spouses, who was drinking too much or trying to quit. All sorts of local things like that.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Dog
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[Adolf] Hitler didn't discuss politics or military with Eva [Braun]. Not once.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Military
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Eva [Braun] loved [Adolf] Hitler and he was the only man in her life. She flirted and danced with other men but never would she have done more than that.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Men
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Wagner festival was [Adolf Hitler] time with the Wagner family. [Eva Braun] asked once to attend but he forbade it and that was that, she never asked again.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Festivals
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Eva [Braun] and I were never involved in the financial aspects of where [Adolf] Hitler put her up.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Financial
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At the Berghof, it was almost like a family atmosphere there. We all ate meals together, watched films together before the war, listened to records, all those things. The same faces were always around on the mountain. If [Adolf] Hitler and Eva [Braun] had an argument there, it would have been obvious to me, because I knew Eva.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: War
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[Eva Braun] loved [Adolf Hitler]. She would have done that had she been able to spend 10 minutes with him. She endured a lot on his behalf, there's a great deal on that subject to be said.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Done
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It would have been inconceivable that Eva [Braun] would ever have criticized [Adolf Hitler] to me. To his face? Yes, she would, but to me or anybody in our family? Never. And woe to anybody who dared criticize him to her.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Woe
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More or less constantly [he tease he]. [Adolf Hitler] would tell her, "Oh Evi, you're getting so fat I can't dare be seen with you. You really need to reduce." Eva [Braun] would flew into a panic until he would laugh and reassure her.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Laughing
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They [Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler] never entrusted their letters to the mail. There was always a courier, someone to hand deliver their letters.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Hands
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[Adolf Hitler] had stubborn ideas about clothes and didn't care how he looked and this drove [Eva Braun] up the wall.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Wall
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[Wilhelm] Bruckner was one of [Adolf] Hitler's adjutants, very close to him and he'd been in the party probably since day one. Personally neither of us could stand him.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Party
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The negatives were [Adolf Hitler] political philosophies, but neither Eva [Braun] or I knew anything that was going on.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Philosophy
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Definitely they [Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun] argued, especially in the period we've just been talking about, the middle 1930's. They were like any other couple.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Couple
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For instance, [Adolf Hitler] would never have spent the night at the Widenmayerstraße apartment. He visited it before we moved the furniture in, he visited maybe 4 times afterwards and he never spent the entire night.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Night
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I wouldn't trust a man and woman who never had their fights.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Fighting
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[Adolf Hitler] was Austrian, so he knew how to play that role [being capable of apologizing]. In fact, it wasn't playacting, it was just part of who he was. He hated to see women cry or women upset.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Play
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[Eva Braun] always said, "you're the Führer, you can do whatever you want to do."
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Want
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Eva [Braun] wanted him [Adolf Hitler] to look his absolute best and he just didn't care.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Looks
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[Adolf Hitler] would wear whatever what was put in front of him. He didn't match his ties or his shoes with his clothes, it was as if he deliberately dressed in such a way as to get Eva to get upset. It was his form of teasing or perhaps of controlling [Eva Braun], manipulating her emotions.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Shoes
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The negatives about [Adolf] Hitler were that he was away a lot and couldn't behave towards Eva [Braun] as he should.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Should
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[Interminable monologues] became an issue only late in [Adolf] Hitler's life. He became repetitive after the war started going badly in Russia. He wasn't like this earlier on, he could be very funny in our small group, very relaxed, teasing and it was just a relaxed atmosphere.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: War
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[Adolf Hitler] had a very definite charm which enthralled most people who got to know him.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: People
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What [Adolf Hitler] felt deep inside he wasn't going to show to outsiders.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Outsiders
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At the end, [Eva Braun] begged me to spare these letters [to Adolf Hitler] and bury them. She specifically wrote to me and told me over the phone not to read any of the letters, she made me promise.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Phones
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In front of other people it was almost always "Fräulein Braun." Just as [Eva Braun] called him "der Führer," [Adolf Hitler] called her "Fräulein Braun."
- Gretl Braun
Collection: People
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[Eva Braun] would much rather have been at [Adolf ] Hitler's side. All those excursions were to fill up her time while waiting for him to return.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Waiting
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I saw a few lines from a few, there were hundreds of them, all [Adolf Hitler] letters and [Eva Braun] replies written on carbon paper. I just saw that her letters to him were lengthy, his were much shorter. I wouldn't intrude on their privacy and I had given her my word.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Paper
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[Eva Braun] complained when [Adolf Hitler] was absent, she complained that she was deprived of his company.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Company
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Whatever anybody wants to say about my sister, [Eva Braun] was always beautifully dressed with a great flair for fashion. [Adolf] Hitler was not this way.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Fashion
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[Adolf] Hitler and Eva [Braun] jointly came to that decision, I think. Hitler wanted me there for security reasons and to keep Eva company, she wanted me there because we were both still very young. I was 20 years old, to live on my own would have been daunting. I wouldn't have done it and neither would she.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Thinking
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I'm quite sure it happened in Berlin too when Eva [Braun] stayed there later on. I wouldn't know about that because I was scarcely ever there myself. I don't want to suggest she was crying all the time, but then they had their arguments, she was very downcast until she had cried it through. It happened on occasion.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Want
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Sometimes [Eva Braun] would go back to his apartment to "make up." At the Berghof, these arguments didn't last as long, [Adolf Hitler] would smooth her feathers and they'd be good together again. I doubt anybody else noticed this but me. It wasn't obvious.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Together Again
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[Eva Braun] would also refer to [Adolf Hitler] as "the boss" (der Chef), but she never called him "Adolf" or "Adi" to anyone after the very early days. It was always der Führer.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Boss
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[Adolf Hitler] was an emotional man, he had tremendous highs and he could get low as well, I've seen it.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Men
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I am convinced that he loved Eva [Braun] and there is absolutely no question of her complete adoration of him. He was away all the time because his position demanded it. She couldn't travel with him because their relationship was supposed to be secret.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Secret
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It was just a terribly stressful situation and dreary. A few months after [Eva Braun] suicide attempt, [Adolf] Hitler moved us both to the apartment, it was in the summer.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Summer
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Eva [Braun] also cried when [Adolf Hitler] would leave her for long periods. She was inconsolable without him, that was a never-changing refrain.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Long
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[Adolf Hitler] tried to make people feel at ease, he made that effort.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: People
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When we were in the Munich house, sometimes [Adolf Hitler] would call the house line after one of their fights. They would talk and then Eva [Braun] would emerge from her room and behave normally.
- Gretl Braun
Collection: Fighting