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From Nazi Test Pilot to Hitler's Bunker - The Fantastic Flights of Hanna Reitsch (Hardcover, New)
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From Nazi Test Pilot to Hitler's Bunker - The Fantastic Flights of Hanna Reitsch (Hardcover, New)
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This is the amazing story of Hanna Reitsch, one of the most
celebrated women of the Third Reich. As a decorated test pilot for
the Luftwaffe and a protege of Hitler, Reitsch was one of a handful
of women who achieved personal success by breaking from the
traditionally defined role of wife and mother in Nazi Germany.
Reitsch's skills and accomplishments ultimately earned her an Iron
Cross and celebrity status. A witness to the last days of the Third
Reich, Reitsch visited Hitler's Berlin bunker where she received
orders to deliver letters designed to rally the Luftwaffe. She left
on this futile mission only minutes before Hitler's marriage to Eva
Braun. This is the amazing story of Hanna Reitsch, a woman who
excelled in an environment that for most was extremely
repressive—Germany before and during World War II. She achieved
personal success when she escaped the culturally defined role of
wife and mother in Nazi Germany to live her passion for flying.
Reitsch began her career flying gliders, setting both distance and
endurance records in the 1930s. As the war approached she became a
test pilot for new and dangerous aircraft for the Luftwaffe. The
aircraft she flew included a large number of gliders and military
aircraft, including Focke-Achgelis FW 61 Hubschrauber (the first
practical helicopter), the jet-powered piloted version of the V-1
buzz bomb, and the rocket-powered Messerschmitt 163. Her
achievements as a test pilot made her a celebrity in Nazi Germany
and earned her an Iron Cross and the friendship of Hitler. As a
friend of the Fuehrer, she became an eyewitness to the fall of the
Third Reich. In the final days of World War II, she flew with her
friend and lover, Luftwaffe General Robert Ritter von Greim—to
join Hitler in his bunker. Minutes before Hitler was to marry Eva
Braun, Reitsch and von Greim—on Hitler's orders—flew from
Berlin to Rechlin in a desperate attempt to rally the Luftwaffe and
save the Reich. After the war, Reitsch was interviewed as a
potential witness for the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. Her
interviewer stated that [Hanna's] account of the flight into Berlin
to report to Hitler and of her stay in the Fuehrer's bunker is
probably as accurate a one as will be obtained of those last days.
It has remained so for half a century. This book also recounts a
vivid and remarkable encounter in a cemetery in Kitzbuehel,
Austria, in June of 1945, between Leni Riefenstahl, the filmmaker,
perhaps the only other woman to be so successful in the Third
Reich, and Hanna Reitsch. During this chance encounter, Hanna shows
the letters of Josef and Magda Goebbels to Riefenstahl and the
reader shares their shocking contents. Hanna Reitsch found in the
Nazi establishment opportunities and rewards for her achievements.
Consorting with the devil paid well; yet, in the end, she was
called on to pay back more than she had received. Her story shows
how hard it is for a woman to excel in a repressive society, and
how that success can lead to defeat and misery.
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