Otto Günsche



"Günsche has informed to Fegelein that the Nazi Union spotted me as a terrorist to the Coalition of the Red Star. Now my existence would worsen their pride and reputation. He informed that, but he is also informed that I am missing, hiding somewhere else."

--Su Ji-Hoon, Caught in the Middle

Otto Günsche is a mid-ranking commander in the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II, and again for the Nazi Union during World War III. He was a member of the SS Division Leibstandarte before he became Adolf Hitler's personal adjutant before he was taken prisoner by soldiers of the Red Army in Berlin on 2 May 1945. After being held in various prisons and labor camps in the USSR until he was released from Bautzen Penitentiary on 2 May 1956.

Before the Nazi Union
Günsche was born in Jena in Thuringia. After leaving secondary school at 16 he volunteered for the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and joined the Nazi Party on July 1, 1934. He first met Adolf Hitler in 1936. He was Hitler's SS adjutant from 1940 to 1941. From January 1, 1941 to April 30, 1942, he attended the SS officer's academy. He then had front-line combat service as a Panzer Grenadier company commander with the LSSAH. On 12 January 1943, Günsche became a personal adjutant for Hitler. From August 1943 to February 5, 1944, Günsche fought on the Eastern Front and in France. In March 1944 he was again appointed a personal adjutant for Hitler. As a personal SS adjutant (Persönlicher Adjutant) to Hitler, Günsche was also a member of the Führerbegleitkommando which provided security protection for Hitler. During the war, one or two were always present with Hitler during the military situation conferences. He was present at the July 20, 1944 attempt to kill Hitler at the Wolf's Lair in Rastenburg. The bomb explosion burst Günsche's eardrums and caused him to receive a number of contusions.

With the end of Nazi Germany imminent, Günsche was tasked by Hitler on April 30, 1945 with ensuring the cremation of his body after his death. That afternoon, he stood guard outside the room as Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide. Later, having ensured that the bodies were burnt using gasoline supplied by Hitler's chauffeur Erich Kempka, Günsche left the Führerbunker after midnight on May 1. On May 2, 1945, Günsche was captured by Soviet Red Army troops that were encircling the city and flown to Moscow for sharp interrogation by the NKVD.

He was imprisoned in Moscow and Bautzen in East Germany and released on May 2, 1956. During imprisonment, Günsche and Heinz Linge were primary sources for Operation Myth, the biography of Hitler which was prepared for Joseph Stalin. The dossier was edited by Soviet NKVD (later superseded by the MVD, separate from the agency of the KGB, formed in 1954) officers. The report was received by Stalin on December 30, 1949. The report was published in book form in 2005 under the title: The Hitler Book: The Secret Dossier Prepared for Stalin from the Interrogations of Hitler's Personal Aides.

Günsche died of heart failure at his home in Lohmar, North Rhine-Westphalia in 2003. He had three children.