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206. Eva Braun - Hitler's Mistress · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

0:01
Speaker 1: Hello delicious friends and welcome to Who Did What Now,
0:15
Speaker 1: the history podcast that is not your history class, with me,
0:19
Speaker 1: your host, Katie Charlewood, history harlot and reader of books.
0:25
Speaker 2: Today's Sometimes I thought I was going so fast that
0:32
Speaker 2: jet lag wouldn't catch me, but it caught me in
0:34
Speaker 2: the end. See, I decided that it would be a
0:37
Speaker 2: really good idea to fly out to the US on
0:39
Speaker 2: a Friday from Ireland, go watch a musical on the
0:43
Speaker 2: Saturday and then fly back home on the Sunday. And
0:47
Speaker 2: the interesting thing is I did it. I did it
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Speaker 2: and I was fine. I was fine until that last
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Speaker 2: four hours of the journey that kicked me right in
0:57
Speaker 2: the derriere. Like that got me. But I did come
1:00
Speaker 2: back with three maps. So I've got like a map
1:04
Speaker 2: of Florida, like another sort of partial map of the
1:07
Speaker 2: South and then another like Southern map. I've got like
1:10
Speaker 2: three Southern maps because as we all know, geography, like
1:14
Speaker 2: physical geography, not exactly my strong point. And I'm trying
1:18
Speaker 2: to figure out how to do like tours and work
1:20
Speaker 2: around the country for this whole massive tour that I'm
1:24
Speaker 2: doing next year. Now, some of you have been reaching
1:28
Speaker 2: out to me saying that only up until March 2027
1:32
Speaker 2: is out on the calendar of events on my website, whodidwhatnowpod.com.
1:37
Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, all of the dates have not been
1:40
Speaker 2: added yet. They are still coming and not everything is
1:43
Speaker 2: released yet. Now, I do have a few venues that
1:46
Speaker 2: don't allow me to post the event or show until
1:49
Speaker 2: they do so. So we are waiting on that. However, however, uh,
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Speaker 2: That means that some stuff is out now. So Brighton,
1:59
Speaker 2: England is up. Dublin, Ireland. Galway's coming soon. And Belfast is...
2:06
Speaker 2: Belfast is selling really well, actually. So there's a lot.
2:12
Speaker 2: I actually did, just for the fun of it, because
2:15
Speaker 2: I was like, you know what? Up until September, September 1st,
2:19
Speaker 2: I'm putting a ridiculous early bird special and the tickets
2:24
Speaker 2: are € 8. for the Dublin show because I was like
2:27
Speaker 2: you know what if anyone is that willing to get
2:30
Speaker 2: the tickets early let's make it eight euro like let's
2:33
Speaker 2: make it worth their while let's do it so I
2:35
Speaker 2: did so yay after that they go up to the
2:38
Speaker 2: normal price after that but yes um also if uh
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Speaker 2: you do run a venue in the US or Canada
2:50
Speaker 2: because I am in both of those places and you
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Speaker 2: want me You know, you want to host me, you know,
2:57
Speaker 2: shoot your shot, right? Because not every date is booked
3:00
Speaker 2: and not every location is covered. And I'm trying to
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Speaker 2: fit as much of your countries in as I possibly can.
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Speaker 2: I'm doing my best, especially as someone who's not native
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Speaker 2: to the area. But I'm hoping I'm going to make
3:14
Speaker 2: it work. And my goodness, I am learning so much
3:16
Speaker 2: about Florida geography. But anyway, I know what you're thinking.
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Speaker 2: You're thinking, Katie, please quit your chibber-chabber and fact me.
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Speaker 2: In fact, you are well, but first, we've got to
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Speaker 2: get our source on. Our sources are The Lost Life
3:32
Speaker 2: of Eva Braun by Guido Knopp Insebrand van Giedla, Maria Reiter,
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Speaker 2: Geli Rabal, Unity Medford, Eva Braun by Alex Alexander Eva Braun,
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Speaker 2: Headler's Mistress by Neren E. Goon Eva Bohan, Life with
3:55
Speaker 2: Hitler by Haka B. Gottemacher. Last Days in Hitler's Air
4:01
Speaker 2: Raid Shelter by R. E. Work. Through Amateur Eyes, Film
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Speaker 2: and Photography in Nazi Germany by Francis Guerin. And of
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Speaker 2: course we have our old favourites, biography.com and history.com. But
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Speaker 2: the question is, are you sitting comfortably?
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Speaker 3: Good.
4:24
Speaker 2: Then let's begin. Before I do step into this episode, though,
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Speaker 2: I do want to say that I'm going to be
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Speaker 2: talking about several dark topics. We have Hitler in general.
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Speaker 2: We have the Holocaust. We have suicide. We have abuse.
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Speaker 2: We have murder. We have so many horrible, horrible things. And, oh, animals.
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Speaker 2: Animals are getting hurt in this too. Now, If any
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Speaker 2: of that is difficult for you, if that's going to
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Speaker 2: be something that you struggle with, if it's going to
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Speaker 2: be triggering, I'm going to suggest that you exit stage
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Speaker 2: left and we will catch you here next time. Because
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Speaker 2: next month we are talking about escapes. Great escapes, some
5:10
Speaker 2: might say. But anyhow, it is time to talk about
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Speaker 2: Eva Braun. Now, I've seen it pronounced Eva Braun and
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Speaker 2: I've seen it pronounced Eva Braun and I'm just going
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Speaker 2: to go with whatever comes out of my mouth at
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Speaker 2: that time. Because it literally could come out either way.
5:30
Speaker 2: You know, that's just how life is. Now, Eva Braun's
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Speaker 2: claim to fame was being a long-time companion and very
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Speaker 2: brief wife to one Adolf Hitler. If you somehow do
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Speaker 2: not know who Adolf Hitler is, then I can only
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Speaker 2: assume that you live under a rock or... You are
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Speaker 2: an alien. In which case, welcome. Time to learn some stuff.
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Speaker 2: But anyway, Adolf Hitler was the totalitarian dictator of right-wing
6:03
Speaker 2: Nazi Germany who had a Charlie Chaplin moustache.
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Speaker 4: Sidebar.
6:09
Speaker 2: I know. Sidebar on early today. I'm convinced that he
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Speaker 2: just could not grow like a full beard, like it
6:15
Speaker 2: was patchy or something. Like he could not have a
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Speaker 2: glorious moustache. And he was just like, I gotta make
6:23
Speaker 2: it neater. Either that or he was like secretly a
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Speaker 2: Charlie Chaplin fan and he thought, ooh, all the ladies
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Speaker 2: love Charlie Chaplin. All the ladies would love me if
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Speaker 2: I have a teeny tiny moustache. I mean, it's just, it, listen,
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Speaker 2: I think it's just all vanity for him and that
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Speaker 2: he just thought it was a really, really good look.
6:44
Speaker 2: You know, and also that he did not have the
6:47
Speaker 2: capability to grow a proper moustache. But that's just, that's
6:51
Speaker 2: just my opinion. Back to Eva. Eva Anna Paula Braun
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Speaker 2: was born on the 6th of February 1912 in Munich, Germany,
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Speaker 2: to Franziska Kronberger and Friedrich Braun. Friedrich was a schoolteacher,
7:11
Speaker 2: and Franziska was a seamstress before she got married, but
7:13
Speaker 2: then she got married and then she didn't work anymore. Well,
7:16
Speaker 2: she didn't have a job anymore, I should say. Still worked,
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Speaker 2: because labour doesn't just stop once you enter a home.
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Speaker 2: so Ava was the middle child you know to this
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Speaker 2: couple she had an older sister Ilsa who would go
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Speaker 2: on to marry a Jewish doctor so Ilsa got a
7:35
Speaker 2: job as a secretary in this Jewish doctor's office and
7:40
Speaker 2: then marries the Jewish doctor and he ends up expatriated
7:43
Speaker 2: because you know obviously and like she's not as close
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Speaker 2: with the younger two sisters so that would be Marguerite,
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Speaker 2: who is known as Gretel. And so Gretel and Eva,
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Speaker 2: they're super close. Like, from their childhood onwards, they're like
8:01
Speaker 2: thick as thieves. Absolute besties. But both of Eva's sisters
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Speaker 2: would outlive her. So Eva's father, Friedrich, he was Lutheran
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Speaker 2: and her mother was Catholic. Like, in 1921, their parents
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Speaker 2: get divorced. And then they remarry again, like 11 months later,
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Speaker 2: like it's like in 1922. They get divorced and then
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Speaker 2: they remarry. But it's like the economy is not doing well,
8:32
Speaker 2: the German economy. And so they end up, I think,
8:36
Speaker 2: remarrying just like financially. It is a better option for
8:41
Speaker 2: both of them. But yeah, so her father was Lutheran
8:47
Speaker 2: and her mother was Catholic, which is probably why she
8:49
Speaker 2: went to the school. at the Catholic Lyceum in Munich.
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Speaker 2: And so she goes there, and that's sort of like
8:56
Speaker 2: a primary, elementary situation. And then, after this, she attended
9:02
Speaker 2: business school for one year at the Convent of the
9:05
Speaker 2: English Sisters at Simbach am Inn. Now, this convent, right,
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Speaker 2: this kind of shows you just who Eva Braun is
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Speaker 2: as a person. So even though she was never really
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Speaker 2: publicly acknowledged as anything more than Hitler's like photographer, secretary, etc.
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Speaker 2: Because it was known that she had connections to the
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Speaker 2: higher ups in the Reich, that when the regime claimed
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Speaker 2: the convent and the sisters like reached out to her
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Speaker 2: and begged her for help, she was just like, I
9:43
Speaker 2: don't know, my hands are tied, nothing to do with me.
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Speaker 2: And I know we like to sort of describe her
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Speaker 2: as this floozy, this very much, kind of like a
9:53
Speaker 2: Sally Bowles character. Like, it's just politics. Whereas if politics
9:58
Speaker 2: isn't like a major part of everybody's life, it just
10:00
Speaker 2: means you're not affected by them or they are benefiting
10:02
Speaker 2: you really but anyway so she's at school she's an
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Speaker 2: average student like she's okay but she's really sporty like
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Speaker 2: she excels in sport she's got a talent for athletics
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Speaker 2: and she's she's like, she does all of the stuff,
10:20
Speaker 2: you know, she loves gymnastics, she loves to ski, like,
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Speaker 2: she does all this stuff, she's very, very physical, and
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Speaker 2: she's also, you know, blonde and pretty, like, she's very
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Speaker 2: much the ideal, like, racially for the era, and so
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Speaker 2: she's just a very fit person, and she's, she's bubbly
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Speaker 2: and she likes to party and do her hair and
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Speaker 2: wear makeup and go to the pictures. So the cinemas, cinemas? Cinemas.
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Speaker 2: She goes to the cinema and she does all this stuff, right? Now,
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Speaker 2: she was fairly sporty. She was really fun. She was just,
11:05
Speaker 2: you know, very aware as well that in order for
11:10
Speaker 2: her to have financial security, she would need to have
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Speaker 2: work and she would also need to find herself a
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Speaker 2: husband like those are the two things traditionally one needs
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Speaker 2: as a woman to you know survive but in order
11:24
Speaker 2: to be financially independent she really needed that boost she
11:31
Speaker 2: needed to make money so when she's 17 years old
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Speaker 2: she gets a job at the studio of Heinrich Hoffman
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Speaker 2: Heinrich Hoffman was the official photographer for the Nazi party. Now, initially,
11:49
Speaker 2: she's a clerk, right? So she's like a shop assistant,
11:52
Speaker 2: type of secretary kind of job, right? But over a while, she,
12:00
Speaker 2: you know, really gets into photography. So she starts, you know,
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Speaker 2: developing photos and learns how to use a camera. Like
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Speaker 2: she becomes really sort of integral to the business. And
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Speaker 2: it's when she's working here that she is introduced to
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Speaker 2: the very first time one Mr. Adolf Hitler. Now, they
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Speaker 2: meet in Hoffman's art studio over a plate of sausages.
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Speaker 2: And when she's introduced to him, like Hoffman introduces Hitler
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Speaker 2: as Herr Wolf, right? Herr Wolf. And so he's there
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Speaker 2: and like, What's funny is she describes him as, like,
12:47
Speaker 2: an older man with a silly moustache and a felt hat. Like,
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Speaker 2: even she knew it was a silly moustache. I'm just
12:55
Speaker 2: putting that out there. But yes, they meet over a
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Speaker 2: plate of sausages in a photography studio in the autumn
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Speaker 2: of 1929. She is 17 years old. And Hitler was 40...
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Speaker 2: That's an over 20 year age gap. Like, and given
13:16
Speaker 2: especially those ages, like, that's, that's not cool anyway, right?
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Speaker 2: And even if we take everything else out of it,
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Speaker 2: it's creepy, man. That's creepy. But these two, they get
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Speaker 2: on like a house on fire, right? And he's around
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Speaker 2: more and more and Ava pays attention. Like, he's nowhere near, like,
13:45
Speaker 2: who we know him as now, right? He was a politician,
13:49
Speaker 2: he was really big in Munich, but he's still three
13:51
Speaker 2: years away from being Chancellor. Like, we can say four,
13:54
Speaker 2: but it's three, because if this is the autumn of 1929,
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Speaker 2: and he is elected Chancellor in January of 1933, it's
14:05
Speaker 2: closer to three years than it is to four, you know?
14:09
Speaker 2: But he is on the up and up. and is
14:12
Speaker 2: already supported by, like, a circle of influential people. He's
14:17
Speaker 2: got supporters, he's got adoring fans, including her boss, right? Who, again,
14:24
Speaker 2: is the official photographer of the Nazi party, and even
14:28
Speaker 2: he is drawn to Adolf Hitler. So, Eva clocks this.
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Speaker 2: She sees that he's powerful, he's influential, and She is
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Speaker 2: a woman from a middle class family in Munich. You know, well,
14:45
Speaker 2: middle class, eh. They were, I think, sort of, a
14:52
Speaker 2: little sort of lower middle class. And then they got
14:54
Speaker 2: an inheritance and things kind of got a little bit better.
14:56
Speaker 2: But her home life wasn't great at the best of times. But, yeah. So,
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Speaker 2: Eva Braun and Hitler, they headed off platonically at first.
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Speaker 2: And for her, like, again, she's... A clerk, she's a
15:11
Speaker 2: sales assistant, she's a secretary. And then she's developing film
15:14
Speaker 2: and shooting pictures. And here is the perfect subject for.
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Speaker 4: Her, right?
15:19
Speaker 2: Someone who is already making waves. And, like, at this point,
15:25
Speaker 2: in this point in time, we can give Eva Braun
15:29
Speaker 2: the benefit of the doubt. Because there's no way, there's
15:33
Speaker 2: no way that she could know that he would go
15:36
Speaker 2: on to become one of the most infamous people in history.
15:41
Speaker 2: but she was aware enough to know that he would
15:44
Speaker 2: be somebody. Now, she wouldn't be officially hired as a
15:48
Speaker 2: photographer by Hoffman for another few years, but she is
15:51
Speaker 2: slowly building up. And a relationship doesn't start between the
15:56
Speaker 2: two of them right away, and that's mainly because Hitler
16:00
Speaker 2: is super into his niece. we should probably take a
16:11
Speaker 2: moment to talk about Geli Raubel. Now, there have been
16:15
Speaker 2: arguments between historians regarding whether or not they had a
16:18
Speaker 2: full-on relationship, but what we can agree on is that
16:22
Speaker 2: whatever was on between them, it was abusive. Geli was
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Speaker 2: the daughter of Hitler's half-sister Angela. Geli's father died when
16:34
Speaker 2: she was only two years old, and she spent most
16:37
Speaker 2: of her life in fairly close proximity to her uncle,
16:41
Speaker 2: or half-uncle, because apparently that's the part that matters. In 1925,
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Speaker 2: Angela takes on the position of Hitler's housekeeper, taking both
16:53
Speaker 2: of her daughters with her. And as Hitler moves up
16:56
Speaker 2: in the world, he brings them with him. So, three
17:01
Speaker 2: years later, in 1928, Geli's mother becomes the housekeeper at
17:06
Speaker 2: the Berghof, which is near Berchtesgaden. So that's like his
17:12
Speaker 2: little retreat. That's his, you know, place he likes to go.
17:16
Speaker 2: And the following year, so we're in 1929, Geli was
17:23
Speaker 2: moved into Hitler's apartment in Munich. See, she had enrolled
17:28
Speaker 2: in the Ludwig Maximilian's Universität München to study medicine. She
17:34
Speaker 2: would not complete her studies. Spoiler alert. As Hitler continued
17:42
Speaker 2: to rise in power, he got more and more controlling
17:44
Speaker 2: of his niece, restricting her movements, who she could talk to,
17:49
Speaker 2: where she could go. The girl was in a gilded cage.
17:56
Speaker 2: She was always accompanied, going shopping or to the cinema.
17:58
Speaker 2: She had no freedom. She started a relationship with one
18:02
Speaker 2: of the few people allowed near her, her uncle's chauffeur.
18:07
Speaker 2: But when the affair was discovered in December 1927, well,
18:15
Speaker 2: the driver was fired. And Hitler, well, his grip around
18:21
Speaker 2: his niece tightened. She was no longer allowed to socialise.
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Speaker 2: She was cut off from her friends. And for the
18:29
Speaker 2: most part, the only person that she got to see
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Speaker 2: was Hitler. So at this point, She's staying in his
18:38
Speaker 2: apartment and Hitler meets the young, fun and sporty Eva Braun.
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Speaker 2: And the two spend a little time together, you know,
18:48
Speaker 2: more and more over the years. Now, when it does
18:51
Speaker 2: turn into a full-blown sexual relationship, we do not know
18:53
Speaker 2: for sure. But there was some kind of overlap between
18:59
Speaker 2: Gellie and Eva. Because Eva and Hitler had been corresponding,
19:04
Speaker 2: they'd been writing letters back and forth, as one did
19:06
Speaker 2: in the past, right? And in 1931, Geli planned to
19:11
Speaker 2: run away to Vienna and just live her life. She
19:13
Speaker 2: wanted to, you know, take singing lessons again and marry
19:18
Speaker 2: a man from Linz. Like, she had plans. She thought
19:23
Speaker 2: she had earned Hitler's trust enough to travel, but he
19:25
Speaker 2: refused to let her go to Vienna. They had a
19:28
Speaker 2: heated argument afterwards. you know, on the 18th of September
19:32
Speaker 2: that year, and he had forbidden her to go. And
19:37
Speaker 2: the very next day, Hitler was informed that Geli Raubel
19:40
Speaker 2: was dead from a gunshot wound to the chest. The
19:46
Speaker 2: general consensus is that Geli completed suicide. Doing so... with
19:50
Speaker 2: Hitler's own pistol. One final stand, one last decision, one
19:54
Speaker 2: that was hers to make. Of course, there are other theories,
19:59
Speaker 2: that Hitler had killed her in a rage, or he
20:03
Speaker 2: had arranged others to do so, but Geli was dead.
20:09
Speaker 2: Shot in the lung, a life ended at just 23
20:13
Speaker 2: years old. Now Hitler, he doesn't go to the funeral.
20:19
Speaker 2: There's stories of him trying to dig a grave so
20:25
Speaker 2: he can be with her. It's a very intense part
20:29
Speaker 2: on his side. But he just kind of disappears for
20:34
Speaker 2: a couple of weeks. And then comes out and he's
20:38
Speaker 2: just like hyper-focused on being, you know, political and going
20:43
Speaker 2: into this. So it's after this that Hitler and Eva
20:48
Speaker 2: Braun spend a lot more time together. But whatever's going
20:52
Speaker 2: on between them, he's not really taking her seriously or
20:55
Speaker 2: at least not seriously enough for Eva. So then on
20:59
Speaker 2: the 10th, 11th of August 1932, which is less than
21:03
Speaker 2: a year after Geli's death, Eva Braun shoots herself in
21:08
Speaker 2: the chest with her father's pistol. Right? Now, also at
21:13
Speaker 2: this point, her father Franz, the schoolteacher, say Franz, Franz
21:21
Speaker 2: was his nickname, but he had joined the Nazi party
21:24
Speaker 2: at this point. Like, he joined the Nazi party and
21:28
Speaker 2: Gretel was, like, courting members of the Nazi party. Like,
21:30
Speaker 2: it was a thing. And so this attempt... I mean,
21:35
Speaker 2: it's typically seen as symbolic. Like, it wasn't a genuine attempt.
21:40
Speaker 2: It was more to, like, get attention. Listen, it's hard
21:48
Speaker 2: to know either way whether it was something that she
21:50
Speaker 2: was so determined to do and she wanted to do
21:53
Speaker 2: it in a way that she knew would hurt him
21:54
Speaker 2: the most or she was doing it for attention. Like,
22:02
Speaker 2: there's options. You know, there's ways. You know, you can
22:07
Speaker 2: feel so dark and lonely and all of those fleeting
22:11
Speaker 2: moments of pain where things are the worst they could
22:15
Speaker 2: possibly be and the next minute you're not. There's no
22:22
Speaker 2: clear way to know what her intention was but it
22:27
Speaker 2: is a bit much to do it in the exact
22:33
Speaker 2: same awkward way Like, shooting yourself in the chest is
22:38
Speaker 2: just not the best way to do it. Like, but
22:42
Speaker 2: there are cleaner ways to go. But she does this,
22:46
Speaker 2: which is very, I think it's very symbolic because it
22:49
Speaker 2: parallels Gellie. But also, here's the thing, right? This is
22:55
Speaker 2: not a good look for Hitler. Two young women associated
22:58
Speaker 2: with him, both of whom killed or tried to kill themselves. right,
23:03
Speaker 2: in the same manner. And this, this, for whatever way, like,
23:09
Speaker 2: he makes a decision that he needs to take better
23:11
Speaker 2: care for Ava, like, if nothing else, for the optics.
23:14
Speaker 2: But after her recovery, he is definitely more committed to her. Now,
23:19
Speaker 2: she's very much still kept in the background and she
23:22
Speaker 2: is never publicly acknowledged as his partner, but she's there.
23:27
Speaker 2: And it's made sure that she's there. And by the
23:30
Speaker 2: end of 1932, the two of them are full on
23:34
Speaker 2: And so Gretel, her younger sister, he's working with Hoffman now,
23:38
Speaker 2: and Gretel would sometimes accompany her sister to trips to Oberarlsburg,
23:44
Speaker 2: Hitler's retreat at Eagle's Nest. Eva Baum would often join
23:49
Speaker 2: Hitler out there, and she was a regular visitor to
23:52
Speaker 2: his apartment in Munich when he was there. In January 1933,
23:58
Speaker 2: Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany. And Eva was officially
24:03
Speaker 2: a photographer for Hoffman. Who remember, again, official photographer for
24:08
Speaker 2: the Nazi party. So this gave Eva an official reason
24:12
Speaker 2: to kick about with Hitler without raising suspicion. A lot
24:17
Speaker 2: of the surviving film and photographs that we have of
24:20
Speaker 2: Hitler are because of Eva Braun. Especially those of him
24:25
Speaker 2: at leisure or sort of slightly out of the public eye.
24:29
Speaker 2: What she did for quite a while is Hitler would
24:32
Speaker 2: practice his poses for speeches. And so they would photograph
24:38
Speaker 2: him and stuff. And so she would take photos of
24:41
Speaker 2: him and then she would sell the photos for cash.
24:44
Speaker 2: So she was making money off this. Because initially she
24:49
Speaker 2: doesn't have much. And so she's just selling pictures of
24:52
Speaker 2: Hitler to make money. But it also meant these pictures sold.
24:57
Speaker 2: And this also gained him popularity. It was such... It
25:01
Speaker 2: was such a thing. It was like she, like from
25:05
Speaker 2: the background, actually aided his public persona. So, like I said,
25:12
Speaker 2: it's far too easy to dismiss Eva as some empty-headed floozy,
25:16
Speaker 2: someone ignorant of what's going on and is just along
25:18
Speaker 2: for the ride. But just because she never actually joined
25:22
Speaker 2: the Nazi party doesn't mean she didn't agree with what
25:24
Speaker 2: they were doing. She certainly shared some ideals, right? The
25:30
Speaker 2: thing about people who say like a lot of racist
25:34
Speaker 2: stuff is they tend to be racist you know it
25:37
Speaker 2: it's just a thing that you if you can you
25:40
Speaker 2: can pay attention to it in your daily life right
25:42
Speaker 2: that's that's just how it is you know and she
25:48
Speaker 2: definitely preferred to be comfortable right like the only thing
25:53
Speaker 2: she ever opposed the Nazis doing was the ban on
25:56
Speaker 2: makeup like it's the only time that she ever like,
26:01
Speaker 2: came forward and said something to Hitler. And so they
26:05
Speaker 2: ended up, like, not banning makeup. They just halted the
26:09
Speaker 2: production of makeup because he didn't want to upset Eva. Like, that's...
26:15
Speaker 2: That's the level of influence she had. Now, political influence
26:21
Speaker 2: isn't something that she had per se. But her existence... was,
26:32
Speaker 2: it was a major factor. Now, like, she wasn't so, like,
26:37
Speaker 2: into the politics of it. Like, she didn't have political
26:40
Speaker 2: aspirations herself, right? She wanted to be, like, a model initially.
26:47
Speaker 2: She wanted to make her own money. She wanted to
26:50
Speaker 2: party and drink wine and have makeup and do her
26:54
Speaker 2: hair and party. Did I say party already? Like, she
26:58
Speaker 2: was very... About that. Now, like, when they would be
27:04
Speaker 2: off in Berghof, right? Like, when they invited people around, like,
27:08
Speaker 2: she would host. Like, she would host sort of higher-ups there. And,
27:15
Speaker 2: you know, he would be drinking, you know, tea or whatever, like, juice. And, like,
27:23
Speaker 2: very basic beverages. And she would be there drinking wine.
27:28
Speaker 2: You know, it was a very like chalk and cheese situation.
27:32
Speaker 2: But yeah, she would host things there. And like a
27:36
Speaker 2: lot of, when you like find wives of dictators quite
27:40
Speaker 2: a lot of the time, is they tend to have
27:44
Speaker 2: some kind of like need for power or some political aspiration.
27:48
Speaker 2: But Eva was less about that and was more about
27:52
Speaker 2: having fun. So like in Berghof as well, Like she
27:56
Speaker 2: was one of the few people who could, you know,
28:00
Speaker 2: invite guests. Her family came to visit. Like she would
28:02
Speaker 2: just bring people there and she was the only person
28:05
Speaker 2: allowed to do so. And she wasn't necessarily interested in power.
28:09
Speaker 2: She was interested in him. Like she saw herself as,
28:16
Speaker 2: you know, the woman behind the scenes, right? And that
28:19
Speaker 2: eventually like they were going to get married and the
28:23
Speaker 2: Third Reich would be like, this big, all-encompassing, all-powerful thing,
28:29
Speaker 2: and that it would be known that she was the
28:33
Speaker 2: one that supported him through this, that she was his partner,
28:36
Speaker 2: and that she would, like, she thought they were going to, like,
28:39
Speaker 2: make movies about it, and she would star as herself, like,
28:42
Speaker 2: she genuinely had this belief that what they were doing
28:45
Speaker 2: was the right thing, and that, you know, Germany was all-powerful,
28:49
Speaker 2: the Aryan race was all super-powered grand hypobas, and She
28:55
Speaker 2: was super into it, you know? And she thought that
28:58
Speaker 2: she was going to be celebrated and admired. That's what
29:06
Speaker 2: she thought. Because she's running around with the entourage because
29:14
Speaker 2: that's her in. So that they have a reason to
29:16
Speaker 2: be around together. But Hilar's not about to announce that
29:22
Speaker 2: he's seeing someone. Because he thought that the women voting
29:26
Speaker 2: for him were interested in him because they thought he
29:32
Speaker 2: was hot and that if he had a wife that
29:36
Speaker 2: they would no longer be attracted to him and wouldn't
29:39
Speaker 2: vote for him. but like he's slowly chipping away the
29:41
Speaker 2: rights anyway so that's kind of a moot point but
29:45
Speaker 2: he also had this image where he was like de
29:49
Speaker 2: Führer he was the he was the father of Germany
29:55
Speaker 2: so like Germany was his children he was married to
29:57
Speaker 2: Germany Germany was his children It's kind of weird because
30:01
Speaker 2: that's a weird relationship. But that's his persona. So he
30:07
Speaker 2: couldn't be married and have children because then they are
30:10
Speaker 2: more important to him than to all of Germany. And
30:14
Speaker 2: so that's very much part of how he presented himself.
30:19
Speaker 2: So yeah, Eva was never really presented. And it's only
30:22
Speaker 2: at things like the Munich Games and the Olympics that
30:26
Speaker 2: she's seen sitting next to him. or near him or
30:30
Speaker 2: next to him. But anyway, that and like, but it's
30:33
Speaker 2: just gonna, she's just gonna there and she's, you know,
30:35
Speaker 2: she's the photographer. So we're not surprised she's there. You
30:37
Speaker 2: know what I mean? So, but him being chancellor, like he's,
30:44
Speaker 2: you know, running the country. He slowly, you know, turning
30:50
Speaker 2: it into a right-wing fascist dictatorship and she's there, but she's,
30:56
Speaker 2: she's not feeling great. Because she wants his attention and
31:00
Speaker 2: he's giving all of his attention to Germany. And so
31:04
Speaker 2: in 1935, she attempts to complete suicide for the second
31:11
Speaker 2: time by swallowing a bunch of pills. Now, she's discovered.
31:17
Speaker 2: She's discovered in her apartment. They make her throw up.
31:20
Speaker 2: They pump her stomach effectively. And she survives. So in
31:24
Speaker 2: response to this... He gets her a three-bedroom apartment in
31:28
Speaker 2: Munich for her and her sister Gretel to share, right?
31:33
Speaker 2: And then in 1936, he gives them a villa in
31:37
Speaker 2: Bogenhausen at Wasserbürgerstrasse, right? She also had her own apartment
31:42
Speaker 2: at the Reichschancelerie in Berlin and a beach house near Poberovo, right? Like,
31:48
Speaker 2: she had all of these. So she takes the sleeping
31:51
Speaker 2: pills in May. Like, that happens in May 1935. And
31:55
Speaker 2: then the Nuremberg Rally, which is like, it's like annual
31:57
Speaker 2: from like 33 onwards. It happens on September that year.
32:03
Speaker 2: The Rally for Freedom. And so that happens. And so
32:07
Speaker 2: she's working as part of Hoffman's staff for that, right?
32:10
Speaker 2: So she's there and she's in this. And like most
32:14
Speaker 2: people are pretty chill with her like being at the
32:16
Speaker 2: Nuremberg Rally. Apart from Adolf Hitler's half-sister Angela. That's right,
32:24
Speaker 2: Gally's mum. She, you know, is making it very clear
32:27
Speaker 2: that she doesn't think it's appropriate for her to be there. Like,
32:30
Speaker 2: she's very, very against it. Now, this leads to Angela
32:36
Speaker 2: being fired as the housekeeper in Berghof. Like, she's removed.
32:41
Speaker 2: And for a lot of people, this saw, like, Eva
32:44
Speaker 2: Braun as being basically untouchable for that point. Because, like,
32:50
Speaker 2: Angela had been there through everything. Like, even her own daughter,
32:54
Speaker 2: you know, dying. And this is what sends her away.
32:59
Speaker 2: That's what removes her from, you know, the bucket. Yeah.
33:04
Speaker 2: But now, Angela wasn't the only one who had issues
33:08
Speaker 2: with this. Like, Ava Brown's dad. Like, he wasn't feeling this.
33:15
Speaker 2: Neither was, like, her older sister, Ilsa, who thought, like, morally,
33:19
Speaker 2: this ain't great. Now, her dad... like, again, who has
33:24
Speaker 2: joined the Nazi party, he thinks, like, Hitler is, you know,
33:30
Speaker 2: an idiot and an extremist, right? It's... It's... It's weird, though,
33:38
Speaker 2: because there's a lot of, like, call and response. And, like,
33:43
Speaker 2: he was, like, choreographing himself for his speeches. That's why
33:46
Speaker 2: all of his movements are so deliberate. Like, he'd been practising,
33:49
Speaker 2: you know. He wasn't just naturally, like, an orator and,
33:54
Speaker 2: you know, doing all this stuff. And because it was
33:57
Speaker 2: very much designed as a call and response, and they've
33:59
Speaker 2: been doing this for, what, two years already by the
34:01
Speaker 2: time this happened? Because, like, the rallies used to be,
34:04
Speaker 2: you know, every so many years, but then they became
34:07
Speaker 2: an annual thing once Hitler came to power. And so
34:11
Speaker 2: Ava's dad's watching this man just wobbling about, throwing his
34:15
Speaker 2: hands all over the place, and he's like, him? Really? Like,
34:21
Speaker 2: this guy's a tit. So yeah, eventually they do warm
34:26
Speaker 2: up to him and are accepting because they literally don't
34:29
Speaker 2: have any choice and he's like the most powerful person
34:32
Speaker 2: in the country. So like that played a part in it,
34:34
Speaker 2: one would assume. So she is, for all intents and purposes,
34:41
Speaker 2: his girlfriend. They travel together. Like she's never, again, like
34:44
Speaker 2: I said earlier, not publicly announced as it, but she
34:49
Speaker 2: is acting like, you know, that part. she's in the,
34:54
Speaker 2: I get one to call it the chateau, he's up
34:57
Speaker 2: at like the eagle's nest and she's hosting, she's having
35:00
Speaker 2: parties and she creates like a safe space for Hitler
35:09
Speaker 2: to return to so that whenever he's like super stressed
35:13
Speaker 2: and super tense, like she just like brings it down. Now,
35:18
Speaker 2: So she's like created this refuge at the eagle's nest
35:20
Speaker 2: for him. Like she's very much that partner for him.
35:24
Speaker 2: You know, she's comforting and she's this and she's that. And,
35:29
Speaker 2: you know, especially when he's being super duper stress intense
35:33
Speaker 2: and everything. And there's always a question of how much
35:37
Speaker 2: did she actually know? Now, it's often said that Hitler
35:41
Speaker 2: would not talk like military stuff or a lot of
35:44
Speaker 2: the politics stuff like around women in general. And he
35:47
Speaker 2: said the best thing for a man was to have
35:51
Speaker 2: a woman who was stupid, effectively. That was his thing.
35:56
Speaker 2: And so he would actually call her an insignificant chaparral,
36:00
Speaker 2: which means nice little girl of no importance. And he
36:05
Speaker 2: would say this to her face. And she's like, oh, you.
36:09
Speaker 2: So the thing about Nazi society is super patriarchal. It's
36:13
Speaker 2: very male-dominated society. And it was very, just perpetuating this.
36:21
Speaker 2: And there's the argument of, like, how much did she
36:23
Speaker 2: actually know? Like, how much was she involved in? Like,
36:26
Speaker 2: what did she hear? And, like, nobody knew anything. Like,
36:31
Speaker 2: the wives never heard anything. But, like, there's, like, there's
36:38
Speaker 2: instances of, like, the wives of some of the higher-ups
36:41
Speaker 2: who are just going. Like, absolutely, like, angry like I
36:48
Speaker 2: was like one of them like one of the wives
36:50
Speaker 2: actually like confronted Hitler right demanding to know like where
36:56
Speaker 2: the trains of people were going because women and children
36:59
Speaker 2: were being put into trains and she was like what
37:01
Speaker 2: are you doing what is happening where are they all
37:03
Speaker 2: going like and she was like where are you taking
37:06
Speaker 2: them like but in German and angrier and he was
37:10
Speaker 2: just like how dare you touch me like how dare
37:14
Speaker 2: you speak to me like this how dare you ask
37:16
Speaker 2: me But it's like, she clocked it. And he was like,
37:19
Speaker 2: why do you even care? They're Jews. And she's like,
37:23
Speaker 2: you know. And that didn't obviously look very good for
37:26
Speaker 2: the husband. But it does show us that people were
37:30
Speaker 2: paying attention. So as the war progresses, like, Eva is just, like,
37:41
Speaker 2: constantly by Hitler's side. So... It gets to a point
37:45
Speaker 2: where you have to assume that she knows something. Like,
37:50
Speaker 2: she has to be aware of something. She has to
37:53
Speaker 2: have some concept of just how bad it is, that
37:56
Speaker 2: she's not living in a very specific bubble, especially with
38:00
Speaker 2: the people that are around her, you know. But she
38:05
Speaker 2: is spending so much time with him. Like, in hotels,
38:08
Speaker 2: they would have adjoining rooms. Like, even in, like, Berghoff,
38:12
Speaker 2: they would have adjoining rooms. so that they could go
38:14
Speaker 2: into one another, but so that people could see them
38:17
Speaker 2: go to separate rooms. But it's kind of like this
38:20
Speaker 2: big open secret amongst the hierarchy of the Reich, you know?
38:25
Speaker 2: And Hitler, by the way, is such a little bitch,
38:28
Speaker 2: by the way, because he's such a hypochondriac, right? He
38:31
Speaker 2: is convinced he's going to catch every disease going. The
38:33
Speaker 2: reason he's vegetarian is he's worried that he's going to
38:36
Speaker 2: contract diseases from meat, you know? And so he doesn't drink,
38:39
Speaker 2: he doesn't smoke, he doesn't do all this stuff because
38:41
Speaker 2: he's terrified of catching illnesses. And so because of this,
38:45
Speaker 2: there's a theory that he was really terrified of catching
38:48
Speaker 2: like STIs and STDs. And so he was not sexually active. Now,
38:54
Speaker 2: I'm not entirely sure that that's the case. Because like
38:58
Speaker 2: at this point in his life, when he's in the
39:00
Speaker 2: relationship with Ava, like they are, like he's getting on
39:05
Speaker 2: a bit. He's old, right? So like when he's spending
39:09
Speaker 2: time with her, like the nights that he's sort of
39:12
Speaker 2: with Ava, one of the books I was reading, his
39:16
Speaker 2: doctor used to give him like a concoction of all
39:20
Speaker 2: of these, just the stuff, you get drugs, you get
39:23
Speaker 2: all this kind of things, you have, and you have aphrodisiacs,
39:28
Speaker 2: which is what they would give him whenever he was
39:29
Speaker 2: given to spend the night with Eva Braun. So, like,
39:33
Speaker 2: I'm convinced he just had, like, old dude erectile dysfunction
39:36
Speaker 2: and he was, like, struggling and that, obviously, everything else
39:39
Speaker 2: going on because, you know, massacring an entire ethno-religion is
39:44
Speaker 2: going to be stressing you out a wee bit. One
39:47
Speaker 2: would assume. One would assume. you know, initiating war on
39:53
Speaker 2: the world, probably, probably is going to make it hard
39:57
Speaker 2: to have, like, well, a turgid todger. But, that being said,
40:04
Speaker 2: that being said, like, there's, there's a story, which is, again,
40:11
Speaker 2: it's kind of, allegedly's, right? And it's Ava Braun chatting
40:18
Speaker 2: to her friends and there's a photo of Chamberlain, like
40:20
Speaker 2: when they're trying to do the whole appeasement thing, of
40:23
Speaker 2: the British Prime Minister Chamberlain visiting Hitler and he's on
40:26
Speaker 2: the couch. And there's a photo of him on the couch.
40:29
Speaker 2: And Ava's like giggling amongst her friends and she's like, oh,
40:32
Speaker 2: if only he knows, you know, what's happened on that couch, yo.
40:37
Speaker 2: So like basically implying that her and Hitler were bonking
40:41
Speaker 2: on that particular piece of furniture. And, like, what's interesting, really,
40:45
Speaker 2: is how trusting, how trusting Hitler is of Eva Braun,
40:50
Speaker 2: because she has a free pass to kind of go
40:52
Speaker 2: anywhere and do anything. So, like, because she's listed as
40:55
Speaker 2: his personal secretary, like, she can, like, leave and come
40:59
Speaker 2: back whenever she wants. Like, unlike Geli, who was under
41:02
Speaker 2: lock and key, right, Eva has all this freedom. And, obviously,
41:06
Speaker 2: she's making, you know, she was doing photography, she was
41:08
Speaker 2: doing filming, she was creating, like, she was part of
41:11
Speaker 2: the propaganda machine.
41:12
Speaker 1: So..
41:15
Speaker 2: She has to be aware of some of the shit
41:19
Speaker 2: that's happening. And if you're hedging yourself to this wagon,
41:26
Speaker 2: that's your choice. That's something that you did. But again,
41:30
Speaker 2: she's just got so much opportunity to go and be free.
41:38
Speaker 2: But she's just totally devoted to Hitler. Now, I personally
41:44
Speaker 2: think that Ava Brown, and you can quote me on this,
41:48
Speaker 2: was a Nazi bitch. I think she didn't give a
41:50
Speaker 2: shit about anybody apart from herself. So remember her older
41:54
Speaker 2: sister Ilsa, the one that married the Jewish doctor? Well, like,
41:59
Speaker 2: Ava said to her that if she was captured and
42:01
Speaker 2: put in a concentration camp, like, she wouldn't try and
42:04
Speaker 2: free her. She would just let her rot there, which, honestly...
42:09
Speaker 2: Eva Braun, Nazi fucking bitch. Like, I think we give
42:12
Speaker 2: her too much of the benefit of the doubt. We're
42:15
Speaker 2: just like, oh, she was there. She was just kind
42:17
Speaker 2: of floating around. No. No. Because she, she was so
42:23
Speaker 2: focused on her own comfort and she was so obsessed
42:30
Speaker 2: with being, you know, at the side of the furor
42:34
Speaker 2: and being like this major component as she saw it
42:38
Speaker 2: and you know, the future of the Reich, right? And
42:40
Speaker 2: she thought that she was going to be idolised in
42:42
Speaker 2: the future. Like, she thought people would be singing songs
42:44
Speaker 2: about her and that she would be celebrated. Like, she
42:47
Speaker 2: thought she was the shit. And she didn't care who
42:51
Speaker 2: got fucked over, like, for that to happen. Because she's
42:55
Speaker 2: so self-obsessed, like, at the Nuremberg trials, and obviously because
42:59
Speaker 2: she's not there for that, they question her hairdresser, who's like, oh, no,
43:05
Speaker 2: they definitely didn't have sex because, like... Because, of course,
43:09
Speaker 2: her hairdresser knows. I mean, in fairness, her hairdresser might know.
43:13
Speaker 2: That's actually a fair one. But it's the most Eva
43:15
Speaker 2: Braun thing ever, isn't it? Like, let's just question the hairdresser.
43:20
Speaker 2: She does, however, go on to say that they were on, like,
43:22
Speaker 2: a massive concoction of drugs over in Berghof, which, maybe?
43:27
Speaker 2: I always think, like, the big, sort of, drug party
43:32
Speaker 2: purge thing. I mean, it's very bright young things, but...
43:37
Speaker 2: I think it's the kind of thing that because we
43:39
Speaker 2: demonise drugs specifically, that I think it's one of those
43:42
Speaker 2: things that people latch onto and push out there as
43:46
Speaker 2: if all of the other horrible things that they're doing
43:48
Speaker 2: aren't enough. And it's like, but also, drugs! You know
43:52
Speaker 2: what I mean? And it's like, maybe they did. But
43:54
Speaker 2: we do know that he was on special concoctions for
43:58
Speaker 2: all this stuff. And I think the doctor said something
44:02
Speaker 2: about they had to be on the same chemical wavelength
44:04
Speaker 2: in order for them to get down. So maybe Maybe.
44:08
Speaker 3: Why not?
44:10
Speaker 2: Or maybe he just had mummy issues and she just, like,
44:13
Speaker 2: cuddled him and breastfed him and stuff. Whom's to say?
44:17
Speaker 2: But anyway, Ava, super devoted to Hitler, like, just crazy
44:21
Speaker 2: devoted to this fucking madman. And I don't use those
44:25
Speaker 2: words lightly. So, they're together and her younger sister, Gretel,
44:32
Speaker 2: so she marries. She marries in June. 1944 right 30
44:40
Speaker 2: June 1944 she marries the SS Gruppenführer Hermann Wirkenheim and
44:46
Speaker 2: so they get married and it is like a big
44:49
Speaker 2: fucking deal like it is massive.
44:50
Speaker 5: Right there are just flowers like they cut entire feuds
44:57
Speaker 5: of flowers like it's massive it's like a big shindig
45:00
Speaker 5: and Eva was like this is gonna be like this
45:03
Speaker 5: is the trail run for my wedding because this is
45:05
Speaker 5: gonna be Like, we're going to get.
45:07
Speaker 2: Married and it's going to be, like, this big amazing thing.
45:09
Speaker 2: And it's going to be even bigger and better. And, no,
45:13
Speaker 2: it's a shitty, stinky bunker that she gets married in.
45:16
Speaker 2: But we are not quite there yet. So, like, Gretel
45:21
Speaker 2: marries this guy, right? And 1944. And 1945, like, we're
45:28
Speaker 2: in armies closing in. Shit is going down. Like, Germany
45:31
Speaker 2: is crumbling. Like, everything is, the shit is in the van.
45:35
Speaker 2: And so he deserts. And because, like, he deserts, you know,
45:40
Speaker 2: the army, he gets shot. They're just like, uh-uh, no
45:44
Speaker 2: good for you. Boom. Now, after the war, like, ends,
45:49
Speaker 2: it's like Gretel, like, she just goes like, fuck this,
45:53
Speaker 2: we're a game of soldiers. And she buggers off, right?
45:57
Speaker 2: Changes her name and then just lives her life quietly.
46:01
Speaker 2: Gets remarried. And just, like, survives until 1987. Just like, yep.
46:09
Speaker 2: So now it's time to talk about the bunker. So
46:13
Speaker 2: in April, early April 1945, Eva travels to Munich and
46:18
Speaker 2: then on to Berlin to be with Hitler in the Führerbunker. Now,
46:22
Speaker 2: she refused to leave the bunker as the Red Army was, like,
46:26
Speaker 2: closing in. Now, here's the thing. She was given so
46:30
Speaker 2: many opportunities to leave. to escape and be free and
46:33
Speaker 2: she was like no absolutely not I'm staying with him
46:36
Speaker 2: and she was like I need to stay with Adolf
46:40
Speaker 2: you know and sometime after like midnight on the 29th
46:47
Speaker 2: of April Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler were married in
46:52
Speaker 2: the bunker so like he had to do the whole
46:55
Speaker 2: like as was German law he had to like prove
46:57
Speaker 2: his like racial purity and do all the stuff and
46:59
Speaker 2: they get married now He knows the end is coming. Like,
47:05
Speaker 2: he knows this is happening. See, here's the thing, right?
47:11
Speaker 2: Because on the 28th, he's had Gretel's husband shot, right? Boom, done.
47:18
Speaker 2: Because he's found out that Heinrich Himmler had plans to, like,
47:22
Speaker 2: sell everybody out to the Allies. And so he's just pissed.
47:26
Speaker 2: He's just going on a rampage at this point. And, like...
47:31
Speaker 2: he decided that, you know, you know what? Ava's been
47:33
Speaker 2: there for me all this time. She's been loyal. Like,
47:36
Speaker 2: I'm going to marry her before we die, right? That's
47:38
Speaker 2: going to be her thing, right? Like, that's her reward. Because, like,
47:44
Speaker 2: I'm convinced, right, that if things were going well, if
47:48
Speaker 2: he just kept succeeding, right, that he never would have
47:52
Speaker 2: married Ava Brown. Like, she would have just kind of
47:55
Speaker 2: been there to the side and he would never would
47:58
Speaker 2: have married her because his big public persona of being like,
48:02
Speaker 2: you know, the Fuhrer, the man of Germany, blah, blah, blah,
48:06
Speaker 2: you know, the father figure of the Germans, you know,
48:10
Speaker 2: and that he never would have, he never would have
48:11
Speaker 2: done it. But like, now he's got nothing left to lose.
48:14
Speaker 2: And so he's like, you know what, sure, let's get married.
48:16
Speaker 2: And so she becomes like, Eva Hitler. And like, as
48:20
Speaker 2: she's signing like the marriage license, you know, she, you know,
48:25
Speaker 2: forgets that she has to sign her new surname. And so, like,
48:28
Speaker 2: you see the beginning of Brown, and then she just
48:30
Speaker 2: scores it out and starts writing Hitler. Like, Eva Hitler,
48:32
Speaker 2: which she is, like, for... for a day. Right, so...
48:41
Speaker 2: She's legally changed her name to Eva Hitler. It is
48:44
Speaker 2: witnessed by Goebbels and Martin Bormann, who's, like, Hitler's bodyguard, basically. Now,
48:53
Speaker 2: in the bunker, the bunker is... It is loud. It
48:57
Speaker 2: is smelly. It is, the piping isn't great. And it's like,
49:01
Speaker 2: it's like so far underground, right? It is properly disgusting.
49:05
Speaker 2: There's like a dentist chair in there. There's no reason
49:08
Speaker 2: to explain why, but it's there. And like Goebbels' wife
49:14
Speaker 2: and all of their children, like they, you know, they
49:16
Speaker 2: kill them all. Like they poison themselves and then murder.
49:19
Speaker 1: Suicide, etc. And..
49:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, because.
49:23
Speaker 2: They're just like, this is the best route. And it's like,
49:32
Speaker 2: there's a cyanide pill, right? And it gets... Like, they
49:37
Speaker 2: test it because they want to test it to make
49:38
Speaker 2: sure it's going to work.
49:39
Speaker 1: And so..
49:40
Speaker 2: Hitler demands they feed it to his dog, Blondie, just
49:43
Speaker 2: to make sure the satinite pill works. Like, so they
49:46
Speaker 2: do that, so they do that, and then they shoot
49:49
Speaker 2: all of Blondie's puppies. Like, that's a thing they do. Now, so, 1pm,
49:58
Speaker 2: 30th of April, 1945, Eva and Adolf Hitler, they said
50:03
Speaker 2: their goodbyes, and about 3.30 that day, so about two
50:09
Speaker 2: and a half hours later, there was a gunshot. And so,
50:15
Speaker 2: when Hitler's people, when they enter the room, they see
50:18
Speaker 2: the two bodies. Eva had taken a cyanide capsule and
50:22
Speaker 2: Hitler had shot himself. Now, what's interesting is Hitler had
50:28
Speaker 2: taken a cyanide capsule as well, but had shot himself
50:31
Speaker 2: at the same time. Like, just, just because he could. Right?
50:36
Speaker 2: Just because that's, it's fucking mental, lads. It's mental, right? And,
50:42
Speaker 2: Eva is 33 years old. So, like, the reason that
50:47
Speaker 2: Eva Braun took cyanide, like, that was her choice, because
50:50
Speaker 2: she didn't want to be shot, because she didn't want
50:52
Speaker 2: to be an ugly corpse. Like, she puts on, like,
50:55
Speaker 2: her favourite dress. Like, she gets dressed for this. She
50:59
Speaker 2: gets married, she does this, and then she wants to
51:02
Speaker 2: make sure she looks good even in death. Which doesn't
51:05
Speaker 2: really matter so much about how good the corpse looks, because, like,
51:09
Speaker 2: Otto Gonsch, like, he goes in, You know, him and
51:12
Speaker 2: a bunch of people take the bodies. They bring them to, like,
51:16
Speaker 2: the emergency exit to the garden behind the Reich Translary.
51:21
Speaker 2: And the bodies are burnt. Like, they burn them, like,
51:26
Speaker 2: during the Red Army when it's, like, shelling the place.
51:33
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's... Hitler was 56. I don't give a fuck.
51:39
Speaker 2: Eva Braun was 33 years old. And her body's just
51:45
Speaker 2: cremated on a pyre, right? Just done. And that's the
51:51
Speaker 2: end of Eva Braun. Like, it's only after that she
51:56
Speaker 2: died that we really knew anything about her, that she
51:59
Speaker 2: was ever really discussed, or it came out that she
52:02
Speaker 2: was in a relationship with Hitler. And it's like, we're
52:10
Speaker 2: always so interested in a person because we think they
52:14
Speaker 2: did something important or big or interesting. And Eva Braun
52:20
Speaker 2: was just kind of there. Like, because she worked with Hoffman,
52:24
Speaker 2: she was part of creating that sort of, you know,
52:31
Speaker 2: representation of Hitler, right? And she had, like, no real
52:38
Speaker 2: role politically like she was significant to Hitler so she
52:42
Speaker 2: was significant to the Reich in that way because you
52:46
Speaker 2: know she was again that sort of like safe space
52:50
Speaker 2: for him for a long time like the place where
52:52
Speaker 2: he would like relax and recuperate and like you know
52:57
Speaker 2: recharge and then go back to doing evil fucking shit again.
53:00
Speaker 4: And there's a lot of historians who like, there's a
53:06
Speaker 4: lot of historians who, like, talk about how, like, Eva
53:09
Speaker 4: Braun is just, like, a disappointment.
53:12
Speaker 2: For historians because she's just kind of meh. She's just
53:16
Speaker 2: kind of there. She just, you know, she drinks the flavourade.
53:20
Speaker 2: She follows him and, you know, when she does have
53:23
Speaker 2: the opportunity to stand up and say something, the only
53:25
Speaker 2: time she ever does is when it's about makeup. Which,
53:31
Speaker 2: makeup is amazing and wonderful and fabulous, but, like, that's...
53:36
Speaker 2: That's your line in the sand? Like when all of
53:41
Speaker 2: the people who she could have helped, people who came
53:43
Speaker 2: to her and she was just like, eh, nothing to
53:45
Speaker 2: do with me.
53:46
Speaker 3: What?
53:47
Speaker 5: What?
53:47
Speaker 2: And I think she played off of that sort of
53:51
Speaker 2: ditzy persona. And I'm not saying that she was like
53:53
Speaker 2: a super intelligent person. I'm not saying that she was
53:57
Speaker 2: like a master manipulator. I think she was a fairly
54:00
Speaker 2: standard manipulator, but I think she was generally just a
54:04
Speaker 2: shitty person. And I'm sorry if this wasn't sort of
54:09
Speaker 2: the big woo exciting thing, but there are mediocre people
54:17
Speaker 2: involved in every aspect of everything. Not everybody is going
54:23
Speaker 2: to be the best. Not everybody is going to be
54:25
Speaker 2: the most important. And not everybody is going to be
54:28
Speaker 2: the absolute worst. And I think Eva Braun, she just...
54:34
Speaker 2: sits in that spot of being so mid. She was
54:39
Speaker 2: a shitty person with shitty opinions, obsessed over some shitty dude. Like,
54:44
Speaker 2: fucking evil dude, actually. The most... One of the most
54:48
Speaker 2: evil dudes to ever have existed. And, you know, she
54:52
Speaker 2: wanted to do gymnastics on the beach and have parties and,
54:56
Speaker 2: you know, the eagle's nest and do all this shit. But... Like...
55:02
Speaker 2: Even at the expense of so many people suffering. And
55:09
Speaker 2: if one of the wives knew about people being carted
55:11
Speaker 2: away in trains, like surely wives and girlfriends and other
55:16
Speaker 2: women in the social circle are chatting. There's a gossip somewhere.
55:19
Speaker 2: And you're telling me she didn't know shit? Fuck that
55:25
Speaker 2: for a game of soldiers. But anyway, you know what?
55:28
Speaker 2: You know what?
55:28
Speaker 3: We're done.
55:29
Speaker 2: I'm gonna done because I'm just gonna get angry because
55:32
Speaker 2: it's so parallel to some people today who are so
55:37
Speaker 2: terrified of losing their privilege even though like losing a
55:45
Speaker 2: little bit of your privilege is not oppression but some
55:48
Speaker 2: people think it is and it's just very much that
55:51
Speaker 2: mindset and it fucks me off I'm so pissed off
55:54
Speaker 2: but with that I'm gonna bid you adieu and we're
55:59
Speaker 2: gonna get on and we're gonna talk about Recommendation time.
56:02
Speaker 2: Recommendation time. So I am going to recommend for watching again,
56:07
Speaker 2: I'm going to recommend for watching Poe Party. So Poe Party,
56:14
Speaker 2: if you go on YouTube, if you go into Shipwrecked's YouTube,
56:18
Speaker 2: you will watch Edgar Allan Poe's Murder Mystery Dinner Party
56:21
Speaker 2: or as some of us know it as Edgar Allan
56:26
Speaker 2: Poe's invite-only murder mystery dinner party slash gala for friends potluck.
56:33
Speaker 2: It's like a whodunit. It's based on great literary minds.
56:38
Speaker 2: It's very fun. I saw the live show. It was amazing.
56:43
Speaker 2: And the best part about it was they changed it,
56:46
Speaker 2: but there's also three endings. And now, I really hope
56:50
Speaker 2: there is a Clue-like ending where they're just running around crazy.
56:54
Speaker 2: where it's like this, and they just run from one
56:56
Speaker 2: side of the stage to the other. That wasn't the
56:57
Speaker 2: ending I saw, and I'm not going to tell you
56:58
Speaker 2: the ending I saw, because I want to discuss it
57:00
Speaker 2: once everybody's seen, once the play's out, like three times.
57:04
Speaker 2: Or we all keep it secret, like the mousetrap, right?
57:07
Speaker 2: That's what we do, which I'm really excited to see
57:10
Speaker 2: next year, because I'm going to take my mum to
57:12
Speaker 2: see the mousetrap. But that's for your watching, that's your watching.
57:17
Speaker 2: For reading, there is a brilliant book. It's like, what, non-fiction? Yes,
57:23
Speaker 2: I know, you're shocked. Now, there's a book called Fake History,
57:28
Speaker 2: 101 Things That Never Happened. It's by the fake history hunter,
57:32
Speaker 2: so Joe Hedwig Tielvisse. I've mispronounced that name. They're going
57:37
Speaker 2: to kill me. They're going to be like, how do
57:38
Speaker 2: you not know how to pronounce my surname? Listen, I
57:40
Speaker 2: don't know how to pronounce your surname. I gave it
57:42
Speaker 2: a go. I could be wrong, right? There's quite a
57:46
Speaker 2: lot of vowels in there, right? I don't know how
57:48
Speaker 2: they all work because I cannot remember the Dutch alphabet,
57:52
Speaker 2: which I should know because... I should know that. But
57:56
Speaker 2: you know what's weird? So I bought a copy of
58:00
Speaker 2: Joe's book and I was reading the back earlier and
58:05
Speaker 2: for the first time ever, there's a little mark on
58:09
Speaker 2: the back that says, for sale in the Indian subcontinent only.
58:14
Speaker 2: And I'm like, what? What? That can't be right. That
58:22
Speaker 2: can't be right. You know what I've been listening to
58:24
Speaker 2: a lot recently? You're going to laugh. Every now and again,
58:28
Speaker 2: I like to listen to songs by local musicians or
58:31
Speaker 2: semi-local musicians. And recently, I've been listening to one of
58:36
Speaker 2: my favourite songs. I forgot. It's such a big part
58:39
Speaker 2: of me being 15 or so. This song was everywhere.
58:44
Speaker 2: It was called Wired to the Moon. And it's by
58:47
Speaker 2: a band called... Well, it used to be The Revs, right?
58:49
Speaker 2: And now it's Rory and The Island. The live versions,
58:52
Speaker 2: I think, are much better. Although I wish they did
58:56
Speaker 2: the end part properly with.
58:57
Speaker 3: Oh, I'm in the army. Oh, I'm in the Navy. Oh,
59:06
Speaker 3: let's have a baby.
59:07
Speaker 2: Whoa. Because they never do it properly. They keep doing
59:12
Speaker 2: silly bits of like, I'm in the Navy. And I'm like, no,
59:13
Speaker 2: do it properly. Say it properly. Built it, boys. Built it. Anyway,
59:17
Speaker 2: but that's just my personal opinion. And before I go, actually,
59:20
Speaker 2: don't forget, follow me on the socials, follow me on
59:22
Speaker 2: the website. If you are in a region in which
59:25
Speaker 2: I have a show, please don't wait last minute to
59:28
Speaker 2: get your tickets because the problem is... When people wait
59:30
Speaker 2: last minute to get their tickets is that it actually
59:33
Speaker 2: makes it really difficult for us to, like, tour. Because
59:38
Speaker 2: if you're waiting to the last minute to book anything,
59:41
Speaker 2: then venues really don't like that. And it makes you
59:45
Speaker 2: seem really, really unpopular. So if you do want to
59:48
Speaker 2: come see me, just buy your damn tickets, okay? Because
59:52
Speaker 2: if you don't have a certain point, like a certain
59:56
Speaker 2: amount of tickets by a certain point, like a sidebar, right?
1:00:00
Speaker 2: like a lot of venues will just cancel on you.
1:00:02
Speaker 2: And so like, I have a cousin and this really
1:00:04
Speaker 2: bugs me because she only ever buys tickets like the
1:00:06
Speaker 2: day before.
1:00:07
Speaker 4: And I was.
1:00:08
Speaker 2: Like, why would you do that? Or like the day of?
1:00:10
Speaker 2: And I was like, but what if they're sold out? Like,
1:00:14
Speaker 2: what if you don't have this? What if you don't
1:00:16
Speaker 2: have that? Like, I've had, I've had tickets sell out
1:00:20
Speaker 2: for shows and I've literally sold out so much that
1:00:23
Speaker 2: I didn't even have like tickets on the door. And
1:00:25
Speaker 2: we had to just wait and see if people didn't
1:00:26
Speaker 2: show up so that we could give these extra seats. But,
1:00:30
Speaker 2: We literally didn't. I was standing in shows before just
1:00:33
Speaker 2: because we literally did. We ran out of seats and
1:00:35
Speaker 2: we were like, you can come in, but you're literally
1:00:37
Speaker 2: standing and we cannot have any more because of like
1:00:40
Speaker 2: fire safety things. Like that's happened. And people who wait
1:00:44
Speaker 2: last minute just like I understand if, oh, you're traveling
1:00:48
Speaker 2: and you've ended up in the city and it's like,
1:00:49
Speaker 2: I wonder if there's tickets for this show tonight. Makes
1:00:52
Speaker 2: sense to me. Right. But like if stuff's out in advance,
1:00:56
Speaker 2: just get tickets in advance. Right. Ask someone for the
1:01:00
Speaker 2: ticket as a birthday present or Easter present or whatever
1:01:03
Speaker 2: the hell. I've actually had men message me quite a
1:01:06
Speaker 2: lot going, hey, do you know if your tickets are
1:01:08
Speaker 2: going to go on sale before Mother's Day? Because you
1:01:10
Speaker 2: want to book the tickets as a Mother's Day gift.
1:01:12
Speaker 2: And I was like, yep, no, that's great. 10 out
1:01:15
Speaker 2: of 10.
1:01:15
Speaker 3: Wonderful.
1:01:16
Speaker 2: But yeah, I don't mean to rant about it, but
1:01:18
Speaker 2: it's just one of those things. And also I'm sick
1:01:20
Speaker 2: of talking about fucking Nazis now. I'm sick of talking
1:01:23
Speaker 2: about Nazis. And everyone always wants me to talk about
1:01:26
Speaker 2: Nazis or horrific murder. And I'm like, listen, There's so
1:01:30
Speaker 2: much more to history than fucking Nazis. And that's why
1:01:32
Speaker 2: next month I am talking about great escapes, jailbreaks. They're my,
1:01:37
Speaker 2: you know me, I love jailbreaks. I love heists, which
1:01:39
Speaker 2: is going to be, it was initially going to be
1:01:41
Speaker 2: a dual month of like those kind of things. But honestly,
1:01:44
Speaker 2: I've discovered there are too many heists. And as such,
1:01:48
Speaker 2: that's not really an option. So I got to split
1:01:53
Speaker 2: them up to cover everything. But yes, that I'm going
1:01:58
Speaker 2: to stop complaining. forgive me if I went off topic
1:02:03
Speaker 2: or rambled too much today but I was travelling for
1:02:05
Speaker 2: 17 hours straight so after that brain gets a wee
1:02:09
Speaker 2: bit wobbly but yes I hope to see you all
1:02:13
Speaker 2: on the tour first show is in Brighton I'm fairly
1:02:17
Speaker 2: certain that's the first show initially I did want to
1:02:20
Speaker 2: have my first show like in Donegal but I couldn't
1:02:23
Speaker 2: find like the venues were all booked up and I
1:02:26
Speaker 2: was like really here you sure But anyway, it is
1:02:30
Speaker 2: what it is. And with that, I shall bid you adieu. Adios,
1:02:36
Speaker 2: au revoir, au revoir, my friends.
1:02:39
Speaker 3: Bye-bye.