Erna Flegel

Erna Flegel (11 July 1911 – 16 February 2006), born in Kiel in 1911, was a German nurse. In late April 1945 she worked at the emergency casualty station at the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. She was captured in the Reich Chancellery by the Red Army on 2 May 1945.

Biography

From January 1943 until the end of World War II, as well as during the Battle of Berlin, Flegel served as a nurse for Hitler's entourage. She worked alongside one of Hitler's physicians, Dr. Werner Haase, as a nurse at Humboldt University Hospital and was transferred by the Red Cross to the Reich Chancellery in late April 1945. She worked in an emergency casualty station located in the large Reich Chancellery cellar, near the Vorbunker and Führerbunker.^[1]

During her time in the Führerbunker she befriended Magda Goebbels and sometimes acted as a nanny to the Goebbels children until their deaths. She met Hitler once when he wanted to thank her, Dr. Haase and Dr. Ernst-Günther Schenck for their emergency medical services for wounded German soldiers and civilians.^[2]

Thereafter, Flegel returned to work at the emergency casualty station, where she remained until taken prisoner by the Soviet Red Army on 2 May. Dr. Haase, Helmut Kunz and a fellow nurse, Liselotte Chervinska, were captured with her at that time.^[3] Flegel was interrogated by the Americans and lived in anonymity until 1977, when documents including her interrogation were declassified. The media later tracked her down to her residence, a nursing home in Germany. She died in Mölln in 2006, aged 94. She was portrayed in the 2004 German film Der Untergang (Downfall) by Liza Boyarskaya.^[4][5]

References

1. Lehrer, Steven (2006). The Reich Chancellery and Führerbunker Complex, McFarland. Jefferson, NC. pp 117, 119; ISBN 0-7864-2393-5
2. Vinogradov, V. K. (2005). Hitler's Death: Russia's Last Great Secret from the Files of the KGB. Chaucer Press. p. 62; ISBN 1-904449-13-1
3. Vinogradov, V. K., et al. (2005), p. 62.
4. "'Hitler's nurse' breaks silence", bbc.co.uk, 2 May 2005.
5. "Interview: Erna Flegel", Guardian.co.uk, 2 May 2005.