DVD003 Review:

“The Private Film Collection of Eva Braun”

The subtitle of this album reads, “Life at Hitler’s mountain refuge – the Berghof – filmed by his mistress, Eva Braun.” But was she really his “mistress”, as invariably portrayed since 1945?

A “mistress” is a kind of live-in prostitute engaged in a strict business agreement with a man, who salaries her for regular sexual favors. Clearly, this definition does not describe the relationship Eva Braun shared with Adolf Hitler. By all accounts, they were sincerely in love with each other. She flew to him in Berlin, very much against his will, where they were married in the last, lethal days of World War Two, when the besieged capital was about to fall to the Red Army. After learning about the failed 20 July plot to kill the Fuehrer, Braun wrote to him, "From our first meeting, I swore to follow you anywhere, even unto death. I live only for your love." These were hardly the words or actions of a hired paramour. Even the writer for the hostile Internet service, Wikipedia, describes her as his “companion and, for a brief period, wife” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Braun).

It goes on to repeat that she “lived a materially luxurious and sheltered life” with Hitler. But this characterization is contradicted by the dvd’s visual evidence, which shows small, sparse if tastefully designed lodgings described by the film’s English narration as “modest”. Eva Braun was born on 6 February 1912 in Munich, where she was an office and lab assistant and photographer's model for Heinrich Hoffmann, the NSDAP’s official photographer, when Hitler met her for the first time in 1929. Contrary to a postwar British documentary that deprecated her as “of limited intelligence,” her Wikipedia entry states, “She did her own darkroom processing of silver (black and white) stills, and most of the extant colour stills and movies of Hitler are her work.”

These are, after all, only private home films, never intended for public viewing, and, as such, comprise an unedited, amateur documentary of real-life glimpses of Adolf Hitler’s personal off-hours. There, at least for a few hours from time to time, he could relax and be himself in scenes at odds with standard portrayals of the Fuehrer as a ranting lunatic. We see, instead, a personality reflected in those close to him. Male and female visitors at the Berghof --- some famous and powerful, but most obscure and less influential --- are all at ease in his presence, often seen laughing at what appear to be his humorous remarks. He delights in their toddlers, and they reciprocate. He very much loves Blondi, his loyal German shepherd. His deep affection for the mountains is obvious.

Although the Eva Braun collection is, by its very nature, without a plot or dialogue, it is a uniquely valuable insight into Adolf Hitler’s private life. The English narration is particularly valuable for identifying various persons otherwise unknown to even history students familiar with the leading figures of the Third Reich. Some of these --- including Dr. Goebbels, Ambassador Ribbentrop, Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich --- are seen, but many interesting, less well-known individuals also appear. These include Germany’s leading sculptor of the time --- Arno Brecker --- and his Greek wife, Hitler’s personal secretaries, and Eva Braun’s family members. There are also fine shots of the Fuehrer’s elite bodyguard --- the SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler --- all in rare color footage, together with his 1940 victory motorcade after the fall of France, and an Arab visitor from the Grand Mufti.

All these informal, if rare views of a lost world have a poignancy arising in retrospect of a casually joyful, if fleeting period captured forever by Eva Braun’s innocent imagery.

Marc Roland