Chauffeur to Valhalla

White-faced and shaking, Adolf Hitler last week stood beside an open grave in Graefelfing cemetery near Munich. Massed behind him were most of Germany's Nazi bigwigs. The Realmleader had come to bury his chauffeur, Julius Schreck, 32, dead of inflammation of the brain. The service was brief, manly, preacherless. A Nazi philosopher orated on the theme, "Let the furies of hell battle against me; I will ride through death and the devil." Instead of a psalm, the mourners sang Though All Should Prove Unfaithful, anthem of Nazidom's elite Schutzstaffel (Black Shirts), whose chief job is to guard Adolf Hitler. Schutzstaffel Chief Heinrich Himmler made a speech: "And as we serve here, you will serve in Valhalla, for your Fuehrer, for our movement and for Germany." The Fuehrer laid on the grave a wreath inscribed, "To my old, loyal, beloved comrade." Himmler went on: "And now, dear comrade, I may announce to you an honor which the Fuehrer has planned for you ... an honorable detachment of the Schutzstaffel will bear the name of Julius Schreck in the future."

All this fuss over a chauffeur's death last week revealed the peculiar organization of the present German Government. Perpetually standing between Adolf Hitler and the lusty, quarreling Nazi cliques are a group of bachelor bodyguards. Their chief is Lieutenant Friedrich Wilhelm Bruckner, 6 ft. 4 in. tall, who sleeps outside Hitler's door. When Hitler drove out in his huge Mercedes-Benz, the man at the wheel was usually Julius Schreck, muscular, slit-eyed sub-commander of the Schutzstaffel, who wore an imitation Hitler mustache. Substitute chauffeur was Erich Kempka, 25, Schutzstaffel captain. Since even Prussian Premier Goring and Minister of Propaganda Goebbels cannot see the Realmleader without an appointment, Hitler's bodyguards are the men in Germany closest to him.

Last week sorrowing Adolf Hitler promoted Erich Kempka to Julius Schreck's place as No. 1 chauffeur.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.