A lost photo album that belonged to a Nazi officer who travelled with the Fuhrer and even received a birthday gift from him has emerged after 83 years.
The album containing 50 black and white photos was compiled by Rudolf Schmundt, the Nazi dictator’s chief army adjutant and member of his inner circle who unwittingly saved his life in a failed bomb plot.
It was Schmundt who unknowingly moved a briefcase packed with explosives away from Hitler in the war room of the so-called Wolf’s Lair on July 20, 1944.
But towards the end of the Second World War Schmundt’s widow burned numerous documents and diaries her late husband had kept.
She was concerned they would implicate him in Nazi war crimes as he was a servant of Hitler who willingly carried out the dictator’s criminal orders.
Rudolf Schmundt’s widow kept a photo album full of unseen pictures of her husband and Adolf Hitler. Pictured: Adolf Hilter (right) congratulates Rudolf Schmundt (left) on his 45th birthday. Hitler gave him a picture of himself as a present.
Pictured: Adolf Hitler (front left) arriving at state funeral of Udet with Rudolf Schmundt (circled)
Pictured: Rudolf Schmundt (left) and Adolf Hitler (right) in a Focke-Wulf 200 ‘Condor’ on their way to Mariupol on 2 December 1941
Pictured: The battered cover of Rudolf Schmundt’s fourth war photo diary
But for an unknown reason the photo album – that contained images of Schmundt with Hitler – was spared and it was later taken as a souvenir from Hitler’s Bergof residence in Bavaria by an American airman in 1945.
It remained with the family of Corporal Warren Bettenhausen until 2022 when it was offered for sale at an auction house in the US.
The album was bought by two German military historians who suspected that it may have been a fake but were intrigued enough to buy.
They carried out further research on the men in the photos before concluding that it had been compiled by Schmundt in 1941.
The names of all the German officers in the photos were meticulously captioned except for him. The handwriting also matched his from publicly-held records.
The emergence of the album has now been documented in the latest edition of Iron Cross, a British history magazine dedicated to publishing articles relating to both world wars from a German perspective.
The photos chart Schmundt’s work at the Wolf’s Lair – Hitler’s Eastern Front headquarters – and his visits to places like Ukraine.
There is a photo of Schmundt being given a present for his 45th birthday by Hitler as the pair shake hands.
In another he is sitting next to the Fuhrer on a plane travelling to Mariupol in Ukraine in December 1941.
Pictured: Benito Mussolini (first from left), Adolf Hitler (second from left) and Rudolf Schmundt (circled)
Pictured: Rudolf Schmundt, who unknowingly moved a briefcase packed with explosives away from Hitler in the war room of the so-called Wolf’s Lair on July 20, 1944
Pictured: Rudolf Schmundt’s grave
A third picture shows Schmundt alongside Hitler and Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini as they walk along a path lined with trees.
Hitler was said to be most upset at the death of Schmundt who died in October 1944 after succumbing to injuries he suffered in the July 20 plot.
Operation Valkyrie, the story of which was made into the 2008 Tom Cruise film, was carried out by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.
Ahead of a meeting in the Wolf’s Lair, he placed the suitcase close to Hitler only for it be moved moments later.
While it has been documented that it was another colonel who picked the case up, Hitler’s personal adjutant later stated he had observed Schmundt move it.
The device went off minutes later, causing fatal injuries to three high-ranking German officers, including Schmundt himself.
Hitler was protected by a large wooden table leg and escaped the assassination attempt – codenamed Valkyrie – with just a perforated ear drum.
Dr Kay Ullman, one of the two German historians, said: ‘Schmundt’s picture diary is a unique and historic document which illustrates his work at the Wolf’s Lair at the height of his career.
‘In what are 50 neatly labelled photos what makes this album so interesting are the many events that merely represent what was everyday life for Hitler’s chief adjutant.
‘For example visits to the Wolf’s Lair of high ranking statesmen such as Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
‘From the photos it is evident that Rudolf Schmundt’s key position in Hitler’s innermost military circle, the important role he held and his closeness to the Fuhrer all filled him with overwhelming pride.
‘However documentary evidence clearly assigns Schmundt to the camp of uncritical supporters, ant-isemites and willing servants of Adolf Hitler thus his death resulting from the bomb plot might well be regarded as a just reckoning.’
