Free Chocolate Cake With Hitler by Emma Craigie Page A

in the evening we’d looked down over the banister and watched the guests arrive – beautifulactresses in beautiful dresses. Mummy wasn’t there. She’d been in hospital for weeks, partly because of being pregnant and partly because of her bad heart. Suddenly Papa came bursting into the nursery.
    “Wake up! Wake up! Mummy’s had a baby. We’re going to see her. Nanny, coats on top of nighties.”
    “Is it a boy?” Helmut had been longing for a brother .
    “No, Helmut, it’s a little girl. I’m afraid you and me and Harald are completely outnumbered. Let’s go.”
    I remember there was a car waiting for us, but it hadn’t warmed up. We only had our night things under our coats so we shivered all the way to the hospital. Mummy was propped up in bed. She started crying when we went in. Papa told her to “Buck up, sweetie” and left us to comfort her while he went in search of a nurse to fetch the baby. He came back with the baby in his arms and started dancing around the room. “Josef, please, you’ll disturb her. You’re not at a party now.”
    Papa carried on dancing. The baby didn’t wake up. In the end he gave her to Mummy to hold and we were able to get a proper look. Her face was all squashed up and chinless. Mummy told us that she was going to be called Heide and Helmut raced around the room shrieking “Heide, Heide, Hi diddly dee!”
    Mummy started crying again. Papa said it was time to go home.

Day Five in the Bunker
    Thursday 26 April, 1945
    A fter a whole day without anyone new coming into the bunker – which made me think that we were completely cut off from the rest of Germany and from safety in our strange bunker world – today brought a dramatic arrival.
    We were playing with the puppies in Auntie Eva’s room – I don’t know where Auntie Eva was, but Liesl was there doing the ironing – when we heard a commotion in the corridor, shouting and doors banging, and before Liesl could stop us, we ran out to have a look at what was going on. There were six soldiers carrying a stretcher. Beside them was a little woman with a very loud voice yelling orders: “Move on! Get out of the way! Where’s the doctor?” She was wearing a massive leather jacket that didn’t fit her at all, a man’s jacket, I think, on top of a very torn flying suit. The soldierscarried the stretcher into the doctor’s room at the end of the corridor. We saw Dr. Stumpfegger hurrying down from the Upper Bunker. He has a very strange run; it all happens below the knees while his upper body remains completely still. He gives me the creeps. He is very tall and skinny and pale, as if he is barely alive, and his eyes are always cast down at the floor. Mummy says he’s one of the cleverest doctors in the world.
    On the stretcher was a large man shielding his eyes with one hand. We could only really see the top of his balding head and his thin grey hair. His body was covered by a blood-stained army blanket. Liesl quickly scooped us back into Auntie Eva’s room. She didn’t know who these visitors were. My first thought was that if these people had been able to get in then it must still be possible for us to get out. And then I thought it looked like it had nearly killed them to get here.
    Eventually Auntie Eva came back to her room. Mummy was with her. It turns out that the bossy little woman is Hanna Reitsch. Which makes sense. You probably need to be the world’s greatest pilot to get past the Russian anti-aircraft guns. Mummy says she’s incredibly brave. I’ve seen her in news films, she can do amazing stunts, but I didn’t recognise her. If anyone could fly us out of here, I reckon she could. Unfortunately, Auntie Eva says that Flight Captain Reitsch (apparently she insists on being called Flight Captain and won’tanswer to Miss) plans to stay beside the Leader until the end of the war. She also told us that the injured man is another top pilot – General Robert Ritter von Greim. Maybe he could get us out, if he