THIS JUST IN...

HMMM. AND ALL THIS TIME, I THOUGHT HE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. HE WAS JUST A CRAZY HOUSEPAINTER WHO GOT CAUGHT UP IN EVENTS. HOW WILL THIS BE REPORTED IN THE ARAB WORLD, WHERE THEY DENY THAT THE HOLOCAUST TOOK PLACE?

Hitler Was Personally Behind Holocaust, Book Says By Erik Kirschbaum
BERLIN (Reuters) - Concrete evidence that Adolf Hitler was personally involved in the details of planning the Holocaust has been published in a new German book based on Soviet interrogations of two of the Nazi leader's closest aides. Matthias Uhl, a Berlin historian who found a secret biography of the Nazi leader in Moscow commissioned by Josef Stalin, said on Tuesday such tangible proof of Hitler's role in the Holocaust that killed six million had not been found before. "It was always assumed Hitler was involved in the Holocaust planning despite a lack of corresponding documents," Uhl told Reuters after the publication his 672-page "Das Buch Hitler" (The Hitler Book) based on a 413-page original for Stalin. "This shows for the first time that Hitler was intimately involved," he added.

"The Hitler Book" was first presented to the Soviet dictator in December, 1949, in a limited edition of one. Uhl found it buried in a Soviet archive last summer and with the help of a Nazi expert, Henrik Eberle, published the book on Monday. Uhl said the biography designed to give Stalin details of Hitler's death, insights into his thinking, and information about the betrayals around him was based on two years of interrogation of two Hitler associates -- his butler Heinz Linge and SS adjutant Otto Guensche.

Linge and Guensche spent 10 years working for Hitler. They were captured by the Soviets in Berlin on May 2, 1945, days after both helped burn Hitler's body. After beatings, they told the Soviet secret service all they knew about Hitler. They were released in 1955. Linge died in 1980 and Guensche in 2003.

"Hitler showed personal interest in the development of the gas chambers," the book said. "He studied the development of the project that (SS leader Heinrich) Himmler presented him. Hitler ordered full support for engineers building the gas chambers." The book, which supports much of what is already known about Hitler, his odd sense of humour and his relationship with Eva Braun, quotes from written reports by Linge and Guensche.

"Hitler told Himmler to use more trucks with mobile gas chambers so that munition needed for the troops wouldn't be wasted on shooting Russian (prisoners)," the book reads. "Himmler reported that the mobile gas chambers were working. He laughed cynically when he said that this method of murder is 'more considerate' and 'quieter' than shooting them," it adds.

Uhl, an historian at the Institute of Contemporary History, said the book offers confirmation that Hitler had no warning about his deputy Rudolf Hess's peace flight to Britain in 1941. "Obviously after more than 50 years of study into the Nazi era there isn't a lot to be found that's going to rewrite history," Uhl said. "But it does illuminate a lot of things."

Uhl said Hitler's relationship with Eva Braun, for example, was closer than thought, especially after Germany's defeat at Stalingrad. He called her at least every second day after that.

Hitler also had a strange sense of humour.

He allowed German soldiers in occupied countries to marry local women, but only after he saw photographs of the women. "Most of the women in the pictures were not especially pretty," the book said. "Hitler laughed and said once the soldiers who fell in love with these women sobered up again they would curse him for allowing them to marry."

The book quotes the two aides saying Hitler mocked the United States when it declared war in December 1941. "He said their cars never win races, American planes look sharp but their engines are worthless ... He said they hadn't proven anything -- just mediocrity and advertising."