Erich Kempka – Personal Driver of Adolf Hitler & Important Wittness Führerbunker 1945

Scarce Postwar Signature of Erich Kempka. Kempka (16 September 1910 – 24 January 1975) was a member of the SS in Nazi Germany who served as Adolf Hitler’s primary chauffeur from 1934 to April 1945. He was present in the area of the Reich Chancellery on 30 April 1945, when Hitler shot himself in the Führerbunker. Kempka delivered the petrol to the garden behind the Reich Chancellery where the remains of Hitler and Eva Braun were burned. Postcardsize, comes with a postwar photo of his grave and death card.

Berlin 1945: Kempka was one of those responsible for the burning of Hitler and Eva Braun’s corpses after they committed suicide together on the afternoon of 30 April 1945. Otto Günsche had telephoned Kempka and told him to obtain as much petrol as he could and bring it to the emergency exit of the Führerbunker. Kempka and his men brought over eight to ten army petrol cans which had an estimated 180 to 200 litres of petrol and deposited them where they had been told to do so. The lifeless bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were carried up the stairs and through the bunker’s emergency exit to the garden behind the Reich Chancellery, where they were burned. Later, SS guards brought over additional cans of petrol to further burn the corpses.

Kempka left the bunker complex on the following night of 1 May along with SS-Hauptscharführer Heinrich Doose, a driver who was part of his staff. His group went down through the underground railway tunnels and made it to Friedrichstrasse station. At around 2:00 am, another group approached, which included Martin Bormann and Ludwig Stumpfegger. The group followed a Tiger tank which spearheaded the first attempt to storm across the Weidendammer Bridge, but it was destroyed. Bormann and Stumpfegger were “tossed into the air” when the tank was hit. Kempka was knocked down and knocked out. After he came to, Kempka came across the badly wounded SS-Obersturmbannführer Georg Betz† (Hitler’s personal co-pilot and Hans Baur’s substitute) and left him in the care of Kaethe Hausermann, a dental surgeon who had been on Hitler’s staff working with Dr. Hugo Blaschke. Kempka went on to state that he learned that Betz died from his injuries a short time later.

Kempka and several others followed the rail tracks hoping to reach the Lehrter station. They came across some foreign workers hiding out in a shed where the Germans got rid of their uniforms and changed into civilian clothes. A group of Soviet soldiers discovered them. A Yugoslav girl who had given him civilian clothes told the Soviet soldiers that Kempka was her husband. The soldiers insisted the group join them and drink vodka in celebration of victory. Later the Soviet troops left the area. The Yugoslav girl led him through the Soviet checkpoints and on 30 May, Kempka made it to Wittenberg. In Munich, he obtained some new identification papers from a German girl who was employed by the Allies as an interpreter. He continued on from there to Berchtesgaden. On 20 June, Kempka was captured by U.S. troops at Berchtesgaden and held until 9 October 1947. He was the first witness the Americans captured who could confirm the death of Hitler. (Source: Wikipedia)