Nazi henchman’s son reveals World War 2 chaos – and SHOCK at Hitler’s appearance

Rudolf von Ribbentrop’s father Joachim was Hitler’s ambassador in London from 1936 to 1938. He was then made the Third Reich’s Foreign Minister but was executed at Nuremberg in 1946 for helping to arrange the Holocaust. His son, who is now aged 98, wrote about his experience of seeing his father hang at Nuremberg in his biography My Father Joachim von Ribbentrop.

The biography was released in 2008 in German, but now has been translated into English for the first time.

The book also shared pictures of his family spending time with Hitler prior to the war breaking out.

Mr von Ribbentrop recalls how he never got the chance to say goodbye to his father.

He said: “Prior to the verdict, I was brought to Nuremberg for a few days and confined to a cell in the witness wing, to be able to talk to my father for about ten minutes every day through a netting, with guards on either side.

“Actually, we were both aware of what the verdict would be; not because Father was guilty in the court’s sense, but because the court had been so structured as to make unequivocally sure that the process taken was directed to capital punishment.

“After pronouncement of the verdict, which, as we both expected, was a death sentence, I was not given an opportunity to say goodbye to my father. After my visit to Nuremberg and the talks I had there, I made a note for myself of the names of the accused who, in view of the conduct of the trial, could expect a death sentence. My prediction was absolutely right.“

Mr von Ribbentrop added he was proud of his father’s ability to stand up to Hitler.

He said in the memoir: “If he was not ‘eliminated’, as he used to say about the probable death sentence, father wanted to write his memoirs.

“I asked him if he did so expressly to bring out his divergences of view from Hitler’s. My main thought about this was of his efforts to avert the war with the Soviet Union.

“However, during the trial, father had consciously refused to expose his disparities with Hitler before the tribunal of the victors.”

Rudolf joined the SS Infantry Regiment Deutschland in Munich after Wold War 2 broke out.

He was sent to occupied Czechoslovakia, where he served in the 11th Company of his field regiment.

His book also recalls his shock at seeing how different Hitler looked during an encounter before he took his own life in a Berlin bunker.

He said: “I stood there as if turned to stone, unable to say anything in reply; the impact of the sight of Hitler’s physical deterioration was too overwhelming.

“What had happened to the man whom on 30 April of both 1939 and 1940 – Father’s birthday – in a convivial circle, sitting at the same table, I had listened to and observed? His body was a wreck.

“His face was grey and puffy, his bearing bent in a way that looked as if he had a hump, holding one uncontrollably shaking hand with the other, his steps a shuffle.

“Only his striking blue eyes kept a certain brilliance, but without hiding an impression of great infirmity.”

source: express.co.uk