Erna Flegel - Biography

Biography

From January 1943 until the end of World War II, Flegel served as a nurse for Hitler's entourage and during the Battle of Berlin. She worked alongside one of Hitler's physicians, Dr. Werner Haase, as a nurse at Humboldt University Hospital and was transferred by the Red Cross to the Reich Chancellery in late April 1945. She worked in an emergency casualty station located in the large Reich Chancellery cellar, near the Vorbunker and Führerbunker. During her time in the Führerbunker she befriended Magda Goebbels and sometimes acted as a nanny to the Goebbels children until their deaths. She met Hitler once when he wanted to thank her, Dr. Haase and Dr. Ernst-Günther Schenck for their emergency medical services.

Flegel returned to work at the emergency casualty station where she remained until taken prisoner by the Soviet Red Army on 2 May. Dr. Haase, Helmut Kunz and a fellow nurse, Liselotte Chervinska were captured with her at that time. Upon capture, Soviet troops advised her to remain in the bunker complex where it was safer. Later interrogated by the Americans, Flegel then lived a life of anonymity until 1977 when documents including her interrogation were declassified. The media later tracked her down to her residence, a nursing home in Germany.

Flegel died in Mölln in 2006. She was portrayed in the 2004 German film Der Untergang ("Downfall") by Liza Boyarskaya.