In the Werewolf Bunker

"Hitler visited the Werewolf bunker outside Vinnysta three times: from July 16 to October 30, 1942; from February 19 to March 13, 1943; and from August 27 to September 15, 1943. When the war was over Stalin has ordered to compile a “Hitler File.”

Not just regarding the critical war decisions but also the most banal and esoteric: his coats with their pointed collars, the funeral music to which he was addicted, his irrational fear of mosquitos and other flying insects. For most of the time, Hitler stayed at Werewolf in a delusionary world of his own making. He thought that he would be pushing the Russians back over the Volga and instructed Ling, his adjutant, to bring him writing materials, drawing instruments, an atlas, magnifying glass and a coloured map of Russia’s mineral resources. He pointed at Rostov on the map and said: “Once we are in control here, we can continue the war with no fears.” Werewolf was also where Fritz Saukel, who had set up the Buchenwald concentration camp was informed that he was to be given the responsibility for the mass expulsion from the USSR and other areas of Europe. But it was also in Werewolf where Hitler was a recipient of bad news. The Stalingrad campaign was bogged down, the attack on the Caucasus had been halted. When Hitler heard the reverberations of approaching Soviet artillery, he abandoned Vinnysta but left behind him signs which are visible to this day. Peled, the Holocaust survivor and above all, an armoured corps officer, during his visit to the site, was surprised by the thickness of the bunker and its sheer size. “I wonder what my father would have said”, mused Peled, “had he seen me now in this place.”