Private Hitler's War 1914-1918

‘The soldier has a boundless affection for the ground on which he has shed his blood.’ - Adolf Hitler, August 1942

In 1932, before he came to power, Hitler went to a neutral court to protect his Great War service record… and won.

During the Great War Adolf Hitler served in the ranks of the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment from 1914 to 1918, and was awarded the Iron Cross First Class. As a result, Hitler was strongly portrayed by the Nazis as a valiant front-line soldier who, for four long years, had fought many hard battles in the front-line trenches. However, his enemies countered with their own portrayal of Hitler as a fraud; they characterised him as a draft-dodger and a malingerer who in four years of war had only ever fought in one action.

His opponents claimed Hitler was an etapenschweine, a ‘rear area hog’, on the run from the Austro-Hungarian army who had spent the war in relative safety carrying messages to and from Regimental Headquarters. Hitler was outraged and determined to set the record straight. In 1932, the year before he came to power, he sued his detractors in open court, and he won his case.

This ground breaking new book by Emmy Award™ winning author Bob Carruthers takes previously unpublished witness statements from the 1932 court case as a starting point in order to resolve the century long controversy over Hitler’s service in the Great War. This explosive book finally reveals the full unvarnished truth concerning Adolf Hitler’s service in the Great War and draws some unexpected and startling conclusions