Question: Eva Anna Paula Hitler, was the longtime companion of Adolf Hitler and, for fewer than 40 hours, his wife, she was a key figure within Hitler's inner social circle, mid-1944, when her sister Gretl married which high-ranking commander in the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany?
Context: The personal standard of Adolf Hitler was designed after Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934.  Adolf Hitler abolished the title "Reichspräsident" and in its place instituted the title of "Führer" which henceforth could only be used when referring to him personally.  Hindenburg used a personal standard consisting of a black eagle on a square gold background edged by a border of black, white and red bands.  Hitler decided on 19 August 1934 to adopt a personal standard for himself, which was called "Personal standard for Adolf Hitler as Leader and Chancellor of the German Nation".  As he was also Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces it was somewhat later known as "The personal standard for Adolf Hitler as Leader and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces" (German: "Standarte des Führers und Obersten Befehlshabers der Wehrmacht"). Hitler (1962) is a black and white American film (that was later re-released with the title, "Women of Nazi Germany").  The film stars Richard Basehart in the title role of Adolf Hitler.  Cordula Trantow stars as Geli Raubal and Maria Emo as Eva Braun.  John Banner stars as Gregor Strasser.  The film depicts Hitler through the years, beginning with the Beer Hall Putsch of November 1923 and focuses mainly on his private life, in particular, his relationships with niece Geli and longtime companion/wife, Eva Braun.  According to film critic and historian Leonard Maltin, Basehart "gives a cerebral interpretation" of Hitler during the timeframe he was the leader of Nazi Germany.  For her performance, Cordula Trantow was nominated for a 1962 Golden Globe in the category: Most Promising Newcomer - Female.  The film was produced by Three Crown Productions, Inc. and distributed by Allied Artists Pictures. Hans Otto Georg Hermann Fegelein (30 October 1906 – 28 April 1945) was a high-ranking commander in the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany.  He was a member of Adolf Hitler's entourage and brother-in-law to Eva Braun through his marriage to her sister, Gretl. The Night of the Long Knives (German:    ), also called Operation Hummingbird (German: "Unternehmen Kolibri") or, in Germany, the Röhm Putsch (German spelling: "Röhm-Putsch" ), was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from June 30 to July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political extrajudicial executions intended to consolidate Hitler's absolute hold on power in Germany.  Many of those killed were leaders of the "Sturmabteilung" (SA), the Nazis' own paramilitary organization, colloquially known as the "Brownshirts" due to the color of their uniforms.  The best-known victim of the purge was Ernst Röhm, the SA's leader and one of Hitler's longtime supporters and allies.  Leading members of the left-wing Strasserist faction of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), along with its figurehead, Gregor Strasser, were also killed, as were establishment conservatives and anti-Nazis, such as former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and Bavarian politician Gustav Ritter von Kahr, who had suppressed Adolf Hitler's Munich Beer Hall Putsch in 1923.  The murders of SA leaders were also intended to improve the image of the Hitler government with a German public that was increasingly critical of thuggish Brownshirt tactics. Eva Anna Paula Hitler ("née" Braun; 6 February 1912 – 30 April 1945) was the longtime companion of Adolf Hitler and, for fewer than 40 hours, his wife.  Braun met Hitler in Munich when she was a 17-year-old assistant and model for his personal photographer; she began seeing him often about two years later.  She attempted suicide twice during their early relationship.  By 1936, she was a part of his household at the Berghof near Berchtesgaden and lived a sheltered life throughout World War II.  Braun was a photographer, and many of the surviving colour photographs and films of Hitler were taken by her.  She was a key figure within Hitler's inner social circle, but did not attend public events with him until mid-1944, when her sister Gretl married Hermann Fegelein, the SS liaison officer on his staff. Margarete Berta "Gretl" Braun (31 August 1915 – 10 October 1987) was one of the two sisters of Eva Braun.  She was a member of the inner social circle of Adolf Hitler at the Berghof.  Braun married SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein, a liaison officer on Hitler's staff, on 3 June 1944.  Fegelein was shot for desertion in the closing days of World War II.  Gretl became the sister-in-law of the Nazi dictator following his marriage to Eva, less than 40 hours before the couple killed themselves together. Paula Hitler (also known as Paula Wolff) (21 January 1896 in Hafeld, Austria – 1 June 1960 in Berchtesgaden) was the younger sister of Adolf Hitler and the last child of Alois Hitler, Sr. and his third wife, Klara Pölzl. The Leibstandarte SS "Adolf Hitler" (LSSAH) was founded in September 1933 as Adolf Hitler's personal Bodyguard formation.  It was given the title "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler" (LAH) in November, 1933.  On 13 April 1934, by order of Himmler, the regiment became known as the "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler" (LSSAH).  In 1939 the LSSAH became a separate unit of the Waffen-SS aside the SS-TV and the SS-VT. There was widespread support for animal welfare in Nazi Germany among the country's leadership.  Adolf Hitler and his top officials took a variety of measures to ensure animals were protected.  Many Nazi leaders, including Hitler and Hermann Göring, were supporters of animal rights and conservation.  Several Nazis were environmentalists, and species protection and animal welfare were significant issues in the Nazi regime.  Heinrich Himmler made an effort to ban the hunting of animals.  Göring was a professed animal lover and conservationist, who, on instructions from Hitler, committed Germans who violated Nazi animal welfare laws to concentration camps.  In his private diaries, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels described Hitler as a vegetarian whose hatred of the Jewish and Christian religions in large part stemmed from the ethical distinction these faiths drew between the value of humans and the value of other animals; Goebbels also mentions that Hitler planned to ban slaughterhouses in the German Reich following the conclusion of World War II. During the final weeks of the Third Reich and the war in Europe, many civilians, government officials and military personnel throughout Nazi Germany committed suicide.  Aside from high-ranking Nazi officials like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, Philipp Bouhler and Martin Bormann, many others chose " Selbstmord" (German: "Self-murder" ) rather than accept the defeat of Germany.  Studies have shown that the suicides were influenced through Nazi propaganda (reaction to the suicide of Adolf Hitler), the tenets of the Nazi Party, and the anticipated reprisals following the Allied occupation of Nazi Germany.  For example in April 1945, at least 1,000 people killed themselves and others within 72 hours as the Red Army neared the East German town of Demmin.
Answer: Hermann Fegelein