Laurel outlook., 1946-01-02
May Tear Down
Fuehrer's Lair
Fear Retreat Might Become
Symbol of Nazi Spirit
That Ruined Reich.
By PAULINE FREDERICK
(WNU Staff Correspondent

If you have been to Berchtesgaden
since the war ended, you will under
stand why there is talk of destroying
Hitler's eagles nest perched atop
the highest alp in that area, as his
house and that of Goering and Bor-
mann farther down the mountain
side were levelled. Only it will be a
much harder job.
I have just been to the eagles nest
and can tell you at first hand why
there is some apprehension about it.
The eagles nest is the retreat der
fuehrer had built for himself on a
point 5000 feet high. 1t is made of
the solid stone of the Bavarian noun
tain on which it is anchored. To
reach it, you 60 up a precipitous
winding road. Himmler's Mercedes,
with its five speeds forward, in
which 1 was travelling, gave out and
spurted steam and water a third
of the way up. A jeep that picked
me up at that point stopped, too, a
little later, but we finally arrived at
our destination with the aid of Sec
ond jeep.
Tunnel Solid Rock.
You first reach a tunnel more than
a hundred feet deep into the solid
rock and guarded by huge bronze
doors. 1t leads to a double-decker
elevator that rises 500 feet through
a shaft bored through the rock to the
eagles nest. The top cage of the
elevator-a bronze section with a
circular mirror on the back wall and
leather-cuShioned bench around the
walls-was for Hitler. A trap door in
the right hand corner as you enter
was for the SIS men to drop down
into their cage below, which was
white-washed like a cell. When the
elevator reached it's destination at
the top of the mountain-the SIS got
out on the ground floor and Hitler
entered his living quarters on the
first floor. From the view you get at
this height, despite the fact that the
house itself and the furnishings
what have been left by the G.I.
souvenir hunters-are unattractive
is enough to give anyone delusions
of grandeur.
l stood on the narrow terrace look
ing out over the breath-taking scene
talking with one of the American
guards. 1t was what he told me that
made me realize that some day the
eagles nest might have to be de-
stroyed.
HitleriSm Not Dead.
The guard told me that two SIS
men had just been arrested up
there. That surprised me very much,
and 1 remarked that they might
have known there was a good
chance of being caught if they came
around place like that. ''Why would
they do it?" asked the guard.
His answer startled me. "This is
still shrine to many Germans" he
said very seriously.
Then he pointed down the hill to
Hitler's guest house just back of his
house that had been bombed, too.
Germans were repairing it for
barracks for occupation forces.
"The Germans we put to work
down there, work as they work no
place else-they never lose a Sec
ond," the guard said. "Why-be-
cause they can see the eagles nest
from there"
1t is true that it is almost impos-
sible to find German in Germany
who ever admits being Nazi. From
these two incidents, it would seem
to be true also that the spirit of
Hitlerism is not dead in Germany.
That is why the things that remind
the people of Hitlerism at the height
of the fuehrer's glory may have to
be destroyed so they will not become
symbols of that spirit which has to
be done away with if new Ger
many is to come out of the war.