The title of Herman Rothman’s autobiography, Hitler’s Will, has a double meaning. It tells the story of Herman (Hermi) Rothman, the last surviving German-speaking interrogator in the British Army who was part of the team that found and translated Hitler’s political and personal Will, along with Goebbels’ addendum. But Hitler’s Will is also about the great fight of a family for survival against Hitler’s will to kill all the Jews, including them. Hermi’s interrogation work at the end of the war meant that he discovered and exposed many of the Nazis’ darkest secrets including the documentation from Perry Broad, a German corporal, who confessed in detail to how the Auschwitz concentration camp was run. The document created and interrogations done by Hermi, as well as his testimony in court at the Auschwitz Trial in 1964, led to the conviction of several SS concentration camp staff.
But Hermi’s story goes far deeper than one man’s extraordinary work in Germany with British counter-intelligence at the end of the war. It is a Holocaust memoir of a family separated by the Nazi regime, its survival against all odds, and its reunion after fifteen years. Hermi was born Hermann Rothman in Berlin in 1924. Less than ten years later, Hitler came to power in Germany. Like all German Jews, Hermi’s family was at risk. In the coming years their future changed beyond their imagination and eventually the whole family had to flee the Nazis. Hermi himself was one of 10,000 children who came to Britain on the Kindertransport just before war broke out in September 1939. When he was old enough to enlist, he volunteered for the British Army and was part of another 10,000 refugees from Nazism (not all Kindertransport) who served in the British forces during the Second World War. The wider background and story about these veterans has been told in detail in my book The King’s Most Loyal Enemy Aliens: Germans who Fought for Britain in the Second World War.
While Hermi had escaped with the Kindertransport, back in Germany his father, mother and brother were forced to go on the run from the Nazis. Woven into this heart-rending tale is the selfless dedication of one family friend, Herr Belgart, a non-Jewish Police Inspector in Berlin, without whom the family would not have survived. At every point, he forewarned them of impending danger and arrest. He informed the family of the imminent deportation of Polish Jews from Berlin in October 1938, and a few weeks later, when Hermi’s father was sent by the Gestapo to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, Herr Belgart spent eight months trying to get him out and eventually secured his release. He then helped Hermi’s father to get out across Germany before the Gestapo had a chance to re-arrest him. Hermi has dedicated his book to Herr Belgart who did not think twice about risking his own life and position to save members of the Rothman family. Without him, they would not have survived the death camps. Sadly, Herr Belgart did not survive the war, but was killed in the Allied bombing of Hamburg in 1943.
The war in Europe officially came to an end on 8 May 1945, VE Day. Hermi had the satisfaction of witnessing the total defeat of the regime that had caused his flight from Germany in 1939 and so much suffering to his family. Germany had accepted unconditional surrender and much of the country lay in ruins.
As the Allies were beginning the enormous task of de-Nazifying and rebuilding Germany and Austria, and shaping postwar Europe, Hermi was posted with the 3rd British Counter-Intelligence Section to Westertimke and then Fallingbostel. It was at the German POW camp in Fallingbostel that Hermi’s interesting intelligence work began. He and a handful of fellow German-speaking refugees in the British Army were involved in the interrogation of suspected Nazi war criminals, as well as high-ranking Nazis who had been close to Hitler, including Hermann Karnau. It was at Fallingbostel that one of Hermi’s colleagues found Hitler’s political and personal Will and Goebbels’ addendum sewn into the sleeve-lining of the jacket of POW Heinz Lorenz, who was Goebbels’ press attaché. That discovery led to Hermi’s unit, under Captain Rollo Reid, translating the valuable documents behind closed doors. Coming into close proximity with men suspected of horrendous war crimes was never going to be easy, but returning to Germany in British Army uniform, Hermi was desperate to demonstrate the order of law, to uphold human rights, and show that despite the personal trauma of the Hitler regime, he could be above the lure of revenge. Today, his desire is that we should all learn from history and not repeat the errors of the past. I commend his courage in writing this book, and in so doing confronting some of the most painful parts of his past. I have met frequently with Herman and Shirley and know how deeply the scars remain within. In recording his story for posterity, he has added a vital piece in the jigsaw of Holocaust oral testimony, against those who would deny the Holocaust ever happened or that it was not as horrific as portrayed by Jews today. Hermi is a man of integrity, devoted to his wife and family, whose gentle humility sometimes hides a truly extraordinary person.
Extracted from Hitler's Will, the amazing true story of Herman Rothman's remarkable life, including how he managed to escape from Nazi Germany before the War began, and his role in bringing to light Hitler's personal and political testaments.
The ebook of Hitler's Will is now just £2.99, get your copy here.