Hitler’s devoted bodyguard dies aged 96

Rochus Misch, who served as Adolf Hitler’s devoted bodyguard for most of the Second World War and was the last remaining witness to the Nazi leader’s final hours in his Berlin bunker, has died. He was 96.

Misch died in Berlin after a short illness, according to Burkhard Nachtigall, who helped him write his 2008 memoir.

Misch remained proud to the end about his years with Hitler, whom he affectionately called “boss”. In a 2005 interview with The Associated Press, Misch recalled Hitler as “a very normal man” and gave a riveting account of the dictator’s last days before he and his wife Eva Braun killed themselves as the Soviet army closed in around their bunker in Berlin.