November 1943, the East Prussian village of Gross-Parch (now Poland): young Rosa Sauer has fled the bombing of Berlin and has found refuge in the countryside with her husband's parents - a German soldier whose unit was then fighting in Ukraine. Not far from this place, deep in the forest and surrounded by barbed wire, is Adolf Hitler's secret headquarters on the Eastern Front - the so-called "Wolf's Lair".
Shortly after arriving in Gross-Parch, Rosa is forcibly recruited by the SS and included in a group of women who are taken to the "Wolf's Lair" every day to "work" as tasters for Hitler – they test the food prepared for him for poison. If there is indeed poison in it, they will die, not the Fuhrer. Rosa is the main character in the new film "The Tasters" by Italian director Silvio Soldini.
The film tells the story of these women. The tasters, who sit at a lavishly laid table in front of the most exquisite dishes, while people all over Europe are starving. However, they know very well that every bite could be their last, because Hitler has many enemies. Rosa befriends a shy woman named Elfriede and begins a secret relationship with SS officer Albert Ziegler.
The Testimony of Margot Wölk
Soldini's film is based on the novel by Rosella Postorino, which is inspired by the personal story of Margot Wölk - one of 15 women who tasted Hitler's food. She herself did this for two and a half years and is the only surviving taster. The idea for the love story in the film comes from Wölk's account of how in 1944 a German officer put her on a train to Berlin to save her from the approaching Red Army. Wölk later learns that all the other tasters were shot by Soviet soldiers. She spoke about her experiences during World War II much later – until December 2012, when she was 95.
In 2013, Volk told the magazine "Spiegel" that while she worked as Hitler's taster, she was raped by an SS officer, as well as several times by Soviet soldiers - after her return to Berlin. She saw her husband again more than a year after the end of the war - he was severely traumatized by the experience.
Doubts about the story about the tasters
Historian Sven-Felix Kellerhoff is skeptical about the events described. As he points out to "Die Welt", Hitler had stomach problems in the last years of his life and was given special, dietary food, which was prepared in a separate kitchen in the innermost security zone "Sperrkreis 1" of the "Wolf's Lair". Therefore, he believes that it made no sense to take the food out of this restricted area to be tasted by some women.
Another touch on the subject is added by the historian Felix Bohr, who recalls that since July 1943, Hitler's food has been prepared separately, for which dietician Helene von Exner is responsible. Before her, a chef named Otto Günther had prepared meals in huge pots for all the Nazi leaders in the "Wolf's Lair".
In addition to Hitler's closest entourage, about 2,000 people worked there. It is not excluded that the women were forced to try other dishes that they were told were for Hitler.
In an interview with DW, Felix Bohr said that during his extensive study of the structures of the "Wolf's Lair" has not found any sources to confirm Margot Volk's account. But he also admits that he has not found any documents to prove the opposite.
Documented attempts to assassinate Hitler
There is clear historical evidence that there were over 40 attempts to assassinate Hitler.
The most famous of these is the failed assassination attempt of July 20, 1944 - "Operation Valkyrie". Then the Wehrmacht officer Klaus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg planted a bomb in a briefcase under a table. It exploded during a briefing and killed four people, while Hitler himself survived. He later said on the radio that he was "completely unharmed with the exception of very minor abrasions, bruises or burns" and sees in his survival the finger of providence - confirmation that he must continue until he achieves his goals.
Author: Elizabeth Grenier