Armin D. Lehmann

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Armin Dieter Lehmann (born 23 May 1928 in Waldtrudering, a borough of Munich), was a Hitler Youth courier in the Führerbunker towards the end of German dictator Adolf Hitler's life, leaving shortly after Hitler committed suicide. Lehmann received his education in Germany at Elisabet Gymnasium in Breslau during World War II, and The Journalism School in Munich after the war.

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[edit] Making a life in the United States

Armin Lehmann migrated to the United States in 1953.

From 1955 to 1957 Lehmann taught at the United States Armed Forces Institute, (USAFI), and also served as transportation coordinator at Tachikawa AFB in Japan.

For over 40 years, Lehmann worked in the travel and tourism industry as a tour director and operator, as well as a travel industry training specialist and consultant. He has lectured extensively as an associate professor in Travel & Tourism for the Airline & Travel Academy, TWA's Breech Training Academy, and Pacific States University in Los Angeles, California.

Lehmann is the author of ten books, including Travel and Tourism, An Introduction To Travel Agency Operations, and Travel Agency Policy & Procedures Manual. In addition, he has written more than 200 articles for travel industry trade journals. From 1977-81, Lehmann served as Vice President of Education & Training for the Association of Retail Travel Agents (ARTA).

In 1969 he was honored with the "Community Leader of America Award."

In 1993 Lehmann retired as a travel management consultant and retail travel agency owner. He then spent his time researching, along with developing his memoirs.

Books about his childhood experiences as a Hitler Youth include Hitler's Last Courier and In Hitler’s Bunker, which has been translated into seven different languages, including Chinese. He has also produced a documentary film about his experiences as one of Hitler's "boy-soldiers" titled Eyewitness to History.

[edit] Hitler's last courier

Hitler seized power before I was five years old. It was not my choice to grow up under the form of government in which absolute power is held by a dictator. At the age of ten, it was mandatory that I join the Deutsche Jungvolk (DJV), the junior branch of the Hitler Jugend or Hitler Youth. In January, 1945, I was drafted into the Volksturm, the home defense. I was decorated (with the Iron Cross) for pulling battle-injured comrades out of the line of fire, after I had been seriously wounded myself. I was selected by Reichsjugendfuehrer Artur Axmann to be a member of a Hitler Jugend Helden (Hitler Youth Heroes) delegation to visit the Fuehrer in Berlin on his birthday. I met Adolf Hitler in the Reich Chancellery garden (also known as the Hinterhof or backyard) outside his bunker on his last birthday, April 20, 1945. I became one of his last couriers as a member of Axmann’s staff. During my duty as a courier inside and outside the bunker, I witnessed the total collapse of the Third Reich. I was able to observe the final days of Hitler, Eva Braun, Martin Bormann, and Joseph Goebbels and his family. I was in the adjacent Party Chancellery when Hitler committed suicide. After Hitler's death, I participated in the bloody breakout from the bunker. Two months later, I succeeded in reaching the American Occupation Zone.

[edit] A life devoted to peace

At the end of World War II, when he was 17, Lehmann decided to devote his life to peace activism. As a peace advocate, Lehmann participated in Professor Linus Pauling's "Campaign For Nuclear Weapons Disarmament."

In the cause of peace, Armin Lehmann has traveled to more than 150 countries, speaking out for non-violence, tolerance, and understanding with such other voices as Nehru and Schweitzer to all who will listen.

[edit] Additional Sources of Information

  • Joachimsthaler, Anton. The Last Days of Hitler. London: Cassell, 2002.
  • Knauer, Kelly (ed.). V-E Day. Time: New York, 2005.
  • Lehmann, Armin D. Hitler’s Last Courier. Xlibris Corporation, 2000. OCLC 46606344
  • Lehmann, Armin D. and Carroll, Tim. In Hitler’s Bunker. Guilford: The Lyons Press, 2004. OCLC 57069258
  • Lehmann, Armin. Tomorrow’s World: A Book of Peace. Free e-book at www.ArminLehmanForPeace.com OCLC 9936795
  • Lehmann, Armin D. Resume, 2007.
  • Lester, Gary. Eyewitness To History (DVD). Port Orange: Blue Heron International Pictures LLC, 2007. www.ArminLehmanForPeace.com
  • North,Oliver. War Stories III. Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001.
  • Lehmann, Armin D. Resume. www.arminlehmannforpeace.com, 2007

In Hitler's Bunker is also available from the following publishers internationally: El Ateneo (Argentina), Random House (Australia and New Zealand), Nase Vojsko (Czech Republic), Tammeraamat (Estonia), Calmann-Levy (France), Piergiorgio Nicolaazzini (Italy), Jiuzhou Press (China), Pagasus (Turkey), Mainstream (United Kingdom).

An atmospheric recreation of the final days in the bunker may be seen in Oliver Hirschbiegel's 2004 film, Downfall (Der Untergang).

Written by Bernd Eichinger, it is based on memoirs written by Albert Speer, Traudl Junge, and Siegfried Knappe. It includes a horrific scene of the murder of the Goebbels children, who Lehmann saw frequently playing in the bunker.

In the documentary film, Eyewitness to History, Lehmann notes that two of the girls bore a striking resemblance to two of his sisters.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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Final occupants of the Führerbunker by date of departure
April 22
April 23
April 24
April 28
April 29
April 30
May 1
May 2
Date uncertain
Still present on May 2
Committed suicide
Killed
Languages