"Background: Hitler would occasionally share anecdotes from his childhood with his typists and secretaries, with whom he enjoyed a cordial, avuncular relationship. Here, Christa Shroeder, his secretary, recalls one such anecdote, as she remembered Hitler saying it.
I never loved my father, [he used to say,] but feared him. He was prone to rages and would resort to violence. My poor mother would then always be afraid for me.
When I read Karl May (a German novelist) once that it was a sign of bravery to hide one’s pain, I decided that when he beat me the next time I would make no sound. When it happened – I knew my mother was standing anxiously at the door – I counted every stroke out loud.
Mother thought I had gone mad when I reported to her with a beaming smile, ‘Thirty-two strokes father gave me!’ From that day I never needed to repeat the experiment, for my father never beat me again."
Source: He Was My Chief: The Memoirs of Adolf Hitler's Secretary, by Crista Shroeder
"Background: Hitler would occasionally share anecdotes from his childhood with his typists and secretaries, with whom he enjoyed a cordial, avuncular relationship. Here, Christa Shroeder, his secretary, recalls one such anecdote, as she remembered Hitler saying it.
I never loved my father, [he used to say,] but feared him. He was prone to rages and would resort to violence. My poor mother would then always be afraid for me.
When I read Karl May (a German novelist) once that it was a sign of bravery to hide one’s pain, I decided that when he beat me the next time I would make no sound. When it happened – I knew my mother was standing anxiously at the door – I counted every stroke out loud.
Mother thought I had gone mad when I reported to her with a beaming smile, ‘Thirty-two strokes father gave me!’ From that day I never needed to repeat the experiment, for my father never beat me again."
Source: He Was My Chief: The Memoirs of Adolf Hitler's Secretary, by Crista Shroeder
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