Eyewitness to history

Armin Dieter Lehmann witnessed the collapse of the Third Reich as a teenager from a unique vantage point - Hitler's bunker. Born May 23, 1928 in Waldtrudering, Germany), Lehmann received his education in Europe at Elisabet Gymnasium in Breslau during World War II, and The Journalism School in Munich after the war. Wrocław. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Munich (German: , pronounced  ; Austro-Bavarian: Minga [1]) is the capital of the German Federal State of Bavaria. ...

Making a life in the United States

Armin Lehmann immigrated to the United States in 1953.

From 1955-1957, 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. The Hitler Youth (German:   , abbreviated HJ) was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. ...

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. The Deutsche Jungvolk (German Youth) was a subdivision of the Hitler Youth for boys aged 10 to 14. ... The Hitler Youth (German:   , abbreviated HJ) was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. ... The Volkssturm, literally translated as people storm, was a German national militia of the last months of the Nazi regime. ... A stylized version of the Iron Cross, the emblem of the Bundeswehr, Germanys Armed Forces. ...

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. 16. ... Hitler redirects here. ... Exterior view of the entrance of the New Reich Chancellery. ...

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. Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Martin Bormann Martin Bormann (June 17, 1900 - c. ... Paul Joseph Goebbels (29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German politician and Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda during the National Socialist regime from 1933 to 1945. ... Party Chancellery was the name of the office that replaced that of Deputy Fuhrer of the NSDAP (Nazi Party), after Rudolf Hess made his flight to Britain in 1941. ...

After Hitler’s death, I participated in the bloody breakout from the bunker. Two months later, I succeeded in reaching the American Occupation Zone.”

 Armin Lehmann, 2007 

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.” Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

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

Additional Sources of Information

Lehmann, Armin D. Hitler’s Last Courier. Xlibris Corporation, 2000.

Lehmann, Armin D. and Carroll, Tim. In Hitler’s Bunker. Guilford: The Lyons Press, 2004.

Lehmann, Armin. Tomorrow’s World: A Book of Peace. Free e-book at www.ArminLehmanForPeace.com

Lehmann, Armin D. Resume, 2007.

Lester, Gary. Eyewitness To History (DVD). Port Orange: Blue Heron International Pictures LLC, 2007. www.ArminLehmanForPeace.com

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).