In May 1985, the British tabloid the *Daily Mirror* ran a striking headline: “This British housewife was in Hitler’s bunker.” The story centered on a 70-year-old woman living quietly in Cambridge, a formidable figure named Elsa James who had no interest in discussing her past. But her past was extraordinary. She was Elsa Krüger, chief secretary to Martin Bormann, Hitler’s personal secretary and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery.
Krüger had been in the Führerbunker to the very end of the Third Reich. She had witnessed Hitler’s final days, his marriage, and his farewell to his staff. She had escaped a collapsing Berlin and eventually reinvented herself as a British housewife. For the rest of her life, she refused to discuss what she had seen.
Born in Hamburg in February 1915, Krüger joined Bormann’s staff in late 1942. By the final weeks of the war, she oversaw a pool of 30 secretaries and typists working for Bormann. She spent long hours at his side in the bunker, managing his reports and instructions, and working closely with Hitler’s remaining secretaries.
When Hitler ordered Operation Serail, the evacuation of bunker staff and files to Bavaria, Krüger volunteered to stay. She remained alongside a small group of female staff, including Hitler’s secretaries Gerda Christian and Traudl Junge, and his dietician Constanze Manziarly. For a time, Krüger and Christian were believed dead, as their luggage was recovered from a crashed evacuation flight in Bavaria. In reality, they had stayed at their posts.
During the chaotic final days, Krüger became friendly with Eva Braun and sometimes took tea with her and Hitler in the bunker. Meanwhile, Bormann continued his political intrigues while making plans for his own survival. He sent messages to Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, Hitler’s designated successor, indicating his intention to join him and take up a position in the new Nazi government.
Krüger was involved in the drafting and copying of Hitler’s political testament, dictated in the early hours of April 29, 1945. The document appointed Dönitz as Reich President and named Joseph Goebbels as Chancellor and Bormann as Party Minister. Copies were made and sent out by couriers, though none reached Dönitz in the north.
Krüger was present at Hitler’s marriage to Eva Braun. She was also part of the lineup of bunker staff who said farewell to Hitler and Braun on the afternoon of April 30, 1945. She shook Hitler’s hand and embraced Eva before the couple disappeared into their study for the final time.
After Hitler’s death, Goebbels attempted to negotiate a ceasefire with the Soviets. When that failed, he committed suicide on May 1. Bormann was now the most senior Nazi official in the bunker. SS-Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke, the battle commandant of the government district, organized a breakout attempt. Ten escape groups were formed, and Krüger, Junge, Christian, and Manziarly were placed in group one, led by Mohnke. Bormann left with group three.
Krüger later said little about the final days. She consistently told people that Bormann was dead and could not have survived outside the bunker. In an affidavit to U.S. Army intelligence in June 1946, she described her last conversation with him on May 1, 1945. She recalled his words: “So, goodbye. I will try, but I’m sure I won’t get through.”
At the Nuremberg trials, where Bormann was tried in absentia, Krüger was unequivocal. “He must have died,” she said. “He was not streetwise, a fatal thing to be in the Berlin of May 1945.” She also spoke critically of her former boss, calling him “a brutal man of violent temper and rude manners.” She added that if Bormann had escaped, he would have been caught by then. “He wasn’t clever enough to last so long.”
Both Gerda Christian and Traudl Junge later told researcher James P. O’Donnell that they believed Krüger had been Bormann’s mistress. Krüger never confirmed or denied the claim.
On the night of May 1–2, the breakout from the ruined Reich Chancellery began. The women wore army uniforms stripped of insignia and steel helmets. Before departure, a curious incident allegedly occurred. Mohnke reportedly handed Gerda Christian a small pouch of loose diamonds for safekeeping. Some later claimed the diamonds were given to Krüger. Either way, the diamonds were never seen again, and both women denied ever having them.
Mohnke also alleged that Christian or Krüger was given a fourth copy of Hitler’s political testament. Krüger denied this, but in a letter to historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, she confirmed that she and Christian had carried a letter from Goebbels to Dönitz. She said they tore it into pieces and flushed it down a lavatory within hours of leaving Berlin.
The escape group moved through underground tunnels and across the city under sporadic Soviet fire. They crossed the Weidendamm Bridge over the Spree River and made their way through the courtyards of the Charité hospital. By the morning of May 2, the survivors entered a large air raid shelter near the Schultheiss brewery. The shelter was full of German troops, and the brewery served as a command post.
At the shelter, Krüger met SS-Gruppenführer Johann Rattenhuber, a member of Bormann’s escape group. She later testified that Rattenhuber told her Bormann’s armored car had been hit while crossing the Friedrichstrasse bridge. He said he last saw Bormann lying face downward on the bridge, either dead or severely wounded.
At 3 p.m., Soviet officers approached the brewery and demanded surrender. Otto Günsche, Hitler’s personal adjutant, advised the women to leave and try to make their own way out. They agreed. Krüger and Christian left together, while Junge and Manziarly went separately. Junge later returned to find Manziarly being led toward a U-Bahn entrance by Soviet soldiers. Manziarly was never seen alive again.
Krüger and Christian managed to reach British lines by boarding a repatriation train for French forced laborers, posing as French workers. Their cover was briefly seen through, but a British train commander smuggled them back aboard. They disappeared into the chaos of northwestern Germany.
Krüger settled in Hamburg and worked as a clerk. She was eventually identified and picked up by British military police. She was interrogated by both British and American intelligence. She spoke at length with Major Hugh Trevor-Roper, who used her memories for his 1947 book *The Last Days of Hitler*.
During her time in British custody, Krüger developed a relationship with Captain Leslie J. James, one of her interrogators. After her release, she moved to England with him. They married at a registry office in Wigan at Christmas 1947. She became Elsa James, and locals accepted her as a war bride. Her son Harold was born in 1956.
The family later moved to Cambridge, where Dr. James took a teaching post. Krüger’s past remained hidden until researcher James P. O’Donnell tracked her down while researching his book *The Berlin Bunker*. She refused to cooperate and fought to have passages mentioning her changed or deleted.
Krüger wrote to Hugh Trevor-Roper, now Lord Dacre, about her legal battles over O’Donnell’s book. She accused Mohnke of spreading false statements about her. She denied that she or Christian had been given a copy of Hitler’s will. But she admitted to possessing and destroying the letter from Goebbels to Dönitz.
Krüger believed Mohnke was lying to cover up his own actions. She suggested that Mohnke had handed the fourth copy of Hitler’s will to the Soviets when he surrendered at the brewery. She thought General Krebs may have shown the original testament to Soviet General Chuikov during failed negotiations, then returned it to Goebbels or Bormann. She believed it was then given to Mohnke, who later surrendered it to the Russians.
O’Donnell’s book was published in 1979. The UK edition was altered to change references to Krüger, but the US version was not. The Jameses later moved to West Germany. Leslie James died in 1995 after a stroke. Elsa James, formerly Elsa Krüger, died in Germany on January 24, 2005, at the age of 89.
She took her secrets with her. Her son Harold, like his mother, refused to discuss her wartime activities.
Elsa Krüger knew more than she ever revealed. She was present at key moments in the final days of the Third Reich. She had access to Bormann, Hitler, and the documents that shaped the Nazi succession. She may have carried a copy of Hitler’s will. She may have been Bormann’s mistress. She may have known the truth about his fate.
Most bunker survivors wrote books or gave interviews. Krüger did not. She refused to discuss the war for the rest of her life. Whether she was hiding something or simply wanted to leave the past behind remains unclear. What is certain is that she took an extraordinary story to the grave.