Hitler's tasters - a true story?

The first scene of the film "The Tasters" takes place in November 1943 in the East Prussian village of Groß-Partsch (now Parcz in Poland ). Young Rosa Sauer (Elisa Schlott) has fled her bombed-out apartment in Berlin and found refuge in the countryside with her in-laws. Her husband is a soldier currently fighting in Ukraine .

Not far away, deep in the forest and surrounded by barbed wire, lies Adolf Hitler 's secret headquarters on the Eastern Front - the so-called "Wolf's Lair" .

Shortly after her arrival in Gross-Partsch, Rosa is forcibly recruited by the SS. She ends up in a group of women who are brought daily to the Wolf's Lair to "work" as tasters for Hitler. They are served food before Hitler eats it – if it's poisoned, they die, not he.

While people across Europe are starving, these women sit at a lavishly laid table, feasting on the finest food. But they know that every meal could be their last—Hitler has many enemies.

Rosa befriends a shy woman named Elfriede (Alma Hasun). She also begins a secret relationship with SS officer Ziegler (Max Riemelt).

The story behind it

The German-language film by Italian director Silvio Soldini ("Bread and Tulips," 2000) is based on the bestselling novel "Le assaggiatrici" (2018) by Rosella Postorino, which has been translated into more than 30 languages. Although Soldini has previously avoided directing historical works, he adapted the novel for the cinema.

One of the reasons was that women play the most important roles—unusual for a World War II story. Soldini also told DW that there was no judgment about the two main characters, Rosa Sauer and Albert Ziegler, who "are simply human, even though they've been caught up in the machinery of a terrible system."

The testimony of Margot Wölk

Postorino's novel and now the film are loosely based on the stories of a woman named Margot Wölk. She didn't speak publicly about her experiences in World War II until December 2012, when she was 95 years old.

Starting in 1942, she recalled that for about two and a half years, she was one of 15 women who had to taste Hitler's food. Her descriptions of how the women were forced to do this and what their daily routine was like are reflected in the book and the film.

The inspiration for the love story between Rosa and Ziegler comes from Woelk's statement that an officer put her on a train to Berlin in 1944 to save her from the approaching Red Army, the armed forces of the Soviet Union. She later learned that all the other tasters had been shot by Soviet soldiers.

Whether Woelk herself had a relationship with an SS officer remains unclear – she never mentioned it in interviews. However, in 2013, she told the news magazine "Der Spiegel" that she was raped by an SS officer during her time as a food taster – and several times by Soviet soldiers after her return to Berlin. It wasn't until over a year after the end of the war that she saw her husband again, who was himself severely traumatized by his wartime experiences.

Postorino wanted to personally interview Margot Woelk for her novel, but she died in 2014 before this could happen.

Doubts about the story

After a documentary about Margot Woelk was released in 2014, historian Sven-Felix Kellerhoff expressed skepticism. Writing in the newspaper "Die Welt," he stated that Hitler suffered from stomach problems in his final years and was given special diet food prepared in a separate kitchen in the innermost security area of ​​the Wolf's Lair, "Restricted Area 1." It would therefore have made little sense to transport the food out of this restricted area to be tasted by a group of women.

In his new book "Before the Downfall: Hitler's Years in the Wolf's Lair," historian Felix Bohr writes that in July 1943, Helene von Exner was hired as the first dietitian to cook separately for Hitler. Previously, a cook named Otto Günther had prepared meals in large pots for all the Nazi leaders residing in the Wolf's Lair.

In addition to Hitler's inner circle, up to 2,000 people worked in the Wolf's Lair. Were the women perhaps forced to try other foods that they were only told were Hitler's meals?

Felix Bohr only mentions Woelk's statement in a footnote. In an interview with DW, he said that in his intensive research into the Wolf's Lair structures, he "did not find any sources that confirm Margot Woelk's story," but, Bohr continued, "I also did not find any documents that prove the opposite."

Director Soldini isn't bothered by the historical inconsistencies. For him, it's clear: the film is based on a novel, not on documented facts. What's important is the emotional truth and that the story is still relevant today. He sees parallels to the present: Like the food tasters back then, many people today experience the violence that can emanate from politics—even if they have the privilege of eating well.

Proven: Attempted assassination of Hitler

What is clearly proven historically is that there were over 40 attempts to kill Hitler.

The most famous is the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944 – "Operation Valkyrie," which took place in the Wolf's Lair, of all places. Wehrmacht officer Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg placed a bomb in a briefcase under a table. It detonated during a briefing and killed four people; Hitler himself survived. He later said on the radio that he was "completely unharmed except for very minor abrasions, bruises, and burns" and viewed his survival "as confirmation of the mandate of Providence to continue pursuing my life's goal."

This is also a parallel to today: When Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt with a minor injury in July 2024, he too interpreted it as a sign of fate .

Adapted from English: Silke Wünsch.