Epic odyssey of the intrepid Vogue photographer who ended up naked in Hitler’s bath tub… and inspired Kate Winslet’s new film

As I delve deeper into the captivating narrative of Lee Miller, I find myself awestruck by her audacity and resilience. Her story is a testament to the indomitable spirit of humanity, a tale that transcends the boundaries of war, art, and personal triumph.

On the fateful day when Adolf Hitler took his life with a solitary bullet to the head, an audacious 38-year-old woman from America disregarded all decorum by stripping naked and stepping into Hitler’s bathtub, after first soiling his plush white bathmat with her dirty footwear. Remarkably, she then allowed herself to be photographed in this unusual setting.

It was a perfectly-timed show of disrespect, and a vivid metaphor both for Hitler’s crimes and his downfall. The dirt that Lee Miller left on his bathmat had been picked up that morning at Dachau, the death camp liberated by US forces only the day before. 

In the captivating movie “Lee,” where I get to witness Kate Winslet brilliantly embody the title character, the iconic bathtub scene has been painstakingly recreated. Despite Winslet being a decade older than Miller was at that time, the cinematic portrayal in this film is an uncanny resemblance to the photograph captured on April 30, 1945 – it’s as if I’ve stepped right into history!

Miller’s dear friend, David Scherman (a renowned photographer for Life magazine), captured the image of her in Hitler’s bathtub. However, she was an exceptionally talented photographer, having secured a job at Vogue – a fashion magazine – where she covered the conflict from multiple perspectives.

Prior to the conflict, she was not only well-known as a model but also possessed an extraordinary beauty that left a captivating impression on numerous suitors. Unfortunately, the movie “Lee” fails to adequately portray Miller and her exceptionally intriguing life. Moreover, it falls short of accurately depicting that exceptional day as well.

On the morning of April 30, Miller made her way from Nuremberg, approximately 100 miles to the north, towards Dachau. She received information suggesting that units of the United States Seventh Army were en route to Germany’s most infamous and initial concentration camp.

Despite having documented another liberated concentration camp, Buchenwald earlier, nothing could have prepared her for the grim reality of Dachau. By this point, she was already aware that the horrors she would witness were all too real. Initially, some Allied soldiers found it hard to believe the camps existed, thinking they might be staged propaganda setups by their own forces.

Lieutenant-Colonel Felix Sparks, commanding the 45th Infantry Division, penned that Dante’s Inferno appeared insignificant next to the authentic hell found at Dachau.

On their drive through the outskirts of Dachau, a town located north-west of Munich, sunshine streamed down as Miller and Scherman progressed. Near the camp’s edge stood an unmoving train, veiled by swarms of flies.

With Allied troops approaching, the Nazis hastily moved prisoners from Buchenwald and other camps to Dachau. Over 2,000 bodies were found inside the trains, while around 800 people were still alive. The air was thick with the overwhelming scent of death.

Miller carefully and diligently captured the grim scene swiftly. Out of the group of photographers, she was the only woman, but she executed her gruesome assignment more effectively than many of the men dispatched to document the aftermath of liberation. As Jacques Hindermeyer, a Frenchman, reminisced years later, “Miller took the pictures I couldn’t take.

However, the pain from Dachau lingered deeply within her, a wound that remained unhealed. Over time, she sought solace from her haunting recollections by immersing herself in large amounts of whiskey.

On that particular day, Miller happened to have some rations-issued chocolates with her and generously shared them with the recently freed prisoners at the camp. This act, although kind-hearted, turned out to be risky since it attracted a large crowd. It was hazardous for several reasons, one of which being that these individuals had gone without food for an extended period. Unfortunately, some of them succumbed due to their weakened digestive systems struggling to process the food.

Instead of merely capturing images, she also made an effort to converse with people and draw out their distressing narratives. However, her primary tool for documentation was the camera.

One biography describes how in just a few hours she documented the entire fabric of the camp, from the women prisoners who had ‘volunteered’ to work in the Dachau brothel to the captured SS guards, many of whom had, contemptibly, tried to disguise themselves as inmates.Afterwards, Miller described the experience in a letter to her editor at Vogue, Audrey Withers. 

In my own words, I’d say: “I bear witness to the horrors of Dachau, a place that carries tales about concentration camps you may choose to ignore. The vast, dusty grounds were once walked by countless condemned souls – souls that endured pain with every step, trying to keep warm and ultimately losing their ability to walk… until they reached the execution chambers.

In the late afternoon, panting heavily, she and Scherman drove into Munich, recently seized by the US military. Initially, they located a guide who led them to some grim historical sites around the city, including the location of Hitler’s thwarted 1923 coup attempt, known as the ‘Beer Hall Putsch’.

After that, they hurriedly made their way to the temporary command center set up by the 45th Division’s 179th Regiment, which was located at a house on Prince Regent Square (Prinzregentenplatz) 16. This is where Adolf Hitler resided since the 1920s. His half-niece, Geli Raubal, had lived with him in the apartment on the second floor from 1929 until her death at the age of 23, found dead due to a gunshot wound. The weapon used was Hitler’s own revolver.

It’s widely speculated that she may have been in a non-consensual sexual relationship with her uncle, and her death was determined to be a suicide. Miller, despite not knowing the specifics about Raubal, understood the importance of the Prinzregentenplatz building in the story of Nazism and the war. According to her, it was “Hitler’s true abode… both physically and spiritually.

She felt genuinely thrilled when the U.S. officers invited her to stay in their recently modernized apartment, filled with comforts she herself had described as ‘extraordinary,’ for however long she desired during her time in Munich. The apartment underwent renovation back in 1935, costing a whopping 120,000 Reichsmarks, which was approximately ten times the yearly income of a doctor.

Hitler financed it himself, using the ongoing royalty income he received from the sales of his book, Mein Kampf.

As a devoted follower, I found our flat to be surprisingly humble, considering its impressive art collection that included works by Pieter Breugel, a renowned Flemish Renaissance master, and a magnificent Persian replica of the grand 16th-century Paradise Carpet.

Hitler held a deep affection for his Munich residence and hosted a dinner at this home in April 1935, using china bearing his initials (‘AH’), for one of his ardent female fans, Unity Mitford – the British aristocrat. In a letter to her father, Lord Redesdale, she described their time together as being similar to sitting beside the sun.

Back in September 1938, I was honored to play host to Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, right in my very own apartment during his visit to Munich. It was during this meeting that Adolf Hitler and Chamberlain put their signatures on a pact, declaring that the Munich Accord and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement from three years prior served as a powerful symbol of our two nations’ shared desire to avoid another war between us, as Chamberlain so eloquently phrased it.

In about seven years, a solitary photo would encapsulate much of the events that transpired since then. By the night when Miller submerged herself in Hitler’s bathtub, she hadn’t taken a proper bath for weeks prior. Following Dachau, she yearned for purification, but even amidst this need, she found room for pretense and self-indulgence.

She arranged a photo of Hitler near the bathtub, making sure her boots were noticeable in the front, and the soiled bath mat was also visible.

Additionally, she set a classically-styled statue of a nude female figure on a nearby table, mirroring the woman’s pose by facing it as well.

According to Carolyn Burke, who wrote the comprehensive book “Lee Miller: On Both Sides Of The Camera”, this move might have been a purposeful reference to her own modeling past and her position as an inspiration for surrealist artists like Jean Cocteau and her ex-lover Man Ray.

Burke points out that Miller herself understood that she would have undeniably passed Hitler’s criteria for the ideal Aryan woman. As her son, Antony Penrose, expressed it: “I believe in that bath photo, she was giving Hitler a defiant gesture… She was asserting her victory.

She was essentially giving a subtle gesture of defiance towards the U.S. Army lieutenant who persistently knocked on the door, as she relaxed in her leisurely bath.

However, the events of that day were far from concluded. Approaching midnight, the BBC broadcast news that Hitler was no more, based on a grave declaration heard on German state radio claiming he ‘perished fighting Bolshevism’. It wasn’t reported, but it was speculated that he had taken his own life in his Berlin bunker under the influence of drugs.

Later on, Miller recounted the feelings she experienced upon discovering, just moments after leaving her bath, that the dreadful creature had ceased to exist.

‘He’d never really been alive for me until today,’ she wrote.

Experiencing what he had experienced, precisely on the same day she documented the atrocities he supervised, could be considered one of the most pivotal moments in her remarkable existence.

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2024-09-29 14:07