Margot Wölk

Margot Wölk (sometimes Woelk; 27 December 1917 2014) was a German secretary who claimed that she was among 15 young women who, in 1942, were selected to taste German leader Adolf Hitler's food at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia for two-and-a-half years to confirm that it was safe. According to Wölk, she was the only one of the 15 to survive World War II, and her background as Hitler's food taster was not revealed until a newspaper interview on her 95th birthday in December 2012.

Early life Wölk was born in Wilmersdorf, the inner city locality of Berlin, in 1917.

Hitler's food taster

After Wölk's arrival in Gross-Partsch, she and 14 other young women were selected by the local mayor and brought to the barracks in nearby Krausendorf (now Kruszewiec, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland), where cooks prepared food for the Wolf's Lair in a two-story building. Wölk was picked up by a bus daily from her mother-in-law's residence. The tasting took place daily from 11 to 12 o'clock. "The food was good ... very good. But we couldn't enjoy it." There were rumors of Allied plans to poison Hitler. After the women confirmed that the food was safe, members of the SS brought it to the main headquarters in crates.

After Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg's failed 20 July plot in 1944 in the Wolf's Lair to assassinate Adolf Hitler and remove the Nazi Party from power, the security around the Wolf's Lair was tightened, and the food tasters were no longer allowed to stay at home. Instead, they were boarded in a vacant school building nearby. Each morning at 8 AM, Wölk was roused by the SS, who shouted "Margot, get up!" from beneath her window. By that time, she was only needed if Hitler was actually at the Wolf's Lair, though she says that she never actually saw him.

Aftermath As Wölk returned to Berlin, she fell into the hands of the Soviet Army after the end of the Battle of Berlin. For two weeks, they raped her repeatedly, inflicting such injuries that she was never able to bear children.

Historians have however expressed skepticism of Wölks story; such as Sven Felix Kellerhof who after a documentary about Margot Wölk was aired in 2014, noted that Hitler had stomach problems in his last years and was given special diet food and SS-men.

Historian Felix Bohr has said that during his research into the structures of the Wolf's Lair, he "found no sources that confirm Margot Wölk's story," but neither did he find documents that prove otherwise." and The Taster by V.S. Alexander, are based on Wölk's experiences. This novel is inspired by her life, but not all that it mentions is reality; the writer decided to start the book by positioning the main character at Hitler's suicide.

Hitler’s Tasters, a play by Michelle Kholos Brooks, is based on these women.