THE WOLF’S LAIR

Hitler’s Food Taster Tells All

Margot Woelk, 95, says führer was a vegetarian.

Every meal could have been her last. Adolf Hitler’s last surviving food taster, Margot Woelk, spent two and a half years as one of 15 young women who sampled the führer’s gourmet vegetarian dishes to make sure they weren’t poisoned. She kept her role a secret until recently, a few months after her 95th birthday, when she decided to publish her dispatches from the Wolf’s Lair—a heavily guarded command center where Hitler spent much of his time. Although the food was delicious ("only the best vegetables"), Woelk lived in fear long after her harrowing wartime role ended. "For decades I tried to shake off those memories," she said. "But they always came back to haunt me at night."