MORE than 60 years after Adolf Hitler died, the details of his private life still grip the public imagination. Some additional glimpses emerged from a British intelligence report sold last week by the English auction house Mullock’s. Written by an unnamed British agent and dated May 3, 1945  three days after Hitler’s death  it summarizes the interrogation of a German lieutenant colonel who was a staff member at Hitler’s headquarters in Berlin during World War II. Known only as “PW” (prisoner of war), he had observed Hitler at close quarters, dining with him at least 30 times. Excerpts from the intelligence summary, which sold for about $2,900 to a collector, follow.

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The lieutenant colonel told his interrogator that Hitler was a creature of habit.

“Hitler gets up at about 11 or 11:30 in the morning. Half an hour later the first reports and briefings are given to him in the operations room of the Führerhauptquartier. At approx 1400 he eats a frugal meal and then takes his post-prandial nap of about an hour’s duration. He again returns to the operations room and continues to receive reports, briefings; various plans are discussed.”

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At about 8 p.m., Hitler and his entourage would dine.

“While this is the main meal, it is as simple as one could imagine. Hitler’s repast usually consists of some vegetable stew, followed by stewed fruit as dessert. This he tops with one or two glasses of beer (the extent of his alcoholic indulgence). Hitler eats rapidly, mechanically. For him food is merely an indispensable means of subsistence. In the course of a few minutes he is finished, but the entire meal usually lasts two hours.”

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Hitler was not one for chitchat.

“All members of the table engage in general topics of conversation. Quite often Hitler will sit there throughout the entire meal, turned to his own thoughts, seemingly without listening to the talk going on around him. However, he does follow the conversation vaguely, to him the conversation seems to have the effect that music has on others: it stimulates his thoughts and relaxes him. He talks in a mellow baritone, without that raucous, unpleasant stridency of his public speeches.”