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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Deborah Cole

No meat, no beer and hopefully no poison: the curious tale of Hitler’s food tasters

A group of women sit around a dining table as a German officer tries to feed one woman with a spoon in The Tasters.
It’s unusual to tell a story about war and violence, without focusing on the man at war … The Tasters. Photograph: Luca Zontini /Busch Media

The story is almost too compelling to be true: a group of war-weary young women, long deprived of sufficient food, are herded together to dine on abundant vegetarian delicacies three times a day. The only price: risking their lives with each bite as they may have consumed deadly poison intended for Adolf Hitler.

The extraordinary account by then 95-year-old Margot Wölk created a sensation when it first appeared in a Berlin tabloid more than a decade ago. Her decision to break what she called decades of silence about her wartime experiences captured the imagination of German reporters, then global media, finally inspiring a documentary, two novels and a play.

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