Hitler’s Food Taster: Fuhrer Had Terrible Table Habits, Called Meat Broth ‘Corpse Tea’

Adolph Hitler’s food taster said the man responsible for the deaths of millions of people in the Holocaust and who plunged the world into war ate only fruit and vegetables and despised meat. And his table manners were atrocious.

Margot Woelk, who served as food taster to Hitler during the Second World War, said that in the two-and-a-half years she checked to make sure his food wasn’t poisoned she never saw a scrap of meat or fish.

The 95-year-old Woelk spoke to the UK’s Telegraph, saying that her husband was sent to fight in the war and she was taken to Hitler’s Eastern Front headquarters in modern-day Poland.

“Between 11 and 12 o’clock, we had to taste the food, and only after all of us had tried it was it driven to the headquarters by the SS,” Hitler’s food taster said.”It was all vegetarian, the most delicious fresh things, from asparagus to peppers and peas, served with rice and salads. It was all arranged on one plate, just as it was served to him. There was no meat and I do not remember any fish.”

For Adolph Hitler, eating only vegetables was part of his quest for Aryan body purity, Woelk said.Although he was known to eat stuffed pigeon once in a while, Hitler’s food taster said he was generally put off by meat and referred to meat broth as “corpse tea.” His table manners were also criticized.

“Hitler eats rapidly, mechanically,” a German soldier once wrote. “He abstractedly bites his fingernails, he runs his index finger back and forth under his nose, and his table manners are little short of shocking.”

Hitler’s food taster narrowly avoided a disastrous fate at the end of the war, the Daily Mail noted. Hitler abandoned the lair as the Russian approached, and Woelk escaped as well. She believes all of Hitler’s other food tasters were killed by the Russians.