Lofty adventure

Adolf Hitler’s historic desktop globe is up for grabs at auction — but one local veteran is perfectly content with his memories and the few World War II souvenirs he does have.

The world globe, labeled in German and mounted on a simple wooden base, could fetch $15,000 to $20,000 Tuesday — auctioned through Greg Martin Auctions of San Francisco.

But Tom Hogan, 83, of Crane won’t be bidding — he’s not interested.

The auction house website states that John Barsamian, now a 91-year-old Californian, confiscated the globe on May 10, 1945, “from Hitler’s desk in the ruins of the ‘Eagle’s Nest.’ ”

The proposed sale brought back old memories for Hogan, who said he visited the German site before then.

“I was there before it was looted,” he said. “I was among the first Americans there — it was Hitler’s hideaway down near Austria.”

Kehlsteinhaus, or Eagle’s Nest, was built as a teahouse in the Bavarian Alps town of Berchtesgaden for Hitler’s 50th birthday, though he reportedly rarely visited it because of his fear of heights.

The house, which still exists today, is situated on the edge of a mountain cliff and can only be reached through a steep four-mile road and large brass-lined elevator that takes visitors up the remaining center of the mountain.

Hitler’s home and headquarters, called Berghof, sat lower down the mountain.

Hogan, formerly an infantry platoon leader, said that one day after the German surrender, he took an Army Jeep and went driving around the area. His platoon had spearheaded the crossing of the Danube River from Bavaria into Austria and since the war was “over,” he felt a little exploratory.

“None of our troops had been up there, and it was probably full of German soldiers, and here I was away from my outfit exploring — I was a young 21-year-old officer, and I didn’t have any sense,” he said.

Even though the area hadn’t been secured by American troops yet, Hogan said he attempted to get up to Eagle’s Nest, first trying the non-operational elevator, then the winding road.

“I probably didn’t get a third of the way up because our Air Force had bombed up the road,” he said. “It’s probably a good thing too, because it was probably full of German soldiers.”

He may not have gotten to the top, but Hogan did leave with a looted bottle of schnapps presented to him from Herman Goering’s private wine cellar.

“Some people called it stealing, but that’s not the way we saw it,” he said. “To the victor belongs the spoils — that was the theory at the time.”

The same mindset prompted the taking of Hitler’s historical globe just days after Hogan’s visit, but he doesn’t feel like he missed much.

“I wouldn’t want it — maybe just to bring it home, but then I don’t know if I’d want to keep it,” he said. “I have enough stuff.”

Hogan served throughout Europe, the Philippines and Korea and now suffers brain seizures, but he doesn’t see himself as someone great.

“It’s just something that we did, and most of us volunteered for it,” he said. “I was just a serviceperson in the war.”

His daughter, Teresa Anderson, appreciates her father’s sacrifice and stories even more on Veteran’s Day — tales of trauma or humor that he kept private for years.

“He didn’t talk very much about it,” she said. “As kids we couldn’t hardly get him to admit it. It’s just in the past 10 years that he’s talked about it.”

Anderson said she’s heard Hogan briefly mention the gruesomeness of “the Danube running red” when his platoon crossed and was nearly destroyed.

But other recollections like Eagle’s Nest are a little easier to remember and smile about.

“He kind of laughed and said, ‘I was there before that guy,’ ” she said. “I’m very proud of him and knowing what he did for this country — I’m a very patriotic person.”