Eva Braun In Private (PHOTOS): Un-Released Photos Of Adolf Hitler's Wife From LIFE.com

Eva Braun has long been associated with one of the darkest chapters in 20th century history, but some newly-released photographs are revealing new dimensions of the woman who was Adolf Hitler's longtime mistress and, in their last, frantic hours together, his wife.

Showing Braun, a former model, relaxing with friends at home and posing glamorously in a swimsuit while on vacation, this collection of previously unreleased photographs comes from a cache of images confiscated by the U.S. Army in 1945 and brought to light by collector and curator Reinhard Schulz exclusively for LIFE.

View the fascinating full gallery here.

View two shots from the gallery below. Photos and captions are courtesy of LIFE.

Behind the umbrella: [Gretl] Braun in 1940 Hitler pets Braun's Scottish terriers, Negus and Katuschka, in 1942. (Katuschka was nicknamed "Stasi.") Braun didn't like Hitler's German shepherd, Blondi, who occasionally shared the bedroom with him.

Comments

[azdirk]

07:05 PM on 03/15/2011

At the Nuremberg trials, a reporter remarked about "the banality of evil." In other words, he was so surprised at how ordinary the remaining Nazi leadership looked. There is, it think, a lesson in his words--a warning to all of us.

[Noor Hamada]

06:32 PM on 03/15/2011

I am surprised someone as brutal and demon-like as Hitler would pet a dog?? Weird as heck to me! Dont dogs have better judgement than humans?

[Aynsley Saucier]

04:05 AM on 03/18/2011

nope.

[me again]

09:05 AM on 03/15/2011

A union probably never consumated. Who at this point cares.

[madHenry]

12:14 AM on 03/15/2011

These are your "aryans?"

[Pennsylvanianne]

10:38 PM on 03/15/2011

DNA tests on some of Hitler's surviving male relatives show he may have shared their part-Jewish and North African DNA. So much for the "Aryan" race: http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-08-24/news/27073535_1_dna-test-relatives-samples

[Slight Return]

09:00 PM on 03/14/2011

Din't g w bush have the same kinda dog ?

[bdb]

03:55 PM on 03/14/2011

What we'd get if Eva Braun had a Facebook page. At least we only get the pictures and no Farmville invitations.

[creatifvision]

07:21 PM on 03/14/2011

Truest comment all day!

[Bonez1]

12:16 PM on 03/14/2011

was that woman considered a beauty?
if so, what a big change we have gone through over the years!

[Bonez1]

12:12 PM on 03/14/2011

so just curious...
i have had some trouble having my comments posted more now than ever before...
anyone else experience this? since the AOL came on board? or am
i just imagining?

[thegirlnextdoor]

01:31 PM on 03/14/2011

constantly, before and sine the AOL merger. It is just what happens here. You never know.

[unique]

01:33 PM on 03/14/2011

I was banned for a week by Huff. for posting antigovernment rants.

[harriettubman]

12:56 AM on 03/14/2011

Just saw a special about how the SS Officers were given new names and sent to other countries. What an underground network! I've read some of the officers were forced to work with Hitler.

Eva must not have had any self esteem to have been with Hitler. I'm sure he was controlling.

[Bonez1]

12:10 PM on 03/14/2011

some women like men of power...no matter what other faults there may be!

[edgraham]

03:23 PM on 03/15/2011

"I'm sure he was controllin­g."

That's really funny.

[lunacougar]

06:26 PM on 03/13/2011

A merry romp through Berchesgarten with Adolf & Eva............

[Mondayboy]

03:15 PM on 03/13/2011

Did Eva Braun know that his boyfriend and one day husband was a mass murderer?

[G D]

02:01 PM on 03/14/2011

Out of everybody in the Reich she's the only one who I think was ginuinely naive to it. I don't think she ever left the house!

[LisaCACO]

01:17 AM on 03/13/2011

in some photos she's almost pretty, but I gotta say my favorite is the blackface. you knew there had to be one photo like that in the bunch ;) .

[ammsamm]

12:59 AM on 03/13/2011

Now let's have a picture of Hitler and Netanyahu side by side.......

[Albert Camus]

02:38 PM on 03/13/2011

Yes, and a picture of you with Goering.

[ammsamm]

04:14 PM on 03/13/2011

"Yes" said it all. Honesty is always better than denial. Bravo.

[builderman55]

10:08 PM on 03/12/2011

The banality of evil...

[thegirlnextdoor]

11:50 AM on 03/14/2011

fanned you.

[creatifvision]

07:19 PM on 03/14/2011

You should fan Hannah Arendt, as well.

[creatifvision]

07:20 PM on 03/14/2011

So True

[Cannae]

09:00 PM on 03/12/2011

whats up with HP CENSORS?????? Still waiting for my comment to appear 30 minutes later. DID I SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THE NAZI's that OFFENDED YOU FOLKS?

[MarxEngelsLeninTrotsky]

09:41 PM on 03/12/2011

I suppose mentioning Nazi's you gota be carefull i suppose. Yet its ok to hire them like Werner Von Braun the man who sent the United States to the moon, but you gota be carefull what you say. Strange eh?.

[GeeuaReux2]

09:45 PM on 03/12/2011

Is this a new thing here?
I keep asking this question?
Or always like this?