At the start of the Western European campaign of 1940, the Felsennest ("Rocky Eyrie" in English) was the codename for one of Hitler's Führer Headquarters near Bad Münstereifel, Germany. It was much more cramped than Adolf Hitler's other field bunkers, having only four rooms. Hitler was at the Felsennest in the autumn of 1939, because there were plans to invade France and the Low Countries. He was there again on May 10, 1940 when the invasion took place.

Coordinates: 50°32′45″N 6°46′10″E / 50.54583°N 6.76944°E / 50.54583; 6.76944

Hermann Prey (11 July 1929 – 22 July 1998) was a German lyric baritone, best known for his lieder renditions and for light comic roles in opera.

Hermann Prey was born in Berlin and grew up in Germany. He was scheduled to be drafted when World War II ended. He studied voice at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin and won the prize of the Frankfurt contest of the Hessischer Rundfunk in 1952.

He began to sing in song recitals and made his operatic debut the next year in Wiesbaden. He joined the Staatsoper, where he sang until 1960. During his last years in Hamburg, he also made frequent guest appearances elsewhere, including the Salzburg Festival.

He sang frequently at the Metropolitan Opera between 1960 and 1970 and made his Bayreuth debut in 1965. Although he often sang Verdi early in his career, he later concentrated more on Mozart and Richard Strauss. Prey was well known for playing Figaro (Mozart and Rossini), but he played other Mozart roles at least equally often, particularly Papageno and Guglielmo. He also played, and recorded, the Count in The Marriage of Figaro. He is regarded by many as the best Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus operetta.

Antonín Leopold Dvořák (/ˈdvɔrʒɑːk/ DVOR-zhahk or /dɨˈvɔrʒæk/ di-VOR-zhak; Czech: [ˈantoɲiːn ˈlɛopolt ˈdvor̝aːk] ( listen); September 8, 1841 – May 1, 1904) was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many of other orchestral and vocal-instrumental pieces.

His best-known works include his New World Symphony, the Slavonic Dances, the Symphonic Variations, "American" String Quartet, Piano Quintet No 2, the opera Rusalka, Cello Concerto in B minor and choral works Stabat Mater, Requiem and Te Deum. Today, he is considered to be one of the most important composers of the Romantic era.

Dvořák was born on September 8, 1841, in the Bohemian village of Nelahozeves, near Prague (then part of Bohemia in the Austrian Empire, now Czech Republic), where he spent most of his life. He was baptized as a Roman Catholic in the church of St. Andrew in the village. Dvořák's years in Nelahozeves nurtured the strong Christian faith and love for his Bohemian heritage that so strongly influenced his music. His father, František Dvořák (1814–1894), was an innkeeper, professional player of the zither, and a butcher. Although his father wanted him to be a butcher as well, Dvořák pursued a career in music. He received his earliest musical education at the village school, which he entered in 1847, aged six. From 1857 to 1859 he studied music in Prague's only organ school, and gradually developed into an accomplished player of the violin and the viola. He wrote his first string quartet when he was 20 years old, two years after graduating.

Rochus Misch (born 29 July 1917 in Alt Schalkowitz near Oppeln, Upper Silesia) is a former Oberscharführer (senior squad leader) in the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler during World War II. He served as a courier, bodyguard and telephone operator for German leader Adolf Hitler from 1940 to 1945. As of 2012^[update], aged 94, he is the last living survivor of the occupants of the Führerbunker in the final days of the war in Europe.

Misch was born in Alt-Schalkowitz near Oppeln in the Province of Silesia (now Popielów, Poland). He became an orphan at the age of two and grew up with his grandparents. He worked as a painter. He has a daughter named Brigitta Jacob-Engelken.

In 1937, Misch joined the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT), the predecessor to the Waffen-SS. The SS-VT trained alongside Hitler’s personal bodyguard unit, the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH). Misch was badly wounded in Poland while negotiating the surrender of Polish troops during the Battle of Modlin. For this act he was awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class. As he was the last living member of a Lower Silesian family, his company leader recommended him for the Führerbegleitkommando (SS-FBK). It was made up of members of the LSSAH who were not in front-line service.