Erich Kempka (16 September 1910 – 24 January 1975) was a member of the SS in Nazi Germany who served as Adolf Hitler's primary chauffeur from 1936 to April 1945.

Kempka delivered petrol to the garden behind the Chancellery, where the remains of Hitler and Eva Braun were burned.

After Kempka's capture by United States forces, he served as an eyewitness as to Hitler's demise, albeit his self-admitted unreliability.

[4] As his chauffeur, Kempka usually drove one of Hitler's black Mercedes cars from a fleet of six to eight that were stationed in Berlin, Munich, and other places.

Later in July 1938, upon Kempka's directive a fully armor-plated Mercedes was built and delivered in time for Hitler's 50th birthday of 20 April 1939.

[3] On 20 April, ten days before Hitler's suicide, he briefly wished the dictator a happy birthday and spent about fifteen minutes with him.

Kempka was one of those responsible for the burning of Hitler and Eva Braun's corpses after they committed suicide together on the afternoon of 30 April 1945.

[8] Around that time, Otto Günsche telephoned Kempka and told him to obtain as much petrol as he could and bring it to the emergency exit of the Führerbunker.

[12][13] The lifeless bodies of Hitler and Braun were carried up the stairs and through the bunker's emergency exit to the Reich Chancellery garden, where they were burned.

[15] Kempka left the bunker complex on the following night of 1 May along with SS-Hauptscharführer Heinrich Doose, a driver who was part of his staff.

[36] Kempka correctly contended that Hitler's dental remains would be found separate from his body, attributing this to the intense burning and Soviet bombardment.

[37][38][e] In 1974, Kempka said to interviewer James P. O'Donnell that after his capture he told interrogators whatever they wanted to hear to save his neck.

At the 2008 military trial for Osama bin-Laden's driver, Salim Hamdan, the defense argued for his innocence, noting that Kempka was not tried as a war criminal for being a chauffeur for Hitler.