Bukit Es Pinguin: Foto Berwarna Hitler yang Langka Oleh Fotografer Pribadi

These rare colour photographs of Adolf Hitler spent a decade languishing beneath the ground.

His personal photographer Hugo Jaeger - who was granted unprecedented access to the Führer to document his every move between 1936 and 1945 - hid his colour slides after the fall of Nazi Germany for fear of being persecuted.

Jaeger, who was one of the first photographers to use colour film before the end of the war years, buried the slides in metal jars to try and conceal his links to the Nazis, but returned to retrieve his handiwork in 1955.

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Hitler in colour: The Führer is seen in upper Bavaria in the late 1930s, shot by his personal photographer Hugo Jaeger

Hitler in colour: The Führer is seen in upper Bavaria in the late 1930s in a rare colour shot taken by his personal photographer Hugo Jaeger

The collection, published by Life.com , includes informal photographs of the Nazi leader dining with members of his inner circle, as well as shots of him delivering speeches against the backdrop of a swastika flag or overseeing battle plans.

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Jaeger shot thousands of photographs of Hitler over a period of nine years, before the end of the war prompted to hide his colour slides in a leather case - terrified they would give away his links to the Nazis.

Rare glimpse: The Nazi leader is seen in Wilhelmshaven for the launch of the battleship Tirpitz

Personal: Hugo Jaeger captured this informal shot of Hitler eating with his personal physician Professor Theodor Morell (left) and the wife of Gauleiter Albert Forster at the leader's estate in Upper Bavaria

U.S. soldiers did come across the stash while searching the photographer's house in Munich, but they discarded the pack of slides, making off instead with a bottle of brandy, the Huffington Post said.

Rattled, Jaeger hid the slides again - this time in metal jars which he buried.

A decade later he returned to retrieve the chilling archive.