How did Adolf Hitler die? He took poison, shot himself, or did a deep old man peacefully die in his own bed? The answer to this question has been exciting many people for almost seventy years. And not in vain. The version of Hitler’s successful escape from the Reich Chancellery has been exaggerated from the very moment of the capture of Berlin. She was repeatedly denied, but with enviable tenacity appears again …
Incomprehensible beginning
April 30, 1945 in Moscow received a message about the death of Hitler. Stalin’s reaction was restrained: “Played out, scoundrel!” Then the business question followed: “Where is the corpse?” In Berlin, the question was redirected to the parliamentarian, German General Hans Kreb. He replied that Hitler’s corpse had been burned at the stake … Apparently, Stalin did not believe the German’s words, and in early May a TASS message appeared in the newspapers: “Hitler’s death is a new fascist trick …”
By that time, groups for the search and capture of Hitler were already formed in all the armies storming Berlin. And on May 2, on the territory of the Reich Chancellery, Soviet officers discovered two dead doubles of Hitler. One of them was found in an underground bomb shelter, the second in a fire pool in the courtyard. Both were shot in the face.
The captive Vice Admiral Hans Foss, brought in for identification, glancing at one discovered “Fuhrer”, said: “This is Hitler, and no one else.” And only noticing that on the feet of the “Reich Chancellor” darned socks, Foss doubted …
On July 17, 1945, during lunch in Potsdam, Stalin announced to Truman that Hitler had escaped. That day passed 78 days after his “death”.
Charred remains
The next corpses of unknown men and women were discovered on May 4 in a funnel from an air bomb in the garden of the Reich Chancellery. Burnt bodies could not be identified. Therefore, the remains were ordered to be buried. This find was not given any significance, because on that day the corpse of the second double was identified.
But soon the SS man from Hitler’s guard said that he personally observed the removal of the bodies of “Hitler and his wife” and their “burial” in the garden … The remains were dug up again, and on May 8 a forensic medical examination was held at the hospital.
The conclusion read: “On the body altered by fire, no characteristic signs were found …” So by May 9, the wanted persons had no evidence that the burnt body was the lord of the Third Reich. Only the jaw of Hitler was well preserved, but there was nothing to compare it with.
“Unexpected luck”
Investigators went in search of the dental clinic of Professor Blaschke, who served Hitler. And then the officers began to carry. They found the assistant professor – Freulein Heusermann, and she described from memory all the “repair work” of the Fuhrer. Moreover, she pointed out to Russian officers where to look for Adolf’s medical history.
As if by magic, in the bunker of the Reich Chancellery there were radiographs and even golden crowns that Blaschke had never had time to put on Hitler’s teeth. Soon, scouts also found a dental technician who accurately described the prostheses he had made for the Führer and Eva Braun, and then identified them.
However, in early June 1945, for some reason, Stalin’s strange order came out: all information about the “unknown man (presumably Hitler)” was declared a state secret.
New consequence
Nevertheless, the story of the death of the Fuhrer was not silenced. At the end of 1945, the British and Americans invited the Soviet government to conduct a joint investigation. The Soviet side accepted the offer, but did not begin to share information with anyone. Perhaps because the new investigation gave more questions than answers.
It all started with the fact that the NKVD experts again began to check the results of the previous investigation, since most of the witnesses to Hitler’s death were at hand – in Soviet prisons. According to the testimony of prisoners, the picture of Hitler’s suicide was as follows.
On April 30, at 15.30, the Fuhrer closed in his office, and after a while the Fuhrer’s valet Heinz Linge and Bormann entered the office and saw the Fuhrer and Eva Braun sitting on the couch with no signs of life. On Hitler’s left temple, Linge noticed a bullet inlet.
True, the informer Linge admitted: “I don’t know if this is really a bullet wound – they could have painted this red spot …”
Then the SS men doused the bodies of Hitler and Eva Brown with gasoline and set it on fire.
Moreover, only Hitler saw Bormann and Linge. The rest of the witnesses saw the Hitler couple already wrapped in gray blankets. The act of investigation also noted the presence of spots of “red-brown” color on the arm of the sofa. Upholstery elements were sent to the Moscow forensic laboratory to determine the blood type. An express analysis yielded a stunning result: the test substance is not blood!
Random victim
The corpse of Eva Braun also “presented surprises.” According to medical examination, the teeth found in the Eva funnel had only 11. Moreover, the teeth of the woman found were in poor condition – they turned yellow and contained many fillings and crowns. But Eva Brown all her life touchingly cared about her appearance. She had 24 of her teeth, of which only three were sealed.
Most likely, the unknown woman whose body they tried to pass off as Eva Brown’s body was an accidental victim of shelling and picked her up somewhere on an adjacent street.
