The Death of Adolf Hitler

The Death of Adolf Hitler: Unknown Documents from Soviet Archives is a 1968 book by Soviet journalist Lev Bezymenski, who served as an interpreter in the Battle of Berlin. The book gives details of the purported Soviet autopsies of Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun, Joseph and Magda Goebbels, their children, and General Hans Krebs. Each of these individuals are recorded as having been subjected to cyanide poisoning; contrary to the Western conclusion (and the accepted view of historians) that Hitler died by a suicide gunshot.

The book's release was preceded by various contradictory reports about Hitler's death, including from eyewitnesses. Under Joseph Stalin, the Soviets both claimed that Hitler died from cyanide and that he escaped Berlin. Much of the information presented in the book about how Hitler died (namely by poisoning or a coup de grâce) has been discredited, including by the author, as propaganda. Hitler's body was reputedly burned almost completely to ashes, leaving nothing to conduct an autopsy upon. Only the Soviet description of Hitler's dental remains, consisting of a golden bridge and a mandibular fragment with teeth, is regarded as reliable. The book includes previously unreleased photographs.

Background

On 22 April 1945, as the Red Army was closing in on the Führerbunker during the Battle of Berlin, Hitler declared that he would remain in Berlin until the end and then shoot himself. That same day, he asked Schutzstaffel (SS) physician Werner Haase about the most reliable method of suicide; Haase suggested combining a dose of cyanide with a gunshot to the head. SS physician Ludwig Stumpfegger provided Hitler with some ampoules of prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide), which the dictator initially planned to use but later doubted their efficacy. On 29 April, Hitler ordered Haase to test one of the ampoules on his dog Blondi; the dog died instantly. On the afternoon of 30 April, Hitler committed suicide with Eva Braun in his bunker study. The former Reich minister of propaganda and Hitler's successor as chancellor of Germany, Joseph Goebbels, informed the Reichssender Hamburg radio station, which broke the initial news of Hitler's death on the night of 1 May.

Bezymenski's 1968 book on Hitler's death was presaged by various contradictory reports regarding that event and its primary investigations.

Initial Soviet surveys

On 9 May 1945, The New York Times reported that a body was claimed by the Soviets to belong to Hitler, but that an anonymous servant disputed this—claiming that the body belonged to a cook who was killed because of his resemblance to the (allegedly escaped) dictator. By 11 May, two colleagues of Hitler's dentist, Hugo Blaschke, confirmed the dental remains of Hitler and Eva Braun; both subsequently spent years in Soviet prisons.

On 5 June, Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov's staff officers stated that Hitler's body had been examined and claimed that he had died by cyanide poisoning. At a press conference on 9 June, on orders from Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Zhukov presented the official narrative that Hitler did not commit suicide, but had escaped Berlin—beginning a Soviet disinformation campaign suited to Stalin's desires. The next day, newspapers quoted Zhukov as saying, "We have found no corpse that could be Hitler's," and Soviet Colonel General Nikolai Berzarin as stating, "Perhaps he is in Spain with Franco." In early July, Time magazine cited the ongoing Soviet investigation as having produced no conclusive evidence and asserting that Hitler had ordered his men to spread news of his death.

When asked at the Potsdam Conference in July 1945 how Hitler had died, Stalin said he was either living "in Spain or Argentina." The same month, British newspapers quoted a Soviet officer as saying that a charred body they had discovered was "a very poor double." United States newspapers quoted the Russian garrison commandant of Berlin as claiming that Hitler had "gone into hiding somewhere in Europe," possibly with the help of Francoist Spain. In mid-1945, a Soviet major told American sources that Hitler had survived and claimed of the place in the Reich Chancellery garden where his body was said to have been burned, "It is not true that Hitler was found there!". He went on to claim they did not find the body of Eva Braun either. One Soviet major thought that Hitler, who held complex views on Christianity, might have faked his death in order to mimic the resurrection of Jesus.

According to SS valet Heinz Linge, who was captured by the Soviets in early May 1945, his interrogators repeatedly questioned him about whether Hitler was dead or if he could have escaped and perhaps left a double in his place; the Soviets told him that they had found a number of corpses but were unsure about Hitler's remains. In 1956, the German tabloid Das Bild quoted the Soviet People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) Captain Fjedor Pavlovich Vassilki as claiming, "Hitler's skull was [found] almost intact, as were the cranium and the upper and lower jaws."

Eyewitness accounts

Immediate aftermath

Three main eyewitnesses to the state of Hitler and Braun's bodies in the immediate aftermath of their deaths survived and provided their accounts: Linge, SS-Sturmbannführer Otto Günsche, and Hitler Youth leader Artur Axmann. Contrarily, in a purported Soviet transcript of a statement made on 17 May 1945 (and not released for six decades), Günsche allegedly first saw the bodies after they had been wrapped in blankets. British MI6 intelligence officer Hugh Trevor-Roper argued that discrepancies in truthful eyewitness accounts could be due to differences in "observation and recollection", while German historian Anton Joachimsthaler interpreted them as possibly being due to poor memory formation during the turbulent event. The three key eyewitnesses agree in their reports to Western authorities that Hitler was found seated upright at the end of the sofa (or in an armchair next to it) and Braun was next to him with no visible wounds. (SS-Oberscharführer Rochus Misch was also interrogated by the Soviets; over half a century later, he told U.S. interviewers that he quickly looked in the room and saw Hitler's head facedown on the table, contradicting himself about whether he saw blood. Braun's head was purportedly leaning against Hitler's leg.)

After his capture in December 1945, Axmann told U.S. officials that he saw thin ribbons of blood coming from both of Hitler's temples and that his lower jaw seemed slightly askew, leading him to think that Hitler had shot himself through the mouth—with the temple blood a result of internal trauma. Axmann did not check the back of the head for an exit wound. Axmann made other contradictory statements thereafter, such as reportedly being told Hitler used the pistol and poison method for suicide and that the shot in the mouth destroyed his dental work. In 1948, the Berlin Records Office cited Axmann's testimony from the Einsatzgruppen trial at Nuremberg that he had seen Hitler's body being carried in a blanket as insufficient evidence of the dictator's death; this led to an extensive investigation and new testimony.

In 1956, Linge, Günsche, and Hitler's pilot Hans Baur were released by the Soviets and brought to Berlin. They were again torturously interrogated, with the goal of obtaining statements to prove the Soviet narrative that Hitler killed himself with poison. Remaining loyal to Hitler, Baur told the two others to "Never say what really happened." Both Linge and Günsche stated that they saw a wound the size of a small coin on Hitler's right temple with a puddle on the floor; contrarily, Linge stated in 1965 that the entry wound was to the left temple, but he subsequently recanted this. The discrepancies between eyewitnesses spurred a criminological report for West Germany officials, which contrasted Axmann and Linge's description of the suicide aftermath against Günsche's, the latter claiming that Hitler was sitting in a chair next to the sofa. Hitler's death certificate was registered in 1956 as an assumption of death on the false basis that no eyewitnesses had seen his body.

SS-Rottenführer Harry Mengershausen initially claimed that Stumpfegger killed Hitler with a cyanide injection, but later claimed to have seen the temple entry wound. Reichssicherheitsdienst (RSD) guard Hermann Karnau stated that before the cremation began Hitler's skull was "partially caved in and the face encrusted with blood". Günsche said that by this time "the bloodstains from the temple had spread further over the face".

Corpse disposal

Hitler's chauffeur, Erich Kempka (who stated falsehoods and retracted many of his statements about the entire affair) stated in June 1945 about the cremations, "I doubt if anything remained of the bodies. The fire was terrifically intense. Maybe some evidence like bits of bone and teeth could be found but [the artillery shelling probably] scattered things all over." Various witnesses and analyses agree that there was more than enough petrol to achieve extensive burning, although Trevor-Roper and others opine that the bones would not likely have completely disintegrated due to the burning taking place in open air.

In 1951, Karnau stated that at 18:00 he saw the "distinctive skeleton" of both Hitler and Braun and that at 20:00 he returned and saw that "the flakes were blowing in the wind". In 1953, he recalled that around 17:00 he tried to move the "skeletons", but they crumbled upon being touched by his foot. In 1954, he recanted the term "skeletons" and said he actually tried to move "a pile of ashes which disintegrated when touched" and did not return to the site. RSD guard Erich Mansfeld testified in 1954 that around 18:00 he and Karnau saw Hitler and Braun's still-burning "charred and shrunken corpses". Linge claimed that during his Soviet captivity, "Günsche told me that he had ordered an SS officer called Hans Reisser to take some men of the Leibstandarte and bury the remains". Günsche corroborated that SS-Hauptsturmführer Ewald Lindloff and Reisser had apparent completed the task. Mengershausen claimed that (reputedly at the behest of SS-General Johann Rattenhuber) over an hour and a half, he and SS-Unterscharführer Glanzer moved the remains onto boards and buried them in a 2-metre (6+1⁄2-foot)-deep crater under 1 m of soil, and that Hitler's corpse was still largely intact, except for the feet.

Further findings

In 1946, the successor to the NKVD, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, conducted a second investigation (known as "Operation Myth"). Blood from Hitler's sofa and wall was reportedly matched to his blood type and a partially burnt skull fragment was found with gun damage to the posterior of the parietal bone. These two discoveries led to the Soviet admission that Hitler died by gunshot, as opposed to cyanide poisoning (as claimed by the purported autopsy report published in Bezymenski's book). Linge said he saw the Soviets unsuccessfully search for a bullet hole.

In the early 1950s, U.S. intelligence officer William F. Heimlich contended in the National Police Gazette, an American tabloid-style magazine, that according to U.S. tests the blood found on Hitler's sofa did not match his blood type. Heimlich also claimed (albeit without evidence) that during their one day of access to the bunker grounds in December 1945, the Americans sifted the garden dirt and found no trace of burnt bodies. He upheld that Hitler's body would not have completely burned to ashes in the open air. British historian Alan Bullock wrote that it was possible that the Soviets found bodily remains, which in 1962 he opined could have survived an open fire.

In 1963, author Cornelius Ryan interviewed General B. S. Telpuchovski, a Soviet historian who was allegedly present during the aftermath of the Battle of Berlin. Telpuchovski claimed that on 2 May 1945, a burnt body he thought belonged to Hitler was found wrapped in a blanket. This supposed individual had been killed by a (seemingly self-inflicted) gunshot through the mouth, with an exit wound through the back of the head. According to Telpuchovski, several dental bridges were found "lying alongside the head" because "the force of the bullet had dislodged them from the mouth". Two other badly burnt Hitler candidates were allegedly produced, including an apparent body double with the remains of mended socks; Telpuchovski also cited an unburnt body. Ryan was also told that Braun's body was never found and "that it must have been consumed completely by fire, and that any normally identifiable portions must have been destroyed or scattered in the furious bombardment".

Prior to Bezymenski's book, Western historians referred to Hitler's remains as including a full mandible, as opposed to a fragment with teeth.

Author

Soviet journalist Lev Bezymenski (1920–2007), the son of poet Aleksandr Bezymensky, served as an interpreter in the Battle of Berlin under Marshal Zhukov. Early on 1 May 1945, he translated a letter from Goebbels and Bormann announcing Hitler's death. Bezymenski authored several works about the Nazi era.

Content

The book begins with an overview of the Battle of Berlin and its aftermath, including a reproduction of the purported Soviet autopsy report of Hitler's body. Bezymenski states that the bodies of Hitler and Braun were "the most seriously disfigured of all thirteen corpses" examined. The appendix summarizes the discovery of the Goebbels family's corpses and includes further forensic reports. On why the autopsy reports were not released earlier, Bezymenski says:

Not because of doubts as to the credibility of the experts. ... Those who were involved in the investigation remember that other considerations played a far larger role. First, it was resolved not to publish the results of the forensic-medical report but to "hold it in reserve" in case someone might try to slip into the role of "the Führer saved by a miracle." Secondly, it was resolved to continue the investigations in order to exclude any possibility of error or deliberate deception.

The Death of Adolf Hitler

Early in the book, Bezymenski contends that accounts written by those who lacked access to the autopsy reports "have confused the issue rather than clarifying it." He cites The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1960), in which William L. Shirer states:

The bones were never found, and this gave rise to rumors after the war that Hitler had survived. But the separate interrogation of several eyewitnesses by British and American intelligence officers leaves no doubt about the matter. Kempka has given a plausible explanation as to why the charred remains were never found. "The traces were wiped out," he told his interrogators, "by the uninterrupted Russian artillery fire."

Bezymenski goes on to cite Hitler: A Study in Tyranny (1962 edition), in which Alan Bullock says:

What happened to the ashes of the two burned bodies left in the Chancellery Garden has never been discovered. ... Trevor-Roper, who carried out a thorough investigation in 1945 of the circumstances surrounding Hitler's death, inclines to the view that the ashes were collected into a box and handed to Artur Axmann. ... It is, of course, true that no final incontrovertible evidence in the form of Hitler's dead body has been produced.

Bezymenski then gives an account of the battle of Berlin, the subsequent investigation by SMERSH, supplemented by later statements of Nazi officers. Bezymenski quotes SMERSH commander Ivan Klimenko's account, which states that on the night of 3 May 1945, he witnessed Vizeadmiral Hans-Erich Voss seem to recognize a body as Hitler's in a dry water tank filled with other corpses outside the Führerbunker, before recanting this identification. Klimenko noted that the corpse had mended socks, initially giving him doubt, as well. Klimenko then relates that on 4 May, Soviet Private Ivan Churakov found legs sticking out of the ground in a crater outside the Reich Chancellery. Two corpses were exhumed, but Klimenko had these reburied, thinking that the doppelgänger would be identified as Hitler. Only that day did several witnesses say it was definitely not Hitler's body, and a diplomat released it for burial. On the morning of 5 May, Klimenko had the other two bodies reexhumed. By 11 May, two colleagues of Hitler's dentist both confirmed the dental remains found to be from Hitler and Eva Braun.

According to the report on the purported forensic examination of Hitler's body conducted on 8 May, the "remains of a male corpse disfigured by fire were delivered in a wooden box". The upper dental remains consisted of a bridge of nine primarily gold teeth. The lower jawbone fragment had 15 teeth, 10 of them largely or entirely artificial; it was found loose in the oral cavity, and was broken and burnt around the alveolar process, the bulge that encases the tooth sockets. Splinters of glass and a "thin-walled ampule" were alleged to have been found in the mouth, apparently from a cyanide capsule, which was ruled to be the cause of death, although no dissection of internal organs was recorded, making this unverifiable. Ranking Soviet forensicist Faust Shkaravsky declared that "No matter what is asserted ... our Commission could not detect any traces of a gun shot ... Hitler poisoned himself."

The alleged body was estimated to be about 1.65 m (5 ft 5 in) tall. (Hitler stood 1.76 m or 5 ft 9 in tall.) The report states that "On the body was found a piece of yellow jersey ... charred around the edges, resembling a knitted undervest." The left foot and the left testicle were reportedly missing. Part of the skull was absent, and the fire-damaged brain could be seen in part, with an intact dura mater.

Bezymenski criticizes discrepancies of prior reports. Günsche allegedly told the Soviets in 1950 that both Hitler and Braun were seated on the sofa, but in 1960, said both were on chairs. Bezymenski points out that Linge's 1965 claim of Hitler's entry wound being to the left temple is unlikely as Hitler was right-handed and his left hand trembled significantly.

Bezymenski quotes a statement given to the Soviets by SS-General Rattenhuber, in which he claimed that before killing himself with cyanide, Hitler ordered Linge to return in ten minutes to deliver a coup de grâce-style gunshot to ensure his death. Rattenhuber reputedly thought that Linge completed this task while the Soviets believed it was done by Günsche. Bezymenski believed if anyone shot Hitler, it was not himself. To support this claim, he cites the little black dog found nearby, which was killed in a similar fashion. The author also refers to a skull fragment recovered in 1946 with a gunshot wound to the back of the head, saying it most likely belonged to Hitler.

Bezymenski asserts that sometime after the forensic examinations, the corpses of Hitler and the others were completely burned and the ashes scattered.

Appendix

The appendix includes the purported Soviet forensic reports on the bodies of Braun, the Goebbels family, General Krebs, and two dogs.

Eva Braun

The purported autopsy of the body presumed to be Braun's was conducted on 8 May 1945. The corpse is noted as being "impossible to describe the features of", owing to its extensive charring. Almost the entire upper skull was missing. The occipital and temporal bones were fragmentary, as was the lower left of the face. The upper jaw contained four teeth, while the lower jaw had six teeth on the left; the others were missing—according to the report "probably because of burning". The alveolar process of the maxilla was also absent. A piece of gold (probably a filling) was found in the mouth cavity, and a gold bridge with two false molars was under the tongue. The woman was judged to be no more than middle-aged due to her teeth being only slightly worn; her height was approximately 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in). There was a splinter injury to the chest resulting in hemothorax, injuries to one lung and the pericardium—accompanied by six small metal fragments. Pieces of a glass ampule were found in the mouth, and the smell of bitter almonds which accompanies death from cyanide poisoning was present; this was ruled to be the cause of death.

Goebbels family

The partly burnt body of Joseph Goebbels and the remains presumed to be Magda Goebbels were discovered near the bunker emergency exit by Ivan Klimenko on 2 May 1945, reportedly after a German notified him of their presence. The next day, Senior Lieutenant Ilyin found the bodies of the Goebbels children in one of the rooms of the Chancellery bunker. The bodies were identified by Vizeadmiral Voss, cook Lange, and Karl Schneider (referred to as the head garage mechanic), "all of whom knew [the Goebbels family] well." The autopsies of two of the children are listed as taking place on 7 and 8 May; all six children were determined to have died from cyanide poisoning. Autopsies for Joseph, Magda and General Krebs were conducted on 9 May.

Joseph Goebbels's body was "heavily scorched", but was identified by his size, estimated age, shortened right leg and related orthopedic appliance, as well as his head characteristics and dental remains, which included many fillings. His genitals were "greatly reduced in size, shrunken, dry." Chemical testing revealed cyanide compounds in the internal organs and blood; cyanide poisoning was judged to be the cause of death.

The body presumed to be Magda's was scorched beyond recognition. Voss identified two items found on the corpse as having been in her possession: a cigarette case inscribed "Adolf Hitler—29.X.34", which she had used for the last three weeks of her life, and Hitler's Golden Party Badge, which the dictator had given her three days before his suicide. Additionally, a reddish-blond hairpiece was identified as matching the color of one Magda wore. Her dental remains, including both a maxilla and mandible with dental work, were found loose on the corpse along with splinters from a thin-walled ampule; the cause of death was ruled to be cyanide poisoning.

General Krebs

General Krebs is erroneously listed in the autopsy report as "Major General Krips" (as Bezymenski notes). Cyanide compounds were detected in the internal organs and the smell of bitter almonds was recorded, leading the commission to conclude that Krebs' death was "obviously caused by poisoning with cyanide compounds." Three light head wounds were presumed to have been obtained from his death fall onto a protruding object.

Dogs

A German Shepherd matching Hitler's dog Blondi's description appears to have died from cyanide poisoning. A small black bitch, about 60 centimetres (2 ft) long and 28 cm (1 ft) tall, was poisoned by cyanide before being shot in the head.

Photographs

Sixteen pages of previously unreleased photographs include those of Ivan Klimenko, head of autopsy commission Faust Shkaravsky, the locations of Hitler's burning and burying site outside the Führerbunker's emergency exit, SMERSH agents exhuming Hitler and Braun's remains, a diagram of where the corpses of Hitler, Braun, Joseph and Magda Goebbels were burned, Hitler and Braun's alleged corpses in boxes (angled so that unidentifiable mounds of flesh can be seen), front and back views of Hitler's golden upper dental bridge and a lower jawbone fragment connecting his lower teeth and bridges, a sketch drawn by Hitler's dentist's assistant Käthe Heusermann on 11 May 1945 to identify Hitler's dental remains, Braun's dental bridge, the first and last page of Hitler's autopsy report, the Soviet autopsy commission with both Kreb's and Joseph Goebbels' corpses, the bodies of the Goebbels family, the bodies of Krebs and the Goebbels children at Plötzensee Prison, and Blondi's corpse.

Criticism and legacy

Upon the book's publication, Hugh Trevor-Roper wrote that it was "remarkable that [Bezymenski's] book is apparently for Western consumption only", with no Russian release and the book's original language apparently being German. Trevor-Roper says, "No explanation is offered of these interesting facts, which suggest a propagandist rather than an historical purpose." In 1969, Reuben Ainsztein compared Bezymenski's account to that of Soviet war interpreter Elena Rzhevskaya, whom he says implied that "the investigating team completed its investigations against [Stalin's] wishes". Ainsztein criticizes Bezymenski for failing to explain why he ostensibly blames Shirer and Bullock for helping "foster the legend that [Hitler] shot himself like a man". In his 1971 book about Hitler, German historian Werner Maser expresses doubt about Bezymenski's book, including the autopsy's insinuation that Hitler had only one testicle.

In 1972, forensic odontologists Reidar F. Sognnaes and Ferdinand Strøm reconfirmed Hitler's dental remains based on X-rays of Hitler taken in 1944, the 1945 testimony of Käthe Heusermann and dental technician Fritz Echtmann, as well as the purported Soviet forensic examination of the dental remains. Elena Rzhevskaya claimed to have seen Hitler's charred corpse in the Chancellery garden. According to her, the dental remains were removed during the alleged autopsy (at which Bezymenski asserts she was not present), and the pages of the report about them were recorded on "two large non-standard sheets of paper". Rzhevskaya safeguarded the dental remains until they could be identified by Hitler's dental staff. Shkaravsky (d. 1975) wrote to her that the commission had been forbidden to photograph Hitler's body for unknown reasons and suggested that the damage to Braun's chest could have been from shrapnel. According to Lindloff, who cremated Hitler and Braun's bodies, after only 30 minutes the bodies were "already charred and torn open", in part caused by shrapnel.

In his 1975 book The Bunker, journalist James P. O'Donnell dismisses the book's implication that a poisoned Hitler could not have shot himself, pointing out that "few if any poisons act instantly, [and] certainly not cyanide". O'Donnell dismisses the supporting claim that Hitler would not have been able to pull the trigger due to hand tremors, as only his left hand shook badly. O'Donnell further exhorts: "Hitler lacked many human qualities; but, really, did he lack a strong will?"

In 1982, a second edition of the book was released in German, which included an English translation of the odontological report by Sognnaes and Strøm. Additionally, Bezymenski attempts to account for the failure to produce evidence of Hitler's death by gunshot. He also expounds on Mengershausen's claims, saying that he was extensively interrogated by the Soviets as a key witness, in June 1945 providing the exact locations where he supposedly buried Hitler and Braun.

In 1992, Bezymenski wrote that Hitler's corpse was cremated in April 1978, despite asserting in 1968 that it had already been done. A 1992 Der Spiegel article claims that Bezymenski had now learned that the cremation took place in 1970. The article further asserts that the blood type was not determined in 1946 (contrary to contradictory Soviet and U.S. claims) and that during the 1946 investigation, the Soviets found trickle-like bloodstains on Hitler's sofa, interpreted by Der Spiegel as implying Hitler died slowly. Bezymenski, who described himself as having been "a product of the era and a typical party propagandist", stated that "It is not difficult to guess why the KGB [did not give me findings suggesting Hitler's slow death, as I] was supposed to lead the reader to the conclusion that all talk of a gunshot was a pipe dream or half an invention and that Hitler actually poisoned himself." In a 2003 episode of National Geographic's Riddles of the Dead, Bezymenski elaborates that the KGB only granted him access to the documents in the Soviet archive on the basis that he would maintain the narrative that Hitler died by cyanide and say his remains had been cremated by June 1945.

In 1995, journalist Ada Petrova and historian Peter Watson wrote that they considered Bezymenski's account at odds with Trevor-Roper's report, published as The Last Days of Hitler (1947). Though Petrova and Watson used Bezymenski's book as a source for theirs, they note issues with the SMERSH investigation. A main issue they cite is that the autopsies on the alleged remains of Hitler and Braun did not include a record of dissection of their internal organs, which would have shown with certainty whether poison was a factor in their deaths. (Extensive internal organ examinations were recorded in some of the commission's other autopsies.) Petrova and Watson also opine that it was dissatisfaction of this first investigation, along with concerns of the findings of Trevor-Roper, that led to Stalin ordering a second commission in 1946. Petrova and Watson also cite Hitler's alleged autopsy report to refute Hugh Thomas's theory that only Hitler's dental remains belonged to him, saying that the entire jawbone structure would have had to have been found loose on the alleged body while clamping down on the tongue, which "would presumably be a very difficult arrangement to fake".

In 1995, Joachimsthaler criticized Bezymenski's account in his book on Hitler's death, reaching the same conclusion put forward 45 years earlier by U.S. jurist Michael Musmanno (presiding judge at the Einsatzgruppen trial) that the dictator's corpse was almost completely burned to ashes—meaning that no body would have remained to perform an autopsy on. Joachimsthaler implies that another body must have been examined instead, while also pointing out that hydrogen cyanide would have been evaporated by the fire and thus not left an odor. He quotes German pathologist Otto Prokop as saying about the alleged autopsy: "Bezemensky's report is ridiculous. ... Any one of my assistants would have done better ... the whole thing is a farce ... it is intolerably bad work ... the transcript of the post-mortem section of 8 [May] 1945 describes anything but Hitler." Similarly, historian Luke Daly-Groves states that "the Soviet soldiers picked up whatever mush they could find in front of Hitler's bunker exit, put it in a box and claimed it was the corpses of Adolf and Eva Hitler", and also denounces "the dubious autopsy report riddled with scientific inconsistencies and tainted by ideological motivations". Only the report's coverage of the dental remains has been substantially verified, with 2017–2018 analysis led by French forensic pathologist Philippe Charlier concluding that the extant evidence "[fits] perfectly" with the Soviet description.

Contrary to Musmanno's report, Joachimsthaler asserts that the Soviets did not allow U.S. intelligence to search the garden and that Heimlich modeled his sifting narrative upon the actual method the Soviets used to find the dental remains. On the lack of discovery of a bullet in Hitler's study, Joachimsthaler theorizes that after Hitler fired his Walther PP or PPK at contact range, the bullet passed through one temple and became lodged inside the other, rupturing in a hematoma that looked like an exit wound. Joachimsthaler cites a 1925 study in which seven out of eighteen 7.65-mm bullets fired from pistols at living persons entered but did not exit the head. Only one shot of four fired through the temples did not exit, being fired from a distance and the bullet shattering in the brain. Other exit failures were associated with sagittal or oblique angles, with bullets splintering or becoming compressed.

In their addendum to The Hitler Book (2005), Henrik Eberle and Matthias Uhl quote Bezymenski as admitting in 1995 that his work included "deliberate lies" and criticize his book for advocating the theories that Hitler died by poisoning or a coup de grâce. Despite this, in 2018, investigative journalists Jean-Christophe Brisard and Lana Parshina speculated that Hitler could have commissioned Linge to shoot him through the temples because the dictator's poor health—particularly his hand tremors—would have made it difficult for him to do. However, Brisard and Parshina also dismiss Bezymenski's book as largely propagandistic.

See also

• Unity Mitford

References

Footnotes

Citations

Sources

Further reading

• Sognnaes, Reidar F.; Ström, Ferdinand (1973). "The odontological identification of Adolf Hitler". Acta Odontologica Scandinavica. 31 (1): 43–69. doi:10.3109/00016357309004612. PMID 4575430.