Hitler's Final Days in the Bunker

November 2015

As the Soviet Army surrounded Berlin, signaling the end of the Third Reich’s horrific reign, did Hitler really commit suicide in his underground Bunker, or did he escape to South America to live out his life unpunished?

It  is one of the last century’s greatest mysteries, and now experts have determined there is as much evidence suggesting Hitler didn’t die in Berlin as there is he did.

A California University of Pennsylvania senior professor, John Cencich recently completed an investigation into Hitler’s death on behalf of the "History Channel".

His conclusion that Hitler did in fact escape Berlin comes after a factual and objective analysis of historical evidence using existing forensic technology combined with the evidence from 1945.

The  impetus behind the new investigation comes from the declassification of over 700 pages of documents by the FBI which hint at the possibility Hitler may have survived and escaped to South America. Files from the Office of Strategic Services [the CIA’s predecessor] and other Intelligence organizations which have been declassified worldwide were also reviewed.

The documents included a recently discovered memo written by the late J. Edgar Hoover – FBI director at the time – which states that “American Army officials in Germany have not located Hitler's body nor is there any reliable source that will say definitely that Hitler is dead". 

The Russians were the ones to capture Berlin and eventually find the burned bodies who they believed to be Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun. However, even Josef Stalin, the Soviet leader, did not believe Hitler was dead and according to Cencich, from the evidence it appears the Russians botched their investigation of the  alleged suicide scene.

Add to that the existence of underground tunnels and a subway system which was determined to lead from Hitler’s Bunker to the nearby Tempelfhof Airport one does not have to jump very far to reach the conclusion that Hitler could have taken the tunnels to a waiting plane and then a U-Boat to South America. It is a known fact that other Nazi’s did exactly that.

Cencich was chosen to head this investigation based on his experience and reputation as a senior war crimes investigator for the United Nations.

He led a criminal investigation in the former Yugoslavia, one of history’s largest, that involved murders, assassinations, torture, extermination and crimes against humanity.

It is not likely that this new investigation into the possibility of Hitler’s flight to South America will change the history books or the accepted views of history pertaining to Hitler’s final days. However, according to Cencich, there should at least be a footnote regarding this possibility, because he himself initially saw the likelihood of Hitler’s escape to South America as far fetched, but he does not anymore.

A veteran CIA agent claims to have found evidence that the leader of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler and his mistress Eva Braun faked their his own deaths in the Bunker at the end of the Second World War and then fled to the island of Tenerife, where they traveled to South America, according to a British newspaper.

"The narrative the United States government gives us is a lie. If you look at the FBI files, you need to open an investigation," said Bob Baer, ​​an expert former CIA agent, in an article published by "The Mirror" .

According to the same media, it is one of the conclusions reached by a group of experts who analyzed a series of FBI files never before revealed. From the study of documents, Baer develops the theory that Hitler actually did not commit suicide, nor Eva Braun, but fled to the Canary Islands.

One of the documents to which experts had access said:

"The US military officials in Germany have not located the body of Hitler nor is there any reliable source stating that Hitler is dead"."

"The Mirror" also includes other testimonials.

"When the war ended many Nazis made an exodus to South America to start a new life away from Europe. According to this hypothesis, Hitler would have traveled by boat from Tenerife to South America to meet with other Nazis, said the former researcher of war crimes for the UN, John Cencich, in a documentary broadcast on British TV.

 

Hitler lived: Secret FBI files reveal evil Nazi faked death ...before flying to Tenerife
An Extraordinary new investigation based on FBI secret files claims Hitler did survive the end of World War 2 – and may have fled to a holiday destination populular with Brits
By Patrick Knox
The Daily Star
8 January 2016

Using never seen before before documents, respected ex-UN war crimes investigator John Cencich concludes the evil dictator did not shoot himself and his wife Evan Braun in the "Führerbunker".

It seems World War 2 may have ended happily ever after for the Nazi leader – who lived a life of luxury under the sun while the world mourned and starved.

Mr Crencich, who led probes into war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, said he used to think the Hitler faked death conspiracy theory was "nonsense".

But after sifting through 700 pages of new declassified US secret files and travelling to various points on the suspected escape route, he is now convinced the Führer of the Third Reich lived on bathed in sunshine

“We do know from evidence both of them had doubles. If someone was going to stage a crime scene, this was the perfect way to do it.”

Among the compelling proof that Hitler faked his own death is the fact that his body was recorded by the Russians as being five inches shorter than the dictator, who was five foot six inches.

A skull with a bullet hole was said to be smaller.

Mr Crencich said:

"We do know from evidence both of them had doubles. If someone was going to stage a crime scene, this was the perfect way to do it.

“The accepted truth that he committed suicide is ambiguous".

Based on new evidence John Cencich believes Hitler faked his own death.

Hitler's corpse also disappeared before British and American authorities could check it out.

In the top secret papers, FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover said there was nothing to prove Hitler was dead.

Mr Crienich along with CIA veteran Bob Baer discovered a network of tunnels that formed a route to Tempelhof Airport.

Hitler is believed to have stayed in the Canary Islands after the war.

Hitler is then thought to have flown to fascist Spain and then to the Canary Islands.

The islands include includes sunny destinations favoured by Brits such as Tenerife, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.

Mystery Villa of Fuerteventura

Lying in an isolated mountainside in one of the most secluded areas of the Canary Islands lies an spacious villa that has given birth to mysterious legends..

This spacious villa lies hidden from the world nestling between the mountains and the wild Atlantic ocean on Fuerteventura.

It can only be reached after a hair raising drive along a dirt track in the mountain borders.

The sheer isolation of Villa Gustav Winter holds a mystery which has yet to be explained. This mystery starts with the appearance and position of the villa itself.

It is surrounded by land which has exactly the same shape and proportions of the island of Fuerteventura itself. And the villa’s location within this enclosed replica corresponds geographically to its true position. 

Was this location and shape the result of exact mathematical positioning, or just sheer fluke? The truth will probably never come to light but theories abound.

German-born Gustav Winter arrived on Fuerteventura in the 1930s. He worked for a large company that had just acquired a great expanse of land in the south of the island – the peninsula of Jandia.

Winter became known for his mysterious dark glasses and accompanying black dog and was responsible for building the first port at Morro Jable. However, it is not for these reasons that he is best remembered. His name will always be connected to the small isolated hamlet of Cofete where he built the villa that later gave birth to countless myths.

The Nazis had first begun their search for a base in the Canary Islands when Hermann Göring financed a “fishing expedition” to the islands between 14 July and 14 August 1938.

Leading the search was Gustav Winter, a German engineer and senior Abwehr agent, "in the Canary Islands in charge of observation posts equipped with radio, and of the supplying of German submarines". It was Winter who had conceived the idea of developing the uninhabited Jandía peninsula as a base for Nazi operations. Born at Zastler, near Freiburg, on 10 May 1893, Winter studied in Hamburg before deciding to travel to the new German frontier in Patagonia in 1913.

After the outbreak of World War I the following year he sailed for home, but his ship was stopped, and he was interned by the British on a prison ship in Portsmouth. He first came to the attention of British Intelligence in 1915, when he escaped by swimming to a Dutch ship, the 'Hollandia', and making his way to Spain. Winter spoke English fluently; upon his arrival in Spain he went to the British consulate, persuaded the consul that he was a British citizen in dire economic straits, and received a cash payment that enabled him to return to Germany. Between 1921 and 1937 he lived in Spain, traveling back to Germany regularly "to continue his studies".

Winter had been on the verge of buying Isla de Lobos ["Wolf’s Island], a small barren rock to the north of Fuerteventura, but Göring’s funded "fishing trip" in 1938 and Winter’s own travels aboard his yacht 'Argon' led him to a much better site for a clandestine operations base.

The desert-like southern peninsula of Jandía comprised nearly 44,500 acres of uninhabited land, and in 1941, Gustav Winter purchased the whole area through a Spanish front company, Dehesa de Jandía SA. The ostensible intention was to develop this barren area for agriculture, and tens of thousands of trees were planted to support this story. Construction started in 1943.

Franco’s dictatorship provided a ready supply of disposable labor among its political prisoners; the road to Villa Winter is still known as the "Way of the Prisoners". Details are unknown, since the story of the concentration camps at Tefía on the island has yet to be written—as have many other dark tales from the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath.

-- Elizabeth Nash, "Germans Helped Franco Run Civil War Death Camps," London Independent, 22 February 2002

Gustav Winter himself spent much of his time between 1940 and 1944 at the U-Boat base near Bordeaux, returning to Spain only in August 1944 as the Allies overran the French Atlantic coast. In his absence, roads, tunnels into the mountains, defensive positions, and a strange castle-like structure—the "Villa" itself—were all built between 1943 and 1945.

Villa Winter had an extensive, sophisticated military telecommunications system that was probably centered on the Siemens & Haske T43 machine, giving it constant contact with Germany, Argentina, and the U-Boats that were hungry for resupply from other bases on Spain’s supposedly neutral Canary Islands. The villa was equipped with tiled medical treatment rooms and a range of attics fitted out for the accommodation of troops and senior personnel.

By late 1944, with the movement of funds out of Germany in top gear after the Hotel Maison Rouge meeting of that August, the Germans had built a runway at the end of the peninsula; 1,650 yards long by 66 yards wide, this could easily handle four-engined aircraft like the Junkers Ju 290 or the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor. 

Between late 1943 and February 1944, at least 250 Nazi agents made their way into the Canary Islands and the Spanish Saharan colony of Rio del Oro, via the Spanish port of Cádiz. The Spanish authorities did not hinder them in any way. At least four months before the long-awaited Allied invasion of France, Bormann was moving key personnel involved in Aktion Feuerland to new bases, and these relocations to the Canaries rapidly increased later in 1944.

In October 1944, German activities in Spain were increasingly annoying the influential U.S. broadcaster and columnist Walter Winchell—a close friend of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and usually well informed by both U.S. and British intelligence services.

Winchell reported:

"Hitler had been building air bases in Spain since 1939.… Work was supervised by German Army engineers, done by Franco’s political prisoners who worked at bayonet point".

He went on to state:

"Spanish islands off the coast of Villa Garcia were cleared of their civilian population last year. Landing fields, advance Luftwaffe, and three whole regiments of Nazi flyers took over the islands. All civilian travel has been suspended between the Spanish mainland and the Balearics and the Canaries".

Civilian travel to the islands was indeed banned. Winchell said that there were two major Nazi bases on Gran Canaria: Gando airfield and a nearby submarine base. If civilians had been able to travel to the islands, Winchell said, they “would see the great storage tanks for submarine fuel, in Las Palmas they would see German officers marching with the Falangists and ten times as many soldiers as in normal times. They would also see the great Nazi seaplane base in Baleares [on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca]".

In an interview shortly before her death, the widow of Gustav Winter firmly denied the allegations leveled at her late husband over the years. She denied that the villa had ever had connections to the Nazis or that it was built as a hideaway for Adolf Hitler – she said the infamous villa was built for the simple reason of exploiting agriculture in the area.

In 1984, an extremely colorful tale about the accidental discovery of a "U-Boat pen" tunneled into the island was published by a German magazine. This fiction has been exploded by the U-Boat historian Jak P. Mallmann Showell in his book "U-Boats At War: Landings on Hostile Shores" [Hersham, UK: Ian Allan, 2000], for which he carried out field research and a comprehensive analysis of U-Boat orders, logs, and mission reports relevant to the Canary Islands. There are detailed records of the U-Boat supply base run from an "interned' German freighter in Las Palmas harbor on Gran Canaria, but no suggestion that U-Boats visited Fuerteventura.

The Allies were seriously concerned that the Canary Islands were being used by the Germans to support U-Boat operations. This suspicion was based on the interception of a secret Kriegsmarine document titled U-Plätze, or "U-Places," which became interpreted as "U-Bases" with the presumption that they were U-Boat bases.

The “U” in fact related to Unterkunft, or "refuge," and there were scores of them dotted around the world, intended to shelter all types of Kriegsmarine vessels—places to undertake repairs or find fresh water.

Similarly there were consistent rumors among the Allies that there were U-Boat bases along the South American coastline, even as far south as Tierra del Fuego. There is no evidence to support such a proposition, but the list of locations in the U-Plätze does mention a tiny island off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.

From here it is thought he eventually travelled by U-Boat to Argentina, where he met wealthy friends.

He led a life of luxury in a secret compound, all the time plotting his return.

Mr Crencich said: "I am really pleased with what we have found. Could he have made it here? Absolutely".

Another version was quoted by the newspaper "ABC" in Spain, based on the book "In the Footsteps of Hitler", by the journalist Abel Basti. According to this researcher, Hitler fled to Patagonia and Paraguay after his flight from Berlin.

 

"Rumors started to circulate about a double for Hitler. He was supposed to be a total look-alike, and he was trained to 'be' Hitler and was supposedly going to die a martyr’s death on the battlefield so that Hitler could be glorified without dying. 

–- "New York Times" 19 April 1945.

The strategy of the Nazis to use Hitler's doubles, in order to cover the Führer's escape, transcended and became public on 26 April 1945 when the battle for the capture of Berlin took on its full potential. 

Perhaps for this reason -the attention of the world concentrated on the formidable attack launched by the Soviets and the strenuous resistance of the German forces- this information happened almost unnoticed for the great public.  On that day the journalist Robert Sturdevant, of the "Associated Press", announced a news that initially had its origin in the so-called "Free German Press Service", an organization of anti-Hitlerist Germans residing abroad. 

The information noted that "a carefully trained ex-grocer, who resembles Hitler in an extraordinary way, has been sent to Berlin to die on the barricades in order to give the world the impression that the Führer has died in the struggle".

Perhaps for this reason -the attention of the world concentrated on the formidable attack launched by the Soviets and the strenuous resistance of the German forces- this information happened almost unnoticed for the great public. 

On that day the journalist Robert Sturdevant, of the "Associated Press", announced a news that initially had its origin in the so-called "Free German Press Service", an organization of anti-Hitlerist Germans residing abroad. 

The information noted that "a carefully trained ex-grocer, who resembles Hitler in an extraordinary way, has been sent to Berlin to die on the barricades in order to give the world the impression that the Führer has died in the struggle".

The news identified Hitler's "double" as "August Wilhelm Bartholdy, former merchant of the town of Plauen, who was specially trained to speak as the Führer, as a result of his long association with him in Berchtesgaden".  It was further added that "Bartholdy will act as Hitler's trump card, creating a legend around his death, while the Führer vanishes". 

The version anticipated that "in the next few days Bartholdy will appear in the final fight of the last Berlin barricades and will be killed in front of the camera of Hitler's self-sacrificing photographer, Hoffmann, who has been entrusted with that mission.

The press service mentioned also speculated with the possibility that in addition the Nazis filmed a sequence with that double to prove that he had died in Berlin, while Hitler disappeared from the scene [Agencia AP 25 April 1945].

"Along with the authentic news from the perishing Third Reich came a rash of rumors and 'reports'. The dizziest to reach print was whelped by the unreliable "Free German Press Service," operated in Stockholm by Germans who call themselves 'emigres' F.G.P.S.'s latest gasp:

The 'Hitler' who was in Berlin was not Hitler at all. It was a Plauen grocer named August Wilhelm Bartholdy, whose face was his misfortune: he looked like the Führer. Grocer Bartholdy, said F.G.P.S., had been carefully coached and combed, then sent to Berlin "to die on the barricades. ... He will act as Hitler's trump card...

-- "Time Magazine" 7 May 1945

Hitler was deliberately poisoned by Himmler or an accomplice, according to statements of highly-placed persons, says the "Daily Express" on 25 July 1945.

One is Count Bernadotte, vice-president of the Swedish Red Cross, who was Himmler's first peace agent. The other is Walter Schellenberg, Himmler's right-hand man, who has been brought to London for questioning.

Count Bernadotte's story, says the "Daily Express," is that Himmler, early in April, was thinking of poisoning Hitler with a medicine prepared by Professor Max Decrinis, of Cologne University. He recalls that Himmler had predicted the probable date of the death of Hitler, who was said at the time to be seriously ill. Himmler's ambition. was to seize power in Germany, and Schellenberg was anxious to help.  

Hitler Was Healthy
Army News [Darwin, NT]
8 May 1945

LONDON: A German doctor, Erwin Giesing,  who attended Hitler after the attempt on his life at Munich and who since has been captured by the Americans, scouts the idea that Hitler died a natural death as some claim he did. The doctor said that last time he saw Hitler he was perfectly healthy. His ears, which had been affected in the bomb explosion, were cured completely and his heart was perfectly sound.

"Hitler had years of life before him", he said. 

According to Schellenberg, Decrinis had pronounced Hitler to be a victim or "Parkinson's disease," the obscure malady which affects the brain, makes the face a mask and causes a loss of limb control. Schellenberg says that Hitler died on 27 April, and he is satisfied that the "medicine" caused death, though he does not know who gave it.

The SS began to disintegrate in 1945. Individual SS officers hoped to exploit tensions between the western Allies and the Soviet Union to open negotiations for a separate peace with the western Allies that would permit the Nazi state to survive and fight on against the USSR. These officers included SS General Karl Wolff—the Highest SS and Police Leader for German-occupied Italy; SS General Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Heydrich's successor as chief of the RSHA; SS General Walter Schellenberg, the chief of the RSHA Department VI [SD Foreign Intelligence Agency] and even Himmler himself. Facing unyielding demands for unconditional surrender, the SS men who sent out feelers, lacked the authority—or the conception of themselves in a post-Nazi state—to offer unconditional surrender even to the western Allies.

Wolff succeeded in persuading German military authorities in Northern Italy to surrender to the Anglo-Americans on 2 May 1945, five days before the end of the war.

A rumor that General Kurt Dittmar, Official Military Commentator of the German Armed Forces, had committed suicide in April 1945 was dispelled on the 23 April when he surrendered to soldiers of the 30th U.S. Infantry Division at Magdeburg. He later told his captors that the National Redoubt did not exist, and that Hitler was in Berlin, predicting that within a few days Hitler would either be killed or commit suicide. 

Was Hitler Murdered?
The Telegraph [Brisbane, Qld]
12 November 1946

LONDON: The theory that Hitler did not die by his own hand but was murdered by Göbbels, Himmler or others, is supported in a book to be published shortly by General Bohuslav Ečer, Czechoslovak member of the Allied War Crimes Commission.

Ečer had access to all the secret documents of the Nuremberg Court and also interviewed all the prominent Nazis, including Göring, Ribbentrop, Keitel, and Frank, before their detention.

The theory that Hitler was murdered, says Ečer, is supported by these facts:

Shortly before the Russians penetrated the Bunker under the Chancellery, Hitler ordered that every thing in the room should remain unchanged to give the Russians an exact idea of the circumstances under which his death occurred. It was not obeyed!

Everything in the room where Hitler died was destroyed on Göbbels's orders, suggesting that Göbbels was anxious to destroy all evidence which would solve the enigma of Hitler's death.

 

Did Hitler Suicide?
Examiner [Launceston, Tas]
4 May 1945

LONDON [A.A.P]: Hitler committed suicide, says a Moscow communique. Göbbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister, also took his own life.

The Moscow communique says that prisoners captured in Berlin included Göbbels' deputy, Dr. Hans Fritzsche, who told the Russians that Hitler, Göbbels and General Krebs, newly appointed Chief of the German General Staff, all committed suicide. 

It is recalled that Göbbels in his last speech said he would rather commit suicide than live in Germany under a "Bolshevik terror".

President Truman stated in Washington yesterday that on the best authority available at this time he was convinced that the German Führer was dead.

Declared Hitler Suicided
Northern Star [Lismore, NSW]
29 June 1946

NUREMBURG: Lord Chancellor Earl Jowitt in the visitors' gallery of the War Crimes Tribunal heard Hans Frizsche, who was the last of Hitler's lieutenants to remain alive in Berlin to the end, declare that Hitler suicided. Frizsche said a report was circulated that Hitler died in battle, but the last statement the witness prepared for issue gave as a fact that Hitler suicided.

"I wanted to nip in the bud any chance that the Hitler myth would grow up".

He added that Hitler's suicide was the first of his reasons for disillusionment with the Nazi regime.

In April 1945, Fritzsche was present in the Berlin Führerbunker during the last days of Adolf Hitler and Göbbels. After Hitler's suicide on 30 April 1945, Göbbels assumed Hitler's role as Chancellor. On 1 May, Göbbels completed his sole official act as Chancellor. He dictated a letter to Soviet Army General Vasily Chuikov, requesting a temporary ceasefire and ordered German General Hans Krebs to deliver it. Chuikov commanded the Soviet forces in central Berlin. After this was rejected, Göbbels decided that further efforts were futile. Göbbels then launched into a tirade berating the generals, reminding them Hitler forbade them to surrender.

Fritzsche left the room to try and take matters into his own hands. He went to his nearby office on Wilhelmplatz and wrote a surrender letter addressed to Soviet Marshall Georgy Zhukov. An angry and drunk General Wilhelm Burgdorf followed Fritzsche to his office. There he asked Fritzsche if he intended to surrender Berlin. Fritzsche replied that he was going to do just that. Burgdorf shouted that Hitler had forbidden surrender and as a civilian he had no authority to do so. Burgdorf then pulled his pistol to shoot Fritzsche, but a radio technician "knocked the gun" and the bullet fired hit the ceiling. Several men then hustled Burgdorf out of the office and he returned to the Bunker. Fritzsche then left his office and went over to the Soviet lines and offered to surrender the city.

Fritzsche was sent to Nuremberg, and tried before the International Military Tribunal. He was charged with conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity. In his positions in the Propaganda apparatus of the Nazi State, Fritzsche played a role to further the conspiracy to commit atrocities and to launch the war of aggression.

According to journalist and author William L. Shirer, it was unclear to the attendees why he was charged. Shirer remarked that "no-one in the courtroom, including Fritzsche, seemed to know why he was there –he was too small a fry– unless it were as a ghost for Göbbels..."

He was one of only three defendants to be acquitted at Nuremberg [along with Hjalmar Schacht and Franz von Papen].

Hitler Dead, Says Rundstedt
The Daily News [Perth, WA]
5 May 1945

LONDON: "Hitler is certainly dead," captured Field-Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt told the British "United Press" correspondent with the Seventh Army.

"It happened in Berlin and it certainly wasn't suicide", he added.

General Aleksandr Anatolevich Vadis, conveyed to Moscow on 7 May that Hitler was dead, based on fragments of an upper jaw and a full lower jaw, which may have been ripped from badly charred corpses, or turned up in sifted earth and found on 5 May, but not autopsied until 8-9 May, with no report in the autopsy [or that of the "Braun" corpse], that any dental or facial structures were missing.

Anton Joachimsthaler and Joachim Fest, both state that all the Russians ever found were some teeth, a lower jaw, and other charred bits, and a few charred bits, turned up after sifting the soil in the Chancellery garden for days after the capitulation of the City.

Gerhard Herrgesell, the shorthand writer who had recorded Hitler's private meetings since 1942, told correspondents at Berchtesgaden that it was not unlikely that Colonel Otto Günsche, the SS Adjutant in charge of the underground Chancellery in its last hours, killed Hitler, with Hitler's knowledge. He said that Günsche's specific assignment was to kill Hitler and to dispose of the body in such a way that the Russians could; not possibly find it, then turn the gun on himself.

Many of the Bunker personnel in Russian captivity were told they would later see Hitler's body--and it was never shown to them because, as Fest puts it, "there was no body to show!"

However, it seems, the Soviets were convinced that the teeth in their possession were those of Hitler and - logically - that Hitler was therefore dead. Indeed, in mid-May, Soviet intelligence officers confirmed to their Western counterparts that Hitler had "been poisoned" and Zhukov admitted to Nikita Khrushchev that they had found Hitler's "charred carcass".

Soon though,  Soviet leaders had opted to deny the obvious and chose instead to sow confusion over Hitler's death, insinuating that the German dictator had somehow survived and had escaped to the Western zones of occupation - thereby giving themselves an excellent stick with which to beat the West in the opening exchanges of the Cold War. It is the subsequent campaign of disinformation and obfuscation that led to the outlandish tales of Hitler's survival, in the jungles of Patagonia, in fascist Spain, or in a  secret base, that resurface to this day.

Hitler's "Death"
Worker [Brisbane, Qld]
14 May 1945

Many people believe that Hitler still lives. They suggest that Himmler's story about Hitler dying after a brain seizure, the announcement by Admiral Dönitz that Hitler died as a common soldier in Berlin, and the remarks of Göbbels' offsider [Dr. Hans Fritzsche] that Hitler, Göbbels and a German general had committed suicide are conflicting causes for doubt. They want to see the body, and suggest also that by some chance Hitler and his pals got into a submarine and skipped to Japan.

If there is doubt about Hitler's death, there is none about Dr. Göbbels, whose body [and those of his wife and family] was found in Berlin. Suicide.

Hitler in Eire?
Examiner [Launceston, Tas]
17 May 1945

LONDON [AAP] - Mr. Churchill was asked in the Commons on Tuesday if the Government was satisfied that Hitler's death had been established beyond all shadow of doubt.

He replied:

"I know no more than any other member who reads the newspapers. Therefore I have only my own opinion to go by".

To a member who asked whether there was any truth in a suggestion that Hitler was being harboured in Eire by Mr.Éamon de Valera, Mr. Churchill said he would have enquiries made.

Latest on Hitler
Army News [Darwin, NT]
18 June 1945  

LONDON: Here is the latest on Hitler,  reported to the Cairo correspondent of the "Daily Mail" by what he describes as a "reliable source".

The Führer is in Eire. He arrived there by air dressed as a woman, and accompanied by a woman and threea children.

"There was no suggestion of connivance by the authorities of Eire".

 

Hitler's Fate: Conflicting Reports
Western Star and Roma Advertiser [Toowoomba, Qld]
8 Jun 1945

According to Leon Degrelle, Belgian Rexist leader, Hitler is alive and in hiding; according to Himmler, Hitler is dead.

The Madrid correspondent of "American Associated Press" says Degrelle, who is in Spain, declared that he talked with Hitler in Berlin the day before the Russians entered the city.

"Hitler was preparing to escape and did not appear in the mood cither for suicide or a fight to the death", said Degrelle.

The conflicting story is told by friends of Captain Clement Wells, of the Boyal Aimy Medical Corps, who was present when Himmler died and who is now in London on leave.

A few minutes before Himmler's suicide, Army nrmy officers asked him: "Do you know I where Hitler is?" Himmler hesitated, his eyes kept their usual stare, and then, with a smirk, he replied, "He's gone now".

At a major press conference on 9 June 1945, Marshal Georgy Zhukov, Soviet commander of the Russian Zone of Occupation stated:  "It is well known that two days before Berlin fell Hitler married Eva Braun” he said. He added that the Russians had found references to the marriage in the diaries of Hitler’s personal adjutants. Zhukov said "We have found no corpse that could be Hitler’s" and added that Hitler and Braun had good opportunities to get away from Berlin: "He could have taken off at the very last moment, for there was an airfield at his disposal.” Zhukov told the press: "The circumstances are highly mysterious. We did not identify Hitler’s body and I cannot say anything about his fate. …" Zhukov added, "Now it is up to you British and Americans to find him".

-- "Associated Press",

"Zhukoff  [sic] Says Hitler Wed Actress in Berlin, May Be Alive in Europe"

-- "The New York Times", 10 June 1945.

Hitler Married To Nazi Actress

LONDON, 21 April 1945 [UP]--Civilians in Leipzig believe Adolf Hitler married Germany's most famous film actress, Olga Tschekowa [Chekhova], three weeks ago, a British correspondent with the First U. S. Army reported today.

Edward Connolly, the "Exchange Telegraph Agency" correspondent, said the Leipzig civilians told him the marriage took place at Bad Frankenhausen. They described Hitler as madly in love with Olga, who is more than 50, but "is good to look at".

A published photograph of Olga Chekhova with Hitler at a reception gave the leaders of the Soviet Intelligence service the impression that she had close contacts with Hitler. She had more contact with the Minister of Propaganda, Josef Göbbels, who referred to her in his diaries as "eine charmante Frau" [a charming lady]. She is also rumored to have been a communist spy in a Soviet conspiracy. According to the book "Killing Hitler" [2006], by the British author Roger Moorhouse, she was pressured by Stalin and Beria to flirt with Adolf Hitler in order to gain and transfer information so that Hitler could be killed by secret Soviet agents. Also, the controversial Argentine theater book "Hotel Berlin 1933" by Pablo Sodor shows a relationship between Chekhova and Karl Heinrich von Stülpnagel.

Major General Floyd Parks, who was commanding general of the U.S. sector in Berlin, later stated for publication that he had been present when Zhukov stated he believed Hitler might have escaped.

Colonel General Nikolai E. Berzarin, Soviet commander of Berlin, turning to the question of whether Hitler had died in Berlin, said,  "There are all sorts of people who were close to him who say that he killed himself. Still others say he was killed by an exploding shell," however, Russian soldiers had not yet found Hitler’s body. "My personal opinion is that he has disappeared somewhere into Europe". Berzarin said "Perhaps he is in Spain with Franco. He had the possibility of getting away".

The newly Soviet appointed German Bürgermeister of Berlin, Arthur Werner, said "Hitler...we just don’t know…There are many Germans who say he has found refuge in another country".

The following day, 10 June, Maj. Gen. Kenneth W. D. Strong, the SHAEF G-2, asked a Soviet Intelligence officer regarding Zhukov’s statement that Hitler was still alive.

The Soviet officer replied that the Russians had revised their earlier opinion that Hitler was dead, and that none of the evidence at present in their possession indicates definitely that this was so.

Ambassador Robert Murphy informed the State Department that while SHAEF G-2 did not exclude the possibility that Hitler may be in the Allied area, they did not accept the implication of Zhukov’s statement that primary responsibility rested with "us for finding him". 

-- Telegram Sent, No. 3541, Caffery [from Murphy] to the Secretary of State, 14 June [11 written over with 14] 1945, Classified Cables Sent to the State Department, 1945-1949 [NAID 1719688] Record Group 84.
 
On 10 June in Madrid the Spanish Foreign Minister had his press secretary deny Zhukov's report that Hitler might have found shelter in Spain. The Spanish statement said: "Hitler, married or single, alive or dead, is not on Spanish soil, nor would he be allowed here, and if he entered he would not receive shelter". 

-- Wireless to "The New York Times", 'Hitler Not on Spanish Soil, Foreign Minister Says', "The New York Times", 11 June 1945.

The Russian press on 14 June reviewed an article by Elliott [probably George Fielding Eliot] in the "New York Herald Tribune" commenting on Zhukov's reported statement that the English and Americans should organize a search for Hitler. Elliott reportedly expressed agreement with Zhukov and was cited as emphasizing the probability of the Soviet statement that Hitler at present was outside the Soviet occupation zone. Elliott was quoted to the effect that Hitler probably fled to Spain where there were many German refugees who probably would seek to organize Hitler’s flight.

Is Hitler in Spain?
Kalgoorlie Miner
21 June 1945

London: Is Hitler in Spain? The question is revived in a circumstantial despatch from the Barcelona correspondent of the "Daily Express," relating the secret arrival on 1 May, the day before. Berlin surrendered to the Russians, of a three-engined German plane at the Reus airfield, about 80 miles south-west of Barcelona.

The pilot got out and talked with the Spanish control officer, who got into the plane for a quarter of an hour and then telephoned the military governor of Barcelona.

Two passengers descended from the plane, the air crew giving them the Nazi salute. One was reported to be the son of the plane manufacturer Ernst Heinkel, and the other kept his raincoat muffled across his face. The governor of Barcelona arrived in a special plane and held a discussion with the strangers, after which he made a series of telephone calls to Madrid. A Spanish plane then arrived, to which the Germans transferred, the rain-coated figure again getting ceremonial Nazi salutes. The plane took off for an unknown destination.

The "Daily Express" says that Allied authorities are seeking an explanation, particularly as to who was the man in the raincoat.

Elliott was also quoted describing a possible escape route for Hitler to Argentina. The news item concluded by quoting Elliott’s opinion that the Allies ought to organize measures to apprehend Hitler including if necessary military operations against Franco's Spain.

"Time" magazine on 2 July reported that at the end of June a SHAEF spokesman had said, summing up the Hitler situation:

"We have every reason to believe he is dead, but no evidence that he is not still alive".

It also reported the Russians, who had done all the investigating in Berlin, had not amended their reports that no trace of Hitler had been found; no believable witnesses in their custody had actually seen him die; and Hitler had ordered his henchmen to spread the story that he was dead.

--  'International: Where There’s Smoke…', "Time", Vol. XLVI No. 1, 2 July 1945.

Chauffeur "Saw Hitler Burning"
The Sun [Sydney, NSW]
21 June 1945

LONDON: Still another version of how Hitler died is given by the Führer's chauffeur, Eric Kempka, now in British hands. Kempka says that Hitler and his sweetheart, Eva Braun, shot themselves two days after they were married in an underground shelter behind the Chancellery in Berlin. Kempka [according to a "British United Press" correspondent in North Germany] says that at 3 am on 2 May [the day Berlin fell to the Russians] he personally carried Braun's body out of the shelter. Later he saw the two petrol-soaked bodies burning.

Another "British United Press" correspondent reports an interview at Herford [near Hanover] with a German police witness named Hermann Karnau, which substantiates Kempka's statement Karnau said he saw the bodies of Hitler and Braun burning outside the Chancellery shelter in the early hours of 2 May.

"I saw Hitler lying on the ground about six feet from the exit, in the open air," said Karnau.

"He was on his back, with his knees slightly drawn up.

"Eva Braun was beside him, lying on her face.

"Both bodies were on fire.

"Beside them were four empty gasoline cans, and there was an incredible odor".|

Chauffeur Confirms Hitler's Death
Daily Examiner [Grafton, NSW]
5 July 1946

 "I am able to say that Hitler died on 30 April 1945, between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. I carried out Hitler's wife and I saw Hitler in a blanket," declared Hitler's chief chauffeur, Hans Erich Kempka, when giving evidence before the International Tribunal.

Asked if it was really Hitler, Kempka replied it was a small blanket and Hitler's legs were hanging out.

LONDON: The mystery of whether Hitler is alive or dead remains unsolved, in spite of several bodies having been found in the mined Berlin Chancellery.

The "Daily Express" correspondent in Berlin reports that 150 foreign journalists on 9 July 1945 combed the Chancellery and Hitler's air raid shelter.

They found no sign of anything burned to confirm the story of one of Hitler's police guards that he saw the bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun burned outside the shelter.

 

An "Associated Press" story from Stockholm on 15 July, reported that a Swedish newspaper reported that day that a rumor was circulating in Bern, Switzerland, that Hitler was hiding in the principality of Liechtenstein under the name of "Dr. Brandl". The story added that Braun was not with Hitler but probably in Argentina.

During July, various Allied personnel visited the Bunker in Berlin and subsequently reported on their visits. When Judge Michael Musmanno visited the Bunker, the Russian commandant in charge of the area, Major Feodorovitch Platonov, at once broke into a spirited argumentative denial that Hitler was dead. Musmanno had not made any assertion in the matter one way or the other. He had merely stated that he was examining the place where Hitler lived his last days and hours.

The Russian major, pointing at a spot in the garden exclaimed:

"It is not true that Hitler was found there! Our experts have established that the man found here didn’t look like Hitler at all. And we didn’t find Eva Braun either!"

On 17 July, Permanent Under-Secretary of State Sir Alexander Cadogan noted in his diary after visiting the Bunker, that he was shown a shallow crater in which he was told Hitler and Braun had been buried and later dug up and cremated.

"This is also a rumor, of which there are many, and nobody knows the truth…"

At the Potsdam Conference Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, Chief of Staff to the President, wrote that Stalin and Molotov, Truman, Secretary of State James Byrnes and he were together for lunch on 17 July  and Stalin repeated what he had already told Hopkins in Moscow:

"He believes that the Führer had escaped and was hiding somewhere. He went on to say that the painstaking Soviet search had failed to discover any traces of Hitler’s remains or positive proof of his death".

During the lunch Byrnes asked Stalin his views of how Hitler had died: "To my surprise, he said he believed that Hitler was alive and that it was possible he was then either in Spain or Argentina". Some ten days later Byrnes asked Stalin if he had changed his views and he said he had not. 

-- William D. Leahy, "I Was There" [New York, London, Toronto: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1950]; James F. Byrnes, "Speaking Frankly" [New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1947].

Rumour Denied
The Daily News [Perth, WA]
21 July 1945

KIEL: Admiral Godt, operations chief of the German Undersea Fleet, denied that U-530, which surrendered at Argentina, left Kiel on 3 March for Norway with Hitler and Eva Braun on board. He described reports that the U-Boat put the pair ashore at Argentina as "wild rumours".

The Montevideo correspondent of the "Chicago Tribune" said that Hitler and Eva Braun were on a German estate in Patagonia, having been landed on a lonely part of the Argentine shore by U-530.

The correspondent added  that significance is now attached to the words of General Basilo Pertine [a former Argentinian Minister for War] at a banquet in Frankfurt on 4 June, who said:

"I am glad to announce that our friends are safe at last". 

A few weeks after Berlin surrendered a German submarine surfaced near a small boat off the coast of Patagonia one dark night. From the submarine, which Argentine anti-Nazi underground leaders of "Patria Libre" say was U-530, three persons were transferred by a small boat to a German-owned sheep ranch, where elaborate preparations had long been made to receive them.

At the time, unconfirmed news reports from Buenos Aires said that U-530's passengers were Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun, and Deputy Führer Martin Bormann. Whether this is true or whether the three perished in the ruins of Berlin, as Allied investigators believe, the U-530 must certainly have been on a mission of great importance.

The anti-Nazi Argentine underground leaders further say  the Nazi organisation in Argentina has scale models, blueprints, and formulae for the terrible weapons of destruction Germany was about to produce when her armies collapsed.

These are said to be in the hands of General Basilio Pertine, former Argentine War Minister, and president or director of five blacklisted Nazi firms, including Hermann Göring's Sema Arms Factory, near Buenos Aires.

In late August 1945. one of Pertine's friends returned to Argentina by submarine. He is Willie Köhn, chief of the Latin-American division of the Nazi Foreign Office. One of his first contacts was Karl Friedrich Bormann, son of Martin Bormann, who had arrived in Buenos Aires six months before to arrange for the flight of his father and other prominent war criminals.

-- Stanley Ross, who recently toured South America
"News" [Adelaide] 4 Mar 1946

A later report, by South American paper "La Critica" said that the pair were on Queen Maude Island, in the Antarctic.

Brazzaville [French Equitorial Africa] Radio quoted the newspaper, and added that Hitler and Eva Braun were landed at a former submarine base for German Antarctic explorers.

The U-530 would give no explanation of its whereabouts since Germany surrendered.

César Ameghino, the Argentine Foreign Minister denied reports that Hitler and Eva Braun had landed from the German submarine U-530 on the Argentine coast.

A spokesman of the U. S. State Department announced that the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires will investigate the reports that Hitler is in Argentina.

The spokesman pointed out that Argentina had given assurances to the Allied Governments that war criminals would not be harboured.

The editor of the Buenos Aires newspaper "El Tribuno" told "Associated Press" that two submarines were sighted by more than 100 people shortly before 11 a.m. on 17 July. The vessels surfaced three miles off San Clemente and Dexl Tuyu only a few days after the U-530 surrendered at Mar del Plata.

NEW YORK, 21 August 1945: Another report suggesting that Hitler may be in the Argentine is given in the Uruguayan newspaper, "El Dia". It follows the arrival last week-end of a second German U-Boat -U-977-at Mar del Plata, a port in the Argentine.

The "Chicago Tribune" correspondent in Montevideo says that the arrival of this submarine has strengthened the belief that both U-Boats unloaded war criminals on Argentine territory.

"El Dia" says that Hitler well may be one of those wanted men since reports of his death have never been confirmed.

 

At his first news conference, Colonel-General Alexander V. Gorbatov, the Russian member of the Allied Kommandantur in Berlin, on 30 July was questioned as to his views regarding the fate of Hitler. He answered that there was still no definite satisfactory evidence of his death. He added, however, that among Russian officers the saying was that if Hitler was alive he was certainly not in Russian-occupied territory. He also noted that he had heard reports that Hitler’s dentist had taken a human jawbone to Moscow and identified it as that of Hitler, but Gorbatov said he knew nothing of the matter beyond that.

Reds Doubtful About Hitler
The Daily News [Perth, WA]
31 July 1945

LONDON: Russian military government authorities in Berlin have no definite proof of Hitler's death and do not exclude the possibility of his still being alive and in hiding. This was stated by Russian Military Governor in Berlin, Colonel General Gorbatov, at the first press conference of the Russian military government, says "Reuters" Berlin man.

The Russians pursuing investigation of Hitler's fate, are convinced that if he is still alive he is not in the Red Army zone.

Gorbatov said that the Nazi Party put out many circumstantial stories with the obvious intention of discouraging further investigation into Hitler's whereabouts. They also began many rumours that he was still alive in order to encourage Nazi underground movements.

Hitler Still Alive?
Army News [Darwin, NT]
15 August 1945

BERLIN: British officers in northern Germany believe Hitler is still alive, and more than 1,500,000 Germans still in prison cages are being interrogated. It is believed that Hitler is disguised as an ordinary German soldier, and the British are determined to find him if he is still alive.

With growing suspicions that Hitler's suicide had been a Nazi farce, on 3 August the news agency EFE released information that stated:

"The Western allies maintain a special surveillance service throughout 125,000 square miles in case Hitler had not died and was hidden somewhere in Germany".

In that context, on 13 August, US Senator Theo Bilbo announced that he would present a bill in the US Congress to establish a one million dollar reward for "anyone who captured Hitler alive".
 
Bilbo said that if passed, the legislative initiative "would grant immunity against his persecution, as a war criminal, of any person who contributed to the capture of Hitler". 

That is to say, if some fugitive and repentant Nazi hierarchy wanted to "cleanse himself," all charges against him would be annulled if, in return, he gave the authorities the exact information that would enable him to catch the Führer.
 
"I do not think Hitler is dead.  I believe that he should be captured, tried and executed as a war criminal, "Bilbo said.  He also said that "if anyone opposes Congress paying the reward, he will gladly pay his share of the million" [Associated Press, Mississippi, 13 August 1945].

During July and August reports continued to surface of Hitler being alive. One in July indicated that he had taken a submarine to either Argentina or Chile; others that he was alive and hiding in Argentina. Reports of sightings continued in September.

-- See File: 862.002, Hitler, Adolf, Central Decimal File [NAID 302021] Record Group 59. For related correspondence see File: XE003655, Hitler, Adolf, Personal Name File, Intelligence and Investigative Dossiers Personal Files, 1977-2004 [NAID 645054] Record Group 319 and FBI File: 65-53615, Headquarters Files from Classification 65 [Espionage] Released Under the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Disclosure Acts, 1935-1985  [NAID 565806] Record Group 65.

 

Radio Voice Like Hitler's
The Evening Advocate [Innisfail, Qld]
16 August 1945

STOCKHOLM: The Swedish newspaper, "Aftonbiadet", which before the war was controlled by the Nazis, says that on Sunday night [4 days earlier] a radio station calling itself "Dietrich Eckardt" reappeared and announced that Hitler himself would speak.

"A voice remarkably like that of Hitler said:

'Now the hour has come when I can speak to the German people again and answer the question does he live or not?

"The world can rest assured that he lives.

"The Potsdam conference means the destruction of 20,000,000 people. The eyes of even the most foolish people are now open and the hour will come when I will call upon the German people for the final struggle".

Seeking Hitler
Tweed Daily [Murwillumbah, NSW]
18 August 1945

NEW YORK: The correspondent of the "New York Times" at Boston  says:

"Hitler and other leading Nazis who may have escaped from Europe are being sought in Boston and other seaports on incoming ships".

This was disclosed during an examination of the passengers and crew of a Swedish freighter.

Hitler Rumours
Sunday Times [Perth, WA]
9 September 1945 

LONDON: Strong rumors that Hitler and his henchman Martin Bormann have been seen in Hamburg are being investigated by British security police.

Hamburg radio recently picked up a broadcast believed to have been made by Bormann to Sweden, declaring that Hitler was alive and in good health in Germany.

According to a report from the American Forces Radio in Paris, Hitler is said to be alive somewhere, in the Hamburg area.

After questioning scores of Germans in the dock district without result, security police picked up a clue to a mysterious yacht which they traced to the small Elbe estuary port of Glückstadt. The yacht was reported to have left port at night early in May. Navy patrol boats set off in pursuit, but coud find no trace of the craft.

Within the last few days the search for the mysterious vessel has been continued.   

The ex-Führer has been variously reported as killed in action in Berlin, his body burned in the Chancellery destruction, killed by a poison injection, administered by his personal physician, murdered by the Gestapo, escaped by special plane with his mistress and entourage to Spain.

Hitler is Listed as "Missing"
News [Adelaide, SA]
16 August 1952    

BERLIN: West Berlin Registrar's Office regards Hitler as missing.

The office, which keeps records of all deaths for West Germany and West Berlin, said today its records did not contain a death certificate for Adolf Hitler.

It told the District Attorney of Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, Hitler's last official residence, that since it had no record of his death, Hitler must be regarded as missing.

The Berchtesgaden Court is entitled to declare Hitler dead if it considers available evidence justifies that finding.

LONDON, 14 October 1954 [A.A.P.] Hitler is dead beyond a doubt, the District Court at Berchtesgaden, where Hitler had his mountain retreat, announced today.

Although bodies were identified as those of Hitler and his mistress, Eva Braun, there have been persistent rumors over the last nine years that he escaped and fled to a secret hideout. 

The Court, which is dealing with a request by an Austrian Court for an official death certificate, said:

"According to all investigations carried out so far there can be no doubt that Hitler committed suicide on 30 April 1945, in his Berlin Bunker Chancellery".

The Berchtesgaden court has refused to speculate that Hitler may be a prisoner of the Russians; that he escaped to Argentina or some South Sea isle on a submarine; or that, his features altered by plastic surgery, Hitler has gone back to housepainting in some German village as plain "Fritz Krause". The court has even refused to issue a death certificate merely "presuming" Hitler to be dead. Hitler, the court has ruled, is dead beyond all doubt.

When the finding is confirmed by a higher Court, Hitler's name will be entered in a special book of deaths in the registration office of Charlottenberg. Already 302,379 names of men declared missing over the past 18 years have been entered as legally dead.

But sceptics note that last year 242 persons, listed as dead in the book, reappeared.

Declared Dead
Examiner [Launceston, Tas] 
28 October 1954

Martin Bormann, Hitler's deputy, was legally declared dead in Berlin on Tuesday. Bormann, who disappeared during the last days of the battle for Berlin in 1945, has been "seen" in more than a dozen countries since the war.

A Berlin official announced that his name had been entered in the city's special register of people assumed dead, although full proof was lacking.

Josef Göbbels Is Dead
The Canberra Times [ACT]
17 May 1957

BERLIN: Josef Göbbels, Hitler's propaganda chief, was officially declared dead by the Zehlendorf, W. Berlin, district court yesterday - 12 years after he had his six children killed and committed suicide In Hitler's Bunker.

At the war's end the Allies burned Hitler's uniforms, amid seriocomic secrecy, fearing they might become the "holy cloth" of a Nazi resurgence. But these fears have proved groundless.

Now the Allies treat Hitler's personal possessions as they would those of any other German. The Bavarian Government was permitted recently to return to Hitler's former house keeper, Anni Winter, two autographed luxury edition copies of "Mein Kampf", one of Hitler's briefcases and several Hitler watercolors and sketches. The court handling the case ruled, "these items have sensation value only, but are of no historic importance".

The chief beneficiary from Hitler's death certificate will be his sister, Mrs. Paula Hitler-Wolf. Penni less and living on public relief, Hitler's sister has been battling for six years for a share in the Führer's sizable fortune and personal effects, all impounded by the Bavarian Gov ernment. Oddly enough. Hitler's native country—Austria, has pushed the hardest to give Hitler a definite post war legal status. The Austrians have ruled that Hitler was a war criminal, and they have pressed the Berchtesgaden court for a death certificate to lay the legal basis for seizing Hitler's property in Austria.

Russian newspapers noted on 10 September the probability that Hitler was still alive. The idea was even put forward that Hitler was in hiding in Germany.

Allies Say Hitler Dead
The Courier-Mail [Brisbane, Qld]
10 September 1945

NEW YORK: British and American authorities in Germany who have been seeking evidence about Hitler's fate are convinced he is dead. However, the Russians continue to believe that he may be alive, but their suggestion is not backed by evidence, says the "New York Times" Washington correspondent.

Hitler Legend Growing
Advocate [Burnie, Tas]
12 September 1945

Hamburg: The British Intelligence Service has issued a warning that the "Hitler Legend" is growing in Germany because unfounded rumors that lie has been seen have recently been appearing, in certain newspapers.

It says that the rumours merely encourage creation of the Hitler legend, which those concerned with the occupation of Germany and the re-education of Germans are anxious to avoid.

British Intelligence officers denied reports that Hitler had been seen in the British zone in Germany.

On the other hand, Berlin's Lord Mayor, Dr. Karl Maron, said he definitely believed that Hitler was alive.

He added that it had been proved that none of the five bodies found near the Chancellery shelters was Hitler's.

 

Harry Collins, a news reporter in London, on 15 September wrote that while there were reports that the charred body of Hitler had been found by the Russians in the Berlin Chancellery, the question remained "Is Hitler alive?" |

"The welter of speculation grows with each new 'clue' and 'disclosure'. The answer is simple-his conquerors do not know".

Collins wrote that the Russians had never accepted as proved that the body they found in the Chancellery grounds was Hitler’s. He reported that British Army authorities had declared that the latest rumor that Hitler was seen in Hamburg was "completely unfounded" and that they denied that the British were searching for Hitler.

"Yet", Collins noted, "it is known that British Intelligence is far from convinced that Hitler is dead".

-- Harry Collins, 'Is Hitler Dead or Alive?' "The New York Times", 16 September 1945. 

"Izvestia" ran a story that Hitler and Braun were alive and well, and living in a moated castle in Westphalia, in the British Occupation Zone of Germany.  An American journalist in Germany believed that in throwing out names of such countries as Spain and Argentina, Stalin was probably just paying off old political grievances against Franco and other neutrals. But, in having a go at the British he was virtually accusing them of harboring a living Hitler.

Dick White, head of counter-intelligence in the British Zone, described the situation as "intolerable". In September he would turn to Hugh Trevor-Roper to investigate the Death of Hitler.

General Eisenhower certainly did not help matters regarding Hitler still being alive, when on 6 October, it was reported by the Netherlands radio that he had told Dutch newspaper men that there was "reason to believe" that Hitler was still alive. The broadcast, recorded by the 'British Broadcasting Corporation' [BBC] in London, said that one of the correspondents accompanying Eisenhower on a visit to The Hague had asked Eisenhower if he thought Hitler was dead. 

-- "Associated Press", 'Hitler Believed Alive, Eisenhower Tells Dutch', "The New York Times", 7 October 1945.

"The Associated Press" [AP] in London on 7 October reported Eisenhower’s remark that there is "reason to believe" that Hitler may still be alive, reversed his previous opinion that Hitler was dead. 

According to "The Times" on 8 October, Eisenhower had said to foreign journalists during a visit to the Netherlands:

“Even though I initially believed that Hitler was dead, there are now reasons to assume that he is still alive.”

-- "Associated Press", London, 7 October 1945, 'Ike Believes Hitler Lives', "The Stars and Stripes", 8 October 1945, File: Hitler, Adolf, XE003655 [NAID 7359097].

In an editorial published on 8 October in the London newspaper, "News Chronicle", commenting on Eisenhower’s remark that Hitler may still be alive, Gallman observed:

"General Eisenhower’s remark that Hitler may still be alive is disturbing. It is certain there are still elements in Germany which would be only too glad to gather clandestinely round their old leader or-if that is not possible-at least to keep alive a Hitler myth. Nothing could do more to retard Germany’s return to normality than the belief that the Führer is still in the land of the living.  It would have been better if the general had said less, or said more. If there is just a faint doubt, then the less it is publicized the sooner it will be forgotten. If on the other there are solid grounds for believing that Hitler is not dead, we should be told more about them. It is a matter in which everyone is interested and the public would like to hear at least such of the evidence as will not hamper the hunt".

--  Incoming Telegram, No. 10492, Gallman, London to the Secretary of State, 8 October 1945, File: 862.002/10-845, Hitler, Adolf, Central Decimal Files [NAID 302021].

On 8 October the American Military Attaché in London sent a cable to United States Forces, European Theater [USFET] indicating that the British War Office had requested information as to whether press reports quoting Eisenhower’s statement was based on any recent information gathered by American agencies. The military attaché cabled again on 11 October, reporting that the bulk of British press on 7 October published prominently the statement reportedly made by Eisenhower to Dutch journalists at The Hague on 6 October to the effect that he has reason to believe Hitler was still alive. He also reported the story was broadcast by Hilversum radio [Dutch radio station in Hilversum] and also by the BBC.

The Attaché requested directions, asking whether he should deny to the War Office that Eisenhower even discussed the mater or shall he say Dutch must have misunderstood. 

USFET responded three days later, stating that Eisenhower spoke with representatives of Dutch Press aboard his train during his visit to The Hague. In this purely informal conversation the newsmen brought up question as to whether or not the General thought Hitler was dead or still alive. There was no speech or official statement made.

Col. Edward R. Lee, the General’s aide, was present on this occasion and states, "General Eisenhower never said Hitler was alive; he merely said he could not prove he was dead".

-- Headquarters, U.S. Forces European Theater, Staff Message Control, Incoming Classified Message, Ref No. 65954, Office of Military Attaché London signed Tindall to US Forces European Theater Main, October 8, 1945, File: 091.1/1, 1945, Classified General Correspondence, 1945-46 [NAID 5665349], RG 498; Headquarters, U.S. Forces European Theater, Staff Message Control, Incoming Classified Message, Ref No. 65972, Office of Military Attaché London signed Tindall to US Forces European Theater Main, 11 October 1945, ibid.; Headquarters, U.S. Forces European Theater, Staff Message Control, Outgoing Classified Message, Ref No. SC-5486, US Forces European Theater Main signed Eisenhower to Military Attaché United States Embassy London for Tindall, 11 October 1945, ibid.

According to Trevor-Roper, he was at General Eisenhower’s headquarters at Frankfurt at the time, and was able to point out that however defective the positive evidence of death might be, there was no reason to believe that Hitler was alive.

"On his return to Frankfurt General Eisenhower thereupon modified his statement.

"He himself, he said, found it hard to believe that Hitler was alive, 'but his Russian friends assured him that they had been unable to unearth any tangible evidence of his death'.

At Frankfurt on 12 October Eisenhower, explaining the alleged remarks he had made to a Dutch newspaper, denied that he had ever said that Hitler was alive but agreed with Lt. Gen. Walter B. Smith, his Chief of Staff, who declared that "‘no human being can say he [Hitler] is conclusively dead". Eisenhower said what he had said was that "There is every presumption that Hitler is dead but not a bit of positive proof that he is dead". He added that the Russians had been unable to unearth "one single bit" of tangible evidence of Hitler’s death.

-- Wireless to "The New York Times", 'Eisenhower Didn’t Say He Believes Hitler Alive', "The New York Times", 13 October 1945.

In the House of Commons in London, on 15 October 1945, Hector McNeil, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs told a questioner that "The Government has no evidence proving conclusively either that Hitler is dead or is alive". He added that investigations were continuing.

No Sanctuary for Hitler
Glen Innes Examiner (NSW: 1908 - 1954)
8 September 1945

Neutral nations had been warned that they would lose American friendship for years if they gave sanctuary to Hitler and other Axis leaders, said the Secretary of State, Cordell Hull].

Sweden, Turkey, Switzerland, and Spain had either given assurances that they would not permit Axis nationals to flee into their borders, or that they were fully aware of the problems such action might provoke. Certain other Governments had not yet indicated their views.

The United States had the support and approval of the British and Russian Governments in bringing this pressure on neutrals.

Hitler Rumours
Sunday Times [Perth, WA]
9 September 1945    

LONDON. Strong rumours that Hitler and his henchman Martin Bormann have been seen in Hamburg are being investigated by British security police.

Hamburg radio recently picked up a broadcast believed to have been made by Bormann to Sweden, declaring that Hitler was alive and in good health in Germany.

Hitler Rumours
The Central Queensland Herald [Rockhampton, Qld]
11 October 1945

LONDON 8 October - There are rumours all over Sweden that Hitler and Martin Bormann, Deputy Führer of Nazi Germany, are hiding there.

Competent Swedish officials deny they could possibly be there.

The rumours have arisen as the result of an official announcement that Bormann will be tried in his absence with 23 major war leaders and General Eisenhower's statement that he believed that Hitler was alive.

 

Hitler Would Like It
News [Adelaide, SA]
9 October 1945

Is Hitler, War Criminal No. 1, alive or dead? This is a question which ought to arouse much livelier general interest than it seems to be doing. A conclusive answer was not given after the occupation of Berlin. Russia has for some time been doubtful about Hitler's death. Now General Eisenhower, who is nobody's fool, is credited with having said that there is good reason to believe Hitler is alive.

If at large, the one-time Führer should be well pleased with the state of affairs in the world. The kind of craziness that has broken out is just what he would wish for his victorious enemies. Hitler would, for example, be pleased to see America, Britain, and Russia so much at odds. He would be pleased to know of the restless condition of Europe. He would be pleased over the trouble brewing in Palestine, and diverted to find Jews in Germany issuing "demands" and Jews in America blackguarding Britain. He would be pleased to find India and the Dutch East Indies so much on edge. He would be pleased to hear of plotting against de Gaulle and Communist leaders in France, and to find the trial of his offsider Pierre Laval disgusting French public opinion. He would be pleased to see Britain, the dogged foe who dragged him down, still on short rations and facing vast economic problems.

He would be pleased to find his name omitted from the list of Nazi war criminals for trial, although the name of Martin Bormann appears. Bormann is missing also. There is no more real proof that he is alive than there is proof that Hitler is dead.

It must be left to the Allied Intelligence services to find Hitler if he is actually living some sort of existence in a hide-out. And it is to be hoped that in the meantime the nations that fought him will find something else--a spirit of comradeship and trust that would go a long way toward removing the problems that cause so much anxiety today.

When the accused are lined up in the dock on 19 November 1945 only Hitler and his Deputy Martin Bormann will be among the top-flight Nazi leaders not accounted for-dead or alive. If Hitler ever turns up, he will be given a special trial but the charges will be substantially the same. Bormann is still untraced. The indictment will be served on him by periodic broadcasts and newspaper announcements until the date of the trial.

Had Hitler Lived
South Western Advertiser [Perth, WA]
23 August 1946

NEW YORK: Had Hitler lived to stand trial as a war criminal, the tale he told would probably have been the gem of them all.

At least, that was the opinion of Prosecutor Robert Jackson on his return to Washington after playing his part in the Nuremburg trials.

Almost all the defendants from Göring down proudly admitted that they openly defied Hitler. In the same breath they recalled how Hitler threatened to eliminate them, yet none could explain by what miracle he was saved from the Führer's wrath.

Jackson said their attempts to square off made him feel that, had Hitler lived to stand trial, he would have tried to prove he was even more anti-Nazi than others, that he reluctantly and at great sacrifice assumed power only to prevent Göring, Himmler and the others from doing the many terrible things they had planned.

In the final weeks of World War II, the whole of the German Second Army and part of the Third Panzer Army were now completely cut off from the Reich.

Hitler, however, demonstrated scant sympathy for the defenders of his Reich. When the commander of the Second Army, Colonel General Walter Weiß, warned Führerheadquarters that the Elbing pocket, which had cost so much blood already, could not be held much longer, Hitler simply retorted, "'Weiß is a liar, like all generals", and on 9 March 1945, sacked him.

In his place, he  appointed General Dietrich von Saucken, the former commander of the Großdeutschland Corps.
 

 

A cavalry officer who regularly wore both a sword and a monocle, Dietrich von Saucken personified the archetypal aristocratic Prussian conservative who despised the "braune Bande" [brown mob] of Nazis. When he was ordered to take command of the Second Army on 12 March 1945, he came to Hitler's headquarters with his left hand resting casually on his cavalry sabre, his monocle in his eye, the Knight's Cross with Swords and Oak Leaves at his neck, saluted indifferently and gave a slight bow.

This was three "outrages" at once. He had not given the Nazi salute with raised arm and the words "Heil Hitler", as had been regulation since 20 July 1944, he had not surrendered his weapon on entering the conference room and had kept his monocle in his eye when saluting Hitler.

General Heinz Guderian and Martin Bormann, who were present, seemed turned to stone, but Hitler merely asked Guderian to brief von Saucken on the situation in Danzig. Once that was completed, Hitler told Saucken that he was to immediately fly to East Prussia and take command of the Second Army and then casually added that in the Danzig area he would have to accept the authority of Gauleiter Albert Forster.

Von Sauken stiffened and, still with eyeglass in place, struck the marble slab of the map table with the flat of his hand, and said:

"I have no intention, Herr Hitler, of placing myself under the orders of a Gauleiter".

Hearts froze around the room. Von Saucken had gone too far, bluntly contradicting Hitler and not addressing him as "Mein Führer". Even Guderian, who had been through more rows with Hitler than most people, was shaken.

Yet the onlookers were even more surprised by Hitler's acquiescence, saying softly:

"All right Saucken, keep the command to yourself".

Hitler dismissed the General without shaking his hand and von Saucken left the room with only the merest hint of a bow.

Nothing was said about this defiance of the Führer.

Von Saucken flew to Danzig the next day, to command the 2nd Army in Prussia and provide logistical support to the Evacuation of East Prussia. In April, his army was renamed  Army East Prussia, fighting north east of Berlin in the Vistula Delta.

On 8 May, von Saucken received notice that he had been awarded the Diamonds to his Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, making him the last of 27 officers to receive this award, the "Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub, Schwertern und Brillanten".

Admiral Karl Dönitz sent a sea-plane so von Saucken could fly to the west and surrender to the more compassionate Americans, but he refused this proposal with the words "Mein Platz ist bei meinen Soldaten" [My place is with my soldiers]. He ordered the aircraft to be filled with wounded soldiers and sent it back to Schleswig-Holstein.

Von Saucken surrendered to the Red Army on the following day of 9 May 1945, on the Hel Peninsula, going into Soviet captivity.

He was initially imprisoned in the Lubyanka Building and the Oryol Prison, but was subsequently sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment and transferred to the Siberian Tayshet camp in 1949. Kept in solitary confinement, ordered to hard labor and beaten savagely by Soviet interrogators after refusing to sign false confessions, von Saucken was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, suffering quietly in intense pain.

Released from Soviet captivity in 1955, he settled in Pullach near Munich, and took up amateur painting. He died there in 1980, aged 88.

 

Some Background to the Above Story....

At some point in time, Hitler had a falling out with virtually all his top generals over strategy and tactics. Occasionally, he would retire them or move them to the sidelines.  However, usually the discarded generals were allowed to return to action although often in a lesser role:  Hitler did not hold the grudge forever in these instances.

It is unwise to see the Führer as being in a continual state of raging fury. The "Chew the Carpet" Hitler, who, in varying degrees of parody, was presented in film after film [Guinness, Finlay, Carlyle] can be safely discarded by audiences. if one sifts through the transcripts of the military situation conferences that survived the war [and they run into many hundreds of pages] there is precious little sign in any of them of stand up, uncontrollable rows between Hitler and those commanders present, whatever the news.

In September 1942 a dozen expert stenographers were appointed by Martin Bormann to take down every word spoken by Hitler in conference. Hitler no longer trusted his generals to speak the truth to him. In the years that remained, these dedicated professional stenographers recorded millions of words, which teams of typists typed up, double-spaced, on tens of thousands of pages at the headquarters and in Berlin.

Regrettably, in the very last days of the war Hitler's Beauftragter für die Kriegsgeschichtsschreibung, Generalmajor Walter Scherff, ordered all copies destroyed before taking his own life. Searching the ruins of the Berghof, American troops found half-burned stenograms and reconstructed some of the texts, which Dr Helmut Heiber published in full under the title "Hitlers Lagebesprechungen" [Institut für Zeitgeschichte, 1962].

An English translation appeared as "Hitler and His Generals, Military Conferences 1942-1945" [New York, 2003].

The idiomatic German expression "Teppichfresser" means someone who wears out the carpet.

The mental image is of someone who paces up and down anticipating or in anxious thought until his feet wear holes in the carpet, i.e. it is his feet that are "devouring" the carpet. This was the sense in which Germans characterized Hitler's behavior in situations during 1938-39 as that of a "Teppichfresser".

German speakers did not understand this to mean Hitler applied his teeth to a carpet, either really or metaphorically. They knew what the metaphor had already meant for 50 years, perhaps much longer.

William L. Shirer told the tale of Hitler  getting into such a rage that he would fall down on the floor and chew on the edge of the first carpet available, as early as 1938. This was quoted by Walter Langer in "The Mind of Adolf Hitler" which was an "analysis" of Hitler done by Langer, a psychoanalyst, for the Office of Strategic Services in 1941.

Langer's staff collected anecdotes and observations of Hitler's health and behavior from all available sources.

Langer did go on to say, however, that no one close to Hitler had ever seen him behave in that manner.

Hitler's closest associates, [Speer, Günsche, etc] said that while Hitler had quite the temper, he never descended to that depth. John Toland also debunks Shirer's account, indicating that "chewing the carpet" meant long animated discussion or ranting, similar to the way amateur radio operators describe long on-air discussions as "chewing the rag".

One wonders how Shirer could so misinterpret the meaning of the expression.

"In conversations generally I admired Hitler's calm manner. I never found him to be an unpleasant person. On the contrary, for me he was an aesthete, and his open mindedness, tolerance, and chivalrous manner were the reasons why all people who came into contact with him found him human and congenial".

Nikolaus von Below, "At Hitler's Side: The Memoirs of Hitler's Luftwaffe Adjutant"

In his book, Below implies that he retained Hitler's confidence to the end. In addition to his duties as air force adjutant, from May 1944 on Below also acted as Albert Speer's liaison officer with Hitler's headquarters. He frequently mentions the hours spent alone or in a very small group with Hitler, and the invitations his wife received to stay at the Berghof. One of the most surprising aspects of Below's relationship with Hitler is that the Nazi leader never directed his angry outbursts at his Luftwaffe adjutant, surely quite an accomplishment as Allied bombers reduced one German city after another to rubble.

Below's portrait of life in Hitler's entourage is interesting and confirms what other witnesses have written.

He states that it was not unpleasant to work for Hitler, remarking that he "was very easy to get on with, being amiable and correct towards his staff". Below claims that he accepted the position of Hitler's adjutant with the understanding that he would serve in this capacity for two years, but Hitler refused his requests to transfer to a front-line unit because Hitler "did not like new faces".

Surprisingly, he asserts that Hitler was neither arrogant nor stubborn, and, provided one had clear and reasoned arguments, Hitler could be persuaded to change his mind.

This depiction stands in sharp contrast to that of most others who dealt with Hitler, but it is possible. Hitler listened to those whom he trusted.

Bernd Freytag von Löringhoven,  aide-de-camp to General  Hans Krebs, in his book "In the Bunker with Hitler", disputes portrayals of Hitler as raving and foaming at the mouth in the final days.

"I was present at these rages but they were not so excessive," he says.

He never saw him screaming with anger but says he could be "ice cold in his expressions and very aggressive, especially towards the generals".

In the evening of 29 April 1945, von Löringhoven left the Führerbunker with Gerhardt Boldt and Lieutenant-Colonel Rudolf Weiß.

That morning, Löringhoven had approached General Hans Krebs and asked if he and Boldt could leave Berlin and "return to the fighting troops". Krebs talked to General Wilhelm Burgdorf, to get his advice.

Burgdorf, Hitler's Chief Adjutant, approved but indicated that they should take his assistant, Weiß.

Hitler was approached for his approval at midday.

Surprisingly, he asked many questions and offered his advice, asking:

"How are you going to get out of Berlin?"

When von Löringhoven mentioned finding a boat, Hitler became enthusiastic and said:

"You must get an electric boat, because that does not make any noise and you can get through the Russian lines".

 

Within days, the war was over and the Third Reich was no more, but the fact that Hitler’s body hadn’t turned up rankled the Western Allies. Hitler wasn’t supposed to mysteriously vanish into history — he was supposed to either stand trial or drop dead and leave a corpse to be verified.

Thus was born a myth of Hitler’s survival — and a host of Hitler death conspiracy theories — one that still persists and was even reignited by the 2015 release of secret FBI documents containing reports that Hitler had escaped Germany in a U-boat and fled to Argentina.

Martin Bormann: A New Body of Evidence
Laurence De Melo
24 August 2016

Martin Bormann, Hitler’s right hand man and chancellor, the man that controlled all of Nazi Germany’s appropriated loot, was tried in absentia in October 1946 at the Nuremberg trials. Found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging, Bormann evaded the noose due to his mysterious disappearance.

When anyone mentions the name Martin Bormann most baby-boomers will know who he was, they will also be quick to tell you that; while there was a wild goose-chase across the globe to find him, he certainly died in 1945, proved they say, by the finding of his bones in Berlin in 1972.

Two Nazi witnesses at the Nuremberg trials testified to the fact that they had seen Bormann and fellow Nazi, Dr Ludwig Stumpfegger dead, in the vicinity of the Weidendamm Bridge and the Lehrter train station in Berlin, only hours after fleeing the Bunker – where Hitler had supposedly put a bullet through his brain. One witness going as far as to say that he had even seen Bormann’s dead "moonlit face".

From 1945 the hunt for Martin Bormann was on. During the confusion of those early post war years, the West German government kept the heat up, but the "hunt" was only, If anything, lukewarm. A concentrated search effort had been made in 1945 around the site of the supposed "moonlit" scenario of Bormann and Stumpfegger, with whom he was last seen alive.

According to an interview with Hugh Trevor-Roper, Artur  Axmann "coming upon a Russian patrol, turned back and followed in the direction in which Bormann and Stumpfegger had gone. Before long he overtook them. Behind the bridge, where the Invalidenstrasse crosses the railway line, he found both of them lying out-stretched on their backs, with the moon light on their faces. Stopping for a moment, he saw that both were dead, but Russian fire prevented closer examination. There were no obvious wounds, no signs of a shattering explosion. He assumed they had been shot in the back. Axmann continued on his way alone..." 

Roper left the issue of Bormann's death open in early editions of the work, because evidence of Bormann's death rested solely on the testimony of Axmann. Although Axmann's testimony regarding other events was truthful so far as it could be independently verified, Roper realized that Axmann might be giving false evidence to protect Bormann from further search. 

With the advantage of hordes of Allied troops on the ground to co-ordinate a thorough search near and around the Lehrter station in Berlin, no stone was left unturned. The same was done independently by a Russian recon group, after Lieutenant General Konstantin Telegin, of the Soviet 5th Shock Army was delivered a diary said to be of Bormann’s, found near the same site.

In those early post war years, it was not yet a "cold case", with memories still fresh and the ground still soft. Any such corpses although decomposed, would have certainly been on, or near the surface and easily identifiable with the minimum of forensics; but not as much as a scrap of flesh was found of either man. At least they had some disputable charred remains of Hitler, but the bodies of Bormann and Stumpfegger had literally "vanished" into thin air, along with the Nazi loot.

 

In December, 1972, during construction near the Lehrter Station [near to where Bormann's diary had been found in a discarded leather jacket in 1945 by a man who claimed to have been forced by the Russians to bury Bormann and Stumpfegger], identified the supposed grave. The man knew the body had been that of Bormann because of the pocketbook found upon the body by the man's boss.

Erich Kempka appears to have given conflicting accounts that when the tank [armoured car in some accounts] which Bormann sheltered beside exploded, that he saw Bormann fall with his leather coat on fire. 

This conflicts with Russian claims that a leather coat was found some distance away to the west near Lehrter S-Bahn [station] with Bormann's diary in its pocket, but interestingly not Hitler's will, which was known to be in that coat's pocket that night. If Kempka saw the coat ablaze how was it later found intact? 

When Axmann's story came out years later Kempka's story apparently changed to state that Kempka was concussed and temporarily blinded. 

Axmann's story also appears to have evolved. He first stated that after the tank exploded about 1 A.M. on 2 May 1945, that he came across the dead unmarked corpse of Bormann on his back in the moonlight [There was almost no moon that night as it was 13 days past the full moon and the highest the moon reached before dawn was 18 degrees above the horizon. It was a very thin crescent and unable to bathe anybody's face in moonlight]. 
 
It is also reported that Axmann said he saw Stumpfegger and Bormann alive taking cyanide [prussic acid], and there were also conflicting claims that Bormann was still wearing the coat when Axmann saw them, but that the coat was found separate from the corpses by the Russians.

Jochen von Lang, Editor and Reporter of "Stern" verified this story. The man led von Lang and Joachim Richter Frankfurt Prime Prosecutor, to the spot where the bodies had lain before he had moved them to the burial site. It was the exact spot where Axmann had testified to having last seen them. Nevertheless, the search revealed nothing. 

Seven years later the city of Berlin was excavating the area near the suspected grave. Von Lang attended and two bodies were discovered and were identified as those of Bormann and Stumpfegger. They were found thirty-six feet away from the site of the previous search. The dental records recreated from memory by Dr. Hugo Blaschke, in 1945, identified the bodies. A press conference in West Germany announced the discovery of the remains. Since the dental records were recreated from memory their authenticity was questionable. 

Paul Manning in "Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile" cited two of Hitler's dental assistants to Dr Blaschke who said that two Bormann look-alikes were removed from concentration camps and given identical dentistry to Bormann's and accompanied the break-out party. Thus the confusion was planned in advance by Bormann. 

Bormann's skull when unearthed was caked in red volcanic soil which matched soil found in Paraguay suggesting Bormann had first been buried in Paraguay, unearthed and then reburied in Berlin. 

The West German Government and the Bormann family refused all permission to study the soil. His skeleton was hastily cremated and the ashes spread in the Baltic in great secrecy to prevent all further investigations. 

At the time there were protests in many newspapers wanting to know more about the red soil. These included: 

"The News Letter" [Belfast, Northern Ireland]; 5/5/1998  
"The Scotsman" [Edinburgh, Scotland]; 8/30/1999  
"The Birmingham Post" [England]; 5/11/1998 

But after construction workers came across human remains near the Lehrter station in Berlin in 1972, the world's press gathered to hear if this was indeed Bormann.

WEST BERLIN: Forensic experts in West Berlin are waiting for the dental records of Martin Bormann, Hitler's former deputy, to compare them with the teeth of two skulls which could solve the mystery surrounding the fate of world's most wanted Nazi. 

-- The Canberra Times 11 December 1972

Skeletons not of Bormann
The Canberra Times [ACT] 
13 December 1972 

WEST BERLIN: Hopes that two skeletons dug up in West Berlin last week might solve the 27 year-old mystery surrounding the disappearance of Hitler's deputy, Martin Bormann. dimmed yesterday when police said preliminary comparison of dental records had proved negative. The skulls of the two skeletons were unearthed during cable-laying work near the spot where Mr. Bormann, who if alive today would be 72, was last seen at the end of World War II.

Forensic experts compared them yesterday with Mr. Bormann's dental records but there was nothing to indicate that either skull belonged to the world's most wanted Nazi war criminal.

Bormann's skull had about eight fillings not performed before May 1945. It had an upper right 3rd molar crown not present in 1945 and a lower window crown bridge from lower right to lower left lateral incisor inclusive. During the war Dr. Blaschke had performed a crown on Bormann's U/left cent incisor which in the 1972 skeleton was replaced by a three element bridge. There were also at least three teeth L/L 1st molar U/L bicuspid and U/L 2nd Bicuspid missing with bone growth over their sockets which had been present before the breakout on 2 May 1945.

Bormann's Nazi dentist Dr Hugo Blaschke was called and he recalled from memory his former patient's dental physiology and gave testimony that they were one and the same, the case was then closed.

Bormann Dead 
The Canberra Times [ACT] 
12 April 1973 

FRANKFURT, Germany: The case book on the Martin Bormann mystery was formally closed today when the Frankfurt Attorney General, Mr Gauf, ruled that a recently un-earthed skeleton was "with certainty" that of Hitler's deputy, the "Associated Press" reported. 

Martin Bormann died on 2 May 1945, between 1 and 3 A.M. on the Invalidenstrasse Railway bridge, in Berlin, a short time after his accomplice Adolf Hitler", Mr Gauf said in directing that the 28-year search for Bormann be terminated and the existing arrest warrant be lifted.  

As stated in the Final Report of the Frankfurt State Prosecution office under File Index No. Js 11/61 [GStA Ffm] in "Criminal Action against Martin Bormann on Charge of Murder", dated 4 April 1973: 

XI. Result 
Although nature has placed limits on human powers of recognition [BGHZ Vol. 36, pp. 379-393-NJW 1962, 1505], it is proved with certainty that the two skeletons found on the Ulap fairgrounds in Berlin on 7 and 8 December 1972, are identical with the accused Martin Bormann and Dr. Ludwig Stumpfegger. 

The accused and Dr. Ludwig Stumpfegger died in Berlin in the early hours of the morning of 2 May 1945 -- sometime between 1:30 and 2:30 A.M. 

XII. Further Measures 
1. The search for Martin Bormann is officially terminated. 

The forensic identification was validated by Dr. Reidar F. Sognnaes, a celebrated U.S. expert in such matters. [Reidar F. Sognnaes, 'Dental Evidence in the Postmortem Identification of Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun and Martin Bormann', in "Legal Medicine Annual", 1976]. This new evidence caused Roper to write in the 1978 edition of "The Last Days of Hitler" that "...in view of new evidence which has recently been found, I believe that it [the question of Bormann's death] can now be closed". 

It was not until 1998 that due to modern science technology, the remains were subjected to a DNA forensic study by the West German prosecutor. The reason for this new 1998 investigation was that in 1996 Christopher Creighton, aka John Ainsworth-Davis a former British Naval Intelligence agent and member of the covert British group C.O.P.P [Combined Operations Pilotage Parties] had published a book, "OPJB" [Operation James Bond]. In the book, Creighton using a pseudonym, claims that along with Ian Fleming, he was instructed by Winston Churchill and Desmond Morton the head of Secret British intelligence section V, to rescue Martin Bormann from a burning Berlin in May 1945. The book passed off as a novel, to protect Creighton from potential serious consequences due to breach of the Official Secrets Act – unsettled the German government to the extent that a thorough forensics and DNA investigation was carried out on the remains. The forensic results came back after the legal medical team matched blood from a maternal Bormann relative, the match was positive.

A confirmation of the remains being those of Bormann was released to the world's press, along with the statement that Martin Bormann had certainly died in 1945 at the site his remains were found.

Martin Bormann's body was "unearthed" in 1972 at a site that had been thoroughly and extensively searched by various groups of soldiers and investigators over the years.  

Due to the 1998 DNA confirmation of the Martin Bormann skeleton, modern historians teach their students that stories of Bormann escaping to South America are false, nothing more than the rantings of conspiracy theorists and madmen. A handful of bona-fide investigative journalists and even former intelligence agents have been continually slandered after they have released information to the contrary, that there has been a cover-up by the western Allies; that not only did Bormann escape, but his escape was orchestrated by the British Intelligence services with the full knowledge of the United States government.

Anyone that dares to raise any questions as to the true dynamics of Bormann's disappearance and death, is discredited based only on the DNA match which confirm the remains as being Bormann. But why are there such conflicting stories between the official version and the version by those that have seriously investigated this strange case for decades?

Bormann'ss remains were found in 1972, but did he really die in 1945?

And what exactly is at stake if it were proved that he died much later than we are led to believe? Even though his remains were found in 1972 in Berlin, it does not mean that his body had lain there since 1945 and there is absolutely no evidence to suggest such. In fact, there is more evidence to suggest foul play by the British and American intelligence services, that Bormann did escape and after his death in the mid/late 1960's his remains were carefully reburied in the place historians like to believe he fell.

In 1998, a test identified the skull as that of Bormann, using DNA from an unnamed 83-year-old relative.

Some controversy continued, however. For example, Hugh Thomas' 1995 book "Doppelgängers" claimed there were forensic inconsistencies suggesting Bormann died later than 1945. According to this work and the very controversial "The Nazi Hydra in America: Wall Street and the Rise of the Fourth Reich" by Glen Yeadon, there were not only significant forensic inconsistencies with Bormann's having died in 1945, but there were also a very many credible sightings of Bormann in South America well in to the 1960s. The forensic inconsistencies included the following:

1) A certain type of volcanic red clay that was found caked on much of the skull, which suggested that the skull had been dug up and moved since that type of soil doesn't exist in the ground in Berlin, but is instead largely found in Paraguay [which is where several of the Bormann sightings were reported to have occurred].

2) Record of dental work. Although Bormann's dental records dating back to 1945 matched dental work done on that skull, there was also other, more recently performed dental work that didn't show up on the 1945 dental records, but appeared to exist in addition to all of the other dental work that matched exactly the 1945 records.

3) The position and condition of the teeth in the skull indicated that the skull belonged to someone of a more advanced age then Bormann's almost 45 years at the time of his supposed 1945 death.

Since 1998 DNA testing revealed the skull to in fact be Bormann's, the theory that is suggested by the above evidence is that Bormann lived outside of Germany for some time, and that after his death his remains were buried somewhere [presumably near where he had been living]. Then, sometime later, as part of a cover-up, his remains were exhumed, altered appropriately [such as the planting of glass shards in the lower jar to mimic the result of having bitten down on a glass cyanide ampule], and then "planted" as evidence, with the intention of them being found in Berlin by "accident," to lend credence to story that Bormann had fallen nearby, in 1945, and that that was where his body was ultimately buried by someone who perhaps didn't recognize him or who did but didn't want it to be found at the time.

People have questioned why Bormann, if he had indeed been buried abroad, would have been exposed directly to the soil as opposed to being in a casket or sarcophagus of some kind. Theorists of this conspiracy suggest that perhaps, during his period of hiding, the plan had existed all along [or was conceived at least at the time of his death] and therefore he was buried locally to allow his body to naturally biodegrade before being exhumed and relocated back to a site in Berlin where it would eventually be found.

Theories as to who perpetrated this crime abound, from the West German government wanting to cover-up his escape to the Mossad wanting to cover-up the fact that they knew his whereabouts but were unable or unwilling to abduct him and bring him to justice as they had with Eichmann to elements of the British government wanting to cover-up the fact that they had helped him escape in order to get access to his vast fortune to the Soviets wanting to cover-up the fact that he had in fact been the deep-cover mole codenamed "Werther". 

On the publication of the 1998 Bormann DNA report, "London's Daily Express" newspaper called it a "whitewash". The author of the article, Stewart Steven a very experienced foreign editor of the "Daily Express", who was participant and directly involved with a thorough Bormann investigation in Buenos Aires, along with a team of highly qualified academics and lawyers, was sacked 6 days later. Stevens was accused of publishing a "hoax" and discredited as having being hoodwinked into believing that classified Argentine government and Federal police files were fakes, even though there is absolutely no evidence to date to prove, let alone suggest, that such files were in fact anything but genuine.

But why do modern historians find it so shocking to consider the possibility  that Martin Bormann, Hitler’s "Banker" may have escaped from Berlin with the help of British intelligence? Not only would it make absolute sense to Churchill, to lift the man with access to all the money, it would be negligent to fail to.

After all, numerous Nazi officers who were participant in the brutal slavery of concentration camp prisoners, were snapped up by the USA for their various talents. Many of whom were made post WWII heroes in the American scientific community, after being "invited" to the USA as part of Operation Paperclip. 

Notorious  Nazi Klaus Barbie, a former head of the  Gestapo and known as the "Butcher of Lyon", was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to death in absentia, yet it is documented that Barbie was protected and formerly employed in 1947 by the U.S Army Counterintelligence Corps [CIC] and later by the CIA to set up the Western Intelligence Network to keep tabs on communist threat. This was a major and shocking betrayal by the USA as to the allied Nuremberg trial sentencing of Barbie. When the French government discovered that the USA were protecting Barbie, they requested he be immediately handed over for execution under international law. The USA flatly refused and consequently gave Barbie a new identity and shipped him off to Bolivia. 

If the USA could blatantly fly in the face of the International Nuremberg trials death sentence which they were actively participant in by protecting a psychopathic killer such as Barbie, why is it so unacceptable to believe that the allies would rescue Martin Bormann, the man with access to the hidden Nazi funds? If anything, there should have been a rabid race between the USA and Britain to see who could get to him first.

Pried loose by Congress, which passed the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act three years ago, a long-hidden trove of once-classified CIA documents confirms one of the worst-kept secrets of the Cold War - the CIA's use of an extensive Nazi spy network to wage a clandestine campaign against the Soviet Union. 

The CIA reports show that U.S. officials knew they were subsidizing numerous Third Reich veterans who had committed horrible crimes against humanity, but these atrocities were overlooked as the anti-Communist crusade acquired its own momentum. For Nazis who would otherwise have been charged with war crimes, signing on with American Intelligence enabled them to avoid a prison term. 

-- Martin A. Lee   "San Francisco Bay Guardian"  7 May 2001  

---

Hans Globke was a  Nazi functionary working with Adolf Eichmann in the Jewish Affairs department who helped draft the laws stripping Jews of rights. After the war he rose to become one of the most powerful figures in the government. As national security advisor to Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, he was the main liaison with the CIA and NATO. 

Julian Borger in Washington: 
 
On 23  May 1960, when Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion announced to the Knesset that "Adolf Eichmann, one of the greatest Nazi war criminals, is in Israeli custody", US and West German Intelligence services reacted to the stunning news not with joy but alarm. 

At the request of the West Germans, the CIA even managed to persuade "Life" magazine to delete any reference to Globke from Eichmann's memoirs, which it had bought from the family. 

But it was not just Globke. When Eichmann was captured the CIA combed files it had captured from the Nazis to find information that might be useful to the Israeli prosecution. The results caused near panic among the CIA's leadership because, unknown to the junior staff who had looked through the files, a few of Eichmann's accomplices being investigated had been CIA "assets". 

--- "Guardian" 8 June 2006 

The Nazis were also experimenting with technology extremely advanced for their time, and many Nazi scientists, evaluated as  being valuable resources for post-war America, were repatriated to the US under "Project Paperclip".

Between 1945 and 1965 there were numerous sightings of Bormann. Bormann's former personal chauffeur, Jakob Glas, said that he had seen Bormann in Munich months after May 1945, as did many others.

Paul Manning, author, intelligence expert and former war correspondent claimed along with others that Bormann escaped. When Manning tried to publish his extensively researched 1981 book "Martin Bormann – Nazi in Exile", he was menacingly threatened. After finally getting a renegade publisher to agree to publish his work, within two weeks the publisher had his legs broken in a vicious and anonymous attack and shortly after Manning's son was mysteriously murdered. In fact Manning's story is very much in line with the former British Intel officer and author of "OPJB". Christopher Creighton states that Bormann escaped, as does former WWII British army General and war crimes investigator, Ian Bell. Bell can be seen on YouTube telling us that he saw Bormann being taken to a ship in Genoa and when he radioed back to his HQ command, he was told to follow but "do not apprehend".

Contrary to the survival story being told by those considered "crazy conspiracy theorists", there are many highly qualified and well versed investigators and former intelligence agents that tell us the story we teach our children at school is just that, a story.

Hugh Thomas, surgeon, international forensic expert and author of the 1995 book "Doppelgängers" wrote extensively about the Bormann forensics investigation that suggest Bormann died later than 1945. According to Jonathan Glancey of "The Guardian", Thomas' "scalpel-sharp eye for detail" and second investigative work "Hess: A Tale of Two Murders", "precipitated a six-month Scotland Yard inquiry that saw its report immediately suppressed". Thomas confirms that the original Bormann medical reports in 1972 released only some and not all the information found under the microscope. While it is true the dentistry of the skull found was identified as Bormann, the official report failed to reveal to the public that there was dentistry performed in the skull, which could only have been done in the 1950's due to the technology used. A man that died in 1945 is certainly not going to go to the dentist in 1950. Also, the skull "found" in Berlin was encased in a "red clay" type earth, exotic to Germany but local to a place in Paraguay, the very place that many investigators have traced Bormann to in his last years. Those last year’s being as late as 1968. Reinhardt Gehlen former senior Nazi, Cold war spymaster and head of the West German Intelligence network, also claimed that Bormann escaped to South America and died in Paraguay.

But probably some of the most disturbing work comes from Ladislas Farago. In 1974, Farago a brilliant military historian, WWII war correspondent and former civilian naval intelligence officer, published "Aftermath: Martin Bormann and the Fourth Reich". Farago, after a long and painstaking investigation on the ground in South America, much of which was spent accessing classified Argentine intelligence documents, presented his evidence including copies of said documents in his book. Not only did Farago examine and get the classified documents he accessed authenticated, he called in a team to join him on the ground in Buenos Aires to witness and document the authentication of such. 

The formidable 1972 Buenos Aires team with Farago included former intelligence operative and New York attorney Joel Weinberg, Stewart Steven the Foreign Editor of the "London Daily Express" and four top Argentine attorneys; Dr. Guillermo Macia Ray, Dr. Jaime Joaquin Rodriguez, Dr. Silvio Frondizi the brother of the former President Frondizi of Argentina and Horacio A. Perillo, the former legal aid to the Argentine President Frondizi. Farago and his team's conclusion was that Martin Bormann certainly escaped Europe in 1945 with the help of the Allies and went on to South America where he survived for many years, many of them in Argentina. 

Even though Farago and his team were highly qualified to make an intelligent and thorough analysis and investigation on the documents made available to them, Farago's publication was ignored and serious attempts were made to discredit him and the other members of the team. Precedence had been set, when it came to stating or even suggesting Bormann had survived, even experts like Farago, who was also the world’s leading expert on propaganda and clandestine psychological forms of espionage at the time, was not safe from character assassination, ridicule and criticism. It is blatant there were those that were determined to keep the 1945 Bormann death myth in force and such suppression of evidence continues to this day.

But not everyone ignored Farago's book. The content and evidence produced by Farrago was so compelling that it attracted the attention of Dr. Robert M.W. Kempner, a former Nuremberg trial attorney who decided to reopen the Bormann investigation, based on Farago's documentary evidence of survival.

Farago, Manning, Thomas and Kempner, are sadly long gone, but the Bormann investigation is far from a cold case, as a new generation of investigative journalists have reopened the dusty Bormann files and have enthusiastically picked up from where their predecessors departed. Recent research reveals that the Federal police archives in Argentina show that the FBI were sending agents to Argentina to follow the Bormann case and his financial trails well into the 1980's. New elderly witnesses, who till recently refused to talk have also come forward in the past 3 years and startling new evidence has come to light that cannot be ignored and may very well lead to the undisputable discovery that Bormann did escape and lived for many years in South America with the protection of the Allies.
 

James P O'Donnell, a WW2 US Intelligence officer, in  "The Berlin Bunker" [1979] devotes two whole chapters to claims that in his last fortnight alive Hitler was preoccupied not with the advancing Russians but with leaks of information on an Allied radio station masquerading as an SS station known as "Soldatensender West" 

It broadcast juicy gossip about Hitler's inner circle only known to those who were closest to Hitler. RSHA boss Heinrich "Gestapo" Müller was summoned to Berlin to find the security leak in April 1945. 

O'Donnell asserts from sources he interviewed that Himmler's SS attachee Hermann Fegelein may not have been shot after all. He was arrested in Berlin on 27 April 1945 in company with a British woman, a bag full of German and Swiss currency, gold rings and watches, pearls, diamond jewelry and two passports one British with photographs, both of his companion. The woman was not arrested. Fegelein was arrested for attempting to desert.

Fegelein's mistress was believed to be of Irish nationality and married to a high ranking Hungarian diplomat in Admiral Horthy's service. In late 1944, her husband was arrested by the Gestapo and she was left stranded in Berlin with little or no means of support. Apparently, she became a short-term lover of Göbbels who found her employment working for a radio station. It was whilst with Göbbels that she caught the eye of Fegelein. She was believed to be in the pay of the British secret service, members of which remember her by her nickname of Mata O'Hara. Members of Hitler's staff remember her being in the company of Fegelein, but never at the Reichschancellery. It is strongly suspected that Fegelein leaked information to the British via this woman during bedroom activities and also that she was the mystery woman in Fegelein's secret apartment when Högl arrived to advise Fegelein of Hitler's wish [via Rattenhuber] that he present himself at the Reichschancellery immediately. The woman cleverly made her escape through a kitchen window on the pretext of getting water for some cognac that Fegelein had offered his "guests". At this point, Högl had no orders to forcibly return Fegelein to the Reichschancellery, so he did not pay much attention to the woman, much to his subsequent regret.

After radio broadcasts about Himmler trying to cut a deal with the British and Americans, Hitler demanded that Fegelein be charged with treason. 

The trial was abandoned because Fegelein was drunk. Hans Rattenhuber was tasked with holding Fegelein and carrying out the firing squad, but it is known that Bormann intervened and that Gestapo Müller removed the prisoner to be interrogated at the  Dreifältigkeit chapel. After being led away by Gestapo men, Fegelein was not seen again. Hitler delayed his marriage to Eva Braun to seek advice from Müller whether Fegelein had indeed been shot. Müller said he was. 

Hanna Reitsch asserted that she saw Fegelein shot ten minutes before her departure with Ritter von Greim. Reitsch later recanted this saying she only heard of Fegelein's execution by hearsay. 

Hanna Reitsch let slip to American interrogators that when she flew out of Berlin's Tiergarten,  she saw a Ju-52 parked in a sheltered revetment and the pilot waiting by the plane was probably the same one who had flown Fegelein to Berlin from Rechlin airport. Since the Russians never reported finding the wreckage of this Ju-52, it must be assumed it flew out. 

Whilst the Gestapo marched Fegelein off on the 28 April for interrogation, Bormann personally went off to Fegelein's flat to find the woman armed with a description from Hans Baur who knew her.

The woman who most closely matches the description seems to be Baroness Mary Allison Gerstenberger-Miske. It is known she survived the war but was arrested by the Soviets when returning to Hungary in 1947 to settle the affairs of her husband. She was imprisoned by the Soviets as a British spy and only released in 1955.

RHSA then ordered a Ju-290 aircraft of I/KG200 with fuselage code PJ+PS to make a one way VIP flight from Hörsching, Linz to Barcelona at the first opportunity from 30 April 1945. 

The flight was to be flown by Hauptann Braun & Ofw Aufdenkamp ordered by Führungstab I/Ic secret command matter Br.B. No 1136/45. Hitler is known to have ordered Bormann to escape with his will so it is conceivable the Ju-52 flew Müller and Bormann to Hörschung and from there they escaped by Ju-290 to Barcelona. 

It was alleged by Adolf Eichman's son in Argentina that Heinrich Müller lived on an estate in Cordoba, Argentina under the name Hertzog. When Müller's grave in the war cemetary at Kreuzburg in Berlin was exumed on 25 September 1963 it was found to contain an assortment of bones from three separate individuals to represent one anatomically correct body. The three donors were all taller in stature than Müller had been.

One important witness is a former military ADC to Argentine General Juan Peron. This high ranking internationally decorated military officer had been the ADC to 7 Argentine presidents, a close personal friend of Chilean President Pinochet and was the sub chief of the tough Argentine Federal secret police and prominently involved in the dismantling of the Argentine narcotics traffic in the 1990'S.

His taped testimony given in 2010 on the premise that it could only be revealed after his death to protect his family, is that he met Martin Bormann frequently in Buenos Aires in late 1952 and till the end of 1953. He also testifies that on the instructions of Peron, he organised the personal security for Bormann and escorted him to various meetings in Argentina. This highly credible witness also tells us that Bormann had been installed in a famous luxury hotel in Buenos Aires throughout 1953, which was owned by Germans.

The ADC also testifies that he was sent on a weekly basis to collect the Bormann bill from the hotel concierge which he was instructed to take directly to Peron, who paid the bill from his personal bank accounts. This man asked for nothing in exchange for his testimony, all he requested was that the truth be finally known after his death. The official died in 2012 and his testimony is now ready for publication.

Another recent elderly witness with ties to the FBI and CIA, is a former Naval Captain who was in charge of the security for the port of Buenos Aires. He tells us that not only was it common knowledge, but it is documented in the classified Federal police archives that Bormann was certainly living in Argentina in the 50’s and that the CIA were in Argentina keeping close tabs on Bormann's South American movements as late as 1967.

The most controversy surrounds the author of the 1996 book "OPJB". Christopher Creighton writes that he was instructed by Lord Louis Mountbatten and Winston Churchill to reveal the truth of all the ops in which he was participant, 25 years after the death of both. According to Creighton, "OPJB" is not only the title of the book, but the operational code name given to the plan to rescue Bormann from Berlin. Documents have been seen and recently photographed which were written to Creighton from Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1976 which prove Creighton was not only certainly working for British Naval intelligence at the very highest level, but that Creighton was Desmond Morton’s Godson. 

This new evidence puts in grave doubt spy writer Nigel West's claims that Christopher Creighton is a "charlatan". There are also letters from James Bond author Ian Fleming to Creighton which testify to OPJB, the highly covert operation as being fact and that he based his James Bond Character on Creighton's covert naval operations. How did Fleming know? Because according to verified letters from Fleming to Creighton, Fleming was not only part of the operation while he was a Royal Naval commander under the command of Desmond Morton for the British secret service, but he was the commander in charge of the rescue. 

A British factual film company, "Christopher Robin Media Ltd", have in their possession an as yet unpublished 2013 interview of Creighton recorded only weeks before his death. The startling interview gives never before revealed details of various highly covert British Naval intelligence operations, including the assassination of French Admiral Francois Darlan and the operation to remove Martin Bormann from Berlin.

In 2007 a lady came forward to investigators with a story that she had been born in a German clinic in Brazil in 1952. This five foot two, blonde, green eyed lady, was found to be a well balanced, well educated and discreet and trustworthy member of her community, a far cry from a publicity seeking delusional self-promoter. Her adoptive father had been a senior naval officer for the  Dominican Republic dictator Radael Trujillo. She claims her adoptive father was entrusted with her in 1952, the year of her birth, after he was in Brazil negotiating arms deals between the Dominican Republic government and the German arms factories hidden in the Brazilian jungle.

In 1984 she contacted the Simon Wiesenthal centre after her adoptive father revealed on his death-bed that she was the daughter of "one of Germany's three greatest men". Extremely distressed at this shocking revelation and wondering who it could possibly be, she with her attorney approached the Simon Wiesenthal Centre for help. Within weeks her attorney was anonymously threatened with his life and shortly after, dropped her representation after the SWC aggressively told him that they were not able to help and would not investigate due to "lack of funds". An unusual response from a wealthy organisation whose main objective has been to track down Nazi war criminals. Even Simon Wiesenthal himself believed till his death in 2005, a full 7 years after the 1998 DNA analysis that Bormann escaped and was frequently outspoken against the official version. It is shocking and detrimental to Wiesenthal’s memory, that those that now head the very organisation founded in his name have obstructed investigations and ridicule others that believe what Wiesenthal believed, Bormann escaped.

I contacted the SWC in 2010 to request copies of the investigation files held by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre on Martin Bormann. After three months of cold shouldering on their part, I finally managed to speak to the head of the organisation itself. I revealed the fact we were in touch with a lady that had been formally refused help by the SWC in 1985 and we had the documentation that the SWC refused to investigate due to "lack of funding". We were now soliciting their support to reopen her case and investigate, especially as the SWC had been avidly promoting and raising significant funding for their much publicised  "Operation Last Chance" - "a campaign to bring remaining Nazi war criminals to justice by offering financial rewards for information leading to their arrest and conviction". But rather like the famous Anna Anderson and Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia case, all efforts to access information on official files to see if this adopted woman has any Nazi blood connections have failed.

If Bormann did escape, then the adopted woman may very well be the daughter of Martin Bormann, not only because of the mysterious dynamics surrounding her birth, but photos of her, the officials involved, the timing of her birth and the fact investigators believe Bormann was in Brazil with Dr Josef Mengele in late 1951. Recent photos of the woman'sson show an uncanny similarity  with Martin Bormann's eldest son Adolf. 

Access to genuine DNA of Martin Bormann or one of his children or grandchildren is now vital to the investigation, not only to make comparisons with potential offspring conceived post 1945, but also to compare with supposed Bormann DNA profiles in the Files held by various Intelligence agencies.  If Bormann did indeed escape, those that covered it up are going to go to enormous lengths to hide any incriminating evidence. Bonafide DNA profiles of Bormann would be the last thing they would leave hanging around.

I was extremely surprised to discover that during the forensic analysis of the Bormann remains in 1998, only mitochondrial DNA was put on the record. And the Bormann relation that was used to confirm the identity of the skeleton was an 83-year-old Maternal relative of Bormann not Martin Bormann's son who was easily available for such. The mitochondrial DNA specifics were confirmed in a conversation I had with one of the doctors involved in the original 1998 investigation, which had been instigated by the West German Prosecutor. For those that are not genetically savvy, mitochondrial DNA could only be used to match a person or corpse to maternal blood relations. This means that the Martin Bormann DNA profile held on official documents is worthless for use for matching with any possible offspring or grandchildren.

One would have thought that after going to such extraordinary lengths of opening a through investigation and having such remains available for research, the scientists and doctors would have taken every possible bit of data possible, particularly DNA  they did not. And just to keep things really tidy, after the closing of the investigation, Martin Bormann, guardian to Nazi Germany’s post WWII wealth and classified technology, was promptly cremated and thrown "into the sea" in the Baltic, outside German territorial waters.

Those that work to uncover highly covert conspiracies have a hard time, whether it be on the Kennedy assassination, death of princess Diana or Martin Bormann, much of their compelling evidence can be at best circumstantial and it would not be a conspiracy if the organisers of such were sloppy enough to leave a paper trail or hot leads to expose their plot. The appeal is now for genuine Martin Bormann blood relatives to come forward, not only to cross match with the woman, but to cross match with the DNA profiles supposedly used to identify Bormann in 1998 and those held in official and public files. Of course if this woman does have Bormann DNA and being born in a German clinic in Brazil in 1952, it will once and for all put to bed the mystery and will vindicate all those that have sacrificed much to reveal what they believed to be the truth. Could that truth be that Martin Bormann escaped and went on to manage the vast funds accumulated by Nazi Germany with the help of Britain and the USA? And according to recent research, those vast funds were probably laundered through and invested into over 750 international companies with or without Bormann.

Since 1972, "official" historians and academics have spun their tales and told the world that Bormann certainly died near the Lehrter station in the early hours of 2 May 1945. This oral history is based on no more than unreliable witnesses, two of which were Nazis and a DNA match to a skeleton found in 1972. 

DNA may prove that the remains are those of Bormann, but there is more evidence to prove that he was alive for at least 25 years after 1945;. 25 years, in which he could have managed the vast Nazi wealth, including cash, gold, stocks, bonds, shares and priceless works of art. After all, with all the modern banking forensics available to date, not one single Intelligence agency or government claims that the vast, fat, booty has been found! Or has it?

After WWII Bormann remained a mysterious figure; sentenced in absentia to 10 years imprisonment and forfeiture of all property by a Bertesgaden denazification tribunal 18 July 1948 ["Encyclopedia of the Third Reich" ; "New York Times' 19 July 1948]; trial in absentia by an Austrian people's court at Linz announced 9 August 1949; disposition unknown; declared legally dead 1954 (NYT 28 February 1965; NYT 12 May 1967; declared dead 16 June 1960 by Berlin denazification court and property seized [NYT 16 Jun 1960]; US Embassy to Argentina believed Bormann was living in Posadas, Misiones Province, Argentina in 1947-1948 [NYT 14 December 1993]; Walter Flegel arrested September 1960 in Argentina on suspicion of being Bormann [NYT 30 September 1960]; Flegel freed 30 September 1960 by Argentine authorities after fingerprint test proves he is not Bormann [NYT 1 October 1960]; German prosecutor believes Bormann still lives 14 April 1961 and prosecution re-opened [NYT 15 April 1961]; Brazilian police investigating leads 19 March  1964 [NYT 20 March 1964]; leads the result of an impostor but West German authorities investigating report Bormann died near Asuncion, Paraguay in 1959 [NYT 21 March 1964]; $25,000 reward posted by West Germany for capture November 1964 [NYT 28 February 1965]; sons Adolf Martin Bormann Jr. and Gerhard Bormann interrogated by West German authorities at Frankfurt 28 May 1965 [NYT 29 May 1965]; arrest of Eduardo Garcia Gomez/Juan Calero or Falero Martinez at Mariscos, Guatemala May 1967 on suspicion of being Bormann [NYT 12 May 1967; NYT 13 May 1967; NYT 14 May 1967]; Guatemalan freed after fingerprint test proves he is not Bormann 16 May 1967 [NYT 17 May 1967]; extradition request by West Germany to Brazil July 1967 [NYT 5 July 1967]; reportedly living in Brazil near the border with Paraguay 31 December 1967 [NYT 1 January 1968]; reportedly living in Latin America 25 November 1972 [NYT 26 November 1972; NYT 2 Dec 1972]; claims doubted [NYT 26 November 1972]; West German authorities consider re-opening war crimes proceedings against Bormann December 1972 [NYT 5 December 1972]; Bormann, Argentina, and 1945 U-Boat treasure detailed [NYT 13 November 1991; NYT 7 December 1991}; reportedly committed suicide at Berlin in May 1945 by biting a cyanide capsule, according to dental records examined by dental detective Dr. Reidar Sognnaes [NYT 10 September 1974]; a newspaper in Paraguay reported in 1993 that Martin Bormann had lived in that country for three years, according to the Paraguayan Interior Ministry, and had died in Asuncion on 15 February 1959, and was buried in a nearby town. The  cause of death was gastric cancer [see also NYT 1 June 1993].

Bormann was the adminstrator of "Operation Tröpfchen", the evacuation of Reich gold, money and treasure to Argentina, and the size of this fortune evidenced by the few documents released from Argentine official archives is mind boggling. If Bormann survived and escaped, it was to Argentina that he came. 

Postwar Nazi money laundering through bogus land deals was administered from San Carlos de Bariloche in Neuquen province. In the early 1960s there were reports in the local and foreign Press of a grave in the cemetery at Bariloche, allegedly that of Martin Bormann, having been visited by officials of the German Embassy, after which it vanished.

Yet it has been officially written, printed, signed sealed and delivered, even into our children's history lessons. Martin Bormann died in 1945 de-facto, the loot disappeared and anyone that tells you different is a deluded "conspiracy theorist".

Berlin Breakout

At 9.30 p.m. on 1 May 1945, Hamburg radio station warned the German people that a grave and important announcement was about to be made. Suitably funereal music from Wagner and Bruckner's Seventh Symphony was played to prepare listeners for Grand Admiral Dönitz' address to the nation. He stated that Hitler had fallen, fighting "at the head of his troops", and announced his succession. Very few people in Berlin heard the news because of the lack of electric current.

Martin Bormann, meanwhile, was evidently impatient at having to wait for the Göbbels family drama to finish. Berlin Commandant General Weidling's surrender was to take place at midnight and the breakout northwards over the Spree was due to start an hour before. 

The personnel from the Führer Bunker, including Traudl Junge, Gerda Christian and Constanze Manzialy, had been told to assemble ready for departure. Generals Krebs and Burgdorf, who both intended to shoot themselves later, were not to be seen.

Gustav Krukenberg, Brigadeführer of the Charlemagne Division of the Waffen-SS and further commander of its remains and the SS Division Nordland during the Battle of Berlin, who had been summoned earlier by Mohnke, encountered Artur Axmann and Joachim Ziegler, the previous commander of the Nordland. Mohnke asked Krukenberg whether, as the senior officer, he wished to continue the defence of the city centre. He added that General Weidling had given an order to break out of Berlin north-westwards through the Soviet encirclement, but that a cease-fire would come into effect around midnight. Krukenberg agreed to join the breakout. He and Ziegler left to rally the Nordland and other units in the area. Krukenberg sent one of his aides on ahead, with messages to outlying detachments to fall back. The group led by Captain Henri Joseph Fenet, defending Gestapo headquarters on Prinz-Albrechtstrasse, heard nothing. Krukenberg's aide, who was never seen again, probably met his death before he reached them.

The scenes in the Bunker were chaotic as Bormann and Mohnke tried to organize everybody into groups. In the end, they did not leave until nearly 11 p.m., two hours later than planned. The first group, led by Mohnke, set out through the cellars of the Reich Chancellery, and then followed a complicated route to the Friedrichstrasse Bahnhof. The others followed at set intervals. The most difficult part was just north of the station, where they had to cross the Spree. This could not be done under cover of darkness because the flames from bombarded buildings lit up the whole area. The first group from the Reich Chancellery, which included Mohnke and the secretaries, wisely avoided the main Weidendammer Bridge. They used a metal footbridge 300 metres downstream and headed for the Charite  Hospital.

A Nordland Tiger tank and a self-propelled assault gun were to spearhead the main charge across the Weidendammer Bridge. Word had spread of the breakout and many hundreds of SS, Wehrmacht soldiers and civilians had assembled. It was a gathering which Soviet troops could not fail to miss. The first mass rush, led by the Tiger tank, took place just after midnight, but although the armoured monster managed to smash through the barrier on the north side of the bridge, they soon ran into very heavy fire in the Ziegelstrasse beyond. An anti-tank round struck the Tiger and many of the civilians and soldiers in its wake were mown down. Axmann was wounded, but managed to stagger on his way. Bormann and Dr Ludwig Stumpfegger were knocked over by the blast when the tank was hit, but they recovered and went on. Bormann carried the last copy of Hitler's testament, and he evidently hoped to use it to justify his claim to a position in Dönitz' government when he reached Schleswig-Holstein.

Another attack over the bridge was made soon afterwards, using a self-propelled 20mm quadruple flak gun and a half-track. This too was largely a failure. A third attempt was made at around i1a.m., and a fourth an hour later. Bormann, Stumpfegger, Günther Schwägermann and Axmann kept together for a time. They followed the railway line to the Lehrterstrasse Bahnhof. There they split up. Bormann and Stumpfegger turned north-eastwards towards the Stettiner Bahnhof. Axmann went the other way, but ran into a Soviet patrol. He turned back and followed Bormann's route. Not long afterwards he came across two bodies. He identified them as Bormann and Stumpfegger, but he did not have time to discover how they had died. Martin Bormann, although not of his own volition, was the only major Nazi Party leader to have faced the bullets of the Bolshevik enemy. All the others Hitler, Göbbels, Himmler and Göring took their own lives.

Krukenberg had meanwhile assembled most of his French SS escort. They joined up with Ziegler and a much larger group from the Nordland. Krukenberg estimated that there were four or five holders of the Knight's Cross among them. They managed to cross the Spree shortly before dawn. But they came under heavy fire just a few hundred metres short of the Gesundbrunnen U-Bahn station. Ziegler was hit by a ricochet and mortally wounded. Several others in their group also fell, among them Eugene Vaulot , the young French recipient of the Knight's Cross. He died in a nearby cellar three days later.

The Soviet forces in the area had been reinforced so strongly that Krukenberg and his remaining companions had no choice but to retreat the way they had come. At the top end of the Ziegelstrasse they saw the Tiger tank which Mohnke had taken from them. There was no sign of any of its crew. One of Krukenberg's officers had spotted a joinery workshop nearby and there they discovered some overalls to disguise themselves. Krukenberg managed to make his way to Dahlem, where he hid for over a week in the apartment of friends. Eventually he had no choice but to surrender.

Marshal Zhukov, on hearing of the breakout attempts from General Vasily Kuznetsov of the 3rd Shock Army, ordered a maximum alert. He was understandably perturbed by the "unpleasant suggestion" that senior Nazis, especially Hitler, Göbbels and Bormann, might be trying to escape. It was not hard to imagine Stalin's anger if this should happen. Soviet officers hastily rounded up men who were celebrating May Day with alcohol and women-hunts. Brigades from the 2nd Guards Tank Army were sent in pursuit and cordons hurriedly put into place. This thwarted a second attempt to break through northwards up the Schönhauser Allee  by Major General Erich Bärenfänger's troops from the eastern side of the Zitadelle defence area.  Bärenfänger, a devoted Nazi, committed suicide with his young wife in a side street.

Shortly before midnight, the time when Colonel Haller had promised to surrender the Tiergarten flak tower, the remaining tanks and half-tracks of the Müncheberg Panzer Division and the 18th Panzergrenadier Division set out from the Tiergarten westwards.
 

Mikhail Katukov's 1st Guards Tank Army and Vasily Chuikov's 8th Guards Army had attacked into the Tiergarten from the south across the Landwehr Canal. But the task of tackling the Zoo flak tower was left to two regiments from the 79th Guards Rifle Division.

Storming it was out of the question, so on 30 April they sent German prisoners as envoys bearing an ultimatum written in pencil to the commander:

"We propose that you surrender the fortress without further fighting. We guarantee that no troops, including SS and SA men, will be executed".

On 1 May one of the prisoners eventually returned with a reply:

"Your note was received at 11 p.m. We will capitulate [tonight] at midnight. Haller, garrison commander".

Haller was not in fact the garrison commander and the reason for the long delay was to allow them to prepare a breakout that evening".

--Antony Beevor, "Fall of Berlin 1945"

Generalmajor Otto Sydow [Luftwaffe] commanding 1. Flak-Div. Berlin from the Tiergarten Flak-tower, with General Weidling's permission, organized the breakout of the armed forces through the Soviet lines and away from Berlin, shortly before midnight. The civilians refugees then left the facility.

Sydow was captured by the Soviets on 6 May 1945. 

They then pushed north-westwards towards the Olympic stadium and Spandau. Word had also spread rapidly in this case. The rumour was that Wenck's army was at Nauen, to the north-west of the city, and hospital trains were waiting there to take soldiers to Hamburg. Thousands of stragglers and civilians made their way on foot and in a variety of vehicles in the same direction. One group of around fifty came in three trucks from the Grossdeutscher Rundfunk. They included Himmler's very different younger brother, Ernst, a leading studio technician.

The Charlottenbrücke, the bridge over the Havel to the old town of Spandau, was still standing and held by Hitler Youth detachments. In heavy rain and under artillery fire from the 47th Army, the armoured vehicles charged across, followed by a ragged crowd of soldiers and civilians. The slaughter was appalling. 

A tactic was instinctively worked out. Self-propelled army Flak vehicles with quadruple 20mm guns gave covering fire from the eastern bank to keep Soviet heads down, and during this frantic firing for up to a minute, another wave of civilians and soldiers surged across to hide in the ruined houses opposite. The slow and the lame were caught in the open by Soviet guns. As well as wave after wave of people on foot, trucks, cars and motorcycles also crossed, running over bodies already crushed by the tracks of armoured vehicles. Ernst Himmler was one of the many who died on the Charlottenbrücke, either shot or trampled in the desperate rush.

Although the massacre at the bridge was horrific, the sheer weight of German numbers forced the Soviet troops back from the river bank. But Soviet machine guns in the tower of the Spandau town hall continued to cause heavy losses. Two of the Tiger tanks then shelled the Rathaus itself, and a small group from the 9th Parachute Division stormed the tower. The main force of armoured vehicles pushed on westwards towards Staaken, but most of the troops were encircled or rounded up over the next two days. Only a handful reached the Elbe and safety. Soviet officers searched the burnt-out remains of tanks carefully on orders from Front headquarters. 

"Among the crews killed," wrote Zhukov, "none of Hitler's entourage were found, but it was impossible to recognize what was left in the burnt-out tanks".

Proving once and for all with new testimony, documentation and forensic science that Hitler's handler, Martin Bormann survived, will redeem many damaged reputations and will certainly bury the myth and cause many a red face in the high end academic and "history" community. But more importantly, it will open a very nasty can of worms and raise many more complicated and embarrassing questions to those agencies and governments that will have knowingly perpetrated the Bormann death myth for the past 70 years.

Only a handful of countries hiding under the umbrella of neutrality continued to trade with the Nazis during the war. The table below reflects the change in gold reserves of Nazi German's primary trading partners. The figures are in millions of dollars.

Obviously, not all the increase can be attributed to the Nazis. However, the figures do set an upper limit. Further, since the only currencies not accepted globally were the German Mark, Italian Lira, and Japan Yen, the neutral countries continued to accept the US Dollar and British Pound.

Country	1939  Reserves	1943   Reserves	Increase
Spain	42	104	62
Sweden	160	456	294
Turkey	88	221	234
Portugal	79.5	447.1 [1945]	367.6
Switzerland	503	1040	537

Additional evidence comes from the declared deposits of Swiss banks which had soared from Swiss Franc [SF] 332 million in 1941 to SF 846 million in 1945. Again not all the increase in deposits can be attributed to the Nazis but it does set an upper limit of half a Billion Dollars.

The Foreign Office conducted a vigorous campaign warning neutral countries about accepting gold from the Nazis. The United States Department refused to support the measure until July 1943, when the alarming increase of gold reserves of the neutral countries became apparent. Even then the support from the State Department was at best cool.

The countries listed above are not mere accidents. Without the raw materials supplied by Sweden, Spain, Portugal, and Turkey, the Nazis would not have been able to conduct war. Sweden supplied vitally needed high-grade iron ore. Turkey supplied Hitler with chromate. Portugal and Spain supplied wolfram. All three metals were needed to produce war munitions and heavy armor. Chromates were used to harden steal for armor while wolfram or tungsten was used primary in machine tools. Nazi sources for both metals were extremely limited and they were forced to rely almost one hundred percent on these countries.

Considering South America was a prime refuge for the Nazis after the war it is instructive to look at changes of the gold reserves of South American countries, particularly Argentina. Argentina's gold reserves increased from 313.83 metric tons in 1940 to 1064 tons in 1945. The increase in the gold reserves of Argentina in terms of dollars, was a whooping $635,000,000 dollars. To put that figure in perspective the U.S. budget for 1940 was approximately $9.4 Billion Dollars. Brazil also saw an increase in gold reserves from 45 metric tons in 1940 to 314 tons in 1945, or an increase of about $228,000,000 dollars.

The above reserve figures shed some light on the destination of some of the Nazis's loot. How much of the increase in South American gold reserves came from Germany near the end of the war to finance the Nazis's planned comeback is still unknown.

After the war, the Vatican, the OSS, the SS [Schutzstaffel] and the various branches of SMOM [Sovereign Military Order of Malta] joined to do battle against the common Soviet enemy-and to help Nazi war criminals escape.

Catholic monasteries and convents were used as safe houses for war criminals on their way to Latin America. Sometimes the  U.S. Army's Counter Intelligence Corps [CIC] supplied false documents, while church organizations provided the means of escape

That the Vatican, OSS and the CIC were a party to such arrangements is shown by files that Justice Department investigators discovered in the 1980s.
 

Juan Domingo Peron and Argentina's Nazis
By Christopher Minster

After World War Two, Europe was full of former Nazis and wartime collaborators in once-occupied nations. Many of these Nazis, such as Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele, were war criminals actively searched for by their victims and Allied forces. As for collaborators from France, Belgium and other nations, to say that they were no longer welcome in their native countries is an epic understatement: many collaborators were sentenced to death. These men needed a place to go, and most of them headed to South America, particularly Argentina, where populist president Juan Domingo Peron welcomed them. Why did Argentina and Perón accept these desperate, wanted men with the blood of millions on their hands? The answer is somewhat complicated.

Peron and Argentina Before the War

Argentina had long enjoyed close ties with three European nations above all others: Spain, Italy and Germany. Coincidentally, these three formed the heart of the Axis alliance in Europe [Spain was technically neutral but was a de facto member of the alliance].

Argentina's ties to Axis Europe are quite logical: Argentina was colonized by Spain and Spanish is the official language, and much of the population is of Italian or German descent due to decadees of immigration from those countries. Perhaps the greatest fan of Italy and Germany was Perón himself: he had served as an adjunct military officer in Italy in 1939-1941 and had a great deal of personal respect for Italian fascist Benito Mussolini. Much of Peron's populist posturing was borrowed from his Italian and German role models.Juan Domingo Peron and Argentina's Nazi

Argentina in World War Two

When the war broke out, there was much support in Argentina for the Axis cause. Argentina technically remained neutral, but aided the Axis powers as actively as they could. Argentina was teeming with Nazi agents, and Argentine military officers and spies were common in Germany, Italy and parts of occupied Europe. Argentina bought arms from Germany because they feared a war with pro-Allied Brazil. Germany actively cultivated this informal alliance, promising major trade concessions to Argentina after the war. Meanwhile, Argentina used its position as a major neutral nation to try and broker peace agreements between the warring factions. Eventually, pressure from the USA forced Argentina to break relations with Germany in 1944, and even formally join the Allies in 1945 a month before the war ended and once it was clear that Germany would lose. Privately, Peron assured his German friends that the declaration of war was just for show. 

Important Argentines were Sympathetic

During World War Two, Argentina clearly favored the Axis because of close cultural ties with Germany, Spain and Italy. This is not surprising, as most Argentines were of Spanish, Italian or German descent. Nazi Germany nurtured this sympathy, promising important trade concessions after the war. Argentina was full of Nazi spies and Argentine officers and diplomats held important positions in Axis Europe. Peron's government was a big fan of the fascist trappings of Nazi Germany: spiffy uniforms, parades, rallies¦and rampant anti-Semitism. Many influential Argentines, including wealthy businessmen and members of the government, were openly supportive of the Axis cause, none more so than Perón himself, who had served as an adjunct officer in Benito Mussolini's Italian army in the late 1930's.

Although Argentina would eventually declare war on the Axis powers [a month before the war ended] it was partly a ploy to get Argentine agents in place to help defeated Nazis escape after the war.

They still had many friends in Europe

It's not like World War Two ended one day in 1945 and suddenly everyone realized how horrible the Nazis had been. Even after Germany was defeated, there were many powerful men in Europe who had favored the Nazi cause and continued to do so. Spain was still ruled by the fascist Francisco Franco and had been a defacto member of the Axis alliance; many Nazis would find safe, if temporary, haven there. Switzerland had remained neutral during the war, but many important leaders had been outspoken in their support of Germany: these man retained their positions after the war and were in a position to help out. Swiss bankers, out of greed or sympathy, helped the former Nazis move and launder funds. The Catholic Church was extremely helpful: several high-ranking church officials [including Pope Pius XII] actively helped the Nazis escape.

There was Money Involved

There was a financial incentive for Argentina to accept these men. Wealthy Germans and Argentine businessmen of German descent were willing to pay the way for escaping Nazis. Nazi leaders plundered untold millions from the Jews they murdered and some of that money accompanied them to Argentina. Some of the smarter Nazi officers and collaborators saw the writing on the wall as early as 1943 and began squirreling away gold, money, valuables, paintings and more, often in Switzerland. Ante Pavelic and his cabal of close advisors were in possession of several chests full of gold, jewelry and art they had stolen from their Jewish and Serbian victims: this eased their passage to Argentina considerably. They even paid off British officers to let them through Allied lines.

The Americans and British didn't want to give them to communist countries

After the war, communist regimes were created in Poland, Yugoslavia and other parts of Eastern Europe. These new nations requested the extradition of many war criminals in Allied prisons. A handful of them, such as the Ustashi General Vladimir Kren, were eventually sent back, tried and executed. Many more were allowed to go to Argentina instead, because the Allies were reluctant to hand them over to their new communist rivals, where the outcome of their war trials would inevitably result in their executions. The Catholic Church also lobbied heavily in favor of these individuals not being repatriated. The Allies did not want to try these men themselves [only 23 men were tried at the famous Nuremberg Trials], nor did they want to send them to the communist nations that were requesting them, so they turned a blind eye to the Ratlines carrying them by the boatload to Argentina.

Active Aid for Nazi Refugees

Although it’s never been a secret that many Nazis fled to Argentina after the war, for a while no one suspected just how actively the Pero³n administration aided them. Peron dispatched agents to Europe, primarily Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Scandinavia, with orders to facilitate the flight of Nazis and collaborators to Argentina. These men, including Argentine/German former SS agent Carlos Fuldner, helped war criminals and wanted Nazis flee with money, papers and travel arrangements. No one was refused: even heartless butchers like Josef Schwammberger and wanted criminals like Adolf Eichmann were sent to South America. Once they arrived in Argentina, they were given money and jobs. The German community in Argentina largely bankrolled the operation through Peron's government. Many of these refugees met personally with Peron himself.

Peron's attitude

Why did Perón help these desperate men? Perón’s Argentina had actively participated in World War Two. They stopped short of declaring war or sending soldiers or weapons to Europe, but aided the Axis powers as much as possible without exposing themselves to the wrath of the Allies should they prove victorious [as they eventually did]. When Germany surrendered in 1945, the atmosphere in Argentina was more mournful than joyous. Perón therefore felt that he was rescuing brothers-in-arms rather than helping wanted war criminals. He was enraged about the Nuremberg Trials, thinking them a farce unworthy of the victors. After the war, Perón and the Catholic Church lobbied hard for amnesties for the Nazis.

They Were an Essential Part of Peron's "Third Way"

By 1945, as the Allies were mopping up the last remnants of the Axis, it was clear that the next great conflict would come between the capitalist USA and the communist USSR. The geo-political situation in 1945 was more complicated than we sometimes like to think. Many people -including most of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church- believed that the communist Soviet Union was a far greater threat in the long run than fascist Germany. Peron and some of his advisors, predicted that World War Three would break out as soon as 1948. In this upcoming "inevitable" conflict, third parties such as Argentina could tip the balance one way or the other. Peron envisioned nothing less than Argentina taking its place as a crucially important diplomatic third party in the war, emerging as a superpower and leader of a new world order. The Nazi war criminals and collaborators may have been butchers, but there is no doubt that they were rabidly anti-communist. Peron thought these men would come in useful in the "upcoming" conflict between the USA and the USSR,  they were veteran soldiers and officers whose hatred of communism was beyond question.  Some had  even gone went so far as to declare early in the war that the USA should ally itself with Germany against the USSR. Peron was one such man.

For a brief moment in the early 1950s, Argentina stood at the forefront of aviation development, a result of a bold undertaking to push its industry into a completely new era. . 

In the post-war world,  many qualified German personnel found their way to Argentina.

Documents reveal that the head of the Swiss Federal Police, Heinrich Rothmund, and the former Swiss intelligence officer Paul Schaufelberger participated in the activities of the illegal Argentine emigration service in Bern.

For instance, one urgent telegram from Bern to the Swiss Legation in Rome stated: 

"The [Swiss] Police Department wants to send 16 refugees to Argentina with the emigration ship that leaves Genoa 26 March [1948]. Stop. All of them carry Swiss ID cards and have return visa. Stop".

Besides political sympathies, the Peron government saw an economic pay-off in smuggling German scientists to work in Argentine factories and armaments plants.

The Argentinean government was quick to approach the arguably most talented of all German aircraft constructors, Dipl. Ing. Kurt Tank.

Famous for the immortal Focke-Wulf  Fw 190/Ta 152 series of fighters, Tank was not slow to pick the chance of starting his professional life again. He managed to collect a large team originating from the Focke-Wulf design bureau and established himself in Cordoba in 1947.

The Focke-Wulf Ta 152H 'Höhenjäger', arguably the finest aircraft of WW2, was a German high-altitude fighter-interceptor designed by Kurt Tank, based on the Fw 190D with longer wings and the new high-altitude "E" model of the Junkers Jumo 213 engine

From the late 1944, his team had been working on a 2nd generation jet fighter for the Luftwaffe under the designation Ta 183 Huckebein. It was an advanced jet, extraordinarily compact in size and aerodynamically clean, sporting a 32º swept wing, and accommodating a Heinkel He S011A jet engine which would bring it to calculated maximum speed of 967 km/h at an altitude of 7000 meters.

Equipped with the  invaluable aerodynamic research data from this project, all Tank had to do was to finalize his ideas and produce a prototype aircraft. What Tank didn't know was that the very same data were simultaneously worked upon in the Soviet Union for development of an aircraft that would eventually become the MiG-15.

Like the MiG-15, the chosen powerplant for the Pulqui II was the Rolls Royce Nene II. The Nene was more powerful than the He S011A but required a redesigned new fuselage with a larger cross-section due to it having a centrifugal rather than axial compressor. The resulting product was the IAe.33 Pulqui II.

The new fighter was a real beauty. The high-mounted negative-incidence wings were swept back  40º, even more than the Ta 183. The long fuselage was perfectly circular in section with the engine buried inside right at the center of gravity. The airframe was finished off with a graceful swept-back T-shaped tail. The pilot sat in a pressurized cockpit under a teardrop canopy. Armament would include four fuselage-mounted 20mm cannon. Many elements incorporated into the Pulqui II were totally new in the fields of aeronautical construction, placing the Argentinean aero industry amongst the most advanced during those years.

The economic crisis that hit Argentina beginning in 1953 forced the slowing down of armament development programs. The high-cost high-profile Pulqui II project was halted; first temporarily, but the fall of Peron administration in 1955 meant it was never to recover. Kurt Tank moved on to another projects, first trying to return to Germany but then moving on to India. Most of his team ended up leaving Argentina to find work in the United States and other countries. Kurt Tank himself was not to return to his life and work in Germany until the 1970s, where he died in 1983.

 Legacy of Argentina's Nazis

In the end, these Nazis had little lasting impact on Argentina. Argentina was not the only place in South America that accepted Nazis and collaborators: many eventually found their way to Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and other parts of the continent. Many Nazis scattered after Peron's government fell abruptly in 1955; fearing that this sudden, fundamental shift in Argentine politics and another government -especially a civilian one- would not  protect them as Peron's had.

Most of the Nazis who went to Argentina lived out their lives quietly, fearing repercussions if they were too vocal or visible. This was particularly true after 1960, when Adolf Eichmann, architect of the program of Jewish genocide, was snatched off a street in Buenos Aires by a team of Mossad agents and whisked off to Israel. There he was tried and executed. 

Hitler's Deputy Bormann Was with Eichmann in Argentina: Ex-envoy Reports
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
10 May 1961 

TEL AVIV - Martin Bormann, Hitler’s deputy, who was at first believed to have been killed in Berlin in 1945, but was later reported to have escaped to South America, was in Argentina when Adolf Eichmann was captured there last year, a former Argentine diplomat told a press conference here today.

The diplomat, Dr. Gregario Topolevsky former Argentine Ambassador to Israel, said that Bormann, who was living in Argentina under another name, fled to Brazil when he heard about Eichmann's capture in May last year. [Dr. Fritz Eauer, chief prosecutor at Frankfurt, Germany, reported only last Sunday that he has virtually certain proof that Bormann is alive and hiding "outside Germany"].

In 1966, Argentina extradited Gerhard Bohne to Germany, the first Nazi war criminal formally sent back to Europe to face justice.

Other wanted war criminals were too cautious to be found: Josef Mengele drowned in Brazil in 1979 after having been the object of a massive manhunt for decades.

However, by the 1990's most of these ageing men were living openly, under their own names. A handful of them were eventually tracked down and sent back to Europe for trial, such as Josef Schwammberger and Franz Stangl. Others, such as Dinko Sakic and Erich Priebke, gave ill-advised interviews which brought them to the attention of the public: both were extradited [to Croatia and Italy respectively] tried and convicted.

As for the rest of the Argentine Nazis, most assimilated into Argentina's sizeable German community and were smart enough to never talk about their past. Many went on to become productive members of Argentine society, albeit not in the way Perón had envisioned, as advisors facilitating Argentina’s rise to a new status as major world power, and some of these men were even quite successful financially, such as Herbert Kuhlmann, a former commander of the Hitler youth who became a prominent businessman

In the long run, Argentina was probably hurt more than helped by these fugitive Nazis.  
 

Former Pilot and Valet Tell How Hitler Died 
The Canberra Times [ACT] 
10 October 1955 

HERLESHAUSEN [Germany]: Hitler's chief personai pilot, Hans Baur said on return from Soviet captivity yesterday that he saw Hitler shoot himself dead. 

"The Führer Iooked at me gravely, in the eyes, shook my -hand, said 'goodbye' and shot himself," he said. Baur said Hitier's wife, Eva Braun committed suieide in his [Baur's] presence in a Bunker of the Reich Chancellery. . .

However before Baur could tell further details, he was whisked off by Red Cross officials. 

Thirty-one other former prisoners were in transport which brought Baur from the Soviet Union. 

Baur said later: 

"There is no doubt about it! Hitler is dead and Eva Braun died on the same day as he. I did not see their bodies afterwards and I do not know what happened to them". 

There had been many conflicting reports about the drama in the Bunker, some saying Hitler and Braun were not married, others that they married almost at the last moment before their suicide. Some report's said Hitler and Braun took poison after a last minute marriage; Baur's acccount is the first eyewitness version. 

Heinz Linge, Adolf Hitler's personal valet, today also declared  the Führer to be dead says an "American Associated Press" report from Berlin.

"I carried his body out of the Bunker, and then helped pour Petrol over it", he was quoted as saying. "I watched it burn for about five minutes". 

Linge gave his version of Hitler's last' minutes after returning from the prisoner of wair camp in Russia. H6 said Hitler and his bride, Eva Braun, committed suicide in the Führer's air raid Bunker in the Chancellery garden in Berlin on 30 April 1945. 

"They were alone in one of the Bunker rooms," Linge said. "Hitler shot himself, Eva Braun took poison". 

Both bodies were liberally doused with Petrol. About 10 men, of them in the S.S. staff of the Bunker, watched as the bright blaze consumed the bodies. 

Linge said he then fled with Martin Bormann, chief of the Chancellery staff. Linge said Bormann entered a Tiger tank and tried to break through the ring of Russians who were closing on the centre of the city. "I don't think he made it. The last time I saw the tank was at the Weidendammer Bridge," said Linge. 

The bridge is in what is now East Berlin. Bormann was officially declared dead last year.

Conflict In Stories Of Hitler's Death
The Canberra Times [CT]
11 October 1955
Hans Baur, Hitler's chief personal pilot, said he saw the Nazi dictator and Eva Braun shoot themselves dead amid the blazing ruins of Berlin in April 1945. Heinz Linge, Hitler's personal valet, said: "Hitler shot himself, and Eva Braun took poison. They were alone in one of the Bunker rooms".  

BERLIN: Two men who were with Hitler to the last have given conflicting accounts of how the Führer and Eva Braun met their deaths in besieged Berlin. 

Heinz Linge, Hitler's valet, told reporters yesterday that he threw a blanket over the Führer's body on 30 April 1945, and helped to burn it. Linge, who arrived in Berlin last night among a group of 116 ex-prisoriers, said he had tried to carry the body out of the Chancellery by himself but found it too heavy. The bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were then soaked with Petrol and burned. 

Linge's revelations came less than 21 hours after Hans Baur, Hitler's' personal pilot, told reporters at the West German repatriation camp of Friedland that he saw Hitler and Eva Braun shoot themselves in the Chancellery air raid shelter. 

"The Führer looked me gravely in the eyes, shook my hand and said 'goodbye,' and shot himself", Baur said. 

"Braun shot herself at the same time," he added. 

Baur also told reporters that Martin Bormann, Hitler's deputy, was killed trying to escape from beleaguered Berlin.

Baur is the first surviving witness to say he actually saw Hitler and Braun die.
 

Hitler's Skull Fragment Displayed 
By Anna Dolgov
Associated Press Writer
26 April 2000

MOSCOW: What officials claim is a fragment of Adolf Hitler's skull went on display Wednesday, along with documents revealing what happened to the dictator's remains after they were seized by Soviet troops in 1945.

The piece of skull and the jaw are the only surviving remains of Hitler's body, according to officials at the archive service and at the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the main successor of the KGB.

Photographs of the jaw went on display Wednesday. But the jaw itself, with the dental work that originally allowed the Soviets to identify Hitler's body, is still in secret archives.

"The jaw is the main piece of evidence in the decades-old Soviet investigation into Hitler's death," said Yakov Pogony, head of the FSB archive department. "And the main piece of evidence must be preserved".

After Hitler shot himself in his Berlin Bunker on 30 April 1945, his body was taken outside by his staff, doused with gasoline and set ablaze along with the remains of his longtime companion, Eva Braun.

Soviet troops seized the remains when they captured the Bunker. But what happened later has been shrouded in mystery and speculation.

Secret communications between Soviet counter-Iintelligence units in Germany and the government in Moscow tell of repeated burials and exhumations of the remains, and of their final destruction by fire in 1970.

According to the documents, which also went on display Wednesday, the remains had been kept by the counter-Intelligence unit of the Soviet 3rd Army, part of an intelligence organization called SMERSH -- a Russian acronym for "Death to Spies." The soldiers buried and dug up the remains at least three times in 1945-46 as the army moved around Germany.

They were finally interred on SMERSH-controlled grounds in Magdeburg, a town about 70 miles west of Berlin -- until the Soviet government in 1970 ordered the remains be dug up and burned, the documents say.

The Magdeburg base was about to be transferred to East German authorities, and the Soviets feared "possible construction or excavation work on this territory that might lead to the discovery of the remains," according to a report by KGB boss Yuri Andropov.

"Hitler's jaw, however, had been removed and brought to Moscow in 1945, to be included as evidence in an investigation into Hitler's death", said Sergei Mironenko, head of Russia's State Archive.

The skull fragment was found separately in 1946, when the Soviet secret police opened a second investigation, prompted by rumors that Hitler had survived. They again dug up the hole outside Hitler's Bunker, Mironenko said. The fragment they found was sent to Moscow.

Is it believable that:

a) It was possible to miss something as significant as Hitler's skull, the first time around.
b) That Stalin et al wouldn't have had every inch of that locale searched the first time around.
c) That it would take them the best part of a year to realise that they should have looked closer.
d) That they could return a year later and actually find his skull when it was nowhere to be found, previously.  

Russia announced it had the skull fragment in 1993, and some Western experts argued it was not Hitler's. But Mironenko insisted his service had "no doubts that it is authentic".

"It is not just some bone we found in the street, but a fragment of a skull that was found in a hole where Hitler's body had been buried," Mironenko said in an interview.

Still, the archives service has asked Russia's Forensic Medicine Institute -a top agency for genetic testing-- to help in positively identifying the skull fragment, Mironenko conceded.

So far, there seems to be no conclusive evidence.

"I have not seen any documents providing evidence that this is the skull of Hitler," said Alexander Kalganov, an official at the FSB's archives department.

Excerpt from "Berlin Twilight" [1947] by Lieutenant-Colonel W. Byford-Jones

Inquest on Hitler 
Is Adolf Hitler dead? If so, how did he die? 

These two questions, even at the end of 1946, were still not answered to the satisfaction of some jurists in the Allied Armies of Occupation, and may never be so answered. 

Officially the British Army of the Rhine, through its Intelligence branches, stated categorically in October 1945, without anyone having seen the body, that Hitler was dead, and described how, when and where he had died. The United States Intelligence Service maintained a discreet silence, although they produced considerable evidence which contributed to the conclusion reached by the British authorities. The attitude adopted by the Soviet Union was dictated by the Minister of Political Reticence. Although the Red Army had captured the Reichs Chancellery, and their Intelligence Service was in sole charge of the air-raid shelter in which Hitler was known to have lived directing the battle, and although the Russians had captured several relevant witnesses, who had been in Hitler's Bunker, they made no official pronouncement on the subject. For them Hitler might never have existed. 

In the absence of a categorical Quadripartite statement on this fundamentally important matter, it is impossible to know whether the Four Powers think that Hitler is dead or not. Certainly, so far as the Germans are concerned, some statement ought to be made with the full weight of the Control Council; until the possibility of his reappearance is eliminated from the superstitious German mind there will exist the greatest obstacle to spiritual de-Nazification. The Germans who survived the Battle of Berlin were almost unanimously of the opinion that Hitler was still alive. The statement made by the British Intelligence Service did not have the desired effect.

Claimed Part in Hitler's Flight 
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate [NSW] 
10 December 1948 

BERLIN: Valentin Gerlach, a former Luftwaffe pilot, was sentenced to 13 months imprisonment at Rosenheim [Bavaria] for having falsely said that, shortly before the surrender of Germany in 1945 he had flown Hitler to Denmark. 

He also claimed he had participated in the rescue of Mussolini.

The belief in the ex-Führer's existence grew instead of diminished with the passing of the months, so much so that, out of twenty educated Berliners whom I questioned overtly on the subject on Easter Sunday, 20 April  1946, only one thought Hitler was dead.

The other nineteen betrayed that they were conscious of the fact that it was their Führer's birthday. They were convinced he was alive, and spoke of him with anything but reproach. I found also that children, who are usually a good guide to the beliefs of adults, almost without exception spoke of Onkel Adolf as a living being.

A new feature in this belief was where Hitler was supposed to be hiding. In the summer of I945 I had been told he was in Spain, South America and other unlikely places, but now another hide-out was mentioned. He was with the Edelweiss, an illegal organization well known to exist, and he was in the wild mountainous area that extends from the Alps on the Swiss frontier to the Tyrol in Austria, where thousands of Wehrmacht troops, calling themselves Edelweiss, retain their wartime formations, stores, equipment and munitions and live high up in the mountain fastness. 

The first clue to Hitler's alleged fate was obtained by the Canadian Army. 

A German policeman, Hermann Karnau, aged 32, gave himself up to a party of troops in Wilhelmshaven, stating as his reason for doing so that he wanted to obtain proper documents from the Allies. This action was curious in view of the fact that he was well known in Wilhelmshaven, where he had been a member of the town's criminal police. Karnau stated that he had been a guard at the Reichs Chancellery in Berlin until 2 May, when he was given permission to leave his post because the Russians were closing in. He passed through the Russian lines in disguise, stating that he was a Dutchman returning home. He said that he had been a member of the second ring of guards round Hitler since I944, when he was at the headquarters in East Prussia and at Berchtesgaden. 

He came to Berlin in March I945. Towards the end of April, the Chancellery servants told him that Hitler had married Eva Braun, to whom guards always referred as "E.B.", at Berchtesgaden. Soon everyone had heard of the rumoured marriage. 

The German policeman went on to tell a story which I personally do not believe. He said that while he was in the Chancellery grounds on 30 April he met Eva Braun, who was in a state of great agitation. She was crying: "I would rather die here. I will not go away". Karnau described his efforts to placate the girl, calling her Fräulein Braun. "Then," Karnau said, "she turned to me and said, 'You may call me Frau Hitler now'. [The date on the marriage contract was 22 April]. 

Karnau explained that in the last days of the Battle of Berlin the artillery fire was so accurately directed on the Chancellery grounds that all the guards were permitted to go through Hitler's Bunker to avoid taking undue risk. While making such a journey on 1 May, at about 4 p.m., Karnau declared that he was confronted by Hitler, who came out of one of the rooms into the corridor. This, he said, was the last time he was in Hitler's presence, until, two and a half hours later, he saw two bodies, of Hitler and Eva Braun he thinks, lying in the grounds about two metres from the emergency exit. 

Karnau described this scene with a wealth of detail. 

"I looked later into the Chancellery yard," he said, "and saw the two,  Hitler lying on his back with his knees slightly drawn up, Eva Braun beside him with her face down. Both bodies were on fire, but that did not prevent me recognizing them". 

Karnau added that near by there were four empty Jerricans which he had seen brought to the Bunker earlier in the day.

"These Jerricans were still there when I visited the Chancellery yard and there were charred remains on the ground". 

The policeman went on to describe the investigations he made on the spot. He looked in the Bunker and found it empty. 

After a search he met Sturmbannführer Schädle, a staff officer, who told him:

"The Führer is dead and burning".

Prior to his suicide, Josef Göbbels finally released Misch from further service as the Bunker telephone operator; he was free to leave. By then Misch and mechanic Hentschel were two of the last people remaining in the Bunker. Misch went upstairs, through the cellars of the Reich Chancellery to where Schädle had his office to report one last time. Misch told Schädle that Göbbels had released him. Schädle told Misch of the route he should take to try to get through the Soviet encirclement of the area. Thereafter, Schädle committed suicide by shooting himself in the mouth with a pistol, rather than attempt the break out from the Chancellery to escape from the advancing Red Army. He did not want to endanger the lives of the others in the attempt given the fact he could only walk at a slow pace using a crutch. 

Under cross-examination Karnau stated that on about 23 April, a party from the Reichs Chancellery was driven to the Tempelhof Aerodrome from where they went by aeroplane, destined for Bavaria. 

The story of Hitler's death was told to the American Army by Erich Kempka who, with the rank of Obersturmbannführer [Lieutenant-Colonel], was officer commanding the Motor Pool at the Reichs Chancellery, and Hitler's favourite driver. In July I946, he also told some of the same story at the Nuremburg trials. 

"On 30 April 1945, at 14:00 hours," Kempke told American Security Officers [and he did not budge from the main outlines of his story in two months of cross-examination] "I received a telephone call from S.S. Sturmbannführer Günsche, one of Hitler's personal adjutants, ordering me to report immediately to the Führerbunker with 200 litres of Petrol. I reported to the Führerbunker at 15:00 hours and was met by Günsche. Günsche said to me: 'The Führer is dead. He has shot himself,' and Günsche indicated that Hitler had shot himself through the mouth". 

Kempka went on to say that Hitler's personal servant and another man left Hitler's private room at that moment, carrying what seemed to be Hitler's body wrapped in a grey army blanket. The head and body were completely covered and there were no traces of moisture or blood to be seen. Kempka said he recognized Hitler's black, low-cut shoes, black socks and black trousers, visible under the blanket. 

"At the rear came Reichsleiter Bormann," declared Kempka, "and he was carrying Eva Braun".

"How could you tell she was Eva Braun?" he was asked. 

"The body was not covered and it was easy to recognize her," he said. "Her face was unchanged, and her mouth was half open. The left side of her dress was moist, and had a dark stain on it. 

"Bormann paused and looked helplessly around him, so I took the body from him, and carried it to the bottom of the stairs leading to the emergency exit. Günsche then came down and we met. He took Eva Braun's body from me, and carried it upstairs". 

Kempka said he saw both bodies lying side by side in a shallow ditch. Bormann, Göbbels and Günsche, and Hitler's servant were standing near by. Kempka helped to pour petrol on the two bodies, he said, and Günsche set fire to them. 

"As the flames leapt up all those present stood to attention and gave the last Nazi salute, afterwards hurrying back to the shelter". 

The first Allied officer to reach the Reichs Chancellery was Major Feodor Platanoff of the Red Army, who on 2 May, in the closing stages of the Battle of Berlin, led a storming party of infantry across the grounds to the entrance to Hitler's Bunker.

Major Platanoff stated that there was a body in the garden near the Bunker, that it was not Hitler's, "but a very bad double".

He said that his men buried the body in the garden. It had already been half burned.

When asked if he thought Hitler was dead, Platanoff shook his head. "I think he escaped," he said. 

Before the assault was made, the Reichs Chancellery was stormed by artillery and mortars. At midnight on 30 April, when the Red Army had surrounded Central Berlin, a group of Nazi officers arrived under a truce flag at the Soviet headquarters, then in the Friedrichstrasse, saying that they had come from General Weidling, the recently appointed Commander-in- Chief of all German forces in Berlin, with authority to ask for an armistice between the Russian Government and German Government under Dr. Göbbels. The offer suggested that Hitler no longer existed, and is consistent with the statement that he committed suicide at 2.30 p.m. that day. Certainly it did not appear that he could be at his headquarters or in Berlin. The Soviet Commander replied that he would only consider an unconditional surrender: The Nazis returned to their lines, and the battle continued until next day. 

During the night of 1 May there was heavy hand-to-hand fighting in the Wilhelmstrasse, and the streets which led off it, and the Russians secured the Chancellery. It was the last fortified place in the city to fall. Early on 2 May, General Weidling broadcast an order to all German troops in the city to lay down their arms, and two of the armies of Marshal Zhukov's command met and celebrated victory beneath the Brandenburger Gate. It does not seem that the Russian Intelligence Service grasped the real importance of the Chancellery in the first days of victory. True, everyone knew that it had been Hitler's seat of government, and it was not long before large cases of files and other documents were removed, and put under guard. But there does not seem to have been any systematic effort to find out what had happened to the man who led a group of conspirators towards the goal of dominating the world, and who might have escaped to lie for years in hiding, then to emerge and call the German people to action. 

It is certain that if, within a few hours of the capture of the Chancellery a group of Scotland Yard detectives had been given the run of the place, assisted with one or two finger-print and forensic medicine experts, there would never have been any Hitler mystery at all.

If Hitler and Eva Braun had died there some proof would certainly have been found. However, it was weeks before the work of investigation was seriously undertaken, and then it was too late to learn anything conclusive. Mongol Russian sentries in filthy, unpressed uniforms were on duty outside the Chancellery when I visited it in the company of a Russian Intelligence officer soon after the Allies entered Berlin. They saluted and grinned as they always do, then leaned against a partly shattered wall.

I could not help recalling a very different scene in June I939, when I saw Hitler leave the Chancellery in his great Mercedes 770K car, accompanied by his faithful Göbbels, to go to Berchtesgaden. The smart Prussian Guards stood as though turned to stone, the drums rattled out in a fine tattoo, and, with great precision, the Führer's standard was lowered even before the sound of the car's engine was out of earshot. The deafening chorus of Sieg Heil! echoed again in my ears. I saw the excited crowds stretching right back to the now ruined Kaiserhof Hotel, heard the admiring applause, saw the looks of hero-worship on the faces of man, woman and child. Now there were Mongol sentries, and on their shabby sentry-boxes were pornographic drawings in white chalk. 

The Germans who were near trod cautiously over heaps of debris, among which lay dozens of iron crosses, taken by looters from Hitler's medal mint. They scarcely raised their eyes to look on the building which had been constructed by 10,000 men only a few years before, and from which Hitler had thought he was going to rule the world. Not one of them would have admitted now to having been a Nazi. None existed. I could also hear a hoarse voice at the opening of the building on 9 January 1939, a voice which was saying proudly that the place would outlive many centuries and would be a standing witness to the achievements of the new Great Germany. There, Hitler boasted, he would represent the German people. 

Even if a thousand sorcerers had told him that the Reichs Chancellery would come within range of enemy bombers within less than five years, and that in the end his enemies would search for his bones amid its ruins, he would not have believed it. But on 3 January 1945, it was bombed for the first time by the R.A.F., and such considerable damage was caused that Hitler did not attempt to have it repaired; and that day the Russian officer and I were, in fact, looking for his bones. 

"Did you ever see such a mess?" asked the Russian officer, and there was a gloating inflection in his voice. "Just think of it, think of the many diplomats, the puppet heads of States and their ambassadors who came in here just before and during the war, trembling with fear of what Hitler was going to say to them". 

"How are the mighty fallen," I said. There never was in history such a clear example of the futility of arrogance or the dangers of aggression.

We climbed over fallen masonry, splintered timber, rain-sodden books and broken statues to enter the mosaic hall, its floor knee-deep in debris. 

"Here," said the Russian, halting, "the Axis pact was signed. The Axis pact that was to lead to the conquest of all non-Nazis and non-Fascists, and which led, precisely, to this. . . ."

Among the luxuries Hitler enjoyed as head of the Nazi Party were the best cars that Germany could produce. Those cars happened to be Mercedes-Benzes,
some of the finest and best-designed automobiles in the world.

The 770K model was known as Grosser Mercedes Offener Tourenwagen. 

With its 7655cc single-overhead-cam, dual-carburetor, straight-eight motor,
which produced 230 hp when the supercharger kicked in, the vehicle was capable
of reaching 120 mph, even though it weighed 10,000 pounds. Its huge weight
was partly due to the addition of 6mm floor armor and 3mm hardened
door armor, plus 40mm thick bulletproof glass.

There were three jump- or pull-out seats behind the driver's seat, allowing the car
to seat a total of nine persons. Entirely upholstered in leather, it had a raised,
five-inch-high floor on the right to make Hitler appear taller when he stood. The front seat folded back to give him more room while standing in that position. 

The car had a 51-gallon gasoline tank and a 150-mile range, attaining three miles
per gallon around town. The car also featured four-wheel, independent-coil
suspension, dual-system power brakes and 8.25 x 17-inch tires.

The Axis had broken, and the mighty hall in which it was signed had become a ruin. Red upholstered furniture, broken and burned, lay about the floor of inlaid gold mosaic. A massive Swastika, at which two heavy gilded eagles clawed savagely, lay amid broken glass, brass fittings, shattered marble and the remnants of a moulded ceiling. Two enormous crystal chandeliers hung from the roof, the one resting on the floor, the other a few feet from it. Everything had been new and fine, from the smallest wall-fitting to the largest of the marble pillars. We went solemnly round the room collecting papers that seemed to us important, some of them personal letters of members of Hitler's staff but most of them official documents relating to the war. Russian engineers had already removed the steel door of a safe. Smaller rooms, libraries, studies, filing offices and the like, revealed secrets which, a few months before, would have sent three Cabinets into immediate deliberation, but which now, in the twilight of Hitler's fallen capital, were valueless except to the historian. 

In Hitler's smaller library, there was a sight which could be called symbolic. Strewn about the floor, amid small personal things which he had used daily, were books by Nietzsche, H. S. Chamberlain, Rosenberg, Treitschke, Müller, Novalis, Fichte and Schönerer - fitting intellectual food for the megalomaniac would-be world conqueror. Two or three lay open in an evil-smelling corner, but those who had opened them had not wanted to read. A few pages had been torn out of one book -it was Spengler's "Men and Technics"- and on the next page my eye caught the words: "That to such beasts as we, eternal peace would be like intolerable boredom . . ." I showed this to my Russian friend, and he howled with laughter. 

"See here," he said, wiping tears from his eyes, "it is all so magnificently ironic. See . . . books on Barbarossa, on Charlemagne, Frederick the Great, Bismarck, even Hindenburg's 'Aus meinem Leben'. Is life not funny?" 

In another room there were many photographs, among which we recognized Kirdorf, Thyssen, Stinnes, Vögler, and a few Nazis whom I was to see a short time later at the Nuremburg Major War Criminal Court: Göring, Ribbentrop, Räder. . . . Everywhere in this shattered temple to a discredited ideology, there were ghosts of men who had gambled on one card and lost. 

The large once ornamental garden to which we gained access through glassless french windows was a garden no more. It was like a battlefield, strewn with respirators, bandages, steel helmets, shells, broken weapons, bloody uniforms, water-bottles, and broken furniture. It was also a cemetery, for the bodies of soldiers and civilians, men, women and children, who had died violently by poison or bullet or shell, were there in new, unmarked graves. 

The trees which had been planted there by Hitler were blasted, the terraces where he used to walk on quiet evenings when the daily round of the Wilhelmstrasse was over, and that street of evil quiet and deserted, were pock-marked with mortar and artillery shells. Everywhere there was a smell of death and decay. 

We went carefully across the garden, halting every few yards to examine something of interest - a length of film, a bunch of keys, a file of documents; articles of male and female clothing ["May be those of Hitler and Eva," smiled the Russian incredulously], copies of Hitler's speeches, law books, more photographs, sports equipment, one or two English detective stories, a picture of a girl in a bathing costume. 

An insignificant block of concrete, inlet with substantial steel doors, the hinges of which had been burned off with acetylene blow-lamps, led down to Hitler's elaborate air-raid shelter, so deep below the ground that no bomb used in Europe could have penetrated its walls. Beside the entrance was a concrete look-out, and, not far away, two or three concrete pillboxes with weapon holes looking to the back entrance. Other fortifications were only half-finished, and had obviously never been used. 

We went down several flights of steps into the dark Bunker, where Hitler lived during the fateful days between the beginning of the great Russian offensive from the Oder on 16 April, and the time of his escape or death. Here he issued orders to an already crushed army, here he castigated friends whom he accused of deserting him, sacked one army leader after another, and appointed new ones. Here it was that he received his last commander, General Weidling, on 29 April - or was it his own double? 

In the Russian film of the Battle of Berlin which the Russians showed the German audiences, Weidling is clearly to be seen exhibiting how strangely Hitler behaved during that meeting. Weidling refers to Hitler as being "almost unrecognizable", although that remark might have been applied to his strange behaviour arising from his agitation, and not to his appearance. 

We stood for a moment in the dark, and a heavy silence fell around us. Certainly battle could have waged above, bombs could have fallen, shells could have crashed into the Wilhelmstrasse, and still nothing would have been heard in that sepulchral place. It was not difficult to visualize the confusion and depression of the last agonizing days of battle among people surrounded by the threat of death, who already had poison capsules in their pockets. 

The timber was scorched black, the floor was covered with three inches of water. Each of the several rooms adjoining, without passages, was small, with a low roof, and the furniture, now scarred by fire, was mass-produced. 

No fire had burned in Hitler's room, a room in which, according to reports, Hitler and Eva Braun had spent a fantastic Wagnerian honeymoon before they committed suicide. On a broad settee, its upholstery covered with brocade decorated with leaping antelopes and mediaeval warriors in Russian top-boots, there were clear signs of blood. My Russian friend and I examined the settee carefully. The signs were consistent with someone who sat in the corner of it having committed suicide by shooting, for the blood had run down the three-inch square arm of the settee and dripped on to the floor, where there were dark stains. On the wall were several splashes of blood, which could have been accounted for by a wounded head having come into contact with it. 

We searched the room minutely and found nothing more than a hairpin and a few sheets of notepaper. Near by was the blood-stained room where Göbbels and his wife and six children were reported to have died. The most interesting part of the Bunker was, however, Eva Braun's bedroom, with its adjoining bathroom. The bedroom had in it a double bed, a cabinet full of cosmetics and drugs, a mirror, table and chairs. The bathroom was complete with all fittings, most of them obviously new, and on the chromium-plated rails were towels marked A.H. That a woman had lived there was evident. Little wisps of loose hair which had come out in combing lay on the floor, and there were other hairpins and two empty powder boxes. Was it possible, one thought, that any woman, living in that deep, silent place, with death approaching from east and west, could have thought so much about her appearance as to make up her face? 

We went back into the bedroom, and sat on the bed trying to reconstruct the "last scene" from what we had already learned, but the whole thing was too fantastic - the last moments of a world war, a contemplated marriage in an underground hide-out, a last will and testament, a suicide pact. . . . Yet there was something so Wagnerian about it, especially about committing the bodies to the flames, that the man who borrowed his "Heil" from Wagner, who called his western forts the Siegfried Line, might also have seen himself as Wotan in "Der Ring", and even have rejoiced in a dramatic curtain to his own personal drama. From the Bunker the Russian took me by the arm, and led me to a deep tunnel which was as long and as wide as a street. 

"Here," he said, "is the real headquarters of Hitler, secret until long after the war began. The men who built it were specially picked by the Gestapo, and were warned that the life of the Führer rested in their hands".

In this vast subterranean, air-conditioned Reichs Chancellery, intersected into safety sections with steel doors which weighed a ton each, were hundreds of huge rooms, each with one entrance only and that guarded by a steel strong-room door. This fortress was honeycombed by offices, which dealt with every aspect of the defence of the Reich, and had in it Hitler's own conference-room, a wireless transmitting station, a telephone exchange and a vast kitchen, with sufficient cooking facilities to prepare meals for a thousand people. 

"They could have held out here for weeks," said the Russian, "if their defences had been properly manned".

The sun was going down as we regained the garden again. We walked to the conical concrete blockhouse by the Bunker, and the Russian halted near a shallow trench. 

"That," he said, "is where Hitler and Eva Braun were supposed to have been burned." 

The trench was black with ashes.

"You believe it?" 

He smiled and shook his head. "We want more proof than I have seen up to now. All we know is that he was here".

I bent down, took up some of the ashes in my hand, and put them into an empty tobacco-pouch. They might have been the remains of burnt wood, or they might have been the remains of a cremated Hitler. I could not know. 

"Maybe," said the Russian, "we shall still find something".

We made an appointment to meet again and parted. I walked down to the Charlottenburger Chaussee, the broad avenue which, as Germans will tell you, was used by important Nazis as a runway for their aero-planes just before the city fell. In a few minutes I was on the concrete road. By the roadside we saw the remains of one plane which had crashed in landing.

Never have there been so many "detectives" on any case. One day when in the Chancellery grounds, I counted forty-five separate parties of at least four nationalities, all armed with torches, pencils and notebooks, many with cameras and diagrams. Until the end no one gave up hope that one day someone would hit upon a clue. Intelligence officers and military police all over the country, especially at ports and harbours, in hospitals and prisoner-of-war camps, were warned to keep a look out for anyone resembling the missing Führer, his deputy or his adjutant. 

The British and American Intelligence Service were at work for months reconstructing the last fantastic days in the bunker. The British worked as a team, and their enquiries took them all over Germany, excluding the Russian zone, following up many useless clues and trying to trace people who were in the Chancellery during the last days of Nazi Germany. 

Martin Bormann, Hitler's deputy, who was likely to know more than Göring or Ribbentrop, could not be found. A clue led to the Hamburg area, then all trace was lost. Bormann's adviser, Friedrich Wilhelm Zander, was also missing, as were certain important documents. British Intelligence officers discovered that Zander was in a German military hospital in Seeheim in June as a prisoner of war, and he was followed thence to Tegernsee, where he had hidden under a false name. British Intelligence officers prepared a statement which was made public in Berlin on 1 November. Those of us who had to do with its issue were surprised at the keenness of the Russians whom we invited to be present. 

The statement claimed that available evidence, which had been sifted, was based largely on eye-witness accounts and showed, as conclusively as possible without bodies, that Hitler and Eva Braun died shortly after 2.30 p.m. on 30 April 1945, in their Bunker, their bodies being burned just outside. 

Hitler's original intention had been to fly to Berchtesgaden on 20 April, and from there continue the struggle. When that day came he postponed his departure. On 22 April, at about 4.30 p.m., he held a staff conference, at which he made it clear to his advisers that he considered the war was lost, and that he intended to remain in Berlin to the last in defence of the capital. If Berlin fell, he would die there. It is clear that Hitler suffered from an attack of nervous prostration, during which he blamed everyone but himself for the failure of Germany to win the war. His advisers, both military and civil, endeavoured to persuade him to change his mind and leave Berlin. This was of no avail. Göbbels took the same decision, and with Martin Bormann, Dr. Ludwig Stumpfegger [Hitler's surgeon], and others of the personal staff, remained behind. 

The generals retired to their new headquarters. 

"Hitler's breakdown on 22 April was the beginning of his end," according to the statement. "From that time he never left the Bunker, surrounded no longer by soldiers and politicians, but by his 'family circle', and those officers responsible directly to him for the defence of Berlin. 

"His state of mind was reported by all who saw him to have been very much calmer after the crisis on 22 April. He had made his decision. He even gained more confidence as to the outcome of the Battle of Berlin. Now and again, however, his calm was interrupted by tantrums, when he recalled old treacheries and found new ones. His physical health, on the contrary, was poor. The nervous strain, unhealthy living conditions, and eccentric hours told on him. Apart from a reported trembling of the hands, from which he had suffered for some time, and his general decrepitude, he was "as normal as ever in his mind"'. 

The sifted evidence showed that on the night of 23-24 April, Hitler was visited by Albert Speer, the Reich Minister for Armament and Munitions and Chief of the Todt Organization, to whom he disclosed that he had made all plans for his suicide, and for the complete destruction of his body by burning. About the same time Himmler sent Gebhardt, his personal doctor, to Hitler to try to persuade him to leave Berlin before it was too late, but Hitler rejected this suggestion. 

On the evening of 26 April, Field Marshal Ritter von Greim reported to Hitler's Bunker to receive his commission as C.-in-C. German Air Force in succession to Göring, the latter having fallen into complete disfavour by his endeavour to take over control from Hitler a few days earlier. 

"Hitler informed Greim, as he had Speer, that he had made all arrangements for the destruction of his body and that of Eva Braun, so that they would not fall into enemy hands, and that nothing recognizable would remain".

He gave Greim and Hanna Reitsch, Greim's woman pilot, poison capsules, which the former afterwards used. Such capsules had already been issued to all people in the Bunker. 

On 28 April, the inmates of the Bunker heard with a mixture of incredulity and disgust of Himmler's approach to the Allies through Sweden. Hitler called him a treacherous dog. 

During the previous three days, the Battle of Berlin had been drawing nearer the centre of the city. Shells were falling all round the Bunker, and in the early hours of 29 April it was reported that Russian tanks had broken into the Potsdamer Platz. Hitler then ordered Greim to return to Rechlin to mount a Luftwaffe attack in support of General Wenck's 12th Army, which was reported also to be within shelling distance of the Potsdamer Platz. [In fact it was not, but this was probably unknown at this time]. Greim, with Reitsch, took off from the Charlottenburger Chaussee in an Arado 96, which had been flown in to collect them.
 

Hanna Reitsch recorded in her memoirs that she, with a heavily bandaged General von Greim by her side, flew out of Berlin from the Tiergarten, at dawn on 30 April 1945, according to her 5 December 1945 press interview.  In testimony to Captain Robert F. Work, Chief Interrogator on 8 October 1945, regarding the 'Last Days of Hitler', the departure from the Bunker is stated as after 1:30 am on 30 April 1945.

Later on 29 April any hope of the effective relief of Berlin by Wenck's army had to be abandoned. Captured telegrams sent to Dönitz at the time disclose the hysterical recrimination of despair.

On the evening of 29 April, Hitler married Eva Braun, according to the report, the ceremony being performed by an official from the Propaganda Ministry, in a small conference-room in the Bunker.

There are conflicting accounts by witnesses to Hitler's wedding that it happened before midnight on 29 April and before Reitsch departed Berlin, yet Reitsch denied all knowledge of the wedding. The Marriage certificate stated the wedding happened on 29 April, yet at least four witnesses said the wedding happened before midnight 28 April. 

Eva Braun may have suggested the marriage, for she had apparently wished for the peculiar glory of dying with Hitler, and she had used her influence to persuade him to die in Berlin, amid the indiscribable drama of those last days. 

"After the ceremony," continued the statement, "the newly married couple shook the hands of all present in the Bunker, and retired to their suite with one of Hitler's women secretaries for a marriage feast. According to her the conversation, which had been confined to suicide, was so morbidly oppressive that she would have broken down if she had remained. It was about this time that Hitler had his Alsatian dog destroyed. 

"At about 2.30 a.m. on 30 April, Hitler said a curt good-bye to about 20 people, about half of them women, whom he had summoned from the other Bunkers in the Old and New Chancelleries across the shell-blasted garden. He shook hands with the women and spoke to most of them. On the same day, at about 2.30 p.m., though the exact time is uncertain, orders were sent to the transport office requiring the immediate dispatch to the Bunker of 200 litres of Petrol. Between 160 and 180 litres were actually collected and deposited in the garden just outside the emergency exit of the Bunker. At about the same time, Hitler and Eva Braun made their last appearance alive. They went round the Bunker, shook hands with their immediate entourage, and then retired to their own apartments, where they both committed suicide, Hitler by shooting himself, apparently through the mouth, Eva Braun perhaps by taking poison, though she had been given a revolver.

Other versions had Hitler shot in the right temple, in the left temple, or in the mouth. Hitler lying slumped back in the couch. Hitler pitched forward with his face at rest on the coffee table. Hitler slumped forward, hands on knees, leaning to the right slightly - against logic because the bullet was in the right temple and the gun he fired was on his left and he was not left-handed. 

"After the suicide the bodies were stated to have been taken into the garden just outside the Bunker by Göbbels, Bormarn, perhaps Stumpfegger, and one or two others. Hitler was wrapped in a blanket, presumably because his body was bloody. The bodies were placed side by side in the garden about three yards from the emergency exit, and drenched with Petrol. Because of the shelling, the party withdrew under the shelter of the exit, and a Petrol-soaked rag was lighted and thrown on the corpses, which at once caught fire. The party then stood to attention, gave the Hitler salute and retired".

From then on, according to the report, the evidence is less circustantial. How often the bodies were resoaked, or how long they burnt, was not stated. One witness was informed that they burnt until nothing was left. More probably they were charred until they were unrecognizable, and the bones broken up and probably buried.

On the evening of 1 May, Bormann sent a telegram to Dönitz, which I saw, informing him that Hitler's will was now in force [i.e. that Hitler was dead]. This was amplified later by a telegram from Göbbels, which stated that Hitler had died at 3.30 p.m. the previous day, and that his will appointed Dönitz as Reichspresident, Göbbels as Reichschancellor, Bormann as Party Minister, and Seyss-Inquart as Foreign Minister. Göbbels added that Bormann was trying to get to Dönitz to inform him of the situation. British Intelligence officers thought their evidence not complete, but positive, circumstantial, consistent and dependable. 

"There is no evidence whatever to support any of the theories which have been circulated, and which presuppose that Hitler is still alive. All such stories which have been reported have been investigated, and found to be quite baseless; most of them have dissolved at the first touch of fact, and some of them have been admitted by their authors to have been pure fabrication. Nor is it possible to dispose of the existing evidence".

It was considered quite impossible that the versions of the various eye-witnesses could represent a concerted cover-story, because they were all too busy planning their own safety to have been disposed to memorize an elaborate charade which they could still maintain, after five months of isolation from each other and under detailed and persistent cross-examination. Nor was it considered possible that the witnesses were mistaken in respect of Hitler's body [of the identity of Eva Braun's body no doubt is considered possible; not being blanketed she was easily recognizable]. Such a theory would require that Hitler escaped after 2.30 p.m. on 30 April, and that Eva Braun was "fobbed off" with the corpse of a double which had been secretly introduced. 

But escape after 2.30 p.m. was almost certainly impossible. Even if it was still possible to fly a training plane from the Charlottenburger Chaussee, there was no pilot to fly it. Hitler's two pilots, who were in the Bunker on 30 April , both took part in the attempted escape on the night of 1 May. In any case, there was no valid reason for constructing such theories, which were contrary to the only positive evidence, and supported by no evidence at all.

Then the strangest inquest in history was held in the lounge of a middle-class Berlin hotel. 

A spokesman for the officers who had carried out the investigation was closely interrogated on the results by a group of expert observers, British and American, whom I had gathered together, and I made a record of questions and answers. One Intelligence officer [Hugh Trevor-Roper - not identified at this time] an Oxford don before the war, still youthful and full of enthusiasm, admitted at once that the only conclusive evidence that Hitler and Eva Braun had died would be the discovery and certain identification of their bodies. The fact had to be admitted the bodies had not been discovered. 

The interrogation began: 

Question: Are the Russians still sceptical about Hitler's death, as they were earlier when they said they thought Hitler had escaped? 

Answer: We are in consultation with the Russians, but I think that they are slightly skeptical still. [One Russian present nodded in agreement].

Q.: Was this an entirely British investigation or one with the co-operation of the Russians?

A.:  So far as the information now given is concerned it has been obtained by the British. 

Q.: Could you say who some of the eye-witnesses are? 

A.: I do not think that I am able to disclose the names of the witnesses. Some of them are known already, some I think are not. I do not think I am permitted to say more. [The eye-witnesses actually belonged to the following main categories: politicians and generals, who were with Hitler in the Bunker at different times between 20 April and 30 April; members of his personal staff; adjutants or assistants; women secretaries; guards on duty inside or immediately outside the Bunker; and miscellaneous persons, who happened to be present at certain incidents]. 

The questioning continued: 

Q.: Have you any theory as to why not the slightest remains of Hitler's body were found? There still must have been bones. 

A.: The position is that after the time when the bodies were dumped the evidence becomes very much finer. We are not entitled to make theories, but merely to state facts. It is in fact likely that, considering the amount of Petrol used, there was very little left except bones. In these circumstances, if twenty-four hours elapsed before the rest of the party escaped, it is probable that the bodies were broken up, and the sandy soil could have been dug up and mixed. There was a great deal of burnt surface in the Chancellery grounds, and it would have been perfectly easy to dig up the surface soil. Alternatively, some bodies were subsequently dug up by the Russian authorities in the garden of the Chancellery, and there would have been enough remains there in which to mingle the unrecognizable bones. 

Q.: What amount of Petrol was used to pour on the bodies before they were set ablaze? 

A.: The opinion which I have been able to obtain is, that with the amount of Petrol used the bodies would be charred beyond all recognition. Although not completely destroyed they would be reduced very considerably in weight. The light paperish remains could easily be broken up, apart from the bones, and the bones could, if necessary, be broken up. 

Q.: What about the teeth? 

A.: They would not necessarily be destroyed. [Teeth actually thought to be Hitler's were found by the Russians, and are now in an Intelligence Bureau in Moscow].

Q.: Is it a sound argument that the teeth would be the most recognizable residue? 

A.: More than likely. 

Q.: What kind of gun was it that Hitler used? 

A.: There were two pistols -both French pistols- one 7-65, and one 6.35.

[Fingerprints of Hitler and Eva Braun were never recorded].

Q.: In course of investigations-did you find any evidence that witnesses had received instructions to tell a story indicating that the bodies had been burned?

A.: No. In fact, after a long cross-examination of many witnesses, I believe it to be quite impossible that that can be true. After five months, I do not think it possible that people could have remembered elaborate stories, but only personal experiences. Therefore, if they had been taught a cover story, one would expect to find that they all agreed at the first telling, and then disagreed later, under cross-examination. 

Q.: If the man who was burned was not Hitler but a double, and these people thought it was Hitler, their stories would tally, and indeed be true.

[It is known for a fact that Hitler, like Montgomery on one occasion, did in fact use a double to deceive spies].

A.: If you should wish to believe that Hitler got away and if you believe it, you have got to assume that Hitler escaped after 2.30 p.m. on 30 April, very rapidly before the dummy body was brought out. In that case you have got to straighten out the following point: 

"Hitler Lives" 
Does Stalin Really Believe That?
Examiner [Launceston, Tas] 
8 July 1950 

Why did the Russians change their minds about Hitler's death? 

In May and early June 1945, the Russians in Berlin publicly admitted that Hitler was dead. On 6 June, Marshal Georgy Zhukov even stated there was no doubt about it. Three days later Zhukov recanted, saying he could give "no definite statement" and that it was all very mysterious. Why did he make this sudden volte-face? 

That is one of the few questions which Mr. Trevor-Roper does not try to answer in the long and amusing introduction wrhich he has written for the second edition of his book, "The Last Days of Hitler". But at least. there is a strong presumption, as Trevor-Roper points out, that Stalin had something to do with Zhukov's change of mind. As early as 26 May Stalin told the ailing Harry Hopkins that he thought Hitler was hiding somewhere. He reiterated his opinion to Secretary of State James Byrnes at Potsdam in July. 

It was no doubt partly the Russian attempts to cast doubt on Hitler's death that led the War Office to commission Mr. Trevor-Roper, then an Intelligence officer, to find out the true facts. After painstaking research and cross-examination of all available survivors from the Bunker, he was able to establish beyond any possibility of doubt that Hitler committed suicide, that his body was then burnt and that the final disposal of the ashes and other remains cannot be ascertained. Yet the Russians still remain silent, presumably in agreement with Stalin's known opinions. 

But why should Stalin wish to believe or wish it to be believed that Hitler lives? One view is that he hopes to preserve the Bogeyman who so long assisted him to maintain his grip on the Russian people. Another suggestion is that a revival of Hitler at a suitable moment might help the Russians to consolidate their hold on Germany. Surely the first explanation which Stalin gave to Hopkins contained the truth, "the whole matter struck him as being very dubious". Stalin simply could not believe that Hitler could die amid scenes which read as if they were written for a cheap novelette. The last scenes in the Bunker which Trevor-Roper describes so vividly - the marriage with Eva Braun, the excommunication of Himmler, the orders for the arrest and execution of Göring, the Last Testament, the silent leave-taking, and finally the joint suicide followed by the burning of the bodies, would be incredible if the facts were not so well substantiated by a number of independent witnesses, who could only be located and questioned some months after Hitler's death. So the truth may be that once Stalin had stated his views, no one in Soviet Russia dared tell him what every reader of Trevor-Roper's book knows - that beyond any possible doubt Hitler is dead. 

While Mr. Trevor-Roper's main' conclusions hold, he has erred grievously in one respect. His speculations on how the Ruissians learnt of Eva Braun's marriage are quite wrong. On 9 June Marshal Zhukov announced at a press conference that on the evidence of diaries kept by Hitler's Adjutant, Hitler had married Eva Braun before he died. Basing his view on a statement by an aide to General Krebs, the German Army Chief of Staff, that none of the adjutants kept diaries, Trevor-Roper guesses that the diaries never existed and that the Russians invented them to conceal, for some unknown reason, the fact that after Hitler's death General Krebs went to Zhukov with a truce offer. But, in the first place, how could one man know for certain that no diary was being kept of the momentous events in the Bunker

 And, secondly, it is not true that the Russians suppressed the evidence of the Krebs peace offer. If Trevor-Roper had consulted the files of the "Evening Standard" he would have learned that at the same press conference when Zhukov told the world of Hitler's marriage, a Russian lieutenant-colonel, a correspondent of the Red Army newspaper, gave a description of the last days, in Berlin with full details of the Krebs peace mission.

Last Days Of Berlin 
Alleged Offer By Göbbels 
From Our Special Representative 
The Advertiser [Adelaide, SA] 
26 July 1945 

LONDON, 24 July: Göbbels during the last days of Berlin, offered to assume the leadership of a reorganised German Government, and conclude an armistice with the Russians. This was revealed last night by Lt-Gen. Peter Kosenko. who was artillery chief in the 5th Russian Army. 

Lt-Gen. Kosenko said that, when fighting was at its fiercest in Berlin, at midnight on 30 April, a small group of Nazi officers, under a flag of truce, arrived at Soviet headquarters in the Friedrichstrasse. A German senior officer said that the Commander-in-Chief of the German forces in Berlin, General   Weidling, had authorised him to seek an armistice between the Soviet Government and a German Government, under Göbbels's leadership. He made no mention of what had become of Hitler, but inferred that he was dead, or had been handed over to the Russians. The Soviet High Command answered "Unconditional surrender, or else". The Germans returned to their lines, and the battle raged until the night of 1 May, when the Chancellery was finally stormed.

Trevor-Roper concludes his introduction by regretting his inability to see eye to eye with the numerous correspondents who had assured him "from Brighton and Bournemoth, and the Madras Presidency, that my conclusions would have been more certain had I consulted the oracles of Yogi and the Great Pyramid, or correctly interpreted the inspired books of Ezekiel, Daniel and Revelation".

1) Eva Braun was deceived by a dummy. No doubt Eva Braun used her influence on Hitler, and she wished to stay and die in Berlin; she also wished for the distinction of dying with Hitler and she would certainly have resented a substitute corpse; 

(2) Consider how Hitler could have got away at 2.30 p.m. on 30 April. Berlin had now been surrounded for at least four days by the Russians, and the only way out -and it is not certain that it was possible at that time- was to fly a training plane from the Charlottenburger Chaussee. You must also consider that Hitler's two pilots were both with him on 30 April, and were both still there on 1 May after the corpse was burnt, and therefore could not have flown him off on 30 April. Baur, one of the pilots, is a Russian prisoner of war now, and Betz, the other, had been seen with several head wounds. [The Russians never issued the details of relevant prisoners in their hands].

Q.: Regarding Eva Braun, you say she "would have to have been fobbed off with a dummy" - does not that mean Hitler predeceased her?

A.: She supposed that Hitler was going to commit suicide after her. You know the Bunker as well as I do -a very small place- and I think in the circumstances it was rather unlikely that a very elaborated plot could have taken place. [The absence of passages in the Bunker would have made any kind of subterfuge difficult to stage].

Q.: Is there no direct evidence in which order the suicides took place?

A.: The suicides took place within a very short time of each other. Reports from the people in the Bunker suggest that they occurred a very short interval after Hitler had said good-bye to his staff.

Q.: Do we know Hitler's blood group? There were blood-stains in the central room where he was supposed to have been shot.

A.: We have no record of his blood group.

[U.S. Intelligence officers discovered Hitler's blood group later, but it was not possible to prove that it was his blood which was found on the sofa in the Bunker].

Q.: Where did they commit suicide?

A.: I think they probably committed suicide on the sofa. As far as we know Eva Braun took poison.

Q.: How did you arrive at the opinion that Hitler shot himself and Eva Braun took poison? A.:

The evidence is as follows. One witness reported that she was told in the Bunker that Hitler had used his revolver, and Eva Braun had not. Another witness actually inspected the revolvers and was cross-examined by me, and in cross-examination said that he assumed that they had both shot themselves, but when asked whether both revolvers had been discharged, admitted that he had not examined them for that purpose. The evidence from both sources is compatible with the impression given by the first witness that Hitler had shot himself through the mouth, and Eva Braun, although provided with a revolver, had taken poison. It is true that she had used the poison capsule.

Q.: Did anybody else take any of these capsules besides Eva Braun?

A.: Quite probably. On the evening of 1 May, the rest of the inhabitants of the Bunker under the direction of Bormann tried to make a mass escape at about 11 p.m. They included not merely the inhabitants of the so-called Hitler's Bunker, but also people engaged in the defence of the Chancellery. Those people went out in several successive groups into the Wilhelmstrasse, down into the underground, then down Friedrichstrasse, and attempted to get across the Weidendamm Bridge. They were, in fact, all broken up in and around Friedrichstrasse, and only one group got across the Weidendamm Bridge. That group was obliged to take refuge in a beer cellar on the north side of Weidendamm Bridge, but were captured by the Russians. It included, among others, Bormann and the head of the Reich Guard. A liaison officer [Walther Hewel] took poison there. There were various other people there.

The position about Bormann is as follows: Bormann and Göbbels both stayed behind for a day after the Hitler suicide. As far as the evidence goes they were there the same evening that General Krebs was sent to Marshal Zhukov to obtain agreement about the exchange of the wounded. Because of this, plans for mass escape were postponed until the evening of 1 May. On the evening of 1 May, Göbbels committed suicide. One witness visited him before the mass escape attempt, and Göbbels bade him farewell, and hoped they would escape. Frau Göbbels is known to have stated that two of her children were dead and the rest would follow. None of them was involved in the mass escape that followed on the evening of 1 May. Bormann was involved in that mass escape. After the first group had got across the Weidendamm Bridge, one group accompanied a German tank across the bridge. That group consisted of Neumann of the Propaganda Ministry, Bormann and Stumpfegger walking on the left-hand side of the tank, and on the other side of the tank were Kempka and a man named Rattenhuber.

While this tank was making its way, a Panzerfaust exploded in the tank, and blew it out on the left-hand side. Both Kempka and Rattenhuber got away and told the story to the people with whom they took refuge. Both agreed that Bormann was left dead. Kempka, who was wounded on one side of the head, said he died, but it must be remembered that Kempka was also temporarily blinded by the explosion. As far as their memories go and taking into consideration their wounds, both reported Bormann dead. There is no conclusive proof that Bormann is dead. The evidence is a bit sketchy.

Q.: Can you tell us how many witnesses you questioned to form your opinion?

A.: I questioned a very great number of witnesses. The incidents of which they were witnesses are, of course, different. Of the period 20 to 29 April - quite a few.

Q.: Dozens or scores?

A.: About a dozen at least. For after that period I interrogated something like eight. [Many more were questioned later].

Q.: Do we know whose decision it was to burn the bodies?

A.: Hitler stated to Speer on the night of 23 April and to Ritter von Greim on the night of 26-27 April that he had made all plans for the destruction by burning of his body.

Q.: Did Greim commit suicide?

A.: Greim committed suicide about the middle of May, just after he was captured by the Americans. Before he committed suicide he had, in fact, had telephone calls and personal talks with several people. A friend of his has given evidence. At this juncture, the Intelligence Officer stated that in all investigations they had completely ignored times or dates, particularly those given by people in the Bunker.

Inside the Bunker life was eccentric, and nobody knew the exact date. Hitler got up by habit at 1.30 p.m., and went to bed about 5.30 in the morning. Nobody left the Bunker, Russian shelling was in progress all the time, and people suffered from "Zeitlosigkeit". They had no idea of the time or the date. The report was, however, composed of dates quoted on external evidence by people who visited the Bunker from outside. The Intelligence Officers were satisfied that these dates were correct, but none of them was based on the statements made by people inside the Bunker.

This informal inquest without a body did not completely satisfy the curiosity of some experts, and next day I asked the Intelligence Officers to come to tea at a Berlin hotel to submit themselves to another cross-examination, and this they very sportingly agreed to do. Popular interest was beginning to centre on Eva Braun, and the first question was if any details could be given about the part she played in the Hitler drama. 

"I can only tell you what Speer said about her when he was interrogated the other day," an Intelligence Brigadier replied. "He said that there was no doubt Hitler had the greatest respect for her, and her love was very significant to him. She had the deepest respect and reverence for Hitler. 

"Whether Eva Braun was Hitler's mistress or not nobody seems to know. She was regarded by Speer and by one or two other people as a modest woman. She could have exploited Hitler to a tremendous extent. He [Hitler] knew her for about twelve years. She was not a politician apparently [according to Speer], although she had a certain amount of common sense, and did not try seriously to influence Hitler. In fact she was just a woman who used to help him, was his personal secretary, and looked after him. She was very keen on sport, a very good skier and a very good mountain climber. 

"Hanna Reitsch said that Eva spent most of her time in the Bunker polishing her finger-nails and changing her dress every hour of the day. Whether this was really her true character during the last few days I don't know. It does not agree with Speer's statement which said she was extremely calm and quite the bravest and probably the most intelligent woman there. She flew into Berlin against Hitler's wishes on 15 April, from Munich. No doubt about it, she wanted to die with Hitler. She used her influence on Hitler to remain in Berlin, although the majority of people tried to persuade him to leave. She wanted him to stay there and wanted to die with him, which you can understand if she really loved him".

"Have you any details as to the wedding ceremony?" 

"We have no more details. Apparently a person despatched from the Ministry of Propaganda was present at the wedding. I do not know. Martin Bormann was there. The ceremony took place in the Bunker - probably in Hitler's suite-with Göbbels also in attendance".

"Were they actually legally married?" 

"According to the evidence they were legally married. The evidence is not very good".

"Who actually performed the marriage?" 

"A member of the Ministry of Propaganda, and as a matter of fact I do not quite know the story. Somebody did ring up to try and get another marriage performed, and the person who answered said, 'What a pity you did not ask two days ago; you could have had the same man who married Hitler and Eva Braun'.

"Do you think Hitler might have thought of the value of such a death from a religious point of view-dying in the flaming ruins of Berlin?" 

"It is said Hitler decided to stay because 'a nation which did not fight for its capital lost its soul', and in addition to that, 'Berlin was the bulwark of anti-Bolshevism'.

"Seems to indicate that he had some mysticism?" 

"No doubt he was a mystic. Speer was asked, 'What sort of picture can you give us of Hitler's character?' He said it was impossible for him to do so'. 

This is one of the many inconsistencies in the story told by the British Intelligence Service. Later it was revealed that a city councillor named Walter Wagner performed the ceremony, but he could not be found.

Walter Wagner was a 50-year-old municipal councilor, who appeared in the uniform of the Nazi Party and the arm-band of the Volkssturm. Immediately after the wedding ceremony Wagner rejoined his unit. He was shot in the head and killed only a few days later during the Battle of Berlin.
 

"As long as Hitler thought there was a reasonable chance of producing a state whereby Germany did not lose the war he was prepared to go on fighting. Of course he always completely over-estimated the power of his Armies and Air Force, particularly in the last six months of the war. One of the things which really made him change his mind was 'a full scale' counter-attack to be launched on 21 April by the S.S. The attack never took place, owing to the failure of communications. In fact it could never have been more than a two- or three-battalion attack, yet Hitler thought this 'full scale' counter-attack could divide the Russian Armies. This gives you an idea of how he under-estimated the Russian Armies. We found out since that his conception of military tactics was childish".

"Is there any danger of Hitler being alive?" 

"One of the reasons why we put this report out was the continued rumours about him being alive. These proved to be completely false".

"Are you going to close investigations now?" 

"We are satisfied in our own minds -we have gone as far as possible without the bodies- that Hitler is dead. There are, however, one or two further witnesses whom we wish to interrogate, those who might have had something to do with the disposal of the bodies. We would like any other evidence, which supports evidence of the witnesses we have already interrogated. We would rather like to get the facts of Hitler's teeth from the Russians, but do not think we will get anything out of them".

"Regarding the teeth-do you think the Russians know something about them?" 

"All I know is what they have told us. I believe they have in fact found two sets of teeth. They got hold of a woman who was assistant to Hitler's dentist, and asked her if they were Hitler's teeth. After interrogation she said she recognized them as Hitler's teeth." 

"Was Dönitz actually appointed Führer?" 

"Yes, he was. He told a lie to the German people when he broadcast to them saying that Hitler had died on 1 May fighting in the front line with his troops, when Hitler actually died on 30 April".

"Did we find the body of Hitler's dog?" was the final question, and to this the reply was: "His dog [by name Blondi] was poisoned by Dr. Haase in the Bunker. Other dogs were also done away with. We did not find the bodies". 

The hunt for clues continued into the eighth month after the fall of Berlin, the Americans taking an ever greater part; a little resentful, perhaps, that the British Intelligence Service, working as a team, had forged ahead of them.

From the Russian zone came no word at all. Official circles would have everyone believe that the Russian High Command regarded Hitler's fate as a matter of no importance. Yet it was known that the Russians held relevant witnesses, some of whom were engaged in the defence of the Chancellery, others closely associated with the Führer and the Propaganda Minister. Among them was one of Hitler's pilots. It was also obvious that the Russians must have salvaged from the Chancellery and from the Bunker important documents, not all of which were sent forward for inclusion in their case for the prosecution at the War Criminals' trial at Nuremburg.

British Intelligence officers had already found several important documents, including the personal will and the political testament of the Führer; but they did not reveal the fact except to the Inter-Allied Intelligence Committee, because there were other documents about the existence of which they were certain, but which had yet to be found. One was the marriage certificate of Hitler and Eva Braun. 

Among the people the Americans arrested was Arthur Kannenberg, Hitler's major-domo, who was known to have been sent on 9 April 1945, by Hitler on a secret mission in a motor-car, which was stacked in the dark overnight with boxes. Kannenberg was held as a political prisoner by the Americans, who believed he knew the whereabouts of a secret underground hide-out in which important documents and treasures were kept. 

Kannenberg was reported to have confessed that Hitler sent him on 9 April with articles of national treasure and personal interest to hide in underground stores in Bad Aussee in Austria.

Hitler's Loot Captured 
Weekly Times [Melbourne, Vic] 
16 May 1945 

LONDON: Twenty cases containing Hitler's private letters as well as his library and the greatest collection of looted art treasures yet found have been captured intact in a salt mine near Bad Ischl, in Austria. 

A correspondent with the American Third Army reveals that Austrian patriots risked their lives in thwarting Gestapo men detailed to destroy the mine. The Germans began running detonating wires down the mountainside, not heeding the pleas of the director of the Vienna Museum [Dr. Wilhelm]   who had been living at the mine since last February, when the treasures were taken there. Wilhelm sought the aid of Austrian mineworkers known to him as members of the Free Austria Movement. They cut the wires and with small detonation charges, sealed the entrance to the mine.

Hitler at that time had made a programme and communicated it to his nearest friends. One detail on it was that he would leave Berlin by aeroplane for Berchtesgaden between 16 and I7 April, where he would continue the struggle. The Wehrmacht in the mountains in the south of Germany were specially sent there for a last stand in what was called at that time the Southern Redoubt. According to rumour some of the S.S. men took part of the treasure after they were told of Hitler's death. 

The American Army had also captured a German woman pioneer flyer, Hanna Reitsch, aged thirty-three, pretty blonde daughter of a country doctor in German Silesia. Fräulein Reitsch, who had been a stunt flyer at many exhibitions in Europe and Africa, was the holder of the glider flight record for a woman and the woman's glider pilot's altitude record. She had also flown a VI "buzz-bomb" aeroplane, and among some of her wartime exploits, which earned her the Iron Cross, were her liaison flights to and from Breslau after it had been surrounded by Red Army troops. Fräulein Reitsch told her captors a sensational story, which they made the basis of a report. This account does not add any new details, but it throws light on the personalities of Hitler, Eva Braun, Bormann, Göbbels and others, and gives a picture of the Bunker in the days that preceded the fall of Berlin. 

Looking for three men in Germany during the autumn and early winter of 1945, when there were millions of homeless people either on the roads or living with strangers in outhouses, air-raid shelters, cellars and ruins, was the apparently impossible task which the British Intelligence Service set themselves to perform. The three men were comparatively unknown. The reason British Intelligence officers wanted to find them was that they were known once to have been carrying identical sets of documents of the greatest importance in "the Hitler Case".

It was suspected that among these documents would be found Hitler's "last will", his political testament and the "certificate of his marriage to Eva Braun". That Hitler had made a will had been learned from two telegrams sent by Martin Bormann and Josef Göbbels to Grand Admiral Dönitz [whom Hitler made Führer as his alleged last dictatorial act]. The telegrams were found among the personal possessions of Dönitz when he was searched after his capture by the British. That three copies of the will and testament had been sent to addresses in different parts of Germany, by three couriers, had been learned from Germans who had been interrogated. The documents were to have been delivered to Dönitz and to Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner, Commander-in-Chief Czechoslovakia, who was captured by the Americans when holding out in Prague. The third was to be kept in reserve in the event of either or both of the other two being lost. Neither Dönitz nor Schörner received their documents. 
 

Hitler Mystery Still Unsolved
Daily Mercury [Mackay, Qld] 
25 May 1945

LONDON: During investigations following the arrest of the German High Command at Flensburg, the Allied Control Commission found High Command records showing an incomplete total of 5,000,000 Germans killed, taken to hospital, or missing during 1944 alone, stated "Reuter's Flensburg correspondent. 

The "British United Press" Flensburg correspondent says: 

"Jodl, in a conversation with the Allied authorities, said that Hitler, at the end of 1941, told him he would never have undertaken the invasion of Russia if he had known the real strength of the Red Army. 

"Jodl added that he himself knew at the end of 1942 that Germany could not win the war militarily".

Hitler's "Fatal Mistake" 
The Argus [Melbourne, Vic] 
10 May 1945 

"Domei News Agency", according to Tokyo Radio, quotes two Japanese newspaper editorial comments on the causes of the German defeat. 

"Mainichi Shimbun" says Hitler made the fatal mistake of under-estimating the power of the Soviet Union when he plunged into a two-front war. "Nippon Times" ascribes the German defeat to the unwillingness of the German armies to fight to the last man.

Both Jodl and Admiral Dönitz said they did not know the whereabouts of Hlmmler. Jodl said he saw him at Flensburg on 4 or 5 May, when Himmler asked advice what to do. Jodl said he told him to fly to Southern Germany, as he could not stay in Northern Germany or have any dealings with the Dönitz Government, as he might compromise it. He did hot know what happened to Himmler after that. Admiral Dönitz said he saw Himmler last at Flensburg on 6 May, and advised him to leave as soon as possible. 

Allied authorities have discovered that Dönitz received three telegrams based on the claim that he was appointed to succeed Hitler. The first, from Bormann, said merely that Dönitz had been appointed to succeed Hitler. This was dated 8 April. The second was from Bormann, and dated 30 April. It said Hitler made a last will in which he appointed Dönitz as Führer, Göbbels as Prime Minister, and Seyss-Inquart as Foreign Minister. The third and last telegram, which came from Göbbels on 1 May, said: "The Führer died at 3.30 p.m. to-day: Take whatever measures you think necessary". Dönitz told the Allied authorities Bormann sent him a written copy of Hitler's Will, but that this apparently never arrived.

As was discovered later, the three men were Heinz Lorenz, a minor official of the Propaganda Ministry and a confidant of Göbbels; Willy Johannmeier, a major in the German infantry, and Wilhelm Zander, adviser to deputy-Führer Martin Bormann, and an officer in the S.S., who carried the originals of the documents.

According to the stories told by people who were in the Bunker, these three men were sent on their mission on 29 April, after Hitler and Eva Braun are stated to have been married and while the Russians were attacking the capital from all sides. It is indicative of the ignorance that prevailed in Hitler's Bunker as to the true military situation that these three men should have been sent at this late hour to contact two widely separated and isolated headquarters. 

What happened to these three men is best told by a British Intelligence officer, who, for eight months, had been on the Hitler case, and who, incidentally, was convinced that Hitler and Eva Braun died in the precincts of the Reichs Chancellery on 30 April, at two-thirty in the afternoon. 

The officer told me: 

"They made their way up the Charlottenburger Chaussee, the avenue from which training planes are said to have taken off, and then went through the Grünewald area arid crossed the Wannsee lake by boat, although Berlin had already been surrounded by Russians for four days. When they reached territory still held by the Germans, they telephoned Admiral Dönitz. A seaplane was sent for them, and it landed on the Wannsee, but they failed to contact it. So, travelling by foot, they pushed westwards and got to the Hanover area, where some of them lived. They realized that all hope of delivering their documents had gone".

The Intelligence officer then went on to explain how, on 29 April, Dönitz received a telegram from Bormann stating that Hitler had written a testament declaring Dönitz to be his successor, and giving him complete power in the country. On May I, both Bormann and Göbbels, who had been nominated to the next highest post to Dönitz, signalled to the Grand Admiral that Hitler was dead, and that a government had been appointed under Dönitz. Dönitz replied at once stating that he did not recognize the new government. He dismissed both Bormann and Göbbels, stating that he did not want the government he wished to appoint to be tainted by Nazis.

The three couriers separated when they reached the Hanover area, after making arrangements to communicate with each other when their mission was fulfilled. 

British Intelligence officers were on their track, however, and the first to be arrested was Lorenz, who was first questioned near Hanover for being in possession of false identity documents. That was early in December I945. 

"It was a crinkle like that of paper in the shoulders of his coat," explained the Intelligence officer, "that caused us to rip the coat open. There were the documents, cleverly concealed". 

British Intelligence knew of the existence of three copies, and they wished to find another copy to prove how they were brought out of Berlin, as well as to confirm the authenticity of the documents and compare them one with another. 

"The Lorenz set contained the Göbbels appendix, which was not contained in that found by U.S. Intelligence officers. "

Ten days ago the second messenger, Johannmeier, was arrested at Iserlohn, in the Ruhr, within a few hundred yards of British First Corps Headquarters. 

"The man at first refused to reveal the hiding-place of his documents, but he was interrogated and later gave information which led to their being unearthed in the garden of his home at Iserlohn. With the documents, which had been buried in a glass jar, was a letter from General Burgdorf to Field Marshal Schörner, telling him that Hitler was sending his testament, written 'under the shattering blow of Himmler's treachery'. 

"Investigations then started to locate Zander in the Hanover area. His wife gave me the address of his parents; she put up a splendid screen because she knew his whereabouts, but she had told his parents that he had died. I set off to Bavaria, and found evidence that Zander had been in hospital at Tegernsee as a result of walking from Hanover. He was treated by a Nazi doctor, who has since been arrested for removing identification marks from S.S. men. 

"The U.S. authorities co-operated, and I discovered Zander living at Tegernsee, with false identification papers, under the name of Friederich Wilhelm Paustin. With the assistance of the U.S. authorities, I was able to identify Zander and went to the house where he was a porter. He was out, living in a village near the Austrian border with a girl-friend, Elsa Unterholzner, who was once Bormann's secretary. At three o'clock in the morning, accompanied by U.S. Intelligence officers, I raided the house and arrested Zander. 

"Zander's set of documents, including the marriage certificate and the pictures, was found in the house of a relative, the sister-in-law of Elsa Unterholzner, where they had been taken earlier". 

Both Hitler's personal will [Mein privates Testament] and the political testament [Mein politisches Testament] were neatly and expertly typed on foolscap paper, widely spaced -not more than eight words to a line, twenty-five lines to a page- and show no sign of the haste that is apparent in the composition of the marriage certificate. The will comprises roughly 400 words on three pages, the testament about 1,700 words on ten pages, but the shortest of all documents is the appendix by Dr. Göbbels of about 300 words. At last these two Nazi leaders, who always wrote and spoke so verbosely, had learned the art of precise writing. 

These three documents, signed between four and five-thirty in the afternoon of 29 April, were so carefully and thoughtfully prepared that they must first have been dictated the previous day, if not earlier. The signatures repay a close study. On Hitler's personal will the words "als Zeugen" [as witnesses] have been written twice by different people and with different pens; the signature of Martin Bormann, both on the will and the testament, does not appear to have been written by the same man. The name Martin, in both instances, has been carefully and legibly written, while the name Bormann is unrecognizable, being more like a spidery W than a name. On the will, Göbbels used only his surname, prefixed by the abbreviation "Dr.", while on the testament he signed Dr. Josef Göbbels. The greatest variation exists between the two signatures of Adolf Hitler on the will and the testament. On the will the signature is weak and spidery, especially the continental 7, which his initial resembles; on the testament the signature is bold, decisive, and the Hitler is telescoped. 

Hitler's personal will of six paragraphs is a reasonable enough document. It began: 

Although during the years of struggle I believed that I could not undertake the responsibility of marriage, now, before the end of my life, I have decided to take as my wife the woman who, after many years of true friendship, came to this city, already almost besieged, of her own free will, in order to share my fate. She will go to her death with me at her own wish, as my wife. This will compensate us for what we both lost through my work in the service of my people. 

My possessions, in so far as they are worth anything, belong to the Party, or if this no longer exists, to the State. If the State, too, is destroyed, there is no need for any further instructions on my part. 

The paintings in the collections bought by me during the course of the years were never assembled for private purposes, but solely for the establishment of a picture galley in my home town of Linz on the Danube. It is my most heartfelt wish that this will should be duly executed. 

As Executor, I appoint my most faithful Party comrade, Martin Bormann. He is given full legal authority to make all decisions. He is permitted to hand over to my relatives everything which is of value as a personal memento, or is necessary for maintaining a petit bourgeois standard of living especially to my wife's mother, and my faithful fellow-workers of both sexes who are well known to him. The chief of these are my former secretaries, my housekeeper Frau Anni Winter, etc., who helped me for many years by their work. 

My wife and I choose to die in order to escape the shame of overthrow or capitulation. It is our wish for our bodies to be burnt immediately on the place where I have performed the greater part of my daily work during the course of my 12 years' service to my people. 

Berlin, 29 April 45 . . . 4.00 hours. 

A. Hitler.
Witnesses: Martin Bormann 
Dr. Göbbels
Nikolaus von Below

Little knowing that the Allies were soon going to gather secret documents, including reports of secret conferences and off-the-record speeches, and to read them in public at Nuremburg to prove beyond a shadow of doubt his personal war guilt, Hitler tried, by lies and bluff, in a document called "My Political Testament", to whitewash himself before the world. 

He wrote: 

More than 30 years have passed since I made my modest contribution as a volunteer in the First World War which was forced upon the Reich. In these three decades, the love of, and loyalty to my people alone have guided me in all my thoughts, actions and life. They gave me the power to make the most difficult decisions which have ever confronted mortal man. I have spent all my time, my powers and my health in these three decades. It is untrue that I, or anybody else in Germany wanted war in I939. It was wanted and provoked exclusively by those international statesmen who were either of Jewish origin or worked for Jewish interests. I have made too many offers of limitation and control of armaments, which posterity will not for all time be able to disregard, for the responsibility for the outbreak of this war to be placed on me. Further, I have never wished that after the first appalling world war, there should be a second one against either England or America.

Only three days before the outbreak of the German-Polish war I proposed a solution of the German-Polish problem to the British Ambassador in Berlin - international control as in the case of the Saar. This offer, too, cannot be lied away. It was only rejected because the ruling clique in England wanted war, partly for commercial reasons and partly because it was influenced by the Propaganda put out by International Jewry.

Hitler's Testament is supported by the private diaries of famed British authors Harold Nicolson and Evelyn Waugh, who quote the 5th Duke of Wellington on the day war broke out as saying: "It's all the fault of the anti-appeasers and the f---ing Jews".  

The Duke of Windsor thought, in July 1940, that the war was allowed to go on only because certain British politicians and statesmen had to have a reason to save their faces, even if this meant that the British empire would be bankrupted and shattered.

Hans Kohn reviewed John Scott's "Duel for Europe" in the 14 December 1942 "New Republic". He stated: "If Britain had wished to make peace with Germany, she could have done it easily in 1939, in the summer of 1940, and again in the spring of 1941".

It has long been argued, most eloquently in Professor John Charmley's "Churchill: The End of Glory", that Churchil's singleminded obsession with Hitler prevented him from seeing the long term implications for Britain and the Empire by an alliance with the Soviet Union [cemented after Hitler's attack on Russia in June 1941].

Centuries will go by, but from the ruins of our towns and monuments, hatred of those ultimately responsible will always grow anew.

The Treaty of Versailles was one [Paris Peace Conference, 1919 and the Treaty of St. Germain on 20 September 1919] of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Of the many provisions in the treaty, one of the most important and controversial required Germany to accept the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage during the war.

This article, Article 231, later became known as the War Guilt clause. The treaty forced Germany to disarm, make substantial territorial concessions, and pay reparations. In 1921 the cost of these reparations was assessed at 132 Billion Marks. At the time economist John Maynard Keynes, predicted that the treaty was too harsh -a "Carthaginian peace"- and said the reparations figure was excessive and counter-productive.

"The international bankers swept statesmen, politicians, journalists and jurists all to one side and issued their orders with the imperiousness of absolute monarchs".

-- Lloyd George, British Prime Minister

It also balkanized Germany by giving its land to France, Poland, Denmark and the newly formed Czechoslovakia, dividing it up into allotments satisfying the political intrigues of the architects of the Treaty. Under the Dictate of Versailles Poland was given a "corridor" to the Baltic Sea, along with large areas of West Prussia that were populated by Germans. This "corridor" completely separated East Prussia from the Reich, making trade and communication difficult or impossible. During Allied discussions on the peace treaty, Lloyd George, the English Prime Minister during the First World War, tapped this spot on the map and predicted "This is where the next world war will begin".

Even many people who consider themselves well-informed about Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich are ignorant of the German leader's numerous efforts for peace in Europe, including serious proposals for armaments reductions, and limits on weapons deployment, which were spurned by the leaders of France, Britain and other powers.

Hitler''s first major speech on foreign policy, delivered to the Reichstag on 17 May 1933, was a plea for peace, equal rights and mutual understanding among nations.

So reasonable and persuasively argued was his appeal that it was endorsed even by representatives of the opposition Social Democratic Party:

"Germany will be perfectly ready to disband her entire military establishment and destroy the small amount of arms remaining to her, if the neighboring countries will do the same thing with equal thoroughness.

"... Germany is also entirely ready to renounce aggressive weapons of every sort if the armed nations, on their part, will destroy their aggressive weapons within a specified period, and if their use is forbidden by an international convention.

"... Germany is ready at any time to renounce aggressive weapons if the rest of the world does the same. Germany is prepared to agree to any solemn pact of non-aggression because she does not think of attacking anybody, but only of acquiring security".

No answer was received.

The other powers heedlessly continued to fill their arsenals with weapons, to pile up their stores of explosives, to increase the numbers of their troops. At the same time the League of Nations, the instrument of the victorious powers, declared that Germany must first undergo a period of "probation" before it would be possible to discuss with her the question of the disarmament of the other countries. On 14 October 1933, Hitler withdrew from the League of Nations, with which it was impossible to reach an understanding.

"The last thing Hitler wanted was to produce another great war".

-- Sir Basil Liddell Hart

On 18 December 1933, Adolf Hitler came forward with a new proposal for the improvement of international relations.

This proposal included the following six points:

1. Germany receives full equality of rights.
2. The fully armed states undertake among themselves not to increase their armaments beyond their present level.
3. Germany adheres to this agreement, freely undertaking to make only so much actual moderate use of the equality of rights granted to her as will not represent a threat to the security of any other European power.
4. All states recognize certain obligations in regard to conducting war on humane principles, or not to use certain weapons against the civilian population.
5. All states accept a uniform general supervision that will monitor and ensure the observance of these obligations.
6. The European nations guarantee one another the unconditional maintenance of peace by the conclusion of non-aggression pacts, to be renewed after ten years.

An exchange of notes, which began with this and continued for years, finally came to a sudden end with an unequivocal "no" from France. This "no" was moreover accompanied by tremendous increases in the armed forces of France, Britain, and Russia.

In this way Germany's position became even worse than before. The danger to the Reich was so great that Adolf Hitler felt himself compelled to act. On 16 March 1935, he reintroduced conscription. But in direct connection with this measure he once more announced an offer of wide-ranging agreements, the purpose of which as to ensure that any future war would be conducted on humane principles, in fact to make any such war practically impossible by eliminating destructive armaments

In his Reichstag address of 21 May 1935, the German leader again stressed the need for peace on the basis of mutual respect and equal rights. Even the "London Times" regarded this speech as "reasonable, straightforward and comprehensive".

Such appeals were not mere rhetoric. On 31 March 1936, for example, Hitler's government announced a comprehensive plan for strengthening peace in Europe. The detailed paper included numerous specific proposals, including demilitarization of the entire Rhineland region, a western Europe security agreement, and categorical prohibition of incendiary bombs, poison gas, heavy tanks and heavy artillery:

"The German government is ready to take an active part in all efforts which may lead to a practical limitation of armaments. It regards a return to the principles of the Geneva Convention as the only possible way to achieve this. It believes that at first there will be only the possibility of a step-by-step abolition and outlawing of weapons and methods of warfare that are essentially contrary to the still-valid Geneva Red Cross Convention.

"Just as the use of dum-dum [expanding] bullets was once forbidden and, on the whole, thereby prevented in practice, so the use of other specific weapons can be forbidden and their use, in practice, can be eliminated. Here the German government has in mind all those armaments that bring death and destruction not so much to the fighting soldiers as to non-combatant women and children.

"The German government considers as erroneous and ineffective the idea of doing away with airplanes while leaving open the question of bombing. But it believes it possible to ban the use of certain weapons as contrary to international law, and to ostracize those nations which still use them from the community of humankind, and from its rights and laws.

"It also believes that gradual progress is the best way to success. For example, there might be prohibition of the use of gas, incendiary and explosive bombs outside the actual battle zone. This limitation could then be extended to complete international outlawing of all bombing. But so long as bombing as such is permitted, any limitation of the number of aerial bombers is dubious in view of the possibility of rapid replacement.

"Should bombing as such be branded as barbaric and contrary to international law, the construction of aerial bombing planes will soon be abandoned as superfluous and pointless. If, through the Geneva Convention, it proved possible to prevent the killing of defenseless wounded men or of prisoners, it ought to be equally possible, through an analogous convention, to forbid and ultimately to bring to an end the bombing of similarly defenseless civilian populations.

"In such a fundamental way of dealing with the problem, Germany sees a greater reassurance and security for the nations than in all the pacts of assistance and military agreements.

"The German government is ready to agree to any limitation that leads to abolition of the heaviest arms, especially suited for aggression. Such weapons are, first, the heaviest artillery, and secondly, the heaviest tanks. In view of the enormous fortifications on the French frontier, such an international abolition of the heaviest weapons of attack would automatically give France nearly one hundred percent security.

"Germany declares herself ready to agree to any limitation whatsoever of the caliber-size of artillery, as well as battleships, cruisers, and torpedo boats. In like manner the German government is ready to accept any international limitation of the size of warships. And finally it is ready to agree to limitation of tonnage for submarines, or to their complete abolition through an international agreement.

"And it gives further assurance that it will agree to any international limitations or abolition of arms whatsoever for a uniform period of time".

Once again Hitler's declarations did not receive the slightest response.

On the contrary, France made an alliance with Russia in order to further increase her predominance on the continent, and to enormously increase the pressure on Germany from the East.

On 18 June 1935, The German - British Naval Agreement:

Adolf Hitler and Britain negotiated the Naval Agreement of 18 June 1935, which provided that the German Navy could have a strength of 35 percent of that of the British Navy. By this he wanted to demonstrate that the German Reich, to use his own words, had "neither the intention, the means, nor the necessity" to enter into any rivalry as regards naval power, which, as is well known, had had such a fateful impact on its relations with Britain in the years before the first World War.

On every appropriate occasion he assured France of his desire to live at peace with her. He repeatedly renounced in plain terms any claim to the region of Alsace-Lorraine.

Once again he followed the defensive step which he had been obliged to take with a generous appeal for general reconciliation and for the settlement of all differences. 

On 31 March 1936, Adolf Hitler Put Forth The Following Major Peace Plan:

"The German government....has no faith in the attempt to bring about universal settlements, as this would be doomed to failure from the outset, and can therefore be proposed only by those who have no interest in achieving practical results. On the other hand it is of the opinion that the negotiations held and the results achieved in limiting naval armaments should have an instructive and stimulating effect.

"The German government therefore recommends future conferences, each of which shall have a single, clearly defined objective.

"For the present, it believes the most important task is to bring aerial warfare into the moral and humane atmosphere of the protection afforded to non-combatants or the wounded by the Geneva Convention. Just as the killing of defenseless wounded, or of prisoners, or the use of dum-dum bullets, or the waging of submarine warfare without warning, have been either forbidden or regulated by international conventions, so it must be possible for civilized humanity to prevent the senseless abuse of any new type of weapon, without running counter to the object of warfare.

"The German government therefore proposes that the practical tasks of these conferences shall be:

1. Prohibition of the use of gas, poison, or incendiary bombs.
2. Prohibition of the use of bombs of any kind whatsoever on towns or places outside the range of the medium-heavy artillery of the fighting fronts.
3. Prohibition of the bombardment with long-range guns of towns or places more than 20 kilometers distant from the battle zone.
4. Abolition and prohibition of the construction of tanks of the heaviest type.
5. Abolition and prohibition of artillery of the heaviest caliber.

"As soon as possibilities for further limitation of armaments emerge from such discussions and agreements, they should be utilized. The German government hereby declares itself prepared to join in every such settlement, in so far as it is valid internationally.

"The German government believes that if even a first step is made on the road to disarmament, this will be of enormous importance in relations between the nations, and thereby in reestablishing confidence, which is a precondition for the development of trade and prosperity.

For years Hitler sought an alliance with Britain, or least a cordial relationship based on mutual respect. In that effort, he took care not to offend British pride or sensibilities, or to make any proposal that might impair or threaten British interests. Hitler also worked for cordial relations with France, likewise taking care not to say or do anything that might offend French pride or infringe on French national interests. The sincerity of Hitler's proposals to France, and the validity of his fear of possible French military aggression against Germany is underscored by the immense manpower and funding resources he devoted to construction of the vast Westwall ["Siegfried Line"] defensive fortifications on his nation's western border.

Over the years, historians have tended either to ignore Hitler's initiatives for reducing tensions and promoting peace, or to dismiss them as deceitful posturing. 

But if the responsible leaders in Britain and France during the 1930s had really regarded these proposals as bluff or insincere pretense, they could easily have exposed them as such by giving them serious consideration. Their unresponsive attitude suggests that they understood that Hitler's proposals were sincere, but rejected them anyway because to accept them might jeopardize British-French political-military predominance in Europe.

Hitler And Britain Secret Negotiations Alleged
The West Australian [Perth, WA] 
28 May 1948

MOSCOW: The Soviet Foreign Ministry has published documents from the Nazi Foreign Ministry archives according to which Britain was secretly negotiating an agreement with Hitler on the eve of the outbreak of war to carve up jointly the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. 

This allegation is contained in reports from Herbert von Dirksen, then German Ambassador to Britain. He reported that negotiations for a British military, political and economic alliance with Germany were conducted principally in London between Sir Horace Wilson and Dr. Helmut Wohltat, Hitler's economic commissioner, in June and July, 1939. 

-- Reuters 

Hitler did not want war in 1939 - and certainly not a general or global conflict.

He earnestly sought a peaceful resolution of the dispute with Poland over the status of the ethnically German city-state of Danzig and the "Corridor" region, which was the immediate cause of conflict. 

To resolve the problem, he made numerous sensible proposals which include:

Demilitarization of the key port areas, public referendum, accepting Gdynia as a Polish port city on the Baltic Sea, 1 km wide rail and road passages to link Eastern Prussia to Germany, or to link Poland to the Baltic Sea, and finally proposing that the region be placed under International control.

Even the pre-war 28 August 1939 headline of the Hitler-hating "New York Times" confirmed that Hitler sought to avoid war with Britain and France. 

The sincerity of his desire for peace in 1939, and his fear of another world war, has been affirmed by a number of scholars, including the eminent British historian A.J.P. Taylor. It was, of course, the declarations of war against Germany by Britain and France on 3 September 1939, made with secret encouragement by US President Roosevelt, that transformed the limited German-Polish clash into a larger, continent-wide war.

To justify its declaration of war, Britain protested that Germany had violated Polish sovereignty, and threatened Poland's independence. The emptiness and insincerity of these stated reasons is shown by the fact that the British leaders did not declare war against Soviet Russia two weeks later [16 days later] when Soviet forces attacked the Polish Republic from the East. Britain's betrayal of Poland, and the hypocrisy of its claimed reasons for going to war against Germany in 1939, became even more obvious in 1944-45 when Britain's leaders permitted the complete Soviet takeover and subjugation of Poland.

After the 3 week German-Polish War ends in victory for the Germans, Hitler declares:

"I attempted to find a tolerable solution. I submitted this attempt to the Polish rulers. You know these proposals. They were more than moderate. I do not know what mental condition the Polish Government was in when it refused these proposals. As an answer, Poland gave the order for the first mobilization, and my request to the Polish Foreign Minister to visit me to discuss these questions was refused. Instead of going to Berlin, he went to London".

In a speech before  the Reichstag in October 1939, Hitler pleads with Britain and France to rescind recent war declarations.

Before the actual shooting was to start in the Western theatre, Hitler did all could to reassure Britian and France of his peaceful intentions. The two Allied powers had, under the pretext of saving Poland, both declared war upon Germany on 3 September 1939.

Before the Reichstag, and the world, Hitler declares:

"I have always expressed to France my desire to bury forever our ancient enmity and bring together these two nations, both of which have such glorious pasts. ....I have devoted no less effort to the achievement of Anglo-German understanding, no, more than that, of an Anglo-German friendship. At no time and in no place have I ever acted contrary to British interests...

"Why should this war in the West be fought?"

On 1-3 March 1940, Adolf Hitler Meets With U.S. Undersecretary Of State Sumner Welles:

Right before meeting with Hitler, Welles was in Rome meeting with Benito Mussolini. Welles informed Hitler that he and Mussolini had engaged in a "long, constructive, and helpful" conversation, and that the Duce believed "there was still a possibility of bringing about a firm and lasting peace".

Adolf Hitler made five points: 1) He had long been in favor of disarmament, but had received no encouragement from England, France ot the Untied States; 2) He states that he is in favor of international free trade; 3) Germany had no aim other than the return of the "German people to the territorial position that historically was rightly theirs"; 4) He had no desire to control non-German people and he had no intention to interfere with their independence; 5) He wanted the return of the colonies that were stolen from Germany at Versailles.

In May 1940, Hitler deliberately allows the British Army to escape at Dunkirk.

The German "Blitzkrieg" across Holland and Belgium, as well as the earlier occupation of parts of Denmark and Norway, had denied the Allies of the opportunity to encircle Germany before invading it. As a show of good faith, and over the objectives of his own Generals, Hitler then allows the trapped Allied forces to escape untouched from the beaches of Dunkirk [France]. Hitler hopes that this gracious act will make the British more willing to make peace. 

"He then astonished us by speaking with admiration of the British Empire, of the necessity for its existence, and of the civilization that Britain had brought into the world ... He compared the British Empire with the Catholic Church - saying they were both essential elements of stability in the world. He said that all he wanted from Britain was that she should acknowledge Germany's position on the continent. The return of Germany's lost colonies would be desirable, but not essential, and he would even offer to support Britain with troops, if she should be involved in any difficulties anywhere". 

The foregoing quotes summarize General Field Marshal Gerd von Runstedt on Adolf Hitler's words in a discussion on 24 May 1940 relating to the non-attack on the allied troops at Dunkirk, cited in the renowned British military historian Basil H. Liddell Hart's "The Other Side of the Hill" [1948]. Adolf Hitler had previously written similarly in "Mein Kampf".  

[As late as 29 January 1942, after Britain had been at war with Germany for two years and five months, Hitler expressed a desire to help the British by sending them 20 divisions to aid them in throwing the Japanese invaders out of Singapore.  On 26 February 1945, Hitler lamented that Churchill was "quite unable to appreciate the sporting spirit" in which he had refrained from annihilating the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) at Dunkirk].

Colonel-General von Runstedt was elevated to General Field Marshal on 19 July 1940 in the weeks after Dunkirk. Adolf Hitler's own motive for letting over 300,000 troops of the alleged war enemy escape at Dunkirk was, according to his own words, his wish to preserve the British Empire. No serious truth-oriented historian can cast substantiated doubt on this. How misled must a nation be in order to misunderstand that Hitler saved the life of his war enemy Great Britain at Dunkirk for the very reason that he wanted to protect it, as he himself said and wrote? 

What kind of an alleged war lord is that who has his alleged war enemy on the floor, picks him up with his own hands and then sends him home for him to continue fighting for years, until the country of the war lord is fallen in smoldering ruins? Why did Hitler promote von Runstedt, the commander of the strategically fatal German military failure at Dunkirk, right after the act, to the highest officer's rank? Not only did Hitler protect his Allied opponents in late May, early June 1940 from military destruction: that was not a blunder but it was his intention as stated. The British hailed von Runstedt out of Soviet captivity, they let him, as one of very few of Hitler's generals, get away scot free without a day in court in the Nuremberg Trials, and then they comfortably retired him in an old age home in Hannover in the British occupied zone. The Americans even back then suspected political motives for this tidy chain of events

In May 1940, after having defeated France and driven the British invaders off the continent, Hitler, via a Swedish third party, proposes generous peace terms to Britain

The Germans contact the British ambassador in Sweden, Victor Mallet, through Sweden's Supreme Court Judge Birger Ekeberg, who is known to Hitler´s legal advisor, Ludwig Weissauer.

According to Mallet:

"Hitler, according to his emissary [Weissauer], sincerely wishes friendship with England. He wishes peace to be restored, but the ground must be prepared for it: only after careful preparation may official negotiations begin. Until then the condition must be considered that discussions be unofficial and secret. 

"Hitler's basic ideas [are that] today's economic problems are different from those of the past [...] In order to achieve economic progress one must calculate on the basis of big territories and consider them an economic unit. Napoleon tried, but in his days it wasnt possible because France wasnt in the center of Europe and communications were too hard. Now Germany is in the center of Europe and has the necessary means to provide communication and transportation services.

"England and America now have the best fleets and will naturally continue to, because they will need the oceans for their supply. Germany has the continent. In what concerns Russia [USSR] Weissauer has given the impression that it should be seen as a potential enemy".

Hitler's peace proposal is as follows:

1. The British Empire retains all its Colonies 
2. Germany´s position on the continent will not be questioned
3. All questions concerning the Mediterranean and its French, Belgian and Dutch colonies are open to discussion
4. Poland. A Polish state must exist
5. The former Czechosolavkian states remain independent but under German protection

Ekeberg understands that this implies that the states occupied by Germany would de-occupied. Germany´s occupation was only due to the present war situation.

Once again, Churchill is not interested in making peace.

On 25 May 1940, Giuseppe Bastianini, the Italian ambassador in London, requests a meeting with British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax to discuss Italy's neutrality.

Halifax meets Bastianini later that afternoon. The discussion soon moves to that of Italian mediation between the Allies and Germany.

Bastiani reveals that the goal of Italian leader Benito Mussolini [Hitler's close ally] is to negotiate a settlement "that would not merely be an armistice, but would protect European peace for the century". Halifax responds favorably to the idea and takes it to the British War Cabinet.

The following morning Halifax gives his report, telling the Cabinet that in his opinion they  "had to face the fact that it was not so much now a question of imposing a complete defeat upon Germany but of safeguarding the independence of our own Empire".

Halifax summarizes his meeting with Bastianini and urges his colleagues to consider Italian mediation.

Again, Churchill would have none of it, instead of accepting any peace offers, chosing to frighten the British public with tales of imminent poison gas attacks from Hitler.

For several days, Halifax continues to press for the Mussolini mediation. In an apparent attempt to placate Halifax, Churchill finally says that he "doubts whether anything would come of an approach to Italy, but that the matter was one which the War Cabinet would have to consider".

But Churchill is lying to Halifax. Never did Churchill even consider Mussolini's offer to mediate peace between Britain and Germany. The matter eventually dies.

The conflict between Churchill and Halifax became known as "The War Cabinet Crisis".

In June 1940, Hitler drops "peace leaflets" over London.

With Germany now in total control of the continent, Hitler continues his campaign for peace by by-passing the British press and air-dropping leaflets explaining the causes of the senseless war, and ending with "A Last Appeal to Reason" on 19 July 1940 .

Excerpt:

"... From London I now hear a cry -not the cry of the mass of people, but rather of politicians- that the war must now, all the more, be continued ... Believe me, my deputies, I feel an inner disgust at this kind of unscrupulous parliamentarian destroyers of peoples and countries ... It never has been my intention to wage wars, but rather to build a new social state of the highest cultural level. Every year of this war keeps me from this work ... Mr. Churchill has now once again declared that he wants war ... I am fully aware that with our response, which one day will come, will also come nameless suffering and misfortune for many people ...

"... In this hour I feel compelled, standing before my conscience, to direct yet another appeal to reason in England. I believe I can do this as I am not pleading for something as the vanquished, but rather, as the victor speaking in the name of reason. 

"I see no compelling reason for this war to continue. I am grieved to think of the sacrifices it will claim ... I should like to avert them. As for my own people, I know that millions of German men, young and old alike, are burning with the desire to settle accounts with the enemy who for the second time has declared war upon us for no reason whatever. But I also know that at home there are many women and mothers who, ready as they are to sacrifice all they have in life, yet are bound to it by their heartstrings. Possibly Mr. Churchill again will brush aside this statement of mine by saying that it is merely an expression of fear and of doubt in our final victory. In that case I shall have relieved my conscience in regard to the things to come".

On 1 August 1940, Adolf Hitler issued No. 17 Directive: On the conduct of air war against Britain, Hitler, specifically prohibited the Luftwaffe from conducting terror raids on its own initiative. The war against Britain is to be restricted to destructive attacks against industry and air force targets that have weak defensive forces. The most thorough study of the target concerned, that is vital points of the target, is a pre-requisite for success. It is also stressed that every effort should be made to avoid unnecessary loss of life amongst the civilian population. Hitler is still taking the high road by doing this, while Churchill is still terrorizing German civilians with air strikes.

Hitler told Maj. Vidkun Quisling on 18 August 1940: "After making one proposal after another to the British on the reorganization of Europe, I now find myself forced against my will to fight this war against Britain. . . ."

In November 1940, the Vatican's "Papal Nuncio" [ambassador] presents Hitler's peace proposal to British officials.

An excerpt from Martin Allen's "Himmler's Secret War" describes a meeting held in Spain between the Papal Nuncio and British officials Hoare and Hilgarth in Spain; and the latest peace offer from Hitler:

"The nature of the concessions that the German Führer was prepared to make in order to obtain peace with Britain must have astounded the men at the head of the Specialist Protection Branch [SO1].  This was not even a deal worked out through a process of hard negotiation. It was Hitler's opening gambit....an offer so generous and pragmatic that it would be very tempting to anyone who genuinely wanted peace.

"His [Hitler's] offer of such remarkable concessions was an extremely threatening development. Should the terms become public, it had the potential to render British resolve to stand firm against German aggression to a shuttering halt".

Nazis offered peace with the Allies in 1941 but only if they were allowed to invade Russia
Rudolf Hess, Hitler's Deputy, offered peace for Western Europe - in exchange for a clear path to attack the Soviets
Anna Edwards
Daily Mail 
26 September 2013

The Nazis attempted to broker a peace offering with Britain - if they were allowed a free path to attack the USSR, a new book has revealed.

Rudolf Hess's flight to Britain during World War Two to sign a peace deal ordered by Adolf Hitler has long been recorded as a bizarre one man mission to try and reconcile warring West Europe and the Nazis.

But the high-ranking Nazi was actually carrying out orders from the Führer when he flew his Messerschmitt 110 [Me-110]  to Scotland in May 1941.

He was to offer the British government a deal that would see Germany pull out of Western Europe - so long as the fascists could attack the USSR without intervention.

As early as January 1941, Hitler was making extraordinary efforts to come to peace terms with England. He offered England generous terms. If Britain would assume an attitude of neutrality, Germany would withdraw from all of France, to leave Holland and Belgium . . . to evacuate Norway and Denmark, and to support British and French industries by buying their products. His proposal had many other favorable points for England and Western Europe.

On 10 May 1941, London received its heaviest German air attack [Blitzkrieg] ever. With 1,436 people killed and 12,000 made homeless. The Houses of Parliament was struck, The Commons debating chamber, the symbol of British democracy, was destroyed.

10 May 1941, was also the day of the last major Blitzkrieg on Britain. The Hess flight for peace and the last major Blitzkrieg on Britain to occur on the same day is not a coincidence. Germany wanted peace with Britain.

But historian Peter Padfield has discovered evidence he claims proves that the Deputy Führer brought with him from Hitler, a detailed peace treaty, under which the Nazis would withdraw from western Europe, in exchange for British neutrality over the imminent attack on Russia, the "Daily Telegraph" reported. 

The existence of such a document was revealed to him by an informant who claims that he and other German speakers were called in by MI6 to translate the treaty for Churchill.

The figure, who is not named by Mr Padfield, was an academic who later worked at a leading university. He has since died. Before his death, he passed on an account of how the group were assembled at the BBC headquarters, in Portland Place, London, to carry out the task. 

The academic said Hess had brought with him the proposed peace treaty, expressed in numbered clauses and typed on paper from the German Chancellery. An English translation was also included, but the British also wanted the original German translated.

The informant said the first two pages of the treaty detailed Hitler's precise aims in Russia, followed by sections detailing how Britain could keep its independence, Empire and armed services, and how the Nazis would withdraw from western Europe. The treaty proposed a state of "eine wohlwollende Neutralitä" rendered as well wishing neutrality, between Britain and Germany, for the latter's offensive against the USSR. The informant even said the date of the Hitler's coming attack on the east was disclosed. 

These were Hess' peace proposals that he flew to Scotland with on 10 May 1941:  1   Germany and Britain would reach a compromise on world-wide policy based on the status quo. That is, Germany would not attack Russia to secure German   Lebensraum [living space].     2   Germany would drop its claims to its former colonies, and would acknowledge British hegemony at sea. In return, Britain would acknowledge continental   Europe as a German sphere of interest.    3     The then-current relationship of military strength between Germany and Britain in the air and on the sea would be maintained. That is, Britain would not   receive any reinforcements from the United States.  Although there was no mention of land forces, it can be assumed that this balance of forces would be   maintained in this regard as well.    4  Germany would withdraw from "Metropolitan France" [European France] after the total disarmament of the French army and navy. German commissioners   would remain in French North Africa, and German troops would remain in Libya for five years after the conclusion of peace.    5  Within two years after the conclusion of peace, Germany would establish satellite states in Poland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and Serbia. However,   Germany would withdraw from Norway, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece [except for Crete, which German parachutists had taken at the end of May 1941].   After some rounding-off in the East, North, West and South [Austria and Bohemia-Moravia were apparently to remain within the Reich], Germany would   thus concede Britain's position in the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. |  6   Germany would recognize Ethiopia and the Red Sea as a British sphere of influence.      7  The person to whom the Deputy Führer was speaking was somewhat confused about whether Italy had approved Hess' peace proposals. Hess himself said   nothing about this, although points four and six would have considerably affected Italian interests.     8    Rudolf Hess admitted that Hitler had agreed in advance to the official "cover story" put out in Germany that he was of "unsound mind".   - "The Life And Death Of My Father", Rudolf Hess by Wolf Rüdiger Hess As for Operation Barbarossa, which started on 22 June 1941, and the German-Soviet War, there can be no doubt, in view of the revelations of the Russian secret agent Viktor Suvorov [Vladimir Rezun] in "Icebreaker", that what the Germans suspected in 1941 is factual:    "The Reich interrupted a Russian offensive that was scheduled to begin on 6 July 1941. This explains why millions of Soviet soldiers were quickly surrounded and taken prisoner - they were supposed to be rushed from hidden positions to the border just before the attack. It also explains why huge numbers of artillery pieces and stockpiles of munitions were captured at the border as well as millions of extra leather boots, detailed maps of the Red Army's objectives in Germany and so forth".

Hess' mission began with him parachuting out over Renfrewshire where he was arrested by a farmhand, David Maclean, with a pitchfork.

The Third Reich Deputy wanted to contact the Duke of Hamilton to set peace talks with Winston Churchill in motion.

Sir Winston Churchill refused to agree to Hitler's peace deal offered by Hess, or to allow the Third Reich a clear path to attack the Eastern Front - because he did not trust Hitler's promises and it would have jeopardized his efforts to involve the U.S in the raging war, Mr Padfield says.

The author claims the Prime Minister was determined to beat Hitler and he did not want to destroy a coalition of European governments, so the offer was not made public.

Mr Padfield, who makes the claims in a new book, "Hess, Hitler and Churchill", said: "This was not a renegade plot".

"Hitler had sent Hess and he brought over a fully developed peace treaty for Germany to evacuate all the occupied countries in the West". 

There is no mention of the treaty in any of the official archives which have since been made public, but Mr Padfield believes this is because there has been an ongoing cover-up to protect the reputations of powerful figures. The author says that his informant broke off contact with him after approaching his former masters in the security services.

Ten Days To Destiny:  The Secret Story Of The Hess Peace Initiative And British Efforts To Strike A Deal With Hitler
by John Costello

The dramatic fight of Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s infamous deputy, to England in May 1941 has been a mystery and a source of controversy for fifty years.
  
The official version maintains that this was the solitary adventure of a madman, unrelated to the course of World War II. But new archival research in Europe and the United States, substantiated by the author’s exclusive and unprecedented access to KGB files, reveals another story - one that shows just how close England came to making a peace deal with Hitler’s Germany.
  
In this latest of John Costello's important and highly controversial re-examinations of modern history, "Ten Days to Destiny" reveals how Hess came to England at Hitlers direction and with the connivance of the British secret service and powerful elements in British society, bearing a serious peace offer that would have allowed England to retain its empire in return for her support for Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union.
  
To understand the significance of Hess' mission, Costello takes us back to 1940, to ten critical days during that summer of Dunkirk and the fall of France, when it was unclear whether England would survive the war.
  
"This was their finest hour" was how Winston Churchill described the spirit of the nation, enshrining the myth that his people and government would fight Hitler, whatever the cost. But declassified government archives, private diaries, and captured German documents reveal that Churchills toughest battles were actually with senior members of his own administration, who had decided the time had come to negotiate a compromise peace.
  
Costello not only traces their secret maneuvering with Berlin [climaxing in Hess' arrival the following year], but also details the desperate cabinet battle Churchill had to wage against them - which he came within a hairbreadth of losing.
  
"Ten Days to Destiny" can truly claim to be not only the first behind-the-scenes account of the agonizing history of 1940, but also the first major historical work to draw from actual KGB documentation. It also reveals that Ambassador Joseph Kennedy was the prime suspect for "The Doctor", the code name given by Hess' staff to his source of reason why Hitler halted the advance on Dunkirk and details the German plot to bring the Duke of Windsor back to the throne.
  
And it exposes the masterful cunning of Churchill's Machiavellian exploitation of American Embassy spy Tyler Kent both to silence his enemies and to blackmail President Roosevelt into helping England - a supreme gamble that quite literally saved the Allied effort to stop Hitler.

These and many other revelations finally unlock the secrets of Hess' mysterious mission. It is a dramatic story, scrupulously researched and rivetingly told, that is certain to rewrite the history of the critical opening phase of World War II. 

-- John Costello is a Cambridge-educated historian who has spent eight years researching "Ten Days to Destiny". He is the author of a number of books, including "The Mask of Treachery", "The Pacific War", and the prize winning national best seller "And I Was There". He lives in New York City.

Hess survived the war and was tried at Nuremberg for war crimes, where he appeared to be the delusional, forgetful, mentally ill figure that Hitler claimed he was after the abortive mission.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment and spent more time behind bars than any other Third Reich leaders. With the liberalization of the USSR in the late 1980's, there was talk of finally releasing him. but he is said to have committed "suicide" in his cell in 1987.  Many believe that the 93-year-old was murdered so that details of his peace mission would remain buried forever.

The Myth that Hess Acted on a "Mad Mission"

It was an act recorded as a one-man mad mission.

Hess was, apparently, trying to set peace talks with Winston Churchill in motion under his own initiative.

Hitler was even supposed to have scrambled aircraft to try to stop Hess, his deputy, from leaving Germany.

But a 28-page notebook discovered in a Russian archive in 2011 disputes this theory and indicates that Hitler was in on the mission.

It was written in 1948 by Major Karlheinz Pintsch, a long-time adjutant to Hess, who was captured by the Soviets and spent years undergoing  torture and interrogation at  their hands.

In the notebook he writes that Hitler hoped that an "agreement with the Englishmen would be successful".

Pintsch notes that Hess' task "five weeks before Germany launched its invasion of Russia" was to "bring about, if not a military alliance of Germany with England against Russia, then to bring about a neutralisation of England".

Pintsch's interrogation transcripts found in the same archive in Moscow show that Hitler was not surprised when news came through of Hess' capture.

The relevant section reads: 

"Nor did he rant and rave about what Hess had done. Instead, he replied calmly: 'At this particular moment in the war that could be a most hazardous escapade'.

"Hitler then went on to read a letter that Hess had sent him. He read the following significant passage out aloud: 'And if this project ends in failure, it will always be possible for you to deny all responsibility. Simply say I was out of my mind'.

This is what would happen after the mission failed, with both Hitler and Churchill claiming Hess was deranged. 

1942, 1943 and 1944: Hitler maintains a standing generous peace offer on the table. Churchill, by his own admission, refuses to accept

At all times, the Hitler-Hess offer of total cessation of the war in the West remains on the table. Germany offers to evacuate all of France except Alsace and Lorraine, which would remain German. It would evacuate Holland and Belgium. It would evacuate Norway and Denmark. In short, Hitler wants to withdraw from Western Europe, except for the two French provinces and Luxembourg [Luxembourg was never a French province, but an independent state of ethnically German origin], in return for which Great Britain would agree to an attitude of benevolent neutrality towards Germany.

In addition, Hitler is ready to withdraw from Yugoslavia and Greece. German troops would evacuate from the Mediterranean and Hitler would use his influence to arrange a settlement of the Mediterranean conflict between Britain and Italy. No country would be entitled to demand reparations from any other.

As Churchill leaves London to meet Roosevelt for a conference in Quebec late in the summer of 1943, a reporter asks if they were planning to offer peace terms to Germany. Churchill replied: "Heavens, no. They would accept immediately".

Again, in a 24 January 1944 letter to his ally, Josef Stalin, Churchill reassures Stalin that Britain will remain at war with Germany. In so doing, Churchill confirms the undeniable reality of Hitler's generous peace proposals: 

"We never thought of peace, not even in that year when we were completely isolated and could have made peace without serious detriment to the British Empire, and extensively at your cost. Why should we think of it now, when victory approaches for the three of us?"

It has long been argued, most eloquently in Professor John Charmley's "Churchill: The End of Glory", that Churchill's single-minded obsession with Hitler prevented him from seeing the long-term implications for Britain and the Empire by an alliance with the Soviet Union.
 

They are the people whom we have to thank for all this; International Jewry and its helpers! 

Three days before the outbreak of the German-Polish war, I suggested to the British Ambassador in Berlin a solution of the German-Polish question, similar to that in the case of the Saar under international control. This offer, too, cannot be denied. It was only rejected because the ruling political clique in England wanted the war, partly for commercial reasons, partly because they were influenced by propaganda put out by international Jewry. I also made it quite plain that if the peoples of Europe were again to be regarded merely as pawns in the game played by the international conspiracy of money and finance, then the Jews, the race which is the real guilty party in this murderous struggle, would be saddled with the responsibility for it. I left no one in doubt that this time not only would millions of children of the European Aryan races starve, not only would millions of grown men meet their death and not only would hundreds of thousands of women and children be burnt and bombed to death in the cities, but this time the real culprits would have to pay for their guilt, even though by humaner means than war. 

After a six years' war, which in spite of all set-backs, will one day go down to history as the most glorious and heroic manifestation of the struggle for existence of a nation, I cannot forsake the city which is the capital of this State. As our forces are too small to withstand the enemy attack on this place any longer, and our own resistance will be gradually worn down by men who are merely blind automata, I wish to share my fate with that which millions of others have also taken upon themselves by staying in this town. Further, I shall not fall into the hands of an enemy who requires a new spectacle, presented by the Jews, to divert their hysterical masses. I have therefore decided to remain in Berlin and there to choose death voluntarily at that moment when I believe that the position of the Führer and Chancellor itself can no longer be maintained. 

I die with a joyful heart in my knowledge of the immeasurable deeds and achievements of our soldiers at the front, of our women at home, the achievements of our peasants and workers, and of the contribution, unique in history, of our youth which bears my name. That I express to them all the thanks which come from the bottom of my heart is as clear as my wish that they should therefore not give up the struggle under any circumstances, but carry it on wherever they may be against the enemies of the Fatherland, true to the principles of the great Clausewitz. From the sacrifice of our soldiers and from my own comradeship with them to death itself, the seed has been sown which will grow one day in the history of Germany to the glorious rebirth of the national socialist movement and thereby to the establishment of a truly united nation. Many brave men and women have decided to link their lives with mine to the last. I have asked and finally ordered them not do this, but to continue to take part in the nation's struggle. I ask the commanders of the armies, of the navy and the air force to strengthen with all possible means the spirit of resistance of our soldiers in the national socialist belief, with special emphasis on the fact that I myself, as the founder and creator of this movement, prefer death to cowardly resignation, or even to capitulation. May it be in future a point of honour with German officers, as it already is in our navy, that the surrender of a district or town is out of the question, and that above everything else, the commanders must set a shining example of faithful devotion to duty until death. 

This political testament must have been written, despite the date on it, some days before the fall of the-Chancellery, according to some experts, because it shows a studied effort at deception.

He even wrote a second part to the testament, probably in a fit of rage, when he learned that Himmler and Göring had deserted him. It is this second part that is so inexplicable. In it he says that he is about to die, and yet he would have the world think that the war could still go on. Otherwise why did he appoint a new cabinet?

Somewhere in the archives of Berlin the Russians preserve this choice extract from the Führer's last megalomaniac ravings:  

"As long as I live there will be no conflict between the Allies, but if I am dead they cannot remain united. The conflict must come, but when it comes I must be alive to lead the German people, to help them arise from defeat, to lead them to final victory. Germany can hope for the future only if the whole world thinks I am dead".

-- "The Age" [(Melbourne, Vic] 27 July 1945 

In this supplementary testament Hitler wrote: 

Second Part of the Political Testament 

Before my death, I expel the former Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring from the Party, and withdraw from him all rights which were conferred on him by the decree of 29 June 41 and by my Reichstag speech of 1 September 39. In his place I appoint Admiral Dönitz as president of the Reich and Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht. Before my death I expel the former Reichsführer S.S. and Minister of the Interior Heinrich Himmler from the Party and from all his State offices. In his place I appoint Gauleiter Karl Hanke as Reichsführer S.S. and Chief of the German police, and Gauleiter Paul Giesler as Minister of the Interior. 

Apart altogether from their disloyalty to me, Göring and Himmler have brought irreparable shame on the country and the whole nation, by secretly negotiating with the enemy without my knowledge and against my will and also by illegally attempting to seize control of the State. In order to give the German people a government composed of honourable men, who will fulfil the task of continuing the war with all means, as leader of the nation, I appoint the following members of the new cabinet: A list followed, the chief names being President: Dönitz Chancellor: Dr. Göbbels Party Minister: Bormann. 

Writing about the cabinet, Hitler said although a number of these men, such as Martin Bormann, Dr. Göbbels, etc., as well as their wives, have come to me of their own free will, wishing under no circumstances to leave the Reich capital, but instead to fall with me here, I must nevertheless ask them to obey my request and in this case put the interests of the nation above their own feelings. They will stand as near to me through their work and their loyalty as comrades after death as I hope that my spirit will remain among them and always be with them. May they be severe but never unjust, may they above all never allow fear to influence their actions, and may they place the honour of the nation above everything on earth. May they finally be conscious that our task, the establishment of a National Socialist state, represents the work of centuries to come and obliges each individual person always to serve the common interest before his own advantage. 

I ask all Germans, all National Socialists, men, women and all soldiers of the Wehrmacht to be loyal and obedient to the new government and its president until death. 

The document ended: 

Above all I enjoin the government of the nation and the people to uphold the racial laws to the limit and to resist mercilessly the poisoner of all nations, international Jewry. 

Berlin 29 April 1945 . . . 4.00 hrs. 

A. Hitler 
Witnesses: 
Dr. Josef Göbbels 
Hans Krebs

The set of documents which Lorenz had, contained an appendix to Hitler's political testament, which had been written by Göbbels after he had been appointed by the Führer as Reichschancellor of a country already crumbled to ruin. 

Dr. Göbbels, in his last announcement, wrote: 

The  Führer has ordered me to leave Berlin if the defence of the Reich capital collapses, and to take part as a leading member in a government appointed by him. For the first time in my life I must categorically refuse to obey an order of the Führer. My wife and children join me in this refusal. Otherwise, apart from the fact that on grounds of fellow feeling and personal loyalty we could never bring ourselves to leave the Führer alone in his hour of greatest need, I would otherwise appear for the rest of my life a dishonourable traitor and common scoundrel, and would lose my own self respect as well as the respect of my fellow-citizens, a respect I should need in any further service in the future rebuilding of the German nation and German State. 

In the nightmare of treason which surrounds the Führer in these most critical days of the war, there must be at least some people to stay with him unconditionally until death, even if this contradicts the formal, and from a material point of view, entirely justifiable order which he gives in his political testament. I believe that I am thereby doing the best service to the future of the German people. In the hard times to come, examples will be more important than men. Men will always be found to show the nation the way out of its tribulations, but a reconstruction of our national life would be impossible if it were not inspired by examples which are clear and easily understandable to all. For this reason, together with my wife, and on behalf of my children, who are too young to be able to speak for themselves, but who, if they were sufficiently old, would agree with this decision without reservation, I express my unalterable decision not to leave the Reich capital even if it falls, and at the side of the Führer, to end a life which for me personally will have no further value if I cannot spend it at the service of the Führer and by his side. 

BERLIN 29 Apr 45. . . . 5.30 hours 

Sgnd. Dr. Göbbels

Whatever is revealed to substantiate or refute the legitimacy of the will and the political testament, and the claim that Hitler and Eva Braun died at 3 p.m. on 30 April I945, in the Chancellery Bunker, there will for many years to come be arguments, both in Germany and the outside world, about the authenticity of the certificate purporting to document Hitler's marriage to Eva Braun. 

These arguments will not be based alone on such questions as alleged mis-spellings, absence of Umlauts, or even erratic punctuation, or on the makeshift character of the certificate and the blots and smudges and other odd features -by the way, does one preface one's name as a witness in a wedding ceremony by a title such as "Dr"- but on the irrational, purposeless act that the marriage at that time represented. 

Only in one way could the marriage be regarded as anything but fantastic, if one postulated that Hitler and Eva Braun had lived together and had offspring, two possibilities which were widely and authoritatively refuted. Hitler, who had seen this vain and not very clever girl around him daily, apparently regarded his marriage, once he had made up his mind, in a most serious light. He began his personal will with the announcement of his decision to marry, and he ended with the announcement of his and his wife's decision to commit suicide, and of their wish that their bodies be burnt immediately. It could be that, as a reaction to the "delirium of treachery" which he said was all around him, he had also a "delirium of loyalty", and out of appreciation for that made the only gesture that he, trapped and condemned, could make. 

The certificate was typed on plain white paper and bore no stamps or seals. The five signatures, of Hitler and Eva Braun and of the witnesses, are smudgy and at times, as in the case of Hitler, scarcely legible. One would have thought that after Hitler had signed -his was the first signature- the other witnesses would have produced their own fountain pens. The signatures, however, appear to have been written with the same indifferent pen and the same poor ink. The reaction of any admirer of Hitler in such circumstances, called upon to sign his marriage certificate, would have been to use his own pen, if only to be able to keep it as a memento. Some of the smudges can be accounted for because the document was folded before it was dry, and even that is a strange fact, since it was not a case of an anxious bridegroom who wanted to hurry his bride away. There was nowhere for them to go except into that dismal little room where, everyone would have us believe, the honeymoon couple began to talk not of their future life, but of their death together. There are many details of this strange document which are worth recording. 

The first page is headed "Der Oberbürgermeister der Reichshauptstadt", but lower down the words that the marriage was celebrated before the Reichs Oberbürgermeister are crossed out and a correction made in handwriting that it took place before "City Councillor Walter Wagner". 

The words "Marriage of parents" [Hitler's] are crossed out. The certificate reads: 

There appeared before me [Councillor Wagner] to be immediately married: Adolf Hitler, born 20 April 1889, at Braunau, now resident at the Berlin Chancellery. Father's name [blank] Mother's name [the entry is smudged]. Proof of identity-personally known. Fräulein Eva Braun, born 6 February 1910, at Munich. Father - Frederic Braun. Mother - Frances Braun, nee Kronburger. Identity proved by special identity card No. 59 issued by Chief of German Police [Himmler]. 

Eva Braun's signature, when she apparently signed herself as Mrs. Hitler for the first and last time of her life, contained a mistake which was hastily corrected, She was obviously going to sign Braun. Hitler broke one of his own racial laws, for the ceremony took place without the production of health certificates or of proof that the two parties were of Aryan stock. 

Among that set of documents which contained the marriage certificate -it was found at Tegernsee- was the photograph of a boy, estimated to be between eleven and twelve years of age, and this at once revived a story that Hitler and Eva Braun did, in fact, have a son. It became a popular theory, for it explained to many puzzled minds why Hitler lent himself to the ceremony. The boy bore sufficient resemblance to Hitler -his eyes and hair were dark, and he had the same deeply thoughtful frown- to cause Allied Intelligence officers, especially the Americans, to begin enquiries. This had not been the first suggestion that Eva Braun had a son, although it had not before been suggested that Hitler was the father. The Russians had long before found a photograph of Eva Braun with a boy aged about four years old, and many journalists had tried in vain to see it at the Russian Kommandantura. 

There was evidence that in 1935 Eva Braun was very unhappy, often stayed at home for long periods, and did not want to meet her friends. Her father, a teacher of carpentry at a small school, constantly reproved her for her melancholy. In Eva Braun's diary for the year 1935, which was captured and translated by American Army Security officials, the girl gave a clear picture of herself as a jealous, ambitious, moody person. 

The fact claimed by British Intelligence officers that she urged Hitler to stay in Berlin and die there, and that she committed suicide, is recalled when one reads passages which she wrote in the diary about previous suicide attempts. 

"Tomorrow will be too late," she wrote. "I have decided on thirty-five pills so as to make it dead certain this time. If he would at least get someone to telephone me for him". She also wrote of a letter she has sent to him which was decisive for her. 

There were theories at the time when photographs of Eva Braun with a child were found, that Eva Braun knew, on 29 April 1935, that she was going to become a mother, and that Hitler was the father. These theories had nothing more to substantiate them than constructive imaginings and circumstantial evidence.

The diary had marginal notes, some of which appeared to have been written in fits of depression. 

Many photographs were found showing Hitler and Eva Braun with children. All the children could be identified as being those of officials of the party, excepting one in the photograph found at Tegernsee, although Hoffmann, who introduced Eva to the Führer, gave his expert opinion that this boy was the son of Bormann. Hoffmann, who knew Eva as well as anyone, stated categorically that she had never had a child. So did her parents. The mystery of the child gave many people -Intelligence officers, police, private detectives, and journalists- many sleepless nights. In their opinion the identity of that boy might explain an act which history would one day represent as being as dramatic as any since the death of Antony and Cleopatra. 

The various developments in the Hitler case revived interest in the Bunker and the Chancellery. The red marble-topped table which rumour wrongly described as Hitler's work-table was "eaten away" by souvenir hunters, who chipped pieces off it; fittings were removed from the walls; everything that was portable appeared to have been taken from the Bunker. The material that covered the built-in settee on which it was stated Hitler and Eva Braun had committed suicide was cut to pieces, as also the mattress of Eva Braun's bed. In the underground Chancellery, a friend and I once contacted a Mongol guard. He took us into the guard's quarters with the intention of interesting us in some of his loot, for which he hoped to get cigarettes. We found that the room in which he and the other men slept was much like a museum. These simple soldiers had collected an infinite variety of Hitler's personal belongings, and many costly presents which had been given to him by ambassadors, including an elaborate enamel and gold chariot, which had come from the Emperor of Japan. The Mongol had treasured this, but he now wished to exchange it for a thousand cigarettes. My friend, a famous Canadian K.C., was offered Hitler's personal towels and an album in which there were photographs of Hitler's friends. These ignorant guards had probably robbed history of many important revelations. 

It was obvious to most of us in Germany, in the early months of 1946, that the question of Hitler's marriage and death would have to be dealt with carefully, unless the Allies wished to encourage the later growth of legends which might raise a common war criminal to saintly heights. 

Of all the people in Allied hands -unless the Russians hold prisoners whose names have not been revealed, which is more than likely- none could better refute or substantiate the story which was told in the marriage certificate, the will, the last testament and Göbbels' appendix than Wilhelm Friedrich Zander. 

Of the three men who carried the documents, Zander was the leader. He held the originals of the documents, he was in command of the party, and he stood nearest to Bormann, Hitler's deputy, from whom orders for the mission with the documents were obtained. There is little doubt that, of all the people known to have been in the Bunker, Zander is the last living person to have had contact with Hitler and his deputy. Despite this, both the British and American Intelligence Services remained quiet long enough for all kinds of rumours and legends to arise. 

The number of people who believed Hitler to be still alive increased. 

Even in England prominent people who had known Germany and German mentality well expressed their doubt on one or other of the documents in no uncertain manner. 

Douglas Reed, in a letter to the "Daily Telegraph", for instance, wrote: 

"In view of the importance of the matter, may I offer, the opinion that Hitler's "marriage certificate", of which you recently published part in facsimile, is a patent forgery? As your correspondents W.E. and Miss Margarete Vernon have pointed out, it was clearly typed on a non-German machine by a non-German. The registrar supposed to have officiated, "Walter Wagner", proves unknown to the Chief Registrar of Berlin. Hitler may be dead or alive, married or unmarried; this document proves only that there is somebody who either wishes the world to think he is dead, and died married, or just wished to deepen the mystery surrounding those April days in Berlin and the still unanswered riddle of his death or disappearance. May I draw attention to several curious aspects of the mystery? Hitler's body has not been found, but the only man who could identify it, his dentist, disappeared, according to British Intelligence, 'eight months ago' - about the same time, apparently, as Hitler himself. From what zone did he disappear? Is it a fact, and can it be proved, that Göbbels's body was found? Photographs of the bodies of Nazi leaders who committed suicide in the British or American zones were published. None was published, to my knowledge, of the dead Göbbels. Is British Intelligence in possession of proof of his death?"
 

On 1 May 1945 Göbbels pulled on his gloves and hat, and arm-in-arm with his wife, climbed the stairs to the Bunker's emergency exit and emerged into the Reich Chancellery garden. His adjutant, 29-year-old SS-Hauptsturmführer Günther Schwägermann, followed him. 

[Historical Footnote: at the time of writing in 2016 Schwägermann remains alive, aged 101. He is certainly the last living witness to the events in the Bunker, but has refused to give any interviews].

Schwägermann went to collect more petrol to burn the Göbbels' bodies while Göbbels and his wife went around the corner out of sight. Schwägermann said that he heard a pistol shot and came upon his master and Magda Göbbels dead. She had taken poison while Göbbels had shot himself in the head. Schwägermann ordered the SS-Begleit-Kommando sentry at the Bunker emergency exit to shoot Göbbels again in the head to make sure - Schwägermann could not face doing so himself. The two men then poured Petrol over the bodies and set fire to them. Unfortunately, there was insufficient petrol remaining to burn the bodies and the fire-blackened corpses remained easily recognizable to Voss when he was forced by the Soviets to identify them the following day.

Interrogated by Soviet officers on 6 May 1945, Vice-Admiral Hans-Erich Voss recounted:

"When Göbbels learned that Hitler had committed suicide, he was very depressed and said: 'It is a great pity that such a man is not with us any longer. But there is nothing to be done. For us, everything is lost now and the only way out left for us is the one which Hitler chose. I shall follow his example'.

On 1 May, Voss saw Göbbels for the last time:

"Before the breakout from the Bunker began, about ten generals and officers, including myself, went down individually to Göbbels' shelter to say goodbye. While saying goodbye I asked Göbbels to join us. But he replied: 'The captain must not leave his sinking ship. I have thought about it all and decided to stay here. I have nowhere to go because with little children I will not be able to make it'."

Voss then joined the group led by SS-Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke which broke out of the Bunker and tried to escape from Berlin. Most of the group were captured by Soviet forces the same day. Voss was brought back to the Bunker for questioning, and to identify the partly burned bodies of Josef and Magda Göbbels, and also the bodies of their six children, who had been poisoned, as was Hans Fritzsche, a leading German radio commentator who had answered directly to Göbbels, the following day. 

The Soviet account states:

"Vice-Admiral Voss, being asked how he identified the people as Göbbels, his wife and children, explained that he recognised the burnt body of the man as former Reichsminister Göbbels by the following signs: the shape of the head, the line of the mouth, the metal brace that Göbbels had on his right leg, his gold NSDAP badge and the burnt remains of his party uniform".

The bodies were then brought to the Buchau Cemetery in Berlin for autopsy and inquest by Soviet doctors.

"How did the three emissaries, bearing copies of Hitler's marriage certificate and will, make their way through the enemy lines when these were so near the Chancellery?" 

Some of the questions Douglas Reed asked could certainly be answered by Zander, if he decided to tell the truth. 

Standartenführer Wilhelm Zander was not, however, a completely trustworthy man, as was revealed when he was arrested. He then called himself Friederich Wilhelm Paustin and was living with a single girl, 22-year-old Elsa Unterholzner, former secretary to Martin Bormann. The arrest was made in the girl's house in Aldendorf, near Vilshofen, in Lower Bavaria. Zander has also been described as "an incorrigible fanatic", who believed in Hitler and Nazism until his end. Born thirty-four years ago in the Saar district, he became a wood merchant, and would probably have remained one had he not joined the Nazi Party. In I930 Zander was working in Italy as a "merchant", but in reality he was only a pedlar. After his return to Germany, he joined the S.S. and served under the Chief Constable of Brunswick, S.S. Obergruppenführer Jeckeln, as aide-de-camp. He later went to the Munich Chancellery of the Party, with the title of S.S. Sturmbannführer, and was attached to the staff of the Stellvertreter des Führers, Rudolf Hess. 

At that time Zander made acquaintance with Eva Braun, who always had time for him. It might have been through her kind offices that Zander was transferred to Hitler's Berlin headquarters. In 1942 he joined the Army, became a lieutenant, and was wounded in the following year. Zander then became aide-de-camp to Martin Bormann, although he pretended to have an aversion to Hitler's deputy, and he succeeded in getting himself nominated as Oberreichsleiter für den Stellungsbau im Osten [Realmleader for fortification building in the East]. He specialized on the restoration of fortifications and railway stations on the Eastern Front, at the same time playing an important role in an organization for removing children from dangerous areas into the country. 

It is reported that Zander refused to carry the documents, either through fear or from personal aversion to Bormann, and that Hitler had personally to ask him to perform the task. After weeks on the road, he reached Tegernsee where he met a relative in a sanatorium, which had become an American hospital for wounded Germans. Zander's feet were sore, and he remained for some time in the hospital. When he was well, he became an assistant to the gardener under the false name. He had contacted his wife, and she had met him in Bruckmühl. and later in Munich. Zander knew that his friend, Elsa Unterholzner, had flown to Berchtesgaden in the last plane that had left the Chancellery and had gone to Aldenbach near Vilshofen, where a married sister, a prominent leader of the Hitler Frauenschaft, lived. On 20 October he visited his friend, and returned to her again on 22 December, remaining in her house to celebrate Christmas. He was arrested there at 3.30 a.m. on 28 December. 

Zander was subjected to long interrogations, but inconsistencies were discovered in the statements he made. It was obvious that he had no intention of telling all that he knew, and what he did tell could not all be relied upon. 

During early January, clues discovered by both the British and the American Intelligence Services caused them to ask for the help of the Russian Intelligence Service, but this organization remained non-co-operative. The only letter sent to the Soviet Headquarters in Berlin by the British in relation to Hitler remained unanswered. Only on one occasion, so far as I know, did the Russians show any interest in Hitler, and that was when, on my invitation, two Russian majors came to a meeting at which we revealed information. 

Intensive enquiries all over the British and American zones revealed a variety of unimportant facts, these including such trifling details as that "Adolf Hitler of 16 Prinz Regenten Square, Munich", the home of Eva Braun, to which Hitler was stated to have gone secretly, owed, according to the books of the Munich City Treasurer, an electric light bill of 600 Marks. Eva Braun owed another bill for 400 Marks. 

Among the people arrested was Johanna Wolf, who had been Hitler's confidential secretary during the whole of the war. A forty-five year old spinster, she told the Americans who arrested her and took her to Nuremberg, that she still had faith in the ideals of Nazism, that the Führer's ideals "would live on in the hearts of men", and that she would again fight for her beliefs; but she told them none of the many secrets that she had learned about Hitler's private life. She could not resist ridiculing, however, the report that Eva Braun had borne Hitler children, and she discredited the story of a German girl who at that time claimed that she was Hitler's daughter. The Americans knew that Miss Wolf had left the Chancellery Bunker at the behest of Hitler who "could see that the fighting was coming nearer, and was afraid we couldn't stand it", in the early hours of 21 April 1945, and that she had left Berlin by aeroplane. That excluded the possibility, which had long been considered, that Wolf typed Hitler's will, political testament and marriage certificate.

British Intelligence officers now concentrated their enquiries on Nicolaus von Below, the only living witness of Hitler's will. The fact of Martin Bormann's death was now tacitly accepted, and the only witness, Dr. Göbbels, had long been presumed dead. Many facts had been collected about von Below, but the most interesting one was that he had left one of the Bunkers in the Reichs Chancellery on either 29 or 30 April. 

Von Below came of a line of soldiers -his father was a regular officer- and he followed the same career himself, first as an infantry officer and later as a Luftwaffe officer. Long before he joined the Army, von Below had been interested in rearmament and, as a great admirer of Göring, became one of the earliest pilots of the German Air Force, when it existed in secret in defiance of the Versailles Treaty.

He stood close to Hitler, answering his queries about the growth and efficiency of the Luftwaffe and carrying out such personal services as arranging his flights. Von Below was known to have prided himself on the fact that he had accompanied Hitler on many important missions. He was with the Führer when he went triumphantly into Vienna after the annexation of Austria, and he was with him at the Godesberg, Sudetenland and Godesberg Conferences, and in Prague after the complete occupation of Czechoslovakia. Hitler insisted that von Below should be present at his various headquarters, and he was present when the bomb attempt on Hitler's life was made on 20 July 1944. He saw Hitler come out of the doorway of the conference-room after the explosion with his uniform badly torn and his leg bruised. 

A description of von Below was circulated and a careful watch was kept in many towns. On two occasions it was thought that he had been living in Berlin, but discovery of his whereabouts was made far from the capital, as the result of the shrewdness of a woman. Von Below, as he admitted after his arrest in Bonn in January 1946, left Hitler's Bunker at midnight on 29-30 April I945, having taken his official leave of Hitler, Eva Braun, Göbbels, and General Burgdorf, to whom he had been responsible, half an hour before. 

The idea of trying to get away had occurred to him at tea-time on 29 April, when he realized, since the sounds of battle could be heard at the bottom of the Bunker steps, that the Russians would have reached the Chancellery by the next day, or the day after. It was generally known in all three of the Bunkers that Hitler and Eva Braun had decided to commit suicide, and that Göbbels and his family and General Burgdorf would do the same after the bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun had been burned. Von Below did not relish the idea of being left in the Bunker, either to follow the example of his Führer or to fall into the hands of the Russians, and so he asked permission of General Burgdorf to leave, and try to get through the enemy lines to the headquarters of General Keitel "to put up a brave fight". The general said that since von Below was Hitler's adjutant he thought he ought to ask him. This von Below did, and Hitler said he would not require him any more, shook hands with him, and wished him luck on his journey.

After the conference concluded, von Below met with Hitler.  

Earlier during the day von Below had asked Hitler if he would allow him to attempt a breakout to the West. Hitler considered this straightaway and said only that it would probably be impossible. Von Below replied that he thought the way to the West would still be free. Hitler gave him written authority to go and told him he should report to the headquarters of the Combined General Staff, then at Plön, and to deliver a document to Field Marshal Keitel. That afternoon von Below made his preparations and took part in the evening situation conference.  Hitler gave him his hand and said only "best of luck". After saying his goodbyes, Burgdorf handed von Below Hitler's message. It was addressed to Keitel. In it Hitler stated that the fight for Berlin was drawing to its close, that he intended to commit suicide rather than surrender, that he had appointed Karl Dönitz as his successor, and that Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler had betrayed him. At midnight, with his batman Heinz Matthiesing, von Below left the Bunker and followed roughly the same route as the others [including the three couriers] who had left earlier during the day.

-- Trevor-Roper, "The Last Days of Hitler" 1947; Nicolaus von Below, "At Hitler's Side: The Memoirs of Hitler's Luftwaffe Adjutant 1937-1945", trans. By Geoffrey Brooks [London: Greenhill Books and Mechanicsburg Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 2001]

There seems to be some doubt about von Below's mission and to the message that he carried.

During imprisonment after the war von Below  was interviewed by the historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, who later wrote a book about Hitler's last days.  In order to end the detention and achieve better conditions for himself, he told the latter about an alleged command from Hitler, which he was to deliver to Keitel.

"Es hat mir später nicht geringes Vergnügen bereitet, in Trevor-Ropers Buch "The Last Days of Hitler" den Quatsch über Hitlers Auftrag an mich zu lesen, Keitel eine geheime Botschaft zu überbringen".  [It provided me no little pleasure later on to read in Trevor-Roper's book 'The Last Days of Hitler' the balderdash about Hitler's commission to me to deliver a secret message to Keitel].

 - Nicolaus of Below,"Als Hitlers Adjutant 1937-45" by Hase & Köhler Verlag Mainz. 

What happened to von Below afterwards sounds like a passage out of a detective story. 

Shells were dropping not far from the Unter den Linden as the adjutant left the Bunker. There were many fires burning in various parts of Berlin and the sky was ablaze. The noise was deafening, heavy artillery, mortars and Panzerfausts adding to the perpetual din of small-arms fire. Obviously the Germans were making their last stand. Von Below crept across the garden of the Chancellery and went out the back way in the direction of the Charlottenburger Chaussee. He made good progress that night, stole through the Russian lines and lay up at dawn. For three nights he continued in the direction of Keitel's headquarters, and when he found he could go no further he secured some civilian clothes and turned west through territory occupied by British and Americans. 

He contacted his father-in-law, Stefan Kuhne, his brother-in-law, Major Heinrich Behr, and a woman named Maria von Groote, and they helped him although they knew that he was wanted by the British. One of them enabled him to enroll as a student of law at Bonn University under an assumed name. He would not stay longer than was necessary with his friends because he feared detection, and he took a room not far from Bonn University at the house of a stranger. For six months he lived the life of a University student, deceiving everyone, until one January morning he gave himself away. 

He was sitting at the breakfast table reading the "Kölnischer Kurier", when he jumped in surprise, rushed past his landlady and went to his room. He did not come back for his breakfast. He had read the report of the finding of Hitler's will. Shortly after that von Below was arrested. Von Below told British Intelligence officers that he took up his quarters in one of the three Bunkers outside the Reichs Chancellery on Hitler's orders on 20 April 1945, and that he was present at the conference at which Hitler decided to stay in the capital. 

He confirmed the story told by Hanna Reitsch, without adding additional facts. He spoke of the effect the news of his betrayal by Göring and Himmler had on Hitler, who had grown very nervous and was suffering from delayed shock caused by the attempt on his life on 20 July 1944. He heard about the arrangements for the marriage of Hitler and Eva Braun on 28 April, but was not invited to the ceremony. He stood outside the room, however, and he saw Hitler and Eva Braun leave it, accompanied by the registrar. He was invited later the same night to go to Hitler's living-room, where he drank champagne together with Dr. Göbbels and Martin Bormann. 

Frau Göbbels, who was very quiet, General Krebs and General Burgdorf and two of Hitler's ordinary secretaries -probably the ones who had prepared the will and testament- were also present. This strange champagne party lasted for about one hour, during which everyone talked rather nostalgically about the past, and pretended to ignore the fear for the future that showed on their faces. When the party was over von Below was called into a nearby room, where he was joined by Göbbels and Bormann. Hitler came in with a paper. Turning to von Below, Hitler said that since he had served the Führer as Luftwaffe adjutant for such a long time he was going to ask him to perform a last service. Von Below was then invited to sign Hitler's personal will. Von Below read the will after it had been discussed by Göbbels and Hitler. Hitler signed it with a flourish, followed by Martin Bormann and by Göbbels. Von Below signed last. He was not asked to sign Hitler's political testament, and he did not hear of this until later, when General Burgdorf told him a new Government had been formed. 

Von Below revealed that he took two letters with him from the Bunker, one from Hitler to Field Marshal Keitel and the other from General Krebs to General Jodl. He declares that he burned these two letters on his way through the Russian lines, but before doing so he read them, committing their contents to memory. At our request he recited from memory "the contents of these letters". 

That from Hitler to General Keitel, dated 29 April, was alleged to have read: 

"The fight for Berlin is drawing to a close. On the other fronts as well the end can be expected within a few days. I am going to commit suicide rather than surrender. I have appointed Grossadmiral Dönitz as my successor as Reichspräsident and Oberbefehlshaber der Wehrmacht. I expect you to remain at your posts, and to give my successor the same zealous support you have granted me, and to do your utmost to fight gallantly to the end. Two of my oldest supporters, Göring and Himmler, have broken faith with me at the last minute. 

"The people and Wehrmacht have given their all in this long and hard struggle. The sacrifice has been enormous. My trust has been misused by many people. Disloyalty and betrayal have undermined resistance throughout the war. It was therefore not granted to me to lead the people to victory. The Army General Staff cannot be compared with the General Staff in the Great War. Its achievements were far behind those on the fighting front. The Luftwaffe fought bravely. Its Commander-in-Chief has been unable to maintain the superiority of the years 1939 and 1940. The Navy has wiped out the disgrace of 1918 by its morale during this war. It cannot be blamed for its defeat. The efforts and sacrifices of the German people have been so great that I cannot believe that they have been in vain. The aim must still be to win territory in the East for the German people". 

The letter from General Krebs to General Jodl, dated 29 April, was: 

"The encirclement of Berlin by the Russians is complete. Our own resistance against enemy superiority can only last a few days. Arms and ammunition are lacking. Supplies by air are insufficient. It is no longer possible to land in Berlin. There is no information about the position of Wenck's army here. Their help in saving Berlin is no longer reckoned with. The Führer expects that the other fronts will fight on to the last man". 

Allied Intelligence officers were still being called upon to deal with new phases of "the Hitler Case" in the summer of 1946, and in July evidence was given about it at Nuremburg: but a Quadripartite statement was not issued. How best to convince the Germans that he is dead is a great problem. Maybe it will be easier to prove to them that what he represented was evil, and that if he had survived it would have been a great tragedy not only for his opponents, but for Germany too. 
 

The two basic interpretations of the last days in Berlin come from British and Russian sources.

As the first one is the source for all subsequent treatments, it will be considered first. Following the end of the war in Europe, numerous and persistent rumors about Hitler's disappearance were rife in Allied military Intelligence circles and, as a matter of course, leaked to the press. In an effort to head off any independent investigation, British military Intelligence rushed one of their young agents into the breach. Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, a historical research student at Oxford in 1939, was seconded to MI 6 and put to work evaluating transcripts of German radio intercepts. 

Trevor-Roper was not fluent in the German language, either written or verbal, and his specialty was 17th century English history. 

Whether Trevor-Roper read or spoke no German was irrelevant to his work, as qualified translators were employed by many of the Allied Intelligence Officers conducting the interviews of prisoners. Nor can his well-documented mistake in accepting as genuine the notorious "Hitler Diaries" some thirty-seven years afterwards, in 1983, be used to impugn the scholarship of his book. Something more substantial is needed if the historian is to dismiss "The Last Days of Hitler".

According to the Trevor-Roper explanation, there were no onlookers to the Dictator’s Bunker suicide. Witnesses said they heard a loud gunshot shortly past 3:00 in the afternoon. After waiting a few minutes, Hitler's valet, Heinz Linge, and secretary Martin Bormann opened the door to the small study and stumbled on the dead bodies of the "just married" Führer and Eva Braun.

However, the eyewitness testimonies did not see eye to eye on a variety of fine points. A bystander described examining the body of the Führer slumped lifeless next to deceased Eva Braun on an elongated, upholstered couch. But another witness said that he observed Hitler's body isolated "seated on a chair by itself" near a corner of the Bunker room. An offhand assessment gave evidence of a traumatic gun blast wound in Adolf Hitler's mouth, while conflicting information claimed the injury was next to his eyebrow. But as indicated in "Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography" [1976] by historian John Toland, the Soviet journalist Lev Bezymenski made a claim in 1968 that the autopsy by the Forensic Medical Commission of the Red Army proved that there was no bullet hole in the cranium. "

"The skull 'proving' that there was no bullet hole had been conveniently destroyed".

Toland scornfully voiced disapproval.

Hitler's valet afterward said he caught a whiff of burnt almonds in the Bunker study, a frequent observation made concerning the scent of toxic cyanide. Those facts, and other details that were released by the Soviet KGB in 1992, led to the current "dual method" portrayal of Hitler shooting himself with a pistol while sinking his teeth into a cyanide capsule.

It was often said Hitler killed his dogs, Blondi and Wulf, before committing suicide. Hitler officially instructed his adjutant or assisting SS officer, Sturmbannführer Otto Günsche, to oversee the cremation of his body after his death. The Bunker witnesses supposed that newlywed Eva Braun poisoned herself because her dead body had no visible wounds. Despite that, historian John Toland guardedly offered striking details: "Only one empty poison capsule had been found" in the Chancellery Bunker study.

Finally, Trevor-Roper's inquiry did not lay enough emphasis on the fact that there were two supposed Hitler cadavers: the fake bad double and the real burnt corpse.

John Toland wrote: "Skeptics wondered why Stalin had spread the story in 1945 that Hitler had escaped when he knew the body had been found". The Soviet correspondent Bezymenski said Moscow made the decision to hold the forensic details "in reserve" in case someone might try to slip into the role of "the Führer saved by a miracle". In other words, conceivably one more "Hitler double"was potentially on the loose, and possibly responsible for brutal war crimes. .

In Great Britain it was barely a murmur that the Nazi tyrant had escaped in 1945 from the ruins of Berlin. But in the Soviet Union it was lectured in all public schools. For the most part, Hugh Trevor-Roper's rationalization is still the most well regarded tale. But as one American military officer, Colonel Henry Heimlich, stated: "Upon reviewing the actual facts, not a single insurance company would ever pay out a cent to similar claims based on such scant, non-conclusive evidence".

A statement was made by General Dwight D Eisenhower in the 8 October 1945 issue of the newspaper "Stars and Stripes". In that report Eisenhower said there was reason to believe Hitler was still alive [after the war] and it was also noted he had, thus, reversed his opinion that Hitler had died of suicide in the Bunker.

Other American media simply ignored the report and Eisenhower's comments. History books also ignore it even today.
 

Trevor-Roper's post-war paper was probably more disruptive to historians than anything since the production of the "Donation of Constantine" at a point somewhat earlier in time. He claimed that he had conducted "numerous" interviews with former members of Hitler's staff. But the fact that most of the key personnel such as Otto Günsche, Hitler's military orderly, Heinz Linge, Hitler's long-time valet and Hans Baur, Hitler's chief pilot, were in Soviet custody [where they made documented statements directly opposed to Trevor-Roper's findings] coupled with Trevor-Rope's admitted unfamiliarity with the German language, has rendered his book "The Last Days of Hitler" highly suspect in factual content if not in its well-polished context. As a result of this work, a self-perpetuating series of myths have become well-established in historical circles and Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper automatically became the original source from which an army of subsequent writers copiously copied. 

He quickly assumed the mantel of the leading expert on the subject of Adolf Hitler and no self-respecting work on the German leader was complete without a skillfully crafted foreword by Trevor-Roper. In due time, he was made King's Professor of History at Oxford, and in 1979, raised to the peerage as Lord Dacre of Glanton. 

On 8 April 1983, Lord Dacre, the man who believed he had a "patent on Adolf Hitler" flew to Zürich, Switzerland, at the request of newspaper  publisher, Rupert Murdoch, to authenticate the now-notorious "Hitler Diaries".  Although possessed of a keen intellect and sharp wit, Trevor-Roper was also blessed with a monumental ego which overrode the basic fact that he was not fluent in German and certainly could not read a word of the old style German script that Hitler wrote. Following the Ziürich visit, which entailed a very cursory examination of unintelligible script, Trevor-Roper returned to England and solemnly announced that "I am now satisfied that the documents are genuine". [Robert Harris, "Selling Hitler" New York, 1986] 

A subsequent thorough investigation by experts of the German National Archives quickly disclosed that the documents were not only not genuine but "crude forgeries by someone of limited intelligence". It would be a secure assumption, following this debacle, that Trevor-Roper's "patent on Adolf Hitler" had finally expired.

In the "Last Days of Hitler", very heavy emphasis for the suicide/cremation theory is placed on statements and alleged statements from a number of SS personnel, allegedly involved in the last act. In addition to Otto Günsche and Heinz Linge, a member of Hitler's bodyguard, Hermann Karnau, and another RSD member, Erich Mansfeld ,were all alleged to have participated in the removal of Hitler and Eva Braun's bodies from the Bunker and their subsequent cremation in the Chancellery garden. Since Günsche and Linge, along with Hans Baur, the pilot, were in a Soviet prison camp and not available for interview when Trevor-Roper wrote his official report, statements attributed to them should be taken with extraordinary caution, if not skepticism.

Hermann Karnau, stated to be an SS member of the RSD, was apparently interviewed by Trevor-Roper and claimed he saw Hitler's body burning in the garden. Unfortunately, an extensive search by Dr. David G. Marwell, then director of the Berlin Document Center, repository of SS personal records, failed to locate any Hermann Karnau or Erich Mansfeld, or "Skripczyk " as Trevor-Roper also calls him. Neither of these men were in either the RSD or the SS.It would be fair to assume that when the British official report was prepared, the SS personnel files and records were not available and no doubt Trevor-Roper may be excused his gross errors on the grounds that he was unaware that he was interviewing non-existent people. 

Trevor-Roper's Notes on Sources is a scholarly listing of the "personal sources" of information used in his report. He never claimed to have interviewed Hitler's staff-members Otto Günsche, Heinz Linge or Hans Baur. Statements attributed to them are rigorously noted as hearsay. 

He does not state that Karnau was an SS member, only that he was a policeman and member of the RSD [Reichssicherheitsdienst]. Thus, Karnau would not have appeared on the SS membership lists.

Karnau stated that he had been a guard at the Reichs Chancellery in Berlin until 2 May, when he was given permission to leave his post because the Russians were closing in. He passed through the Russian lines in disguise, stating that he was a Dutchman returning home. He said that he had been a member of the second ring of guards round Hitler since I944, when he was at the headquarters in East Prussia and at Berchtesgaden. He came to Berlin in March I945.

The interrogation report notes that Hermann Karnau was in British Custody - which is precisely where Trevor-Roper interviewed him. 

Mansfeld is another matter. Erich Mansfeld [alias Skripczyk] was reported by Trevor-Roper to have been a SS-Hauptscharführer and a member of the RSD. One would therefore presume that his name would appear on the SS enlisted men's list in BCD, but it apparently does not. 

However, in the Interrogation Records prepared for the War Crimes Proceedings at Nürnberg 1945-1947, and in the catalogue, prepared by the National Archives and Records Service in 1984, is a listing for Erich Mansfeld. His Intermediate Interrogation Report [IIR] is on Microfilm Roll 25.

In this report, conducted in the Bremen Interrogation Center by a G-2 officer of the 29th Division on 30 July 1945, Mansfeld's apparent SS rank is explained: He was accepted into the RSD in June of 1944 with a rank of Kriminal Assistant and SS Hauptscharführer. Whether this was a provisional rank or not is not known.

Other disputed characters of the Bunker Finale are also mentioned, including Karnau, Harry Mengershausen, and Hufbeck, mentioned on page 204 of "The Last Days of Hitler" as Hans Hofbeck. 

-- David Irving

However, there is no question of the existence of Günsche, Linge and Baur. Since they too are used as direct sources for the Viking funeral theory, let us consider recently disclosed information. 

In a U.S. CIC document of 15 November 1948 [Throughman report: 0933-034] Günsche stated to the senior Wehrmacht medical officer and commander of all military hospitals in besieged Berlin, Dr. Walter Schreiber, that "I did not see the dead Führer. Those things were done without us". Baur said at the same time that he had not seen the bodies either, and Linge, who is alleged to have assisted in carrying the bodies of Hitler and his wife up the Bunker exit stairs said that he "did not see the body of the dead Führer".

The debriefing of these SS members following their return from Soviet imprisonment produced similar but still classified statements.

Insofar as the fate of Hermann Fegelein, whom Trevor-Roper has shot in the Chancellery on Hitler's orders, a careful inspection of his files now located at Ft. George Meade, Maryland, depicts a somewhat different scenario than the one put forward by Trevor-Roper. According to an official CIC report of 21 September 1945, one Walter Hirschfeld, a Jewish refugee from Vienna and agent for the CIC, was in close contact with Hans Fegelein, Hermann's father, then resident in Munich. According to the Hirschfeld report, Hermann Fegelein had been in contact with his father after the war and reported that "the Führer and I are safe and well" and that he would try to get in contact with his family if possible.

The Russian version, which appeared over twenty years later, approaches the events from a different perspective.

When Soviet troops occupied the government quarter of Berlin during the first week of May, 1945, an immediate search was made of the Chancellery complex for any traces of Hitler and his top aides. Much of Albert Speer's new Chancellery was in ruins; the air raid Bunker under the Chancellery garden was partially flooded by the ever-present ground water and the interior showed signs of an attempt to burn the contents by the last SS guards on the scene. There were numerous bodies strewn about the Chancellery gardens including those of Dr. Göbbels and his wife, both of whom were badly charred. The bodies of General Hans Krebs and the six Göbbels children were found in the Bunker itself.

Since the Russians had complete physical control of the Chancellery area, if Hitler's body had been discovered, they would have been the sole parties to disclose this. Let us consider the official Soviet pronouncements following their capture of Berlin.

3 May 1945. "Pravda": "Hitler not in Berlin".

13 May1945. "Pravda": "Moscow has directed the senior officers of the Red Army in Berlin to discuss nothing about the situation in the Führerbunker".

26 May 1945. Josef Stalin to Harry Hopkins in Moscow: "In my opinion Hitler is not dead but is hiding somewhere".

6 June 1945. Red Army spokesman from Marshal Zhukov's staff: "Hitler's body has been found and identified".

9 June 1945. Marshal Zhukov, accompanied by Andre Vishinski, Deputy Foreign Minister and General N. Bezarin, Soviet military commandant of Berlin, held a press conference for Western journalists. Zhukov stated that "Hitler's fate was doubtful" and that "we did not identify the body of Hitler. I can say nothing definite about his fate. He could have flown away from Berlin at the very last moments". To this, General Bezarin added that in his personal opinion, "he has disappeared somewhere in Europe. Perhaps he is in Spain with Franco. He had the possibility of taking off and getting away".

9 June 1945. "Red Star" military publication stated that "Hitler had committed suicide two days before Berlin surrendered".

17 July 1945, Josef Stalin to President Harry Truman and US Secretary of State James Byrnes at the Potsdam Conference: "I believe Hitler is alive. Careful investigation by Soviet investigators has not found any trace of Hitler's remains or any other positive evidence of his death".

Following these often contradictory pronouncements, the Soviets lapsed into silence until 1968 when a small book entitled "The Death of Adolf Hitler" appeared, authored by Lev Bezymenski, a Soviet journalist and KGB official. According to the thesis of this book, the Soviets did, in fact, find the bodies of Adolf Hitler, his wife, his dogs, the Göbbels family and General Krebs. A number of photographs accompanied the official autopsy reports and among the pictures are views of what are purported to be Hitler's bridgework and teeth, [removed from the body] as well as Eva Braun's dental bridge and a photograph of Hitler's favorite German shepherd bitch "Blondi". 

In establishing the identity of human remains by dental forensics, a number of factors must be taken into account. Firstly, photographs and X-rays of the teeth and dentition of the deceased must be prepared. Secondly, these photographs and X-rays must be compared with the actual dental records of the deceased, to include [if  possible] X-rays of the deceased's actual teeth and any dental fittings. If these two sets of data are identical, the identity of the deceased should be established to a strong certainty. It should also be stated that a specific chain of control must exist for the evidence to be valid. An actual corpse must exist and be in a controlled environment such as a morgue or mortuary. The photography and X-rays must be prepared of the body under controlled conditions and the resulting negatives and prints kept in a secure area. Also, the dental records must be original and must also be secured as evidence.

The reasons for this should be as evident to the layman as they are to the professionals of law enforcement agencies and insurance companies. Without proper control exercised over the two sets of records, the opportunity for manipulation is obvious.

On the evening of 20 April 1945, following the parade of dignitaries who paid their respects to Adolf Hitler on the event of his 56th birthday, Hugo-Hannes Blaschke, a General of the Waffen-SS, Senior Dental Officer of that organization, a member of Himmler's personal staff and Hitler's long-time dentist, paid a brief and hurried visit to his Reich Chancellery dental office. Here, he quickly assembled and packed into cases his dental equipment and all of the dental records of his prominent patients including Albert Speer, Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Göring, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Josef and Magda Göbbels, Martin Bormann, Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler. These files were flown out of Berlin later that night along with SS General Dr. Blaschke and a number of other senior officials. The flight landed near Salzburg early the next morning.

Blaschke's entire file case vanished at that time and none of its contents have ever surfaced.

The Führer dentist was subsequently taken into American custody where he claimed he would make an attempt to "reconstruct Hitler’s dentition from memory" [US CIC Interrogation Reports, Dr. Hugo Blaschke, June-September 1945]. 

The Soviet investigators probing Hitler's disappearance tried to locate Blaschke in Berlin so that they might interrogate him under their control. When they were advised that the dentist was in American hands and available for questioning, they abruptly discontinued their search and never made any attempts to contact the dentist [US CIC Report, Blaschke, 5 September 1945]. 

Without dental records, identification of missing Third Reich leaders was severely hampered and a great deal depended on Dr. Blaschke's co-operation with his American captors. U.S. CIC interrogation files on Blaschke indicate that he appeared to be co-operative in his attempts to reconstruct Hitler's dental records but that the results were of little value because the Führer dentist "could do very little without his records which have disappeared and cannot be located even after an extensive search".

Blaschke was eventually released from custody and died in 1957 at the age of seventy-seven without having contributed anything at all to verifying the deaths of a number of his patients. His records and X-Rays are still missing.

There exist a number of X-Rays which purport to have been taken of Hitler's head. All of these were said to have been made in 1944 and early 1945 by various doctors treating Hitler for various infections of his sinuses and tonsils, following the 20 July 1944 attempt on his life. The published records of Dr. Theo Morell, Hitler's chief doctor indicate that X-Rays were taken at the Karlshof military hospital in Rastenberg, the location of Hitler's headquarters.

These films were made at the request of Dr. Karl Otto von Eicken, a specialist called in to treat an infected sinus. Two X-rays were taken of Hitler's head on 21 October 1944, but proved to be "too meager" for diagnosis. Several other X-Rays were taken, also at Karlshof on 18 November 1944, shortly before Hitler left the Wolfsschanze for the last time. Other X-Rays were produced for Dr. Erwin Giesing and were said to have been taken in Berlin in early 1945. The U.S. National Archives has purported copies of these X-rays, none of which have the standard German military medical information on the developed films. At least one X-Ray has the date "21. Oct. 44" scratched on it whereas the proper German date would be "21.Okt.44". The date on the negative is standard U.S. military form. There are no further identifying marks on these films.

The Bezymenski book, which appeared in 1968, makes no mention of these X-Rays but does show photographs of what the author  purports to be the original bridgework found in what is claimed to be the badly charred and partially obliterated corpses of Hitler and Eva Braun. The author also includes a photograph of a small card purported to have been prepared on 11 May 1945 by one Käthe Heusermann, Dr. Blaschke's technical assistant, who assisted in the manufacture of bridgework for the dentist.

To consider the Bezymenski publication as anything but crude Soviet disinformation would be a serious error for an objective historian to accept. Like Trevor-Roper’s 1945 report, which took him only two weeks to prepare, the Bezymenski dissertation was obviously prepared to fulfill an official point of view.

It should be noted that in the 1960s, Soviet writers were not free to express their views on international political matters and, in any case, like Trevor-Roper who was a member of MI 6, Bezymenski was a KGB official. Trevor-Roper, to be sure, is a far better writer but in the end, the two books were prepared with similar goals. 

The Bezymenski work is easily demolished because of extraordinarily poor research. The author states that on 9 May 1945, a Soviet investigator interrogated Heusermann. A transcript of the official report disclosed that Heusermann in the company of the official found Hitler's dental file in Blaschke's Berlin office and then accompanied the investigators to the ruins of the Chancellery where they discovered all of Hitler's dental X-Rays and some gold crowns alleged to be destined for Hitler's mouth.

The author appears to be unaware that all of these records were removed from the Chancellery on the night of 20 April and that Hitler's dental records were kept in the Chancellery dental facility and not at Blaschke's private practice.

As has been previously noted, Soviet agents seeking Blaschke in Berlin at once abandoned their search upon learning of his detention by the United States and made no attempt to contact him although invited to do so by  American authorities. The sketch of Hitler's dental work is accompanied by numerous notes, all in Russian, a language that Käthe Heuserman was not acquainted with in May of 1945. 

A further lack of familiarity with his subject emerges rather painfully when Bezymenski discusses the purported corpse of Hitler's dog "Blondi". The dog, of whom Hitler was extremely fond, accompanied him everywhere, even on many of his trips. In 1945, she had recently whelped and was still nursing her pups at the end of April. The official Soviet autopsy report indicates that the dog in question had a black coat with white lower extremities, worn teeth which would indicate a dog of about eight years of age and who had not been nursing at the time of death.

[The real "Blondi" was four years old and a light tan in color].

Since an official Spanish police report of April, 1945, mentions a "large brown wolfhound" as part of the manifest of Hitler's personal transport, it could be assumed that like her master, "Blondi" did not meet her end in Berlin.

In addressing the reliability of the Soviet view one must consider their  previous record of producing forged anti-German documentation. Official forgery was not the sole bailiwick of Communist creative writers. Czarist secret police took a French satire on Napoleon III by  Maurice Joly, "Dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu ou la politique de Machiavel au XIXe siecle", made minor changes in the text and produced the well-known "Protocols of the Wise Elders of Zion". 

Aside from period rewritings of their own history, the Soviets produced the notorious Adolf Heusinger file that attacked a former Wehrmacht General who was slated for inclusion in NATO. Original documents captured from Army Group Center during the war were liberally larded with KGB fakes designed to prove that Heusinger was responsible for the murder of Russian civilians. The added documents were, like most KGB productions, very bad, and Heusinger obtained his appointment. 

The Soviet Apparat also produced the notorious SS camp pass for John Demjanjuk, the alleged "Ivan the Terrible" and gave it to an informed U.S. agency who then used it to prosecute the former Russian citizen. 

Blondi was Adolf Hitler's German Shepherd, a gift as a puppy from Martin Bormann in 1941. In March or in early April [likely 4 April 1945], she had a litter of five puppies with Gerdy Troost's German Shepherd, Harras. Hitler named one of the puppies "Wulf", his favorite nickname and the meaning of his own first name, Adolf ["noble wolf"] 

Note also, that Hitler did not have dark hair. Too many people accept whatever they
see in a photograph -any individual photograph- without taking into consideration
that hair invariably looks darker in photos that are not taken in direct sunlight.
The resolution/quality of the photo also makes a big difference.

Hitler's hair was medium brown; light to medium brown is probably the most common
hair color among ethnic German people [this includes Austrians].
From there it goes to lighter and to darker in probably equal numbers.

That document was of such transparent falsity that it is a wonder that it was ever introduced in a civilized court of law. The then-West German criminal investigative agency to whom it was shown immediately branded it a fake although this professional opinionin in no way prevented the document from being introduced at Demjanjuk's various trials. The notorious "Hitler Diaries" were concocted by the East German Stasi to raise foreign capital and it now appears that the former KGB is attempting to sell to gullible journalists what they claim are the "personal diaries of Josef Göbbels". 

This project is more extensive than the East German tour de force because the KGB has had more time to prepare it. It is still possible that a sudden"discovery" bolstering the Bezymenski thesis could be forthcoming from hitherto closed KGB files but given the current state of German-Russian relations, somewhat doubtful.

In 1972, Dr. Reidar Sognnaes, a professor of anatomy and dental biology at the University of California, delivered a paper at a seminar on forensic science held in Scotland [Toland, John, "Adolf Hitler," Doubleday, New York, 1976; McKale, Donald, "Hitler," Stein & Day, Briarcliff Manor, NY, 1981; Luntz, Lester,"Connecticut Magazine," March, 1983].

Dr. Sognnaes strongly believed that he was now able to prove that a "positive identification of Hitler's remains" had been made as the result of his own brilliant forensic detective work among the archives. His conclusions stemmed from a comparison of the purported Hitler head X-Rays which he claimed had somehow been mislaid in the National Archives, only to be rediscovered by himself in a stunning coup in 1972, with the Bezymenski photographs and drawings in the 1968 book. He also claimed he had searched the Blaschke CIC interrogation file and had found the dentist's sketches from memory of the Hitler dentition. This work was also located in the National Archives. Since all of this data appeared to coincide, Sognnaes concluded that there could be absolutely no doubt that the corpse found in the Chancellery garden was that of Hitler.

Parenthetically, Sognnaes [and other dental forensic specialists] concluded that the alleged burned corpse of Eva Braun was, to a certainty, not the remains of Hitler's wife. Among other interesting facets of the Eva Braun matter is that the artificial teeth contained in what the Russians stated was Eva Braun's bridgework found in the mouth of the very badly charred corpse would under no circumstances have withstood the heat of the cremation and would have been thoroughly melted.

The Sognnaes theory is, from a logical point of view, more badly flawed than the Bezymenski one.

Firstly, the X-Rays in the National Archives had never been mislaid, and in fact, had been used in several publications prior to both the Sognnaes production and that of Bezymenski. The latter certainly had reference to these X-Rays which were available to any researcher from 1946 onwards. Secondly, the technical information about the dental records in the Russian's book very obviously came from the same source that Sognnaes had used, namely the files of the National Archives. The Russians based their creative writing efforts on official files and Sognnaes merely copied their end product.

If one takes the previously stated criteria concerning positive identification of a body through dental forensics, it becomes immediately evident that the evidentiary chain does not now, and never did exist. The requirement of an actual body kept in a secure location has certainly not been met. The Russians have repeatedly stated that they burned the purported corpse of Hitler and scattered the ashes. The official Soviet statement that they had recovered Hitler's personal X-Rays and dental records conflicts with extensive evidence that these records were removed from the Chancellery before the occupation of Berlin. In any case, the Soviets never produced any such material in the furtherance of their claims. 

Not one scrap of this material could ever be presented in a responsible court of law to support a claim of identification. There is a regrettable tendency for many authors, in treating a historical subject, to write to an idea. In doing so, they will accept any theory or any evidence, no matter how illogical or patently false, which will tend to prove their case and reject any material that would tend to disprove it.

Recently, a grouping of OSS telegrams has been released, one of which is of particular relevance to the above. It is classified as Document 5-55, Telegram 6487, dated 8 March 1945, and is a report relayed by an agent, Fritz Molden, giving rise to the possibility that Hitler might have been considering escape by air.

Source K-28, report B-1839.

In Pocking, lower Bavaria near Braunau between Zeithen and Schönberg, recognizable by two hangars and large runways is located part of "Flieger Staffel Adolf Hitler". Work going on actively in hangars. There is one 4-motored Ju 290 being luxuriously equipped with armored plates, bullet-proof glass, guns fore and aft, etc. Capacity 20-22  persons. Delivery originally fixed for 28 February 1945 for Berchtesgaden, now postponed to middle March. Hitler greatly disturbed over delay. Original plan called for three machines but, on account of material shortage, only one built. General Baur, air pilot of Führer, personally supervising reconstruction, together with assembly man Zintel. Baur also practicing handling of airplane.

Immediately after the end of the war in Europüe on 9 May 1945, a great search was conducted to locate Adolf Hitler in or near his last command post, the so-called Führerbunker located beneath the garden of his Berlin Reich's Chancellery. This is a subject which is certainly well known to historians of the period. The source for all of the writings which have followed was a book entitled "The Last Days of Hitler" by a young British Intelligence agent, Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper. This report was hastily cobbled together by the scholarly writer in only six weeks time, and while grossly inaccurate, is an example of polished historical writing rarely seen at the end of the 20th century.

Bremen Interrogation Center Enclave Militaray District  APO 29, U.S. Army"29 LETS GO" 
Intermediate Interrogation Report [IIR]
Prisoner: Mansfeld, Erich Alias: Skripczyk, Erich. 
Reason for Report: Verbal request of the A.C. of S. [Acting Chief of Staff] G-2, 29th Infantry Division.

2. REPORT:

a. Personal Data:

Born: 30 May 1913 at Bewallne [OBERSCHLESIEN]

Occupation: Laborer until 1934: Land Polizei: 1934-36 Schutz Polizei: 1936-38 Party Affiliation: SA May 1933-September 1933. NSDAP Member: 1937-45 SS Bewerber [candidate] 1938, but claims he was rejected due to non-Aryan appearance. Attempted to join the Gestapo in March 1944, but was offered an opportunity to join the RSHD [an incorrect title for the RSD -Reichssicherheitsdienst- Hitler's personal police bodyguard]  Accepted into the RSHD in June of 1944 with the title of Krimminal Assistant [Lowest police rank] and rank of SS-Hauptscharführer.

b. Introduction:

On 23 April 1945, the following personnel was [sic] detailed for guard duty at the Bunker occupied by Hitler, in the Reichskanzlei, Berlin: Hufbeck, FNU [First Name Unknown] Krimminal Secretär [SD -Sicherheitsdienst- The SS Security Service]: Karnau, Hermann, Krimminal Assistant [SD] Now in custody of British: Mengershausen, Harry, Krimminal Assistant [SD]: Mansfeld, Erich, Krimminal Assistant [SD]; Lanzer [Lanz] SS-Unterscharführer: Names Unknown - 2 Oberscharführer  [possibly  Hans Reisser and  Werner Schwiedel]. 

These men were instructed to guard two of the three exits of the Bunker, the emergency exit, and the emergency escape. The latter could not be used as an entrance: the door could only be opened from the inside. The third exit was through the Reichs Kanzlei. Usually there were two guards at the emergency exit and one at the emergency escape.

c. Alleged Disposition of Hitler:

On 27 April 1945, Subject states that he was on guard at the emergency escape from 14:00 to 17:00 hours. His post was inside a concrete tower situated on the left of the emergency escape. 

Mengershausen, who had  preceded Subject on guard at this post, had left his machine pistol in the tower and returned at 16:00 asking Subject to hand the weapon to him. As Mansfeld opened the iron window of the tower to hand out the machine pistol to him, he noticed Hufbeck and three members of the Begleit Kommando [Hitler's Bodyguard] running out of the emergency exit.

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[Subject claims he later learned that these men hastened to close entrances to the area to prevent any spectators observing what was to follow immediately]. A few minutes past 16:00, Mansfeld left the tower and went over to the emergency exit to see what was happening. 

He went in through the exit where he met SS-Sturmbannführer Gümtsche [sic], personal adjutant to Hitler, and immediately following Güntsche were two SS-Hauptsturmführers carrying a body wrapped in a blanket. Both legs were exposed almost to the knees, as well as a portion of the right arm. The rest of the body was covered by the blanket. Subject claims he recognized the boots as those of Hitler and that a portion of the black trousers, which color only Hitler wore, was also visible. Immediately behind the men carrying the alleged body of Hitler, was SS-Hauptsturmführer [Hermann] Jansen, who was carrying in his arms the body of a woman identified by Subject as that of Eva Braun. 

It was clothed in a black dress identified by Mansfeld as the one Eva Braun was wearing between 02:00 and 03:00 that same morning when she came up to the tower to ask for information about the shelling. Subject claims that he had seen Eva Braun on many occasions and that he was positive that it was her body Jansen was carrying. [Subject states he also knows Eva Braun's younger sister, but that the latter never came to this Bunker]. Following Jansen were (1) Göbbels, (2) General Burgdorf, Chief of the Personalabteilung of the Wehrmacht, (3) Reichsleiter Bormann, (4) SS-Sturmbannführer Linge, Aide to Hitler. 

Mansfeld claims that in the excitement of the moment, he remained a few minutes on the stairway leading from the Bunker even though he had been ordered by Ginsche [sic] to return to the tower at the emergency escape. Just as he entered the tower, he saw through an observation slit in the tower a huge column of black smoke coming from the direction of the emergency exit. A few minutes later, when the smoke had nearly cleared, he could see two burning bodies about 2 meters to the left of the emergency exit. Mansfeld claims he recognized the body of Eva Braun, and that he could recognize the other body as being that of a man, but could not be certain that it was Hitler's. From time to time somebody poured additional gasoline on the burning bodies. 

At 17:30, Mansfeld was relieved of his post by Karnau  and on his way to the emergency exit he recognized the remains of the still burning body of the woman. The other body was almost completely burned and no longer recognizable. At 18:30, Subject went out to relieve himself at which time the bodies were still burning. Returning immediately after, he had occasion to pass through the corridor passing Hitler's rooms. The doors were open and no one was present inside. At approximately 20:00, SS-Gruppenführer [sic] Rattenhuber, Chief of the Reichs SS [sic], entered the guard room and instructed one of the SS-Oberscharführers to go to the Begleit Kommando Dienststellen after he requested three men to bury the bodies. At 23:00, Subject was directed to guard the emergency exit. Subject claims at that time the bodies were nowhere to be seen. Subject states he noticed a shell crater 4 to 5 meters in front of the emergency exit door, had been partly covered. Subject is of the opinion the bodies were buried in the crater. 

Subject believes that Hitler and Eva Braun were given shots by SS-Obersturmführer [sic] Stumpfegger, Hitler's personal doctor,which eased their immediate deaths. This was rumored among the guards. Subject claims the bodies must have been disposed of between 20:30 and 21:00, 27 April 1945. Subject claims there is a possibility these events took  place on the 26th instead of the 27th, but is positive it was not later than the 27th April 1945.

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End 
 
This report, compiled by the U.S. Army some three months after the event, appears on the first reading to completely substantiate the version of Hitler's end as postulated by Trevor-Roper. His account contains exactly the same information set forth in the American report and the two would seem to be mutually supporting. However, further and more extensive investigation results in an entirely opposite conclusion.

The Trevor-Roper work from which all subsequent publications on the subject are taken, was ordered by British Brigadier Dick White, later head of MI5 and MI6, in September 1945, following the surrender of Germany on 9 May 1945, Trevor-Roper was a thirty-two year old Oxford scholar who had been recruited into British signals Intelligence at the beginning of the war, and while a skilled writer, had no knowledge of German history and could neither read nor write the language. This failing later led him to his authentication of the crudely forged "Hitler Diaries" in 1983.

The official study was written over a six week period in 1945, and with official  permission, was published by Trevor-Roper in 1947.

Trevor-Roper was British and that country controlled the city of Bremen in 1945, but American Intelligence had what was known as an Enclave Presence there which meant that U.S. military Intelligence units were permitted to operate in the British-occupied city In the US interview, it is noted that one Hermann Karnau was in British custody and in his book, Trevor-Roper makes use of statements made by both Karnau and Mansfeld on pages 202-205 of his book.

The U.S. interrogation of Mansfeld, alias Erich Skrzipczyk, is a part of the holdings of the U.S. National Archives, but the records on the British-held Hermann Karnau are, like most such records in British hands, not available to researchers. There is no question, whatsoever, that the 30 July interview with Mansfeld/Skrzipczyk did take place, but there is a very serious question of who this individual really was.

The US record indicates that their subject was a SS NCO, a Hauptscharführer, and a member of the Reichssicherheits-dienst [RSD] from June of 1944. Karnau was also listed as a member of the RSD and a member of the Sicherheitsdienst which would indicate a membership in the SS itself.

All of the records of the SS and Police are in the custody of the Berlin Document Center. These records consist of the personnel files of all SS and Police members as well as alphabetical lists of names of such individuals. Further, records are extant of all the members of the elite RSD as of 1 January 1945. None of the persons named are on it. A copy of this list may be found in the US National Archives.

Neither Messers Hufbeck, Karnau, Mengerhausen, Mansfeld nor Lanzer are to be found on the rolls of either the SS, the Police, or most importantly, the RSD.

This information was not available to either British or U.S. Intelligence when the Trevor-Roper report was compiled, so neither party, nor Trevor-Roper who used their reports, would be aware that the quoted Karnau and Mansfeld were not SS personnel and certainly not in the SS bodyguard unit at the Chancellery Bunker.

The second very serious error deals with dates. Mansfeld states repeatedly that the events of the burning of Hitler’s body occurred on the 27 of April 1945. In point of fact he states that the happenings might have taken place on the 26th, but certainly on the 27th.

The supposed suicide of Hitler and his wife, by all other accounts, took place on 29 April 1945. In his book, Trevor-Roper comments that "....Karnau and Mansfeld agree on facts, but differ on dates and times. Both mistake the date". He goes on to state that Karnau's facts are "hopelessly erratic" and makes the qualification that, "If Mansfeld is reliable throughout..." 

A letter from the Director of the Berlin Document Center, concerning the lack of documentation on the membership of Mansfeld and Karnau in the SS or Police, indicates that an extensive search was made of their files and nothing on the purported RSD personnel could be found.

Mansfeld claims to have been stationed in the "emergency escape" inside a concrete tower adjacent to the underground Bunker on 27 April 1945. He refers to activity occurring at the "emergency exit" from the Bunker in which various SS men were seen carrying out two bodies. One of the bodies was recognizable because of the boots, on one occasion, or because of the black trousers on another. Except for his visits to the front during the war, Hitler wore long black pants and low shoes, not boots. Mansfeld also states that he left the emergency exit tower and crossed the ground to the Bunker exit, and was somehow standing on the stairway leading down into the Bunker although he had been warned off by Otto Günsche, Hitler's SS ADC. Although this makes dramatic reading, it is badly flawed. A commentary on the Bunker itself might be in order here.

The Bunker was designed initially as an air raid shelter. It was not built under the Chancellery, but under the garden. There was an exit to the garden area consisting of four flights of concrete steps, protected at ground level, by a square, reinforced concrete building. To the right of this exit, facing it, was a round tower, also of reinforced concrete, with a conical roof and three observation ports protected with heavy steel shutters.

The entrance into this tower, which was used primarily for protection of the actual exit, and secondarily for use as a ventilation outlet, was from inside the Bunker itself. There was no exit from this tower to the garden area unless one chose to squeeze himself through an observation port and drop down some distance to the ground.

If Mansfeld had indeed been inside the tower, which is not likely, he could not have left it to wander about in the garden and watch the mortuary parade. He would have had to go down the steps inside the tower, cross a corridor inside the Bunker and climb up the steps leading to the garden proper.

Mansfeld also states that he went through the corridor "passing Hitler's rooms" and noticed that the doors were open and that he could see no one inside. The only corridor which led past Hitler's quarters was one used for visitors and one would have had to see past three steel doors and around two corners to look into Hitler's rooms. Again, at the time the book was written, an accurate plan of the Bunker was not generally available so such errata passed into history unchallenged.

A complete and accurate plan of the Bunker exists in the papers of Wehrmacht General of Engineers, Alfred Jacob, and the only exit into the Chancellery garden is the emergency one visible in all the post-war  photographs.

Numerous pictures that include the tower Mansfeld claims to have occupied indicate clearly that there was no ground-level exit.

Here we have the edifying spectacle of a man who was totally unauthorized to be inside the Bunker complex, handing guns to people, crawling out of embrasures, running up and down many flights of steps and possessing the ability to see through steel doors and concrete walls. And all of this three full days before the event itself, and in the company of others who also seem not to have existed.

Given the eagerness with which people postulate plots and conspiracies, it regrettably appears that the Mansfeld and Karnau stories are not part of a complicated Allied Intelligence plot, but more likely the desire of a prisoner of war to please his captors and probably secure better treatment and possible fame.

In view of his use of this unverified and obviously fictitious material, it is ironical to note that Trevor-Roper comments acidly on...."the value of unchecked human testimony on which, however, much of written history is based". 

A number of serious factual errors contained in the Trevor-Roper book have been brought to the attention of that gentleman, but he like others who are confronted by their extraordinarily careless approach to facts, has declined any answer.

This episode deals with original material that is totally misleading, and from a historical prospective, results in the creation and subsequent perpetuation of mythical hypothesis. There are other episodes which encompass both documentary frauds and what Trevor-Roper termed "unchecked human testimony".

The collapse of the Soviet Union may have seen the temporary end of Russian expansionism, but it did not see a termination to an incredible outpouring of documentary forgeries which have plagued the historical world since the beginning of the Twentieth Century.

Russian historical experts working for the NKVD and its successor, the KGB, conducted, and still are conducting, a prolific forgery factory in Moscow. These products have sown dissension and confusion in the ranks of legitimate historians and journalists. The former are more difficult to delude, but the latter, eager for sensational material with which to reap profits, are extraordinarily careless in assessing the accuracy of offerings from Muscovite document peddlers.

Aside from extensively rewriting their own history, Russian forgery experts spent most of their time in producing material designed to delude, confound and mislead their perceived enemies, both domestic and foreign. Much of this began after the Second World War with extensive rewriting, editing and deliberate forgeries of German military and political documents designed to embarrass the United States and its client, the West German government, as well as to elevate the image of their own regime.

Faked reports dealing with the purported death of Hitler began the deluge and these were followed by endless papers concerning the fate of Martin Bormann who the Soviets claimed was living somewhere in the West, probably protected by the insidious Americans. The same creative writers also heavily edited and enhanced the records of German Army Group Center, captured by their military units, when that entity was overrun during the war.

The purpose of this exercise was to supply proof that German General Adolf Heusinger, nominated for a high NATO position, had been involved in war crimes on the Eastern Front during the course of the war. The KGB intermingled original, relatively unimportant documents with doctored or completely invented papers, released these through their agencies in the West and awaited the results. Fortunately, other period copies of the original documents were safe in German and American archives and comparisons quickly disclosed the fraudulent nature of the Heusinger attack.

Many documents were prepared over the years in the event that they might be needed for a future propaganda assault and then left secure in Soviet archives.In addition to these activities, the KGB experts also concocting material  proving that many American prisoners of war remained in Vietnam after the American withdrawal, as well as a series of badly forged papers proving that U.S. citizen, John Demjanjuk, was a notorious German concentration camp guard. Both of these projects were eventually exposed as frauds, but the problems they engendered during their brief life span were monumental.

One of the most ambitious Soviet productions concerned the writings of Dr.Josef Göbbels, Hitler's brilliant Minister of Propaganda, who killed himself and his family in the Berlin Führerbunker in 1945. Dr. Göbbels was a devoted diarist, setting forth his experiences and thoughts on a daily basis beginning in the 1920s and running through to the final days in Berlin. After he became Minister of Propaganda, these records were dictated by Göbbels on the following day and typed by a secretary on special paper using a large-type continental typewriter. An original and two carbons were made and the completed documents carefully stored.

It should be noted that with the increasing pressures of his offices, Göbbels no longer had the time to write out his diary by hand, but always dictated it to a secretary on the day following the events he wished to record. After the war, in 1946, a book appeared in East Berlin entitled "Extracts and Confessions of a War Criminal" and purported to be quotes from the Göbbels' diaries. It was later discovered that the book, which was entirely fictitious, was written by one Max Fechner, a well-known German communist and once the deputy head of the Socialist Unity Party, and a colleague of the German communist leader, Walter Ulbricht, who had spent the war in Moscow amongst his friends.

In 1967, Soviet historian Yelena Rshevskaya, published a book in East Berlin entitled "Hitler's End Without Mythology" in which she discusses having inspected "thick folders of handwritten Göbbels material" found in the Bunker. In the same year, the pump was further primed by a similar report from Juliusz Stroynowski, a historian from Communist Poland who had fled to the West. He disclosed that he had accidentally discovered "several stacked folders" of handwritten Göbbels diaries "in the archives of the Soviet Ministry of Defense". Stroynowski claimed that he had been permitted to examine the material, but was not allowed to make copies of any of it.

The stage was now set in the press and interest aroused. The actual  purported diaries were disclosed once again, this time to British journalist John Costello, who again was only permitted to look and not to copy. A copied document is, in the hands of any journalist or academic, a published document. And a published document which has passed from the control of its owner, and in the case of the Göbbels material, its creator, cannot be sold for profit.Because handwritten documents on the original, special paper Göbbels used would have been nearly impossible to successfully fake, the new Soviet line was that the documents had actually been typed and then put onto glass negatives. These were hidden by the Germans in cases where the Soviets were able to "discover" them after the war.

Having altered the Göbbels' diaries from "several stacked folders" of handwritten material to a box of more easily forged photographs of typed manuscript, the Russians began to offer their rare, politically-incorrect material to sources in Germany for sale and  publication. German experts universally rejected these productions as completely fake. Genuine Göbbels papers are to be found in the archives of the Hoover Institute at Stanford University in California [1942-1943], the German State Archives in Koblenz, the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich, and in the hands of the collector and archivist, Francois Genoud, in Switzerland.

Much of this original material has been published and is well-known to the academic world. But the documents originating in Moscow, especially the glass-negative photographic copies, are entirely spurious and were initially designed with political propaganda in mind, though later sold for a considerable sum of money to a tabloid journalist intent on publishing them as his own political propaganda.

Like the fictitious Walter Schellenberg "memoirs" published under the title "The Labyrinth", the dissemination of the equally fake Soviet produced Göbbels Papers does a tremendous disservice to legitimate historians and researchers into whose works some of this contaminated material will eventually seep.

The temptation to embroider historical facts to fit a particular ideological point of view is difficult for some journalists to successfully resist. Some might well accept a faked Göbbels file, if for example, it were to prove that Hitler did not order a holocaustic killing of European Jews, while others might well use the medium of a questionable interview to prove the contrary.

Hitler’s Teeth Confirm He Died in 1945
The first examination of Hitler’s teeth permitted in 70 years shows the complicated dental work matches the Fuhrer’s medical records
Hitler's Teeth
By Jason Daley
Smithsonian.com 
22 May 2018

On 30 April 1945, as Allied forces converged on the capital of Nazi Germany, Hitler killed himself inside his Führerbunker. Days later, his remains were captured by the Red Army and were subsequently locked behind the Iron Curtain for decades.

This proved fodder enough for conspiracy theorists, who wanted to argue that Hitler did not die in the Bunker, but rather managed, somehow, to escape like other high-ranking Nazi officials, including Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele, who were able to slink off to South America to live out their lives after the collapse of the Third Reich.

It didn’t help things that when Connecticut archaeologist and bone specialist Nick Bellantoni examined fragments of the skull believed to be Hitler’s in 2009, he claimed on the History Channel documentary, “Hilter’s Escape,” that the skull with the bullet wound actually belonged to a woman under the age of 40. [The Russian State Archive, for its part, denies that Bellantoni’s team was ever given access to examine the skull].

But now, reports "Deutsche Welle", a study of the Führer’s purported teeth in the Russian State Archive found them to be an exact match, confirming that Hitler did indeed die in his bunker, likely by taking cyanide and shooting himself in the head.

“Adolf Hitler definitely died in 1945,” reports Agence-France Presse, which explains that in March and July of 2017, Russia’s FSB, the successor to the Soviet Union’s KGB, gave a team of French pathologists access to Hitler’s jawbone and teeth.

It’s well-documented that the Nazi leader had notoriously bad teeth and gum disease [which led to some extremely bad breath in the last years of his life]; by the end, he had only a few of his original chompers left, which left him with a complicated set of bridges and dentures. That, according to the forensic team, made ID’ing his jawbone relatively simple. The teethto match appear  X-Rays taken of Hitler in 1944 and descriptions provided to the Soviets by Hitler’s dentist and his dental assistant.

“The teeth are authentic, there is no possible doubt. Our study proves that Hitler died in 1945,” Philippe Charlier, lead author of the study in the "European Journal of Internal Medicine", tells AFP. “We can stop all the conspiracy theories about Hitler. He did not flee to Argentina in a submarine, he is not in a hidden base in Antarctica or on the dark side of the moon.”

The team did not find any remains of meat in the teeth, which is also consistent with Hitler’s vegetarianism. Bluish stains on some of the false teeth indicate that he may have taken cyanide to end his life. Researchers did not find any gunpowder residue on the jaw, which suggests that if Hitler did shoot himself, it was done through the forehead or the neck, not the mouth.

The story of why it’s taken more than 70 years to ID Hitler’s teeth is as screwy as the Führer’s teeth, themselves. DW reports that Hitler, fearing that his body might be strung up or mutilated like Benito Mussolini’s, gave orders that his body and that of his wife Eva Braun be burned after their deaths.

On 5 May, the Soviets discovered the two charred bodies in a bomb crater outside the bunker. Head of the KGB, the later Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov ordered the remains to be thrown in the Biederitz River to prevent a burial site from becoming a place of pilgrimage for fascists.

However, the Red Army did keep a portion of the jaw and a piece of skull with a bullet wound, transferring them to the archives in Moscow. DW reports that Stalin decided to sow doubt about Hitler’s death in a ploy called “Operation Myth.” The idea was to make the world believe the Americans or British were hiding Hitler for some nefarious reason and associate the West with Nazism.

It may not have worked, but it was enough to spawn conspiracy theories, books and films like"The Boys From Brazil", which kept alive the notion that Hitler somehow escaped the bunker and lived out his life elsewhere.

In his booj, "Hitler's Fate" Dr. Hans Baumann, takes the reader through a careful review of all the published works recounting the standard line of Hitler's and Eva Braun's suicides in Berlin on 30 April 1945, and shows the inherent contradictions in the story, a story whose details depend entirely on the testimony of a few of the witnesses, who even in the standard version of history, did not even really witness the event, but only its alleged aftermath.

By pouring over the various studies, including, significantly, the Soviet books and statements on the whole episode, Baumann comes to a novel hypothesis: that sometime on 22 April 1945, Adolf Hitler and his dog, Blondi, disappeared while on a walk in the Reichschancellery gardens, and his double, with another German shepherd dog, were replaced for him. Later, the Göbbels family with a young woman in tow, arrives, the woman to act as a double for Eva Braun.

To buttress this claim, Baumann presents fascinating evidence from the standard accounts documenting a complete change between the pre-April 22nd and post-April 22nd Hitlers, including statements from US Intelligence sources of the period also declaring quite unambiguously that after 22 April,  there is no good evidence that Hitler was even in the Bunker.

In Baumann's scenario, one of two likely escape routes was possible, by helicopter to Magdeburg, and thence by aircraft [a Ju 290] to Barcelona in Franco's Spain, and thence probably to  the environs of San Carlos de Bariloche in Argentina, or by some route to Hamburg, where he and Eva make their way by U-Boat eventually to the same destination.