The Death of Adolf Hitler: Unknown Documents from Soviet Archives is a 1968 book by Soviet journalist Lev Bezymenski, who served as an interpreter in the Battle of Berlin. The book gives details of the purported Soviet autopsies of Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun, Joseph and Magda Goebbels, their children, and General Hans Krebs. Each of these individuals are recorded as having died by cyanide poisoning, contrary to the conclusion of Western scholars that Hitler died by a suicide gunshot.
The book's release was preceded by many contrary reports about Hitler's death, including from self-contradictory (and some tortured) eyewitnesses. The Soviets implied that the body of an apparent double belonged to Hitler, that such a body was found with Hitler's dental remains (perhaps killed by cyanide), and that the dictator used these means to fake his death and escape Berlin. Some Western authors suggested that the lack of a body was due to its burning. Much of the information presented in the book about Hitler's cause of death (e.g. poisoning or a coup de grâce) has been discredited, even by the author, as propaganda. The only Soviet forensic description accepted by Western sources is that of Hitler's dental remains, photographs of which were novelly published via the book.
Background
On April 22, 1945, as the Red Army was closing in on the during the Battle of Berlin, Hitler declared that he would stay in Berlin and shoot himself. That same day, he asked (SS) physician Werner Haase about the most reliable method of suicide; Haase suggested combining a dose of cyanide with a gunshot to the head. SS physician Ludwig Stumpfegger provided Hitler with some ampoules of prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide), which the dictator initially planned to use but later doubted their efficacy. On 29 April, Hitler ordered Haase to test one of the ampoules on his dog Blondi; the dog died instantly. On the afternoon of 30 April, Hitler committed suicide with Eva Braun in his bunker study.
The former Reich minister of propaganda and Hitler's successor as chancellor of Germany, Joseph Goebbels, informed the radio station of Hitler's death. The news was first broadcast on the night of 1 May.
Initial Soviet surveys
On 2 May 1945, the official Soviet newspaper Pravda declared the report of Hitler's death to have been a Nazi trick. On 4 May, Soviet newspapers implied that his body was likely destroyed by fires in the Reich Chancellery bunker complex and a Soviet intelligence report of 8 May stated that Hitler's "bullet-riddled and battered" body had been found, with the identification supported by all but two questioned Nazi servants. On 10 May, Soviet dispatches to Moscow announced that they had found the bodies of Martin Bormann and Goebbels, as well as four bodies in the Führerbunker bearing "some resemblance to Hitler". By 11 May, two colleagues of Hitler's dentist, Hugo Blaschke, confirmed the dental remains of Hitler and Braun; both dental witnesses would remain in Soviet custody for about a decade. By 14 May, captured Nazi propaganda broadcaster Hans Fritzsche stated that Hitler had killed himself, but that his body had "been hidden in a place impossible to find". On 17 May, Otto Günsche purportedly told the Soviets—contrary to his later testimony—that he only saw the couple's bodies after they had been wrapped in blankets. A Soviet report of 23 May cited chemical analysis and Nazi servants in determining that the body purportedly belonging to Hitler had died from poison injected by Stumpfegger on 1 May, with Günsche having hidden the corpse in a secret location.
On 6 June 1945, Western correspondents cited the statements of Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov's staff that Hitler's body was most likely one of four charred corpses found in the Führerbunker on 3 May or 4 May, burned by the Red Army's flamethrowers before they stormed in. According to forensic tests, this individual had died by cyanide poisoning. At a press conference on 9 June, Zhukov revealed that Hitler had married Braun and presented the official Soviet disinformation narrative that the dictator had escaped. The next day, newspapers quoted Zhukov as saying, "We have found no corpse that could be Hitler's," and Soviet Colonel General Nikolai Berzarin as stating, "Perhaps he is in Spain with Franco." In early July, Time magazine reported that the Soviet investigation had produced no conclusive evidence of Hitler's death and asserted that he had ordered his men to spread false news of his demise.
In early July 1945, British newspapers quoted a Soviet major who reputedly led the Red Army into the Chancellery garden as saying that he saw a body near the bunker exit which he thought was "a very poor double". United States newspapers quoted the Russian garrison commandant of Berlin as claiming that Hitler had "gone into hiding somewhere in Europe", possibly aided by Francoist Spain. When asked at the Potsdam Conference in mid-July how Hitler had died, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin said he was living "in Spain or Argentina". In mid-1945, a Soviet major told American sources that Hitler escaped, claiming that the body found in the Chancellery garden "didn't look like Hitler at all" and that Braun's body had also not been found.
According to SS valet Heinz Linge, who was captured by the Soviets in early May 1945, his interrogators repeatedly questioned him about whether Hitler was dead or if he could have escaped using a body double; the Soviets told him that they had found multiple corpses but were unsure about Hitler's remains. In 1955, Linge stated that his interrogation by the Soviets suggested they never found his body. In 1956, the German tabloid newspaper quoted the captain of the Soviet People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) as claiming that both Hitler and Braun's bodies had been found and that "Hitler's skull was almost intact, as were the cranium and the upper and lower jaws," with the identification proven by the confirmation of the dental remains.
Eyewitness accounts British MI6 intelligence officer Hugh Trevor-Roper argued that discrepancies amongst truthful eyewitnesses could be due to differences in "observation and recollection", but certain witnesses also contradict themselves. German historian Anton Joachimsthaler theorized that the turbulent event resulted in poor memory formation for several individuals. The Soviets and East Germans employed interrogational torture, considered in the 21st century to be ineffective and result in false statements. Hitler's chauffeur, Erich Kempka, admitted in 1974 that "to save my own skin, I told [Western] interrogators just about anything ... I thought they wanted to hear."
The Soviets initially imprisoned Linge and Günsche separately so they could not conspire to make their statements match. Placed in a cell with an NKVD man disguised as a German soldier, Linge stated that he would not let his captors crack him. Also in custody, Hitler's pilot Hans Baur told Linge and Günsche to "Never say what really happened," remaining loyal to his Führer. Linge and Günsche shared a cell from mid-1948 to the end of 1949, when they shared details for a Soviet book about Hitler's last days. Both men were initially uncooperative, especially Günsche; Linge's apparent forthcomingness reportedly led Günsche to make threats against him "to bring Linge round to his point of view". In 2002, German historian Joachim Fest argued that increased discrepancies between eyewitness reports about late April 1945 had rendered Hitler's death "impossible to reconstruct", but the account of a suicide gunshot to the right temple seemed "closest to what probably happened". English historian Mark Felton suggested that this may have been done to conceal Nazi forensic fraud, specifically putting Hitler and Braun's dental remains into the mouths of decoy bodies.
Immediate aftermath
Three main eyewitnesses to the state of Hitler and Braun's bodies in the immediate aftermath of their deaths survived and provided their accounts: Linge, Günsche, and Hitler Youth leader Artur Axmann. Linge and Günsche were quickly captured by the Soviets and spent a decade in captivity, undergoing extensive questioning under torturous conditions; Axmann was arrested by the U.S. Army in December 1945. In a purported Soviet transcript of a statement made on 17 May 1945, Günsche said he only saw the bodies after they had been wrapped in blankets. In 1946, Linge told the Soviets that he saw a wound the size of a small coin on Hitler's right temple; he also stated that he saw traces of blood running down Hitler's cheek in two streams and (to the undercover NKVD man) that the wound seemed like it could have been painted on. Meanwhile, Günsche repeatedly told the Soviets that he only learned from Linge that Hitler died by gunshot. All three key eyewitnesses told Western authorities that they saw the bodies of Hitler (seated upright) and Braun (next to him with no visible wounds) before they were moved.
In June 1945, U.S. authorities captured Erich Kempka. He initially claimed that just after Hitler's death, Günsche provided no details about Hitler's death, but later said Günsche indicated that Hitler shot himself through the mouth (claiming Günsche made a hand gesture to indicate this, which Günsche later denied). Trevor-Roper cited this method of death in his November 1945 report. After his capture in December 1945, Axmann told U.S. officials that he saw thin ribbons of blood coming from both of Hitler's temples, but that a slightly askew lower jaw made him think Hitler had shot himself through the mouth, with the temple blood being a result of internal trauma. Karl Schneider said that when he helped move Hitler's body, he saw coagulated blood on both of his temples. Axmann did not check the back of the head for an exit wound. Additionally, Axmann said Günsche told him that Hitler had taken poison then shot himself, with Axmann saying Günsche could have been told by Hitler or his doctor; Günsche later denied telling Axmann that Hitler took poison. Trevor-Roper repeated the story of a shot through the mouth in his 1947 book, additionally citing statements by Bormann's secretary Else Krüger and Hitler's secretaries Traudl Junge (who was reputedly told by Günsche) and Gerda Christian (allegedly told by Linge).
In 1948, the Berlin Records Office cited Kempka and Axmann's testimony from the Einsatzgruppen trial at Nuremberg that they had seen Hitler's body being carried in a blanket as insufficient evidence of the dictator's death; this led to an extensive investigation and new testimony. In 1956, Linge, Günsche, and Baur were released by the Soviets. Thereafter, Linge and Günsche were questioned by the western Allies as to Hitler's manner of death, which included court testimony. Both men stated that they saw a wound the size of a small coin on Hitler's right temple and a puddle of blood on the floor. Linge and Axmann stated, in accord with forensic evidence, that Hitler's body was sitting at one end of the sofa; Günsche said it was in an adjacent armchair. The discrepancies between eyewitnesses spurred a criminological report for West Germany officials, employing ballistics tests. Hitler's death certificate was registered in 1956 as an assumption of death on the incorrect basis that no eyewitnesses saw his body.