An astonishing cache of documents relating to Hitler’s death 80 years ago has been released by Russia‘s FSB security service.
The stash includes the declassified originals of statements and interrogation notes of the führer’s valet, SS-Sturmbannführer Heinz Linge, and personal adjutant SS-Sturmbannführer Otto Günsche.
Linge revealed a ‘deluded’ Hitler killed himself – on April 30, 1945 – in part because he was ‘afraid’ of being ‘caught while trying to escape from Berlin‘.
Both Hitler’s aides-de-camp fell into Soviet hands after the war, and their testimony was crucial to understanding Hitler’s fate.
Linge was allegedly the first to enter the room in the Berlin ‘Führerbunker’ after Hitler’s suicide, and helped carry and burn the corpse with Günsche and others.
While the broad testimony of the pair has been long known, it is the first time the original sources – long hidden in Soviet KGB archives – have been published, and there are new details.
Neither man was interviewed by British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper when he led the UK’s inquiry into Hitler’s death while working as an intelligence officer.
Trevor-Roper’s report – detailed in his book the The Last Days of Adolf Hitler – used the accounts of several occupants of Hitler’s Berlin bunker to convincingly establish that he took his own life alongside his partner turned wife of one day, Eva Braun.
An astonishing cache of documents relating to Hitler’s death 80 years ago has been released by Russia’s FSB security service. Above: The last known photograph of Hitler, taken outside his bunker in Berlin days before he took his own life
Macabre footage shows Hitler’s teeth, pictures of which have been released before. They were used to identify him after they were compared with his dental records
Trevor-Roper detailed how he ‘sought and failed to find’ Linge and Günsche and the Russians ‘declined to answer’ his questions about their whereabouts.
The remains of Hitler and Braun were hastily buried after being burned, before Russian troops dug them up.
In the newly-released cache, a Russian archivist is seen on video discussing Linge’s account, which even details the clothing Hitler and Eva Braun wore when they took their own lives.
‘Testimony about Hitler’s reasons for taking his own life – he believed it was utterly pointless to continue the fight,’ they said.
‘He was afraid of being caught while trying to escape from Berlin.
‘There was also his severe physical condition, which was beyond doubt, as well as his delusions of grandeur, which would not allow him to bow to the victor or enter into negotiations with him.’
Macabre footage also showed Hitler’s teeth, pictures of which have been released before.
They were used to identify him after they were compared with his dental records.
Russian defence ministry channel Zvezda TV reported: ‘Here they are, particles of universal evil.
The stash includes the declassified statements and interrogation notes of the führer’s valet, SS-Sturmbannführer Heinz Linge (left), and personal adjutant SS-Sturmbannführer Otto Günsche (right). Linge revealed a ‘deluded’ Hitler killed himself – on April 30, 1945 – in part because he was ‘afraid’ of being ‘caught while trying to escape from Berlin
Inside the ruined bunker of Adolf Hitler in Berlin. He shot himself in there on April 30, 1945
Linge was allegedly the first to enter the room in the Berlin ‘Führerbunker’ after Hitler’s suicide, and helped carry and burn the corpse with Günsche and others. Above: Printed testimony of Linge, taken on November 22, 1945
Handwritten testimony of Linge, dated December 30, 1945
‘Fragments of Adolf Hitler’s jaw, a man whose very name makes even water molecules take on hideous forms.
‘The remains of the one responsible for the deaths of over 26 million of our fellow citizens.
‘Today [30 April] marks exactly 80 years since the death of the main culprit of the bloodiest war in human history.
‘A strange feeling.’
Linge wrote in his testimony: ‘At the moment of suicide, Hitler was dressed in a white shirt with a white turn-down collar and a black vest, a grey double-breasted uniform jacket made of fine gabardine, long black trousers of fine gabardine, thin black paper socks, and black leather half-boots.
‘His wife was dressed in a fine silk dress, very thin silk stockings, and shoes with wedge heels (possibly of Italian make).
‘Three canisters of petrol, prepared by Reichsleiter Martin Bormann for the cremation of the bodies of Hitler and his wife, were standing on the last landing leading from the bomb shelter into the garden of the Reich Chancellery.
‘All the contents of the canisters were poured over the bodies of Hitler and his wife. Bormann pointed out the canisters to us and went down himself to get his own.
Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun got married just one day before they took their own lives
A soldier examining the bed of Adolf Hitler inside the ruins of his bunker
Private First Class Richard Blust of Michigan surveys the ruins of Adolf Hitler’s bunker
The bomb-ravaged remains of the Chancellory building, beneath which was Hitler’s bunker
‘This was around 4 p.m., and it was still light.
‘A total of 60 litres of petrol was poured.
‘Before spreading the blanket on the floor, I placed Hitler’s pistols (calibres 7.65 and 6.35) on the writing desk. Who took them from there, I do not know.
‘Possibly it was Reichsleiter Martin Bormann, or the soldiers who carried out Eva Braun’s body, or Hitler’s valet Helm Krüger, or the orderly Willy Stiewitz.
‘When saying goodbye to Hitler on 30 April 1945, I asked: “Führer, whom should we try to break through to in the West?”
‘And I received the answer: “For the sake of the one who is still to come”.’
Linge also answered a question that worried the Soviet leadership after they stormed Berlin – whether it was a double who had died in the bunker, and the real Hitler had escaped.
A note translated into Russian says: ‘A double of Hitler could not have committed suicide because:
A Russian soldier holds Eva Braun’s phone to their ear inside Hitler’s bunker beneath Berlin
1) Hitler did not have a double
2) It was impossible to leave the premises without being seen, as there was only one exit from the room
30.12.45
Linge Heinz.’
Over many months, Linge changed some testimony, telling the Russians: ‘I must admit that my earlier testimony was incorrect.
‘I did not hear any gunshot sounds but only noticed the smell of gunpowder and, based on that, informed Bormann that the suicide had occurred….
‘I previously stated incorrectly that Eva Braun’s body was wrapped in a blanket. I now recall that it was not.’
The historic documents were kept out of the public domain for decades by the FSB – successor to the KGB – in a vault in the Ivanovo region.
Sergeant Ernest Pappas holds coat hangers and a loop of keys he found in Hitler’s Bunker, October 1945
Günsche was flown to Moscow with other Hitler associates.
Intriguing new details in the accounts include the psychological pressure the Soviets put on Günsche to make him open up about Hitler’s death.
They used a German POW and war criminal, Colonel Remlinger, who shared a cell with him and was deployed by the Soviet authorities to convince him to cooperate.
It was a successful means of turning the Nazi’s fanatical loyalty into cooperation by reinterpreting his ‘oath’ in the context of Hitler’s suicide and abandonment by other Nazi leaders.
Remlinger wrote a report that ‘we convinced him that the events in Germany -especially Hitler’s suicide – freed him from his oath to the Führer.
‘Now, with the complete collapse of Germany and the Nazi system, there was no longer any reason to hide the events that unfolded in the Führer’s headquarters from the Russians-it was now only of historical interest.
‘It became easier to persuade him when it emerged that some of Hitler’s close associates (Göring, Himmler) had abandoned him and turned to the Western powers.’
More documents detail the examination of Hitler’s teeth to verify the corpse was his.
‘On 5 May 1945, in the garden of the Reich Chancellery, SMERSH officers from the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army, 1st Belorussian Front, discovered the heavily charred corpses of a man and a woman in a bomb crater,’ says the FSB account.
‘The bodies lay about 3 metres from the entrance to the bunker and were covered with soil.
‘By 8 May 1945, a forensic report on the man’s corpse-presumably Hitler-was completed.’
This showed ‘the presence in the mouth cavity of crushed glass ampoule fragments…a distinct bitter almond smell … and results from chemical testing of internal organs showing cyanide compounds’.
This allowed the commission ‘to conclude that death resulted from cyanide poisoning’.
‘On 10 May 1945, Kӓthe Heusermann, assistant to Hitler’s personal dentist Professor Hugo Blaschke, was questioned in the Reich Chancellery’s dental office.
‘On 11 May, dental technician Fritz Echtmann, who had made Hitler’s dentures, gave testimony.
‘Both witnesses gave detailed descriptions of Hitler’s dental work from memory.
‘The unique features of the bridges, crowns, and fillings matched exactly with the dental records and X-rays in the possession of SMERSH investigators.
‘Each was shown the jaw fragments recovered from the male skull separately, and both unhesitatingly confirmed they belonged to Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler.’
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .