Was there any actual physical proof that Hitler died? I mean like a bone they ran DNA tests on.
I don’t go in for conspiracy ideas or by now Hitler would have most likely died from Old Age, but do we have anything that proves this?
I got the idea from people wondering if Osama and Sadaam are actually alive or if there is value in keeping their whereabouts a secret.
Noone has posted with the specific info, so I’ll tell you what I remember. We had suspected that the Soviets got to Hitler’s body first and disposed of it somehow. Shortly after the dissolution of the USSR, Russia admitted the same. I forget all the details, but they had objective evidence that they came across his body.
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/042700/new_0427000032.shtml
Other sites also mention this bone fragment. However, as far as I can tell, DNA tests have not been done. I may be wrong about that though.
Cecil Adams on Did Hitler have only one testicle?
Given the parallel, it’s perhaps worth saying that the question of Hitler’s fate was a hot topic in the aftermath of the fall of Berlin. All that was publically known was that during the final stages of the battle German radio had broadcast news bulletins announcing that the Fuhrer had heroically been killed defending the capital in streetfighting and that Admiral Donitz was now in charge. While the Russian authorities were quickly able to establish that they had a couple of semi-burnt bodies that were plausibly those of Hitler and Eva Braun, they didn’t announce anything. The Western Allies were thus in the position of thinking that he was probably dead, but without proof. This became awkward as lurid rumours of his survival began to circulate: he’d escaped to Bavaria or South America, etc. Eventually, British Intelligence realised that they’d have to conduct a formal investigation to clarify the situation. Furthermore, someone had the bright idea that the chap to do it should be an M.I.6 officer who was an Oxford historian and who’d already published a reputation-making biography of Archbishop Laud, the controversial 17th century divine. Hugh Trevor-Roper didn’t have access to the Russian autopsy, but he was able to interrogate those from Hitler’s inner circle who’d fallen into British and American hands. This was enough basis for him to write a report concluding that Hitler and Braun had committed suicide. This conclusion was announced and he then transformed his report into a book, The Last Days of Hitler. Subsequent research and the release of the Russian conclusions have fleshed out some parts of what he deduced, but Trevor-Roper’s account has very much stood as the standard version of what happened.
In the era of DNA-this-and-DNA-that it may seem unlikely, but you can reliably conclude that someone is dead without having a body.
I agree however there are always people that will say without a body there is a cover up. Further more if we can’t 10% rule something out, it gives their supporters propaganda value.
Like I still hear about Anastasia (sp?) even though DNA confirms not only the women who claims she was Anastaisa wasn’t but the person who she is thought to be is in fact her.
Nonsense – everyone knows Mr. Hilter was running in the North Minehead by-election a few years back…
[sub]Sorry – couldn’t resist, given the typo in the thread title…[/sub]
There was a book a few years ago outlining the evidence that came out after the fall of the USSR: The Death of Hitler: The Full Story With New Evidence from Secret Russian Archives by Ada Petrova & Peter Watson
I’d recommend “Blind Spot - Hitler’s Secretary” if you have the guts to bear a very slow, minimalistic documentary movie. Given that Traudl Junge was with Hitler except for his very last moments, and given her characterizations of the man, given the events she recounts, it is hard to believe this discussion still reoccurs time and again.
One factor that fueled the “Hitler lived” movement was Stalin’s inexplicable decision to dispute Hitler’s death. The Soviets found Hitler’s body and must have known he was dead but because of Stalin’s decision for several years the official Soviet position was that his death was “unproven”.
And I suppose it didn’t help matters when Hugh Trevor-Roper, the man who declared Hitler dead on behalf of the British government, later embarassed himself by declaring the forged Hitler diaries authentic.
Key evidence was provided to the Western powers by Hitler’s dentist, Hugo Blaschke, and corroborated by Blaschke’s dental assistant, Kate Hausermann. According to Cornelius Ryan in The Last Battle, Blaschke and Hausermann treated Hitler only a few weeks before his death.
Hitler had uniquely gnarly teeth and one result of that was some very prominent metal bridgework. That bridgework was captured on x-rays taken of Hitler’s skull after the failed assassination attempt of July, 1944. That matches quite nicely with the teeth that are apparently still kept in a travel suitcase inside the former KGB.
There’s an extract from it on the web. Since it’s their chapter 1, it’s a detailed discussion of the rumours that circulated during 1945-6 and the circumstances of Trevor-Roper’s investigation.
Hitler was born on April 20, 1889. If still alive, he would be over 114 years old and among the very oldest humans on the planet.
According to this AP story, http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030423/ap_on_re_us/oldest_american_4
Hitler is dead (or if he isn’t, the universe is a very, very perverse place).