# Turns out Hitler may not have died in that bunker after all.. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 28, 2009, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826 "2009-09-28T06:38:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ChrisBooth12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826/1 "2009-09-28T06:38:09Z")
[http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26135072-401,00.html](http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26135072-401,00.html) I mean I have no doubt he is dead. No way he is chilling in a nursing home somwhere sounds like the russians dug up the wrong body to me ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826/2 "2009-09-28T06:40:52Z")
So Hitler was really a woman? ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_From\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Girl\_From\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_From_Mars)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826/3 "2009-09-28T06:41:10Z")
Beaten to the punch! I was just going to post the link from [The Telegraph](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/world-war-2/6237028/Adolf-Hitler-suicide-story-questioned-after-tests-reveal-skull-is-a-womans.html), which has a little more info. ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_From\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Girl\_From\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_From_Mars)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826/4 "2009-09-28T09:43:12Z")
Reading about it on Wikipedia, perhaps it’s Magda Goebbels? While it says that details of their suicides remains unclear, there were several reports that she and Joseph were shot, perhaps in addition to the cynanide. Their bodies were later partially burned in a shell crater. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826/5 "2009-09-28T12:29:09Z")
I saw a doco (it was the History Channel) where some forensic scientists examined the skull and this wasn’t raised then. I would have thought it would have been apparent at that time. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826/6 "2009-09-28T13:11:12Z")
Fascinating…I recall that it was many years after the war, before the Russians released any information about the remains found near the bunker in Berlin. In Konrad Heiden’s book (“Der Fuhrer”), he repeat tha story that Hitler shot his wife, then shot himself i the head. The boddies were dragged outside, and doused with gasoline, then burned. Supposedly this was an eyewitness account. Anyway, Hitler had used doubles in the past-could the man in Berlin have been an imposter? Or was Hitler shot by a subordinate, who wanted to escape the bunker and flee to South America? ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826/7 "2009-09-28T17:24:43Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > I saw a doco (it was the History Channel) where some forensic scientists examined the skull and this wasn’t raised then. I would have thought it would have been apparent at that time. I saw a documentatry on the HC a couple of days ago and the one I saw definitely did include the finding that there were no Y chromosomes in the skull fragments. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826/8 "2009-09-28T17:36:57Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Fascinating..I recall that it was many years after the war, before the Russians released any information about the remains found near the bunker in Berlin. In Konrad Heiden’s book (“Der Fuhrer”), he repeat tha story that Hitler shot his wife, then shot himself i the head. The boddies were dragged outside, and doused with gasoline, then burned. Supposedly this was an eyewitness account. Anyway, Hitler had used doubles in the past-could the man in Berlin have been an imposter? Or was Hitler shot by a subordinate, who wanted to escape the bunker and flee to South America? The way I heard it was, him and his wife both bit on cyanide pills (he’d requested the cyanide pills be first tested on Blondi, his beloved dog, to make sure they worked and worked fast. Reportedly, he cried when he was told she’d died pretty much instantly).\*Then \*he shot himself while already foaming at the mouth. Typical belt-and-suspenders guy, your Hitler. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826/9 "2009-09-28T19:24:30Z")
He was born on April 20, 1889 so I guess it is probably a pretty good guess he is dead - unless you believe there is a man over 120 years old puttering around in his garden in Buenos Aires. Still, I am sure this will fuel a whole bunch of new books with him escaping and opening a deli in NYC, or being the illegitimate father of multiple famous/infamous people. I can see it now, “Charlie Manson admits as a child meeting mysterious German who claimed to be his father who took him on an outing to Disneyland…” ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826/10 "2009-09-28T19:48:13Z")
I think there were multiple contemporaneous, eyewitness accounts (the chauffer who was assigned to incinerate the bodies, maybe the secretary, who was as of pretty recently still alive) that fairly firmly establish the deaths. Finding that the Soviets, who were (1) not terribly sophisticated and (2) reflexive liars, may have mishandled, mis-identified, lied about the existence, identity, and chain of custody for any forensic remains, hardly leads me to the notion posited in the OP title. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826/11 "2009-09-28T20:12:42Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > …Soviets, who were (1) not terribly sophisticated and (2) reflexive liars, may have mishandled, mis-identified… Yeah, that’s frustrating as heck. Ironically, if it was the German army who overran his bunker, the documentation would have been thorough and unimpeachable. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826/12 "2009-09-28T20:45:15Z")
In triplicate, with footnotes. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826/13 "2009-09-28T21:37:19Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > In triplicate, with footnotes. Great, now I’ve got a mental image of Terry Pratchett in jackboots and SS uniform. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826/14 "2009-09-28T23:30:36Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > I am sure this will fuel a whole bunch of new books with him escaping and opening a deli in NYC, or being the illegitimate father of multiple famous/infamous people. I can see it now, “Charlie Manson admits as a child meeting mysterious German who claimed to be his father who took him on an outing to Disneyland…” My favorite story had him playing bass guitar with Glenn Miller in Paraguay. (As if Glenn Miller would _ever_ have used a bass guitar.) ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826/15 "2009-09-29T22:21:05Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > I think there were multiple contemporaneous, eyewitness accounts (the chauffer who was assigned to incinerate the bodies, maybe the secretary, who was as of pretty recently still alive) that fairly firmly establish the deaths. Finding that the Soviets, who were (1) not terribly sophisticated and (2) reflexive liars, may have mishandled, mis-identified, lied about the existence, identity, and chain of custody for any forensic remains, hardly leads me to the notion posited in the OP title. Ding ding! And we have a winner! The date, time, and manner of Hitler’s death were independently corroborated by numerous witnesses, whose stories (as far as I am aware) have never been retracted. That the remains were not positively identified is simply an indication that his final orders were carried out to the letter. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826/16 "2009-09-29T22:27:43Z")
According to the Telegraph article: > [@](#): > > However, the Russians have never held up the skull as exhibit one, always insisting that the jawbones — said to be in perfect condition - are confirmation. Soviet forces tracked down an assistant to Hitler’s dentist in 1945 who confirmed their authenticity. The contested skull fragment was found later, in 1946, when the Russians began an investigation after rumours that Hitler was still alive. It was found in the same hole outside Hitler’s bunker where his body was first found. If the _jaw_ still holds up as Hitler’s, my guess is he never got to open that Deli in New York. Who would buy deli food from a guy with a funny moustache and no jaw? But seriously - the skull was found a _year later_. No lack of random human remains in Berlin in 1946 … ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826/17 "2009-09-29T22:39:58Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > According to the Telegraph article: > > If the _jaw_ still holds up as Hitler’s, my guess is he never got to open that Deli in New York. Who would buy deli food from a guy with a funny moustache and no jaw? > > But seriously - the skull was found a _year later_. No lack of random human remains in Berlin in 1946 … Or later. I think they found Bormann’s remains around 1970. ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_From\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Girl\_From\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_From_Mars)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826/18 "2009-09-30T04:35:30Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > If the _jaw_ still holds up as Hitler’s, my guess is he never got to open that Deli in New York. Who would buy deli food from a guy with a funny moustache and no jaw? Excellent for marketing purposes though. “My pastrami is so tender, you don’t even need to chew it.” ---
**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826/19 "2009-09-30T06:33:57Z")
> [@](#): > > Excellent for marketing purposes though. “My pastrami is so tender, you don’t even need to chew it.” Sounds like Sweeny Todd or something… _sings_ Mr. Hitler’s Meat Pies…savory and sweet pies! ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826/20 "2009-09-30T06:45:34Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > He was born on April 20, 1889 so I guess it is probably a pretty good guess he is dead - unless you believe there is a man over 120 years old puttering around in his garden in Buenos Aires. Gehen Sie von meinem Rasen weg! Raus! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-hitler-may-not-have-died-in-that-bunker-after-all/511826.md?page=2)