After viewing the film “Downfall” and reading the book “The Bunker,” I was wondering - what happened to the gun that Hitler used to kill himself? I’ve checked out this site but didn’t find much. There was some conjecture that the Russians have it, but I don’t believe that. The Russians didn’t reach the Bunker for another 18-24 hours after Hitler’s suicide, and I can’t imagine that the gun was just lying around waiting to be found. In that time, someone from the Bunker must have picked it up. I’d imagine that one of three things happened. A German from the bunker picked it up and 1) was killed while trying to leave Berlin and the gun was lost with him, 2) was captured by the Russians while trying to escape and the gun in now is Russian hands or, 3) managed to escape with the gun and has kept it quiet all of these years. I doubt number three. I haven’t checked Trevor-Ropers book, which might shed some light on this. Can I get a little help on this?
Why not? There’s a story that Stalin kept Hitler’s skull on his desk. He might well have had the pistol, too.
I should clarify. The Russians may have the pistol. But they didn’t get it directly from the floor of the bunker. One of Hitler’s men must have picked it up and had it in his/her possession for a time and then given it up when captured by the Russians. I’ve never heard who that might have been.
The eyewitnesses to the scene in the sitting room agreed that there were two Walther pistols present: a 7.65mm Model PP and a 6.35mm Model 8, both of which were familiar to them as Hitler’s personal handguns. Otto Guensche, the personal adjutant, also said that he’d picked both up and verified that it was the first of these that had been used. According to Guensche, both guns were then taken as souvenirs by Gerhard Welzin, an adjutant to the Hitler Youth leader Artur Axmann. Welzin was later captured by the Soviets and died in captivity.
Anton Joachimsthaler’s The Last Days of Hitler (1995; Cassell, 2000) doesn’t mention the whereabouts of the guns beyond the above and has to reproduce photos of examples of the same models rather than the weapons themselves. I suspect Welzin taking them is where the trail runs cold.
Thanks for filling that in.