Gustav Weler

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Close-up of a body with a toothbrush moustache, said to be a Hitler body double, identified as Gustav Weler Hitler body double, identified as Gustave Weler.png
Close-up of a body with a toothbrush moustache, said to be a Hitler body double, identified as Gustav Weler

Gustav Weler is the alleged name of a body double of Adolf Hitler, said to have worked in the Reich Chancellery. He may have occasionally stood in for Hitler as a political decoy. [1] [2]

Contents

The commander of the Red Army's SMERSH unit, Ivan Klimenko, stated that on the night of 3 May 1945, he witnessed Vizeadmiral Hans-Erich Voss seem to recognize a corpse as Hitler's in a dry water tank filled with other corpses outside the Führerbunker . [3] Klimenko briefly and mistakenly speculated that the corpse was that of Hitler. [4] [lower-alpha 2] On 4 May, Soviet officers ordered that the body double be filmed. [5] The footage shows the double with an apparent gunshot wound to the forehead. [1] Later on 4 May, Hitler's true remains [lower-alpha 3] were discovered buried in a crater outside the Reich Chancellery; they were exhumed the next day after the body double was debunked as being Hitler. [7] [3] Nevertheless, the footage of the body double was presented as Hitler's corpse in a post-war documentary. [5] [lower-alpha 4] In 1995, journalist Ada Petrova found the footage in the Russian state archives; the body double had been identified as Weler. [9] [lower-alpha 5]

Another supposed Hitler double, named August Wilhelm Bartholdy, was claimed to be a former grocer from Plauen who was called to Berlin to be filmed dying on the battlefield in Hitler's stead. This rumor was circulated in late April 1945 by Stockholm's "Free German Press Service", who stated, "He will act as Hitler's trump card, creating a hero legend around the Führer's death, while Hitler himself goes underground." [10]

See also

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References

Footnotes

  1. ↑ A portrait of Hitler rests in the foreground.
  2. ↑ An unnamed servant stated that this body belonged to a cook who was killed because of his resemblance to Hitler, claiming that the latter escaped. [2]
  3. ↑ These are only known to comprise dental remains. [6]
  4. ↑ This mistake was corrected in a 1966 documentary. [5] [8]
  5. ↑ The same film reel contained footage of the remains of Joseph and Magda Goebbels, as well as those of their children. [9]

Citations

  1. 1 2 Petrova & Watson 1995, p. 90.
  2. ↑ Mitchell, Arthur (2007). Hitler's Mountain: The Führer, Obersalzberg and the American Occupation of Berchtesgaden. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. pp. 56–57. ISBN   978-0-7864-2458-0.
  3. 1 2 Bezymenski, Lev (1968). The Death of Adolf Hitler (1st ed.). New York: Harcourt, Brace & World. pp. 32–33.
  4. ↑ Petrova & Watson 1995, pp. 52–53.
  5. 1 2 Erlanger, Steven (18 September 1992). "Historian Asserts Soviet Soldiers Found Hitler's Charred Remains". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 19 February 2021.
  6. Joachimsthaler, Anton (1998) [1995]. The Last Days of Hitler: The Legends, The Evidence, The Truth. Translated by Helmut Bölger. London: Arms & Armour Press. p. 225. ISBN   978-1-85409-465-0.
  7. ↑ Petrova & Watson 1995, pp. 52–54.
  8. "Film The Chronicles Without Sensation. (1966)". Net-Film. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
  9. ↑ Petrova & Watson 1995, pp. 89–90.
  10. ↑ "The Press: Hitler Story". Time . 7 May 1945. ISSN   0040-781X . Retrieved 26 June 2021.

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