Although there is no evidence that Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler used look-alikes as political decoys during his life, some stories propagated as early as 1939 assert his death and replacement with an imposter. Following Hitler's suicide during the Battle of Berlin, the Soviet Union claimed to discover a number of bodies resembling him, incepting disinformation efforts. Only Hitler's dental remains were confirmed, purportedly due to the cremation of his body. [lower-alpha 1] [lower-alpha 2]
The most prominent evidence of any Hitler double is Soviet footage of a toothbrush moustache-wearing body identified as Gustav Weler ostensibly found in the Reich Chancellery garden. Conspiracy theorists claim that this body corroborates that Hitler faked his death.
The 1939 book The Strange Death of Adolf Hitler alleges that the Nazi Party used four people as doubles for Hitler, including the author, who claims that the real dictator died in 1938 and that he subsequently took his place. [9] The book was considered farcical in the year of its release and cannot be considered as being remotely reliable. [10] In 1939, the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA), while admitting that the book has "practically no direct evidence of authenticity", defended it by citing the purported 1938 death [lower-alpha 3] of Julius Schreck (d. 1936) as support for Hitler's use of doubles. [12] The NEA claimed that Schreck was Hitler's chauffeur until 1934, and was riding in the back of a car being driven by Hitler, and took a bullet from a would-be Hitler assassin who did not expect Hitler to be driving. [12] In fact, Schreck died in May 1936 after developing meningitis. [13]
In late April 1945, Stockholm's "Free German Press Service" circulated a rumor that a Hitler double named August Wilhelm Bartholdy, supposedly a former grocer from Plauen, was called to Berlin to be filmed dying on the battlefield in Hitler's stead. [14] The Germans émigrés stated, "He will act as Hitler's trump card, creating a hero legend around the Führer's death, while Hitler himself goes underground." [15] Hitler died in Berlin on 30 April, with his dental remains subsequently being positively identified. [16] [lower-alpha 1]
On 9 May 1945, a week after the Fall of Berlin, The New York Times reported that a body was claimed by the Soviets to belong to Hitler. This was disputed by an anonymous servant, who stated that the body was that of a cook who was killed because of his resemblance to Hitler, and that the latter had escaped. [17] [18] On 6 June 1945, the United Press reported that four bodies had been found in Berlin resembling Hitler, purportedly burnt by the Red Army's flame throwers. One body was considered most likely to be that of Hitler. [19] A few days later, on Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's orders, Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov presented the official narrative that Hitler had escaped, [20] stating, "We have found no corpse that could be [his]." [21] In mid-1945, a Soviet major told American sources that Hitler had survived and claimed his body was not found burned in the Reich Chancellery garden, "It is not true that Hitler was found there! Our experts have established that the man found here didn't look like Hitler at all. And we didn't find Eva Braun either!" [5] [22] During their Soviet captivity, Schutzstaffel (SS) valet Heinz Linge, SS guard Josef Henschel, and Hitler's pilot Hans Baur were interrogated about whether Hitler escaped by leaving a body double. [23] [24] A 1947 American book claims that Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler suggested that Hitler fake his death by leaving behind the body of a double, who was said not to be allowed out of the kitchen. [25] From 1951 to 1972, the tabloid National Police Gazette ran stories asserting that SS physician Ludwig Stumpfegger had switched out a double for Hitler to help the dictator fake his death. [26]
In 1963, author Cornelius Ryan interviewed General B. S. Telpuchovski, a Soviet historian who was allegedly present during the aftermath of the Battle of Berlin. Telpuchovski claimed that on 2 May 1945, a burnt body he thought belonged to Hitler was found wrapped in a blanket. [27] [lower-alpha 4] [lower-alpha 5] This supposed individual had been killed by a gunshot through the mouth, with an exit wound through the back of the head. [lower-alpha 6] [lower-alpha 7] Several dental bridges were purportedly found next to the body, because, Telpuchovski stated, "the force of the bullet had dislodged them from the mouth". [27] [lower-alpha 1] [lower-alpha 8] In his 1966 book, The Last Battle , Ryan describes this body as that of Hitler, saying it had been buried "under a thin layer of earth". [35] Telpuchovski had said there were a total of three Hitler candidates which had been burnt, apparently including a body double wearing mended socks, which he described as being in "remnants". [27] Ryan quotes him as saying, "There was also the body of a man who was freshly killed but not burned." [35] [lower-alpha 2]
Soviet journalist Lev Bezymenski details the darned-sock-wearing double in his 1968 Soviet propaganda book, [36] The Death of Adolf Hitler (which novelly provided details of Hitler's dental remains despite implying that they were detached from a chimerical charred corpse). [37] Bezymenski quotes Ivan Klimenko, the commander of the Red Army's SMERSH unit, as stating 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 bodies in the garden of the Reich Chancellery. [38] Although Klimenko had some doubts because the corpse was wearing mended socks, he briefly speculated that it belonged to Hitler. [39] On 4 May, Soviet officers had the body double filmed. [40] In the 1982 edition of his book, Bezymenski cites the cameraman behind the footage as saying that the body had been brought inside the Chancellery for identification by Germans, most of whom thought it was not Hitler; the body was then brought outside to be filmed in better lighting. [41]
The footage shows the double with an apparent gunshot wound to the forehead [42] (with a a portrait of Hitler laid on the double's torso). According to Klimenko, later on 4 May, Hitler and Eva Braun's true remains were discovered buried in a crater outside the Chancellery, wrapped in blankets and reburied, then re-exhumed the next day after the double was debunked as being Hitler. [43] [44] A 1945 Soviet television documentary implied the footage showed Hitler, with the tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda later saying it was Hitler's double. [1] In 1992, [45] journalist Ada Petrova found the footage in the Russian state archives; the body double had been identified as Gustav Weler. [46] [lower-alpha 9] In their 1995 book, Petrova and Peter Watson opined that 'Weler' may have worked a menial job in the Reich Chancellery and occasionally stood in for Hitler as a political decoy. [42]
Presiding judge at the Einsatzgruppen trial at Nuremberg Michael Musmanno wrote in 1948, "There is not a shred of evidence to show that Hitler ever had a double." Musmanno further states that "the several score immediate associates of Hitler whom I questioned expressly stated that Hitler never had a double." [47] Among these, Hitler's chief secretary, Johanna Wolf, considered the use of a double in the Führerbunker an impossibility. [48] Musmanno wrote in his 1950 book about Hitler's death:
To suggest as some sophomorically reasoning theorists have, including the noted author Emil Ludwig, that possibly it was a double of Hitler who died and was cremated is, without any evidence to support it, about as rational as to say that Hitler was carried away by angels. ... it is inconceivable that Hitler, with his self-assurance of superiority over any other human being, would concede the existence of anyone even superficially an artificial duplicate of himself. [49]
In 1955, SS guard Hans Hofbeck recalled that during his Soviet captivity, he was asked about Hitler's alleged body double; the description seemed to match a porter who worked in the Reich Chancellery (having similar facial features, hairstyle, and moustache, but being slightly shorter). Subsequently, according to Hofbeck, Hitler's pilot Hans Baur told the Soviets that the Nazis had once found a baker from Breslau (modern Poland) who strongly resembled Hitler, but the dictator refused to employ him as a doppelgänger. [50]
Soviet war interpreter Elena Rzhevskaya (who safeguarded Hitler's dental remains until they could be identified by his dental staff) attributed the rumours of doubles to Soviet Colonel General Nikolai Berzarin's pledge to nominate the discoverer of Hitler's corpse for the Hero of the Soviet Union award, causing multiple potential bodies to be presented. [30]
Historian Peter Hoffmann, a specialist on Hitler's security units, similarly doubts that he ever used doubles. [17] Historian Sjoerd deBoer also states that the stories of a double are highly suspect and found no evidence to support that there was one used in Berlin in April 1945 or that Hitler escaped. He concludes that these stories were part of the post-war Soviet disinformation campaigns regarding Hitler's fate. [51]
The false implication that footage of a body double showed Hitler's corpse in a 1945 Soviet documentary was corrected in a 1966 documentary. [1] [40] [53] In September 1992, Ada Petrova edited a still of the footage into a Russian television broadcast, which was criticized for implying the body was Hitler's. [54] A few days later, Bezymenski claimed that the double was separate from Hitler's body, which he reaffirmed that the Soviets had found elsewhere "in the garden of the Chancellery". [40]
In his 1995 book on Hitler's death, historian Anton Joachimsthaler disputes the purported Soviet autopsy report of Hitler's body, which was published by Bezymenski in 1968. Joachimsthaler argues that the Soviets never found Hitler's body, which must have been burnt to ashes. Joachimsthaler quotes esteemed German pathologist Otto Prokop as saying the alleged autopsy report "describes anything but Hitler". [55] Similarly, historian Luke Daly-Groves states that "the Soviet soldiers picked up whatever mush they could find in front of Hitler's bunker exit, put it in a box and claimed it was the corpses of Adolf and Eva Hitler". [56] Also in 1995, Bezymenski disclosed that his work had contained "deliberate lies", possibly including the manner of Hitler's death. In his book, he had claimed that if the dictator died from a gunshot wound, it was a coup de grâce to ensure his quick death after he took cyanide, not a suicide by gunshot. [57] [58]
In 1998, British author Ian Sayer received from an anonymous source what alleged to be a photocopy of a 427-page report from the U.S. Army's Counterintelligence Corps (CIC), apparently containing a 1948 interview of Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller, who went missing in action in 1945, but claimed to have been retained by the CIC as an intelligence adviser and to have joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). [59] [52] According to Müller's purported account: a Hitler double was discovered in Breslau in 1941 and was seldom seen after July 1944, being sedated and kept hidden until April 1945; on April 22, Hitler, Braun and three of Hitler's associates departed by air for Hörsching Airport and were then flown to Barcelona; [lower-alpha 11] the double was later killed by a coup de grâce, dressed in Hitler's clothes, and buried. Joachimsthaler notes that the plane claimed to have been flown out of Berlin was considered a "total loss" by the Luftwaffe in May 1944, and the Junkers Ju 290 supposedly flown to Barcelona had been grounded in that city since the beginning of April 1945. Thereby, the claims of the dossier are considered by historians such as Joachimsthaler and Daly-Groves as an example of created "myths". [52] [61]
In a 2009 episode of History's MysteryQuest , a bone-specializing archaeologist collected samples from a skull fragment in the Soviet archives believed to be Hitler's. DNA and forensic examination indicated that the fragment, which had an exit wound from a gunshot through the back of the head, [lower-alpha 6] belonged to a woman less than 40 years old. [33] [62] On the same program, fringe author H. D. Baumann asserts that Hitler increased his use of doubles after a 1944 assassination attempt. [63] Baumann claims that the darned-sock-wearing double, whose ears he points out are different than Hitler's [lower-alpha 10] and allegedly was two inches shorter, [lower-alpha 12] was killed by the Germans on 30 April 1945. [63] Baumann cites the purported account of Müller that Hitler was replaced by a double, saying that this explains his weakened appearance and certain other uncharacteristic details. [66] Citing all these details, as well as the implication that the bodies of Hitler and Braun were never found [lower-alpha 2] and Stalin's claim that Hitler escaped to Spain or Argentina, Baumann concludes that Hitler faked his death. [63] In 2017, the National Police Gazette called on the Russian government to allow the jawbone fragment to be DNA-tested to settle the matter. [26] [lower-alpha 1]
In their 2011 book, Grey Wolf: The Escape of Adolf Hitler , British authors Simon Dunstan and Gerrard Williams cite "a noted facial recognition expert witness" in claiming that a double stood in for Hitler on his 20 March 1945 appearance with the Hitler Youth—citing this as the dictator's last public appearance. The book claims that in a deal with the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (the country's intelligence agency during World War II), on 28 April 1945 Hitler's private secretary, Martin Bormann, installed the alleged 20 March imposter and an actress in place of Hitler and Braun, then staged their deaths, possibly with the help of Müller. [67]
Greek conspiracy theorist Peter Fotis Kapnistos, author of 2015 fringe book Hitler's Doubles, claims that Hitler was replaced by a double after he was hospitalized near the end of World War I, citing personality changes and his increased nose width in later photographs. [68] (In fact, there is only evidence of Hitler's enlarged nose close to the end of World War II in Europe.) [69] Kapnistos claims that Hitler had four doubles: Schreck, stenographer Heinrich Berger (who was killed in the 20 July 1944 attempt to kill Hitler), [70] Gustav Weler (whom discredited author W. Hugh Thomas said was found alive after the war), and English occultist Aleister Crowley. [68]
The Führerbunker was an air raid shelter located near the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. It was part of a subterranean bunker complex constructed in two phases in 1936 and 1944. It was the last of the Führer Headquarters (Führerhauptquartiere) used by Adolf Hitler during World War II.
Adolf Hitler, chancellor and dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, committed suicide via a gunshot to the head on 30 April 1945 in the Führerbunker in Berlin after it became clear that Germany would lose the Battle of Berlin, which led to the end of World War II in Europe. Eva Braun, his wife of one day, also committed suicide by cyanide poisoning. In accordance with Hitler's prior written and verbal instructions, that afternoon their remains were carried up the stairs and through the bunker's emergency exit to the Reich Chancellery garden, where they were doused in petrol and burned. The news of Hitler's death was announced on German radio the next day, 1 May.
Heinz Linge was a German SS officer who served as a valet for the leader of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, and became known for his close personal proximity to historical events. Linge was present in the Führerbunker on 30 April 1945, when Hitler committed suicide. Linge's ten-year service to Hitler ended at that time. In the aftermath of the Second World War in Europe, Linge spent ten years in Soviet captivity.
Erich Kempka was a member of the SS in Nazi Germany who served as Adolf Hitler's primary chauffeur from 1936 to April 1945. He was present in the area of the Reich Chancellery on 30 April 1945, when Hitler shot himself in the Führerbunker. Kempka delivered the petrol to the garden behind the Reich Chancellery, where the remains of Hitler and Eva Braun were burned.
Gerda Christian, nicknamed "Dara", was one of Adolf Hitler's private secretaries before and during World War II.
Johannes Hentschel was a master electro-mechanic for German dictator Adolf Hitler's apartments in the Reich Chancellery. He also served in the same capacity in Hitler's Führerbunker in 1945. He surrendered to Soviet Red Army soldiers on 2 May 1945.
Eva Anna Paula Hitler was a German photographer who was the longtime companion and briefly the wife of Adolf Hitler. Braun met Hitler in Munich when she was a 17-year-old assistant and model for his personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann. She began seeing Hitler often about two years later.
Peter Högl was a German officer holding the rank of SS-Obersturmbannführer who was a member of one of Adolf Hitler's bodyguard units. He spent time in the Führerbunker in Berlin at the end of World War II. Högl died from wounds received during the break-out on 2 May 1945 while crossing the Weidendammer Bridge under heavy fire in Berlin.
Günther August Wilhelm Schwägermann served in the Nazi government of German chancellor Adolf Hitler. From approximately late 1941, Schwägermann served as the adjutant for Joseph Goebbels. He reached the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer (captain). Schwägermann survived World War II and was held in American captivity from 25 June 1945 until 24 April 1947.
Hans Krebs was a German Army general of infantry who served during World War II. A career soldier, he served in the Reichswehr and the Wehrmacht. He served as the last Chief of Staff of the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) during the final phase of the war in Europe. Krebs tried to open surrender negotiations with the Red Army; he committed suicide in the Führerbunker during the early hours of 2 May 1945, two days after Adolf Hitler killed himself.
Hugo Johannes Blaschke was a German dental surgeon notable for being Adolf Hitler's personal dentist from 1933 to April 1945 and for being the chief dentist on the staff of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler.
The possibility that Adolf Hitler had only one testicle has been a fringe subject among historians and academics researching the Nazi leader. The rumour may be an urban myth, possibly originating from the contemporary British military song "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball".
The Vorbunker was an underground concrete structure originally intended to be a temporary air-raid shelter for Adolf Hitler and his guards and servants. It was located behind the large reception hall that was added onto the old Reich Chancellery, in Berlin, Germany, in 1936. The bunker was officially called the "Reich Chancellery Air-Raid Shelter" until 1943, when the complex was expanded with the addition of the Führerbunker, located one level below. On 16 January 1945, Hitler moved into the Führerbunker. He was joined by his senior staff, including Martin Bormann. Later, Eva Braun and Joseph Goebbels moved into the Führerbunker while Magda Goebbels and their six children took residence in the upper Vorbunker. The Goebbels family lived in the Vorbunker until their deaths on 1 May 1945.
Ewald Lindloff was a Waffen-SS officer during World War II, who was present in the Führerbunker on 30 April 1945, when Hitler committed suicide. He was placed in charge of disposing of Hitler's remains. Lindloff was later killed during the break-out on 2 May 1945 while crossing the Weidendammer Bridge under heavy fire in Berlin.
Georg Betz was an SS officer, who rose to the rank of SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer during World War II. Betz served as Adolf Hitler's personal co-pilot and Hans Baur's substitute. Betz was present in the Führerbunker in Berlin in late April 1945. On 1 May 1945, Betz took part in the break-out from the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. Early on 2 May 1945, Betz was wounded and died while crossing the Weidendammer Bridge, which was under heavy fire from Soviet troops.
Elena Moiseevna Rzhevskaya was a writer and former Soviet war interpreter. In April and May, 1945, she participated in the Battle of Berlin. According to her memoirs, called in English Memories of a War-time Interpreter, she was a member of the Soviet unit searching for Adolf Hitler in the ruins of the Reich Chancellery. Hitler's charred remains were, according to her own words, found by soldier Ivan Churakov on 4 May 1945. Four days later, on 8 May, Colonel Vassily Gorbushin gave her a small box that contained Hitler's dental remains. During the identification of the corpse, the Soviet team worked in top-secret conditions. Rzhevskaya and Gorbushin managed to find in Berlin, Käthe Heusermann, an assistant of Hugo Blaschke, Hitler's personal dentist. Heusermann confirmed the identity of the Nazi leader. The information was, however, suppressed by Joseph Stalin, who later ordered the facts not to be publicized. She was a recipient of the Andrei Sakharov Prize for Writer's Civic Courage.
Conspiracy theories about the death of Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945, contradict the accepted fact that he committed suicide in the Führerbunker on 30 April 1945. Stemming from a campaign of Soviet disinformation, most of these theories hold that Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun, survived and escaped from Berlin, with some asserting that he went to South America. In the post-war years, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) investigated some of the reports, without lending them credence. The 2009 revelation that a skull in the Soviet archives long (dubiously) claimed to be Hitler's actually belonged to a woman has helped fuel conspiracy theories.
Anton Joachimsthaler is a German historian. He is particularly noted for his research on the early life of the German dictator Adolf Hitler, in his book Korrektur einer Biografie and his last days in the book Hitlers Ende, published in English as The Last Days of Hitler.
The Death of Adolf Hitler: Unknown Documents from Soviet Archives is a 1968 book by Soviet journalist Lev Bezymenski, who served as an interpreter in the Battle of Berlin. The book gives details of the purported Soviet autopsies of Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun, Joseph and Magda Goebbels, their children, and General Hans Krebs. Each of these individuals are recorded as having been subjected to cyanide poisoning; contrary to the Western conclusion that Hitler died by a suicide gunshot.
William F. "Bill" Heimlich was an American intelligence officer and director of the RIAS after World War II.
It is important to see that these data fit perfectly with the [Soviet] autopsy report and with our direct observations.