New files released by Russian intelligence reveal what Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun were wearing when they were found dead – and contain key testimony from the Nazi leader’s aides
Russian intelligence has unveiled a bombshell set of files on Adolf Hitler – including the Nazi leader’s final words to a close aide.
The astonishing cache of documents relating to Hitler’s death were released by the FSB security service in Moscow yesterday – 80 years to the day he died – and shine new light on the dark final days inside the doomed dictator’s bunker. The files include declassified original copies of statements and interrogation notes obtained from his valet, SS-Sturmbannführer Heinz Linge and military officer SS-Sturmbannführer Otto Günsche. Linge revealed a “deluded” Hitler killed himself in part because he was “afraid” of being “caught while trying to escape from Berlin” – and described what he was wearing at the time of his death.
Testimony that proved crucial in understanding Hitler’s final days
Both of Hitler’s aides were captured by the Soviets after the war, and their testimony was crucial to Stalin’s understanding Hitler’s fate as his Nazi regime collapsed.
Linge was reportedly the first to enter the room after Hitler’s suicide, and helped carry and burn the corpse with Günsche and others.
Though it has long been known that the pair gave testimony, this is the first time the original documents – hidden away for decades in Soviet KGB archives – have been published, revealing previously unheard details.
One Russian archivist is seen on video discussing Linge’s account, which even details the clothing Hitler and Eva Braun wore when they took their own lives.
He explains that the testimony includes “Hitler’s reasons for taking his own life”, including that “he believed it was utterly pointless to continue the fight.
“He was afraid of being caught while trying to escape from Berlin.
“There was also his severe physical condition, which was beyond doubt, as well as his delusions of grandeur, which would not allow him to bow to the victor or enter into negotiations with him.”
Hitler’s teeth seen on video
Macabre footage also shows Hitler’s teeth, which were used by the Soviets used to identify him.
A KGB account details how the set of teeth were found “on the heavily charred corpses of a man and a woman”, implied to be Hitler and wife Eva Braun, “in a bomb crater.”
It goes on: “The bodies lay about 3 metres from the entrance to the bunker and were covered with soil.
“By 8 May 1945, a forensic report on the man’s corpse—presumably Hitler—was completed.”
This report showed “the presence in the mouth cavity of crushed glass ampoule fragments…a distinct bitter almond smell … and results from chemical testing of internal organs showing cyanide compounds”.
A commission concluded that Hitler’s death “resulted from cyanide poisoning”.
What Hitler and Eva Braun were wearing when they took their own lives
Detailing what the Nazi leader wore as he took his own life in the Führerbunker, Linge wrote: “At the moment of suicide, Hitler was dressed in a white shirt with a white turn-down collar and a black vest, a grey double-breasted uniform jacket made of fine gabardine, long black trousers of fine gabardine, thin black paper socks, and black leather half-boots.
“His wife was dressed in a fine silk dress, very thin silk stockings, and shoes with wedge heels (possibly of Italian make).
“Three canisters of petrol, prepared by Reichsleiter Martin Bormann for the cremation of the bodies of Hitler and his wife, were standing on the last landing leading from the bomb shelter into the garden of the Reich Chancellery.
“All the contents of the canisters were poured over the bodies of Hitler and his wife. Bormann pointed out the canisters to us and went down himself to get his own.
“This was around 4 p.m., and it was still light.
“A total of 60 litres of petrol was poured.
“Before spreading the blanket on the floor, I placed Hitler’s pistols (calibres 7.65 and 6.35) on the writing desk. Who took them from there, I do not know.
“Possibly it was Reichsleiter Martin Bormann, or the soldiers who carried out Eva Braun’s body, or Hitler’s valet Helm Krüger, or the orderly Willy Stiewitz.
“When saying goodbye to Hitler on 30 April 1945, I asked: ‘Führer, whom should we try to break through to in the West?’
“And I received the answer: ‘For the sake of the one who is still to come’.”
Hitler’s body ‘not a double’
Linge also answered a question that worried the Soviet leadership after they stormed Berlin – whether it was a double who had died in the bunker, and the real Hitler had escaped.
A note translated into Russian and signed by Linge said a double of Hitler “could not have committed suicide” because “Hitler did not have a double” and it “was impossible to leave the premises without being seen, as there was only one exit from the room.”
Over many months, Linge changed some testimony, telling the Russians: “I must admit that my earlier testimony was incorrect.
“I did not hear any gunshot sounds but only noticed the smell of gunpowder and, based on that, informed Bormann that the suicide had occurred….
“I previously stated incorrectly that Eva Braun’s body was wrapped in a blanket. I now recall that it was not.”
Soviet interrogation tactics revealed
The historic documents were kept in a KGB vault in obscue Ivanovo region, which later transferred to its post-USSR successor, the FSB.
They also detail the psychological pressure put on Günsche by Soviet interrogators after he was flown to Moscow with close aides of Adolf Hitler .
This included making him share a cell with Nazi war criminal Colonel Remlinger, who was purposefully deployed by the Soviet authorities to convince him to cooperate.
It proved successful in convincing to reinterpret his “oath” in the context of Hitler’s suicide, and highlighted his abandonment by other Nazi leaders.
