Historian and TV presenter Leonid Mlechin took on the challenge of solving Adolf Hitler's biggest mysteries

On the shelves of even a small bookstore there will probably be several books telling about fascist Germany and Adolf Hitler. Another one was added to them - “The Fuhrer’s Biggest Secret,” written by the famous historian, writer and TV presenter Leonid MLECHIN. Why is interest in this historical figure (by the way, tomorrow is the birthday of Nazi boss number one) so persistent? “Isn’t everything known about Hitler yet?” - we asked the author.

There are individuals in world history whose scale of crimes are so incredible that they will always attract attention. I tried to give answers to many questions, but there are things that still cannot be fully understood. To some extent, this fascinates the researcher, although it often pushes him to a false perception of the scale of the individual.

Actually, as a person, Adolf Hitler was a complete nonentity, but the scope of his atrocities is such that they, like a powerful lens, turned his figure into a gigantic one. Under this optical effect, qualities were often attributed to Hitler that in fact he did not have.

- So, the final understanding of Hitler has not yet taken place?

All German archives relating to the 13-year period of Hitlerism were immediately opened after 1945. A huge number of books have been written, but imagine, to this day, more and more new works are being published in Germany. I just read a thick scientific work about the German economy during the Nazi era. For the first time in 60 years, it contains detailed explanations how the Third Reich, with rather meager resources, managed to create a powerful military machine and threaten almost the entire world. This is an inexhaustible topic.

- And what is “Hitler’s biggest secret”? Have you opened it?

The Fuhrer has a lot of secrets. Starting with the mystery of his origin: who his grandfather was is still completely unclear. Most likely, incest occurred in his family: his father married his own niece. All his life he strenuously hid it and was terrified that the truth would come out. Another secret is Hitler's relationships with men and women, his repressed homosexuality, fear of intimacy with the opposite sex. As a result, there was a complete breakdown with myself and resentment towards the whole world around me. It seems that the only person for whom Hitler had feelings, including sexual ones, was his own niece Geli Raubal, who committed suicide in 1931.

All these particulars would not have had much significance if they had not formed into the character, into the fate of himself and his country. But the biggest mystery is how this man was able to completely subjugate an entire state, to master the mass consciousness of the people so much that these people themselves threw themselves into the furnace.

- Until recently, we were taught history differently: historical materialism, class struggle, movement from system to system. And now, it turns out, individuals and their intimate lives can radically affect world history?

Yes, I think the role of personality in history has turned out to be much more significant than we once imagined. She is simply colossal! I dare to say that if, for example, Adolf Hitler had died at the front in 17 or 18, there would be no National Socialism. There would have been far-right parties and something else, but 50 million people would have remained alive! If he had been born ten years earlier or later, everything would have turned out differently. Hitler coincided with the mood of the people at that very historical point and caught the wave.

- You portrayed young Hitler as an ordinary person, weak and complex. At what point did the metamorphosis happen and the Fuhrer appear?

A whole chain of accidents leads him to this. There is a version that the turning point was an episode at the front of the First World War, when after a gas attack Hitler ended up in the hospital. The doctor who treated him for blindness discovered that the damage to his eyes was not organic, but rather neurotic. And then, with the help of hypnosis, the front-line doctor instilled in Hitler a special faith in himself.

The second moment occurred when Hitler, finding himself at a meeting of a small Bavarian party - and such rallies took place in beer halls - began to speak. Surrounded by completely insignificant outcasts, he suddenly felt the gift of a demagogue in himself. They started clapping for him, and he became filled with self-confidence.

In a word, a mass of random circumstances formed a fatal sequence. He should not have come to power. If the Weimar Republic had held out for at least an extra couple of months, the Nazi wave would have died down. But it turned out that a number of politicians who played their own games, trying to drown each other, opened the way to the top for Hitler.

- Was it really all that accidental? After all, by that time fascism was already in Italy, and similar regimes had taken over in other European countries.

But in Germany there was special situation. After the First World War, the Germans harbored a huge grudge against the whole world. And false grievances and the search for external enemies are extremely dangerous things for any country.

- By the way, in Russia, which suffered the most in the war against fascism, skinheads are walking around today, beating people of other nationalities. Where do we get this infection from?

There is no paradox in this. It took two decades and enormous strain on society, especially on the West German intelligentsia, to heal. She wrote new textbooks and created a new spiritual climate. The country has learned its lessons. Even the current German Chancellor Merkel, who was born after the war and seemingly free from responsibility for the crimes of Hitlerism, speaks of the historical guilt of the German people. It costs a lot.

For Russia, no matter how strange it may sound, the Great Patriotic War was not anti-fascist, it was a war for the Motherland against the occupiers. Fascism and its ideological roots were not exposed: after all, Stalin’s regime was in many ways similar to it. This is clearly seen in the example of the GDR, where, like in the USSR, these “vaccinations” were not done. It is no coincidence that the ultra-right in today's Germany almost all come from its eastern lands. I hope that solving Hitler's biggest secrets will bring us all at least one step closer to learning historical lessons.

Hitler's death brought moral relief to people all over the world, because it meant the impossibility of repeating the horrors of World War II.

And Adolf Hitler lost the meaning of his life in April 1945, when the Allies completed the defeat of Germany. It became absolutely clear that the idea of world domination would no longer be realized. They say that, realizing the inevitable defeat, Hitler gave instructions to destroy factories, food supplies - everything that belonged to the people of Germany, because this nation turned out to be weak, which means it should not continue to exist. Adolf Hitler said then that from now on world domination should belong to the more resilient Eastern people.

Let's remember the chronicle of the days that followed Hitler's death.

26 April. Three quarters of the German capital were occupied by Soviet troops, but on this day hope had not yet completely abandoned the Fuhrer. Then he was in an underground bunker at a depth of eight meters, anxiously awaiting news. But by evening it became clear that it was impossible to liberate the capital with the forces of two armies - the ninth and twelfth. Hitler was not alone in his underground shelter. With him was his mistress - Eva Braun, Goebbels with his family, the Chief of the General Staff, adjutants, secretaries, security guards. Witnesses claim that imminent death Adolf Hitler made itself felt. If he had not been poisoned, he would have lived only a short time due to health reasons. He moved awkwardly, barely dragging his feet and throwing his body forward. It was difficult for him to keep his balance, and his eyes were - no, not full of tears. The eyes were bloodshot. Hana Reitsch, a pilot fanatically devoted to Hitler, who was also in the dungeon, testifies that in his last days he presented a tragicomic picture - it was clear that Hitler was losing his mind and could not control himself.

April 27. Hitler orders the floodgates on the Spree to be opened and one of the metro stations to be flooded, where, according to the information he received, soldiers had penetrated. The order was carried out, and as a result of the flooding, thousands of people who were then in the metro died. These were wounded German soldiers, children and women.

April 29. The wedding of Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler took place. The ceremony took place in full accordance with the law - there was a wedding ceremony, Bormann and Goebbels (witnesses) were present, Krebs, secretaries and adjutants were invited to the celebration. The feast did not last long, after which Hitler made his will.

April 30. By order of the Fuhrer, 200 liters of gasoline were delivered to the chancellery garden. Hitler and his wife invited all their close associates (those who were with them in the bunker) to the conference room to say goodbye. After saying goodbye, Adolf Hitler and his wife remained in the room, and everyone else left it. The mystery of Hitler's death is that what happened next could have happened in two versions. According to the testimony of Linge, the Fuhrer's personal valet, at half past three in the afternoon the couple shot themselves. When they entered, the wounds in the temple area were clearly visible, and there were revolvers near the dead. However, the main version, accepted by the vast majority of historians, states that the poisoning, which had long been planned, caused the death of Adolf Hitler and his wife.

The bodies were wrapped in blankets, taken outside, placed in a shell crater and set on fire using prepared gasoline. However, they burned quite poorly, so the corpses still had to be buried. Red Army soldiers discovered the bodies on May 4, and only on May 8 were they brought to one of the local morgues for identification. Due to the fact that it was widely known that there were several doubles of both victims, the Soviet authorities wanted to thoroughly investigate what happened.

The research was carried out mainly according to data from Hitler's dentist, who described in detail the features of his oral cavity, which coincided with those found in the corpse. The body of Eva Braun was also identified. Fragments of ampoules were found in the mouths of the corpses, and a trace of a wound was also found in Eva Braun’s chest. According to the examination, Hitler's death was caused by poisoning. However, it cannot be said with absolute certainty that it was Hitler and his wife, because a carefully thought-out cunning plan could have worked. Hitler's death today seems difficult for a reliable investigation, because there is not a single expert or pathologist left alive who could shed light on this story. The fate of Hitler's remains is also unknown. Presumably, they were sent to Moscow, but no one has yet been able to find traces.

"Encyclopedia of Death. Chronicles of Charon"

Part 2: Dictionary of Selected Deaths

The ability to live well and die well is one and the same science.

Epicurus

HITLER Adolf

(pseudonym, real name Schicklgruber)

(1889-1945) leader of the National Socialist Party, head of the German state in 1933-1945

In April 1945, Allied troops completed the defeat of Germany. Hitler's idea of life collapsed - the idea of world domination of the Aryan nation. Albert Speer, head of military production in Nazi Germany, says that a few days before his death, Hitler shouted: “If the war is lost, the German people should not exist. There is no need to worry about this people surviving their defeat. Destroy all factories, bridges, food. This people turned out to be weak, and , which means the future belongs to the Eastern people, who have shown themselves to be stronger."

Here's a short chronicle last days Fuhrer.

Soviet troops occupied three quarters of Berlin, but Hitler still hopes for something... He is in a two-story bunker at a depth of 8 meters under the courtyard of the Imperial Chancellery, anxiously awaiting news. By evening, however, it becomes clear that the 9th and 12th armies are not capable of liberating the capital. Together with Hitler in the bunker are his mistress Eva Braun, Goebbels and his family, Chief of the General Staff Krebs, secretaries, adjutants, and guards. According to an officer of the General Staff, at this time, “physically Hitler presented a terrible picture: he moved with difficulty and clumsily, throwing his upper body forward, dragging his legs... He could hardly maintain his balance. His left hand did not obey him, but his right trembled constantly... Hitler's eyes were bloodshot..."

In the evening, one of the best pilots in Germany, Hanna Reitsch, fanatically devoted to Hitler, arrived at the bunker. According to the pilot’s story, the Fuhrer invited her to his place and quietly said: “Hannah, you belong to those who will die with me.” We each have an ampoule of poison." He handed the ampoule to Hannah. "I don't want any of us to fall into the hands of the Russians, and I don't want the Russians to get our bodies. Eve's body and mine will be burned.

Hanna Reitsch testifies that during the conversation Hitler presented a tragicomic picture: he rushed almost blindly from wall to wall with a paper in his trembling hands; then he suddenly stopped, sat down at the table, and moved flags around the map, indicating non-existent armies. “A completely disintegrated person,” stated Reich.

Personal disintegration and insanity did not prevent Hitler from ordering the opening of the floodgates on the Spree River and the flooding of the metro station when he learned that Soviet troops had penetrated the Berlin metro. Fulfillment of the order led to the death of thousands of people in the metro: wounded German soldiers, women and children.

Goebbels and Bormann attend the wedding of Hitler and Eva Braun as witnesses. The process takes place in accordance with the law: a marriage contract is drawn up and the wedding ceremony is performed. Witnesses, as well as Krebs, Goebbels' wife, Hitler's adjutants General Burgdorf and Colonel Belov, secretaries and cooks are invited to the wedding celebration. After a small feast, Hitler retires to draw up his will.

The last day of the Fuhrer is coming. After lunch, on Hitler's orders, his personal driver, SS Standartenführer Kempka, delivers canisters with 200 liters of gasoline to the garden of the Imperial Chancellery. In the meeting room, Hitler and Eva Braun say goodbye to Bormann, Goebbels, Burgdorf, Krebs, Axmann, and the Fuhrer's secretaries Junge and Weichelt who came here. Then everyone except Hitler and his wife goes out into the corridor. Further events are presented in two main versions.

According to the first version, based on the testimony of Hitler's personal valet Linge, the Fuhrer and Eva Braun shot themselves at 15.30. When Linge and Bormann entered the room, Hitler was allegedly sitting on a sofa in the corner, a revolver lay on the table in front of him, and blood was flowing from his right temple. The dead Eva Braun, who was in another corner, dropped her revolver to the floor.

Another version (accepted by almost all historians) says: Hitler and Eva Braun were poisoned with potassium cyanide. Before his death, Hitler also poisoned his two beloved shepherd dogs.

By order of Bormann, the bodies of the dead were wrapped in blankets, taken out into the yard, doused with gasoline and burned in a shell crater. True, they burned poorly, and, in the end, the SS men buried the half-burnt corpses in the ground.

The bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were discovered by Red Army soldier Churakov on May 4, but for some reason they lay for 4 whole days without examination. They were taken for examination and identification to one of the Berlin morgues on May 8. An external examination gave reason to believe that the charred corpses of a man and a woman were the remains of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. But, as you know, the Fuhrer and his mistress had several doubles, so the Soviet military authorities wanted to conduct a thorough investigation.

The question of whether the person taken to the morgue was really Hitler still worries researchers. Here is what one of them says about the circumstances of the case:

"The man's corpse was in wooden box length 163 cm, width and height 55 and 53 cm, respectively. A piece of yellowish knitted material similar to a shirt, burnt at the edges, was found on the corpse. Due to the fact that the corpse was largely charred, it was only possible to judge its age and height: about 50-60 years. Height - 165 cm. During his life, Hitler repeatedly consulted his dentist, as evidenced by the large number of fillings and golden cows on the remaining parts of his jaws. They were confiscated and transferred to the SMERSH-3 department of the Shock Army.

There were no visible signs of severe fatal injuries or illnesses on the body, which had been significantly altered by the fire. But a crushed glass ampoule was found in the mouth. The smell of bitter almonds emanated from the corpse. The same ampoules were discovered during the autopsy of 10 more corpses of Hitler's associates. It was determined that death was caused by cyanide poisoning. On the same day, an autopsy was performed on the corpse of a woman, “presumably,” as stated in the acts, belonging to Hitler’s wife Eva Braun.

It was also difficult to determine the age: between 30 and 40 years. Height is about 150 cm. The corpse could also be identified only by the golden bridge of the lower jaw. But, apparently, the causes of death were different: despite the fact that there was a broken glass ampoule in the mouth and the smell of bitter almonds also emanated from the corpse, traces of a shrapnel wound and 6 small metal fragments were found in the chest."

The remains of Hitler and Braun were examined by Soviet military forensic experts and pathologists; To date, they have all died, and therefore it is difficult (almost impossible) to know the fate of Hitler’s remains. The writer Elena Rzhevskaya, who during the war was a translator for the 1st Belorussian Front, writes in her book “There Was a War...” that these remains were sent to Moscow. However, no one managed to find their traces in the former USSR.

"Where is Hitler buried?" - unanswered question

Lady History often brings surprises to people. The lion's share of the reasons for their appearance lies in the reluctance of a small group of people (most often representing the interests of the authorities) to share information with a wide circle of people (for example, society). Therefore the question: “Where is Hitler’s grave?” - is still open to historians.

Official version

According to the results of the official investigation conducted by SMRESH employees of the 3rd Shock Army (whose soldiers attacked and took the Reichstag), on April 30, 1945, German leader Adolf Hitler and his wife Eva Braun committed suicide at 15:30. The bodies of the victims were doused with gasoline, burned and buried in the garden.

Four days later, their remains were dug up by Soviet soldiers. In the Berlin morgue, where it was decided to store the corpses, investigative measures were carried out. By comparing data from Hitler's dentist and the jaw of the deceased, investigators confidently established that the deceased was indeed Adolf Hitler.

However, even now the official authorities refuse to give an exact answer to the question: “Where is Hitler buried?”, Referring to It is believed that the remains of the Fuhrer are in Moscow: the jaw is in the FSB archive, and part of the skull lies in the State Archives.

Disposal of remains

Historians, relying on documents from the declassified archives of the MGB-KGB-FSB, count at least seven places where Hitler is buried. The fact is that the special services, under pressure from the political elite, constantly transferred the remains of Hitler, Eva Braun and the Goebbels family from place to place. They were last buried in a military camp near Magdeburg, Germany.

However, in 1970, on the orders of the then KGB chief Andropov, on the night of April 4-5, the task force opened the burial. Moreover, everything happened with the knowledge of the Soviet leadership and in complete secrecy. The exhumation was preceded by serious preliminary preparation, there were even observation posts set up.

The dug up remains were brought to a landfill located nearby, ground into dust, burned and the ashes scattered to the wind.

Unofficial version of where Hitler is buried

Adherents are not official version It is believed that in 1945, doubles of the German leader and his wife died in Berlin. The difference in the testimony of prisoners and information about the nine-month operation of the Soviet special services in Germany to search for Hitler give reason to doubt the correctness of the official version.

Some researchers write in their books that Hitler “bought off” the allies by transferring to them an amount now equal to $100 billion and German developments in the field of rocketry and nuclear fusion. In exchange, he and many other Germans (they put the figure at 100 thousand people) were allowed to flee to Argentina and live there until 1964. It was this year that the Fuhrer died and was buried in an unknown place. There is still no exact and unambiguous answer. It’s safe to say that many people have earned a lot of money and fame from the latest “investigation of the century.”

Hitler's books

Adolf was not as educated as Stalin, so from his cultural heritage he left behind only “Mein Kampf” (“My Struggle”) - a book with a large number and calling for “racial cleansing” and the like.

Until January 1, 2016, the copyright for this book belongs to the Bavarian state government. Unless certain provisions of the relevant documents are revised, it will continue to receive income from sales of the book. The book has been officially banned in Russia since 2010. Every year, US residents buy more than 60 thousand copies of a book authored by Hitler.

I was prompted to turn to this topic by recently reading Gregory Douglas’s book “Gestapo Chief Heinrich Müller. Recruitment Conversations,” in one of the chapters of which Müller, in a conversation with an American investigator, tells his version of the events of the spring of 1945, when the Allied armies were rapidly finishing off the Nazis, and everyone was It is clear that the days of the Third Reich are numbered. Adolf Hitler understood this, of course. To my surprise, in addition to Mueller’s story, as well as the official version, which said that the Fuhrer committed suicide, there were many more interesting things...

It is worth saying that Heinrich Müller himself, the chief of the famous Gestapo and SS general, was considered dead in the last days of the war. There is even Müller's grave. However, three bodies were found there that had nothing to do with Muller. Gregory Douglas, relying on materials declassified by American intelligence services, argues that Muller, like many leaders of the Reich, did not die, but fled from justice. If you believe the overseas journalist that Muller did not die, but began to help the Americans, then the story of the Gestapo chief looks very plausible.

The first conversation about Hitler’s “suicide” took place between the Fuhrer and Müller in March 1945 in the garden of the Reich Chancellery, which a little later the victors would dig up and down in search of the remains of the leaders of Nazi Germany. Both understood that the end was near and were looking for a way out of the difficult situation. No one was going to give up: it was too late, and it was a pity for the effort expended. It was worth thinking about the future. Muller suggested hiding in Spain, in Barcelona.

This city was considered optimal for such a purpose: one of the main ports, from where you can easily travel to almost anywhere in the world; Müller had his own people there, and Franco probably would have helped. In the future, it was possible to hide in South America. Müller advised us to fly from Gatow airfield and suggested Werner Baumbach, a man very loyal to the Fuhrer, as well as a skilled pilot, as the pilot.

To avoid Allied persecution, it was necessary to replace Hitler with a double. “He was the first to remember his doppelganger, and we both laughed a little,” Mueller said of that garden meeting. Back in 1941, Müller was reported that practically exact copy Fuhrer. Despite the lack of a mustache and a different hairstyle, the resemblance was striking. This man was a distant relative of Hitler, born in Austria into the Sillip family, but did not know about his relationship with Adolf. The double smoked and was plumper than Hitler, so I had to “work” a little: stop smoking, lose weight and adopt some of the Fuhrer’s gestures and habits. The work was carried out successfully, and soon no one could distinguish distant relatives.

In the last days of the war, Joseph Stalin sent special team to search for Hitler's body. They found, according to Mueller, you guessed it, the body of a double. The forgery was not noticed immediately, and the news of the “find” quickly reached Stalin. During a detailed study of the remains, some inconsistencies were noticed, which they were afraid to report to Stalin. Joseph Vissarionovich doubted, did not believe that the found corpse was Hitler’s body, and sent new experts. Experts also doubted it. There were several reasons for this.

On April 20, 1945, Gruppenführer Müller issued a top-secret order regarding a special flight from the KG 200 base to Eyring/Gersching (17 km from Linz/Donau) on April 26, 1945. The order (in the picture) "Special Flight of the Fuhrer to Barcelona" contains a list of people who were supposed to fly. Among them: Hitler, Goebbels, his wife and children (crossed out), Bormann, Müller, SS General Fegelein, Infantry General Burgdorf, Ambassador Hevel, SS Lieutenant Colonel Betz, SS Major Stumpfegger, Captain Gross (?), Eva Braun, cook Marziali. Also 4 people from National service security + 3. Of these, according to Muller, only Hitler, Fegelein, Hevel, Betz and Eva Braun flew away.

Firstly, the dead man had darned socks on his feet. Hitler couldn't wear darned socks! Although... anything can happen. However, other differences are more significant. The subject under study had only one testicle, the real Hitler had two. There were also differences in the shape of the ears. It is known that before the widespread use of fingerprints, it was the shape of the ears that was a kind of passport: there is not a single person on earth with the same ear shape.

What was to be done with the fake corpse? Stalin ordered the body destroyed, but soon changed his mind, and the half-burnt corpse, pulled out of the oven, was sent to Moscow in a box with ice.

Mueller claims that the body of the double was buried in such a way that the Russians could easily find it, and the general himself buried the body. The double suspected nothing, hoping to act as a decoy for the Allies until the real Hitler disappeared somewhere in Spain or South America. But it was impossible to leave the “false Fuhrer” alive: in this case, the allies would continue the search with double efforts and eventually reach the goal. The double was shot with a 7.65 caliber Walter PPK pistol in the middle of the forehead, hoping for a miracle until the last moment. No miracle happened.

A little earlier, he replaced the Fuhrer when he went for a traditional walk with his dog. Such walks were quite common and no one paid attention to them, so no one noticed the forgery when it was not Hitler who returned to the bunker, but his double with a shepherd dog similar to Blondie. Since then, “Hitler” began to be protected from unnecessary contacts so that no one would suspect anything.

As Müller said, “We created a double, dressed him in Hitler’s uniform, then shot him and buried him where he was sure to be found. So why bother now with questions about whether Hitler is alive or dead?” In any case, after the events of the spring of 1945, the Fuhrer never appeared before a large public, which, at least, spoke of his political death.

However, the search continued. New versions were born, old ones were disputed, but a final answer has not yet been given. On the pages of the site we will try to highlight the most known variants developments of events, and whether to accept them or not, and if accepted, then which one, is up to you to decide.

Versions, versions, versions...

In September 1991, journalists from the Dutch television company FMA (Forin media affers) found sensational material: they managed to find three former employees Soviet military counterintelligence SMERSH, who knew about the burial place of Hitler's remains.

Retired captain Ivan Blashchuk, who served in the SMERSH department of the 3rd Shock Army at the end of the war, told reporters that in May 1945 he witnessed the identification of the corpses of Hitler, Eva Braun, Joseph Goebbels, his wife and children, as well as General Krebs. According to him, the corpses were buried in the Berlin suburb of Buch, and then reburied in the forest near the town of Rathenow (also not far from Berlin). In 1946, when the headquarters of the 3rd Army moved to Magdeburg, several wooden boxes were transported along with other military equipment. These boxes contained the remains of Hitler and the people who died with him. From one of his colleagues, Ivan Blashchuk learned that the boxes with the remains were buried in the courtyard of a house on Westendstrasse, where the SMERSH department of the 3rd Shock Army was located.

Another SMERSH employee, Major Vasily Orlovsky, himself was present at the burial of the remains of Goebbels, his wife and children and General Krebs in the courtyard of the house on Westendstrasse. True, he did not know or did not want to tell reporters where Hitler was buried.

But the third witness, Captain Ivan Tereshchenko, knew much more. He arrived in Magdeburg after the war: in 1946, Tereshchenko was appointed head of the secretariat of the SMERSH department of the 3rd Army. From his predecessor, among other documents, he received a top secret note former boss SMERSH of Gorbushin’s 3rd Army about the burial of the bodies of Hitler, Eva Braun and others in Magdeburg. Attached to the note was an exact diagram of the location of the graves, according to which Hitler’s remains were buried near the garage in the courtyard of house No. 36 Westendstrasse.

In November 1991, the FMA film crew, together with Ivan Blaschuk and Ivan Tereshchenko, arrived in Magdeburg. Former SMERSH employees recognized the houses on the former Westendstrasse (now Klausenerstrasse), where the services of the 3rd Army were previously located. In particular, the former building of the SMERSH department and former house chief of counterintelligence. Ivan Tereshchenko showed journalists the place where, according to a secret scheme, Hitler’s remains were buried. The old garage had long been demolished, and the asphalt courtyard was filled with some boxes and barrels.

For almost six months, the FMA television company prepared for filming, seeking permission to conduct excavations. Only in July 1992, an expedition led by Polish archaeologist Evgen Tomczak began a search. The courtyard indicated by Blashchuk and Tereshchenko was carefully dug up. The wooden box in which Hitler's corpse lay and which all the witnesses spoke about was not found. Finally, after long search some bones were found. However, the journalists were in for a severe disappointment: the examination established that these were the bones of an animal. Further searches did not bring any results. Hitler's remains disappeared without a trace...

The excavations of the FMA television company and their unexpected result attracted the attention of researcher Lev Bezymensky. During the war, Lev Aleksandrovich Bezymensky was an officer at the headquarters of the 1st Belorussian Front and a military translator for Marshal Zhukov. It was Bezymensky who was one of the first to learn about Hitler's death - on the night of May 1, 1945, in Zhukov's headquarters dugout, he translated a letter from Goebbels and Bormann to Stalin, in which the new leaders of the Third Reich informed the Soviet leader about Hitler's suicide and proposed to begin peace negotiations. (Later, already a world-famous scientist and writer, Lev Bezymensky discovered the translation he had made in Stalin’s personal archive).

After the war and demobilization, Bezymensky became a historian. His works on the history of the Second World War are widely known in former USSR and abroad, and the book “Solved Mysteries of the Third Reich,” published in 1981 by the APN publishing house (and still in print), became a real bestseller. Meeting with colleagues at international conferences and studying relevant literature, Lev Alexandrovich often came across questions related to the circumstances of Hitler’s death. Other fans of sensations, taking advantage of the lack of understanding of this problem, argued that the Fuhrer did not die in April 1945, that Hitler managed to escape - either to Japan, or to South America.

In order to put an end to these speculations once and for all, Bezymensky decided to completely clarify the issue of the circumstances of Hitler’s suicide and the identification of his corpse. However, this turned out to be a difficult task - all documents related to the search and identification of Hitler were classified by the Soviet intelligence services. Lev Aleksandrovich persistently sought permission to work in numerous special storage facilities, looked for witnesses, compared documents and eyewitness accounts, analyzed and drew conclusions.

As a result of many years of painstaking research work he managed to establish the following:

firstly, Hitler and Eva Braun actually committed suicide in the bunker of the Reich Chancellery on the night of 1945;

secondly, that same night their bodies were carried by the SS into the garden of the Imperial Chancellery and burned in a crater near the entrance;

thirdly, the burnt bodies of a man and a woman (presumably Hitler and Eva Braun) were discovered on May 4, 1945 in the garden of the Imperial Chancellery by a group of Soviet soldiers led by the head of SMERSH of the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army, Ivan Klimenko;

fourthly, a preliminary investigation conducted by SMERSH of the 79th Corps directly in May 1945 (a survey of employees of the Imperial Chancellery and SS men who took part in the burning of the bodies) led to the conclusion that the discovered remains belonged to Hitler and Eva Braun;

fifthly, the final investigation carried out by SMERSH of the 3rd Army in the summer of 1945 documented and irrefutably confirmed the version that the burnt corpses are the remains of Hitler and Eva Braun.

Studying documents and interviewing witnesses, Lev Bezymensky discovered that the bodies of Hitler, Eva Braun, the Goebbels and General Krebs were reburied seven (!) times. The graves of Hitler and others were located in the Berlin suburb of Buch, in the towns of Finow, Rathenow and Stendhal near Berlin and, finally, in Magdeburg, where the headquarters of the 3rd Shock Army moved in February 1946. It was the Magdeburg burial, according to documents, that was supposed to be Hitler's last grave.

However, excavations organized by the FMA television company in Magdeburg ended in vain. Maybe former SMERSH employees misled journalists? Or were you yourself deceived by falsified documents?

Moreover, the results of the Magdeburg searches cast doubt on the entire documentary base of evidence of Hitler's death! The question arose: if the remains of the Fuhrer were not found in his last grave, then maybe they never existed? Were the documents about the Fuhrer's suicide fabricated by the Soviet intelligence services?

The problems that arose in connection with the fruitless search for Hitler's grave in Magdeburg forced Lev Bezymensky to conduct his own investigation. Unlike journalists, he turned not to archaeologists, but to archivists. For almost two years, the researcher sought access to secret archives, and finally, in the fall of 1994, in the archive Federal service counterintelligence (formerly KGB) he received a small folder. Beneath the nondescript gray cover were the most comprehensive documents on the fate of Hitler's remains.

One of the documents - an act dated February 21, 1946, signed by the head of SMERSH of the 3rd Shock Army Miroshnichenko - confirmed the story of former SMERSH employees that last time The box containing Hitler's body was buried in Magdeburg:

"...In the area of the city of Rathenow, a pit was opened with the corpses of Hitler, Brown, the Goebbels and their children and General Krips (correctly - Krebs)... All of the listed corpses are in a semi-decayed state in wooden boxes and in this form were delivered to city of Magdeburg, to the location of the counterintelligence department "SMERSH" of the army and again buried in a hole at a depth of 2 meters in the courtyard of house number 36 on Westendstrasse."

But where did the bodies go? This question was answered by the following document, dated already March 1970. ...24 years after Hitler’s burial in Magdeburg, on March 13, 1970, Chairman of the USSR State Security Committee Yuri Andropov sent a secret letter of special importance to the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev. Bezymensky noticed that key phrases were not printed, but written into the text by hand - apparently, so that even the most trusted and reliable typists of the KGB central apparatus would not understand what was being said (in our text, these phrases are marked in italics).

Andropov wrote: “In February 1946, in Magdeburg (GDR), on the territory of a military camp now occupied by the Special Department of the KGB for the 3rd Army of the GSVG (Group of Soviet Forces in Germany), the corpses of Hitler, Eva Braun, Goebbels, his wife and children (10 corpses in total).At present, the indicated military camp, based on service expediency that meets the interests of our troops, is being transferred by the army command to the German authorities.

Considering the possibility of construction or other excavation work in this area, which could lead to the discovery of a burial, I would consider it advisable to extract the remains and destroy them by burning. This event will be carried out strictly in secret by the forces of the operational group of the Special Department of the KGB and properly documented."

On March 16, the top leaders of the Soviet Union put their signatures under the “Agree” visa: general secretary CPSU Central Committee L. Brezhnev, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR A. Kosygin and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR N. Podgorny. On March 18, the document was returned to the KGB secretariat, and on March 26, Yu. Andropov approved the plan for Operation Archive.

The top secret operation of the Special Department of the KGB of the USSR "Archive" was prepared by the beginning of April 1970. According to the plan approved by Andropov, a special group of the Special Department of the KGB was supposed to seize and destroy the remains of people buried in Magdeburg. At the beginning of April, in the courtyard of house 36 on Klausenerstrasse (formerly Westendstrasse), a large tent was erected above the burial site, which hid the work of the special group from possible witnesses. Special security was installed for the tent - at first it was guarded by soldiers, and immediately before the start of the excavations they were replaced by KGB operatives. Moreover, in one of the nearby houses, the KGB installed a hidden surveillance post “in order to detect possible visual reconnaissance.”

On the night of April 4-5, 1970, a KGB task force, under the cover of a tent, opened graves on Klausener Strasse. During the autopsy, it was discovered that the remains were buried in five wooden boxes, which had rotted over time and turned to dust. The discovered bones were placed in other boxes. Early in the morning of April 5, they were taken by car to the training fields of the sapper and tank regiment of the GSVG, where they were crushed, turned into dust and burned. The ashes of Hitler and the people who died with him were scattered to the wind near one of the tributaries of the Elbe...

After reading the report of the head of the task force attached to the archival file, Lev Bezymensky sighed with relief:

Now everything has become clear. Documents from the KGB archive fully explained the seemingly mysterious disappearance of the remains in Magdeburg. The fog of uncertainty has cleared, and the question of the circumstances of Hitler's death and the fate of his corpse can be closed once and for all...

However, the insidious goddess Clio - History had a surprise in store here too: it turned out that not all the remains were destroyed in March 1970! The fact is that on May 17, 1945, Beria’s deputy, General Pyotr Meshik, arrived in Berlin to check the results of the investigation into Hitler’s death. On May 18, the bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun, already buried in Finow, were exhumed. On May 23, Meshik returned to Moscow, taking with him the jaws of Hitler and Eva Braun.

For a long time Hitler's jaws were kept in a special secret museum of the MGB-KGB. Several years ago they were transferred for storage to a special department of the State Archives of the Russian Federation (GARF). What remains of the greatest criminal of the twentieth century rests on a small rectangular stand under a thick glass cap...

In 2003, the Yauza publishing house published the second edition of the book “The Last Secret of the Reich.” Its author, Leon Arbatsky, doubts that Hitler committed suicide in April 1945.

Stalin did not believe in Hitler's death

Leon Abramovich, you chose a meaningful subtitle for the book - “The Case of the Disappearance of Hitler.” Not death, but disappearance. Is there really any basis for such statements?

I'm not saying that. I make assumptions based on facts. And there are many facts that give reason to doubt.

But there is a verdict of the administrative court on civil cases from 1956, which took place in Berchtesgaden, the very town where Hitler’s summer residence was located. After hearing 48 witnesses, the judges made a definite conclusion: citizen Adolf Hitler, born in 1889, is no longer alive.

Firstly, this decision, as you accurately said, dates back to 1956. And I do not deny: by 1956, Hitler most likely was not alive.

Secondly, many of the key witnesses at this trial were absent, key documents were not produced, and two key witnesses later recanted their testimony - the dental technician who made dentures for Hitler and the dental assistant.

Let me remind you that on May 4, 1945, our intelligence officers discovered the supposed corpses of Hitler and Eva Braun in a crater in the imperial garden. Hitler's greatest fear was that his corpse would fall into the hands of the Russians and be put on display. That’s why he ordered the corpse to be burned. Stalin was informed about the grim discovery. But he did not believe it and told his closest assistants - Chief of the General Staff Antonov and Chief of the Operations Department of the General Staff Shtemenko (he trusted these people completely) - that there was no need to rush to conclusions. In addition, he made a number of statements addressed to the leaders of the United States and England that Hitler was alive and hiding somewhere.

Perhaps he received some information from unofficial sources that we do not know about. That he had such sources is beyond doubt.

British Prime Minister Attlee also believed that Hitler was alive. He stated this at the Potsdam Conference in June 1945.

Fake blood

Let's return to the dentists' testimony.

In 1945, when Soviet officers showed Hitler's jaw to a dental technician, he recognized his work. And in 1972, in a conversation with the German writer Maser, he changed his testimony: he said that he could not say definitively that the found jaw with an inset bridge and crowns belonged to Hitler. The dental assistant said the same thing. But the conclusions of Soviet experts who identified Hitler’s corpse were based on the confessions of these two most important witnesses. And since both refused their testimony, the entire system of evidence collapsed.

But there was other important evidence: the Moscow forensic laboratory examined blood stains on the sofa on which Hitler allegedly shot himself. The examination showed that it was imitation blood, not blood. The blood type of the supposed Hitler found in the funnel also did not match his actual blood type. No bullet hole was found in Hitler's brain. In addition, there is a version that on April 30, 1945, Hitler poisoned himself before shooting himself in the temple. But a chemical examination of the internal organs, carried out several months later, showed no traces of poison.

It turns out that Stalin was right in his doubts, claiming that Hitler fled? Recently, the press published a protocol of interrogation of Gestapo chief Müller, dated 1948. He directly points out that Hitler was replaced with a double, and the Fuhrer himself flew to Spain.

This document gives me doubts. Unlike Bormann's diary, found on the streets of destroyed Berlin. Graphological examination confirmed the authenticity of Bormann's handwriting. The last entry in it is dated April 30, 1945, and opposite the name Hitler there is a runic sign - a symbol of death. I think Stalin assumed that the Germans had developed an operation to fake Hitler’s death in order to hide his escape or the place of his true burial. Somehow everything worked out easily: the remains were quickly discovered, the necessary witnesses were quickly found, and they quickly identified everything. And then there was the diary of the main party leader, who seemed to put an end to it: Hitler is dead, forget Hitler.

Fuhrer's double

In this case, talk about Hitler’s double is still not a myth? It turns out that it was the double corpse that “covered” the Fuhrer’s escape? But when could a double appear in the bunker?

Most likely on the last day, April 30th. On this day, at approximately 13 o'clock, Hitler said goodbye to his subordinates and retired with Eva Braun to the bunker. Of the surviving witnesses, only one person saw the dead Hitler - Linge's personal valet. Everyone else watched only the removal of the body, wrapped in a blanket. No one saw who was hiding under the blanket. Linge himself later admitted that he was not sure that there were actually blood stains on Hitler’s temple and not paint.

The real Hitler entered the bunker to disappear into oblivion. AND...

One of the scenarios: he goes not into oblivion, but into the next room - the bathroom or Eva Braun's room. And he locks himself there. The corpse of ersatz Hitler, wrapped in a blanket headfirst, was taken out of the office, having been delivered there in advance. They also bring out the dead Eva Braun, who took poison.

Why would Eva Braun poison herself if her husband Hitler is alive? Or was she poisoned?

Perhaps both. What for? Yes, to give credibility to the dramatization. Hitler in the next room changes clothes and changes his appearance. He shaved off his famous mustache, shaved his head, and put on a wig. All the uninitiated were removed from the bunker at the right moment. Hitler's adjutant Günsche testifies in his testimony that he gave the order to the guards to leave the premises adjacent to Hitler's apartments. He removed the guards from the emergency exit. And it was from there that, after a while, the corpse of Hitler’s double was taken out.

Only the valet knew the secret of death

But what about the real Fuhrer?

The real one could have left the bunker. It is known that on the night of May 1, about 40 people fled from the Reich Chancellery shelter. The bunker may have had underground passages leading into the city quarters. In general, the bomb shelter was an entire city, where thousands of people hid during air raids.

But how could Hitler escape if Berlin was occupied by the Red Army?

The Fuhrer had a good chance of escape. In the confusion of the first post-war weeks, when Berlin and all of Germany were filled with crowds of unhappy people, it was not difficult to get lost. It’s curious: when saying goodbye to his valet, the Fuhrer ordered him to make his way to the West. "For whom?" - asked Linge. - “For the Fuhrer.”

And then there was only one Fuhrer in Germany. The same Linge, sitting in prison, declared that only he knew the secret of Hitler’s death and would never reveal it.

- Do you believe that Adolf Hitler still fought for his salvation?

By nature he was a desperate adventurer. His entire career is a chain of risky adventures, starting with the “Beer Hall Putsch” of 1923. Why couldn't he take the last chance when life was at stake? He would always have time to commit suicide if he had an ampoule of poison. In addition, some rescue measures were prepared in advance.

Superplane for the Reich elite

On Hitler's personal instructions, at a plant in the city of Dessau, Junkers produced two colossal six-engine aircraft, one of which made a test flight to Japan. Long-range aircraft were entirely loaded with canisters of fuel. There was only room for a few passengers and crew.

Has it come to evacuation?

No. The airfield was bombed. After this, a temporary airfield was organized at the Brandenburg Gate, not far from the Reich Chancellery. For the runway, centuries-old linden trees were cut down along the street. Training aircraft were constantly on duty there, requiring a minimum take-off run. And with Hitler, his two personal pilots and the commander of the government squadron were constantly present. The captured commandant of Berlin claimed that Hitler could not fly by plane (this airfield was also bombed), but could escape through the underground passages of the metro. It is also known that 10 ocean-going submarines were moored at the pier in Hamburg. The captains were told that they were intended to evacuate the Reich government.

Evidence from a bottle

However, there is not a single evidence that Hitler was ever seen anywhere after April 30, 1945.

Why? Security officer Kernau claimed that he saw Hitler alive on May 1. In addition, immediately after the war, publications appeared in the foreign press that Hitler had evacuated to Argentina, Paraguay, Spain, and Ireland. On the shores of the North Sea in Denmark, a bottle with a letter from a German sailor from a sunken submarine was found. He writes that Hitler was on board the boat and could not escape. The boat came across a sunken ship and was holed. Part of the crew was saved, but Hitler was in the stern in a tightly sealed cabin and could not get out.

It turns out that the remains of the wrong Hitler were discovered in the garden of the Reich Chancellery and then examined?

The likelihood of this happening is high. The German government also had doubts and turned to the USSR government in the late 1980s to be shown Hitler’s burial place. Apparently, they wanted to conduct an examination using modern identification tools. But it was too late. Back in 1970, KGB Chairman Andropov ordered the opening of the burial site of Hitler and the Goebbels family, which was located on the territory of a Soviet military unit in Magdeburg, and the destruction of the remains. The remains were completely burned, and the ashes were thrown into the river. There is a certificate of the burning procedure.

How then can we explain that everyone has no doubt about the death of criminal number 1?

Apparently there is a psychological barrier. It is difficult for a normal person to accept that a person who has committed so much evil has escaped retribution. I also don’t presume to say that he managed to escape. I just want to draw attention to the fact that not everything in this story, which put an end to the history of the Second World War, is completely clear.

As for Hitler, history has given him what he deserved. He never found a grave. His body is not buried. Relatives and descendants do not come to worship his ashes.

Gloomy end. And science for dictators obsessed with extravagant ideas.

FROM THE EDITOR

The published conversation talks about only one version of how the greatest criminal of the 20th century ended his days. Komsomolskaya Pravda also talked about other versions of Hitler’s death. There is a historical mystery. Perhaps our readers - experts, historians, criminologists - have their own answers to the questions posed in the conversation. The editors are ready to publish them.

How Hitler's remains were destroyed
From declassified documents of the state archive Bx 1759 10.4.70
"Top secret"
copy the only K series
Magdeburg April 5, 1970
ACT
(on the physical destruction of the remains of war criminals)

According to the plan for the “Archive” event, the task force... burned the remains of war criminals removed from burial in a military camp on the street. Westendstrasse near house number 36 (now Klausenerstrasse).

The destruction of the remains was carried out by burning them at the stake in a vacant lot near the city of Schönebeck, 11 km from Magdeburg.

The remains were burned out, crushed into ash along with coal, collected and thrown into the Biederitz River, about which this act was drawn up.

Hitler is dead. Dead since April 30, 1945. There is no doubt about it. Not long ago, an exhibition was opened in Moscow where a fragment of the parietal part of Hitler’s skull with a bullet exit hole was shown. Vladimir Tuchkov wrote about this event some time ago in our newspaper. I am not very close to his statements regarding the appropriateness of such an exhibition, but a debate about ethics is not part of my plans. More importantly, statements are again heard about the unclear origin and authenticity of this exhibit. Let me introduce the reader to the problem of the authenticity and inauthenticity of the body of Hitler and his loved ones with the help of an article by two historians - Tatyana Tsarevskaya and Natalya Voyakina, who published a detailed study not so long ago in the journal "Knowledge is Power".

On May 4, 1945, Private I. D. Churakov noticed a bomb crater to the left of the entrance to the Fuhrer’s bunker. At the bottom of the crater lay the half-burnt corpses of a man and a woman, covered with a layer of earth. Only the next day the bodies were taken out. There, in the crater, they found the corpses of two dogs, a German shepherd and a puppy.

On the same day, May 5, two acts were drawn up. Here is an excerpt from one of them (the document itself is stored in the Central Archives of the FSB): “... in Berlin, in the area of Hitler’s Reich Chancellery, near the places where the corpses of Goebbels and his wife were found, near Hitler’s personal bomb shelter, two burned corpses were discovered and seized - "one female, the other male. The corpses were badly burned, and without any additional data it is impossible to identify them. The corpses were in a bomb crater, three meters from the entrance to Hitler's shelter, and covered with a layer of earth." The ground was dug up and looked through, and as a result, two dark-colored glass tubes for medicine were discovered. This is where the finds on the territory of the Reich Chancellery ended. Back on May 2, a member of the Military Council of the 1st Belorussian Front, Lieutenant General Telegin, created a commission to study the found corpses. But the continuation of the investigation was complicated by the redeployment of Soviet troops in Berlin. The 3rd Shock Army was withdrawn from the city; units of the 5th Shock Army remained in the city, the commander of which, Colonel General N.E. Berzarin, became the first Soviet commandant of Berlin. The troops of the 5th Army were responsible for the protection of the Reich Chancellery and everything located on its territory, and a group of counterintelligence officers under the command of Colonel V.I. Gorbushin had no choice but to organize an operation, which E. Rzhevskaya (interpreter of this group) described as follows: “On "at dawn, at four o'clock in the morning, Captain Deryabin and his driver, having made their way into the Reich Chancellery, stole, wrapped in sheets, the corpses of Hitler and Eva Braun and, bypassing the sentries, climbed over the fence into the street, where two wooden boxes and a car were waiting for them."

So the interdepartmental struggle led to the fact that the corpses of the alleged Hitler and Eva Braun began their long journey. At first, the corpses were brought to the workers' settlement near Berlin - Buch. It is unclear by what route, but the charred corpses of Joseph and Martha Goebbels, their six poisoned children, and two dogs also ended up there.

On May 8, 1945, in the morgue of the KhPG (surgical mobile field hospital) No. 496, a commission consisting of the chief forensic expert of the 1st Belorussian Front, Lieutenant Colonel of the Medical Service F.I. Shkarovsky and four other doctors carried out a forensic examination of the man’s corpse. This is what was discovered during the study: “The age of the corpse is about 50-60 years, height is 165 centimeters (the measurement is inaccurate due to charring of tissue). The skull cap is partially missing. There are multiple small cracks in the nasal bones and the bones of the upper jaw. Pieces of glass were found in the mouth, making up part walls and bottom of a thin-walled ampoule. The penis is charred: only the right testicle was found in the burned but preserved scrotum. Along the inguinal canal, the left testicle was not found. A clear smell of bitter almond emanates from the corpse." To confirm or refute the version of poisoning, a test tube with pieces of glass was attached to the report.

According to doctors, “the main anatomical finding that could be used for personal identification is the jaws with a large number of artificial bridges, teeth, crowns and fillings.” Immediately after the opening, the “yellow metal bridge of the upper jaw with 9 teeth” and the “burnt lower jaw with 15 teeth” were transferred by doctors to the “Smersh” department of the 3rd Shock Army, that is, Gorbushin’s group. There was no safe nearby, and Gorbushin hid the evidence in a maroon box of cheap perfume and gave it to the translator Rzhevskaya and the teetotal major for safekeeping.

As a result, the NKVD commissioner I. Serov sent the entire set of documents (thirteen acts, interrogation reports and photographs) to L. Beria. In the accompanying note, he indicated that “the listed documents and photographs confirm the correctness of our assumptions about the suicide of Hitler and Goebbels. [...] In the same way, there is no doubt that the corpse of Hitler we supposed is genuine. This was established on the basis of the testimony of a dental "The doctor and nurse who treated Hitler, who drew the location of Hitler's false teeth. Their testimony was confirmed by forensic examination." After a forensic medical examination, all the corpses were Goebbels with children, the Chief of the General Staff German army General Krips, the probable corpse of Hitler and his wife, as well as two dogs - were "buried in the area of the city of Buch." However, “in connection with the relocation of the counterintelligence department “Smersh” of the 3rd Shock Army, the corpses were seized and transported first to the area of the city of Finov, and then on June 3, 1945 - to the area of \u200b\u200bthe city of Rathenov, where they were finally buried. The corpses are in wooden boxes in hole at a depth of 1.7 meters and placed in the following order [...] Location of buried corpses Germany, Brandenburg province, area of the city of Rathenow, forest east of the city of Rathenow along the highway from Rathenow to Stechow, not reaching the village of Neu Friedrichsdorf, which is 325 meters from railway bridge [...] The buried pit with corpses was leveled to the ground; on the surface of the pit, small pine trees numbering III were planted."

The investigation, it would seem, considered everything completed. But the leaders of the Soviet Union never officially announced the corpses of Hitler, his wife and other persons at their disposal. At the end of October 1945, following the interrogation of persons who had fallen into the hands of the Anglo-American services, the Allies considered it necessary to inform the press that “Hitler is beyond any doubt dead.” However, according to the Allies, as set out in the English memorandum of November 1, 1945, the only decisive proof of Hitler's death would be "the discovery and definite identification of the corpse." In addition, according to British sources, Hitler committed suicide by shooting himself in the mouth. US Brigadier General E. J. Ford sent a detailed version of the memorandum to the Allied intelligence agencies. The most important was the proposal to discuss the circumstances of Hitler's death at a meeting of the Allied Intelligence Committee.

Initially, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Beria did not object to the exchange of information between the allies about the circumstances of Hitler's disappearance. In a draft letter addressed to I. Serov, he even assumed that “in addition, the allies may request the interrogation of some persons who are with us: Günsche, Rattenhuber, Baur and others,” and agreed with this. However, at the end of November, a document was placed on Beria’s desk containing the consent of Merkulov, Kruglov, Kobulov to conduct a joint investigation with the allies and Abakumov’s categorical objection. Most likely, Abakumov was worried about the honor of his uniform, because the first investigation in May 1945 was led by Abakumov’s department - the Smersh counterintelligence agencies of the 1st Belorussian Front. The transfer of documents to the Allies, as well as the possibility of exhumation of the corpses for further research by a group of international experts, could not only reveal weak spots and omissions in the organization of the May investigation, but also to attract the interest of the world community to this, which would undermine Abakumov’s influence. In this regard, the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs decided to sort out the situation on his own. However, soon, at the end of 1945, Beria became deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, and the matter of clarifying Hitler's fate died away on the sidelines of the NKVD.

The initiator of the next stage of the investigation into the case of Hitler’s fate was Lieutenant General A. Z. Kobulov, deputy head of the Main Directorate for Prisoners of War and Internees (GUPVI) of the NKVD/MVD of the USSR. He aimed his subordinates to receive additional information mainly through interrogations of Hitler's associates who found themselves in Soviet captivity.

On February 13, 1946, the NKVD decided to launch a new official investigation. An investigation team was created under the leadership of the assistant head of the 1st department of the Operations Directorate of the GUPVI NKVD of the USSR, Lieutenant Colonel Klausen. But attempts to obtain the corpses at their disposal ended in failure. Naturally, they were purposefully reburied on the territory of the Smersh department in Magdeburg, where representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were unable to gain access. Most likely, representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 1946 on the territory of the Reich Chancellery were not looking for evidence of Hitler’s death, but, on the contrary, signs that Hitler remained alive, left the bunker in a secret passage, flew by plane or broke through in a tank to Spain, Argentina or God knows where else . However, as a result of examining the bunker with a forensic expert, Clausen discovered the following: “On the sofa in the former work room Hitler, in his bunker, on the right side, exactly in the place where, according to Linge’s testimony, Hitler’s body was allegedly discovered after suicide, distinct traces similar to blood flow were found. Parts of the sofa with traces resembling blood were seized and sent to the biological laboratory of the Moscow City Forensic Medical Examination. The latter’s act numbered 81-53 established that the traces found on the sofa in Hitler’s workroom came from the blood of a person with characteristics characteristic of blood group A (II).”

The Clausen Commission also examined the location of the “alleged corpses of Hitler and Eva Braun. [...] the place where the corpses were found was dug up on May 30 this year and the ground was carefully examined. Among the noteworthy objects found in the pit are two partially charred pieces of the skull, on one of which there is a bullet exit hole."

Forensic expert Professor Semenovsky came to the conclusion that the fragments extracted from the pit were parts of the parietal bones and squama of the occipital bone of an adult. An exit bullet hole was installed on the left parietal bone, and the shot itself was fired point-blank or almost point-blank into the mouth or into the temporal region on the right - in the direction from bottom to top. Based on Act No. 12 of May 8, 1945, Semenovsky concluded that pieces of the skull “may have fallen off the corpse taken from the pit on May 5, 1945.”

In 1970, the territory of the military camp in Magdeburg was going to be transferred to the German authorities. And then the head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov, offered the country’s leadership a simple solution to the issue: “Currently, the specified military camp, based on official expediency and meeting the interests of our troops, the command of the army is transferring to the German authorities. Taking into account the possibility of construction and other earthworks in this territory, which may entail discovered burials, would consider it advisable to remove the remains and destroy them by burning. This event will be carried out strictly in secret by the forces of the KGB operational group of the 3rd Army of the GSVG and properly documented" (Letter to the CPSU Central Committee dated March 13, 1970 No. 655/A) . The document contains the resolution “Agree. March 16” and the signatures “L. Brezhnev, A. Kosygin, N. Podgorny”. This event was given the name “Operation Archive”. The remains were seized and burned at the stake in a vacant lot near the city of Schensbeck, eleven kilometers from Magdeburg. What was left was crushed into ashes, collected and thrown into the Biedewitz River.

Historians have already studied all the archival documents and memories available to them. But they could not make a final conclusion about whose corpse was burned near Magdeburg. Of the material evidence, only fragments of the ampoule and jaw, stored in the Central Archive of the FSB, remained, as well as a part of the skull cap that was transferred at one time along with the fund of the Secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR to the State Archives of the Russian Federation. The presence of such "residues" collected together may provide impetus for forensic biochemical and genetic research. And then representatives of the natural sciences, and not historians at all, will be able to give a clear answer.

Hitler is dead. Dead since April 30, 1945. There is no doubt about it. Many of his associates were captured and convicted at the Nuremberg trials. Short historical reference: The Nuremberg trials took place from November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946. Twelve people were sentenced to death penalty, seven people - to long periods imprisonment or life imprisonment. Also during the trial, the leadership of the National Socialist Party, its security detachments (SS), the security service (SD), the state secret police(Gestapo).

In the winter of 1998, I was brought to Bavaria. After living for several days in the town of Hof, I decided to go to Nuremberg in the company of a friend, since it was only an hour away. The purpose of our trip, of course, was the very hall in which the Nuremberg trials took place. But then continuous collisions begin. The employees of the tourist office at the station, the taxi drivers at the station, and just passers-by had no idea about such an uninteresting place and such an insignificant event. And the longer we asked, the more it seemed to me that local residents simply did not want to tell some foreigners about unpleasant things. Okay, I thought. We bought a luxurious city guide, in which we did not find a word about the Nuremberg trials.

Fortunately, we came across a policeman who suggested that we were talking about the Palace of Justice. But, according to his calculations, it is located quite far from the city center. This is how it should be, I began to remember descriptions from books. An hour's walk - and we are near the long, with numerous extensions, Palace of Justice. No mention of a museum. We contact the security guard. He doesn't know either. A decent crowd gathers around us. Finally it turns out that, most likely, we are talking about a hall in a neighboring building. It is in one of the photographs for this note (the windows of the hall in which the trial took place are on the third floor in the center of the building). In this building, they also have no idea where the Nuremberg trials took place, and they don’t want to let us in. After much persuasion, a servant comes down to us and offers to look around several halls and “choose” the one from them.

To my horror, I don’t recognize a single one among them that looked like the hall I knew from the photographs. The attendant spreads his hands, and we stand in confusion in the corridor. But suddenly a very elderly German comes up to us and begins to heatedly explain something. After much repetition, it turns out that the Nuremberg trial hall was reconstructed and the part of it that was intended for the press was demolished. The German opens the door and we enter the hall. The first impression is that it is tiny. How so many people could fit in it is not very clear. There is a computer on the judge's desk - it turns out that regular court hearings are regularly held in this room. I probably should have taken out my camera, but something is stopping me. I just want to stand and be silent. I understand in my heart that the hall is too small to accommodate those who could present their account to those non-humans. And there is probably no price to pay for tens of millions of lives. And for some reason the trial of several dozen people seems to me to be a mere formality.

Already in the courtyard, our kind guide leads us to a high fence (it is photographed in one of the photographs for this column) and explains that behind it there was a prison, which has now been demolished and in which those eleven people lived and were executed. We are silent. The German turns to us and asks if we are Americans? No, we answer - Russians. He turns away and suddenly says in broken Russian: “I understand.” Let's remember all those who did not live, all those who brought us Victory. Let's drink without clinking glasses.

Chronicle of Hitler's death

In April 1945, Allied troops completed the defeat of Germany. Hitler's idea of life collapsed - the idea of world domination of the Aryan nation. Albert Speer, head of war production in Nazi Germany, says that a few days before his death, Hitler shouted: “If the war is lost, the German people should not exist. There is no need to worry about this people surviving their defeat. Destroy all factories, bridges , food. This people turned out to be weak, and, therefore, the future belongs to the Eastern people, who showed themselves to be stronger."

Here is a brief chronicle of the Fuhrer's last days.

Soviet troops occupied three quarters of Berlin, but Hitler still hopes for something... He is in a two-story bunker at a depth of 8 meters under the courtyard of the Imperial Chancellery, anxiously awaiting news. By evening, however, it becomes clear that the 9th and 12th armies are not capable of liberating the capital. Together with Hitler in the bunker are his mistress Eva Braun, Goebbels and his family, Chief of the General Staff Krebs, secretaries, adjutants, and guards. According to an officer of the General Staff, at this time, “physically, Hitler presented a terrible picture: he moved with difficulty and clumsily, throwing his upper body forward, dragging his legs... He could hardly maintain his balance. Left hand did not obey him, and the right one was constantly trembling... Hitler's eyes were bloodshot..."

Hannah, you are one of those who will die with me. We each have an ampoule of poison." He handed the ampoule to Hannah. "I don't want any of us to fall into the hands of the Russians, and I don't want the Russians to get our bodies. Eve's body and mine will be burned...

Personal disintegration and insanity did not prevent Hitler from giving the order to open the floodgates on the Spree River and flood the metro station when he learned that Soviet troops entered the Berlin subway. Fulfillment of the order led to the death of thousands of people leaving in the subway: wounded German soldiers, women and children.

According to the first version, based on the testimony of Hitler's personal valet Linge, the Fuhrer and Eva Braun shot themselves at 15.30. When Linge and Bormann entered the room, Hitler was allegedly sitting on the sofa in the corner, a revolver lay on the table in front of him, blood was flowing from his right temple. The dead Eva Braun, who was in another corner, dropped her revolver to the floor.

Another version (accepted by almost all historians) says: Hitler and Eva Braun were poisoned with potassium cyanide. Before his death, Hitler also poisoned his two beloved shepherd dogs. By order of Bormann, the bodies of the dead were wrapped in blankets, taken out into the yard, doused with gasoline and burned in a shell crater. True, they burned poorly, and, in the end, the SS men buried the half-burnt corpses in the ground. The bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were discovered by Red Army soldier Churakov on May 4, but for some reason they lay for 4 whole days without examination. They were taken for examination and identification to one of the Berlin morgues on May 8. An external examination gave reason to believe that the charred corpses of a man and a woman were the remains of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. But, as you know, the Fuhrer and his mistress had several doubles, so the Soviet military authorities wanted to conduct a thorough investigation.

The question of whether the person taken to the morgue was really Hitler still worries researchers. Here is what one of them says about the circumstances of the case:

"...The man's corpse was in a wooden box 163 cm long, 55 and 53 cm wide and high, respectively. A piece of yellowish knitted fabric, similar to a shirt, burnt at the edges, was found on the corpse. Due to the fact that the corpse was charred to a large extent , it was possible to judge age and height only tentatively: about 50-60 years old. Height - 165 cm. During his life, Hitler repeatedly visited his dentist, as evidenced by a large number of fillings and gold cows on the remaining parts of the jaws. They were removed and transferred to the SMERSH-3 department of the Shock Army.

From the interrogation report of the dentist K. Gaiserman, it was clear that the jaws belonged specifically to the Fuhrer. On May 11, 1945, Geisermann described in detail the anatomical data of Hitler's oral cavity, which coincided with the results of the study conducted on May 8. But still, in our opinion, it is impossible to completely exclude a deliberate game on the part of those who could be behind it. There were no visible signs of severe fatal injuries or illnesses on the body, which had been significantly altered by the fire. But a crushed glass ampoule was found in the mouth. The smell of bitter almonds emanated from the corpse. The same ampoules were discovered during the autopsy of 10 more corpses of Hitler's associates. It was determined that death was caused by cyanide poisoning. On the same day, an autopsy was performed on the corpse of a woman, “presumably,” as stated in the acts, belonging to Hitler’s wife Eva Braun. It was also difficult to determine the age: between 30 and 40 years. Height is about 150 cm.

The corpse could also be identified only by the gold bridge of the lower jaw. But, apparently, the causes of death were different: despite the fact that there was a broken glass ampoule in the mouth and the smell of bitter almonds also emanated from the corpse, traces of a shrapnel wound and 6 small metal fragments were found in the chest."

The examination of the remains of Hitler and Braun was carried out by Soviet military forensic experts and pathologists; To date, they have all died, and therefore it is difficult (almost impossible) to know the fate of Hitler’s remains. The writer Elena Rzhevskaya, who during the war was a translator for the 1st Belorussian Front, writes in her book “There Was a War...” that these remains were sent to Moscow. However, no one managed to find their traces in the former USSR...

What happened to Adolf Hitler. The mystery of Hitler's death: unique documents were revealed in the FSB archives

HITLER Adolf

(pseudonym, real name Schicklgruber)

(1889-1945) leader of the National Socialist Party, head of the German state in 1933-1945