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- The death of Adolf Hitler on 30 April 1945 was followed by various contradictory reports, including from eyewitnesses, as well as the Soviet Union, which carried out the initial investigations and restricted the release of information. Objective facts regarding both Hitler and Eva Braun's deaths were largely obscured by the burning of their bodies (according to eyewitnesses, to near-ashes), leaving only dental remains for identification.Following newspaper rumors of Hitler's escape (some asserting that a body double was left in his place), in June 1945 the Soviets seeded separate false narratives that he died by cyanide and that he escaped—with Joseph Stalin stating support for the latter in July 1945. Western historians regard this as disinformation and propaganda. In 1946, the Soviets harshly interrogated eyewitnesses, resulting in inconsistencies but implying that Hitler died by gunshot; a skull fragment with gun damage was produced, allegedly from the place where Hitler's body was purportedly discovered. The first eyewitness interrogated by the United States, Hitler Youth leader Artur Axmann, dubiously asserted—reputedly at the behest of SS-Sturmbannführer Otto Günsche (who denied coaching Axmann)—that Hitler took cyanide and then shot himself through the mouth, with the temple blood a result of internal trauma. West Germany dismissed Axmann's Nuremberg testimony that he had seen Hitler's body being carried in a blanket as insufficient evidence of the dictator's death; this led to an extensive investigation and the taking of new testimony.In the mid-1950s, Günsche and Schutzstaffel (SS) valet Heinz Linge testified that Hitler appeared to have shot himself through the temple. The eyewitnesses disagree with one another—and commonly with themselves in statements made over the years—about various details including how the bodies were found and disposed. Western historians assert that these discrepancies could be due to failures of memory, while acknowledging that some individuals (e.g. Hitler's chauffeur Erich Kempka and SS-Rottenführer Harry Mengershausen) made disreputable claims. After conducting criminological and ballistic studies, West Germany formally recognized Hitler's demise as an assumption of death on the (false) basis that no eyewitnesses had seen his body. The 1968 Soviet propaganda book The Death of Adolf Hitler asserts that Hitler died by poisoning and/or a coup de grâce, but these claims have been largely dismissed, including by the author. Only the Soviet description of Hitler's dental remains, consisting of a golden bridge and a mandibular fragment with teeth sundered around the alveolar process (the bulge that encases the tooth sockets) is regarded as reliable. The 1968 book features previously unreleased photographs of these (previously implied by historians to have included a complete jawbone). In 2009, the skull fragment found in 1946, claimed by the Soviets to belong to Hitler, was DNA-tested and concluded to belong to a woman. By the early 2010s, FBI documents reporting alleging post-war sightings of Hitler began to be released. These details have bolstered the fringe theory that Hitler faked his death, although mainstream historians hold to the eyewitness account of his body being burnt to near-ashes, ostensibly explaining why only dental bridges and a mandibular fragment were produced. (en)
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- The death of Adolf Hitler on 30 April 1945 was followed by various contradictory reports, including from eyewitnesses, as well as the Soviet Union, which carried out the initial investigations and restricted the release of information. Objective facts regarding both Hitler and Eva Braun's deaths were largely obscured by the burning of their bodies (according to eyewitnesses, to near-ashes), leaving only dental remains for identification.Following newspaper rumors of Hitler's escape (some asserting that a body double was left in his place), in June 1945 the Soviets seeded separate false narratives that he died by cyanide and that he escaped—with Joseph Stalin stating support for the latter in July 1945. Western historians regard this as disinformation and propaganda. In 1946, the Soviets ha (en)
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