London, Sunday, May 8, 2005

Secret evidence of Hitler's identity

IN the smouldering ruins of Berlin, Elena Rzhevskaya stooped by a radio to hear the announcement of the Nazis' final capitulation, a small box clutched to her side. It was 8 May 1945 and at Karlshorst, on the edge of the city, the German high command had surrendered to Russian, British and American forces.

David Irving comments: WELL, perhaps not so secret after all. Elena Rzhevskaya published a book not long after WW2 with the same revelations.    More imortant is the work of Lev Bezymenski, Der Tod von Adolf Hitler. Bezymenski., a KGB officer (and, like many of them, a Jew) was a fine Intelligence officer, but not such a conscientious historian; he was ordered (he said) by the KGB to conceal in his book the fact that Hitler shot himself, and to make various other propagandistic amendments to the version of the autopsy report which he published as an appendix.    A later edition, post-KGB, rectifies this however. A SMALL, BUT IMMODEST FOOTNOTE: From historian Hugh Trevor-Roper I had obtained in Jan 1968 a perfect set of the X-rays taken of Hitler's head at Lötzen in Sept 1944 (as an MI6 officer he had directed the British investigation into Hitler's demise).    From the American archives I had the sketches of Hitler's jaw, drawn from memory by his dentist Hugo Blaschke; and from my friend Lev Bezymenski I had the photographs of the upper and lower jaw.    All three were a perfect match, revealing in particular a solid gold "telephone" bridge inserted to replace three teeth in the lower right jaw (click the image above, from my books on Hitler and on his doctor Morell, to enlarge it)..    Over thirty years ago, in a letter published in Die Zeit (Hamburg) in the early 1970s, I brought all three images together as proof of Hitler's death. Others (like Norwegian forensic expert Dr Reidar F Sognnaes) have since then padded down the same track -- but I was first.

But the young interpreter from Soviet military reconnaissance was subdued as her comrades across the city broke into wild celebrations.

Tucked in the satin-lined box she was clutching were the flesh-specked jawbones of Adolf Hitler, wrenched from his corpse just hours earlier by a Russian pathologist.

A burnt body thought to be the Führer's had been found by a Red Army soldier near his bunker days before, but Joseph Stalin ordered the discovery be concealed.

"Only two officers knew what I was carrying and I had to keep my tongue," Rzhevskaya (85) told The Observer in a rare interview at her Moscow apartment.

Hitler's teeth would be key to proving the corpse was his and only a select few knew what had been entrusted to Rzhevskaya.

It was not until the 1960s that her secret would be revealed, and the full truth only emerged in Russia a decade ago.

Her story is a telling reminder of the jealousy and rivalries that split the Allies even in their hour of victory, and foreshadowed the Cold War.

On 8 May, as Soviet soldiers in Berlin's streets shouted with joy at the news of German surrender, Rzhevskaya poured wine for her colleagues with one hand -- while clamping the little box to her side with the other.

"Can you imagine how it felt? A young woman like me who had travelled the long military road from the edge of Moscow to Berlin; to stand there and hear that announcement of surrender, knowing that I held in my hands the decisive proof that we had Hitler's remains.

"For me it was a moment of immense solemnity and emotion; it was victory."

Rzhevskaya was ordered to carry the bones by Colonel Vassily Gorbushin, the head of a tiny secretive Soviet team tasked with identifying the remains.

Soviet troops were obsessed with finding Hitler and competing groups roved around hunting for him.

A Red Army soldier spotted the edge of a blanket poking from freshly turned earth in a bomb crater, near the bunker.

Adolf and Eva Hitler's bodies were soon unearthed and forensic experts were delighted to find the Nazi leader's jaw bones in perfect condition. "These are the key," said one doctor.

After a brief pause to celebrate VE Day and a frantic search through the ruined city, Rzhevskaya and her two superior officers tracked down an assistant [Käthe Häusermann] to Hitler's dentist [Hugo Blaschke] who was able to confirm his identity.

Daily Telegraph story: Dental detective work gets to the root of Hitler mystery: Using forensic dentistry and computer imaging, scientists have proved that the charred remains of Hitler found by Red Army soldiers in Berlin were those of the Führer | Sunday Times version of same story

Apr 2000: Adolf Hitler's skull went on display in Moscow, along with documents revealing what happened to the dictator's remains after they were seized by Soviet troops in 1945

Elena Rzhevskaya reminisces about carrying a piece of Hitler's skull around in Berlin

Jewish historian Daniel Goldhagen says remains of Hitler's bunker must be preserved

 

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