‘Body double', final moments & last words to aide… Secret docs on Hitler's death 80 years ago today released by Russia

The Sun

30-04-2025

A BOMBSHELL bundle of documents detailing Hitler's death has been released by Russia's intelligence service 80 years later to the day.
The stash includes Hitler's rotted teeth, showing evidence of his cyanide suicide, and the last known photograph of him.
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Also declassified were originals of statements and interrogation notes of the Führer's valet, Heinz Linge, and personal assistant, Otto Günsche.
Linge revealed a 'deluded' Hitler killed himself partly because he was 'afraid' of being 'caught while trying to escape from Berlin'.
Both Hitler aides fell into Soviet hands after the war, and their testimony was crucial to Stalin understanding Hitler final days 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.
While the broad testimony of the pair has been long known, this is the first time the original sources - long hidden in Soviet KGB archives - have been published, and there are new details.
A Russian archivist appeared on video going over Linge's account, which even details the clothes Hitler and Eva Braun wore when they killed themselves.
He said: 'Testimony about Hitler's reasons for taking his own life - 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.'
Morbid footage also showed Hitler's teeth which were used to identify him.
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Russian defence ministry channel Zvezda TV reported: 'Here they are, particles of universal evil.
'Fragments of Adolf Hitler's jaw, a man whose very name makes even water molecules take on hideous forms.
'The remains of the one responsible for the deaths of over 26 million of our fellow citizens.
'Today [30 April] marks exactly 80 years since the death of the main culprit of the bloodiest war in human history. A strange feeling.'
Linge wrote in his 1945 testimony: '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.
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'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'.'
Linge answered a 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 says: 'A double of Hitler could not have committed suicide because: 1) Hitler did not have a double. 2) It was impossible to leave the premises without being seen, as there was only one exit from the room. 30.12.45. Linge Heinz.'
Over many months, Linge slightly altered his version of events, 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.'
The historic documents have been locked in a vault by the FSB, successor to the KGB, in the Ivanovo region.
After the war, Günsche was flown to Moscow with other Hitler associates.
Intriguing new details, including how the Soviets pressured Günsche into opening up about Hitler's death.
The documents show that a German POW and war criminal Colonel Remlinger was put in a cell with him and instructed by the Soviet authorities to convince him to cooperate.
It was a cunning way of using Hitler's suicide to turn the Nazi's fanatical loyalty into cooperation by reinterpreting his 'oath'.
Remlinger wrote a report that 'we convinced him that the events in Germany—especially Hitler's suicide—freed him from his oath to the Führer.
'Now, with the complete collapse of Germany and the Nazi system, there was no longer any reason to hide the events that unfolded in the Führer's headquarters from the Russians—it was now only of historical interest.
'It became easier to persuade him when it emerged that some of Hitler's close associates (Göring, Himmler) had abandoned him and turned to the Western powers.'
More documents reveal the examination of Hitler's teeth to verify hit corpse.
The FSB account reads: 'On 5 May 1945, in the garden of the Reich Chancellery, SMERSH officers from the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army, 1st Belorussian Front, discovered the heavily charred corpses of a man and a woman in a bomb crater."
'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.'
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This 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'.
This allowed the commission 'to conclude that death resulted from cyanide poisoning'.
'On 10 May 1945, Kӓthe Heusermann, assistant to Hitler's personal dentist Professor Hugo Blaschke, was questioned in the Reich Chancellery's dental office.
'On 11 May, dental technician Fritz Echtmann, who had made Hitler's dentures, gave testimony.
'Both witnesses gave detailed descriptions of Hitler's dental work from memory.
'The unique features of the bridges, crowns, and fillings matched exactly with the dental records and X-rays in the possession of SMERSH investigators.
'Each was shown the jaw fragments recovered from the male skull separately, and both unhesitatingly confirmed they belonged to Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler.'