We Thought We Knew He was Dead

The traditional story is that Hitler committed suicide with Eva Braun as the Russians got within a couple blocks of his underground bunker in the center of the German capital, Berlin.

Although some historians doubted he shot himself and suggested it was Nazi propaganda to make him a hero, the hole in the skull fragment seemed to settle the argument when it was put on display in Moscow in 2000. But DNA analysis has now been performed on the bone by American researchers. The lead researcher, University of Connecticut archeologist Nick Bellantoni said, “We know the skull corresponds to a woman between the ages of 20 and 40.” According to Bellatoni, the bone was too thin to be a man’s skull and the skull resembled that of someone under the age of 40. Hitler was 56 when he was reported to have died in April of 1945.

According to witnesses, after their suicides, the bodies of Hitler and Braun were wrapped in blankets and carried to the garden just outside the bunker, placed in a bomb crater, doused with gasoline and set ablaze.

In May 1945 a Russian forensics team dug up what was believed to be the burned remains of Hitler’s body. Part of the skull was missing, apparently the result of the suicide shot. The remaining piece of jaw matched his dental records, according to his captured dental assistants. And there was only one testicle.

A year later the missing skull fragment was found on the orders of Stalin, who remained suspicious about Hitler’s fate. 

Finding bone fragments, whole bodies or partial bodies around the bunker area would not have been unusual since over 280,000 people died in the battle.

Unknown to the world, the remains of then believed to be Hitler's were buried on the grounds of a Soviet military base in what was Magdeburg, East Germany.

The remains remained buried in East Germany long after Stalin’s death in 1953.

Finally, in 1970, the KGB ( Soviet Secret Police) dug up the corpse, cremated it and secretly scattered the ashes in a river.

Only the jawbone (which remains away from public view) and the skull fragment were preserved in the deep archives of Soviet intelligence in Moscow, Russia.

Mr. Bellantoni was allowed only one hour with the r3emains and other personal items that once belonged to Hitler, during which time he applied cotton swabs and took DNA samples.

The samples were then flown back to Connecticut.

At the university’s center for applied genetics, Linda Strausbaugh closed her lab for three days to work exclusively on the Hitler project.

She said: ‘We used the same routines and controls that would have been used in a crime lab.’

To her surprise, a small amount of viable DNA was extracted.

She then replicated this through a process known as molecular copying to provide enough material for analysis.

‘We were very lucky to get a reading, despite the limited amount of genetic information,’ she said.

So now the questions:

If this is not Hitler’s skull what physical evidence exists to prove his death?

The jawbone and teeth do match Hitler’s dental records so is that enough proof?

Are the conspiracy theorists correct and Hitler escaped from Berlin?