Adolf Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945 in his Führerbunker in Berlin. Later, the remains of the dictator were discovered by the Soviet military and taken to Moscow.

But the very fact of Hitler’s death is still shrouded in all sorts of secrets and mysteries. There are many theories, in addition to the official version, according to which Hitler’s remains were not genuine, he did not commit suicide or remained alive at all.

26 April. Soviet troops occupied three quarters of Berlin. Hitler, who has not lost hope, is in a two-story bunker at a depth of 8 meters under the courtyard of the Imperial Chancellery.

Together with him 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, on this day Hitler presented a terrible picture: he moved with difficulty and clumsily, throwing his upper body forward and dragging his legs... The Fuhrer had difficulty maintaining his balance. Left hand did not obey him, and the right one was constantly trembling... 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. She later recalled that the Fuhrer invited her to his place and said: “Hannah, you are one of those who will die with me. Each of us has an ampoule of poison.”

He handed the ampoule to Hannah with the words: “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. Eva’s body and mine will be burned.”

As Reich testified, during the conversation Hitler presented a terrible picture: almost blindly rushing from wall to wall with paper in trembling hands. “A completely disintegrated person,” the pilot stated.

April 29. The wedding of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun took place. The process took place in accordance with the law: a marriage contract was drawn up and the wedding ceremony was performed.

Witnesses, as well as Krebs, Goebbels's wife, Hitler's adjutants, General Burgdorf and Colonel Belov, secretaries and a cook were invited to the wedding celebration. And after a small feast, Hitler retired to draw up his will.

April 30. The Fuhrer's last day has arrived. 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.

This is the last photograph of Hitler during his lifetime, taken on April 30. On the threshold of a bunker in the courtyard of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, the Fuhrer was captured by one of the officers of his personal security.

In the meeting room, Hitler and Brown say goodbye to Bormann, Goebbels, Burgdorf, Krebs, Axmann, and the Fuhrer's secretaries Junge and Weichelt who came here.

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. There is even a photo of Hitler's body with a bullet mark, the authenticity of which is in question.

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: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun were poisoned with potassium cyanide. In addition, before his death, the Fuhrer also poisoned two beloved shepherd dogs.

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

The bodies of Hitler and Brown 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 the Fuhrer and his wife. But, as is known, Hitler and Braun had several doubles, so the Soviet military authorities intended to conduct a thorough investigation.

The question of whether the person taken to the morgue was really Hitler still worries researchers.

According to an eyewitness, the man's corpse was in a wooden box 163 cm long, 55 and 53 cm wide and high, respectively. A burnt piece of yellowish knitted material, similar to a shirt, was found on the body.

During his lifetime, Hitler repeatedly visited his dentist, as evidenced by a large number of fillings and gold crowns on the remaining areas of the jaws. They were confiscated and transferred to the SMERSH-3 department of the Shock Army.

On May 11, 1945, dentist Gaisermann described in detail the anatomical data of Hitler's oral cavity, which coincided with the results of a study conducted on May 8.

There were no visible signs of severe fatal injuries or illnesses on the fire-damaged body. But a crushed glass ampoule was found in the mouth. A characteristic 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 that of Eva Braun. Despite the fact that there was a broken glass ampoule in the mouth and the smell of bitter almonds also emanated from the corpse, in chest Traces of a shrapnel wound and 6 small metal fragments were found.

Military intelligence officers packed the remains in wooden boxes and buried them in the ground near Berlin. However, soon the headquarters of the security officers changed their location, and the boxes followed suit.

They were buried again in a new place, and then, during the next move, they were removed from the ground.

She found a permanent refuge at a military base near the city of Magdeburg. Here the boxes lay in the ground until 1970, when the territory of the base came under the jurisdiction of the GDR.

On March 13, 1970, KGB head Yuri Andropov gave the order to destroy the remains. They were cremated and the ashes were scattered by helicopter.

Only the dictator's jaws and a fragment of his skull with a bullet hole were left for history.

This material evidence of Adolf Hitler's death was sent to Moscow and placed in the KGB archives.

Rumors that Adolf Hitler was alive appeared almost immediately after his death. The British, French, and Americans doubted the death of the dictator. There was persistent talk about the amazing salvation of the Fuhrer.

It was rumored that he fled from Berlin abroad along the so-called “rat trail”. It was a “window” on the border with Switzerland. Through it, high-ranking officials of the Third Reich with forged documents made their way to a neutral country, and from there they were sent to fascist Spain or Latin American countries.

Regarding the dictator's flight to South America, there are even a number of FBI "documents" regarding the investigation of this fact.

However, most historians continue to argue that Hitler had no chance of escaping Berlin.

In response, they put forward a version that Hitler might not have been in the bunker under the Reich Chancellery at all. On this issue, there is a version that all tactical issues were decided by the Fuhrer’s double. It was he who was shot on April 30, 1945.

Eva Braun was also killed along with him, so that the death of the country's main Nazi would look more natural. Hitler himself, at this time, again sailed in a submarine towards South America, changing his appearance.

Similar versions are expressed today.

Newspapers wrote about them, publishing supposedly the surviving clothes of the Fuhrer, in which he arrived in Peru or Paraguay.

There were even photos of the surviving Hitler, calmly facing old age incognito.

But historians argue in response that the Fuhrer could not be called a coward. His courage is evidenced by the fact that he volunteered for the front in the First World War and was awarded several iron crosses for bravery, and also had wounds received in battle.

After this, it is simply illogical to declare that at the most difficult moment for the nation the Fuhrer flees cowardly, leaving a double in his place.

The fact that Hitler was in the bunker is also supported by the fact that only after his death did the Germans put forward a proposal for a truce. Having been refused, Goebbels committed suicide, poisoning his entire family. Bormann did the same a few hours later.

In 2009, the head of the Department of Registration and Archival Funds of the FSB of Russia, Vasily Khristoforov, said that in 1946 a special commission carried out additional excavations at the site where the corpses of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun were discovered. At the same time, “the left parietal part of the skull with an exit bullet hole” was discovered.

In 1948, the “finds” from the Fuhrer’s bunker (several burnt objects, as well as fragments of jaws and teeth, which were used to identify the corpses of Hitler, Eva Braun and the Goebbels) were sent to Moscow, to the investigative department of the 2nd Main Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security.

Since 1954, by order of the Chairman of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the USSR Serov, all these items and materials were stored in a special order in a special room in the departmental archive.

Since 2009, Hitler’s jaws have been kept in the FSB archives, and skull fragments have been kept in the State Archive.

However, a DNA analysis conducted in 2009 by employees of an American university from Hartford (Connecticut) destroyed the entire evidence base regarding the death of the dictator. According to their version, the badly damaged skull bone did not belong to Adolf Hitler at all. She didn't belong to a man at all. It was a fragment of a woman's skull. Moreover, the woman at the time of her death was in the prime of her life - 35-40 years old.

This statement caused big scandal. FSB officers completely refused to acknowledge its authenticity. And later they also expressed a version about the mistake of the Soviet soldiers who collected the remains.

It looks like this matter will never be resolved. Although, nowadays, most often, the “surviving” Hitler and his doubles become the heroes of memes rather than major scientific disputes.

How did Adolf Hitler die? Did he take poison, shoot himself, or die peacefully in his own bed as a very old man? The answer to this question has been worrying many people for almost seventy years. And for good reason. The version of Hitler's successful escape from the Reich Chancellery has been discussed since the very moment of the capture of Berlin. It has been refuted more than once, but with enviable persistence it appears again...

Incomprehensible beginning

On April 30, 1945, a message about Hitler's death arrived in Moscow. Stalin’s reaction was restrained: “I’ve finished my game, you scoundrel!” Then came the business question: “Where is the body?” In Berlin, the question was redirected to the parliamentarian, German General Hans Kreb. He replied that Hitler’s corpse was burned at the stake... Apparently, Stalin did not believe the German’s words, and already at the beginning of May a TASS message appeared in the newspapers: “Hitler’s death is a new fascist trick...”

By that time, groups to search for and capture Hitler had already been formed in all the armies storming Berlin. And on May 2, Soviet officers discovered two dead Hitler doubles on the territory of the Reich Chancellery. One of them was found in an underground bomb shelter, the second in a fire-fighting pool in the yard. Both were shot in the face.

The captured Vice Admiral Hans Voss, brought in for identification, looked at one discovered “Führer” and said: “This is Hitler, and no one else.” And only after noticing that the “Reich Chancellor” had darned socks on his feet, Voss began to doubt...

To remember what year Hitler died, just remember the year it ended. In the spring of 1945, Soviet troops advanced from the east and pushed the Wehrmacht towards Berlin. Anglo-American troops landed in France and Italy and attacked from the west and south. It was obvious that the war was lost.

In January 1945, the Fuhrer left his headquarters in the Bavarian Alps and arrived in Berlin. Allied air raids forced him to place his headquarters in a specially prepared bunker underground. Hitler left the bunker for the last time in March and visited the Reich Chancellery. One of the air raids caught the Fuhrer upstairs, and after this incident he did not dare to leave the shelter. Hitler was accompanied into the bunker by some of his comrades.

In April the situation looked hopeless. Goebbels read Hitler the History of Frederick the Great, written by the philosopher Thomas Carlyle. The minister chose an episode describing the difficult winter of 1761-1762 for the king, when Prussia was losing the war. Carlyle then wrote about the death of the Russian Empress and Russia's exit from the war. At this moment, according to Goebbels, tears appeared in Hitler’s eyes.

On April 13, the Minister of Propaganda brought the Fuhrer the news of Roosevelt's death. Hitler gathered his comrades in the bunker on this occasion. There was a celebratory mood among the Nazis that day, but it soon faded as it became clear that the American offensive would continue.

On the eve of his birthday, Hitler wanted to leave the capital and continue to lead the war from the Alpine fortress of Obersalzberg. Goebbels dissuaded him from this, calling on him to lead the decisive battle of the war near the walls of their capital.

On April 20, 1945, the Fuhrer's 56th birthday was celebrated in the bunker. The ministers of the regime and the top leadership of the Wehrmacht gathered at the table. In the garden, Hitler met with representatives of the Hitler Youth and presented awards to those who had distinguished themselves in recent battles.

The Fuhrer decided to stay in Berlin, but most of the Nazi leadership was leaving the city, which was about to besieged. On April 22, during a meeting with the remaining leadership in the city, he confirmed his desire to stay. Keitel even planned to force Hitler to the Alps, but decided that this was unrealistic. The Fuhrer said that he would not leave the stage of history as an inglorious fugitive, that he had the right to call himself Fuhrer only as long as he could lead people.

Hitler spent his evenings in the bunker with his remaining comrades - Goebbels, Ley, Bormann. He summed up his policy at length and verbosely. The Fuhrer lamented that he could not conclude an alliance with Britain and blamed Churchill for this. He reasoned that, from a military point of view, the war should have started a year earlier, when it did not yet seem inevitable to everyone, and from a moral point of view, much later, when the new elite of Germany would be ready. The Fuhrer condemned his own policy of alliance with Italy and noted the problems and failures that were its consequences.

On the night of April 28-29, Hitler received news that Reichsführer Himmler was negotiating surrender. Adolf became furious again. He considered one of his close associates, Fegelein, an accomplice to the betrayal and ordered him to be shot. The Fuhrer also ordered Greim to try to get out of Berlin and arrest Himmler. But this order was not carried out. It is believed that on the same day Hitler decided to commit suicide.

On April 29, before his death, Hitler decided to get married. His wife was Eva Braun, who had been his unofficial mistress for several years before. The couple decided to have a shortened wedding that suited the wartime situation. After the holiday, the Fuhrer retired to dictate his personal and political wills. In the latter, he justified his policies, talked about the harmfulness of Jewry and expressed hopes for the revival of Nazi ideas in the future.

In his political will, he wrote about depriving Himmler and Goering of all posts. The Fuhrer appointed Admiral Doenitz as his successor as Reich President and Commander-in-Chief. Hitler appointed Goebbels as head of government. In conclusion, he called on his subjects to continue the fight against Jewry and to respect racial laws.

In his personal will, the Fuhrer wrote that his responsibilities did not allow him to start a family, but now his wife is ready to share his fate (suicide). Hitler bequeathed his personal property to his party and (in the event of its collapse) to the state. He asked that all the paintings he acquired be included in the Linz collection, his hometown. The Fuhrer appointed Bormann as the executor of his death will. He had to provide everything necessary for the Fuhrer's brother and sister, Eva Braun's mother and Hitler's secretaries. Three couriers left the bunker with copies of the wills.

During the day, Hitler received news of Mussolini's capture and execution, which strengthened his desire to commit suicide. Before taking the poison, the Fuhrer tested it on his shepherd Blondie. The dog died a minute after taking the poison capsule. In the conference room on the night of April 30, the remaining comrades gathered to say goodbye to Hitler. At about 15:30, Hitler and Eva Braun, having said goodbye to everyone, retired to their private rooms. Soon a shot was heard from there. Those who entered discovered that the Fuhrer had shot himself and his wife had taken an ampoule of poison.

The bodies were taken out into the yard, doused with gasoline and set on fire. One of the soldiers guarding the bunker could not identify Hitler's burnt body after half an hour. By the end of the day, the couple's bodies were wrapped in tarpaulin, placed in one of the craters left by Soviet artillery fire, and compacted.

Later, Soviet experts conducted research on the site where the German Fuhrer was buried. The parietal part of the skull, containing a bullet hole, and fragments of jaws were discovered. From them it was possible to identify the remains and prove that Hitler was buried in this place. Now fragments of the Fuhrer’s jaws are stored in the archives of the Federal Socialist Republic, and fragments of the skull are stored.

Soon after the Fuhrer's suicide, the Berlin garrison capitulated. This was followed a week later by the surrender of Germany. The victory was followed by trials of the surviving members of the NSDAP, who continued to serve Hitler's cause until May 1945. The tragic and heroic events of the spring of 1945, the victories for which they paid dearly, remind us of the year in which Hitler died and the open fascist regime was destroyed.