On April 30, 1945, Soviet troops were only a few blocks from the Fuehrerbunker. The situation for the Nazis was hopeless. In addition, the day before, Hitler learned about the execution of Benito Mussolini, which probably finally pushed him to the idea of ​​the necessity of suicide. On the same day, after lunch, Hitler and Eva Braun said goodbye to their entourage and asked them to leave them for a while. A few minutes later, a shot rang out (it is believed that Brown did not use the pistol, but took poison). After that, Hitler's adjutant Gunsche and valet Linge wrapped their bodies in a blanket and carried them into the courtyard of the chancellery.

Gunsche doused the bodies with gasoline and set them on fire. After about two and a half hours, the bodyguards moved the bodies into the shell crater and covered them with earth. The next day, German radio made an emergency statement: the Fuhrer died heroically, weapon in hand, defending Berlin.

By this time, Moscow already had information about Hitler's suicide. In the early morning of May 1, General Hans Krebs entered into negotiations with Chuikov. At one time he worked as an assistant military attaché in the USSR, knew Russian well and was well suited for the role of parliamentarian. Krebs tried to negotiate an armistice, simultaneously reporting that Hitler had shot himself in the Fuehrerbunker the day before. He also stressed that for the first time he informs non-Germans about the death of Hitler.

Chuikov immediately conveyed the information to Zhukov, who reported to Stalin. 13 hours after Hitler's suicide, Moscow already knew about him. However, Stalin was rather wary of this news and demanded to find some convincing evidence of his death. In addition, he asked to convey to Krebs that there would be no negotiations on an armistice, only unconditional surrender was possible.

On May 2, the Fuehrerbunker was already under the control of the Soviet troops. The remains of Goebbels, his wife and children were discovered almost immediately. However, Hitler was nowhere to be found. On the same day, all Western newspapers came out with editorials in which the death of Hitler was announced in large letters. But in the USSR, it was the opposite. On May 2, TASS issued the following statement: "These reports are a new fascist trick: by spreading the allegation of Hitler's death, the German fascists obviously hope to give Hitler the opportunity to leave the scene and go into an illegal position."

Stalin did not believe the information about suicide, believing that Hitler faked his death and, perhaps, even try to surrender to the allies on some special conditions. Only on May 5, two charred bodies were found in a crater in the courtyard of the Imperial Chancellery. More precisely, they were originally discovered on May 4, but they were buried back, since information about the discovery of Hitler's body appeared. However, upon examination, it turned out that the unidentified corpse clearly cannot belong to Hitler. Therefore, on May 5, the bodies found in the funnel were dug up again.

The post-mortem injuries were so serious that it was very difficult to reliably identify them. Therefore, the examination of the alleged remains of Hitler was carried out in the teeth (the leader of the Nazis had very bad teeth, a significant part of them were replaced with prostheses). They managed to find a dentist, Kete Heusermann, who assisted Hitler's personal dentist Blaschke. During several interrogations, Heusermann confirmed the identity of the teeth of the discovered corpse with those of Hitler. By that time, the witnesses of Hitler's last minutes, Linge and Gunsche, had already been taken prisoner by the Soviets, who unanimously claimed that Hitler had committed suicide.

After a series of interrogations of witnesses and an examination of the teeth, the front-line chief of SMERSH, Vadis, sent a report to Stalin, in which he said that, based on the testimony of Heuzerman and a number of other witnesses, it was possible to establish the identity of the corpse, and, most likely, this is Hitler.

Hitler is alive

However, Stalin continued to remain silent, and the Soviet side still did not make any statements about the fate of Hitler. Perhaps this was due to the fact that Stalin really did not believe that the Nazi leader could commit suicide. Although it cannot be ruled out that Stalin hoped to take advantage of Hitler's uncertain fate for additional pressure on the allies for political purposes.

A month after the end of the war, Zhukov unexpectedly announced at an official Allied press conference in Berlin that there was no reason to believe that Hitler was dead: “We did not find the identified Hitler's corpse. I cannot say anything positive about Hitler’s fate. he could have flown out of Berlin as the airstrips allowed for it. "

Of course, Zhukov's statement was picked up by Western newspapers, which vied with each other to compose sensational versions of the rescue of the Nazi leader. Every now and then there were witnesses who saw Hitler in Argentina, then in Paraguay, then in Spain, then they even met Hitler disguised as a woman in Ireland.

At the Potsdam Allied Conference in August 1945, American President Truman asked Stalin directly if it was safe to say that Hitler was dead? To which Stalin replied that it was impossible to say so.

Allied intelligence services did not have access to Hitler's body, but this did not prevent them from conducting their investigations. Moreover, several employees of the British special services were simultaneously engaged in the search for Hitler, including the future famous historian Trevor-Roper. Interviewing all possible witnesses, investigators concluded that there was no reason to believe that Hitler had survived. The witnesses did not contradict each other and accurately described the picture of the last hours of Hitler's life.

In November 1945, the Allies turned to the Soviet side, proposing to organize a tripartite commission to search for Hitler's body, in order to finally put an end to this matter. However, Stalin did not agree to this. Moreover, he instructed to start a new investigation, apparently fearing that Western intelligence services were able to establish some facts about which he does not know. In January 1946, Bauer (Hitler's personal pilot), Linge, and Gunsche were interrogated again. Incessant interrogations lasted for several months, the investigators asked the same questions a thousand times and then verbatim verified their testimony, expecting that someone somewhere would be mistaken at least once. The entire arsenal of Soviet interrogations was applied to the interrogated, from beatings and threats to the introduction of "decoy ducks" into the cells. However, none of them deviated from their initial testimony. A new group left for Berlin to conduct a thorough examination in Hitler's bunker. But in the end, it was concluded: despite the numerous testimonies, it is impossible to draw an unambiguous conclusion about Hitler's suicide.

Hitler in Argentina

Meanwhile, the American FBI, through its own channels, began to check the possibility of a miraculous rescue of the Nazi leader. In September 1945, the FBI received information that Hitler was alive and hiding in Argentina. There was nothing unusual in this, there have long been many German colonies, besides, the local government clearly sympathized with individual functionaries of the Nazi regime and welcomed them. Therefore, the information about the appearance of Hitler in Latin America was taken seriously.

The primary source of this data was an American journalist who claimed that his friend had met with one of the Argentine government employees in the summer, who promised to convey some incredibly sensational information that would definitely interest the Americans. In exchange, he only wanted a large reward, a transfer to America and granting him political asylum.

In the course of further contacts, the Argentine claimed that he had seen the Nazi leader in Argentina with his own eyes. According to him, a group of several dozen Nazi functionaries, including Hitler, secretly arrived in Argentina some time after the end of the war. They all settled in several German villages. And they even built a special underground bunker-residence for the Fuhrer. The informant looked very persuasive, he even named the approximate location of Hitler's residence, as well as bank accounts registered in front persons, which could be used by fugitive Nazis.

Despite the fact that the FBI took this information very seriously, further investigation yielded nothing, and the informant mysteriously disappeared, having previously received from the Americans about 15 thousand dollars (about 200 thousand in modern terms) for the information provided.

Photo: © Wikipedia.org Creative Commons

A few years later, Hitler was again sought in Argentina, but this time with the efforts of the CIA, not the FBI. The reason was the information received from the informant, who referred to the words of his acquaintance - the former SS officer Philip Citroen. According to the informant, Citroen assured him that Hitler was alive, at least as of early 1955. The former German officer said that he personally met the Fuehrer several times in Colombia, where he lived under the name Schrittelmeier. Until 1954, the surviving Hitler allegedly hid in Colombia, and in 1955 he moved to Argentina.

To prove his words, the informant even handed over a photo in which Citroen himself and a man who really looked like Adolf Hitler, however, of the pre-war model, were captured. The CIA concluded that the authenticity of the photo cannot be convincingly confirmed or denied. In addition, it was somewhat embarrassing that Hitler in the photograph did not even attempt to change his image and wore the same recognizable mustache and bangs.

Hitler in Denmark

In 1947, the German pilot Baumgart announced at a trial in Poland that he personally took Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun out on the eve of their alleged suicide. The bodies that were discovered by the closest circle of the Fuhrer, in fact, belonged to their counterparts. And Baumgart took Hitler and his wife to the Danish city of Tonder and received a decent reward for this. The whole operation was top secret, even Hitler's closest and trusted people did not know about it, so as not to reveal the secret during interrogations. However, soon enough the case against Baumgart was dropped, no serious investigation was carried out. Since it turned out that the open-minded pilot actually suffers from a mental illness.

Photo: © AP Photo / US Army Signal Corps

Hitler in Spain

They were looking for Hitler in Spain. Everyone knew the fairly good relationship between the Spanish dictator Franco and Hitler. During the Spanish Civil War, Hitler supported Franco by sending not only weapons, but also pilots to the country. And although Franco was one of the few who refused to join the war on Hitler's side and remained neutral until the very end of the war, it was believed that Hitler could have taken refuge in Spain for some time. If, of course, he really survived.

In 1947, the FBI did indeed investigate a single thread leading to Spain. A bureau informant reported that a Spanish doctor had recently provided medical assistance to a man very much like Hitler. However, attempts to find out the identity of a person similar to Hitler, and at least his further whereabouts, have failed. In addition, there were too many doubts that Hitler, even if he miraculously escaped, could continue to hide in Europe, where he was too well known and remembered. At best, he could use Spain as a staging post on the way to Latin America. Therefore, in subsequent years, all "discoveries" of Hitler were associated with Latin American countries.

New sensations

In the mid-60s, more and more fantastic versions of Hitler's miraculous rescue began to appear in the newspapers again. In the post-war years, there was an unspoken consensus that witness testimony was enough to consider Hitler dead, and the USSR probably had some additional evidence. In the mid-60s, a book by Lev Bezymensky was published, in which the act of examining Hitler's body and the data of examinations were first published. The book was published abroad with the approval of the party, therefore, one hundred percent reflected the official Soviet version of the death of the Nazi Fuhrer. However, the book was criticized by Western experts. The forensic experts indicated that not all the necessary examinations had been carried out. In addition, there was a nonzero probability that the examination was carried out not with Hitler's corpse at all. Because the act indicated that the deceased had only one testicle, while this fact was not reflected in any of Hitler's medical documents.

Various versions of Hitler's flight began to appear again, this time already created by the fantasy of journalists. In any case, since the end of the 50s, the special services were no longer seriously looking for the Nazi Fuhrer. Every now and then there were witnesses who knew people who communicated with Hitler, or even who themselves saw him in Argentina or Brazil, Paraguay or Venezuela. All of them received their five minutes of fame and were soon forgotten.

A fragment of the skull, presumably of Hitler, which is kept in the State Archives of the Russian Federation. Photo: © AP Photo / Mikhail Metzel

All this time, the remains of Hitler rested in the ground at one of the Soviet facilities in the GDR. In 1970, in connection with the transfer of the object to the Germans, on the personal order of the head of the KGB, Andropov, the remains were destroyed and drowned in the Elbe. All that remained of Hitler was a jaw and a fragment of a skull that were kept in Moscow. Several years ago, the media around the world reported sensational news: according to the results of an independent examination, it turned out that the skull did not belong to Hitler, but to an unknown woman (not Eva Braun, who was poisoned, while a fragment of the skull had a bullet wound). However, this can be explained by the fact that the fragment was taken after the next exhumation in 1946 and could have been confused.

This gave rise to a new round of discourse about the real fate of Hitler. However, no one dared to seriously question the version of the suicide of the leader of Nazi Germany. The possibility of a successful escape from the besieged Berlin of a man whom almost every inhabitant of the Earth knew by sight in 1945 looks too incredible.

And they explained the situation with the DNA examination of the remains of the main Nazi

All that was left of Evil fit in one palm. I hold Hitler's jaw in my hands. The Fuehrer of Germany clearly did not protect his teeth: most of them are artificial, made of gold.

There are many conspiracy theories that Adolf Hitler did not commit suicide, but managed to escape. In the West, they say: Russia does not specifically make a DNA examination of the Fuhrer's jaw ... I went to the archives of the FSB of Russia to get answers to my questions.

Hitler and Eva Braun

Adolf Hitler's jaw is the main artifact in the archives of the Federal Security Service. It is she who is considered the main proof that the Fuhrer committed suicide, and did not spend the rest of his days somewhere (for example, in Argentina).

Hitler's jaw

"Russia has not yet done a DNA examination of Hitler's jaw!" - said recently ex-CIA officer Bob Baer. He, along with the American military who participated in the elimination of bin Laden, "threatened" to publish documents confirming that Hitler was taken out of Berlin alive, and the jaw of the Reich Chancellor's double was always in the hands of the MGB-KGB-FSB.

Is there even a grain of truth in this? What other evidence of Hitler's suicide do the Russian special services have?

Undercover investigation: "Hitler's personal dog is buried in the specified funnel."

Talk that Hitler survived in the meat grinder of the spring of 1945 has not stopped for more than 70 years. And it is unlikely that this "alternative" version will finally be dispelled. As historians say, no matter how much and no matter what evidence they present, people will always doubt the suicide of one of the bloodiest rulers on the planet during the storming of Berlin by the soldiers of the Red Army.

The case initiated by the search for the Fuhrer

But now there is a reason to conduct another historical investigation. In January 2017, former British and American intelligence officials said they had studied 14,000 different documents and concluded that Hitler had survived. According to them, the Fuhrer was taken to a secret place. They threw a stone into the garden of Russia, they say, our country knew this and allegedly therefore did not conduct a DNA examination of Hitler's jaw.

There really was no DNA examination, but not at all, ”says Nikolai Ivanov, deputy head of the Central Archive of the FSB of Russia. - We are ready to show Hitler's jaw and other material evidence confirming his death.

But I decide to start my search for the truth with documents. These are not copies, but originals. These secret papers have been seen by a few.

Destroyed bunker of Hitler

The FSB archive contains an intelligence-search case against Adolf Hitler, which was started in 1945. Bulky folder with yellowed sheets. On the cover is Hitler's name in strikingly beautiful handwriting. And further: “The USSR Ministry of State Security. Case No. 300919 ".

It's always good to first imagine the scene of the crime.

Here are pictures of the bunker where Hitler was hiding with Eva Braun in the last days of his life. More precisely, the photo shows only the burnt remnants of the shelter. Parts of walls, stairs ... To understand what it looked like during Hitler's life, it is better to study the layout of the bunker. The drawing was made by someone from the Red Army.

So, in the very corner was Hitler's bedroom. Nearby there is a private bathroom, an office, a "card room". Closely adjoined by Eva Braun's bedroom-living room, her dressing room. There is also a "dog bunker", or a room for security. All this takes up one half of the shelter, separated from the other by a conference room and a common living room.

Photo from Hitler's bunker.

And on the other half there are Goebbels' bedrooms (the main ideologue of Nazi propaganda), Stumpfegger's rooms (a surgeon, Hitler's personal doctor), a diesel engine room, a panel room, a security room, etc. The kitchen, closets, servants' quarters, the rooms of Frau Goebbels and her children were located separately.

From the bunker, judging by the scheme, there were several exits, including one into the garden. A cross marks the place where the bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were burned in this garden ...

I read the testimony of Hitler's servants. She assures that the last time she saw him and his wife alive was at 2.30 pm on April 30. "They walked through the bunker, shook hands with all the assistants, then returned to their rooms, where they committed suicide."

Photo from Hitler's bunker

Then there are the testimonies of the guards, who tell how, on the orders of the authorities, the external doors were walled up, how they brought about 180 liters of gasoline. What happened next, they did not know. From the testimony of the secretaries, it becomes clear that Goebbels, Bormann (head of the party office, personal secretary of the Fuhrer), Hitler's adjutant Gunsche, the personal bodyguard of the Fuhrer Linge, carried the bodies of Hitler and Eve into the garden. At the same time, the body of the Fuhrer was wrapped in a blanket, but his wife was not. The bodies were doused with gasoline, and when they caught fire, they saluted and hastily returned to the shelter (it was dangerous, because the fire of the Russian artillery was increasing).

One of the main evidence documents:

“Identifier Harry Mengeshausen stated that from 10 to 30 April 1945, while serving in the SS Mundke Group of Forces, he participated in the defense of the Reich Chancellery and in the immediate protection of Hitler. At noon on April 30, he patrolled the Imperial Chancellery building, walking down the corridor past Hitler's workroom to the blue dining room. Patrolling along the indicated corridor, Mengeshausen stopped at the extreme window of the blue dining room, which is the first at the exit door to the garden, and began to observe. At that moment, the bodies of Hitler and his wife were carried out of the emergency exit Günsche and Linge. Gunsche doused them with gasoline and set them on fire. The bodies were then carried into the shell crater.

Mengeshausen observed the entire procedure of taking out, burning and burying the corpses of Adolf Hitler and his wife at a distance of 60 meters. Further, Mengeshausen stated that Hitler's personal dog was buried in the indicated funnel on April 29. Her features: a tall shepherd dog with long ears, a black back ... Mengeshausen knows that she was poisoned with poison. Inspection of the places indicated by Mengeshausen established the veracity of the testimony: from the window of the blue dining room, he could perfectly observe what was happening. "

In general, Hitler gave the order to burn them while he was still alive. He was afraid that they would take him dead around Moscow and show him like a monkey. Neither alive nor dead, he did not want to get the Russians.

It is impossible to understand exactly from the documents how long the bodies burned, how often they were poured with gasoline. In the general turmoil, few of those close to them were interested in this fact. And by the way, this hurt one of the employees: he complains in his testimony of general indifference to the fate of the corpses ... But Hitler's body was not destined to burn to the ground. Fact.

Then comes the testimony related to the suicide of Goebbels, his wife.

Probably, then the burnt bodies of both Hitler and Goebbels were simply sprinkled with earth and forgotten about them. At that time, everyone was busy thinking about how to save their lives, and no one cared at all to the dead Hitler. The soldiers of the Red Army have already shown interest in him.

I am holding a unique document. Spelling and punctuation are preserved.

"Sov. secret. Berlin. Act. 1945, May of the month "5" day.

Me guards. Senior Lieutenant Aleksey Aleksandrovich Panasov and privates Churakov, Oleinik and Seroukh in Berlin in the area of ​​Hitler's Reich Chancellery near the place where the troupes were found (for some reason, "corpses" are everywhere written with two "p" - EM) Goebbels and his wife, about Hitler's personal bomb shelter was found and two burned-out troupe, one female and the other male, were seized. The troupes were badly burned, it is impossible to identify them without any additional data. The troupes were in a bomb crater, three meters from the entrance to the bomb shelter and covered with a layer of earth. The troupes are kept at the SMERSH counterintelligence department.

Photo of the charred remains of Hitler (it can be seen that the fire almost did not touch the legs)

Another diagram, apparently drawn by Panasov, is attached to the act. It shows in more detail the place where the corpses were found.

The numbers indicate the old and new imperial chancellery, Hitler's dugout, his work room, the blue dining room, the outer window of this dining room, water basins, an observation tower, a funnel, the place of Hitler's burning.

"Eva Braun's body was in a black dress, there were several pink flowers on her chest."

So, the bodies have been found. Everything that happened next is documented, but it entered into another matter. The case of identification. Officially, it is under the long title "Acts of identification, forensic examination of corpses, protocols of interrogation of witnesses."

In general, even before the end of World War II, several bodies of Hitler's doubles were found. So Stalin needed irrefutable proof that the body buried in a crater near the bunker of the Reich Chancellery belonged to him.

I am reading the original protocol on the identification of Hitler's body. It follows from the document that the external review was held in the morgue of the city of Berlin on May 8, 1945. The remains were brought here in a wooden box. The photo of the box and its "owner" is here. I can clearly see the contours of the body. The feet were completely preserved, the fire did not touch them. But everything else ... You shouldn't look at the photo for a long time - you can feel an attack of nausea.

The forensic scientist - the chief pathologist of the Red Army, Kraevsky - points to a strong smell of charred meat. Notices that even the remains of a yellow shirt have survived. Lists the parameters of the deceased: height 165 cm, anatomical features of the teeth, etc. He especially notes that he found pieces of glass in his mouth - part of an ampoule with poison.

Kraevsky takes blood and tissue for examination.

In general, all the same manipulations were done with the corpse that modern pathologists do, ”says the deputy. head of the archive Ivanov. - Moreover, the remains of Eva Braun, Goebbels and his wife and even all the dogs of Hitler and Eve underwent exactly the same procedure.

All autopsy reports are saved. A few hours of studying them do little. However, what finds can be expected from a completely standard procedure?

The procedure for identifying Hitler's body was painstaking.

For this, all employees of the Reich Chancellery were interviewed. And again Mengeshausen was interrogated (the first interrogation took place on May 13, the second on May 18).

“I knew Hitler by his face and uniform. He was dressed in black trousers and a gray-green jacket. None of the leaders of the fascist party, except him, wore such a uniform. When Hitler was taken out, I personally saw the profile of his face - nose, hair, mustache. Therefore, I claim that it was he. Hitler's wife - Eva Braun - when she was taken out of the bomb shelter, was dressed in a black dress, on her chest there were several pink flowers made of material. I saw her in this dress several times in the bunker ... Knowing Hitler's wife well, I assert that it was she who was taken out of the bomb shelter. "

Original photos used to identify Hitler (from the FSB archive)

FROM THE MGB DOSSIER: “Mengeshausen Harry, born in 1915, German. By decree of a special meeting at the USSR Ministry of State Security dated December 26, 1951, he was imprisoned in a forced labor camp for a period of 15 years. By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, he was released ahead of schedule in 1955 and transferred to the authorities of the GDR. "

Hitler was also identified from photographs. The FSB archive contains the originals of the photographs that were used for this. On the back of each (they all pass as material evidence) there are corresponding marks. The pictures are of sufficient quality, there are quite large ones, in A4 format. In one, besides Hitler, a limping Goebbels is visible - from this frame, Goebbels himself and his crooked leg, which was always in an orthopedic shoe, were identified.

And yet Hitler's dentocard (information about the condition of his teeth) was one of the main evidence. But what would it mean without the testimony of the dentists? Dentist Ehman Fritz was questioned first. He declared: "In January 1945, Hitler's personal dentist, Professor Blaschke, handed me several X-rays of the Fuehrer's teeth in Berlin."

Blaschke himself, by the way, was also interrogated. His testimony completely matched those given by Ehman and the nurse. Blaschke was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in the camps, released early in 1953.

No one had any doubts that the body belonged to Hitler at that moment. Otherwise, no one would have dared to report to Moscow, to the Kremlin.

Hitler was buried more than once

In the folder I find the very paper that tells how it was.

"Sov. secret. May 31, 1945 People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR Comrade L.P. Beria

I am sending the acts of the forensic medical examination and identification of the bodies of Hitler and Goebbels alleged by us, as well as interrogation protocols and photographic documents.

The listed documents and photographs confirm the correctness of our assumptions about the suicide of Hitler and Goebbels. There is no doubt that the body of Hitler we are offering is genuine. This was established on the basis of the testimony of the dentist and the nurse who treated Hitler, who drew the location of the false teeth. "

Beria's resolution: "Send to Stalin and Molotov."

From the point of view of the department and the country's leadership, an end was put on this issue. Neither Stalin nor anyone else doubted that Hitler was dead and that his remains lay here.

Immediately after that, Hitler was buried. And more than once.

And again, the original document is in support of this.

After the end of the forensic examination and all operational measures to identify them, the corpses were buried in the region of the mountains. Bukh. In connection with the redeployment of the SMERSH counterintelligence department, the bodies were seized and transported first to the region of the mountains. Finov, and then - mountains. Rathenov, where they were finally buried. The corpses are in wooden boxes in a hole at a depth of 1.7 meters and are placed in the following order (from east to west) Hitler, Eva Bryn, Goebbels, Magda Goebbels, Krebs, Goebbels' children ... the surface is planted from small trees number - 111 ".

The place where Hitler was reburied by the SMERSH department. Planted on the surface of small trees - 111.

Our troops have been redeployed, but how to leave the body of Hitler himself? In February 1946, a special commission headed by the head of the SMERSH department of the 3rd Shock Army, Colonel Miroshnichenko, decided to open the burial.

I am studying the corresponding act.

“The corpses are in a semi-rotten state and in this form were delivered to the mountains. Magdeburg in the location of the counterintelligence department "SMERSH", and again buried in a hole at a depth of 2 meters in the courtyard of house No. 36 on Westendstrasse street, at the southern stone wall of the courtyard, from the garage of the house to the east - 25 meters. The buried pit with the corpses was leveled to the ground, the external view was brought to resemble the surrounding area. "

The counterintelligence officers were not in a position to transport Hitler's corpse to a new city every time. In March 1970, the Archive plan appears. In a nutshell: it was ordered to put up a tent at the burial site, organize excavations, get boxes with corpses, take them to the Rotten Lake area, where they burn them, and throw the ashes into the water. A cover legend is separately spelled out in the plan (even the military of the Soviet army should not have known about the event, only a narrow circle of high-ranking officers): there are valuable archival materials ”.

Among the documents I find an act of opening the pit and an act of burning. The last one is handwritten, dated April 5th. There it is reported that the remains were burned in the wasteland, they burned out, together with coal pounded into ash.

All that remains is the jaws of Hitler and Eva Braun, Goebbels' orthopedic boot. They were seized in advance and stored as material evidence. At the same time, it was Hitler's jaws (a bridge of the upper jaw with 9 teeth and a burnt lower jaw with 15 teeth) that were considered the main and unconditional proof that this was him.

The Fuhrer's teeth are kept in a cigarette box

The Fuhrer's teeth lie in a small box from the Guards cigarettes. The archive workers are allowed to open it and take them in hand. Only four fragments, in the largest I counted nine teeth.

I compare these teeth with the description given by the dentist and nurse: “The lower jaw. Gold crown on its own root, gold bond, natural tooth with gold filling on the inside, gold pendant with porcelain veneer ... Upper jaw. Richmond crown with natural root and porcelain veneer, golden bridge with nine intermediate links and four supports ... "

In 2002, a famous American dentist came to visit us, - says the historian of the special services Oleg Matveev. - Unexpectedly - he did not warn any of us in advance - he took out an X-ray. This was the one that Professor Blaschke kept. He checked it against the one with the jaw. The coincidence was complete. Therefore, it is now strange to hear from the American side that there are any doubts about Hitler's suicide and the authenticity of this jaw.

All that remains of Hitler is in the palm of the MK columnist.

The FSB regularly receives requests for a DNA examination of the Fuhrer's jaw (no one was interested in Eva Braun's teeth, which, by the way, are in excellent condition). But who are they from? Certain private companies, foundations, media. They wrote: here, they say, we have some DNA material, we propose to conduct an examination taking into account the capabilities of modern science and technology.

The last time in December last year, a journalist became interested in the jaw. She allegedly found the Fuhrer's relatives in America, took out samples of the saliva of one of them. But, first of all, how do we know that there are DNA samples from a relative? Relatives always tried to hide their belonging to Hitler, changed their place of residence, etc. It is not particularly necessary to count on the fact that they will suddenly want to give DNA samples themselves.

Secondly, if any of the relatives decides to do this, there is an official procedure. I repeat, we do not need this - from the point of view of the FSB of Russia, there is no need to conduct these examinations. Everything has been proven long ago, and we have no doubts.

As if to support this, the memoirs of Adolf Hitler's former bodyguard, Rochus Misch (who died in Berlin in 2013) were recently published. He describes how he discovered the still warm bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun. As the woman's legs were unnaturally stretched out, the shoes were lying under the sofa. How Hitler's eyes were open, and his head bowed slightly forward ...

Scientists are convinced that a genetic examination of Hitler's jaw will yield nothing. As the one that was spent with the remains of the murdered royal family did not give. Anyway, there have been and will remain doubters. And it's not about imperfect technology, not about a secret conspiracy. It's just that people are susceptible to myths. And the myth of the surviving Hitler is one of the most terrible and therefore attractive.

Even at the beginning of the 20th century, before the First World War, the Germans drew attention to the countries of Latin America, anticipating the importance of this region in the future interests of Germany. Since in many local countries there have long existed significant settlements of German colonists, which played an important role in economic and political life, Walter Nicolai, the head of German intelligence at the beginning of the last century, was intensively planting his agents in the countries of South America.

The Nazis who came to power also did not let Latin America out of their sphere of interests. Huge funds withdrawn from the German economy were sent to banks across the Atlantic. The head of the Abwehr, Admiral Canaris, personally oversaw the expansion of the network of agents to increase influence on statesmen in Latin American countries. The countries of South America remained neutral in the outbreak of World War II, but the governments of some of them did not hide their sympathy for the Nazis. Of course, it was not profitable for them to sever economic ties with Germany, because by the beginning of the war the share of German capital in the economies of these countries was about a billion US dollars. In addition, the politics and personal attitudes of major political figures, businessmen and influential public organizations in Latin America, which were connected with Nazi Germany by business ties, were reflected.

For Germany, Argentina was of particular interest, firstly, there was the largest German colony in the region, and secondly, this country was an important supplier of wheat and meat, which was very important for a country dreaming of world domination.

Long before the start of the war, large and long-term agreements on the supply of food were concluded between Argentina and Germany, as well as diplomatic agreements on the possible use of Argentine ports by German ships, including the military, and the possibility of unhindered emigration of German citizens. The largest in Latin America was the German Embassy in Argentina. Its workers constantly received directives: to pursue the policy necessary for the Wehrmacht, actively penetrate the economy, expand the agent network, and prepare an obedient government in the future. Schellenberg's office sent the best personnel to work in Argentina. It is believed that it was Arnold Johannes, a secret agent and employee of the VI Directorate of the RSHA, who recruited the ambitious and domineering Juan Perón, then a senior officer in the Argentine army. With the support of Baron Edmund von Termann, the plenipotentiary ambassador and head of the Nazi German embassy in Argentina, a branch of the "Foreign German League" operated in the country. Officially, it was a German community, but in fact the "league" was a stronghold of the Nazi special services.

The activities of the latter were very successful: the Germans managed to exercise complete control over many industries and large agricultural enterprises. The largest aviation company Aeroposta Argentina was actually a subsidiary of the German Lufthansa. Through the acquired blocks of shares, the Germans controlled most of the media, and the "German Transoceanic Society", which had its main office in Buenos Aires, not only carried out various commercial and passenger traffic across the ocean, but also maintained constant contact with German submarines plying from warring Europe, was engaged in supplying submarines with everything necessary for long autonomous navigation.

The Germans felt at home in Argentina. In 1943, a coup d'etat took place in Argentina, power was seized by the pro-fascist "Group of the United Officers". It was headed by Juan Peron, who enjoys the active support of the Nazi special services and German capital through Ludwig Freude. The latter headed the German Transatlantic Bank in Buenos Aires, and at the same time was the financial confidant of the Fuhrer and Martin Bormann. It was his Bank that accepted tens of millions of Reichsmarks, withdrawn from Germany at the end of the war, into accounts. Adolf Hitler was very pleased with the result of the coup and ordered to provide all kinds of support to Peron, he soon became the president of Argentina, but in fact its dictator.

At the end of World War II, the staff of the General Directorate of Imperial Security in Germany, which consisted of seven directorates of various profiles, were looking for an application. They became the main backbone of the secret society of former SS members ODESSA (Organization der Ehemaligen SS-Angehorigen), which was established in 1946 in Madrid. The purpose of this organization was the evacuation by all means of former members of the SS and SD from Germany to other countries, their arrangement, providing legal assistance to those arrested, release from prison and rehabilitation. At the origins of its creation were Otto Skorzeny, SS Standartenfuehrer Schwendt, and the Luftwaffe Hans-Ulrich Rudel, and General Allen.

Otto Skorzeny

For example, in 1990, the new government of President P. Eylwin began to take measures to liquidate the colony's legal status and confiscate its property. The necessary measures were taken in time, and the funds of "Dignidad" were urgently transferred to the accounts of the newly created organizations, and the real estate was divided among the leaders of the colony. The use of the international relations of the former Nazis and the significant funds of the colony allowed "Dignidad", closely cooperating with DINA, to deploy a large-scale terror, which attracted the interest of the CIA services. Even the National Commission was created to find out the true life in the colony. Finally, in 1991, Chilean President Patricio Aylwin signed a decree stripping Dignidad's legal rights and tax benefits, thus ending the latter's complete disregard for state laws. But "Villa Bavaria", which is home to more than three hundred Germans and which is still guarded as an important strategic site, has not yet been closed ...

Even with approval Hitler west of Tucuman, on the Argentine-Bolivian border, huge territories were bought up for the residence of ethnic Germans. With the non-intervention of state structures, the Germans created their settlements there, even armed formations, and completely ignored the central government in the country. Some well-informed sources claim that such a "free territory" exists on the border between Argentina and Bolivia to this day. One of the colonists, Walter Schulke, who arrived in Argentina on a submarine together with missile designers and officers of the Peenemünde missile range, told the following about the life of the settlers. On the territory there were several shops, a post office, a hospital, there was a cemetery, there was even an airfield. Thanks to the patronage of President Peron, the colony lived by its own laws, and no one had the right to interfere in its affairs. Portraits hung openly everywhere Hitler and Nazi flags, as a greeting, they habitually raised their hand, and on the Fuhrer's birthday it was customary to wear an SS uniform and sing fascist hymns. Hundred hectares of the colony's land was fenced with barbed wire and guarded in the most careful way, for this there was a security service. The curious who tried to get into the territory disappeared. The community of the colonists was supported by means from the party fund. According to some reports, the territories of the colonies were used with might and main for the quiet residence of Nazi criminals of various levels who had escaped from Europe.

Nazis and fake passports

More recently, a government commission report was published in Buenos Aires, which clarifies how the legalization of criminals took place in Argentina. Prior to that, it was believed that the latter arrived in the country with fake passports. But the former commandant of the Riga ghetto, Eduard Roschmann, for example, entered the country with a Red Cross passport. Gerhard Bonet received the same passport, during the war, he led the killing of the mentally ill, the so-called "euthanasia" program. In the late 1980s, a secret 1947 report by the American diplomat in Rome, Vincent la Vista, was published. He proved irrefutably that the Vatican was involved in transporting fugitive Nazis abroad. For example, Bishop Alois Gudal, who at the end of the war headed the Institute of St. Mary's Soul, provided his charitable institution for hiding Nazis. There is evidence that they were given fake foreign passports to the Nazis, including the twelve major war criminals, including Schwend and Rudel. With someone's help, it was in Argentina that Adolf Eichmann, a well-known Nazi criminal who was engaged in the “final solution of the Jewish question,” but simply the extermination of European Jews, found a refuge for himself.

Adolf Eichmann

Under an assumed name, he worked in Buenos Aires at the Mercedes-Benz plant. In 1960, he was found by the Israeli intelligence MOSSAD, he was secretly taken out of the country to Israel, where he was brought to trial. Traces of Martin Bormann were also lost in South America. Some sources claim that the deputy Hitler the party and its treasurer Martin Bormann fled from the bunker on the night of May 1-2, 1945 together with the attending physician Hitler Stumpfegger, Hitler Youth leader Arthur Axman, adjutant Hitler Günsche, Fuhrer pilots Bauer and Betz, Oberscharführer Behrens and others. Subsequently, after the shelling, the corpse of a person similar to Bormann was found and next to the Reichsleiter's notebook. This gave reason to believe that Martin Bormann died.

Martin Bormann

But a few years later, Bormann's son Walter, during the exhumation of this body by criminologists, said that it could not be his father, since he broke his collarbone before the war, and the forensic expert did not find any signs of a fracture. Later, Bormann's diary was found, from which it became clear that Partaigenosse had conceived an escape from Berlin on April 30 with the participation of a double.

According to the plan at the Letter Station, Bormann's double, which was found a long time ago, just in case, and Stumpfegger was destroyed by the SS, leaving a notebook next to it. And the Reichsleiter continued on his way to the north of Germany to Grand Admiral Dönitz. Then Bormann fled to Denmark, and when the hype about his search subsided, followed from there by sea in a roundabout way to Italy, then to Madrid, under the wing of General Franco. For almost two years, Martin Bormann was involved in the restoration of the Nazi core, controlled financial flows, in fact, took the leadership of ODESSA into his own hands. And when in 1950-1960 rumors about his "resurrection" appeared again, allegedly hundreds of people saw him in different places, the search for Nazi No. 2 resumed again. Bormann was forced to flee to Argentina, where he created, according to rumors, a whole financial empire. Finally, the traces were lost in Paraguay, where, according to the testimony of his son, he lived in the town of Hohenau in the house of Albano Kruger. In February 1961, in Germany, the prosecutor of the state of Hesse, Fritz Bauer, made a statement that Bormann was alive, but it was not possible to determine his place of stay. The basis for this statement was information from the interrogations of Bormann's eldest son Horst-Adolf about the latter's repeated contacts with his father in South America. Later, Bormann's brother, Richard, confirmed during interrogation in March 1964 that Martin lived under the name of Ricardo Bauer in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso and underwent several plastic surgeries. In 1993, an archive of the political police that existed during the reign of Stroessner was discovered in Paraguay, it contained curious documents about the fugitive Nazis living there, and in particular about Martin Bormann. On August 24, 1961, the head of the Foreign Relations Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Paraguay, Pedro Prokopchuk, sent a report to Antonio Campos Alume, the head of the technical department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The report indicates that Martin Bormann arrived in Paraguay in 1956. It is known that he lived in the town of Hohenau in the Itapua department, 350 kilometers southeast of Asuncion, in the house of a certain Alban Krugg. There is information about Bormann's regular visits to Stroessner's personal dentist - Heikel. On February 15, 1959, he died of stomach cancer at the home of the Consul General of Paraguay in the Federal Republic of Germany, Werner Jung. And two days later he was buried in the cemetery of the town of Ita.

The notorious criminal Josef Mengele also managed to escape from Germany to Argentina, but the coup of 1955, which overthrew the power of the dictator Peron, forced him to hide in neighboring Paraguay, where the positions of German immigrants were strong, and then to Uruguay.

Hitler in Argentina

But these are well-known facts of the presence of the Nazis in Latin America. And there is the most daring and fantastic version that supposedly Adolf Hitler together with Eva Braun, they also managed to escape from Berlin and cross over to Argentina. The reason for the emergence of this version was partly the disclosure of the FBI in June 1998 of secret files that related to options for fate. Hitler... So General Ladd, a resident of the United States Strategic Services Office in Buenos Aires, on September 4, 1944, sent a report to J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, where he expressed the possibility that Hitler wants to find refuge in Argentina after the collapse of the Third Reich. Among the declassified documents, there are also documents Nos. 374 and 375, which are the agent's report, again addressed to Hoover, dated August 14, 1945, in which it is reported that the Fuhrer and his entourage were disembarking from a submarine on a deserted coast near the city of San Antonio in Patagonia. and their further movement towards the foothills of the Andes. The report of a completely different agent under No. 369 of August 21, 1945 contains information that Hitler with the entourage settled on a ranch at the foot of the mountains. There is also a request from CIA Director A. Dulles dated February 17, 1955 to the FBI for information regarding a witness who met Hitler in Buenos Aires in 1950. Many such interesting documents have been declassified, which have spawned a number of studies. A variety of journalists and historians have found traces that confirm the facts mentioned in the FBI archives. They were able to find witnesses who allegedly saw Hitler in Argentina, found places that he allegedly visited. The most serious researcher of this topic is the Argentine journalist Abel Basti. A whole group of people worked under his leadership. They found and interrogated dozens of witnesses, carried out a tremendous archival work. Based on the research carried out, the world saw two serious documentary books "Nazis Bariloche" and " Hitler in Argentina". In the latter, Basti, relying on the archival documents of the FBI, as well as on the facts he himself collected and interviews of eyewitnesses, reproduces the details of Hitler's flight from Berlin at the end of April 1945 and the details of his life in Argentina, until his death in 1964. The author assures us that the Fuhrer and six people close to him on a submarine, accompanied by two more submarines, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and landed in July-August 1945 in the Caleta de los Loros bay of the Rio Negro province. After these boats were sunk and still rest at a depth of 30 m, where they were discovered by special instruments by a team of researchers led by the writer.

Further traces of Hitler and Brown lead to the provinces of Buenos Aires, Mendoza and La Roya. They were seen in the La Angostura estate, visiting the businessman Jorge Antonio, a close person to the Argentine dictator Peron. And in 1949, Hitler and his companion were served in the small hotel of the Eichhorns in the village of La Falda. Basti found evidence of the long-term residence of Hitler and Eva Braun at the Villa San Ramon. This villa was specially prepared for them and was supervised by none other than Rodolfo Freide, personal secretary of the dictator Peron. The book contains many names, facts and photographs, more than fifty witnesses were found, confirming the fact of Hitler's stay in the country. There is another book with identical assurances about the post-war fate Hitler... This is a book by British historians S. Dunstan and J. Williams "The Gray Wolf: Flight Adolf Hitler”. They also convince the reader that Hitler and Eva Braun allegedly fled from besieged Berlin, were transported to Argentina, lived in a quiet estate at the foot of the mountains. But, historians add, the entire operation to transfer the Fuhrer to South America was carried out with the knowledge and assistance of American special services.