1955. A CIA agent, his hands shaking, picks up a photograph. A tiny bead of
sweat drips off his chin. He carefully turns it over to see it’s marked “1954.”
Next to the date, the words “Adolf Schüttelmayor” are written. The other man in the photo,
Phillip Citroen, who says he’s a former German SS trooper, has told the CIA agent that he and Adolf
Hitler had that photograph taken in Argentina. Could that be true? You tell us after you finish
watching this show. Day O:
April 30, 1945. Hitler and his new wife, Eva Braun, are sitting in the Führerbunker in Berlin,
listening to the sounds of Soviet shells exploding in the distance.
Allied air forces have bombed the hell out of Berlin. Much of the
city is filled with acrid smoke, and the smell of death and decay is everywhere.
Hitler has known for a while that the gig is up, but one thing that scares him more than
death is his body being paraded around like a prize pig. That’s what mobs in
Italy just did to Benito Mussolini after they executed him at the Piazzale Loreto.
Crowds spat and kicked the corpse, tore at the skin of his face,
and strung him up like cattle at a slaughterhouse.
There is no way Hitler will allow himself to be treated like that.
At approximately 2:30 a.m., Hitler said his farewells to the people still in the bunker,
about 20 in total, many of them women. Every so often, he flinched when he heard an explosion,
the Soviets now being about half a kilometer away. At some point that day, Hitler’s private pilot,
Hans Baur, told his boss that he had a plane ready and it could take him anywhere he wanted,
to Argentina, Japan, Greenland, or Manchuria, but Hitler said no. He
was not up for a life on the run. In the afternoon, outside Hitler’s
sleeping quarters, the smell of burned almonds filled the air.
Hitler's valet, Heinz Linge, entered the room. He saw Adolf and Eva slumped on the
couch. When SS-Sturmbannführer Otto Günsche entered, blood dripped down Adolf’s arm,
forming a pool in the rug below. This scene will be the subject of debate for years to come.
Günsche broke the news to the others, although everyone knew this would
happen. Both Hitlers were rolled into rugs, taken upstairs through an emergency exit,
and placed in the Reich Chancellery Garden. It was a painful time for Linge, whose eyes filled
with tears when his Fuhrer’s face stuck out of the rug and seemed to look at him. How had this
happened to his great leader, to Germany? A few people were there to watch the
ensuing spectacle, including Hitler’s propaganda merchant, Joseph Goebbels,
who just a couple of months before was screaming down the German radio for young folks to fight:
“We Werewolves consider it our supreme duty to kill, to kill and to kill,
employing every cunning and wile in the darkness of the night, crawling,
groping through towns and villages, like wolves, noiselessly, mysteriously.”
He’d lost the plot, and now his madness was about to hit a crescendo.
Setting the Fuhrer’s body on fire was something he’d never imagined could
happen. He was distraught, a beaten man. He and the others in attendance, mostly SS,
doused the Hitlers’ bodies in gasoline. Guensche threw a burning rag on the bodies,
but it was soon evident that more gasoline would be needed. Thankfully, a car nearby provided it.
Martin Bormann, head of the Nazi Party Chancellery, piled on extra paper and wood.
The flames rose into the air as the smell of burning flesh and rug filled the nostrils of
the eight or nine men in attendance, each giving their boss one last salute. The question is,
how many will live to tell the tale about what happened in that garden? Sometime later,
that bloodied rug in Hitler’s quarters was also burned in the garden. It, too,
will be speculated over for decades to come. As the Red Army drew closer to the bunker, the
remaining Nazi officers did everything they could to ensure nothing was left of Hitler. From around
4 to 6.30 pm, they poured more and more gasoline on the remains. To properly cremate bodies,
you generally need very high temperatures, but this incessant returning to the bodies
reduced Adolf and Eva to a pile of bones and ashes. It was a job well done. Or, at least,
that’s what some people think. Day 1
At about 9.30 in the morning, the German people heard something disturbing on a
radio station based in Hamburg. They were forewarned that “a grave and
important announcement” would soon be made. The radio station proceeded to play Wagner's
operas, Hitler’s music of choice, especially when he was raging with power lust. At 10.20 pm,
the commander-in-chief for the north of Germany, Grand-Admiral Karl Donitz,
told listeners that Hitler had died a brave man, fighting “at the head of his troops.” … Being
cooked like a goose in the garden was hardly in line with Germany’s propaganda.
Talking about propaganda, after Hitler’s body had been nuked, Goebbels wandered around the bunker,
going into the garden hoping a Red Army soldier would shoot him. He’d tried to
arrange a ceasefire, but the Russians were having none of it. Goebells was done. He saw
no point in living any longer. One of the last people to see
Goebbels was Hans-Erich Voss, who asked him why he hadn’t fled like the others.
Goebbels, looking utterly downcast, told him, “The captain must not leave his sinking ship.
I have thought about it all and decided to stay here. I have nowhere to go because, with little
children, I will not be able to make it.” He was at least true to his word. He knew
other high-ranking Nazis would likely escape Germany, but he wasn’t going anywhere. That
day Goebbels got an SS dentist to give a big shot of morphine to his six kids.
He and his wife, Magda, like Hitler and Eva, ended up in the Chancellery garden, except the
cremation job on them was shoddy. The Russians later got their hands on the bits that were left.
Word spread around the world about Hitler, but not everyone was convinced he was dead,
notably the tyrant at the head of the Soviet Union, Joseph “Man of Steel” Stalin. You’ll
hear more from him soon. Day 2
In light of what Hitler had done, in view of the war and him massacring millions of Jews and others
that he deemed biologically inferior, you’d think the obituaries that were published after his death
would not exactly have been complimentary. Think again.
Knut Hamsun, who was a Norwegian Nobel Prize-winning novelist, showered the dead
Fuhrer in post-mortem adoration. He wrote, “Hitler was a warrior,
a warrior for humankind, and a preacher of the gospel of justice for all nations. He was
a reforming character of the highest order.” Well, we guess Hitler did literally RE-form
the world, but in an entirely negative way. Hamsun was out of his mind, but not
everyone rejoiced about Hitler’s passing. In a long obituary in the New York Times,
Hitler was condemned for his views on the Aryan race. The obituary talked about his frustration
of not becoming a working artist and said Hitler was evil for his “secret murder of opponents and
those suspected of opposition” and “the ruthless destruction of the Jews.” The article mentioned he
was vegetarian, that he hardly ever slept, had few women friends, and “had a passion for neatness.”
The writer was probably not aware of Hitler’s addictions and what high doses
of methamphetamine can do to a person. The Daily Express in England wrote,
“Germans put out the news everyone hopes is true.” Boston's Daily Record,
printed in bold, “Will Rant No More.” Another US paper said, “American troops
speeding across Austria…Peace by week's end hinted by Churchill.”
The Salt Lake Tribune was one of the newspapers that
expressed what was on a lot of people’s minds: “Hitler couldn't afford to accept unconditional
surrender, so what may prove to be the legend of his meeting a hero's death had to be staged.
I still cannot escape the feeling that Hitler is some place where nobody expects him to be.”
But people felt more assured when they saw the front cover of Time magazine and its big X.
On this day, it’s believed Martin Bormann died, likely killed by the Red Army,
but this was only confirmed in 1973, and his body wasn’t positively identified until 1998.
He didn’t get away, that’s for sure, like some of the other Nazi criminals we’ll discuss soon.
Day 3 Stalin, a murderer of millions himself,
was in no mood to celebrate. Just after he’d heard the news, unlike others who’d jumped for joy,
he was somber. All he said was, “So, the bastard’s dead, too bad we didn’t catch him alive.”
Day 4 Even though Hitler was dead and
the Germans had certainly lost the war, fighting carried on. There was still much work to do.
In his will, Hitler named Admiral Karl Dönitz as the heir and president of
Germany. Talk about a poop sandwich of a job. Dönitz was really surprised he’d been named,
as were some other Nazis, who said, “Who the hell is this Dönitz guy?” He later said the
likely reason he’d been chosen was that Hitler had believed “only a reasonable man with an honest
reputation as a sailor could make a decent peace.” Dönitz tried negotiating peace with the US and UK,
but he was under no illusion that the Soviets would be making any deals. They
wanted blood and the spoils of Germany, which is not surprising given that the Soviet Union
had seen about 24 million civilian and military deaths during the war.
Stalin was still furious and very skeptical about Hitler’s death. He was also naturally suspicious
about the intentions of the US and the UK. When he does find out more about Hitler’s death, he won't
be in the mood to share that information. Day 5
American General Dwight Eisenhower and British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery were not in
agreement with the kind of surrender that Dönitz wanted. They wanted unconditional
surrender from Germany, all its forces, everywhere, and they wanted to ensure
that the country would be demilitarized. They had good reason not to trust Germany.
So, the German forces kept on fighting. Dönitz also told his men to do what Hitler
had written and destroy as much German infrastructure as possible.
Meanwhile, Soviet soldiers looted German houses and killed civilians. US, UK,
and French forces won’t reach Berlin until July. They will also let loose years of anger.
It was around this time that one of the most infamous Nazis surrendered,
the one-time flying ace and one of Hitler’s most treasured men, Hermann Wilhelm Göring. We’ll come
back to his fate later. Day 8
Only now did Dönitz agree to a German surrender on all fronts. It was better to do that than
leave Germany’s soldiers to face the music in Soviet captivity. Stalin asked for another
signing ceremony, and that came a day after. WWII wasn’t over, but the Germans were now
completely finished. Dönitz didn’t take the easy way out. He spent about ten years in prison and
went on to live until he was 89. Day 10
Stalin was paranoid. He knew that some of the Nazis were escaping from Germany. Like the UK and
the US, Stalin wanted the Nazis for himself. He wanted their intelligence. He wanted to hurt them,
torture them. He wanted their scientific data, but most of all, he wanted Hitler.
The thought of Hitler living it up in South America, trying to create a Fourth Reich and come
back at Russia, kept Stalin awake at night. He was determined to find out the truth. He was also wary
of the British and Americans, telling his inner circle, “The capitalist encirclement continues.”
Day 23 In the meantime, Heinrich Himmler, Hitler's Chief
of the German police and one of the most powerful Nazis of them all, was captured by the British.
Nazis were scarpering like mice from a housefire when, at a checkpoint in Bremervörde,
northern Germany, two men wearing long green overcoats and another man wandered by,
one of them wearing an eye patch. This man said he was a low-ranking soldier named
Heinrich Hizinger. It was too bad for him that the Brits had seen fake papers like this before.
The guy argued for a bit, and when he realized the game was up, he took off the eye catch to
reveal his normal-looking eye. He then said his name was Heinrich Himmler, and it didn’t
take long for the Brits to understand the man in their custody was important. He was, after all,
the architect of the Holocaust. Since Goebbels was gone and Hermann Göring was already in custody,
this guy in British hands was a coup. He was arguably the most wanted Nazi of them all.
The celebrations didn’t last long. Himmler died soon after, swallowing a secret cyanide pill.
Month 1 Around this time,
Stalin was asked if Hitler was alive, to which he announced that the German leader was likely
living in Spain or Argentina. He was adamant. Every time he said anything about the very much
alive Hitler, American newspapers picked it up, and the public lapped it up. Soon,
70 percent of Americans said they thought the Furher’s heart was still beating and he
was sunning it up in South America. The British public, for the most part, was also suspicious.
Month 2 With Stalin still so unsure that Hitler
was dead, he’d had his men search high and low for Hitler’s dentist. The problem for Stalin was
that Hitler’s main dentist, the man who’d helped send Goebel’s kids deep into the arms of Morpheus,
Hugo Blaschke, had done what any endodontist for war criminals would do and tried to escape.
He didn’t get far. The Americans arrested him in Austria, after
which he spent a few years in prison. Stalin was miffed about this, but his
men investigated further and discovered that Blaschke had an assistant named Käthe Heusermann.
They were told she was currently in her Berlin apartment, living as if nothing
had happened. They were told she had ample experience treating the Fuhrer’s choppers,
and no sooner than you could say gulag, Stalin’s men were dragging this woman from her apartment.
She was immediately taken to a place where someone showed her a bunch of teeth. These
were the remains that the Soviets had been told were Hitler’s. Many years later, Heusermann wrote
in a book, “I took the dental bridge in my hand and looked for an unmistakable sign. I found
it immediately, took a deep breath, and blurted out, ‘These are the teeth of Adolf Hitler!’ I was
showered with expressions of gratitude!” Yay!..or… not yay.
This was Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union; sincere gratitude was about as rare as Coca-Cola.
She was thrown into solitary confident and, in 1951, sent to a Siberian gulag. The reason why is
that Stalin didn’t want the Americans or British to know that someone had positively identified
Hitler’s remains. Having this information gave him leverage. The teeth would become very useful,
but not until long after Stalin had died. Emaciated and sick, Heusermann almost died in the
gulag, but in 1955 she was released when a deal was done with West Germany. She went home thinking
people would be over the moon, only to find out her family had declared her dead and her husband
had a new wife. All that pain, just because she’d worked on Hitler’s notoriously bad teeth.
Month 6 Earlier, we mentioned that Hermann Göring,
commander of the Luftwaffe, was arrested. He was convicted at the Nuremberg Trials and would
have died by hanging, but about six months after Hitler checked out with Eva, Goring was found dead
in his prison cell. This happened on the night of the day that he’d been sentenced to death.
Other Nazis were hunted down for many years, and some of them became old men on the run,
notably the Angel of Death, Joseph Mengele. Many lower-ranking Nazis were imprisoned, such
as Otto Guensche, who, you’ll remember, was there when Hitler’s body was burned. He died in 2003,
aged 86, and he always said that the cremation of Hitler did happen in that garden. He said he was
the one that threw on the first flaming rag. Some folks just didn’t buy that. They
still don’t, now. Month 7 – Present Day
Stalin, despite what he knew about the teeth, was still saying Hitler was alive, which many people
still believed. Even the future US President Dwight D. Eisenhower repeated Stalin’s words,
although he later retracted them. Why Stalin kept saying this is not certain. Maybe he didn’t
believe the dentist; after all, she could have been lying, thinking a positive identity would
help her. Or, maybe Stalin was just stirring up trouble, confusing things, or maybe by saying
that, his control over his people was enhanced. He wasn’t making matters any easier when he
refused to share his forensic evidence with the West. So, about this time, a British historian
named Hugh Trevor-Roper was sent to investigate everything that happened in that bunker around
the time of Hitler’s supposed death. He compiled a dossier, and that’s why we have the bonfire in
the garden story that we are told today. It partly comes from this investigation.
Even so, rumors persisted for decades. Writers later said such things as “hundreds of FBI
documents place Hitler in Argentina.” It is also true the CIA had great big files regarding the
hunt for Hitler. The agency later said it was more interested in who was interested
in these stories rather than it thought Hitler was alive and well in Argentina and enjoying
a daily fix of empanadas. The agency said it was merely surveilling people fond of Hitler.
Only recently, forensic scientists went over to Russia and asked to look at those homeless teeth.
They wrote in the European Journal of Internal Medicine that the gnashers of
the nasty Nazi are real, writing, “The teeth are authentic, there is no possible doubt.
Our study proves that Hitler died in 1945.” Nonetheless, when other scientists recently
inspected the separate skull the Russians had in a museum that was said to be Hitler’s,
they said it actually belonged to a woman, likely in her 40s when she died.
As for that photo we told you about at the start, the CIA said it just wasn’t worth looking into,
stating that “enormous efforts could be expended on this matter with remote possibilities
of establishing anything concrete.” So, almost 80 years after his death,
we can say Hitler very likely, almost definitely, bit the dust in the bunker and subsequently got
grilled in the garden, but the fact is, we can never be 100 percent sure. He’d be
134 years old today, so we reckon we’re not going to hear from him anytime soon.
Now you need to watch this amazing tale about Hitler’s nephew, “Why Hitler's
Nephew Was His Worst Enemy.” Or, have a look at “Hitler's Plans for the World if He Won.”