At the end of the Second World War, Adolf Hitler was holed up inside of his bunker inside
of Berlin. The Soviet Red Army had encircled the German city and it was realised by the
Dictator of Nazi Germany that the war was lost for him. He decided to end his life inside
of the bunker, and after a gunshot was heard coming from his office, the body of Hitler
was taken out of the bunker into the garden of the Reich Chancellery. He was swapped in
a rug, and was then placed inside of a bomb crater whilst a small funeral took place.
The men who followed the body up the stairs and would oversee the cremation his his remains
were Martin Bormann, Otto Gunsche, Heinz Linge, Joseph Goebbels, Erich Kempka, Peter Hogl,
Ewald Lindloff and Hans Reisser. A number of these were Hitler’s private staff and
those who remained very loyal to him. The body was placed in part of a bomb crater,
and then it was covered in petrol to try and ignite it, but this at first did not work.
Linge then went into the bunker and came back with paper which Bormann then lit and threw
onto the bodies. This worked, and the group then all raised their arms giving the Hitler
salute standing just inside of the bunker’s doorway as the remains of the Nazi dictator
were engulfed in flames. But inside of New Zealand during the Second World War, there
had been a coffin built for Hitler, however it had a very very different purpose than
what you would expect of it. Join us today as we look at the strange coffin of Adolf
Hitler, and remember to support our channel please make sure to subscribe.
The Soviets would come across the remains of Hitler inside of the Reich Chancellery
Gardens in the early hours of the 2nd May. They found General Krebs and Burgdorf inside
the bunker dead, and they found the ashes of Hitler and a few fragments of charred bone
inside of a bomb crater. A Nazi official after more petrol had been added raked over the
ashes into a bomb crater, and following this the remains would end up in the possession
of Stalin. There was no coffin for Hitler and he was burned unceremoniously inside of
a garden at the end of the day, and he was not given a proper funeral, just a send off
from his loyal friends and Nazis who gave him the Hitler Salute. But as mentioned in
New Zealand there was a man who crafted a coffin for Hitler that was actually used to
actually aid the war effort of his enemies. The National Army Museum Te Mata Toa in New
Zealand can claim to have Hitler’s coffin amongst it’s collection but it is not what
you would expect.
The coffin of Hitler in it’s possession is a small one which is decorated with swastikas
and also an image of Hitler inside. It was made by James Alexander Shute as part of his
fundraising efforts in New Zealand during the war. Shute lived in a small town named
Farlie and he had a humble life where he owned a bicycle and lawnmower store. He was a man
who was unable to serve in the armed forces and World War 2 as he had a prior medical
condition, but he wanted to contribute to the war effort in his one way. He did this
through fundraising, and he and his wife started their own music hall band, and they performed
fundraising concerts across the local county. But Alec also built the small coffin of Hitler,
complete with the deceased Nazi leader inside. He then took the coffin around with him, and
he invited people to come and pay a penny or donate to the war effort, and to literally
put a nail in Hitler’s coffin, and to put money inside of it. It was a striking image
inside of the music halls, and people would throw money inside.
Alec later became an artist where he drew many cartoons which were produced and published
inside of newspapers. He would donate all of the money that he made from the concerts
to the war effort. However he and his wife did not have any children, so they then passed
the coffin of Hitler onto their neighbour who was at the age 13. Whilst he helped Nancy
Alec’s wife clean an old caravan he came across it and was fascinated by it. The coffin
was then purchased 25 years later from the neighbour by the National Army Museum and
today it is in their collection, and it offers an interesting story of communities coming
together miles away from the conflict of the Second World War to do their bit. There is
also another coffin of Hitler which is very small which exists, and it’s believed that
this was made by an S G Ellingham in 1939. This specific small coffin is tiny, and it
has on the top a swastika, and also along the side it has a plate saying Adolf The Painter.
Inside when it is opened it says The Only Peace, and it contains a mock up image and
effigy of Hitler dead, along with a sword, pistol and axe. It’s exquisitely decorated,
and was probably a piece of in a sense trench artwork, or artwork made by a soldier during
the war.
But these items are very interesting and they show you the animosity that soldiers and people
had towards Hitler during the Second World War. The coffins of Hitler were used in different
ways, and they were of course not the real coffin. Interestingly the coffins of the high
ranking Nazis inside of the bunker who died were actually wooden crates which were soviet
and these once held weapons. There would be a significant degree of exhumation of these
officials such as Joseph Goebbels, Magda Goebbels and General Hans Krebs in the decades after
the war. But Hitler would never have a coffin, and it’s likely that his remains today are
encased. There has also been some debate whether the remains of Hitler were burned alongside
those mentioned who were exhumed, and then these ashes may have been scattered in the
Ehle river. Hitler’s jaw is held today at the Russian FSB archives, and the fragments
of his skull that were recovered are held in the State Archive. But everything else
of him was burnt, meaning there was no need for a coffin.
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