July 2018 - bruckfamilyblog.com

POST 31: WITNESS TO HISTORY, “PROOF” OF HITLER’S DEATH IN MY UNCLE FEDOR’S OWN WORDS

Note: In this post, I relate the story of my uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck’s knowledge of Adolf Hitler’s fate at the end of WWII, and how my uncle came in possession of this information. The story is told in my uncle’s own words borrowing liberally from his first-hand account of these events and describes briefly where I obtained his story. Recent discoveries and publications are also discussed.

Post 17 chronicled my uncle’s survival in Berlin during WWII, touching briefly on the post-war events that ultimately led him to flee Germany and immigrate to America. Thanks to two first-hand accounts written by my uncle following WWII, one a brief biography of his life, the second a compelling account he theatrically entitled “Former Berlin Dentist Proves Hitler is Dead,” I can now flesh out considerably more of my uncle’s life story and detail his knowledge of Hitler’s death. My uncle’s first-hand accounts were given to his illegitimate son who died in 2014 and have since passed into the estate of his son, from whom I obtained copies.

Below, I review some of what was discussed in Post 17, but most of this post deals with newly uncovered facts from my uncle Fedor’s writings and elsewhere; they add considerably more texture to my uncle’s story and provide some detail on his role as a witness to an important historical event. I also describe how my uncle came to be in possession of his information on Hitler’s fate. I can imagine dubious readers scoffing at the notion that a Jewish dentist, a recently-persecuted one at that, would be in the right place at the right time in Berlin immediately after WWII to “prove” that Hitler had indeed died at the end of the war. But, the facts are what they are as readers will learn.

The following narrative is unquestionably one my uncle would have told with more elan and precision. Regrettably, my uncle is no longer here, so I must rely on his narrative to relate how he might have told his own story. Regardless, since my uncle’s tale is also a part of my family’s overall story, I think it is important I tell it and tell it without embellishments and half-truths; enough of these already surround the topic of Hitler’s death. As my uncle’s narrative makes clear, many writers, newspapers, and parties of his day sought to distort and discredit my uncle’s story, intentionally and unintentionally; some had broader political, social, or economic imperatives in mind, notably, Joseph Stalin. My uncle lost control of his narrative, so it is my intention with this post to reestablish dominion over the story and refer to other recent sources which corroborate my uncle’s tale.

Figure 1. My Uncle Fedor Bruck in his WWI uniform

My uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck was born on August 17, 1895, in Leobschütz, Upper Silesia, Germany (today: Głubczyce, Poland). My uncle’s three siblings, including a younger brother who died in infancy, were all born in near-by Ratibor (today: Racibórz, Poland); according to my uncle’s first-hand account, my grandparents moved from Leobschütz to Ratibor when my uncle was three years old to run the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel, subject of Post 11. During WWI, my uncle fought in Ukraine on the Eastern Front. (Figure 1) He studied dentistry at the University of Breslau (today: Wrocław, Poland), passed the State Board Examination in 1921, and eventually set up his own practice in 1924 in Liegnitz, Upper Silesia (today: Legnica, Poland). (Figure 2)

Figure 2. My Uncle Fedor in his dental office in Liegnitz

He owned his practice in Liegnitz from November 1924 through April 1936, when he was forced out of business by the National Socialists. Already, by March 1932, the Nazis had relieved my uncle of his responsibilities as municipal school dentist (“Schulzahnarzt“) for schools in small communities surrounding Liegnitz; a Schulzahnarzt examined pupils‘ teeth, advising them on whether a followup with a dentist was required. There was widespread support among German dentists for the National Socialist ideology, so in expectation of their rise to power many dental organizations displaced their Jewish colleagues as a sign of “anticipatory obedience.“ Since my uncle could no longer practice dentistry in Liegnitz, he left. In his own words:

Figure 3. My Uncle Fedor in 1936, the year he moved from Liegnitz to Berlin

“In 1936 (Figure 3), I moved to Berlin, where I continued practicing as a dentist until October 1942. In that month I went underground to escape arrest, deportation to a concentration camp and even death, after having been warned that the Gestapo was preparing to pick me up. . .After thirty months of a trying ordeal, Berlin was occupied and the Nazi regime was brought to an end.“

In my uncle’s account of the events following the end of the war, the chronicle previously alluded to entitled “Former Berlin Dentist Proves that Hitler is Dead,“ my uncle explains the circumstances that put him in a position to be a witness to history:

“By reason of an interlocking of events, I believe that I am the only person on the Western Hemisphere to bring proof that Hitler is actually dead, as far as such is possible at all for someone who has not seen the corpse. However, if the corpse has been cremated, and the remains of the teeth are the only thing left, then only the dentist is able to make an identification.

All reports of the finding and identification of Hitler’s jaws are the result of my information given to correspondents or members of the occupying armies after the occupation of Berlin by the Allies. Since my statements were only repeated in part, or were misquoted or reported not in their correct sequence, they lack any proof. I therefore believe that the time has come to publish my knowledge of the identification of the jaws of Hitler and Eva Braun, which took place between May 9th and 13th, 1945.

Figure 4. A young Käthe Heusermann, née Reiss, with my Uncle Fedor in his dental office in Liegnitz

The main person in this connection is Mrs. Käthe Heusermann, née Reiss regarding whom I must mention more details, because of the importance attached to her in this matter. She was born in 1909, and I trained her as a dental assistant in my office in Liegnitz, Silesia, in the year 1926 (Figure 4). She practiced in this profession until 1945, at least 15 years. Over this time, she worked with me for three-and-a-half years, and from 1937 on, that is for over eight years, she worked with Blaschke, Hitler’s dentist. She quickly advanced to the position of first assistant and, during the last years, she was mostly present during Hitler’s treatments, whether they took place in the Reich Chancellery or on the Obersalzberg estate. She was very much interested in her profession and possessed great experience. She had the special gift to remember very well the peculiarities of the patients’ mouths . . .”

Figure 5. Hitler’s American-trained dentist, Dr. Hugo Blaschke

Regarding Hitler’s American-trained dentist, Professor Hugo Blaschke (Figure 5), my uncle made the following observations:

“. . .He [Blaschke] studied at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia before the first World War, from which he graduated. Since he had not passed any examination in Germany, he was only rated a dental technician there. Having joined the [Nazi] Party early, he had a membership number below 40,000. He had already treated Hitler before 1933. Upon a decree by Goebbels, he was awarded the title of dentist, without having to pass any examination, and was later given the professor title by Hitler. His knowledge was that of an average dentist . . .“

It is important to emphasize the point my uncle Fedor was making about Hitler’s dentist. In former times, there were two types of German dentists which were distinctly different, one called a “zahnarzt,” the other a “dentist,” confusingly, both of which translate as dentist in English. Dr. Blaschke would today be called a “zahntechniker,” a non-academically trained dental technician primarily responsible for producing bridges and dentures, or “zahnbehandler,” dental practitioner. A “zahnarzt” in today’s parlance is an academically-trained dentist. This distinction as it relates to Dr. Blaschke becomes important later, insofar as the technical work he performed on Hitler.

Continuing with my uncle’s story:

“On April 26, 1945, Steglitz, in the southwestern part of the city [Berlin], was occupied by the Russians. Behind the advancing troops, I arrived, on May 4th, in the apartment of my former assistant Käthe Heusermann. This apartment was situated at Pariserstrasse 39-40 near Kurfürstendamm. A friendship of twenty years tied my person and the family of Käthe Heusermann. Käthe was alone in the bomb-damaged apartment and was very upset and confused. She had only returned to her apartment the day before, May 3rd, having spent the time before that in the Air Shelter in the Reich Chancellery.“

My uncle recounted what Käthe told him:

“When the bombardment of Berlin became disagreeable, she went to the Reich Chancellery for reasons of safety, where she worked as a nurse in the hospital shelter. On April 20^th, Hitler’s birthday, Blaschke fled to Obersalzburg by plane. She was almost punished for disobedience by the SS for her refusal to go along. On April 28, Hitler and Eva Braun got married. Upon having received the news of Himmler’s offer of negotiations with the Allies, and when the army which was supposed to liberate Berlin did not arrive, which was to have been led by Wenck, Hitler had temper tantrums, but then calmed down, but was depressed and personally distributed cyanide capsules to everybody present. Käthe herself showed me—while relating the events—the capsule she had received.

On April 30^th, Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide, he by taking a cyanide capsule between his teeth, and shooting himself in the head. The corpses were then taken into the Reich Chancellery garden by the SS, drenched in gasoline and burned.

Goebbels and his wife also committed suicide, his children having previously been given injections with poison, by doctors.

Käthe’s reports with respect to these happenings coincides almost completely with statements made later by other witnesses . . .”

Following Hitler’s death, the staff in the Reich Chancellery divided themselves into smaller groups, hoping to break through the Russian lines, and get to the West. Resuming:

“The group which Mrs. Heusermann has joined, came to heavy combat with the Russians at the Weidendamm Bridge. In this battle, Deputy Leader [Martin] Bormann died . . .Of about 80 persons, only 30 were left, and these fled into the subway shaft. They hoped to get somewhere behind the Russians but were caught by the Russians at a station. The men were deported, while Mrs. Heusermann was taken along by a soldier and raped by him. Then he let her go, and she had to take the long walk home, through debris and corpses, always in fear of new insults.”

Figure 6. Entrance to Kurfürstendamm 213 in Charlottenburg, where Dr. Blaschke had his dental practice, as it looks today

After recounting these events to my uncle, Käthe Heusermann advised my uncle to obtain permission from the pertinent authorities to take over Dr. Blaschke’s dental practice. The dental office was intact, and Dr. Blaschke had already fled to Obersalzburg, as previously mentioned, and was hardly likely to return. As a person persecuted by the Nazis, my uncle had a right to make this claim. The authorities did in fact grant my uncle permission to take over Dr. Blaschke’s apartment and practice at Kurfürstendamm 213 in Charlottenburg (Figure 6); as discussed in Post 17, post-WWII Address Directories locate my uncle at this address. (Figure 7) My uncle’s knowledge of the events surrounding Hitler’s fate, thus, stem both from his friendship with Käthe Heusermann, as well as his occupancy of Dr. Blaschke’s dental office.

Figure 7. Page from 1946 Berlin Phone Directory listing my Uncle Fedor as a “zahnarzt” at Kurfürstendamm 213 in Charlottenburg, the former dental office of Hitler’s dentist

Continuing with my uncle’s narrative:

“Then, during the days following . . . happenings took place which I believe to be proof that Hitler actually died. On Wednesday, May 9^th, 1945, I met a Russian Lieutenant Colonel in the building, as well as woman in uniform and a gentleman in mufti, as they inquired from the Superintendent as to the whereabouts of Blaschke. As I learned later, they were the deputy military governor of Berlin, a female agent of the Russian secret police, and a certain Doctor Arnaudow, who had been assistant at the Berlin Charité with “Geheimrat Sauerbruch” [“Geheimrat Sauerbruch” is a successful and respected physician]. The latter was a Bulgarian and had brought the Russians who were looking for Hitler’s dentist . . .; furthermore, he acted as interpreter, although the agent of the Russian Secret Police, who called herself “Lola,” spoke a little German.

Since the Superintendent could give them no information, I declared that Blaschke had fled and that I now had his practice. Then they asked me for written details regarding the treatments which Hitler had received. Upon my remark that I presumed they wanted to identify parts of corpses found, the Lieutenant Colonel made a sour face and put his finger to his mouth, from which I assumed that my suspicion had been correct. Then they came to the office, where we looked for reference cards as well as X-rays of Hitler. However, only those of Göring, Goebbels, Himmler, Ley and other high-ranking party members could be found, which the Russians took with them. Upon their question whether anybody knew about Hitler’s teeth, I called in the former technician of Blaschke, Fritz Echtmann, who lived with his family in the same apartment [building]. He could not give them any information, since he never was present at a treatment, and since the technical work had been done before his time. When it was found that Käthe Heusermann had been present for many years at all treatments of Hitler, I was asked to get her. “

My uncle found Käthe at the home of a neighboring doctor’s. She was apparently very hesitant to come with my uncle because of her previous experience with the Russians and her fear she would be considered a prominent Nazi. However, feeling she had no choice, she came along and was questioned by the Russians about Hitler’s mouth and provided the following information:

“On a front tooth there was a so-called rim-crown, furthermore there was a cut-off bridge in his mouth, since the molar, which would have served as support, had to be removed. She gave them more details regarding some crowns and other treatments . . .She furthermore declared that the written data regarding Hitler’s treatments were kept in a box which was either still at the Chancellery, or which Blaschke had taken with him to Obersalzberg.

Then the Lieutenant Colonel asked her to come along with him to the Chancellery, to look for the box . . .”

Figure 8. Page from a 1941 Berlin Phone Directory listing Dr. Blaschke’s dental technician, Fritz Echtmann, as a “dentist”

Käthe was not returned to her apartment until two days later, on Friday, May 11^th, at which point the Russians then took the technician Fritz Echtmann. (Figure 8) My uncle visited her on Saturday, and she painted the following picture of what had transpired:

“First of all, they asked that she give as detailed as possible a description of Hitler’s teeth, with pertinent sketches. Then she was shown a number of skulls and parts of jaws, on which there was still some flesh, which in some instances were charred or burned. Among these, she definitely recognized the jaws of Hitler, with the aid of the details written down, and the peculiarities she had noted. One jaw, which contained a bridge made from Palapont (i.e., artificial colophonium on a colloidal base), was identified as that of Eva Braun, who had received this bridge only a few weeks previously. She declared, upon questioning that the technical work had been done by Fritz Echtmann, Blaschke’s technician. This fact most probably was the reason for later on picking up Fritz Echtmann.

During the entire time, the Russians took down in writing the proceedings, which Käthe had to sign on each page. She also had to swear that she would not speak of the identification of the remains of Hitler, until the Russian Press and the Radio would have published same. Lola, of whom Käthe only had heard . . . that she was an agent of the Russian Secret Service, said to her ‘Mrs. Käthe, you will be a very famous woman, you are the only person who not only knows, but also can prove that Hitler is really dead’”

My uncle learned from Fritz Echtmann’s wife that her husband came home on Sunday, May 13, 1945, accompanied by two Russian Officers, and was given about two hours to pack his suitcases before again being taken away. Käthe was also taken away at the same time, told she would be needed for longer but not to be afraid. From that time on, my uncle did not learn of their whereabouts for many years.

The above were the facts as reported by my uncle insofar as the days in May 1945 are concerned, but my uncle also wrote about happenings thereafter, specifically related to news correspondents and writers and the inaccurate accounts they published:

“In the beginning of July 1945, the Allied occupation forces arrived in Berlin. The U.S. Correspondent Sigrid Schulz met with Käthe Heusermann’s doctor . . .and this doctor told her that the Russians had taken Käthe along. She [Sigrid Schulz] came to me with a few American Correspondents on July 5, 1945, to my practice, in order to find out whether Käthe had come back. On this occasion I told her about the identification of Hitler’s teeth, but I noticed from the questions that my report was regarded as fantastic and not believed. On July 7th, three English correspondents, lead by William Forrest of the London’News Chronicle‘ came to me. I gave them the report of what had happened, and within the next few days, a story appeared in the English newspapers, without any commentary and so distorted that no burden of proof could be put on these reports. However, this publication of my name and address made it possible to contact my family in England again, who believed me dead as victim of the Nazis.“

It is clear from the above that because my uncle’s story was so seemingly preposterous and unbelievable, news correspondents took the opportunity to weave their own tales. Consequently, my uncle almost immediately lost control of the story he had to tell and its factual basis. Continuing:

“Thereafter, I was frequently called upon by correspondents who, however, greatly doubted my stories, and therefore most of those reports showed incorrect facts. One paper said I was the Führer’s dentist, another one said that I had identified the corpse. Aside from many strange statements, the identification of Hitler’s jaws was branded as false. ‘France-Soir,’ on January 1, 1946, reported that the corpse had been discovered on December 19, 1945 by the Russians and that Hitler’s dentist, who [they claimed, albeit falsely] was a captive of the Russians, had identified the corpse. However, Blaschke is a prisoner of the Americans . . .Even the publication in ‘Oral Hygiene,’ 35^th year, page 1540, September 1945, is very incomplete and distorted . . .how little importance was given to my knowledge regarding the circumstances, is shown by the fact that no mention was made in Trevor-Roper’s book at all [1947 Edition].”

Hugh Trevor-Roper was the author of “The Last Days of Hitler,” initially published in 1947. More will be said on Trevor-Roper below.

In his account, my uncle addresses some objections raised by correspondents. A few claimed that everyone in the Reich Chancellery could have been told that Hitler committed suicide when in fact he didn’t, but how then does one explain the existence of jaws for a non-existent corpse?

Alternatively, Selkirk Paton of the “Daily Express” wondered how my uncle knew that Hitler was really in the Reich Chancellery, suggesting the jaws found there might have been that of one of Hitler’s doubles. Beyond the fact that Käthe Heusermann would have noticed a double, the conditions for this scenario to have played out are practically inconceivable. At the least, this would have required that the dental work done on the double correspond with the work known to have been done on Hitler, that the double then shoot himself or be shot, the body burned, and the jaws or another prepared skull left in a place where the Russians could find it, an implausible sequence of events. Only Dr. Blaschke and Käthe Heusermann knew anything about Hitler’s teeth, so one or both of them would have had to be party to the deception. To believe the jaws found at the Reich Chancellery belonged to a double requires too lengthy a list of suppositions to merit serious consideration.

Yet another objection to my uncle’s explanation of events was that with the amount of gasoline employed, no remains would have been left to find. My uncle was easily able to refute this:

“This assumption is erroneous; I myself have seen many charred corpses during the last fighting days in Berlin, where parts were undamaged or could be recognized in part. I myself am astonished that the bridge of Eva Braun made of Palapont material, which is easily combustible, was not destroyed, but I could imagine that the entire body was not enveloped by gasoline, especially, since Käthe mentioned explicitly that some flesh, either charred burned or raw, was still on the bones.”

Returning to a subject I alluded to earlier, regarding the rim-crowns and cut-off bridges with which Hitler was fitted by Dr. Blaschke, my uncle made a few interesting observations related to this work:

“. . .The peculiarities of Hitler’s jaws are very extraordinary ones. Rim-crowns are seen very rarely only, since present-day dentists do not make them any longer, and cut-off bridges are not frequent either . . .

I had pointed out to correspondents a rim-crown as being ‘old-fashioned’ which, because of its comparative rarity, necessarily constituted an important factor [in the identification of Hitler’s jaws].

The fact that Dr. Blaschke knowingly performed ‘old-fashioned work’ on ‘his Führer,’ seems to me, as expert, rather ridiculous. On the other hand, he does not owe his title of professor, nor his various other titles, to the fact that he was an ace in his profession, but only to the fact that he was a faithful Nazi having a party membership number somewhere around 36,000 . . .”

After immigrating to America in July 1947, my uncle continued to follow news reports of Hitler’s fate. My uncle remarked on a series of six articles published by the “New York World-Telegram,” between July 19 and July 24, 1948, entitled “Is Adolf Hitler Dead or Alive?” written by Capt. Michael A. Musmanno, USNR, Judge International War Crimes Trials, Nuremberg.

The fifth article in this series, dated July 23, 1948, was of particular interest to my uncle since it dealt with the testimony of a Hans Fritzsche, who, as it turns out, had been in a Russian prison with Fritz Echtmann, Blaschke’s dental technician. My uncle surmised they were imprisoned together at the Lubyanka prison in Moscow, where Fritzsche was held by the Russians before he was brought to Nuremberg for trial. In any case, Fritzsche testified that Echtmann claimed he turned over X-rays of Hitler’s teeth to the Russians, and that together with Käthe Heusermann had identified a jaw shown to him as that of Hitler. My uncle knew this was not true. In his own words:

“Echtmann was Blaschke’s dental technician, but never his assistant; moreover, he had never done any technical work for Hitler, was never present at any treatment, and had no opportunity to gain any knowledge regarding the Führer’s mouth. While Hitler’s jaw had already been identified by Käthe Heusermann between May 9th and May 11th, 1945, Echtmann was not questioned by the Russians before May 11, when they [the Russians] brought back Mrs. Heusermann.

Echtmann could not have given the Russians the X-rays of Hitler’s teeth, since these were not in his possession. They were actually in a case which either remained on the Obersalzberg, or whom Blaschke took with him when he fled. When the Russians appeared for the first time in my office in Berlin, and questioned Echtmann about Hitler’s teeth, X-rays, etc., in my presence, he declared that he knew nothing whatsoever about these things . . .He had far too great a craving for importance to make plausible any such hiding of his knowledge. It was probably this same desire to prove himself important that explains his version of the story as told to Fritzsche . . .”

Clearly, in my uncle’s opinion, Echtmann was nothing but a self-aggrandizer, although my uncle left open the faint possibility that Echtmann had taken a few X-rays from the files at an earlier date as souvenirs, which he produced when questioned by the Russians.

Figure 9. Page from a 1956 Berlin Phone Directory showing that Fritz Echtmann resumed his career as “dentist” following his release by the Soviets in 1954 at the same address as before, Kurfürstendamm 212 in Charlottenburg

From Fritzsche’s testimony, as described in the New York World-Telegram, my uncle, however, was able to learn about Echtmann’s more recent fate. Echtmann was finally released by the Russians in the spring of 1954 (Figure 9), while Käthe Heusermann returned to her family in 1955, after having been declared dead in 1950.

My uncle lamented his inability to parlay his knowledge of Hitler’s fate into something marketable:

Figure 10. Rejection letter from “Life” magazine sent to my Uncle Fedor’s agent, regarding his story about Hitler’s fate

“I tried very hard to interest some magazines in my story, among them Colliers, Life, Time, Newsreel, and Saturday Evening Post, but was not successful. My story appeared so fantastic that nobody believed it was true. Some editors advised me that they were publishing only staff-written manuscripts (Figure 10), others that my story did not correspond with the tenor of their magazines or that there was no public interest anymore in a story about Hitler. Finally, the time element diminished the possibilities to develop my story into a saleable manuscript.”

Hugh Trevor-Roper, following the release by the Russians of Fritz Echtmann, Käthe Heusermann, and others, published a Third Edition in 1956 of his book “The Last Days of Hitler.” My uncle remarked about this:

“Professor H. R. Trevor-Roper . . .refers in the Introduction . . . of his book to the fact that two Russian officers, a man and a woman, called on May 9, 1945 at the surgery of Dr. Hugo Blaschke, Hitler’s dentist, which was then carried on by me, and asked for Hitler’s dental records. Apart from newspaper reports, this was the first time, that the names of Fritz Echtmann, Käthe Heusermann, as well as my name were mentioned in a book of historical importance and value. Though Trevor-Roper’s story contains many inaccuracies, it generally covers what happened on and after May 9, 1945 with respect to the identification of Hitler’s jaws.”

My uncle Fedor passed away in February 1982, too soon to see himself vindicated and have his account of events in May 1945 validated. But validation has come, and, interestingly, in just the past few years and months.

Travelling with the Soviet vanguard when they entered the center of Berlin on April 29, 1945, was a 26-year-old Jewish woman named Elena Rzhevskaya, born Elena Moiseyevna Kagan in Belarus in 1919. She was a military interpreter for SMERSH, the Soviet counter-intelligence agency. Like my uncle, she was a witness to events and findings about Hitler’s fate, corroborating much of what my uncle reported. As the Soviet forces advanced through Berlin, Rzhevskaya’s unit was tasked with finding people who could provide information on Hitler’s whereabouts.

Let me provide a little more context. The Soviets entered Hitler’s underground command center, the Führerbunker under the Reich Chancellery, on May 2^nd. The next day, they apparently discovered the bodies of Joseph and Magda Goebbels’ six children in their bunk beds. Then, on May 5^th, some charred human remains, including parts of a skull, some jawbones, and some teeth, were found in a shell crater in the Reich Chancellery garden. These were apparently taken to SMERSH headquarters in the north of Berlin and given to pathologists under strict instructions to keep their work under wraps.

Rzhevskaya was summoned to the pathology lab, and entrusted by her boss, Colonel Vassily Gorbushin, with a large, satin-lined, dark-red cigar box, containing what he believed to be Hitler’s remains. Ms. Rzhevskaya was asked to verify this. As my uncle recorded, the Soviets eventually learned about Käthe Heusermann when they visited Dr. Blaschke’s practice where my uncle had taken up residence. It is my very strong belief that “Lola . . .the female agent of the Soviet secret police,” referred to in my uncle’s account of events, was in fact Elena Rzhevskaya. In any case, after locating and interrogating Käthe Heusermann, as my uncle reported, Käthe confirmed the teeth were Hitler’s.

According to Elena Rzhevskaya’s memoir, Käthe Heusermann lead the Soviets to a special office that Blaschke kept at the Reich Chancellery where Hitler was treated; it was a dental office, fully stocked with dental tools and reclining chair, where Hitler’s dental X-rays were also discovered, the irrefutable evidence identifying Hitler’s teeth. Either Käthe never mentioned to my uncle that the X-rays of Hitler’s teeth had been found in the Reich Chancellery, had been instructed by the Russians not to discuss this, or he oddly failed to make note of this important fact in his account; we may never know. Regardless, the Soviets knew all along that Hitler was dead but, Stalin, for reasons we can only guess at, likely believed that if Hitler was alive, then Nazism was an ever-present danger; his desire to conceal the truth may also have been his opening salvo in the nascent Cold War. Consequently, Stalin squelched the truth and detained those who could prove Hitler was dead. Heusermann and Echtmann were arrested and secretly moved to Moscow, an eventuality my uncle was alerted to by American authorities, explaining why he decamped to America in 1947. Heusermann was held in solitary confinement for six years without trial, eventually charged, and sentenced to 10 years in the Gulag in 1951. However, her release was negotiated in 1955 by the West Germans, a few years after Stalin’s death.

In 1965, 12 years after Stalin’s death, during the comparatively liberal Khruschev years, Ms. Rzhevskaya was permitted to publish some of her notes on “Berlin, May 1945,” in the Russian literary magazine “Znayma.” During the Gorbachev era in 1986, she published her first memoir, “Berlin, May 1945: Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter,” but the editor removed any mention of the identification of Hitler’s teeth. It is only in 2017 that an English version of her memoir, “Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter: From the Battle of Rzhev to Hitler’s Bunker,” was published and that mention of Ms. Rzhevskaya’s role in helping identify Hitler’s teeth was made.

There’s an interesting and personal family anecdote to this story. As mentioned, the English-language version of Ms. Rzhevskaya’s book was published only in 2017, shortly after her death. In connection with the release, “The Times of Israel” published an article entitled, “The woman who carried Hitler’s teeth on V-Day,” and interviewed her grand-daughter Liubov Summ. According to Ms. Summ, Käthe Heusermann and Elena Rzhevskaya bonded during questioning and Käthe shared personal stories with Elena. Among them, Käthe told Ms. Rzhevskaya that at various times she had hidden in her home a Jewish dentist for whom she had worked before the war, the dentist obviously being my uncle Fedor. According to Ms. Rzhevskaya, my uncle showed up in late April 1945 and asked whether Käthe could hide him in her apartment, this when she was still reporting for work at the Führerbunker. While I have no doubt my uncle occasionally sought refuge with Käthe in his 30 months underground, I sincerely doubt this happened in April or May 1945.

A very recent development also warrants mention. An article was published on May 21, 2018 in “Deutsche Welle,” entitled “Hitler’s teeth analysis dispels myths of Nazi leader’s survival.” A team of French pathologists was recently allowed to examine a set of teeth kept in Moscow that were recovered in Berlin in May 1945. According to the article, this is the first time the Russian authorities had allowed anyone to examine these remains in over 70 years. The researchers’ conclusions, published in May 2018, in the “European Journal of Internal Medicine,” unambiguously concluded the teeth belonged to Hitler and proved he died in 1945.

My uncle certainly would have felt some measure of satisfaction in having the naysayers, self-aggrandizers, and purveyors of half-truths get their comeuppance as to the facts of Hitler’s fate. But, my uncle was a boundless optimist, not a vengeful man and certainly not one to dwell on “what-might-have-been,” and would have been happy that the truth of what happened to Hitler in the waning days of WWII eventually came out. A confirmation of the role he played in bringing facts to light and acknowledgement that his story was true would have brought him enormous pleasure. So, in some small way, I hope this Blog post accomplishes this.

REFERENCES

Charlier, P., Well, R., Rainsard, P., Poupon, J., and Brisard, J.C.

2018 The remains of Adolf Hitler: A biomedical analysis and definitive identification. European Journal of Internal Medicine.

Chase, Jefferson

2018 Hitler’s teeth analysis dispels myths of Nazi leader’s survival. Deutsche Welle (May 21, 2018).

Linge, Mary Kay

2018 How the woman who identified Hitler’s dental remains ended up in prison. New York Post (July 16, 2018).

Masis, Julie

2017 The woman who carried Hitler’s teeth on V-Day. The Times of Israel (September 6, 2017)

Rzhevskaya, Elena

2018 Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter: From the Battle of Rzhev to Hitler’s Bunker. Greenhill Books. London.

Trevor, Roper, H.R.

1947 The Last Days of Hitler. The Macmillan Company. New York.

1987 The Last Days of Hitler (Sixth Edition). The University of Chicago Press. Chicago (p. 32-33)

POST 13, POSTSCRIPT: THE FORMER JEWISH CEMETERY IN RATIBOR (RACIBÓRZ)

Note: This postscript provides an opportunity to acknowledge a “righteous man,” Mr. Kazimierz Świetliński, the Polish gentleman I learned was responsible for photographing and documenting the tombstones in the former Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor. I recently learned about this Polish gentleman from Mr. Paul Newerla, the retired lawyer and Racibórz historian, who was a friend of Mr. Świetliński. In the process, I also learned about “lost treasure” recovered in Racibórz.

POST 13: THE FORMER JEWISH CEMETERY IN RATIBOR (RACIBÓRZ)

Readers will recall from my earlier post that the former Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor was “liquidated,” not during the Third Reich but rather during Poland’s Communist era. I learned that prior to its destruction, all the tombstones, the oldest of which dated to 1821, the youngest to 1940-1941, and their locations within the cemetery were photographed and plotted on a map. I was told the original photographs and plan maps are stored at the Muzeum Raciborzu, so I arranged with the museum to view and photograph all these materials in 2015.

It had been cynically suggested that the headstones had been photographed perhaps by an agent of the Polish security services, possibly to fend off future attempts by Jewish descendants to reclaim property confiscated from their relatives by the Nazis. Exactly how documenting the tombstones would have blocked such claims is not clear, on the contrary.

Figure 1. Mr. Kazimierz Świetliński, the gentleman from Racibórz responsible for photographing and documenting all the headstones in the former Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor

Figure 2. Plan map of the former Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor showing the location of the headstones whose images appear in photo album no. 6

Regardless, in June 2018, when I met Mr. Paul Newerla, Racibórz historian, I asked him whether he knew the history about the images. Paul told me the pictures and maps had been made by a now-deceased friend of his, Mr. Kazimierz Świetliński. (Figure 1) Mr. Świetliński was the college-educated Chief of Racibórz’s Parks Department, and an excellent gardener. He produced two copies of all the images and photo albums (Figure 2), one of which he donated to the Muzeum Raciborzu, the other which he retained for himself. Produced as they were in the days before digital photography, developing the pictures came at great personal cost and sacrifice.

In anticipation of preparing this post, Paul Newerla passed along an article, which I will return to below, that included a little background on Mr. Świetliński and on the fate of the Jewish kirkut or “cemetery” in Racibórz. Roughly translated from Polish, I quote:

“In 1972-73, the kirkut was liquidated. Local stonemasons were permitted to remove Classical, neo-Gothic, and modernist matzevot [“tombstone”], which they later turned into tombstones in Catholic cemeteries. Today, only old trees remain in the necropolis.” (Figure 3)

Figure 3. Fragment of a headstone from the former Jewish Cemetery in Racibórz, photographed in 2014

From this article, we learn Mr. Świetliński photographed the tombstones sometime before 1972, and the disposition of the Jewish tombstones.

Among the photographic images captured by Mr. Świetliński from the former Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor are ones showing the “kindergräber,” or children’s graves (Figure 4); most of these graves appear to have headstones inscribed with the name and dates of birth and death of the children, some with sufficient clarity to make out specific information. (Figure 5) I had hoped I might be able to find an image showing the grave of my father’s older brother, Walter Bruck, who died in infancy in Ratibor in 1901, to no avail.

Figure 4. One of Mr. Świetliński’s images, showing the “kindergräber,” or children’s graves, in the former Jewish Cemetery in Racibórz

Figure 5. Close-up of the headstone of Ernst Tichauer who died at two years of age and was buried in the former Jewish Cemetery in Racibórz

Figure 6. The children’s grave for Wolfgang Bruck, one of my father’s first cousins buried in the Jüdischer Friedhof Weißensee in East Berlin, whose headstone only has the number “33210” inscribed

The former children’s tombstones in Ratibor are unlike the kindergräber I recently had the opportunity to visit in the Jüdischer Friedhof Weißensee in East Berlin, where at least three of my ancestors are interred, including one of my father’s first cousins who also died in infancy; here, the children’s tombstones are inscribed only with numbers (Figure 6), but without an index it is impossible to know who was buried where. Fortunately, an index does survive for the cemetery in East Berlin.

The information on Mr. Świetliński and the disposition of the headstones from the Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor in the article sent to me by Paul Newerla are only footnotes to the broader subject of the article. The original article deals with an intriguing bit of local history and relates to a file from 60 years ago marked “CONFIDENTIAL” that was found at the Polish State Archives in Racibórz.

Figure 7. Historic postcard showing the former Jewish Synagogue in Ratibor

Figure 8. Plan map of Ratibor from 1927-28 showing the location of the former Jewish Cemetery in relation to the former Jewish Synagogue (both circled in red)

Figure 9. A photo of he former Jewish Synagogue in Ratibor in flames on Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938

Apparently, a chest of papers and documents owned by Leon Blum, the former Socialist Prime Minister of France who was Jewish, wound up in Racibórz, hidden there in 1943 by the Germans; seemingly, the chest was squirreled away in the synagogue at the Jewish cemetery, once located on the outskirts of town along Leobschützstraße [today: Wilczej Górze and Fojcik głubczycki streets]. The problem, according to maps drawn by Mr. Kazimierz, is that no synagogue or chapel existed on the cemetery grounds. Possibly, the chest was stored at the synagogue on Schuhbankstraße [today: ulica Szewska], once located in Ratibor’s city center. (Figures 7 & 8) While torched on Kristallnacht (Figure 9), the synagogue survived WWII but was ultimately dismantled during the Communist era. Interestingly, a black, sealed chest belonging to Leon Blum was eventually discovered in Racibórz, although the final correspondence, dated December 22, 1945, found in the “Confidential” file, makes no mention of where. Possibly it was found in one of the larger family tombs at the cemetery, perhaps in the synagogue, or maybe even in the private home of a person who hid Blum’s souvenirs. It’s assumed the black, sealed chest was transferred to Katowice, as Polish authorities had requested be done in 1945, and from there to the French embassy.

Needless, to say, the question of how Leon Blum’s chest of personal papers wound up in Racibórz very much intrigued me, almost like a scene out of “The Monuments Men,” so I posed this question to Paul Newerla. According to Paul, Leon Blum’s papers were confiscated by the Nazis in Paris around 1943 by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg or “ERR,” the Nazi Party organization dedicated to appropriating cultural property during the Second World War and deposited in Racibórz. At the time, the town was deemed to be sufficiently out of reach of Allied bombers and Russian forces to ensure the papers were not inadvertently destroyed.

Mr. Świetliński is owed a major debt of gratitude. I characterize him as a “righteous man,” because in my mind he anticipated that one day Jewish descendants might want to know where their ancestors had been buried, see images of their ancestors’ graves, and know that someone, unrelated to the deceased, cared enough to record the existence of their relatives. And, possibly, Mr. Świetliński thought future generations of Poles might be curious that a Jewish community once thrived in Racibórz and want to know how and why it disappeared.

POST 11, POSTSCRIPT 2: RATIBOR & BRUCK’S “PRINZ VON PREUßEN” HOTEL

Note: This short postscript provides additional historic context about the events that ultimately led to the demolition of the Bruck’s “Prinz Von Preußen” Hotel in Ratibor, Germany, information obtained from Mr. Paul Newerla, retired lawyer and Racibórz historian.

POST 11: RATIBOR & BRUCK’S “PRINZ VON PREUßEN“ HOTEL

POST 11, POSTSCRIPT: RATIBOR & BRUCK’S “PRINZ VON PREUßEN” HOTEL

Unlike Tiegenhof, in the former Free State of Danzig (today: Nowy Dwor Gdanski, Poland), where my father practiced dentistry between 1932 and 1937, where many elegant buildings from the German era still stand, in Ratibor (today: Racibórz, Poland), where my father was born, few of the classic German structures still exist in the city center. I touched on the reason for this in my original post, as well as in the first postscript.

Figure 1. In June 2018, my wife & me with Mr. Paul Newerla, historian in Racibórz, town where my father was born

As too often happens, when one is not a student of European history or when one relies too heavily on Wikipedia or other superficial Internet sources, the nuances of history are lost or distorted. Such is the case with the explanation of why the Bruck’s “Prinz Von Preußen” Hotel, owned by three generations of my family, was torn down after WWII. In the interest of setting the record straight and of adhering to my principle of being as historically accurate as possible, I’m adding another postscript. I owe clarification of the actual historic events to Racibórz historian, Mr. Paul Newerla (Figure 1), although I assume full responsibility for any mischaracterization or inaccuracy surrounding the exact circumstances that sealed the hotel’s fate.

Figure 2. Worker’s demonstration on Racibórz’s main square in the late 1940’s-early 1950’s showing the Bruck’s Hotel still standing with only the roof missing

Readers will recall a post-WWII picture of the Bruck’s Hotel included in the original post capturing at a distance a view of the still standing hotel. (Figure 2) To the untrained eye, it appears the hotel was largely intact, and could easily have been rebuilt. This was confirmed by Mr. Newerla, who observed that only the roof had been burned but that the walls and the vaults between the floors seemed to be in good condition, and that the building could have been restored. Mr. Newerla explained why this never occurred, which gets to the crux of why one sometimes needs to probe more deeply into the explanation of historic events.

Figure 3. 1949 map of Ratibor’s city center showing burned & damaged structures in red and destroyed buildings in yellow. Sixty to 80 percent of the city center is estimated to have been destroyed

Ratibor was “conquered” by the Soviets on March 31, 1945. Naturally, some sections of the city had been destroyed by air raids and street-by-street fighting in the final stages of WWII. Nonetheless, during April and even into May, following German capitulation, Soviet soldiers continued to routinely destroy parts of Ratibor, systematically burning houses. Mr. Newerla sent me a 1949 map of Ratibor’s city center, showing in red buildings that were burned or damaged, and in yellow structures that had been demolished. (Figure 3)

According to the findings of Polish authorities, Ratibor’s city center had been 80 percent destroyed, although Mr. Newerla estimates the actual percentage was closer to 60 percent. Following WWII, however, no construction work was carried out, and one building after another was torn down. The goal was to obtain bricks for the reconstruction of Warsaw. Even houses that had suffered only minimal damage that could have been rebuilt with limited financial resources were torn down. In the Racibórz Archives, Mr. Newerla discovered a letter dated 1950 from the city administration justifying their plan; in a section entitled “Demolition,” city administrators established a “quota” of 5,000,000 bricks Ratibor was expected to provide for the reconstruction of Warsaw. A poor reproduction of this letter written in Polish is included. (Figure 4) Mr. Newerla told me it took the city several years to amass this number of bricks.

Figure 4. Copy of 1950 letter found by Paul Newerla in the Racibórz Archive establishing a quota of 5,000,000 bricks the city was expected to provide for the reconstruction of Warsaw

The question of why Ratibor was expected to ante up 5,000,000 bricks, however, requires further examination.

Racibórz, administratively once part of Upper Silesia, Germany and now in the southwestern part of Poland, is located on the western banks of the Oder River. In the post-WWII period, Polish authorities were still not certain where the German-Polish border would be established. It was assumed the line would be set along the Oder River, so that Ratibor would remain a part of the “new” Germany. Operating under this assumption, the Poles probably felt it was their “due” to retrieve what they could from Germany, the country that had been largely responsible for widespread destruction throughout Poland during WWII. Ironically, though, the boundary with Germany in southwestern Poland was established not along the Oder River, but further to the west along the Neisse River (Oder-Neisse Line); Polish authorities never dreamed the border would be established this far west. Thus, towns in what became Poland were needlessly destroyed, idiomatically-speaking, a case of “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face”; this included not only Ratibor, but also Oppeln (today: Opole, Poland), Breslau (today: Wrocław, Poland), etc. By contrast, Mr. Newerla explained that former German towns on the right bank or east of the Oder River, such as Gleiwitz (today: Gliwice, Poland), Beuthen (today: Bytom, Poland) Hindenburg (today: Zabrze, Poland), etc. that authorities knew would remain Polish, were never dismantled.

Figure 5. Historic postcard of Neumarkt, the square on which the Berliner Brauerei was once located, and where the statue of John of Nepomuk stood

Figure 6. Neumarkt as it appeared in 1946, with the statue of John of Nepomuk, in the foreground, and the burned-out Berliner Brauerei, in the background

The impact of the wholesale demolition of Ratibor’s city center in the early 1950’s is visible even today. Most of the city center is not built up, and there are green spaces or concrete squares where German buildings once stood. The systematic demolition of German-era buildings impacted yet another structure associated with my family’s connection to Ratibor, specifically the Berliner Brauerei, subject of Post 14. This brewery was located on Neumarkt, and in historic photographs and postcards of this square, one can see the monument to John of Nepomuk in the foreground. (Figures 5 & 6) Interestingly, this column still stands today, in the middle of a parking lot, while the family brewery is long gone. (Figures 7 & 8)

Figure 7. Standing with Paul Newerla by the statue of John of Nepomuk, located today in the middle of a parking lot, Racibórz, June 2018

Figure 8. Statue of John of Nepomuk in Racibórz, as it looks today

POST 30: FAMILY ”PILGRIMAGE” 2018

I typically interject myself into Blog posts only to relate forensic discoveries related to my family research. This post is an exception. Below readers can see images from my wife’s and my recently completed European vacation to Spain, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic and Austria. We were gone 44 days, stayed in 22 different places, flew more than 14,000 miles, drove 4,000 miles, and walked over 250 miles. The number that stands out though are the roughly 35 family, friends, and acquaintances we met or revisited along the way, a family history “pilgrimage” of sorts. These people greatly enhanced our journey, inspired us, educated us, furthered my family research, and expanded our horizons. To these fellow travelers we dedicate this Blog post.

The tone for our family history tour was set by the actual pilgrimage my wife Ann and I made along a portion of the historic route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain that earned us our “Compostela.” (Figure 1) The Compostela is the accreditation one receives by completing the pilgrimage to the Tomb of St. James in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. In our case, we obtained our accreditation by walking the last 118km, or 73 miles, of the pilgrimage route from Sarria to Santiago over five days between May 16^th and May 20^th, 2018.

Below, readers will find a gallery of portraits of family, friends and colleagues we met on our journey.