Category: Obersalzberg

POST 124: MY UNCLE’S FRIEND WOLFRAM VON PANNWITZ & HIS ROLE IN THE FAILED ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE HITLER

 

Note: In this lengthy post, I provide further details about the life of my uncle’s friend, the German Baron Wolfram E. von Pannwitz, and the tangential role he played in the failed attempt on Hitler’s life on July 20, 1944. Much of this information is derived from Sieghard von Pannwitz, Wolfram’s first cousin once removed who stumbled on my Blog, and on sources he directed me to.

Related Posts:
POST 31: WITNESS TO HISTORY, “PROOF” OF HITLER’S DEATH IN MY UNCLE FEDOR’S OWN WORDS
POST 84: MY UNCLE DR. FEDOR BRUCK’S FRIEND, WOLFRAM E. VON PANNWITZ, GERMAN BARON
POST 112: WOLFRAM E. VON PANNWITZ’S BEQUEST TO HIAS
POST 112, POSTSCRIPT: WOLFRAM E. VON PANNWITZ’S BEQUEST TO HIAS

Students of WWII military history may recognize July 20, 1944, as the day that Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and other military and civilian officials attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of Nazi Germany, inside his Wolf’s Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia [today: Kętrzyn, Poland]. The plot’s apparent aim was to wrest political control of Germany and its armed forces from the Nazi Party (including the SS) and to make peace with the Western Allies as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the coup failed which resulted in the Gestapo arresting more than 7,000 people, of whom 4,980 were executed.

I recently discovered that my uncle’s friend, Wolfram E. von Pannwitz, subject of three previous Blog posts, played a secondary role in these events. While I was generally aware that Wolfram went into hiding following the July 20 Plot on Hitler, I was never entirely clear what role he played. Let me explain how I came to learn more details of Wolfram’s involvement in the failed attempt to eliminate Hitler, the facts of which were revealed mostly in his own words.

My family history Blog not only provides an opportunity to relate stories about my Jewish ancestors including the social milieu in which they lived, the political climate at the time, and the historical events they witnessed, but it has a side benefit of allowing the descendants of people who interacted with members of my family to occasionally find me. Invariably, when this happens, I find out more about the people my ancestors were connected to and come away with fodder for more Blog stories. Case in point.

In October 2022, I received an email through my Blog’s Webmail from a Mr. Sieghard von Pannwitz (Figure 1–REMOVED), Wolfram von Pannwitz’s first cousin once removed as it turns out. Prior to this message, I’d wondered after posting three articles about Wolfram whether any of his descendants might eventually stumble on my Blog. My patience was rewarded.

For intermittent readers of my Blog, let me briefly review how my uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck (Figure 2) and Wolfram von Pannwitz met. The full details can be found in Post 84. Following the Fall of Berlin in early May 1945, my uncle who had miraculously survived 30 months in hiding made to his way to the apartment of Käthe Heusermann, a friend of 20 years who had once been his dental assistant when he had his own practice in Liegnitz, Germany [today: Legnica, Poland]. (Figure 3) After Hitler came to power on the 30th of January 1933, and legislation passed in April 1933 that sharply curtailed “Jewish activity” in the medical and legal professions and resulted in the closure of my uncle’s practice, both he and Käthe made their way to Berlin. Käthe Heusermann landed a position as dental assistant to Dr. Hugo Blaschke, Hitler’s dentist. (Figure 4) Inasmuch as I can tell, my uncle would occasionally shelter in Käthe’s apartment during his time in hiding. In any case, after the end of the war, Käthe suggested that he apply to the Russians to take over Dr. Blaschke’s intact dental office (Figure 5); my uncle’s request was granted. Käthe and Blaschke’s dental technician, Fritz Echtmann (Figure 6), were eventually spirited away by the Russians because of their knowledge of Adolf Hitler’s fate, a fact the Russians sought to conceal. Warned by the Americans that a similar fate awaited him, he abandoned Berlin in early 1947 and made his way to America.

 

Figure 2. My uncle, Dr. Fedor Bruck, in 1940

 

 

Figure 3. My uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck with a young Käthe Heusermann in his dental office in Liegnitz, Germany [today: Legnica, Poland]
Figure 4. Dr. Hugo Blaschke, Hitler’s American-trained dentist 
Figure 5. The entrance of Dr. Blaschke’s former dental office as it looks today, located at Kurfurstendamm 213 in the Charlottenburg borough of Berlin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 6. Dr. Blaschke’s former dental technician, Fritz Echtmann 

 

The precise date on which my uncle left is unknown to me. However, he wrote an affidavit in November 1966 in the matter of a probate hearing on behalf of the estate of Wolfram E. von Pannwitz, the German Baron he met in June 1947 in West Berlin, providing a general timeframe for when he departed Germany. My uncle and Mr. von Pannwitz befriended one another that month in a displaced persons camp where they had been assembled awaiting passage to the United States. Both left for America on the 8th of July 1947 aboard the “Marine Marlin” from Bremen, Germany, and arrived in New York City on the 17th of July 1947; the two remained friends until von Pannwitz passed away in New York City in January 1966.

My uncle, known in America as Theodore A. Brook, and my aunt Verena H. Dick were married in New York on the 4th of March 1958. (Figure 7) Pannwitz was invited, and prior to my contact with Sieghard, the only picture I had of Wolfram was a side view of him at the far end of the dining table. (Figure 8) Immediately after hearing from Sieghard, I asked whether he had any photos of Wolfram and he graciously shared a few. In the process Sieghard also passed along other information which partially rounds out my understanding of Wolfram’s life.

 

Figure 7. My aunt and uncle on their wedding day on March 4, 1958

 

 

 

Figure 8. Wolfram von Pannwitz seated at the far end of the dining table to the right of my aunt and uncle (looking at the picture) on their wedding day, on March 4, 1958

 

Long before connecting with Sieghard von Pannwitz, on ancestry.com I had found the certificate for Wolfram’s marriage to his first wife, Argentinian-born Clara Virginia Rhode, showing they were wed on the 18th of October 1920 in Berlin. (Figures 9a-c) A notation in the upper righthand corner of the certificate indicates the union lasted only briefly until the 28th of February 1922 when they were officially divorced.

 

Figure 9a. Cover page of Wolfram von Pannwitz and Clara Virginia Rhode’s marriage certificate showing they were married in Berlin on the 18th of October 1920

 

Figure 9b. Page one Wolfram von Pannwitz and Clara Virginia Rhode’s 1920 marriage certificate with a notation in the upper righthand corner stating they were officially divorced on the 28th of February 1922
Figure 9c. Page two of Wolfram von Pannwitz and Clara Virginia Rhode’s 1920 marriage certificate with the names of the betrothed and the witnesses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In any case, one photo Sieghard shared was of Wolfram’s 1920 marriage to Virginia Rhode. (Figure 10) Seated second and third from the left in this picture are Wolfram’s parents, Gertrud Pannwitz née Scholz (1869-1957) and Eberhard von Pannwitz (1861-1923), in his military attire. Meanwhile, seated third and second from the right are Wolfram’s younger sister, Elsa Petrea and her husband Martin Reymann. More on Petrea later.

 

Figure 10. Photo of the wedding party at Wolfram von Pannwitz and Clara Virginia Rhode’s 1920 marriage; seated second and third from the left are Wolfram’s parents Gertrud and Eberhard von Pannwitz, and seated third from the right is Wolfram’s sister, Petrea Reymann née Pannwitz. Notice that Wolfram is bald-headed

 

In 1931, Wolfram got remarried to a woman named Frida Mueller, who by the time his niece wed in 1934 had already died from cancer earlier that same year. Neither of Wolfram’s marriages produced any children.

Another picture sent to me by Sieghard is dated to 1934 and shows the wedding of Wolfram’s niece and Petrea and Martin Reymann’s daughter, Gabriele Reymann to Joachim von Harbou. (Figure 11) A slightly older Petrea is seated in the front row next to the groom, while Wolfram is seated to the far right next to his sister’s husband, Martin Reymann. Readers will note that in both the 1920 and 1934 pictures, as well as in the photo taken at my uncle’s 1958 wedding, Wolfram stands out because he is distinctly bald. Sieghard explained this was the result of being contaminated by poison gas during WWI. Wolfram was a decorated fighter pilot and Captain during the “great war.” (Figure 12)

 

Figure 11. 1934 marriage photo of Wolfram’s niece Gabriele Reymann to Joachim von Harbou. Wolfram’s sister Petrea is seated next to the groom, Wolfram is seated to the far right in the front row (figures circled)

 

Figure 12. Wolfram von Pannwitz (right) as a WWI fighter pilot in a photo from “Der Welt Spiegel,” dated February 25, 1915

 

Sieghard also sent me a photo of a gold ring that once belonged to Wolfram that he inherited and had restyled for his wife to wear. (Figure 13) A story accompanies how he came to possess this ring. Sieghard currently lives in Osnabrück, a city in the German state of Lower Saxony, and attended school in Göttingen, a nearby university city in the same state; following his studies he immigrated to South Africa in 1966 and lived there in two stints for about 20 years. Around the time he first immigrated there in 1966 one of his female cousins married a Jürgen von Berkholz in Singapore. The couple apparently planned to spend their honeymoon in New York at the invitation and expense of Wolfram. Unfortunately, upon docking in New York they learned that Wolfram had died on the 28th of January 1966, thus a few days earlier, so, lacking funds they immediately returned home. Sieghard’s South African cousin inherited Wolfram’s ring and bequeathed it to Sieghard upon her own death. The ring is solid gold and has the von Pannwitz family coat of arms etched on it.

 

Figure 13. Wolfram’s gold ring with the von Pannwitz family coat of arms

 

During our very amiable conversations, Sieghard, who has written extensively about the 820-year history of his illustrious family, mentioned in passing that about 20 years ago he was in contact with a historian from the University of Hanover. At the time, this researcher sent Sieghard an article based on an interview with Wolfram discussing, among other things, his time in Paris until July 20, 1944, and his whereabouts in the immediate aftermath of the plot to assassinate Hitler, the failure of which forced him to go into hiding. Sieghard was unable to relocate the article though he thought it had been published in the New York Times. Eventually he remembered the historian’s name, Dr. Ines Katenhusen, retrieved her email, and we were able to obtain a copy of the article in question. As it turns out, the article appeared in “The Providence Sunday Journal” on the 28th of September 1947 and was titled “Underground Baron: Wolfram Von Pannwitz Was in Plot to Assassinate Hitler.” (Figure 14)

Figure 14. Cover page of the newspaper article from “The Providence Sunday Journal,” dated September 28, 1947, describing Wolfram von Pannwitz’s role in his own words in the July 20 Plot to assassinate Hitler

 

At the time Dr. Katenhusen originally contacted Sieghard she was researching the emigration to the United States of many of the famous people associated with Germany’s Bauhaus. According to Wikipedia, “The Staatliches Bauhaus, commonly known as the Bauhaus (German for ‘building house’), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts. The school became famous for its approach to design, which attempted to unify individual artistic vision with the principles of mass production and emphasis on function.”

Dr. Katenhusen is specifically interested in Dr. Alexander Dorner, a German American art historian and museum reformer, ergo the connection to people associated with the Bauhaus. According to German Wikipedia, since 2013 Ines has been working on a monograph and a documentary film about him. As it so happens, Dr. Dorner and his wife Lydia sponsored Wolfram von Pannwitz’s immigration to the United States and are the couple in whose home Wolfram lived during his years in Providence, Rhode Island.

Dr. Dorner, for his part, immigrated to the United States in 1937 because of his opposition to National Socialism. In Rhode Island, he was museum director of the Rhode Island School of Design from 1937 to 1941. From 1941 to 1948 he was professor of art history and aesthetics at Brown University in Providence. Dorner became a United States citizen in 1943, and from 1948 he taught at Bennington College in Vermont.

The article from “The Providence Sunday Journal” clarifies some episodes in Wolfram’s life. Regarding the events during WWI and how he came to be gassed, he tells the following:

“‘I learned aviation in 1912,’ he said, ‘I was among the first fliers, and when I was mobilized for the war, I was quickly promoted because there weren’t many fliers.’ Aviation was not secure then. I became a captain and a squadron commander. In 1916 I was shot down by French anti-aircraft fire. My observer was killed by the first fire, but I came down safely. However, I landed between the second and third French lines, and it happened that they withdrew the infantry and put out poison gas. Being an aviator I had no gas mask, of course, and I lay in a coma from 2 o’clock in the afternoon until 6 o’clock. How I am alive I do not know. But how I am alive several times I do not know.

They came with a stretcher and picked me up. I was nine months in a hospital in Lyons and two years a prisoner, finally exchanged through Switzerland as a badly wounded prisoner.’”

Regarding his life after the First World War until the Nazis came to power and how he knew the Dorners, Wolfram reveals the following:

“‘After the war I became an engineer, specializing in special fuels for automobiles, and for 25 years I was head of the biggest gasoline enterprise in western Berlin. When the Nazis came into power, I was not interested in joining them or their Arbeitsfront, an organization of workers and managers. I refused to join. Nothing happened for a while until the Gestapo found out that I was concealing anti-Nazis in my apartment; I had a cook who was a chatterbox. I helped some of my friends get to Switzerland and some to France. Finally the Nazis came and said I was either to join the party or give up my job. I had very good earning, but I gave up my job. That was in 1937. I went to Italy. I wrote to the Dorners ad asked them how to get to the United States, but I never got an answer. Perhaps the Italian Gestapo caught my letters. I knew the Dorners would answer. I was best man at their wedding. Mrs. Dorner was a close friend of my late wife.’”

Regarding how he wound up in Paris:

“‘I waited months and then I went to Berlin and then to Paris. I had passports and visas. There was no difficulty getting there. In Paris I imported gasoline pumps and compressors from Germany and had a wonderful time without much competition. I stayed until 1939. Several days before war broke out, France began to intern Germans. I went to the United States embassy to try and get a visa, but I was refused because I had no money there or anything else that would give an excuse. I didn’t want to go to Italy. Spain was full of troubles. So I went back to Berlin. I had kept a flat there all the time. My friends took care of it.’”

On how Wolfram wound up getting involved with the anti-Nazi opposition and assigned a role in the planned plot:

“‘I was walking one day when I happened to meet Field Marshall Erwin von Witzleben [EDITOR’S NOTE: Erwin von Witzleben was a German field marshal in the Wehrmacht during WWII. A leading conspirator in the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, he was designated to become commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht in a post-Nazi regime had the plot succeeded.] He was an old friend from the first war. He was captain of artillery then. We spoke of the Nazis, and finally he invited me to come to tea the next day. There were several men in his flat, and we developed ideas about eliminating Hitler and the Nazis. We knew we had a long way to go and would need help. They asked me whether I would go back to Paris. I said I would: They procured a passport, and everything all legitimatized. Of course von Witzleben was able to do such things. It was all secret. “Don’t do anything until you are summoned,” I was told.

I go back. I wait one year. I wait two years. There is no communication. Then General Otto von Stülpnagel [EDITOR’S NOTE: The author of the article or Wolfram von Pannwitz has erroneously identified Otto von Stülpnagel as the German general with whom he collaborated in the July 20 Plot. The correct Stülpnagel was Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel who served as the military commander of German-occupied France. Increasingly unable to reconcile his military duties and his moral objections to the regime’s ideology, Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel joined the resistance. He was a member of the 20 July Plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, overseeing the conspirators’ actions in France. After the failure of the plot, he was recalled to Berlin and attempted to commit suicide en route but failed. Tried on 30 August 1944, he was convicted of treason and executed on the same day.], commander in Paris, summoned me for the first time. That is in 1943. He directed me to take voyages about France. My work was to investigate the Gestapo! I was to find out what they were doing against the German army and French civilians. Everything was at cross purposes, you understand, the army opposing the Gestapo, the SS against both, and so on.

I had no official position. I always went as a civilian. Sometimes I even went into Gestapo headquarters to ask questions. I used my own name. I picked up information in restaurants and places like that. The Gestapo never suspected anybody would dare do things like that. . .

I moved about in France as I wanted to and nobody ever said anything. It was very dangerous, but if one has resolved to go against scoundrels for the sake of one’s country, one must risk his life. He must know it in advance.’”

“On July 15, 1944, Baron von Pannwitz was summoned to the office of General von Stülpnagel in Paris, and without preliminaries, was acquainted with the proposed attempt against the life of Hitler. ‘Stülpnagel developed the whole plan for me. My duty was to arrest SS General Oberg [EDITOR’S NOTE: General Carl Oberg was the senior SS and police leader (HSSPF) in occupied France, from May 1942 to November 1944, during the second world war, who came to be known as the “Butcher of Paris.”], the head of the Gestapo who was residing in the Gestapo palais on Avenue Foch. First, he showed me a plan of Oberg’s office. Then he said, “On the day—I will tell you what day later on—two companies of the army will be sent before the Gestapo building. The you go behind the right wing of the soldiers, and if the company commander lifts his arms and regards his wrist watch, go into the building and up to the second floor and go into Oberg’s office and arrest him.” He gave me a pair of manacles and a revolver. I went home and slept well. I was glad to think of the finish of the Nazis and the end of the war.

On July 18, Stülpnagel sent for me again. He said, “Tomorrow at 11 o’clock. You know everything, Good bye. Get out. Good luck.” That was all.

The next day I punctually was there. It was like a performance on a stage. The two companies of the army march up. I stand behind the right wing. I watch the commander. He looks at his watch, like this. At once I enter the building and go to the second floor. There are two SS guards at the door, but they are so interested in the troops in the yard that they do not notice me. I knock at the door.

“Come in.”

I go in. General Oberg is standing behind his desk. He comes towards me. He does not suspect anything. I put out my hand and say, “I come with the regards of General von Stülpnagel. Heil Hitler!” He puts out his hand. Suddenly I seize his wrist, take out the manacles, and snap them on. Everything goes perfectly. At that moment, in come the soldiers and I deliver Oberg to them.

Then I go to the offices of Stülpnagel to report. “Well done” he says. “Many thanks. Everything runs after the plans” He is rubbing his hands, like this.

Then he says, “You are to go to Cologne.”’”

According to Wolfram von Pannwitz, he was tasked by Stülpnagel with taking a letter to the commander of the German home troops in the Rhineland telling him to mobilize his troops and march against the front troops. Stülpnagel had cut off all communications with Germany to do what he wanted in France so failed to learn that Hitler was not killed. Upon his arrival in Luxembourg aboard the night train, Pannwitz overheard travelers talking about the failed attempt on Hitler’s life. He nonetheless continued to Cologne and headed to the house he was ordered to go to, but quickly realized the plot had unraveled when he saw two SS guards patrolling the premises. Instead, he headed back to the railroad station, and spent the next four days in Cologne, Bonn, and Aix-la-Chapelle [Aachen, Germany]. (Figure 15)

 

Figure 1. Sieghard von Pannwitz, Wolfram von Pannwitz’s first cousin once removed
Figure 15. Present-day map of Germany showing the relationship of Bonn, Cologne, and Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), the places Wolfram traveled to following the failed attempt on Hitler’s life

 

On the 25th of April, it eventually occurred to Pannwitz to turn to the Catholic Church for help, specifically Bishop Van Dar Valdan of Aix-la-Chapelle. The Bishop had him admitted to St. Johannes Hospital in Bonn where he was hidden for three months under the guise of having had a hernia operation. Pannwitz credited the Catholic Church for saving his life which is undoubtedly why he left the Catholic Church and Cardinal Spellman in New York half his wealth upon his death.

While no longer in the hospital at the time, Pannwitz was in Bonn when the Americans bombed the city on October 18th and destroyed half of it. He took advantage of the confusion to claim his apartment had been destroyed and requested that the magistrate allow him to travel to Potsdam, outside Berlin, where his sister could take him in. It took Pannwitz four days to reach Potsdam, the bombing of the railroads having made travel almost impossible. Pannwitz didn’t tell his sister anything about his adventures, apparently seeking to protect her in case the Gestapo came looking for him, which they never did. Pannwitz stayed hidden in his sister’s free room until the Russians arrived.

After things had quieted down some, Pannwitz returned to Berlin hoping to rebuild his life. He lived in his former five-room flat that had been reduced to two rooms on account of Allied bombing. After two months Pannwitz realized it would be impossible to make a living there because no raw materials and tools were then available. By April 1946, postal communication abroad had been restored, so he was able to liaise with the Dorners. Through them he reached the United States under a special program established by President Truman that placed Pannwitz in the class of the persecuted; his role in the July 20 Plot no doubt helped his cause.

By the end of his life, Wolfram von Pannwitz had amassed a fortune of $500,000 which he bequeathed in equal portions to Cardinal Spellman of the Catholic Church in New York and to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. Pannwitz had made it explicitly clear in his will that none of his family members should inherit any part of his estate. Nonetheless, his sister Petrea contested the will, and apparently reached an out-of-court settlement with the Catholic Church awarding her some money. Inasmuch as my Uncle Fedor knew, Wolfram apparently had been cheated out of his share of his mother’s inheritance upon her death causing him to become estranged from his German family.

Of particular personal interest in “The Providence Sunday Journal” article is the following written about my uncle, Dr. Fedor Bruck. I will quote the entire passage, then qualify and amend it based on my understanding of actual events:

“He [Pannwitz] said he was convinced that Hitler is now dead, and he related that a Jewish dentist, Fedor Bruck, had identified a skull as that of Hitler. Bruck and von Pannwitz were passengers on the same boat from Bremerhaven to New York.

‘Bruck took over the office and laboratory of Hitler’s dentist,’ Baron von Pannwitz said. ‘One day Bruck was summoned by the Russian military governor and told to bring the sketch of Hitler’s denture that his dentist had kept on file. In Bruck’s presence the sketch was checked with a dead body. There was something uncommon about Hitler’s teeth, cavities, or fillings in them. The sketch checked with the body. That is what Bruck said.’”

Dr. Hugo Blaschke was Hitler’s American-trained dentist. According to an account written by my uncle after the war and discussed at length in Post 31, the dental techniques Dr. Blaschke used on Hitler were “old fashioned,” ergo very distinctive. The knowledge that my uncle possessed as to Hitler’s fate and the identification of Hitler’s dental remains was derived exclusively from my uncle’s conversations with Käthe Heusermann, Blaschke’s dental assistant, immediately after the war. The sketch of the dental work done on Hitler was recreated from memory by Ms. Heusermann and the identifications of the remains hers; the original X-rays of Hitler’s teeth were either at the Reich Chancellery or had been taken by Blaschke when he fled to Obersalzberg. At no time did my uncle claim to have handled nor verified dental remains as belonging to Hitler, though it is true that he was visited by Russian authorities at Blaschke’s dental office looking for X-rays and people who could identify the dental work performed on Hitler. This ultimately led to Fritz Echtmann and Käthe Heusermann both being interrogated and detained in Russia for many years.

Finally, notwithstanding the coverage in “The Provience Sunday Journal” of Wolfram von Pannwitz’s self-described role in the July 20 Plot, according to Sieghard there is no mention in relevant literature of Wolfram’s involvement in the events. So, Sieghard is left to wonder whether this is an omission on the part of historians and/or what role, if any, Wolfram actually played in the leadup to the 20 July Plot? Also, curiously, Wolfram seems not to have told my uncle about his connection to the plot nor made him aware of the 1947 newspaper article describing his role. What to make of all this is unclear.

REFERENCES

“Bauhaus.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus

Loveridge, G.Y. (1947, September 28). Underground Baron: Wolfram von Pannwitz Was in Plot to Assassinate Hitler. The Providence Sunday Journal.

 

 

 

 

POST 84: MY UNCLE DR. FEDOR BRUCK’S FRIEND, WOLFRAM E. VON PANNWITZ, GERMAN BARON

Note: In this post, I discuss a German Baron my uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck befriended in a displaced persons camp in West Berlin while awaiting passage to America in 1947, a gentleman with whom my uncle had much in common and who went on to parlay a small investment in the stock market into more than $500,000 by the time he died. I also review the circumstances that led my uncle to immigrate to the United States after spending 30 months in hiding in Berlin eluding the Nazis, then being permitted to take over Hitler’s dentist’s office following WWII.

 

Related Posts:

Post 17: Surviving in Berlin in The Time of Hitler: My Uncle Fedor’s Story

Post 31: Witness to History, “Proof” of Hitler’s Death in My Uncle Fedor’s Own Words

Post 40: Elisabeth “Lisa” Pauly née Krüger, One of My Uncle Fedor’s “Silent Heroes”

Post 41: Dr. Otto Berger & Other “Silent Heroes” Who Helped My Uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck Survive the Nazi Regime

 

Figure 1. My Uncle Fedor in his dental office in Liegnitz, Prussia

 

My uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck has been the subject of multiple earlier posts which are among my most popular chronicles. I encourage interested readers to peruse these earlier written accounts to familiarize themselves with the broad outlines of my uncle’s life. For the purposes of this post, however, let me provide a brief review.

My uncle owned his own dental practice in Liegnitz, Germany [today: Legnica, Poland] (Figure 1), in the Prussian province of Silesia, until April 1936, when he was forced to shutter his business by the Nazis. He relocated to Berlin, where he was able to resume work for a time, initially working for himself (Figures 2a-b), then later working under the auspices of a non-Jewish dentist. In October 1942, my uncle was ordered by the Nazi authorities to report to an age transport; realizing this meant deportation to a concentration camp and eventual death, he went into hiding. With the help of non-Jewish relatives and acquaintances, “silent heroes,” my uncle survived underground for 30 months until the fall of Berlin in early May 1945. It is estimated that fewer than 5,000 Jews survived concealment in Germany during WWII.

 

Figure 2a. Ancestry.com cover page for a 1937 Berlin Address Book listing for my Uncle Fedor, showing him as a “Zahnarzt,” dentist, with an office at Fasasenstrasse 20 in the Charlottenburg District of Berlin
Figure 2b. 1937 Berlin Address Book listing for my uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 3. A young Käthe Heusermann née Reiss with my Uncle Fedor in his dental office in Liegnitz

 

When my uncle had his own dental practice in Liegnitz, one of his dental assistants was Käthe Heusermann née Reiss (Figure 3), a woman of some later recognition; after my uncle Fedor was forced to close his business, she too relocated to Berlin and wound up obtaining a similar position as dental assistant for Adolf Hitler’s American-trained dentist, Dr. Hugo Blaschke (Figure 4), an early member of the National Socialist party. As Dr. Blaschke’s assistant, Käthe Heusermann was always in attendance when der Führer had very distinctive yet outdated dental work performed on him at a special private office Dr. Blaschke was assigned in the Reich Chancellery; Dr. Blaschke’s private business office was located at Kurfürstendamm 213 in the district of  Charlottenburg, the boulevard considered the Champs-Élysées of Berlin; this building still stands today. (Figure 5)

 

Figure 4. Hitler’s American-trained dentist, Dr. Hugo Blaschke, an early member of the National Socialist Party
Figure 5. Entrance to Kurfürstendamm 213 in Charlottenburg, where Dr. Blaschke once had his dental practice that my Uncle Fedor took over after WWII, as it looks today

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I explained to readers in Post 31, there is very clear evidence that because of their previous relationship and friendship Käthe Heusermann sheltered and hid my uncle for brief periods during his 30 months underground during WWII; she also gave him special rations and extra food vouchers she received as a member of the Führer’s extended staff, at great personal danger. Thus, throughout my uncle’s time in hiding during the war, he was periodically in touch with Käthe. This becomes relevant after the Russians occupied Berlin, and, by my uncle’s own account, he made his way to her apartment at Pariserstrasse 39-40 (Figures 6a-b):

“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.“

 

Figure 6a. Ancestry.com cover page for a 1938 Berlin Address Book listing for my uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck, interestingly showing him living at Pariserstrasse 39-40, where Käthe Heusermann also lived
Figure 6b. 1938 Berlin Address Book listing for my uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Käthe Heusermann related the events to my uncle of what had occurred at the Reich Chancellery as the Allies encircled Berlin in the waning days of the war, and how Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun had committed suicide (see Post 31 for the complete account in my uncle’s words). Following the fall of Berlin, Käthe Heusermann advised my uncle to obtain permission from the pertinent authorities to take over Dr. Blaschke’s dental practice.  His dental office was intact, and Dr. Blaschke had already fled to Obersalzburg, so was unlikely 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; as discussed in Post 17, post-WWII Address Directories from 1946 (Figure 7), 1947, and 1948 locate my uncle at this address. My uncle’s knowledge of the events surrounding Hitler’s fate stem primarily from his friendship with Käthe Heusermann, but also from his occupancy of Dr. Blaschke’s dental office following WWII.

 

Figure 7. 1946 Berlin Address Book listing for my uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck, showing him as a dentist at Kurfürstendamm 213 in Charlottenburg, the former office of Hitler’s dentist, Dr. Hugo Blaschke

 

According to my uncle’s account, following his tenancy of Dr. Blaschke’s dental premises, he was visited on a few occasions by Russian counter-intelligence agents: 

“. . .On Wednesday, May 9th, 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.”

 

Figure 8. Yelena Rzhevskaya in 1943, a military interpreter for SMERSH, the Soviet counter-intelligence agency

 

As I eventually learned, “Lola,” was a 26-year-old Jewish woman named Yelena Rzhevskaya (Figure 8), born Elena Moiseyevna Kagan in Belarus in 1919, who was travelling with the Soviet vanguard when they entered the center of Berlin on April 29, 1945. 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 knew and later reported.  As the Soviet forces advanced through Berlin, Rzhevskaya’s unit was tasked with finding people who could provide information on Hitler’s whereabouts. It is only in 2018 that an English version of Yelena Rzhevskaya’s memoir, “Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter: From the Battle for Moscow to Hitler’s Bunker,” was published and that mention of her role in helping identify Hitler’s teeth was made.

Thus, in 1945, what led “Lola,” Yelena Rzhevskaya, to visit my uncle Fedor at Dr. Blaschke’s former dental offices was her search for information about Hitler’s fate. While questioning my uncle, Elena and the Russian authorities would learn about and eventually interrogate Käthe Heusermann and Fritz Echtmann, Blaschke’s dental technician, about their respective roles during Hitler’s dental procedures and their knowledge of his whereabouts; Käthe identified Hitler’s dental bridge for the Russians confirming his death, a fact the Soviets kept hidden for many years. Käthe and Fritz’s familiarity with Hitler’s fate would eventually result in both being abducted by the Russians and imprisoned in Russia until around 1955, a few years after Stalin died in March 1953. It served Stalin’s expansionist goals to have the world believe that Hitler had survived WWII and was an existential danger to the world, thus the need to remove from the scene anyone who could refute his narrative. It is precisely for this same reason that my uncle was in danger of being spirited away by the Russians, namely, because of his indirect knowledge of Hitler’s fate.

My uncle was alerted by the American post-war occupation forces who now controlled Charlottenburg, the Berlin district where Dr. Blaschke had once had his dental practice and where my uncle now lived and worked, that he was in danger of being snatched by the Russian intelligence services. Realizing they would eventually track him down wherever he hid and having already received a visa for the United States, my uncle abandoned his profession. Like my father, he would never again practice dentistry. Thus, began the next phase in my uncle’s life.

The precise date on which my uncle left Berlin is unknown to me. However, he wrote an affidavit in November 1966 in the matter of a probate hearing on behalf of the estate of Wolfram E. von Pannwitz, a German Baron he met in June 1947 in West Berlin, providing a general timeframe for when he departed Germany. My uncle and Mr. von Pannwitz befriended one another that month in a displaced persons camp where they had been assembled awaiting passage to the United States.  Both left for America on the 8th of July 1947 aboard the “Marine Marlin” from Bremen, Germany, and arrived in New York City on the 17th of July 1947 (Figures 9-10a-b); the two would remain friends until von Pannwitz died in New York City in 1966. (Figure 11)

 

Figure 9. “Alien Passenger Manifest” for the “Marine Marlin” with my uncle Fedor Bruck’s name showing he departed Bremen, Germany on July 8, 1947 and arrived in New York City on July 17, 1947

 

Figure 10a. Cover page for the Passenger List with Wolfram von Pannwitz’s name showing he traveled aboard the same ship and left at the same time from Bremen, Germany as my uncle
Figure 10b. Passenger List for the “Marine Marlin” with Wolfram von Pannwitz’s name showing he left Bremen, Germany the same date as my uncle, the 8th of July 1947

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 11. Wolfram E. von Pannwitz, far right, at my aunt and uncle’s wedding on March 4, 1958 in New York

 

Wolfram E. von Pannwitz was born on the 7th of July 1889 in Botzanowitz, Prussia [today: Bodzanowice, Poland], approximately 84 miles northeast of Leobschutz, Prussia [today: Głubczyce, Poland], where my uncle was born in 1895. Beyond both having been born in Upper Silesia, my uncle and von Pannwitz shared other things in common; they were close in age, only six years separated them; both were from the upper class; both were veterans of WW; both were victims of the Nazis; and both were anti-fascist.

Von Pannwitz was a Lutheran member of the Prussian nobility, who had been a captain in the German Army during WWI. In the early 1930’s, von Pannwitz operated a large garage business and dealt in fuel in Berlin. Not wishing to join the Nazi party, he went to Paris to live between 1937 and 1939. He was forced to return to Berlin, having been declared an “enemy alien” by the French, although he was able to use family influence to return to Paris. Once returned, he became involved with the movement that attempted to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944, an ultimately unsuccessful effort that forced him to go into hiding.

 

Figure 12. Else Petrea von Pannwitz’s baptismal record showing she was born on the 19th of February 1893 in Botzanowitz, Prussia

 

Wolfram von Pannwitz had a younger sister, “Else Petrea, Magda, Ernestine, Ottilie, Leonie, Gertrud,” born on the 19th of February 1893, also in Botzanowitz, Prussia. (Figure 12) He married Clara Virginia Rohde on the 18th of October 1920 in Berlin, a short-lived marriage that ended on the 28th of February 1922 and produced no children. (Figures 13a-b) He remarried Frida Mueller in 1931, who died of cancer in 1934, another childless marriage.

 

Figure 13a. Page 1 of Wolfram E. von Pannwitz and Clara Rohde’s marriage certificate showing they married on the 18th of October 1920 in Berlin with a notation in the upper right-hand corner indicating they divorced on the 28th of February 1922
Figure 13b. Page 2 of Wolfram E. von Pannwitz and Clara Rohde’s 1920 marriage certificate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let me briefly digress. During this Covid-19 pandemic we are currently living through that requires most of us to self-quarantine, I have spent countless hours listening to webinars on an investment service to which I am subscribed. In this context, an interesting fact about Mr. von Pannwitz caught my attention. Investing largely in aircraft stocks, he parlayed $15,000 he saved in 1948 and 1949 into $500,000 by the time he died in 1966. I find this interesting on multiple levels. He was heavily invested in the stock market long before this was commonplace, and seemingly followed a path to building his wealth by buying and holding stocks, a strategy the investment service I follow also subscribes to. He was also invested in a segment of the market, airlines, which have largely fallen out of favor, for obvious reasons, during the current pandemic.

 

Figure 14. The Hotel Seville where Wolfram E. von Pannwitz rented modest accommodations for $23 a week

 

Figure 15. Contemporary newspaper account from a New York daily discussing Wolfram E. von Pannwitz’s $500,000 bequest, split equally between Cardinal Spellman and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society

Wolfram von Pannwitz died on the 28th of January 1966 in St. Vincent’s Hospital. At the time he lived modestly in a $23-a-week 9-by 12-foot room in the Hotel Seville on Madison Avenue (Figure 14), known today as the “James New York-NoMad.” His death made the news (Figure 15), including the New York Times, because he left his $500,000 estate equally to Cardinal Spellman of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, “HIAS.” While Mr. Pannwitz was not Jewish, his bestowal to HIAS was his way of showing gratitude to his Jewish friends for their professional and personal help during his life. His bequest to the St. Patrick’s Cathedral was, in his own words, to thank them for the “. . .strength and power [they gave him] to accomplish the hard struggle for this life.”

Interestingly, Mr. von Pannwitz typed his will, dated the 4th of September 1958, on a conventional printed form. In the will, he stated “all my relatives, near or remote, shall be excluded from my inheritance, there being special reasons for this direction.” While none of the contemporary newspaper accounts discuss these “special reasons,” I know from my uncle’s November 1966 affidavit that upon Mr. von Pannwitz’s mother’s death, Gertrud von Pannwitz née Scholz in 1957, he was cheated out of his inheritance by his younger sister.

Based on surviving correspondence in my possession, sadly, Cardinal Spellman and the Catholic Church reached an out-of-court settlement with Wolfram’s sister, Elsa Petrea Reymann née von Pannwitz, after she contested the will. In the back-and-forth correspondence between my uncle Fedor and one of Mr. von Pannwitz’s friends in California, both expressed outrage that she managed to obtain any part of her brother’s estate.

Figure 16. German General Helmuth von Pannwitz in 1941, one of Wolfram von Pannwitz’s cousins, who fought for the German Army in the Battle of Stalingrad and later against Tito’s partisans in then-Yugoslavia

This would likely have been particularly galling to Mr. von Pannwitz given that he was estranged from his sister and because of his family’s connections to the Nazi regime. A certain Helmuth von Pannwitz (14th October 1898-16th January 1947) (Figure 16), also born in Botzwanowitz, Prussia and likely one of Wolfram’s cousins, was a German general; he fought in both world wars. In WWII, he was in command of a battle group assigned to cover the southern flank in the battle of Stalingrad, where he wiped out a Soviet cavalry brigade, a Soviet cavalry division, and an enemy infantry division. Later, Helmuth von Pannwitz established a Cossack volunteer force, the 1st Cossack Division, which fought against freedom fighters in the Ukraine and Belorussia, before eventually fighting partisans commanded by Tito in Yugoslavia. During punitive operations in Serbia and Croatia, the Cossack regiments under Pannwitz’s command committed several atrocities against the civilian population, including mass rapes and routine summary executions. In 1947, the same year that Wolfram immigrated to America, Helmuth was executed by the Russians for these war crimes.

 

REFERENCE

Rzhevskaya, Yelena. “Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter: From the Battle for Moscow to Hitler’s Bunker.” 2018. Greenhill Books. London.

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.

Related Post

POST 17: SURVIVING IN BERLIN IN THE TIME OF HITLER: MY UNCLE FEDOR’S STORY

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 20th, 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 30th, 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 9th, 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 11th, 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,’ 35th 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 2nd.  The next day, they apparently discovered the bodies of Joseph and Magda Goebbels’ six children in their bunk beds.  Then, on May 5th, 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)