Note: This post is inspired by a query from a Russian Holocaust researcher requesting permission to use documents and pictures of my uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck . I’m revisiting the role that his erstwhile dental assistant Käthe Heusermann, later assistant to Hitler’s personal dentist, played in the identification of the Führer‘s dental remains following the end of the Second World War. A collaborative French-Russian documentary produced in 2017, translated below for the benefit of readers, provides the historical context.
Related Posts:
POST 17: SURVIVING IN BERLIN IN THE TIME OF HITLER: MY UNCLE FEDOR’S STORY
POST 40: ELISABETH “LISA” PAULY NÉE KRÜGER, ONE OF MY UNCLE FEDOR’S “SILENT HEROES”
This post is inspired by a recent contact from a Russian Holocaust researcher, Ms. Elena Godunova (Figure 1), requesting permission to use several pictures and documents published on my blog related to my uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck. (Figure 2) Our subsequent back-and-forth emails resulted in obtaining a few fascinating pictures of and learning some lesser-known facts about Käthe Heusermann (1909-1993) who was my uncle’s dental assistant in Liegnitz, Germany (today: Legnica, Poland). (Figure 3)
Elena also shared a link to a documentary, a Russian-French collaboration, discussing Käthe’s historical role in identifying Hitler’s teeth after the Second World War and the personal toll it took on her. I’ve discussed this in previous posts and will review it below. From my own personal knowledge based on historical accounts and on writings my uncle left behind discussing what Käthe told him about Hitler’s fate, the documentary is exacting and accurate. For this reason, I asked my good friend’s daughter for help transcribing the French narrative using AI and translating it into English; at the bottom of this post is the correlation of the narrative with the names and titles of the narrators. This allows readers to follow along as they watch the documentary and learn about Käthe’s historical significance.
I begin this post by reintroducing readers to my uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck who has been the subject of several earlier publications, notably, Post 17 and Post 41. I revisit this topic as a way of reacquainting followers with Käthe Heusermann.
After Käthe moved to Berlin she become the assistant to Hitler’s personal dentist, Dr. Hugo Blaschke (1881-1959). (Figure 4) He was American-trained and seems to have attained his position more by virtue of his early membership in the National Socialist Party than due to his technical skills. As a matter of fact, in my uncle’s writings he specifically remarked on Dr. Blaschke’s outmoded, therefore very distinctive, dental techniques. This becomes relevant to the postwar identification of Hitler’s recovered dental remains and pertinent to the story I’m about to relate.
Let me begin by reviewing the historical context under which the events described in this post unfolded. My Uncle Fedor obtained his dental license from the University of Breslau (today: University of Wrocław) in around 1921. He had a private practice in Liegnitz, Germany from November 1924 until April 1936, when he was forced by the Nazis to shutter his practice.
While Hitler did not become chancellor of Germany until January 30, 1933, dark clouds loomed before his ascendancy. Already, by March 1932, a letter (Figure 5) among my uncle’s surviving papers document that he had been relieved of his responsibilities as a so-called “Schulzahnarzt,” a school dentist for small municipalities surrounding Liegnitz. Schulzahnärzten merely examined pupils’ teeth, advising them whether a follow-up with a dentist was warranted. It’s important to understand that among German dentists there was widespread support for the National Socialist ideology. In anticipation of their rise to power, many dental organizations displaced their Jewish colleagues as a sign of “anticipatory obedience.”
Formal restrictions on Jewish professionals in Nazi Germany began primarily with the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service” passed on April 7, 1933. This law barred Jews and political opponents from holding government, university, and public-school jobs. Some concurrent 1933 decrees stripped Jewish lawyers of their licenses to practice and severely restricted Jewish doctors and medical practitioners from treating non-Jewish patients or receiving payments from state health insurance funds. The 1933 laws initially made minor exceptions for Jewish veterans who fought for Germany in the First World War or for those who had been in office since 1914. Since my Uncle Fedor had fought and been wounded on the Russian Front in WWI (Figure 6), he had an exemption to continue working.
However, in September 1935, the Nazi Regime introduced the Nuremberg Laws comprising the “Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor.” A supplementary decree to the citizenship law issued in November 1935 removed the 1933 exemptions for WWI veterans, forcing all remaining Jewish public officials and civil servants into retirement by the end of 1935. By April 1936, my uncle had sold or shut down his practice. Presumably he left for Berlin shortly thereafter.
Käthe may have relocated to Berlin at roughly the same time as my uncle. However, it’s unlikely she intended to continue working as his dental assistant given the increasingly restrictive prohibitions against associating with Jews. While Käthe worked for my uncle in a professional capacity in Liegnitz rather than in private employ, the Nazi regime prohibited Jewish households from employing German (non-Jewish) domestic workers under the age of 45 under the aforementioned “Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor.” The Nazis claimed this would prevent “race defilement” (Rassenschande), falsely alleging that Jewish men would have sexual relations with young German maids.
Regardless, Käthe went on to work for Hitler’s dentist through circumstances that are unknown. By her own account she worked for Dr. Blaschke for almost ten years, roughly from 1936 until 1945. It is known Hitler had a designated dental office at the Reichstag where he received treatment. Most relevant to this post is that as Dr. Blaschke’s dental assistant, Käthe was always present when he attended to the Führer’s oral care. Thus, she was very familiar with the dental procedures that had been performed on him and with Blaschke’s signature dental work.
As for my uncle, after leaving for Berlin, he could still work though under very trying circumstances. He continued to have a private practice at Fasanenstraße 20 in Berlin-Charlottenburg for a time. However, after the “Regulation for the Elimination of the Jews from the Economic Life of Germany” was enacted in February 1939, my uncle had his dental license revoked. Only in November 1939 was he again certified, but then only as a so-called “Zahnbehandler,” which meant he could only treat Jews and relatives.
A document found in the archives at the Centrum Judaicum Berlin shows that during this period, specifically on June 11, 1939, my uncle converted from Judaism at the Messiah Chapel in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg, Kastanienallee 22. (Figure 7) He must still have believed at this late date, even after the violent pogrom of Kristallnacht the previous 9th-10th of November 1938, that conversion to Protestantism would alter his fate. I can only conclude that his status as a wounded German veteran of the First World War clouded his judgement making him believe this provided a protective cloak, though the supplementary decree accompanying passage of the Nuremberg Laws had specifically removed protection for Jewish veterans of WWI.
For several months starting in March 1941, my uncle had the good fortune of managing the practice of a colleague preparing to emigrate from Germany. Then, again, in June 1941, he took over a well-equipped practice located in Kürfurstendamm. Thus, compared to many of his fellow Jews, for a time, he was better off economically. By January 1942, however, he had been permanently displaced from this last office by an Aryan colleague.
Eventually, in a letter dated October 12, 1942 (Figure 8), my uncle was summoned by the Gestapo to present himself to an “age transport.”
“Regarding Deportation
The undersigned has presented your evacuation case to the relevant authority.
The application for a deferral was rejected; however, following this consultation, you have been assigned to the transport for the elderly—under the transport number indicated above—instead of the transport to the East.
Respectfully,
Jewish Cultural Association of Berlin (Registered Association) – The Executive Board”
Realizing this meant deportation to a concentration camp and a death sentence, he fled to a friend living in Dahlem within the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf and went into hiding. This was the beginning of a two-and-a-half-year ordeal living “underground” in Berlin. In the ensuing months, Uncle Fedor found refuge with a cousin (see Post 40) or hid in “green belts,” coal cellars, and parks.
Most helpful to him during his clandestine odyssey was a fellow dentist by the name of Dr. Otto Berger, a right-minded individual vehemently opposed to the National Socialists. Berger was somehow able to illegally procure papers for Fedor in the name of Dr. Friedrich Burkhardt (Figure 9), matching my uncle’s own initials; without this identity card, it is hard to imagine how my uncle would have survived.
In March 1944, both Berger and my uncle were among nine survivors from a group of 44 people who had sought refuge from Allied bombing in an air raid shelter. Following this narrow escape, for a short period Fedor again hid with his cousin before returning to live with Berger. First, they lived in Berlin-Zehlendorf, then in an apartment in Berlin-Steglitz. Their last flat was destroyed by fire on the eve of the Russian push to capture Steglitz on April 26, 1945.
It is worth noting that Roger Moorhouse, in his book entitled “Berlin at War: Life and Death in Hitler’s Capital 1939-1945,” estimates that of the 11,000 Jews who hid underground in Berlin between 1939 and 1945, only about 1,400 survived. My uncle was one of those. Luck certainly played a part. When his friend Dr. Sieber was arrested in his presence by the Gestapo on February 15, 1943, he was miraculously spared. It’s unclear how important his pre-war connections and non-Jewish relatives were to his survival, though they likely played a role.
The capture by the Russians of Berlin-Steglitz where my uncle last lived with Dr. Berger marked the beginning of the next phase of my uncle’s life in Berlin. After the Russian capture of Berlin on May 4, 1945, my uncle followed in their footsteps and made his way to Käthe Heusermann’s apartment in Pariserstraße in Berlin-Wilmersdorf where he found her. Astonishingly, there is evidence to suggest that during his time underground my uncle was occasionally hidden by Käthe in her apartment.
The Nazi command had wanted Käthe to evacuate to Obersalzberg as Dr. Blaschke and other high ranking Nazis hiding in the Reich Chancellery with Hitler were ordered to do. Käthe refused. She insisted on staying in Berlin hoping for the return of her soldier husband.
Käthe Heusermann’s refusal to be evacuated to Obersalzberg may have saved her life. Käthe was seemingly tasked with packing Dr. Blaschke’s dental records and equipment, including Hitler’s records at the Reichstag. The plane carrying those records crashed and eight of the nine passengers aboard were killed. There is reason to believe Käthe would have been aboard this flight. The Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives (B3A) website includes a photo of the destroyed aircraft, a Junkers JU.352 Herkules, that went down in Börnersdorf. (Figure 10)
Having been present in the Reich Chancellery until almost the Nazi regime’s bitter end, Käthe had learned of the Fuhrer’s fate from his inner circle. According to my uncle’s written account, Käthe had told him what had happened to Hitler. My uncle’s former close association with Käthe Heusermann inadvertently made him a “witness” to history. After the war reporters and writers were wont to dismiss his account. Afterall, how could a Jewish survivor know whether Hitler had survived the war?
The office building where Dr. Blaschke had his dental practice had only been slightly damaged. It was in Berlin-Charlottenburg, in the district of Berlin then occupied by the Russians. Käthe encouraged my uncle to apply to the Russians to take over Dr. Blaschke’s largely intact office. As a victim of National Socialism, he was entitled to such consideration.
With the approval of the Russian commandant, my uncle was assigned Blaschke’s office and living quarters. Among my uncle’s surviving papers is a pass dated the 30th of May 1945 written in both German and Cyrillic permitting him safe passage to access his office and presumably move about. (Figures 11a-b)
Dr. Blaschke’s dental office was located at Kürfurstendamm 213, in a building that still stands. (Figure 12) Post-war Berlin phone and address directories for both 1946 (Figure 13) and 1948 attest to this. They list my uncle Fedor Bruck as a “Zahnarzt” (dentist) occupying these premises, as indeed he did until he left for America in 1947 (his name continues to show up in the 1948 phone directory even though he was no longer in Berlin).
According to the documentary translated below, Elena Rzhevskaya (Figure 14) from SMERSH, who ended the Second World War with the rank of Lieutenant, was tasked soon after hostilities ended in Berlin with ascertaining Hitler’s fate and determining whether dental remains discovered in the garden of the Reich Chancellery belonged to him.
SMERSH is an acronym for the Russian phrase Smert‘ shpionam, which translates directly to “death to enemies.” Coined by Joseph Stalin, SMERSH was an umbrella term for independent counterintelligence agencies in the Soviet Red Army. As a trivial aside, in popular culture author Ian Fleming made the name famous by featuring SMERSH as James Bond’s ruthless fictional enemy organization.
Elena Rzhevskaya was given a velvet-lined box containing the dental remains discovered in the Reich Chancellery and tasked with determining whether they belonged to Hitler. She immediately went in search of Hitler’s then-unknown dentist. She would eventually learn that his dental office, now occupied by my uncle, was still intact. She headed there in search of information about Blaschke.
In writings my uncle left behind, he remarks on the arrival in his office of Russian military personnel including an unnamed woman who could have been none other than Elena Rzhevskaya. My uncle never mentioned her name, likely because she never told him. She asked about Dr. Blaschke and was told he had fled Berlin. However, my uncle mentioned that Käthe Heusermann, as well as Fritz Echtmann, Dr. Blaschke’s dental technician, were still in Berlin. My uncle was ordered to fetch Käthe, and upon arrival she was interrogated by the Russians.
As mentioned above, Käthe Heusermann had always been present when Hitler was undergoing dental treatment. Because Hitler was always treated in a specially equipped dental office at the Reichstag, none of his dental records appear to have been stored in Dr. Blaschke’s office. Because Hitler’s dental records were not found at the Reichstag, Elena Rzhevskaya was compelled to rely on Käthe’s description of the work that had been performed on Hitler. As the translated documentary below tells us, Käthe was asked to describe the work Blaschke had performed on Hitler from memory. She was NEVER shown the dental remains that had been recovered in the shallow grave at the Reich Chancellery. Nonetheless, her description and sketches of the dental procedures Blaschke had performed on Hitler precisely matched those that appeared on the dental remains from the Reich Chancellery. While she was endlessly cross-examined by Russian officials, Käthe was consistent in her description of Hitler’s teeth and the work done on them. As the documentary attests, based on her testimony, the Russians had no doubt Hitler had killed himself.
Nonetheless, Stalin assertively lied to the Allies and claimed that Hitler had fled to either Spain or Argentina or escaped in a submarine to Japan. Stalin chose to conceal what had happened to Hitler. For him, knowledge was power and he could potentially use the information about Hitler’s fate against the Allies in the future in yet unknown ways. Afterall, the “cold war” had already started.
The fact that Stalin didn’t want the world knowing Hitler was dead put both Käthe Heusermann and Fritz Echtmann in danger, and in fact both were eventually arrested, taken to Russia, and given ten-year prison sentences. They were not released until 1955. Readers can pick up the thread of what happened to Käthe by reading the translation of the documentary below.
As a side note, my Uncle Fedor was warned by the Americans that because of his knowledge of Hitler’s fate and Stalin’s wish to keep this information concealed, he too was in danger of being whisked away by the Russians. It’s for this reason that he fled Berlin and left his dental practice behind.
As mentioned at the outset, Elena Godunova, the Russian Holocaust researcher who inspired this post, sent me a few pictures of Käthe Heusermann and Fritz Echtmann taken in Moscow. These include mugshots of the two of them (Figures 15-16) after their arrest by the Russian NKVD (Romanized: Narodnyy komissariat vnutrennikh), the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs; this was the interior ministry and the secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The other is of Käthe and Fritz with two Russian officers in a park setting in Moscow. (Figure 17)
Of particular interest, Elena Godunova shared a Russian article about one of Hitler’s first cousins, Maria Koppensteiner (1899-1953). Maria was the daughter of Hitler’s mother’s sister. The Koppensteiners lived in the town of Gmünd in Lower Austria that fell within the Soviet occupation zone after the war. In late May 1945, Maria Koppensteiner was arrested by the counter-intelligence unit of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, along with other members of her family. Hitler’s cousin was arrested based on ‘kinship liability,’” according to Austrian historian Stefan Karner, though Maria had not seen her cousin Adolf since 1907.
Initially, Hitler’s relatives were imprisoned in Lefortovo Prison in Moscow. Of personal interest is that for a time Maria shared a cell with Käthe Heusermann. One of my readers rhetorically asked: “One wonders whether it was intentional putting them together, maybe to see if they would talk about Hitler (their cells had listening devices, from what I can tell from reports of the prisoners’ conversations being quoted in their intelligence reports). I recall someone saying Heusermann suspected the Soviets of planting ‘moles’ as cell-companions, so they could trick the prisoners into talking about Hitler.” (Andrew van Ginkel, personal communication)
According to the documentary, Käthe Heusermann was not formally tried until 1951. She was given a ten-year prison term and credited for the 6 ½ years she’d already spent in prison by the time she was convicted. She was exiled to Siberia, and according to Elena Godunova, was held at Ozerlag in the Irkutsk region, likely transported there and back along the Trans-Siberian Railway. Käthe wrote a short account of her years of imprisonment, leaving it forgotten at the back of a drawer, and never looked back. In 1992, she was rehabilitated as a “victim of political repression.” Käthe Heusermann died in 1993.
As we speak, I’m working with Elena Godunova to try and contact Lioubov Summ, the granddaughter of Elena Rzhevskaya, hoping to obtain a copy of Käthe Heusermann’s unpublished memoir. Beyond being of historical interest, I’m curious whether Käthe mentions working for my uncle as a dental assistant in Liegnitz.
Mort d’Hitler, l’histoire d’un secret d’État TRANSLATION
EDITOR’S NOTE: THE TEXT BELOW STANDS ON ITS OWN SHOULD READERS CHOOSE NOT TO VIEW THE 52-MINUTE DOCUMENTARY.
NARRATOR: This is the final battle. Berlin is a gigantic pile of rubble, and the Nazi empire is now confined to the streets of the capital’s center, which is under siege by the Red Army.
For our soldiers, the priority is to capture the leader of the Third Reich—it is a symbol, a symbol of war and fascism. He is, therefore, a trophy, and everyone is searching for him.
Where is Hitler? To whom do the charred remains found in the Chancellery garden belong—remains that, some time ago, were miraculously pulled intact from the rubble? Will they reveal the fate of the Nazi dictator?
Two young women. One is Soviet—Elena Rzhevskaya, an interpreter for the Red Army. The other is German— Käthe Heusermann, Hitler’s dentist’s assistant. They are at the heart of the investigation and play a decisive role in identifying the remains of the Nazi leader.
The witness states, “I clearly recognize the gold teeth and dentures presented to me.”
Stalin is immediately informed of the discovery of the remains and then of their identification. He knows there is no doubt. Hitler is dead.
Stalin knows the truth. Hitler is dead, but he chooses to lie and tells the Allies that the monster is alive and has managed to escape.
Why didn’t Stalin tell the Allies anything? To keep a secret? It could always come in handy.
The story of Hitler’s death is characteristic of Stalin’s paranoid attitude toward the West.
Stalin’s lie about Hitler’s death lasted nearly 50 years. All the evidence is hidden. Kept secret until the day the Soviet Union disappears and the truth can finally be told.
Nothing can be hidden. Everything eventually comes to light. Everyone should learn this lesson from history.
For the Soviet Union, the war began in June 1941 with a surprise attack by Hitler. Within a few months, the enemy was at the gates of Moscow, and Stalin ordered the mass mobilization of the population. The regiments—almost entire armies—marching through Red Square set off directly for the front.
Elena is just 22 years old and already has a two-year-old child, but the Red Army needs interpreters, and Elena, who speaks German, enlists. Four years later, she is part of the first Soviet detachment to enter Berlin, tasked with capturing the Nazi leaders. No one knows where Hitler is; he is said to be dead or dying, the victim of a cerebral hemorrhage. Or perhaps his officers executed him—unless he took his own life. But according to Soviet radio reporters following in the Red Army’s wake in Berlin, Hitler is, on the contrary, very much alive and in hiding in the Tyrol. It is a lookalike who is fighting in his place in the streets of the capital, watched over by Nazi propaganda officials who are waiting for the moment he falls so they can photograph him and deceive the Allies. A final rumor claims that Hitler is hiding in the ruins of the Reichstag. It is a historic moment—The storming of the Nazi Parliament and Elena hasn’t forgotten a thing.
ELENA RZHEVSKAYA: I’m going around in circles. It was our division that led the attack on the Reichstag. It was a stroke of luck and a great honor for us.
NARRATOR: They attacked the Reichstag thinking Hitler was hiding there, but in reality, no one knew where he was.
Hitler was not at the Reichstag, as the Soviet command had believed. The Red Army’s vanguard then headed toward the Chancellery—the heart of Nazi power.
ELENA RZHEVSKAYA: It was terrifying to imagine that Hitler might still be there. We were on edge. Where is Hitler—alive or dead?
NARRATOR: German radio had just announced the Führer’s death, fallen in his heroic struggle against Bolshevism. And that night, the German Chief of Staff, General Krebs, made his way to Soviet headquarters. He wanted to begin peace talks and informed his counterpart, Marshal Zhukov, of Hitler’s death.
In his memoirs, Zhukov recalls immediately having Stalin woken up in Moscow. “He got what he deserved—that bastard. Where is the body?” asks Stalin. “According to the German general, the body was burned,” replies Zhukov. “Too bad we couldn’t take him alive,” concludes the master of the Kremlin.
While people continue to die in the streets of downtown Berlin, the small group of scouts, along with Elena, the interpreter, makes its way to the Chancellery Garden. Right above the bunker where Hitler may have been hiding for several months.
He comes upon a chaotic scene, a landscape pockmarked by shells and corpses everywhere. They quickly recognize the first body, Joseph Goebbels, then his wife Magda and their six children.
ELENA RZHEVSKAYA: Goebbels’ body was burned but still recognizable. It was carried out onto the street in front of the Chancellery to be displayed—to show Hitler’s close associate, the Minister of Propaganda. In Hitler’s absence it was already a symbol of the fall of the Third Reich.
NARRATOR: Hitler’s body had not yet been found, but the very next day, the news of his death made headlines on the front pages of newspapers around the world.
Except in the Soviet Union. Pravda, the official organ of the Communist Party and the voice of the Kremlin, wrote that the announcement of Hitler’s death was a ruse intended to facilitate the Nazi leader’s escape. As a result, in Paris as well, people were filled with doubt and uncertainty.
In the garden of the Chancellery. The search continues everywhere—through the rubble, the shell craters, the piled-up bodies. Suddenly, someone thinks they recognize the monster’s mustache on one of the corpses. Immediately, there is excitement and confusion; people are brought in from the bunker, and the truth must be faced: it is not Hitler—the mustache alone is not enough to make the dictator—but the legend of the lookalike is born.
On orders from the Soviet high command, the entire occupying Red Army is searching for Hitler, but the actual investigation is secret and limited to just three people: Major Gorbushin, Commander Bistrof, and Elena, the indispensable interpreter without whom no interrogation of German prisoners is possible. The two officers are part of the SMERSH, a military intelligence unit that reports directly to Stalin.
NIKITA PETROV (HISTORIAN—ONG MEMORIAL): The SMERSH is a special intelligence unit under Stalin’s direct authority, headed by Victor Abakumov, who was considered at the time to be one of Stalin’s protégés and oversaw the most secret operations. He spied on the generals. He eavesdropped on all conversations. In short, he deals not only with spies who might attempt to infiltrate the Red Army, but also with traitors within the army itself. Abakoumov keeps an eye on everyone. Stalin entrusts him only with the most secret and delicate missions—if you can call them that.
NARRATOR: It is the SMERSH that is investigating Hitler’s death. This demonstrates Stalin’s involvement in this matter, as well as the absolute discretion that must surround the investigations. The top-secret reports from the special unit are read by only three people: Stalin, of course, Molotov, the foreign minister, and Beria, the sinister head of the NKVD—the predecessor to the KGB.
In the stifling atmosphere of the bunker, Elena sorts through the papers on Hitler’s desk and interrogates the first prisoners.
ELENA RZHEVSKAYA: On May 4, I interviewed a small man, the bunker’s heating engineer. He was the one in charge of ventilation in the rooms occupied by Hitler. He saw how the lifeless bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were carried out of the bunker.
NARRATOR: Based on the initial statements from their prisoners, the investigators are convinced that Hitler remained holed up in his bunker until the very end and strongly suspect that he committed suicide just before the arrival of the first Soviet soldiers. They also know that all the gas for the vehicles stored in the Chancellery garage was requisitioned after 12 p.m. on April 30. Did Hitler disappear without a trace by ordering that his body be completely burned after his death? Are there still remains to be found, and where should they be searched for?
SERGEY MIRONENKO (HISTORIAN—FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE RUSSIAN STATE ARCHIVE): The bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were discovered entirely by chance. In the garden of the Chancellery a soldier saw the tip of a boot in good condition sticking out of a hole covered with dirt. He decided to pull it out and found two bodies.
RUDOLF PIKHOYA (HISTORIAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE ARCHIVES COMMITTEE): At that point, they did not know if it was really Hitler, unlike Goebbels’s body, which was recognizable because gas had to be economized and his features had been spared. These remains were completely charred.
NARRATOR: Official Report on the Discovery of Two Bodies. May 5, 1945. Near Hitler’s bunker, we discovered and exhumed two burned bodies that were impossible to identify.
The Goebbels family, several officers, and remains that are still unidentified. The SMERSH now holds about ten remains, some more charred than others.
Vice Admiral Vos admitted to being one of the last people to have seen Goebbels and Hitler alive. Identifying Goebbels poses no problem, but the body believed to be Hitler’s is too badly damaged to be visually identified, even by a member of the inner circle.
After the autopsy, doubts remain. The results are consistent with what is known about Hitler—his height and weight. But the doctors cannot say with certainty that these charred remains are indeed all that is left of him. There is only one hope left for identifying him. The teeth.
ELENA RZHEVSKAYA: Both jaws were well preserved. 15 teeth on the lower jaw. On May 8, my commander, Major Gorbushin, asked me to come see him. He handed me a burgundy-colored box and said, “These are Hitler’s teeth. You are responsible for them.”
NARRATOR: It was Victory Day, the end of a war that had claimed tens of millions of victims. Amid the ruins of Berlin, Elena, the 25-year-old Soviet interpreter, refrains from toasting or joining in the celebrations. She is the secret guardian of a small box lined with red satin that may contain all that remains of the mad dictator who led the world into catastrophe.
In the suburbs of Berlin, in the middle of the night, under the chairmanship of Marshal Zhukov, the Allies, facing Marshal Ketel, sign Germany’s act of surrender.
This time the war is finally over.
First thing in the morning, Elena and her officers set out in search of the one person who would surely know the name of the owner of the teeth: Hitler’s dentist. The investigators know nothing about him—neither his name nor his address, let alone whether he is still alive and in Berlin.
After a day of wandering and following dead ends, they finally obtain a name and, at the same time, the information that the dentist fled the city about fifteen days ago. But they also learn that his assistant has remained in Berlin, hoping for the return of her soldier husband. A few hours later, Elena meets Käthe Heusermann, a smiling, friendly young woman who, for nearly 10 years, has been present at every one of Hitler’s visits to his dentist. The Führer’s teeth should hold no secrets for her.
LIOUBOV SUMM (GRANDDAUGHTER OF ELENA RZHEVSKAYA): She became the key witness because teeth are of no use unless one also finds the person who can identify them.
NICOLAY VLADIMIRTSEV (HISTORIAN AT THE RUSSIAN NATIONAL ARCHIVES): During the interrogation of Käthe Heusermann, the witness states: “I clearly recognize the gold teeth and dentures presented to me. They belong to Chancellor Hitler.” The witness made the same statement regarding Eva Braun. This testimony is the most important piece of evidence. It proves that these teeth truly belong to Hitler.
ELENA RZHEVSKAYA: She had been asked to draw a diagram of Hitler’s teeth, but without showing her the teeth that had been found.
NARRATOR: Kate was present at all of the Führer’s dental appointments, and she hasn’t forgotten a single detail about Hitler’s disastrous set of teeth. Her drawing matches exactly the jawbone found by the Soviets. There is no longer any doubt: the charred body discovered in a hole in the Chancellery garden is all that remains of the greatest criminal of the 20th century.
LIOUBOV SUMM (GRANDDAUGHTER OF ELENA RZHEVSKAYA): On May 11, they escorted her home with heartfelt thanks and many cans of food. They know they’ve successfully identified Hitler. So, to thank Käthe Heusermann, they give her food, but for themselves, they were hoping to receive medals.
NARRATOR: Hitler is indeed dead. But is Stalin aware? For the Soviet command in Berlin, it’s very clear. Hitler is dead, and Stalin is immediately informed.
RUDOLF PIKHOYA (HISTORIAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE ARCHIVES COMMITTEE): Failing to give Stalin a detailed report on such a matter is completely impossible. Absolutely out of the question, because Hitler is a symbol that carries very strong political significance, like the storming of the Reichstag and the conquest of Berlin.
NIKITA PETROV (HISTORIAN—ONG MEMORIAL): It’s obvious. Stalin was immediately informed of the discovery of the remains and then of their identification. He knew there was no doubt. Hitler was dead.
NARRATOR: Stalin rarely left the Kremlin, but he had eyes and ears everywhere. Every day, documents concerning Hitler’s death and identification pile up on his desk, becoming increasingly precise and definitive. And following Käthe Heusermann’s testimony, it is no longer a matter of speculation—we know. Hitler is dead, and Stalin has been informed.
However, a few days later, a general whose identity has remained secret arrives in Berlin to verify everything.
LIOUBOV SUMM (GRANDDAUGHTER OF ELENA RZHEVSKAYA): The general resumes all the interrogations, and for the first time, Elena, as an interpreter, is warned that she will be held responsible in the event of an erroneous translation. Everyone is warned and threatened.
NARRATOR: For the purposes of the new investigation, the SMERSH comes to fetch Käthe Heusermann and orders him to pack a suitcase for an absence of about a week.
LIOUBOV SUMM (GRANDDAUGHTER OF ELENA RZHEVSKAYA): Minutes of the supplementary interrogation of Käthe Heusermann. It is recorded that it began at 1:15 a.m. and ended at 6:00 a.m. The questions are repeated endlessly—always the same ones. She is made to say, over and over, what she knows about Hitler’s teeth, and after she has explained everything, she is asked the same question again. “So, you continue to assert that the teeth and dentures presented to you belong to Hitler?” “Yes, I confirm that.” The document is only five pages long, but we know the interrogation lasted 5 hours. So, we can imagine how many times she was forced to repeat the same answers.
NARRATOR: The unnamed general did not sign any official record. And at the end of the second investigation, which fully confirmed the first, he leaves just as mysteriously as he arrived. Investigators are certain of Hitler’s death thanks to Käthe Heusermann’s positive identification of his teeth. But this information has still not been made public, and the Soviet command in Berlin officially maintains the order to search for Hitler, dead or alive. A medal is even promised to whoever succeeds in capturing him. Yet, although the SMERSH investigation was conducted in the utmost secrecy, rumors are circulating outside the Soviet zone, and the international press is picking up on them. The Russians are said to have found and identified the remains of the Nazi leader.
Even the world is wondering, awaiting the necessary Soviet confirmation.
The next act takes place in the Kremlin. Harry Hopkins is an advisor to U.S. President Truman, and he arrives in Moscow in late May 1945 for a series of meetings with Stalin to prepare for the first postwar conference among the Big Three. When Hopkins asks Stalin where Hitler is, Stalin replies that he believes Hitler is alive, that he managed to escape, and that he may have fled in a submarine to seek refuge in Japan.
This was the first false claim regarding Hitler’s death made by Stalin himself and recorded in black and white in the secret memorandum that was sent to Washington that very evening.
Ten days later, in Berlin, Marshal Zhukov held a press conference for foreign correspondents. They expect the rumors about the discovery and identification of Hitler’s remains to be confirmed. But to the journalists’ surprise, Zhukov asserts, on the contrary, that no trace of Hitler could be found, that he is therefore certainly alive, that he managed to escape by plane, and that he has taken refuge in Spain or Argentina.
NIKITA PETROV (HISTORIAN—ONG MEMORIAL): Zhukov’s statement can be explained by the fact that he follows Stalin’s orders to the letter, since Stalin did not order him to tell the truth. The bodies were found and identified. So, he is lying.
RUDOLF PIKHOYA (HISTORIAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE ARCHIVES COMMITTEE): Why didn’t Stalin say anything to the Allies? The answer is not simple. It is more of a psychological matter—knowing something that others do not know. It’s always advantageous to hold onto a secret. It can always come in handy.
NIKITA PETROV (HISTORIAN—ONG MEMORIAL): The story of Hitler’s death is characteristic of Stalin’s paranoid attitude toward the West. We mustn’t give them too much information or evidence. Perhaps one day, it will be to our advantage to have left them in the dark.
NARRATOR: That’s it—the lie has been thrown in the world’s face. There is widespread consternation, because no one can imagine that, just one month after the joint victory, the Soviets could lie to their allies about such a matter. Why? To what end? It’s absurd. No. If Zhukov claims that Hitler hasn’t been found, then he hasn’t been found.
A few weeks later, Stalin, Truman, and Churchill met in Potsdam, near Berlin, for their first postwar summit. The future was being decided here in discussions among the three leaders, and particularly the future of Eastern Europe.
NIKITA PETROV (HISTORIAN—ONG MEMORIAL): At that time, the disagreements between the Soviet Union and the Allies were only getting worse due to Soviet control over the countries of Eastern Europe and because of Soviet policy in the territories occupied by the Red Army.
NARRATOR: Compared to these issues, the question of Hitler’s fate was obviously of very secondary importance. However, an advisor to Truman recounts that during an informal dinner with the American president, Stalin asserted once again that Hitler was alive and was either in Spain or Argentina. In Potsdam, the three leaders also had to decide which Nazi leaders would be placed in the dock in a few months, at the Nuremberg trials. Stalin had just reiterated this. Hitler is alive. He, therefore, should be at the top of the list of criminals to be tried. But curiously, no one asked for him. Not the Americans, not the British, not even Stalin.
LIOUBOV SUMM (GRANDDAUGHTER OF ELENA RZHEVSKAYA): Everything is kept secret in case it might be needed one day. This is the reality of our country, the Soviet Union, where everything operates according to the rules of the secret police. Everyone is watched, threatened, and intimidated.
ELENA RZHEVSKAYA: It could be said that Stalin’s decision to hide what belonged to all the Allies was the first Soviet move in the Cold War.
NARRATOR: For Elena, the time has come to take off her uniform and put on a pretty dress and ladies’ shoes. A few souvenir photos and one last visit to Käthe, the key witness to Hitler’s death, who is still being held at Soviet headquarters. Between interrogations, the young women hit it off. The Russian interpreter and the German dental assistant feel they’ve been part of an extraordinary adventure, even if it must remain a secret.
LIOUBOV SUMM (GRANDDAUGHTER OF ELENA RZHEVSKAYA): Their last conversation was very warm. Käthe said, “I, too, will soon be free. I’m going back to Berlin. We can meet before you leave; I’ll take you to my hairdresser.” And in the end, it didn’t happen.
NARRATOR: The Great Patriotic War lasted four years. It ravaged the Soviet Union, costing it more than 20 million lives. Elena’s husband died in battle. Her daughter has grown up, and Elena now dreams of becoming a writer. But she is worried. She knows she knows something that the Kremlin leader has decided must remain a secret.
IOURI KAGAN (BROTHER OF ELENA RZHEVSKAYA): Those who had participated in the investigation into Hitler’s death were aware that they held a state secret, and they could confide in no one. At the time, Elena didn’t tell me, her father, or her mother, about it. We didn’t know her story.
NARRATOR: For their part, the British and Americans have not given up on uncovering the truth about Hitler’s mysterious disappearance, and they still hope to obtain Soviet assistance.
NICOLAY VLADIMIRTSEV (HISTORIAN AT THE RUSSIAN NATIONAL ARCHIVES): Here is a request for information sent by the Anglo-American Allies to the Soviet command in Berlin. Our generals have forwarded this letter to Molotov and Stalin and are requesting instructions. What information are they authorized to disclose, and may they cooperate with the Anglo-American investigation into Hitler’s death?
NARRATOR: The archives contain a draft of a positive response to this request sent by Beria to Molotov, but the Allies themselves never received anything.
NIKITA PETROV (HISTORIAN—ONG MEMORIAL): It is clear that the ultimate decision-maker was above Molotov and Beria. It was Stalin himself. If Stalin had decided to tell the Allies everything—even to show them or hand over the body—it would have been done. But Stalin decided that no information should be released.
NICOLAY VLADIMIRTSEV (HISTORIAN AT THE RUSSIAN NATIONAL ARCHIVES): Why was this collaboration refused? It is a question of high politics that should have been put to Stalin himself—and for which we will never find a clear and precise answer.
NARRATOR: The lie spread around the world and became fodder for the tabloid press. We see Hitler everywhere, in every corner of the globe, along with those nostalgic for the regime. Nazis are taking advantage of this to sow doubt. Hitler is not dead. He will return to save Greater Germany.
Of all the legends, there is one that particularly exasperates the British. The Soviets are now accusing the British of having facilitated Hitler’s escape and of keeping him hidden somewhere in their own occupation zone in order to use him one day against their Soviet ally.
To put an end to this insulting accusation, a young British historian, Hughes Trevor-Roper, is tasked with investigating Hitler’s fate. The Russians refuse to cooperate and deny all access to the Chancellery area under their control. But Trevor-Roper tracks down and interviews numerous witnesses to the final moments in the bunker in the Anglo-American prisoner-of-war camps. Within a few weeks, he was convinced. Hitler did indeed commit suicide shortly after noon on April 30, and his body was burned by his guards. His report was convincing, but he had no direct evidence—no body. This, therefore, is not enough to stop the ever-increasing and increasingly far-fetched rumors.
For years, the FBI receives thousands of reports of Hitler’s whereabouts from around the world, which it must verify and file away.
March 1953. It was a global shock. Stalin is dead. The leader of world communism, the bloodthirsty dictator, the victor of World War II, the ruthless tyrant, the leader both adored and hated—has disappeared. And no one knows what the future holds for the regime of terror that he managed to impose for nearly 30 years in the Soviet Union. On Red Square, Beria has the honor of delivering the eulogies—the head of the secret police who hopes to rise to the highest office, but who, before the end of the year, will be executed with a bullet to the back of the neck in a KGB basement. The disappearance of two of his main executioners, a few months apart, may mark the end of fear for the Soviet people—and for Elena, who still holds one of Stalin’s secrets.
IOURI KAGAN (BROTHER OF ELENA RZHEVSKAYA): After Stalin’s death, beginning in 1953, Elena broke free. She began to speak, telling us what had happened and how she had been involved in the events in Berlin in ’45. But she couldn’t prove anything.
NARRATOR: All the secrets of a criminal regime lie on those countless, completely inaccessible shelves. Ten years later, the truth about Hitler’s death remains hidden in archives that no one has the right to access and in the memories of only a handful of surviving witnesses.
LIOUBOV SUMM (GRANDDAUGHTER OF ELENA RZHEVSKAYA): Elena was able to publish a short story that ends with these words: “During those days in the bunker beneath the Chancellery, Hitler committed suicide.” So, I asked her—since it was no longer a secret—if it was okay to say that he had committed suicide. “Could you talk about it?” I asked. She said: “Yes, since the true cause of his death remained unknown, we were allowed to say that he had committed suicide by taking poison or shooting himself in the head. We could also make up a story that he escaped to Argentina, disguised as a woman.”
NARRATOR: In Moscow, in 1955, Elena was allowed to say and write that Hitler had committed suicide, but not more. But it was still impossible to recount the investigation, the identification of the remains, and even less so Stalin’s lie. Anyway, who would believe her? Where’s the evidence? Among the many versions of Hitler’s disappearance, the suicide theory is now the one favored by those in power, but not just any suicide.
RUDOLF PIKHOYA (HISTORIAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE ARCHIVES COMMITTEE): The idea that Hitler poisoned himself is much more interesting for propaganda purposes than if he had shot himself in the head. Suicide by gunshot is an act of courage, whereas taking poison is a sign of cowardice.
NARRATOR: There was the first lie told by Stalin himself. Hitler is alive and managed to escape. Then, a half-truth gradually took its place. Hitler ultimately committed suicide—but by poisoning himself like a coward.
RUDOLF PIKHOYA (HISTORIAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE ARCHIVES COMMITTEE): This legend would be repeated and regurgitated until it became completely impossible to dispel the lie.
NARRATOR: 1965, 20 years after the event, Brezhnev. For the first time since the end of the war, the Soviet leadership decided to commemorate the victory.
RUDOLF PIKHOYA (HISTORIAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE ARCHIVES COMMITTEE): When Leonid Brezhnev, a true war veteran, became head of state, little by little, a window began to open, allowing for the study of the history of the war. And it was at that moment that a small—though very limited.
IOURI KAGAN (BROTHER OF ELENA RZHEVSKAYA): The opportunity for publication also arose for researchers to mark the 20th anniversary of the end of the war. Can you believe it—20 years have already passed? So, in 1965, Elena decided to write a true historical work. How events unfolded, what the intelligence services managed to accomplish.
NARRATOR: Elena is now a respected writer. But the story of Hitler’s death—or rather, the story of the lie surrounding Hitler’s death—obsesses her, and she is determined to tell it at all costs. For her account to be irrefutable and to put an end to the legends, it must be based on the evidence hidden in the archives. After numerous requests, she finally obtained permission to enter the off-limits building—a strictly supervised visit for a very limited time. So, Elena frantically copied all the documents brought to her.
LIOUBOV SUMM (GRANDDAUGHTER OF ELENA RZHEVSKAYA): She filled five large notebooks. She wasn’t the one doing the research, and she didn’t know what was kept in those archives. There was no catalog, and she couldn’t wander through the shelves to choose what she wanted either. She had to remain seated at her desk, and an officer would bring her one file after another. What matters is the interest in the documents varied widely. One day, she opened a file containing a list of various trophies sent from Berlin to Moscow: Hitler’s coat, a paper doll recovered from the bunker. And on the list, among the objects, were the names of Käthe Heusermann and several other Germans. That’s how my grandmother learned that Kate had been sent to Moscow as an object.
NARRATOR: It was a huge shock. Elena suddenly found herself transported 20 years back in time to Berlin, in the interrogation room of the Soviet General Staff. Käthe Heusermann, Hitler’s dentist’s assistant, was the key witness who helped identify the monster’s remains. The cheerful young woman with whom Elena had bonded— Käthe—whom the Soviet secret service would not release.
INGEBORG HILLS (NIECE OF KÄTHE HEUSERMANN) READING FROM KÄTHE’S UNPUBLISHED MEMOIRS: “On July 29, 1945, at 6 a.m., I was transported by truck with seven other prisoners to the Berlin airport, and we boarded a cargo plane bound for Moscow. Upon arrival, we were immediately crammed into a salad bowl and taken to solitary confinement at the Lubyanka Prison. My cell was very small, seven paces long, and water was seeping from the black-painted walls.”
LIOUBOV SUMM (GRANDDAUGHTER OF ELENA RZHEVSKAYA): She does not understand how long they will keep her or why she has not been charged with any crime. She is completely baffled by her situation and the reason for her imprisonment.
INGEBORG HILLS (NIECE OF KÄTHE HEUSERMANN) READING FROM KÄTHE’S UNPUBLISHED MEMOIRS: “I remained in solitary confinement for six years, and in August ‘51, I was charged. I was accused of helping the bourgeois system prolong the war by participating in dental care of Hitler. During the sessions, I should have killed Hitler—for example, by smashing a water bottle over his head? And in doing so, I would have saved the world.”
NARRATOR: Six years of solitary confinement in KGB prisons. And then suddenly, in August 1951, an absurd accusation and a conviction without trial.
What happened was that one month earlier, Abakouov, the former head of SMERSH, who had become Minister of State Security and was Stalin’s protégé, fell abruptly from grace and was arrested.
NIKITA PETROV (HISTORIAN—ONG MEMORIAL): In 1951, when Abakouov was arrested, it was discovered that there were a number of Germans—witnesses to Hitler’s death—who were being held without even having arrest warrants issued. So, a list was drawn up, and Stalin was asked what should be done with them. The decision was to convict them; they were all sentenced to many years in prison— on trumped up political charges—that way, no one would say anything and everything would be in order.
INGEBORG HILLS (NIECE OF KÄTHE HEUSERMANN) READING FROM KÄTHE’S UNPUBLISHED MEMOIRS: “I was sentenced to 10 years in a maximum-security labor camp in Siberia. But they took into account the six and a half years I had already served. I signed my sentence. I was glad to be going to a camp with fellow sufferers and to escape from my stone tomb in Moscow.”
NARRATOR: In December 1951, Käthe left Moscow for Siberia in a cattle car. She was given back the small suitcase she’d packed in Berlin for her summer trip to Europe, when she’d planned to be away for a week. The journey lasted 14 days, and Käthe recounts that whenever a prisoner died of cold or hunger, the guards would open the train car door and throw the body into the snow.
LIOUBOV SUMM (GRANDDAUGHTER OF ELENA RZHEVSKAYA): Käthe writes that the work quota was very high. “I couldn’t meet it. At the time, I didn’t even weigh 40 kg. I was never able to meet that quota. And as punishment, I was deprived of part of my food rations. I wasn’t allowed anything in the morning or at night, only in the middle of the day. If I hadn’t had a good friend who worked hard and shared her rations with me, I would have starved to death.”
NIKITA PETROV (HISTORIAN—ONG MEMORIAL): Why were the witnesses to Hitler’s death kept in prison until 1955 or 1956? What was the dentist’s assistant guilty of—she was imprisoned and sentenced like so many others? Why were they arrested by the KGB? Why did they serve such long sentences?
LIOUBOV SUMM (GRANDDAUGHTER OF ELENA RZHEVSKAYA): Käthe Heusermann was convicted as a witness to Hitler’s death. She was imprisoned in the Soviet Union so that her testimony would not prevent this historical fact from being concealed. She suffered because of the service she rendered to history.
NARRATOR: First a secret prisoner, then convicted of a fabricated crime, she was detained until that day in 1955 when her 10-year sentence was fully served. Then her status suddenly changed.
INGEBORG HILLS (NIECE OF KÄTHE HEUSERMANN) READING FROM KÄTHE’S UNPUBLISHED MEMOIRS: “We arrived in Moscow on June 1 and were taken on a bus tour of the city. We were shown the Kremlin, the university, and particularly the metro, whose stations are all decorated in different artistic styles with mosaics, paintings, and marble.”
NIKITA PETROV (HISTORIAN—ONG MEMORIAL): The German prisoner of war sentenced to 25 years or a little less goes from being a prisoner of the Soviet Union to a foreign tourist; all of a sudden, he becomes a free man or woman waiting for the moment to return to his homeland—so why not give him a tour of Moscow so he can leave as a friend of the Soviet Union, and then he can say, “Here is the kindness of the communists.” “Yes, we threw you in prison for 10 years, but now you’re a friend—almost a brother.” “Go on leave!”
NARRATOR: Käthe returns to Germany by express train with a sleeper car, white sheets, and a lampshade all to yourself. In the Soviet Union, tourists are required to spend all their foreign currency before leaving the country along with their few rubles. So, the men in the convoy buy Crimean champagne in the dining car and leave the change as a tip for the waiters.
By 1950, nearly 2 million German prisoners had been repatriated from the Soviet Union. And by 1955, only a few thousand prisoners remained in Siberia. Käthe is among the very last.
Upon arriving in Hanover, she called her sister. Her 19-year-old niece answered the phone.
INGEBORG HILLS (NIECE OF KÄTHE HEUSERMANN): Yes, that’s right. Exactly. I was home alone, completely distraught. What should I do? What should I do? I have to go to the train station. I recognized her right away. She hadn’t changed that much. It was I, on the contrary, who must have grown up over all those years.
NARRATOR: For eight years, Käthe’s family knew nothing of what had happened to her. It was only two years earlier that a fellow camp inmate, who had just been released, was able to inform her brother and sister that she was alive and in Siberia. But the husband whose return she had awaited in Berlin in May ’45—he was the one who had grown tired of waiting. Käthe had been declared dead, and her husband had remarried.
INGEBORG HILLS (NIECE OF KÄTHE HEUSERMANN): She immediately adapted to her new life. Soon, she told us with great determination: “Well, that chapter of my life is over. Now I’m starting a new life. I’m not a woman whose husband is away. I am… I have no idea what I am.” It’s true—what are you when you’ve been declared dead? Dead. I don’t know what they’d call that.
NARRATOR: Elena’s book was published to mark the 20th anniversary of the end of the war. It wasn’t without its difficulties. It had to pass through a double layer of censorship: the usual, standard censorship that every book undergoes in the Soviet Union, and then a more exceptional form of censorship by the KGB. The security service didn’t make too much of a fuss but refused to let Elena write that she had been authorized to consult KGB archives. Her book is therefore still not a historical document based on archival evidence, but once again a work of fiction in which Elena is not allowed to mention secrets or lies either. So, we must wait another 25 years.
In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, and in front of the Lubyanka building, the statue of Dzerzhinsky—the founder of the GPU, the predecessor of the KGB—was dismantled.
Will we finally be able to learn and tell the truth about a country and a regime that no longer exist?
SERGEY MIRONENKO (HISTORIAN—FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE RUSSIAN STATE ARCHIVE): When I became director of the State Archives of our National Archives in 1992, there was a sort of handover of power. My predecessor handed me a cardboard box containing fragments of Hitler’s skull and the documents from the investigation into his death. It was only after the collapse of the Soviet Union that what has been called the “archives revolution” could begin. Millions—and I mean millions—of documents were declassified, and, in fact, they are now accessible to researchers.
NICOLAY VLADIMIRTSEV (HISTORIAN AT THE RUSSIAN NATIONAL ARCHIVES): Here are fragments of the sofa on which Hitler ended his life, bearing traces of his blood. These pieces were dismantled and brought here along with the investigation documents. They were seen only at the time of the investigation, then kept under wraps until 1992 in our national archives.
NARRATOR: So, there are the investigation files, pieces of physical evidence, and fragments of Hitler’s skull at the National Archives, while the KGB archives—now part of the FSB—secretly held some of the prisoners’ testimonies, including that of Käthe Heusermann, as well as the main piece of evidence: Hitler’s teeth.
But where are the bodies—the charred remains of Hitler, Eva Braun, and the Goebbels family?
NIKITA PETROV (HISTORIAN—ONG MEMORIAL): The remains were attached to the General Staff of the 3rd Army, stationed in eastern Germany. And they moved along with the regiment’s changing assignments. With each move, a new secret location had to be found to bury them.
NARRATOR: In 1970, Andropov, the head of the KGB, asked Brezhnov to put an end to these charred remains that had been following the 3rd Army for 25 years. The secret document detailing the destruction of the Nazi leaders’ bodies was discovered in the archives in 1992, bringing the matter to a close. 47 years later, all the evidence of Hitler’s suicide by gunshot in his bunker shortly after noon on April 30, 1945, has finally been gathered and revealed.
SERGEY MIRONENKO (HISTORIAN—FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE RUSSIAN STATE ARCHIVE): Nothing can be hidden. Everything eventually comes to light. Everyone should learn this lesson from history. Even the best-hidden truth eventually resurfaces.
NIKITA PETROV (HISTORIAN—ONG MEMORIAL): Those in power never thought it necessary to explain themselves to society. In the 1990s, Russian leaders said, ‘All right, all of that was hidden, but it was the Soviet Union that hid it.’ A general verdict should have been reached regarding the Soviet period and the Soviet regime as a power based on violence that violated its own laws, but this judgment on the past and on Soviet communist crimes was never handed down.
REFERENCES
Karner, Stefan. Im Archipel GUPVI: Kriegsgefangenschaft und Internierung in der Sowjetunion, 1941-1956. Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 1995.
Moorhouse, Roger. Berlin at War: Life and Death in Hitler’s Capital 1939-1945. Basic Books. New York, 2010.
Mort d’Hitler, l’histoire d’un secret d’État. Directors: Nina Beliaeva and Jean-Pierre Bozon, broadcast in 2016/2017 by RMC Découverte and Betula Productions.
Rzhevskaya, Elena. Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter: From the Battle of Rzhev to Hitler’s Bunker. Greenhill Books. London, 2018.