Antony Beevor, who is in favor of the official theory of suicide, writes about an obscure episode that suggests the corpse of a second Hitler -also with mustache and transverse bangs- was found in the Bunker, which was discarded for wearing mended socks, something that seemed improper for the Führer.
On 2 May 1945, around 9 am,, the first Russian combat troops arrived at the Bunker complex unopposed. They were followed by the Russian search teams of SMERSH, equivalent of CIC of the Allieds.
SMERSH [acronym of Spetsyalnye MEtody Razoblacheniya SHpyonov or Special Methods of Spy Detection, but also referred to as SMERt‘ SHpionam; "Death to spies"] was an umbrella name for three independent counter-Intelligence agencies in the Red Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially founded on 14 April 1943.
The Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del [The People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs] abbreviated НКВД [NKVD] soldiers captured more than 50 officers and men who were still there in the Bunker complex, including Johannes Hentschel, the German-Danish master electro-mechanic for the Bunker complex, who since the field hospital in the Reich Chancellery above needed power and water, had opted to stay even after everyone else had either left or committed suicide during the night.
One search team found an old oak water tank which contained many dead bodies. They pulled out a particular body that resembled Hitler.
The dead man was one of Hitler’s doubles, named Gustav Weler. The Russians mistakenly believed the body to be that of Hitler because of his identical moustache and haircut.
The security personnel in the Bunker, responsible for Hitler’s safety, may have had Weler, a Doppelgänger or Body-double of Adolf Hitler, to camouflage and help Hitler escape, if Hitler decided to take part in a breakout. But, after Hitler’s death, they would have realized that any double if found would be an embarrassment, and therefore disposed of him by shooting in the forehead, in an attempt to confuse the Russian troops.
When Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Klimenko, the leader of one of the search teams, returned to the Bunker the next day, 3 May 1945, he found the body resembling Hitler, displayed prominently in the main hall of the Reich Chancellery. Ignoring the darned socks, worn by the dead man, Klimenko assumed the crucial problem of finding Hitler dead or alive had been solved.
On the following day, 4 May 1945, Ivan Dmitriyevich Churakov, a Russian soldier, climbed into a nearby bomb crater strewn with burned paper, and saw some partly burnt furry object. He called out to Lieutenant Colonel Alexej Alexandrowitsch Panassow, "There are legs here". They started to dig and pulled from the crater two dead dogs, and digging further they found the burnt bodies of a man and a woman.
At first Klimenko did not even think that the two burnt corpses might be that of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. Since he believed that Hitler’s corpse was already displayed prominently in the Chancellery and only needed to be positively identified, he therefore ordered the newly discovered burnt cadavers to be wrapped in blankets and reburied.
On 5 May 1945, Klimenko while pondering over the finding of the burnt bodies of a man and a woman from the crater rushed back and had the two bodies exhumed, and transported to Plötzensee Prison. There he was ordered to send them on to the 496th Field Hospital in Buch, a German locality within the Berlin borough of Pankow.
If a historical judgment were made on Hitler's fate, . As the basis of his alleged death there is only the declaration of a handful of fanatic Nazis....who told the same story. But there are no experts of the place of the suicide, since no elements related to his death were found.
There was no murder weapon, no bullets on the walls or ceiling, no corpses in Hitler's office. Except for a small pool of blood that could not be shown to belong to the German Chancellor. Nor is there a single testimony that Hitler was seen being shot. Or a photo of the corpses in the place of the suicide or burning in the supposed funeral pyre. Several corpses were found in the gardens, some burned, and a couple of them were attributed to Hitler. But in the forensic tests it was shown that none had the measurements or the physical characteristics of the Chancellor of the Third Reich.
After the war, Stalin wanted to try Hitler in Nuremberg, and in the American Senate a reward of a million dollars for his head was even offered. Germany, having no death certificate or corpse, declared him dead in 1956 on presumption of death.
So for Germany, Hitler was alive from 1945 to that date. During those years, Hitler had the legal status of a person alive, without conviction or prosecution against him. And also, no warrant.
Is Hitler in Hiding?
Army News [Darwin, NT]
4 September 1945
LONDON: Moscow "Pravda" says:
"Hitler is saving his skin by hiding in some form, thus keeping his name off the United Nations list of war criminals for the time being".
Hitler Branded War Criminal
Truth [Brisbane, Qld]
21 January 1945
LONDON: Hitler and the entire German Government are now listed as war criminals.
The semi-official Czech weekly "Czechoslovak" discloses that the Allied War Crimes' Commission so far has listed about 700 persons for trial as war criminals. They include Hitler, the German Government, all military leaders, 229, guards of Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps. The Czech delegation alone has suggested 400 names and many more are now under discussion.
Some Allied statesmen and lawyers maintain that some Nazis, as politicians, cannot be sentenced for war crimes. Others think that Hitler as head of a State, can claim certain immunity.
The episode mentioned by Beevor of the two bodies of Hitler found in the Bunker obviously suggests the theme of the Führer's doubles, never officially recognized as it would overthrow the acceptance of the official thesis".
Hitler's Refuge
The Northern Miner [Charters Towers, Qld]
4 September 1944
NEW YORK - Signs that Hitler and other high Nazi officials intend to seek refuge in Spain are reported by authoritative circles here, says the New York 'Herald Tribune's Washington correspondent.
These sources disclose tbat the German Embassy in Madrid is buying a large number of cots and mattresses which are expected to be occupied by distinguished visitors, who will arrive with little or no baggage after a hasty departure from a country not far distant from Spain.
The "Herald Tribune" points out that the reports appear to add significance to the US. Secretary for State, Cordell Hull's statement that the Allies are aware that Hitler may attempt to escape to a neutral country. Diplomatic circles predict that if the Nazis reach Madrid the Spanish Government will permit them to remain, thus creating a crisis between Spain and the Allies. Sanctions might then be enforced against the Franco regime, causing Spain to surrender the Nazis to the Allies.
Hitler Died In U-Boat, Says Bottle Message
The Sun [Sydney, NSW]
27 November 1946
LONDON — A bottle found on a beach 18 miles from Copenhagen [capital of Denmark] contains a message dated 10 November 1945, stating that Hitler did not did not die in an air-raid Bunker beneath his Chancellery in Berlin on 30 April 1945 [when the Russians were besieging the city, as testified to by the British Intelligence Service], but in a U-Boat while en route from Finland to Spain.
The newspaper "Beriingske Tidende," states that the note said that the submarine collided with a wreck near Gedser lighthouse. The note reads:
"These are the last lines of one of the survivors of the U-Boat 'Nauecilus' in which Hitler was hidden".
The "American Associated Press" reports that the letter was written on a page of the U-Boat's log book and signed Hans Routenburger. The "Reuters" correspondent says the bottle was washed ashore one hundred miles from Gedser lighthouse, which is the area in which the wreckage of a U-Boat was found.
In his 1947 book, "Speaking Frankly", James F. Byrnes recounted a conversation he had with Stalin at the Potsdam Conference on 17 July 1945:
“I asked the Generalissimo [Stalin] his views of how Hitler died. To my surprise, he said he believed that Hitler was alive and that it was possible he was then either in Spain or Argentina. Some ten days later I asked him if he had changed his views and he said he had not".
Robert Ley, the head of the German Labor Front since 1933, committed suicide while awaiting trial for war crimes at Nuremberg in October 1945. During his interrogation, however, Ley stated that when he last met Hitler in the Bunker during April, the Führer had told him to "Go south, and he would follow".
Albert Speer, Hitler’s armaments minister, said much the same about a meeting in the Bunker on Hitler’s birthday, 20 April:
"At that meeting, to the surprise of nearly everyone present, Hitler announced that he would stay in Berlin until the last minute, and then 'fly south'.
Those who argue that Hitler survived the Bunker have three difficulties. First, there is the problem that Hitler had again and again said he would commit suicide at the end. Second, there is the problem of how Hitler could have escaped from Berlin at that late hour with Soviet troops less than a kilometer away. And, third, the difficulty of how Hitler’s new location in the Alps or on the Pampas or on Franco’s private estate in Galicia was kept secret for so many years.
It is perhaps natural to believe that oppressive dictators will die in a similar way that they caused others to die – poetic justice is most satisfying. But strangely, we see it happening only with the second tier of dictators – those who only have national, not international aspirations. So Qaddafi died of bullet wounds, Sadam was hanged. The most important personages do not seem to die from violence or from legal proceedings. Stalin may have been poisoned by his doctor. Napoleon died on St. Helena. Ivan the Terrible, Oliver Cromwell and Mao seemed to have died naturally. So why would Hitler go against the grain?
His escape to Argentina or Antarctica may not be probable in his physically unhealthy condition.
One possible theory is that Hitler only put on his shaking and other illness symptoms near the end in 1945 so that his staff would get the impression that he was a hopeless physical wreck, totally incapable of escape, and in the event that they were captured [and most were] and the Russians asked: "Did Hitler escape?" they could explain that he was a "wreck" like they saw him so the Russians would not think that he escaped.....After all he was a master of deception.
Also, if he was that ill he was quick enough to jump on tables, jump up from chairs, and wave his arms around in the air while he shouted at the top of his lungs at his staff when he became angry about something. His shaking would suddenly stop!!
But he may have temporarily escaped to a secret Bunker in the southern mountainous region only he knew of in specific detail. He died there perhaps due to his untreated illnesses. Dental records would be that of his double.
Authority figures in Argentina were not alone. Irrefutable evidence points out that the US government had their eye on Argentina until the late 40s. The FBI, which had posts in Argentina and Washington DC at the time, wrote up reports on their sightings and the existence of Hitler in Argentina from 1945 until 1949.
In the event that Hitler did live on, the burning question still remains—whose charred bodies were actually found.
"Nobody could know but there were so many bodies in the area of the Bunker," Shalev commented.
"Even after carefully looking over the single still photo taken of what appears to be Hitler in the garden, it is hard to admit if it is really him or not.
"If they were taken before, this is a manipulation that even 70 years ago you would not need Photoshop in order to create something like this but it looks weird, it looks strange, it looks out of place," Shalev said about the way the moustache appeared on Hitler’s face.
"Russian soldiers snapping one photo of the body, then quickly burning it sounds odd, to say the least.
"This is one of the biggest achievements of the war and that’s it? Immediately burn the body and finish everything," Shalev commented and said in that situation, something was wrong.
Contends Hitler is Alive
The Courier-Mail [Brisbane, Qld]
4 August 1945
NEW YORK - Hitler is believed to be still alive by one of the few men who is able to identify him — Dr. Robert Kempner, a German criminologist, now an American citizen.
Kempner directed secret service officers who kept Hitler under observation before he attained power. He says that Hitler proved extraordinarily skillful at disappearing. Once he eluded observation for three months.
"What he did once he could do again", says Kempner. "There is no direct evidence that Hitler is dead. Followers who protest that he is dead had left Berlin before he allegedly perished. Their statements, therefore, are worthless as evidence. Even the most ordinary death is seldom without witnesses".
Kempner claims that he could easily identify Hitler's remains. Hitler's right ear, he says, was sharply pointed in a way that criminologists regarded as distinctively criminal. The right thumb was abnormally long, and the jaw distinguished by the recession of the teeth.
Dr. Robert M. W. Kempner, for five years, from 1928 to 1933, as legal advisor to the Prussian State Police the agency which, under the Nazis, was transformed into the Gestapo, knew Hitler as a political gangster.
"You see," he says, "I knew Hitler as a common felon. And felons don't die easily...I co-ordinated the work of a dozen secret agents who dogged Hitler's footsteps. Even so Hitler managed to give our men the slip when things got too hot for him. He went into hiding in Southern Germany. For three months he eluded every effort of our best men to learn his whereabouts. What he did then, he could do again. He and his organization were born in the Underground, and I have made it their special study. I see no evidence to convince me that Hitler is not living as he has lived before in hiding".
Dr. Kempner sees no credible evidence that Hitler died, as alleged, in the basement of his Reichschancellery:
"The only evidence consists of statements. Most of these come from members of his entourage who reveal, if their statements are read closely, that they left the scene while Berlin still had an airfield from which they could escape. They left, therefore, before it is claimed Hitler died. So their statements are worthless".
Then there are statements from the Russians that bones were found which "could be recognized as likely those of Hitler". This was contradicted later by statements that nothing had yet been established.
"Even the most ordinary death is seldom without witnesses. Yet are we to believe that the most conspicuous man in the world, who was never without a vast entourage, died unseen like some vagrant in a railroad yard? And that his body was wholly consumed by a hasty fire in a ditch? Have you ever seen how much fire it takes to consume a body to the last bone?"
Listing identifying marks, Dr. Kempner says Hitler, or his body, can be identified positively. He has records, made as a police official, which could settle the question quickly.
-- The Pittsburgh Press
3 August 1945
Renewed Search for Hitler
Morning Bulletin [Rockhampton, Qld]
23 October 1945
NEW YORK: The "Philadelphia Record" states that Dr Robert Kempner, a German-born lawyer, formerly adviser to the Prussian State police, is reported to have been sent to Germany to search for Hitler if he is alive, or identify his body if it is found.
Dr Kempner is one of the few anti-Nazis who has a detailed knowledge of Hitler's physical appearance, and even of the structure of his skeleton. He led a squad of secret agents who checked the Nazi leader's activities closely in 1928-33. He went to America in 1939 and recently arrived secretly at Nuremburg.
When he left Washington on the direct orders of White House. Dr Kempner was designated an expert consultant for the trials of war criminals, but his real mission, it is believed, is a direct search for Hitler under American auspices.
Dr Kempner previously stated that Hitler had certain physical characteristics he could never obliterate, including a sharply pointed right ear, an abnormally long right thumb, a jaw with a receding cheek, and an habitual stoop.
WASHINGTON [A.A.P.] 24 October 1945: The White House knows nothing of a report that a special U.S. agent had been sent to Europe. to search for Hitler. This was stated yesterday by an official spokesman after a report had been published that Dr. Robert Kempner, German-born lawyer, who was formerly adviser to the Prussian state police. had gone to Germany to search for Hitler. if he is still alive, of to identify his body, if it be found.
If Hitler actually did escape, the lack of communication at the time during the final days of the war could have been an advantage for him. The disorganized chaos which surrounded Berlin may have been the best chance for him to book it out of the country and enjoy the rest of his years in Argentina.
