DECLASSIFIED Soviet Union documents claim that Adolf Hitler was shot dead by an SS officer after the Nazi leader ordered his own execution.
Bombshell documents revealing details about the Führer’s death have been released by the Russian FSB 80 years after Berlin fell.
Most experts believe that Hitler shot himself in the temple after swallowing cyanide.
However, statements and testimonies from Russian secret service archives present an extraordinary account that Hitler was actually shot dead in his bunker by his valet.
The documents suggest that Police Lieutenant-General Hans Rattenhuber testified that senior valet Heinz Linge fired a shot at the German leader’s head.
Linge was reportedly the first to enter the room after Hitler’s suicide, and helped carry and burn the corpse with Günsche and others.
Rattenhuber, head of the führer’s personal security, told Soviet officials: “Doubting the effectiveness of the poison due to the numerous injections which had been administered to him daily for a long time, Hitler ordered Linge to shoot him after taking the poison. Linge shot Hitler.”
Rattenhuber’s testimony made several rounds in the West during the Cold War era, but was suspected of being Soviet misinformation.
And it was completely contradicted by Linge’s own testimony to the Soviets, which speaks definitely of Hitler’s “suicide”.
Linge revealed a “deluded” Hitler killed himself partly because he was “afraid” of being “caught while trying to escape from Berlin”.
He fell into Soviet hands after the war, and his testimony was crucial to Stalin understanding Hitler final days as his Nazi regime collapsed.
Meanwhile, the declassified documents also include pictures of Hitler’s rotted teeth – showing evidence of his cyanide suicide – and the last known photograph of him.
A Russian archivist appeared on video going over Linge’s account, which even details the clothes Hitler and Eva Braun wore when they killed themselves.
He said: “Testimony about Hitler’s reasons for taking his own life – he believed it was utterly pointless to continue the fight.
“He was afraid of being caught while trying to escape from Berlin.
“There was also his severe physical condition, which was beyond doubt, as well as his delusions of grandeur, which would not allow him to bow to the victor or enter into negotiations with him.”
Morbid footage also showed Hitler’s teeth, which were used to identify him.
Intriguing new details, including how the Soviets pressured Otto Günsche – Hitler’s personal assistant – into opening up about Hitler’s death were also recalled
After the war, Günsche was flown to Moscow with other Hitler associates.
The documents show that a German POW and war criminal, Colonel Remlinger was put in a cell with him and instructed by the Soviet authorities to convince him to cooperate.
It was a cunning way of using Hitler’s suicide to turn the Nazi’s fanatical loyalty into cooperation by reinterpreting his “oath”.
Remlinger wrote a report that “we convinced him that the events in Germany—especially Hitler’s suicide—freed him from his oath to the Führer.
“Now, with the complete collapse of Germany and the Nazi system, there was no longer any reason to hide the events that unfolded in the Führer’s headquarters from the Russians—it was now only of historical interest.
“It became easier to persuade him when it emerged that some of Hitler’s close associates (Göring, Himmler) had abandoned him and turned to the Western powers.”
More documents reveal the examination of Hitler’s teeth to verify his corpse.
The FSB account reads: “On 5 May 1945, in the garden of the Reich Chancellery, SMERSH officers from the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army, 1st Belorussian Front, discovered the heavily charred corpses of a man and a woman in a bomb crater.”
“The bodies lay about 3 metres from the entrance to the bunker and were covered with soil.
“By 8 May 1945, a forensic report on the man’s corpse—presumably Hitler—was completed.”
How Brit and US spies hunted Hitler for TEN YEARS after WW2
By Henry Holloway, Deputy Foreign Editor
DECLASSIFIED documents show how the UK and US hunted for Adolf Hitler for 10 years after the end of World War 2 as they feared he was still alive.
Spy files held in the archives of the CIA and the FBI unearthed by The Sun Online show the stunning leads pursued with very real fear that Hitler escaped from his bunker in Berlin.
Historians now know the maniacal Nazi boss died when he shot himself as the allies bore down on Berlin during the final days of World War 2 in 1945.
But in the confusion as the map was carved up between the West and the Soviet Union – a massive probe by spooks from the US and UK was opened into the fate of Hitler.
Secret documents reveal investigations into claims Hitler had a body double, U-boat sightings in Argentina, and claims that Adolf was photographed alive in Colombia.
It is known some Nazis used hidden escape routes called “ratlines” to flee from Germany as the Third Reich collapsed, with some finding shelter in South America.
Various tips and reports were filed back to intelligence agencies about possible sightings of Hitler- with many being passed to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.
The hunt lasted at least ten years, with documents being dated as late as 1955.
The Sun Online can reveal some of the most stunning claims about the dictator from these fascinating formerly top secret files.
Read more about it here
