Hitler's death

:For fiction about Hitler's death see Hitler in popular culture

Later Russian disclosures

A book by Soviet journalist Lev Bezymensky on the SMERSH autopsy report was published in the west in 1968 but was associated with other disinformation attempts and considered untrustworthy.

Related Topics:
Lev Bezymensky - 1968 - Disinformation

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The KGB/FSB opened their files to the public in 1993, releasing records and statements by former KGB members. Drawing from these, historians reached a general consensus about what happened to the bodies of Hitler and Braun.

Related Topics:
KGB - FSB - 1993

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After the autopsy their remains were frequently buried and exhumed by SMERSH during the unit's relocation from Berlin to a new facility at 30-32 Klausnerstrasse in Magdeburg where they (along with the charred remains of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, his wife Magda and their six children) were permanently buried in an unmarked grave beneath a paved section of the front courtyard and the location was kept highly secret.

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By 1970 the SMERSH facility (now controlled by the KGB) was scheduled to be handed over to the East German government. Keen to destroy any possibility Hitler's burial site might become a Neo-Nazi shrine, KGB director Yuri Andropov authorised a special operation to destroy the remains. On April 4, 1970 a Soviet KGB team (who had been given detailed burial charts) exhumed the bodies and thoroughly burned them before dumping the ashes in the Elbe river.

Related Topics:
1970 - East German - Neo-Nazi - Yuri Andropov - April 4 - Elbe

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Hitler's skull fragment, which had disappeared, escaped destruction, as did a fragile fragment of his jaw. They were located in a basement of the Moscow Archives, and the skull was publicly displayed as part of an exhibition called The Agony of the Third Reich, however, Russian officials refuse to DNA test the fragments.

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