Hitler's death

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

Pistol or cyanide?

Recent debate has suggested the traces of cyanide found in Hitler's body came from medicines prescribed by his personal physician Theodore Morell and that the likely cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head. However, although Morell often prescribed unorthodox treatment including doses of arsenic and strychnine (in the form of nux vomica), there is no record cyanide compounds were ever included. Also, Sherovsky's autopsy report states shards of glass were found inside the mouth, which suggests a glass ampule (similar to those used by Himmler and Göring) had been bitten.

Related Topics:
Theodore Morell - Arsenic - Strychnine - Nux vomica - Himmler - Göring

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Journalist James O'Donnell, after extensive interviews with inhabitants of the bunker (including those unavailable for years due to Soviet detention), noted a consensus that shortly before his death, Hitler spoke with another doctor, Werner Haase, who gave him instructions on how to make the suicide successful, which included recommending a combination of cyanide and a gunshot to the temple. However, Haase died in Soviet captivity and O'Donnell relied on witness accounts.

Related Topics:
James O'Donnell - Werner Haase

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Moreover, O'Donnell learned that many of the witnesses who claimed to have heard a gunshot actually did not (the doors to the study were considered thick enough to muffle such a sound). Some witnesses told O'Donnell that during interrogations Allied officers encouraged them to confirm they heard a shot.

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It's often asserted attempts have been made to portray a more "honorable soldier's death" for Hitler by way of single gunshot, as opposed to a "coward's suicide" by poison. O'Donnell noted that such claims are based on ideology, not fact, and remarked such claimants should learn how to "give the devil his due."

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In 2005, Erna Flegel, who served as a nurse in the bunker, said Hitler was so paranoid he suspected spies had filled his cyanide capsules with something nontoxic. This provides a possible motive for him to have shot himself rather than relying on the cyanide http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4505415.stm, and why he killed his dog Blondie while testing a capsule. This reinforces O'Donnell's assertion Hitler was paranoid because the capsules were obtained through Heinrich Himmler, who Hitler believed had betrayed him.

Related Topics:
2005 - Nurse - Blondie - Heinrich Himmler

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Flegel was also quoted that year as saying, "There were a few people who then heard it and there were others who didn't. The Führer suddenly wasn't there any more. I knew that the Führer was dead. Suddenly there were more doctors in the bunker, including Professor Haase. I didn't see Hitler's body. It was taken up to the garden. The Führer had such an authority that when he was there you knew it. It felt so extraordinary."

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Could he have done both?

Another point of speculation has been whether Hitler was physically capable of shooting himself while biting a glass ampule of cyanide at the same time, since rapid and violent convulsions are often evident during cyanide poisoning.

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One theory suggests Hitler died after ingesting cyanide and his body was then shot by someone else to either make sure he was dead or make it appear the Führer had died a soldier's suicide by gunshot. Eva Braun is sometimes mentioned as the shooter. She had trained with a pistol during the preceding weeks (as did many German women in response to stories of widespread rape and murder by advancing Red Army soldiers) and was presumably one of the only people Hitler trusted at the end of his life. Other candidates would include Heinz Linge (Hitler's valet) and Martin Bormann, who were the first to enter the study. Most historians discount this possibility.

Related Topics:
Pistol - Martin Bormann

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O'Donnell also noted that Walter Hewel, like Hitler, was given instructions on the same dual suicide method (along with the same type of cyanide capsule). Hewel committed suicide on May 2 by a combination of the capsule and a gunshot wound to the head. O'Donnell cited Hewel's death as a cruel proof positive such a suicide was possible.

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Based on witness reports of a loud gunshot and Linge's account of finding the bodies, Hitler shot himself in the right temple and Braun took cyanide. There is significant evidence that to ensure self-destruction, Hitler bit into a glass ampule of cyanide as he pulled the trigger of his personal Walther PPK pistol.

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