Featured Image Credit: Keystone/Getty Images
Topics: History, World War 2, Russia
Brenna Cooper
Newly declassified documents from the Soviet Union have shed further light on the final moments of Adolf Hitler.
Losing the war and facing capture by advancing Soviet troops, the fascist dictator's time terrorising Europe came to an end on 30 April 1945 when he died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head in his Führerbunker. His death occurred just days before Berlin fell to advancing Soviet troops.
Nazi loyalists then burnt his body alongside his wife Eva Braun, who killed herself by biting a cyanide pill, before burying them close to the bunker.
Their bodies would later be exhumed by the Soviets and completely destroyed; a move which has proven to be controversial in the past couple of years, with the absence of remains prompting conspiracy theorists to claim the dictator had somehow survived the war and escaped to South America.
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Most recently, a 'photo' allegedly showing Hitler in Argentina in 1955 had been doing the rounds on the internet - although this has since been debunked.
In another blow to the conspiracy theory coffin, newly declassified documents from the Russian FSB (previously the KGB) have revealed further information on the final moments of Hitler's life.
The documents contained information from the interrogations of both Heinz Linge, SS Officer and Hitler's valet, and his adjutant Otto Günsche, both of whom were taken prisoner by the Red Army.
Shared via Russian language station Zvezda TV, an archivist recounted Linge's testimony, which included the reasons why the pair took their lives.
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"Testimony about Hitler's reasons for taking his own life - he believed it was utterly pointless to continue the fight," the archivist said.
"He was afraid of being caught while trying to escape from Berlin."
They also highlighted how the former German leader had 'delusions of grandeur' which meant he would be unlikely to 'enter into negotiations' with the victorious allied forces.
Linge also shared his first-hand account of Hitler's suicide, which included the claim that he'd been one of the first people to enter the room after the couple killed themselves, as well as details for the burning of their bodies.
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"Three canisters of petrol, prepared by Reichsleiter Martin Bormann for the cremation of the bodies of Hitler and his wife, were standing on the last landing leading from the bomb shelter into the garden of the Reich Chancellery," he wrote in his testimony.
"All the contents of the canisters were poured over the bodies of Hitler and his wife. Bormann pointed out the canisters to us and went down himself to get his own."
Linge then confirmed that it wasn't a 'double of Hitler' who died on 30 April, saying that 'Hitler did not have a double' as it was 'impossible to leave the premises without being seen'.
While both Linge and Günsche would later change their testimonies in the years leading up to their 1955 release, their accounts of Hitler's death can be corroborated through surviving fragments of the dictator's teeth.
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The remains, which include part of his teeth and jaw, were examined by forensic pathologist Philippe Charlier in 2017, who found the remains to be a match for a 1944 X-ray taken of Hitler.
There is also an autopsy report on the CIA website available to read, which should be enough to convince you that Hitler died by putting a bullet in his brain during the closing months of WWII.