When was hitler captured

However, the Red Army did keep a portion of the jaw and a piece of skull with a bullet wound, transferring them to the archives in Moscow. It may not have worked, but it was enough to spawn conspiracy theories, books and films like The Boys From Brazil , which kept alive the notion that Hitler somehow escaped the bunker and lived out his life elsewhere.

Jason Daley is a Madison, Wisconsin-based writer specializing in natural history, science, travel, and the environment. Post a Comment. Perhaps the official account is correct, and Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun did indeed end their own lives in the bunker.

After all, they had every reason to do so. Would Hitler, a man of limitless narcissism and vanity, who had staked his future on the dream of a German empire, really have wanted to flee and live in pathetic obscurity halfway across the world? Surely not.

Eyewitnesses in the bunker have testified that he was terrified of being captured alive and humiliated by the Soviets. He certainly wanted to avoid the fate of his fellow fascist Mussolini, who had been strung up and shot in public. Ailing, trembling, weak and disgusted by what he regarded as the betrayals of his own minions, Hitler would surely have preferred to end it all in the comfort of the bunker, rather than make a desperate, far-fetched dash for freedom across a war-torn Europe.

But what about the story of Peter Baumgart, who claimed to have flown the Nazi leader out of Berlin? Writer and historian Guy Walters, author of Hunting Evil, dismisses him entirely. As for the lack of bodies at the site, the most straightforward explanation is that Hitler and Eva Braun's corpses were doused with petrol and burnt for several hours.

While the skull fragment may not have been Hitler's, segments of jaw bones WERE found, and matched Hitler's dental records. I don't know which one you want to believe. What about the apparent stories of Hitler being spotted in Argentina?

According to testimonies, both swallowed cyanide pills and he shot himself in the head for good measure. Their remains were burnt in the Reich Chancellery garden outside the bunker. Many other high Nazi officials gave themselves up to authorities, so why did Hitler kill himself? All his reasons for committing suicide were known only to Hitler himself, but one can always speculate. They urged him to escape to the Bavarian Alps, to a small town in Berchtesgarden, but he chose suicide.