The Truth Of Adolph Hitlers Mysterious Death History Essay

Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP), also commonly known as the Nazi Party but an Austrian-born German politician. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and served as head of state from 1934 to 1945. After the experience from World War 1, in 1919, Hitler joined the precursor of the Nazi Party and in 1921, became the leader of NSDAP. He attempted a failed military attack known as the Beer Hall Putsch, which occurred in Munich on November 8-9, 1923. Hitler was imprisoned for 1 year due to the failed coup and in that period he wrote his memoir, Mein Kamph. On December 20, 1924, he was released and he gained support by promoting anti-semitism, anti-capitalism, and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and propaganda. On January 30, 1933, he was appointed as the chancellor and transformed the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich, a single-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideals of Nazism. Hitler wished to establish New Order of absolute Nazi German in Europe. He pursued a foreign policy with the declared goal of seizing Lebensraum (living space) for the Aryan people; directing the resources of the state towards this goal, to achieve it. This included the rearmament of Germany, which culminated in 1939 with the invasion Poland. UK and France declared war against Germany in its response and hence lead to the outbreak of World War 2 in Europe. Germany and the Axis powers had occupied most of Europe, within next 3 years and most of Northern Africa, East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean. With the reversal of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union; the Allies gained the upper hand from 1942 onwards. Allied armies had invaded German-held Europe from all sides by 1944. Nazi forces however did engage in numerous violent acts during the war, including the systematic murder of as many as 17 million civilians, including an estimated 6 million Jews targeted in the Holocaust and between 500,000 and 1,500,000 Roma, Poles, Soviet civilians, Soviet prisoners of war, people with disabilities, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and other political and religious opponents. During the Battle of Berlin in 1945, i.e, in the final days of the war, Hitler married his long-time mistress Eva Braun and, to avoid capture by Soviet forces less than 2 days later, the two committed suicide on 30 April 1945.

DEATH OF ADOLF HITLER:

Mystery surrounded the death of Adolf Hitler for many years.

Suicide:-

Slowly but surely, in the spring of 1945, the forces of the Red Army moved through Berlin. The German Army didn’t have the means to halt Marshall Zhukov’s troops as they were outnumbered 15 to 1 and the Red Army’s ability to call on mechanized armor seemed unlimited. Civilian and military casualties in Berlin were appalling; Regardless of this, Adolf Hitler clung to his belief that the German Army would defeat Zhukov’s 8 armies in Berlin. Aides watched as he spoke about grandiose German armored formations that would defeat Zhukov in Berlin. The Red Army in reality was up against exhausted troops effectively at the end of their fighting ability, Hitler Youth troops armed with the anti-tank weapon, the panzerfaust, and the male elderly who had been forced into a civilian’s militia which was expected to make a last stand. Any signs of surrender were dealt harshly by the SS. SS squads shot any householder in the Kurfürstendamm Boulevard who put a white flag outside of their house. Adolf Hitler was based in his bunker underneath the Reich Chancellery building. Bomb proof and with its own air recycling plant, the complex had been built without a proper communication system. The only way staff officers could know about the extent of the Red Army’s movement into Berlin was to phone civilians at random (if their phones worked) to ascertain if the Red Army was in their vicinity. Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, had brought his wife and six children to the apparent safety of the bunker. Major Freytag von Loringhoven, a staff officer at the bunker, described Fraulein Goebbels as “very ladylike” though he thought that the children looked sad. The Goebbels children were to be poisoned by their parents within the bunker, who, in turn, committed suicide. Hitler received a report that Himmler on 28th April, head of the SS, had been in touch with the Allies regarding surrender. Himmler had contacted Count Bernadette of the Swedish Red Cross. Adolf had always considered Himmler to be the most loyal of his men. When he received a Reuter’s confirmation of the report, it is believed that he exploded with rage. He accused an SS officer in the bunker, Herman Fegelein, of knowing about what Himmler had planned. Fegelein admitted that he had known about it and, stripped of all his rank and medals, he was marched by SS guards to the Reich Chancellery garden and shot. Around midnight on April 28th, Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun. The wedding service was held in Hitler’s private sitting room. A low ranking Nazi official who had the authority to perform a civil wedding was brought in by Goebbels. In keeping with Nazi requirements, the official had to ask both Hitler and Eva Braun whether they were of pure Aryan blood and whether they were free from hereditary illnesses. Joseph Goebbels and Martin Bormann signed the register. After the service, the newly married couple received the congratulations of generals and others in the bunker’s conference room. From here they went to Hitler’s sitting room for breakfast with champagne. They were joined by Joseph and Magda Goebbels, Bormann and by two secretaries; Gerda Christian and Traudl Junge. Hitler took Junge away to dictate his last political testament. It was full of recriminations on those who had betrayed him; the war being caused by international Jewish interests etc. Hitler claimed that, “in spite of all setbacks”; the wars “will one day go down in history as the most glorious and heroic manifestation of a people’s will to live.” Junge’s task finished at about 04.00 on Sunday, April 29th. On the night of April 29th, Hitler received news from Field Marshall Keitel that Berlin would receive no more troops and that the city would be lost to the Russians. General Weidling, given the task of defending Berlin, believed that his men would stop fighting that night due to their ammunition running out. Though there seems little doubt that Adolf Hitler had already decided that suicide was his only option, and also that of Eva Braun’s, it is probable that these two pieces of information moved that nearer. Hitler had also received confirmation that Mussolini had been caught in Italy, shot and his body, along with that of his mistress, Clara Pettachi, had been hung upside down in a square in Milan. Above all else, Adolf Hitler had decided that such humiliation would not happen to him as he ordered that his body should be burned. On April 30th, Hitler gave very clear instructions to his personal adjunct, Otto Gunsche, that both his and his wife’s body should be burned. After lunch, both Hitler and Eva Hitler (as she wanted to be called) met his inner circle in the ante-room chamber of the bunker. (Hitler’s Bunker).Here Hitler said his farewells. The area known as the lower bunker was cleared to allow for privacy. However, noise of partying in the Reich Chancellery canteen could be heard. SS guards were sent up to stop it. None of the bunker’s survivors heard the shot that killed Hitler. At 15.15 on April 30th, Bormann, Goebbels, Heinz Linge, and Hitler’s valet, Otto Gunshce and Artur Axmann, Head of the Hitler Youth, entered Hitler’s sitting room. Gunsche and Linge wrapped the body of Hitler in a blanket and carried it to the Reich Chancellery garden. Eva Braun’s body was also carried up and laid next to Hitler’s. Both bodies were laid near to the bunker’s exit. The bodies were drenched in petrol and set alight. Both Bormann and Goebbels watched this. Goebbels later committed suicide. Bormann disappeared and his body was never found, sparking off rumors that he managed somehow to flee to South America. On May 2nd, men from the Red Army’s intelligence unit entered the Reich Chancellery building. ‘Normal’ Red Army troops were told to leave the building. The men from the intelligence unit found the body of Goebbels and his wife. However, the men from SMERSH, the Red Army’s feared intelligence unit, knew that Stalin was interested in Hitler’s body and that he would not be happy if it was not found. The men from SMERSH, feared by other Red Army units, were themselves concerned. The unit of SMERSH men at the Chancellery building was led by General Vadis. It is his report that has given historians so much information as to what happened in the immediate aftermath of Hitler’s suicide. Moscow had declared that the announcement of Hitler’s death was a trick. Finding his body had now become a major political issue as well. Vadis interrogated as many of the bunker’s survivors as he could and they all said the same – Hitler had committed suicide. The bunker itself was searched – a difficult task as the generator providing light had failed. But nothing was found. Stalin then ordered Beria, the head of the secret police, the NKVD, to send a NKVD general to Berlin. He had to report back to Moscow on a very regular basis. On May 3rd, the bodies of the six Goebbels children were found in their bunk beds. Their faces were tinged with blue – a sign that cyanide had been used on them. Vice-Admiral Voss of the German Navy identified them. On the same day, the body of a man was found in the Chancellery garden. The body had a small moustache and diagonally combed hair. However, he also had on darned socks and SMERSH decided that Adolf Hitler would never wear darned socks so concluded that the body was not Hitler’s. How the body got there remains a mystery. On May 4th, the bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were found in the Reich Chancellery garden. A SMERSH operative saw part of a grey blanket at the bottom of a shell crater. The crater was dug into and two bodies were found along with the bodies of a German Alsatian and a puppy.

LAST WISH OF HITLER

I myself and my wife – in order to escape the disgrace of deposition or capitulation – choose death. It is our wish to be burnt immediately on the spot where I have carried out the greatest part of my daily work in the course of a twelve years’ service to my people.

Given in Berlin, 29th April 1945, 4:00 A.M.

[Signed] A. Hitler

Very early on May 5th, the bodies were taken to Buch in northeast Berlin, where SMERSH had its headquarters. Such was the secrecy surrounding this, that not even Zhukov was informed about the discovery. Dental records and thorough dental checks proved to Vadis that the body was that of Adolf Hitler. On May 7th, Moscow was informed that Hitler’s body had been found. From that time on, it was kept under the greatest of secrecy. In 1970, the Kremlin decided to dispose of the body. They claim that it was buried beneath an army parade ground in Magdeburg. SMERSH had kept the jaws of Hitler, used in their dental checks. This was confirmed by Yelena Rzhevskaya who was the interpreter used by SMERSH when Hitler’s dental staff were questioned at Buch. The NKVD had kept Hitler’s cranium. Both of these have been found in Moscow’s archives in recent years. In the mid-1990’s, the Russian authorities claim that they exhumed the body of Hitler from the parade ground in Magdeburg, burned it and then flushed the ashes into the town’s sewage system. 

Health Issues (Another reason of DEATH):-

Hitler’s health has long been the subject of debate. He has variously been said to have had irritable bowel syndrome, skin lesions, irregular heartbeat, Parkinson’s disease, syphilis, Asperser syndrome and a strongly suggested addiction to methamphetamine. He had problems with his teeth and his personal dentist Hugo Blaschke stated that he fitted a large dental bridge to his upper jaw in 1933 and that on 10 November 1944 he carried out surgery to cut off part of the left rear section of the bridge that was causing an infection of his gums. He was also suffering from a sinus infection.

Syphilis:-

Hitler’s tremors and irregular heartbeat during the last years of his life could have been symptoms of tertiary (late stage) syphilis, which would mean he had a syphilis infection for many years. Along with another doctor, Theodor Morell diagnosed the symptoms as such by early 1945 in a joint report to SS head Heinrich Himmler. Some historians have cited Hitler’s preoccupation with syphilis across 14 pages of Mein Kampf, where he called it a “Jewish disease”; leading to speculation he may have had the disease himself. His possible discovery in 1908 that he had the disease may have been responsible for his demeanor; while his life course may have been influenced by his anger at being a syphilitic, as well as his belief that he had acquired the disease from undesirable societal elements which he intended to eliminate. Historians have speculated he may have caught the affliction from a German prostitute at a time when the disease was not yet treatable by modern antibiotics, which would also explain his avoidance of normal sexual relations with women. However, syphilis had become curable in 1910 with Dr. Paul Ehrlich’s introduction of the drug Salvarsan.

Monorchism:-

It has been alleged that Hitler had monorchism, the medical condition of having only one testicle. Hitler’s personal doctor, Johan Jambor, supposedly described the dictator’s condition to a priest who later wrote down what he had been told in a document which was uncovered in 2008, 23 years after the doctor’s death. Bezymensky later admitted that the claim was falsified. Hitler was routinely examined by many doctors throughout his childhood, military service and later political career, and no clinical mention of any such condition has ever been discovered. Records do show he was wounded in 1916 during the Battle of the Somme, and some sources describe his injury as a wound to the groin.

Parkinson’s disease:-

It has also been speculated Hitler had Parkinson’s disease. Newsreels of Hitler show he had tremors in his hand and a shuffling walk (also a symptom of tertiary syphilis) which began before the war and continued to worsen until the end of his life. Morell treated Hitler with a drug agent that was commonly used in 1945, although Morell is viewed as an unreliable doctor by most historians and any diagnoses he may have made are subject to doubt. A more reliable doctor, Ernst-Günther Schenck, who worked at an emergency casualty station in the Reich Chancellery during April 1945, also claimed Hitler might have Parkinson’s disease. However, Schenck only saw Hitler briefly on two occasions and, by his own admission, was extremely exhausted and dazed during these meetings (at the time, he had been in surgery for numerous days without much sleep). Also, some of Schenck’s opinions were based on hearsay from Dr. Haase.

Other complaints:-

From the 1930s he suffered from stomach pains, in 1936 a non cancerous polyp was removed from his throat and he developed eczema on his legs. He suffered ruptured eardrums as a result of the July 20 plot bomb blast in 1944 and 200 wood splinters had to be removed from his legs, but he was otherwise uninjured. Some doctors dismiss Hitler’s ailments as hypochondria, pointing out the apparently drastic decline of Hitler’s health as Germany began losing World War II.

Mental health:-

Hitler’s mental health is a minefield of theories, speculation and conjecture. This topic is very controversial, as many believe that if a psychological cause can be found for Hitler’s behavior, there would be more reasoning behind his actions. Hitler suffered from borderline personality disorder, which manifested its symptoms in numerous ways and would imply Hitler was in full control of himself and his actions. Others have proposed Hitler may have been schizophrenic based on claims that he was hallucinating and delusional during his last year of life. Others believe that Hitler had a mental disorder and was neither schizophrenic nor bipolar, but rather met the criteria for both disorders, and was therefore most likely a schizoaffective. If true, this might be explained by a series of brief reactive psychoses in a narcissistic personality which could not withstand being confronted with reality (in this case, that he was not the “savior of Germany” he envisioned himself to be, as his plans and early achievements collapsed about him). In addition, his regular methamphetamine use and possible sleep deprivation in the last period of his life must be factored into any speculation as to the cause of his possible psychotic symptoms, as these two activities are known to trigger psychotic reactions in some individuals. Hitler never visited a psychiatrist, and under current methodology, any such diagnosis is speculation.

My Views: –

I too think that Hitler must have died because he committed suicide. As the reasons and explanation is apt according to, as above mentioned.