Were there EYE witnesses to Hitler's Death?

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FranzJ
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Were there EYE witnesses to Hitler's Death?

#1

Post by FranzJ » 08 Feb 2017, 03:00

These are 2 interesting news articles........

Former Pilot and Valet Tell How Hitler Died
The Canberra Times [ACT]
10 October 1955

HERLESHAUSEN [Germany]: Hitler's chief'personai pilot, Hans Baur said on return from Soviet captivity yesterday that he saw Hitler shoot himself dead.

"The Führer Iooked at me gravely, in the eyes, shook my hand, said 'goodbye' and shot himself," he said. Baur said Hitler's wife, Eva Braun committed suieide in his [Baur's] presence in a Bunker of the Reich Chancellery. . . However before Baur could tell further details, he was whisked off by Red Cross officials.

Thirty-one other former prisoners were in transport which brought Baur from the Soviet Union.

Baur said later:

"There is no doubt about it! Hitler is dead and Eva Braun died on the same day as he. I did not see their bodies afterwards and I do not know what happened to them".

There had been many conflicting reports about the drama in the Bunker, some saying Hitler and Braun were not married, others that they married almost at the last moment before their suicide. Some report's said Hitler and Braun took poison after a last minute marriage; Baur's acccount is the first eyewitness version.

Heinz Linge, Adolf Hitler's personal valet, today also declared the Führer to be dead says an "American Associated Press" report from Berlin.

"I carried his body out of the Bunker, and then helped pour Petrol over it;" he was quoted as saying. "I watched it burn for about five minutes".

Linge gave his version of Hitler's last' minutes after returning from the prisoner of wair camp in Russia. H6 said Hitler and his bride, Eva Braun, committed suicide in the Führer's air raid Bunker in the Chancellery garden in Berlin on 30 April 1945.

"They were alone in one of the Bunker rooms," Linge said. "Hitler shot himself, Eva Braun took poison".

Both bodies were liberally doused with Petrol. About 10 men, of them in the S.S. staff of the Bunker, watched as the bright blaze consumed the bodies.

Linge said he then fled with Martin Bormann, chief of the Chancellery staff. Linge' said Bormann entered a Tiger tank and tried to break through the ring of Russians who were closing on the centre of the city. "I don't think he made it. The last time I saw the tank was at the Weidendammer Bridge," said Linge.


Conflict In Stories Of Hitler's Death
Hans Baur, Hitler's chief personal pilot, said he saw the Nazi dictator and Eva Braun shoot themselves dead amid the blazing ruins of Berlin in April 1945. Heinz Linge, Hitler's personal valet, said: "Hitler shot himself, and Eva Braun took poison. They were alone in one of the Bunker rooms".
The Canberra Times [CT]
11 October 1955

BERLIN: Two men who were with Hitler to the last have given conflicting accounts of how the Führer and Eva Braun met their deaths in besieged Berlin.

Heinz Linge, Hitler's valet, told reporters yesterday that he threw a blanket over the Führer's body on 30 April 1945, and helped to burn it. Linge, who arrived in Berlin last night among a group of 116 ex-prisoriers, said he had tried to carry the body out of the Chancellery by himself but found it too heavy. The bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were then soaked with Petrol and burned.

Linge's revelations came less than 21 hours after Hans Baur, Hitler's' personal pilot, told reporters at the West German repatriation camp of Friedland that he saw Hitler and Eva Braun shoot themselves in the Chancellery air raid shelter.

"The Führer looked me gravely in the eyes, shook my hand and said 'goodbye,' and shot himself," Baur said.

"Braun shot herself at the same time," he added.

Baur also told reporters that Martin Bormann, Hitler's deputy, was killed trying to escape from beleaguered Berlin.

Baur is the first surviving witness to say he actually saw Hitler and Braun die.

Wordsworth
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Re: Were there EYE witnesses to Hitler's Death?

#2

Post by Wordsworth » 24 Feb 2017, 17:33

All others in the bunker agree that Hitler and Eva went into Hitler's quarters alone where Hitler shot himself.

Linge (and I believe Gunsche) went in afterward and described Hitler's injury and the strong smell of almond that reflected the poison Eva took, as well as the positions of their bodies. Rochus Misch also claimed to have gone in momentarily for a look, but must have seen them from a different angle because he and Linge apparently gave the Soviets slightly different information during their interrogations which led the Soviets to believe that Hitler was still alive.

I do not know of anyone else who went in to see the bodies, but the general consensus seems to be that no one saw Hitler shoot himself. Bauer isn't the most reliable source anyway. Per Misch's memoirs, Bauer was taken to the USSR ostensibly for convalescence after his leg was amputated. Misch had been helping him clean and bandage his wounds and was invited to come along as an attendant. Instead, they found themselves in prison. The Soviets didn't know Misch had been a bodyguard and a telephone operator in the bunker until Bauer, under torture, told them to ask his attendant because he knew more about Hitler's end than Bauer himself did. Then Misch got the royal treatment by the NKVD.

I would assume that, had Bauer been present when Hitler died, he would have sang like a canary to the NKVD while he was being tortured instead of throwing Rochus Misch under the bus.


FranzJ
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Joined: 28 Jul 2016, 18:28
Location: Toronto

Re: Were there EYE witnesses to Hitler's Death?

#3

Post by FranzJ » 02 Apr 2017, 21:36

Wordsworth wrote: ....
I do not know of anyone else who went in to see the bodies......
Hitler Youth Leader Artur Axmann recalls in "That Can't Be The End" standing in a room in the Bunker with Göbbels and Martin Borman, with Göbbels saying: "Was that a shot?"

"Otto Günsche came out and said: 'The Führer is dead. It was 15.30. With Göbbels and Bormann, I followed Günsche into Hitler's living room ... Later Otto Günsche told me Hitler had shot himself in the right temple ... Eva Hitler had poisoned herself.

Heinz Linge in "Until The End", recalls smelling gunpowder outside Hitler's room.

"I went into the room where a number of people were standing around Martin Bormann. I did not know what they were talking about. In any case, they did not know what had happened. I signalled to Bormann to come with me to Hitler's study. I opened the door and went in,'' writes Linge.

"Bormann followed me. He was chalk-white and stared helplessly and questioningly at me. On the sofa sat Adolf and Eva Hitler. Both were dead. Hitler had shot himself with the 7.65. The 7.65 and his 6.35 pistol, which he had in reserve should the larger weapon fail, lay near his feet on the ground."

In "The Last Days with Adolf Hitler", Hitler's driver, Erich Kempka, writes: "Bormann, Linge and me heard the shot and stormed into the room. Dr Stumpfegger came to examine the body. Göbbels and Axmann were called."

However, Lev Besymenski, the Soviet historian, writes Kempka, within a matter of days, changed his version of events: First he said Eva Braun had shot herself, then he spoke of poison: first he spoke of two shots in the room, then of one shot.

Despite claims made to the contrary during his interrogation, Kempka later admitted that when Hitler and Eva Braun locked themselves in a room to commit suicide, he lost his nerve and ran out of the Führerbunker, returning only after Hitler and Braun were dead. By the time he returned to the Bunker, Hitler and Braun's bodies were already being carried upstairs for cremation.

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