How did Hitler die? The fascinating counter-investigation of a forensic doctor

Sunday 15th December 2024 06:23 AM

By Soline Roy

Published
3 hours ago,
updated at 10:27 a.m

Fake stamp published by the American government and dropped on Austria and Germany in 1945, as part of the “Cornflakes” propaganda operation. The legend “Futsches Reich”, which means “Doomed Empire”, and the image of a cadaverous Hitler replace the words “Deutsches Reich” (“German Empire”) and the portrait of the chancellor on the real stamps.
Alamy Stock Photo / Abaca

NARRATIVE – Head of the medical-judicial unit at Valencienne hospital, Dr Éric Laurier sifts through the autopsies carried out in 1945 on the presumed bodies of Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun and the Goebbels family. And he uncovers many inconsistencies.

He is one of the most famous deaths in history, but also one of the most mysterious. Everything has been said and alleged about Adolf Hitler and the circumstances of his death. The USSR long denied having found his body in the rubble of Berlin, then claimed it without providing any truly solid proof. And she hid the autopsies carried out on the alleged remains of the Nazi dictator and those closest to him. By carefully reviewing these late-revealed elements, Dr Éric Laurier, forensic doctor in Valenciennes, embarked on a fascinating medico-legal counter-investigation. And it shows to what extent lies, errors, state secrets, military rivalries, propaganda and political manipulations immediately hindered the truth about the death of the Führer and those close to him…

As soon as Berlin fell in May 1945, the Allies launched a frantic search for the corpse of Adolf Hitler. First arrival at the bunker where the leader of Nazi Germany had been hiding for several months, the Army…