For decades, the debate surrounding Adolf Hitler's death has not subsided. Even eighty years after the end of World War II, there are those who doubt whether the Führer really took his own life in the Berlin bunker. Could he have fled to South America, like so many of his subordinates? These doubts have long been fueled by the Soviet Union's silence regarding exactly what was found in May 1945 and where the remains of the 20th century's most infamous dictator ultimately ended up. Today, after the declassification of many archives, the picture has become clearer. The story of Hitler's remains is a detective novel featuring multiple reburials, a secret KGB operation, and a handful of artifacts that are still held in Russian archives. How the Soviet "SMERSH" Operatives Searched for HitlerOn April 30, 1945, as Soviet troops were storming the center of Berlin, Hitler took his own life in his bunker beneath the Reich Chancellery. Following the Führer's orders, his body, along with that of Eva Braun, was carried out into the garden, doused with gasoline, and set on fire. However, under the conditions of street fighting, the bodies could not be completely cremated. They were severely burned but did not turn to ash and were subsequently buried in a shell crater. On May 4, 1945, a Red Army soldier named Ivan Churakov accidentally noticed a piece of gray blanket sticking out of the ground. Beneath it were two severely burned bodies of a man and a woman, each with a bullet hole in their skulls. These were Hitler and Eva Braun. The remains were exhumed that same day and sent for forensic examination to the Berlin district of Buch. Teeth played the crucial role in the identification. SMERSH Colonel Vasily Gorbushin, who was tasked with finding and identifying the Führer's corpse, removed the upper and lower jaws with their distinctive dental prostheses. Together with translator Elena Rzhevskaya, he set out to find Hitler's dentists. They managed to track down Käthe Heusermann ... Читать далее