4. How and where did Adolf Hitler die?
In 2009 DNA tests on a bone fragment which had been held by the Soviets and later the Russian government since 1945, alleged to be from Hitler, revealed that it was actually from a woman no more than forty years of age. The Soviets claimed near the end of the war to have recovered the partially cremated remains of Hitler and his consort Eva Braun, though shortly after the war Stalin informed American President Harry Truman that it was his personal belief that Hitler had escaped. Within a few months, as the Soviets clamped down on the territory which their armies had overrun, they were claiming that Hitler was being sheltered by the Allies. The absence of a body, the claims of the Soviets, and the evident escape of many senior Nazis, along with looted treasure, led to the theories that Hitler had in fact survived the war and made good his escape.
According to official accounts Hitler learned of the fate of Mussolini on April 29, 1945. Fearing a similar end for himself and Eva Braun, he planned his own suicide the following day. His body and that of Eva Braun were then burned in the chancellery garden. The Soviets claimed to have found the bodies, partially burned, on May 4 and later announced that they had been identified by dental records. In the 1970s all official records of the Soviet investigation and autopsy were destroyed by the order of Yuri Andropov. Through the secrecy and dissembling of the Soviets, the belief that Adolf Hitler survived and escaped to South America via Spain, the Azores, or the Italian ratlines arose, and has remained ever since a favorite among conspiracy theorists. The only witnesses to the Fuhrer’s death were those who were most loyal to him in life, and their descriptions of the event contained discrepancies which have never been resolved. The truth is, nobody knows with certainty how, when, and where Adolf Hitler died.