Chronicles the final days of Adolf Hitler’s life and an account of how he died. Uses information gathered from the Soviet intelligence operation codenamed “Operation Myth” which describes how his body was found and identified after his suicide. Alsore-enactments of interrogations and responses of Germans by Soviet Intelligence taken from transcripts. Adolf Hitler committed suicide by gunshot on 30 April 1945 in his Fuhrerbunker in Berlin. His wife Eva (nee Braun) committed suicide with him by ingesting cyanide. That afternoon, in accordance with Hitler’s prior instructions, their remains were carried up the stairs through the bunker’s emergency exit, doused in petrol and set alight in the Reich Chancellery garden outside the bunker. The Soviet archives record that their burnt remains were recovered and interred in successive locations until 1970 when they were again exhumed, cremated and the ashes scattered. Accounts differ as to the cause of death, one that he died by poison only and another that he died by a self-inflicted gunshot, while biting down on a cyanide capsule. Contemporary historians have rejected these accounts as being either Soviet propaganda or an attempted compromise in order to reconcile the different conclusions. One eye-witness recorded that the body showed signs of having been shot through the mouth, but this has been proven unlikely. There is also controversy regarding the authenticity of skull and jaw fragments which were recovered. In 2009, DNA tests were performed on a skull Soviet officials had long believed to be Hitler’s.
