Hunting Hitler Part VIII: The Search Ends, September-November 1945

Today’s post was written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Archivist at the National Archives at College Park. This concludes the 8-part series on Hunting Hitler.

The person Brigadier Dick White, head of counter-intelligence in the British Zone, would turn to in September 1945 to sort out the details of Hitler’s death was Hugh Trevor-Roper.  Born January 15, 1914, Trevor-Roper graduated Christ Church College at Oxford in 1936 and in 1939, as a research fellow at Merton College, he qualified for the M.A. degree. His first book was Archbishop Laud, 1573-1645 (1940), a biography of the archbishop of Canterbury and adviser to King Charles I. Once the war started Trevor-Roper joined the military service and would find himself in intelligence work dealing with Germany, and would be employed in various organizations, including the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), working in signals intelligence.[1]  It was in 1945 he would find a new challenge, when the Allies decided to establish a joint Counter-Intelligence War Room in London, under the auspices of SHAEF, to collect, collate and analyze counter-intelligence material, and to advise staffs in the field on all aspects of enemy clandestine activity. Under the direction of Lt. Col. Thomas Argyll (“Tar”) Robertson, its staff consisted of experts from MI6, MI5, and the Office of Strategic Services. Trevor-Roper was appointed to run the research side of this new body, which became active on March 1, 1945.[2]  In this position he often interrogated German prisoners himself, flying back and forth to liberated France and occupied Germany for this purpose.[3] In April the War Room research department produced a manual for counter-intelligence officers in the field after victory, entitled The German Intelligence Service.[4] Dick White was impressed by what he read. It was this report, he said many years afterwards, that persuaded him to ask Trevor-Roper to undertake an investigation of the utmost importance.  With the war ended, on June 20 Trevor-Roper was appointed to a research lectureship at Christ Church. He applied for early demobilization from the Army and meanwhile continued his War Room work before taking his new post.[5]

In early September Trevor-Roper paid a visit to Bad Oeynhausen, near Hanover, the location of the headquarters of the British Army of the Rhine (formerly the 21st Army Group).  There he stayed with Dick White and spent time with Maj. Peter Ramsbotham, a graduate of Magdalen who had gone into the Intelligence Corps after leaving Oxford.  One evening while Trevor-Roper was having drinks with White and Herbert Hart (another MI5 member), the three of them began to discuss the issue of the moment: what had happened to Hitler?  This question remained open. The circumstances of Hitler’s last days were mysterious; it was still uncertain whether he was alive or dead. Trevor-Roper outlined for White and Hart what he had discovered about Hitler’s last days from captured German officers, giving an account of a shoot-out in the Berlin Tiergarten which he later realized was complete fantasy. White asked Trevor-Roper if he would undertake a systematic study of the evidence surrounding the fate of Hitler. He would be given all necessary facilities to carry out his inquiry, and have the authority of a major-general to interrogate prisoners, to call on the services of the occupying forces, and to pursue the evidence wherever it led. The Russians would have to be informed, though he could expect little cooperation from them. But the Americans would help, and so, in theory, would the French. Trevor-Roper accepted the offer without hesitation.  According to Trevor-Roper’s biographer:  “Here was a unique opportunity for a young historian: to investigate one of the most dramatic stories in the history of the world, while the trail was still fresh. How could he refuse?”[6]

On September 10 White requested Trevor-Roper’s release from “Tar” Robertson. After outlining the problem, he proposed a solution. “The man who has kept the closest tabs on the matter appears to be Trevor-Roper” he wrote. “I believe that a job like this, unless it is done now, will never get done and unless it is done by a first-clap chap, won’t be worth having.” As well as being useful in calming relations with the Russians, White believed that the inquiry should be “a work of considerable historical interest.” Trevor-Roper flew back to England for a talk with Robertson. “I agree with you entirely that the idea of clearing up this business about Hitler is essential and that it should be done now” Robertson replied to White on September 19.[7]

Withdrawing his application for early demobilization, Trevor-Roper returned to Germany in mid-September to begin his inquiry. He was already familiar with much of the background. As a member of the War Room he had been on the circulation list for transcripts of interrogations or bugging of German prisoners, and he had access to a mass of captured documents, including the papers of the Doenitz government in Flensburg.  On August 20 the British reported that captured cables mentioned Doenitz as successor, but whether he was appointed by a “Testament of Hitler” (of which Bormann and Goebbels were mentioned) or not, could hardly be decided, it was believed, before such a document was found.[8]

Trevor-Roper planned to trace a sufficient number of key witnesses and confine his questions to the essential fact of Hitler’s death.  He planned to be able to accumulate enough evidence to establish beyond doubt what had happened.  Trying to locate individuals in the chaos of defeated Germany would not be an easy task.  While most of the surviving senior figures were in custody in one or other of the Allied Zones, many of those being sought had gone underground, fearing a charge of war crimes. Additionally some of the prisoners had not been identified, and the significance of others had yet to be recognized.[9]

Early on he traveled to Berlin.  There he visited the bunker and sketched out a plan of the interior.  Gradually he deduced the function of each room, a layout that would be a crucial aid to his interrogations. A British officer had picked up and subsequently handed to Trevor-Roper a copy of Hitler’s engagement diary, which recorded his appointments, hour by hour, which would provide valuable background material. Trevor-Roper would return to Berlin several times exploring the bunker and its immediate surroundings.[10]

Trevor-Roper decided to concentrate his search on the period between April 22, when Hitler had ordered much of his staff to leave Berlin, and May 2, when the Russians had taken Berlin. Trevor-Roper would focus on finding survivors who could provide eyewitness testimony for those ten days.  Besides those who had remained behind in the bunker after the exodus on April 22, he also sought out those known to have visited the bunker during the last days, such as Albert Speer.[11]

Trevor-Roper spent much of the later part of September driving by jeep to interrogate potential witnesses in the British Zone of Occupation.  Sometimes he was driven by a young soldier, though often he was completely alone.   In general his witnesses, once confronted, spoke freely.[12]

At the end of September, Trevor-Roper was ready to venture into the American Zone of Occupation.  He knew that those of Hitler’s entourage who had left on April 22 had flown to Obersalzberg, where they were now in the custody of the Americans. On October 1 Major Peter Ramsbotham called an American intelligence officer and told him that Major Trevor-Roper from Counter Intelligence War Room, London, was in Germany on a special inquiry for Brigadier White regarding Hitler’s death and that he had to make inquiries at a couple of places in the American Zone.  He said that Trevor-Roper would begin his search in the American Zone on October 2 and that White had asked Lt. Andrews (Special Counterintelligence Officer) to escort Trevor-Roper during the next three or four days. Ramsbotham said they would have to go to Innsbruck and other places.[13]  Trevor-Roper did indeed visit Innsbruck, no doubt to double-check the story that Hitler was there.[14]

By questioning those of Hitler’s entourage who had left on April 22, Trevor-Roper was soon able to discover the names of colleagues who had been left behind after the exodus – enabling him to draw up a fairly complete list of those who had stayed in Berlin.  He circulated thirty-three names of potential witnesses to prisoner of war camps in all the Allied zones, asking to be notified if any of these individuals were being held. Neither the Russians nor the French ever replied; the Americans, on the other hand, proved cooperative. In Trevor-Roper’s absence, Ramsbotham coordinated the search in the British Zone, and was soon able to report that several of the witnesses on the list were in captivity and available for interrogation. As for those who had evaded capture, Trevor-Roper reasoned that they were most likely to have sought refuge in or near their old homes, or with close relatives, so he made enquires with the British Field Security Police or the American Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC) in the relevant districts. In this way further individuals on his list were located.[15] Useful to Trevor-Roper’s investigation was the four-volume dossier on Hitler compiled by the CIC.[16]

While Trevor-Roper was conducting his investigation, during early October, Hitler-sightings continued to find their way into the news media.[17]

General Eisenhower certainly did not help matters regarding Hitler still being alive, when on October 6, it was reported by the Netherlands radio that he had told Dutch newspaper men that there was “reason to believe” that Hitler was still alive. The broadcast, recorded by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in London, said that one of the correspondents accompanying Eisenhower on a visit to The Hague had asked Eisenhower if he thought Hitler was dead.[18] The Associated Press (AP) in London on October 7 reported Eisenhower’s remark that there is “reason to believe” that Hitler may still be alive, reversed his previous opinion that Hitler was dead.[19]  According to The Times on October 8, Eisenhower had said to foreign journalists during a visit to the Netherlands: “Even though I initially believed that Hitler was dead, there are now reasons to assume that he is still alive.”[20]

In an editorial published on October 8 in the London newspaper, News Chronicle, commenting on Eisenhower’s remark that Hitler may still be alive, Gallman observed:

General Eisenhower’s remark that Hitler may still be alive is disturbing. It is certain there are still elements in Germany which would be only too glad to gather clandestinely round their old leader or-if that is not possible-at least to keep alive a Hitler myth. Nothing could do more to retard Germany’s return to normality than the belief that the Fuehrer is still in the land of the living.  It would have been better if the general had said less, or said more. If there is just a faint doubt, then the less it is publicized the sooner it will be forgotten. If on the other there are solid grounds for believing that Hitler is not dead, we should be told more about them. It is a matter in which everyone is interested and the public would like to hear at least such of the evidence as will not hamper the hunt.[21]

On October 8 the American Military Attaché in London sent a cable to United States Forces, European Theater (USFET) indicating that the British War Office had requested information as to whether press reports quoting Eisenhower’s statement was based on any recent information gathered by American agencies. The military attaché cabled again on October 11, reporting that the bulk of British press on October 7 published prominently the statement reportedly made by Eisenhower to Dutch journalists at The Hague on October 6 to effect that he has reason to believe Hitler was still alive. He also reported the story was broadcast by Hilversum radio [Dutch radio station in Hilversum] and also by the BBC. The Attaché requested directions, asking whether he should deny to the War Office that Eisenhower even discussed the mater or shall he say Dutch must have misunderstood.  USFET responded three days later, stating that Eisenhower spoke with representatives of Dutch Press aboard his train during his visit to The Hague. In this purely informal conversation the newsmen brought up question as to whether or not the General thought Hitler was dead or still alive. There was no speech or official statement made. Col. Edward R. Lee, the General’s aid, was present on this occasion and states, “General Eisenhower never said Hitler was alive; he merely said he could not prove he was dead.”[22]

At Frankfurt on October 12 Eisenhower, explaining the alleged remarks he had made to a Dutch newspaper, denied that he had ever said that Hitler was alive but agreed with Lt. Gen. Walter B. Smith, his Chief of Staff, who declared that “‘no human being can say he [Hitler] is conclusively dead.” Eisenhower said what he had said was that “‘There is every presumption that Hitler is dead but not a bit of positive proof that he is dead.’” He added that the Russians had been unable to unearth “one single bit” of tangible evidence of Hitler’s death.[23]

Meanwhile, on October 9 an American newspaper at Frankfurt reported “The question whether Adolf Hitler is dead or alive may be answered by the testimony of Hanna Reitsch…who was in a Berlin bomb shelter with him a few hours before the Russians captured it.” They reported that she had been arrested that day and was being interrogated.[24]  Reitsch, a famous German test pilot, told an interrogator in early October that the tactical situation and Hitler’s own physical conditions made any thoughts of his escape inconceivable.[25] She dismissed the possibility that Hitler could have survived as “absurd.” She said “Hitler is dead! The man I saw in the shelter could not have lived. He had no reason to live and the tragedy was that he knew it well, knew it perhaps better than anyone else did.”[26]

Major Edward L. Saxe, an American intelligence officer, wrote to the Chief of Counter-Intelligence on October 9, that a detailed investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Hitler had been conducted by Major Trevor-Roper, acting on behalf of the Counter Intelligence War Room and British Army of the Rhine and assisted by American Intelligence. He noted that the investigation, which has been underway for three weeks, had included examination of practically all evidence available in the American, British, and French Zones of Occupation.

The investigation as a whole, Saxe wrote, was not yet considered to be complete owing to the difficulties involved in locating all available witnesses. A careful cross examination of several material witnesses has, however, he wrote, sufficiently established the following facts:

Hitler definitely decided on April 22 not to leave Berlin, but to stay and, if the city fell, to die there. In the latter event, his body was to be destroyed and plans for the complete destruction of his body were made.

That on the night of April 29 Hitler decided to commit suicide on April 30. He took leave of his servants at 230am on April 30 and preparations for the destruction of his body and that of Eva Braun were made on the morning of April 30.

That on April 30 at 230pm Hitler took leave of his personal staff in the bunker and almost immediately afterwards shot himself while in his private room. Eva Braun committed suicide at the same time, probably by poisoning.

That the bodies were then carried out of the bunker and burned, as arranged, in the garden.

Saxe discussed the witnesses so far examined and noted the witnesses who could help complete the investigation.   He added that “the disposal of the bodies after burning has not yet been indicated by any evidence as complete as that on which the above statements are made and the bodies themselves have not, of course, been identified.”  Summing up his memorandum, Saxe wrote that “It is to be noted that certain alternative stories which have gained currency since the fall of Berlin have been examined and have been found to rest on no valid evidence.”[27]

On October 15 the Military Intelligence Service Center, Headquarters, United States Forces European Theater published the first of a series of consolidated interrogation reports dealing with Hitler, as seen by his doctors. It was based on information obtained from doctors who examined and treated him during the past year.  The report indicated that it was being published in order to provide medical data useful for the identification of Hitler or his remains; further material for debunking numerous “Hitler Myths,” as well as for other purposes. When the second of the series was published on November 29 the same reasons for its publication were given.[28]

In the House of Commons in London, on October 15, Hector McNeil, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs told a questioner that “The Government has no evidence proving conclusively either that Hitler is dead or is alive.” He added that investigations were continuing.[29]

telegram sent to the Secretary of State regarding Hitler's death
Telegram from Gallman to the Secretary of State, 10/16/1945

By the end of October Trevor-Roper had finished his investigation and it was now time to make the findings known. The press crowded into the Hotel-am-Zoo, the British press headquarters in Berlin’s Kurfuerstendamm, on November 1 to hear what he had to say. A handout based on Trevor-Roper’s findings “The Last Days of Hitler and Eva Braun” was distributed to the press and Trevor-Roper presented a summary to the assembled journalists. The summary began:

“Available evidence sifted by British intelligence and based largely on eyewitness’ accounts shows-as conclusively as possible without bodies-that Hitler and Eva Braun died shortly after 2:30 on April 30, 1945, in a bunker of the Reich Chancellery, their bodies being burned just outside the bunker.”

Asked by one of the newspapermen if he was aware of the Russian view on Hitler’s death, Trevor-Roper indicated that he thought the Soviets were skeptical-that is, inclined to the view that Hitler was not dead. Trevor-Roper also dismissed the possibility that it was Hitler’s double who had been burned. Finally, he conceded that there was no “conclusive proof” that Bormann was dead.   The press conference was reported extensively in the world’s newspapers. The New York Times ran the complete text of Trevor-Roper’s statement that had been handed out.[30]

Nine days later Trevor-Roper submitted his report, “The Death of Hitler,” to the Quadripartite Intelligence Committee. It concluded that Hitler had committed suicide by shooting himself and Eva Braun on April 30, and that their bodies had subsequently been burnt. Goebbels had committed suicide the next day. Trevor-Roper was satisfied the seven witnesses to the “dark period” [after April 22] whom he had located and interrogated could not have combined to concoct a story robust enough to have withstood questioning. He was confident that further findings were unlikely to add anything significant, and indeed facts which have emerged subsequently have confirmed the accuracy of his report to almost every detail. His report observed “Other versions have been circulating suggesting that Hitler is not dead at all. These have been examined and found to rest on no valid evidence whatsoever.” He finished his report with a list of suggested questions to be raised at the next meeting of the Committee, most of them directed at the Russians. The Russians noted these requests but never answered them. “Very interesting” was the only response they would make.[31]  Trevor-Roper returned to England and then on to Oxford.[32]  He would soon return to Germany, as a new piece of the puzzle of Hitler’s death surfaced in the British Zone of Occupation in the form of the capture of a courier who had carried Hitler’s personal will and political testament out of Berlin on April 29.

cover for the book The Last Days of Hitler by Hugh Trevor-Roper
(c) University of Chicago Press, 1987

Back in England, early in 1946, Dick White encouraged Trevor-Roper to write a narrative regarding the death of Hitler.  The resulting book, The Last Days of Hitler, would be finished in late 1946, and published the following year.

In his epilogue Trevor-Roper wrote:

The original purpose of the enquiry which caused this book to be written was to establish the facts of Hitler’s end, and thereby to prevent the growth of a myth; and certainly Hitler’s own exploitation of mythology in politics has been sufficiently disastrous for the world to apprehend a repetition. The facts are now clear, and if myths, like the truth, depend on evidence, we are safe. But myths are not like truths; they are the triumph of credulity over evidence. The form of a myth is indeed externally conditioned by facts; there is a minimum of evidence with which it must comply, if it is to live; but once lip-service has been paid to that undeniable minimum, the human mind is free to indulge its infinite capacity for self-deception. When we consider upon what ludicrous evidence the most preposterous beliefs have been easily, and by millions, entertained, we may well hesitate before pronouncing anything incredible.

Therefore, though the facts in this book are confidently asserted, for their original purpose I only timidly prophesy success. Many men saw Nero die; but within a year, several false Neros arose and were believed. In our own history, the Princes were clearly murdered in the Tower, but there were many who afterwards found it convenient to discover their survival….[33]

He added that he believed that the facts given in his book belonged “to the category of the undeniable minimum [of evidence], of which even the most extravagant myths must take account.”[34]

P.S.

On October 25, 1956, Judge Heinrich Stephanus, sitting in a court in Berchtesgaden, ruled that Hitler died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at 330pm on April 30, 1945.  The issuance of the death certificate, which made possible the disposal of Hitler’s small personal estate, was based on the results of a four-year investigation.  Forty-two individuals who were with Hitler during his last days in the bunker were interviewed.  A vast amount of written material was also examined by the judge.  Judge Stephanus found that the suicides of Hitler and Eva Braun had been performed in private in Hitler’s sitting room in the bunker.  Aides who entered the room shortly after 330pm found Eva Braun dead of poison and Hitler shot and also dead, the judge found.  The bodies were burned in a courtyard of the Reichs Chancellery and the remains had never been recovered, according to the court’s findings.[35]


Footnotes:

[1] Sisman, Hugh Trevor-Roper, pp. 4, 39-41, 76-125.

[2] History of the Counter Intelligence War Room, March 1-November 1, 1945, n.d., pp. 3-5, File: XE022360, War Room History, Impersonal File, Intelligence and Investigative Dossiers Personal Files (NAID 645054), RG 319; Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, SHAEF, Counter-intelligence Records in Germany-Part I, The War Room, February 20, 1945, File: GB1/CI/CS/314.81 G-2 War Diary, General Correspondence Files (NAID 568109), RG 331; Sisman, Hugh Trevor-Roper, p. 125. Until July 13, 1945 it was known as SHAEF G-2 Counter Intelligence War Room, afterwards as the Counter Intelligence War Room. History of the Counter Intelligence War Room, March 1-November 1, 1945, n.d., p. 1, File: XE022360, War Room History, Impersonal File, Intelligence and Investigative Dossiers Personal Files (NAID 645054).

[3] Sisman, Hugh Trevor-Roper, pp. 125-126.

[4] War Room Publications, Liquidation Reports and Monthly Summaries, Appendix “C” to History of the Counter Intelligence War Room, March 1-November 1, 1945, n.d., File: XE022360, War Room History, Impersonal File, Intelligence and Investigative Dossiers Personal Files (NAID 645054); Sisman, Hugh Trevor-Roper, p. 126.

[5] Sisman, Hugh Trevor-Roper pp. 127, 130.

[6] Sisman, Hugh Trevor-Roper, pp. 131, 132, 133; Trevor-Roper, The Last Days of Hitler, Author’s Preface.

[7] Sisman, Hugh Trevor-Roper, pp. 133-134, 134.

[8] Sisman, Hugh Trevor-Roper, p. 134; Document Section (GAD/C), Political Intelligence Department, Foreign Office, Ref. No. 54, Subject: Fragments of a “White Book” by the “Doenitz Government” on the German surrender and the last communicates exchanged with the Hitler Government in Berlin, August 20, 1945, File: Regular Intelligence Report No. 143123, Regular Intelligence Reports (NAID 6050264), RG 226.

[9] Sisman, Hugh Trevor-Roper, pp. 134, 134-135.

[10] Sisman, Hugh Trevor-Roper, pp. 134, 135-136, 136. On September 10, 1945 British Lt. Col. J. L. McCowen found the notes of Hitler’s daily route from October 14, 1944 to February 28, 1945, kept by Linge lying in an armchair in the Reichs Chancellery. Joachimsthaler, The Last Days of Hitler, p. 58. After the Russians learned that the British had taken notes by Linge, the Russian military government in September 1945 forbade any further visits to the Chancellery and the bunker by Allied officers and journalists.  ibid, p. 59.

[11] Sisman, Hugh Trevor-Roper, pp. 135, 136.

[12] Sisman, Hugh Trevor-Roper, pp. 136, 137.

[13] Typewritten note, apparently a telephone call from Operations Branch, October 1, 1945, File: Hitler, Adolf, XE003655, (NAID 7359097), Intelligence and Investigative Dossiers Personal Files, RG 319.

[14] Ada Petrova and Peter Watson, The Death of Hitler: The Full Story with New Evidence from Secret Russian Archives (New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1996), p. 16.

[15] Sisman, Hugh Trevor-Roper, p. 135.

[16] Memorandum, Maj. Edward L. Saxe, Chief, Operations Branch to Chief, CI, Subject: Circumstances Surrounding the Death of Adolf Hitler, October 9, 1945, File: Hitler, Adolf, XE003655 (NAID 7359097); Sisman, Hugh Trevor-Roper, p. 135; Petrova and Watson, The Death of Hitler, p. 16.

[17] See File: 862.002, Hitler, Adolf, Central Decimal Files (NAID 302021), RG 59; O’Donnell, The Berlin Bunker, p. 406.

[18] Associated Press, “Hitler Believed Alive, Eisenhower Tells Dutch,” The New York Times, October 7, 1945, p. 10.

[19] Associated Press, London, October 7, 1945, “Ike Believes Hitler Lives,” The Stars and Stripes, October 8, 1945, p. 8, File: Hitler, Adolf, XE003655 (NAID 7359097).

[20] Joachimsthaler, The Last Days of Hitler, p. 251.

[21] Incoming Telegram, No. 10492, Gallman, London to the Secretary of State, October 8, 1945, File: 862.002/10-845, Hitler, Adolf, Central Decimal Files (NAID 302021).

[22] Headquarters, U.S. Forces European Theater, Staff Message Control, Incoming Classified Message, Ref No. 65954, Office of Military Attaché London signed Tindall to US Forces European Theater Main, October 8, 1945, File: 091.1/1, 1945, Classified General Correspondence, 1945-46 (NAID 5665349), RG 498; Headquarters, U.S. Forces European Theater, Staff Message Control, Incoming Classified Message, Ref No. 65972, Office of Military Attaché London signed Tindall to US Forces European Theater Main, October 11, 1945, ibid.; Headquarters, U.S. Forces European Theater, Staff Message Control, Outgoing Classified Message, Ref No. SC-5486,US Forces European Theater Main signed Eisenhower to Military Attaché United States Embassy London for Tindall, October 11, 1945, ibid.

[23] Wireless to The New York Times, “Eisenhower Didn’t Say He Believes Hitler Alive,” The New York Times, October 13, 1945, p. 3.

[24] Wireless to The New York Times, “Hitler’s Woman Pilot Seized,” The New York Times, October 10, 1945, p. 9.

[25] Capt. Robert E. Work, Air Corps, Chief Interrogator, Air Interrogation Unit (USDIC), Air Division, Headquarters United States Forces in Austria, Interrogation Summary No.1, “The Last Days in Hitler’s Air Raid Shelter,” October 8, 1945, File: Interrogation Summary US Forces in Austria (NAID 2155808), Publications (“P”) Files (NAID 656424), RG 319.

[26] Capt. Robert E. Work, Air Corps, Chief Interrogator, Air Interrogation Unit (USDIC), Air Division, Headquarters United States Forces in Austria, Interrogation Summary No.1, “The Last Days in Hitler’s Air Raid Shelter,” October 8, 1945, File: Interrogation Summary US Forces in Austria (NAID 2155808).

[27] Memorandum, Maj. Edward L. Saxe, Chief, Operations Branch to Chief, CI, Subject: Circumstances Surrounding the Death of Adolf Hitler, October 9, 1945, File: Hitler, Adolf, XE003655 (NAID 7359097).

[28] 1st Lt. Arthur D. McKibbin, Editing Section, Military Intelligence Service Center, Headquarters, United States Forces European Theater, October 15, 1945, p. 1, OI Consolidated Interrogation Report (CIR) No. 2, File: Hitler as Seen by His Doctors: Theo Morell, Erwin Giesing, Walter Loehlein, Karl Weber – CIR No. 2 (NAID 6242539), Reports, Interrogations, and Other Records Received from Various Allied Military Agencies (NAID 647749), RG 238; 2nd Lt. Francis C. St. John, Chief Editor, Military Intelligence Service Center, Headquarters, United States Forces European Theater, OI Consolidated Interrogation Report (CIR) No. 4, Hitler as Seen by His Doctors, November 29, 1945, p. 2, ibid.

[29] Incoming Telegram, No. 10803, Gallman, London to the Secretary of State, October 16, 1945, File: 862.002/10-1645, Hitler, Adolf, Central Decimal Files (NAID 302021); Wireless to The New York Times, London, October 15, The New York Times, October 16, 1945, p. 2.

[30] Sisman, Hugh Trevor-Roper, p. 137; O’Donnell, The Berlin Bunker, p. 407; Petrova and Watson, The Death of Hitler, p. 17; Reuters, Berlin, November 1, 1945, “Text of British Report Holding Hitler Ended His Life,” The New York Times, November 2, 1945, p. 3.

[31] Sisman, Hugh Trevor-Roper, p. 137.

[32] Sisman, Hugh Trevor-Roper, pp. 137-138.

[33] Trevor-Roper, The Last Days of Hitler, p. 229.

[34] Trevor-Roper, The Last Days of Hitler, p. 229.

[35] Special to The New York Times, Bonn, Germany, October 25, 1945, “German Judge Confirms That Hitler Died As a Suicide in a Berlin Bunker in 1945,” The New York Times, October 26, 1956, p. 15. A copy of the court order can be found in the File: Hitler, Adolf, Reference Subject Files Relating to Adolf Hitler, 1951-1985 (NAID 12008425), RG 242.