Did Adolf Hitler really commit suicide or did he escape to South America?

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   Missing Linkposted 8 years ago

   Did Adolf Hitler really commit suicide or did he escape to South America?
   
   I've always bought the official story that Hitler and his Wife/Mistress? committed suicide in a bunker however, I don't believe a body was ever found?  I heard some compelling stuff awhile back that he in fact escaped to a Latin American country (forgot which one) and to the people in that area it is supposed to be common knowledge.  Of course he died long ago nevertheless.  They did find some type of long hidden Nazi bunker recently in South America.  So, don't laugh at me too much---just cause we've always been told something doesn't make it absolutely true even though it might be. Thanks!

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   lisavollrathposted 8 years ago

   You should read The Boys From Brazil by Ira Levin.
   
   Many former Nazis escaped to Argentina, Brazil and several other countries, using ratlines, going out through Spain or Italy to South America. However, Hitler wasn't one of them. He shot himself, and his body was burned. His dental work was identified by the Soviets after the war.

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      Missing Linkposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you very much!  Will look up "ratlines" as I don't know what this means.

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   chef-de-jourposted 8 years ago

   A recent t.v documentary was supposed to put paid to this rumour once and for all.
   As the Russians advanced on Berlin, Hitler, Eva Braun and closest friends and military advisors had the stark choice - run or stay and face inevitable death. Hitler had the chance to escape but chose not to. He and Eva Braun took cyanide capsules and also shot themselves in his private quarters. Their bodies were burnt in a half dug trench close to the bunker - accelerated by fuel - which was the last request of Hitler. He apparently had heard of the demise of Mussolini in Italy - of how the crowds had hung him and his lover from a lamp post after a humiliating public beating. Hitler didn't want to face the Russians - for good reasons - as they were extremely bitter towards the Germans for their cruelty to Russians in the 1941 advance.
   
   There is a photo of Russian soldiers sat beside a corpse looking very much like Hitler in the same trench - but they had disguised the body of an unknown dead person - stuck on a false moustache and so on - so the image was deemed unauthentic.
   
   Some Nazis did escape to Argentina and Brazil I think but it seems that Adolf Hitler wasn't one of them.

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      Missing Linkposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you!  Who burnt the bodies---other Nazis I presume?

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   Alastar Packerposted 8 years ago

   The recent book Grey Wolf purports he and Eva did escape. Haven't read it but there are allegations of nothing more than an attempted monetary gain with it. Maybe so, but it must have something interesting about it. Perhaps its best to look at Hitler's personality. After the failed putsch of 1923 he almost shot himself, came close to it in other words. As to the bunker, no matter how well an escape was planned there would always have been a possibility of capture- something going wrong. Hitler would not have taken this chance, was in terrible physical shape for a man his age and wasn't the kind of personality to want to survive the total defeat of his beloved Germany hidden away in some S American backwater. The supposition that it was a double in the suicide room that could have fooled someone like Goebbels and others who knew him intimately doesn't hold water either. We must assume with assurance Hitler and Eva never left the bunker except lifeless to be thoroughly burned.

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      Missing Linkposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you!  Your reasoning and logic seem sound to me.

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   gmwilliamsposted 8 years ago

   
   
   Despite the endless speculations and stories that Hitler and Eva escaped to South America after World War II, Hitler and Eva committed suicide in their bunker as the Russians were advancing to Berlin.  Hitler knew that the war was lost and did not want to be captured by the Russians.  He begged Eva to leave but she refused to do so, preferring to stay with Hitler to the end.  Hitler was left with no other recourse but to commit suicide.  He and Eva committed suicide and subsequently the bodies were cremated and discovered by the Russians who took the salvageable remains to Russia.
   
   There are many books on the subject: The Last Battle by Cornelius Ryan, Swansong 1945: A Collective Diary of the Last Days of the Third Reich by Walter Kempowski and Shaun Whiteside, and The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany 1944-45 by Ian Kershaw.

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      Missing Linkposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you very much!

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      gmwilliamsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for selecting my answer.

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      Missing Linkposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      You're welcome!  Was a tough decision---the books you mentioned made the difference 

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