The Federal Security Service of Russia /FSB/ published declassified testimony of Adolf Hitler's personal valet Heinz Linge, who became the main witness to the death of the head of the Third Reich in a Berlin bunker on April 30, 1945.
In November-December 1945, 32-year-old Linge, during interrogations and in his own testimony, described in detail the circumstances of the last days and hours in the “Führerbunker“. Materials relating to Linge and Hitler's personal adjutant, Otto Gunsche, were declassified by employees of the archive of the FSB Directorate for the Ivanovo Region.
SS-Sturmbannführer Linge was Hitler's personal valet for 10 years - from 1935 until his death - at the head of the Führer's staff. After the capture of Berlin by the Red Army, several people from Hitler's inner circle were detained by SMERSH operative groups: the commander of the defense of Berlin, General Helmut Weidling, personal pilot Hans Baur, the head of the Reich Security Service (the Führer's personal guard) Hans Rathenhuber, the representative of the Navy on Hitler's staff, Vice Admiral Hans Voss, the head of the Central Defense District of Berlin, SS Brigadeführer Wilhelm Möncke, Hitler's personal adjutant Otto Günsche and others. They were placed in a prisoner of war camp in Poznan, and many of them were transported by plane to Moscow.
“However, for some unknown reason, one of the main (if not the most important) witnesses to the Fuhrer's death, his senior valet Heinz Linge, was sent from Poznan to a prisoner of war camp in Kohtla-Järve, where he was held until October 1945. Then he was transported to Tallinn and placed under the control of the Department of Prisoners of War and Internees of the Estonian SSR“, notes the FSB Public Relations Center. Linge, according to the testimony of other arrested people from Hitler's entourage, was the first to enter his room after the suicide.
Hans Rathenhuber, the head of the Reich Security Service (personal security), interrogated on 11 May 1945, stated: “At 16:00 on 30 April 1945, after checking the posts, I reached the Führer's concrete shelter. Sturmbannführer Linge informed me that the Führer was no longer alive and that today he, Linge, had carried out the most difficult order of his life.
Linge informed me that Hitler had ordered him to leave the room today and if he did not hear anything within 10 minutes, to re-enter and carry out the order. Since at that time he put Hitler's pistol on the table in the hallway, it became clear to me what he meant by the Fuhrer's most difficult order and where the blood stain on the carpet came from. Based on the above, I came to the conclusion that 10 minutes after poisoning Hitler, Linge shot him.“ After Hitler had taken the poison, Linge fired a control shot into his head to make his death heroic, thereby showing that Hitler had died as a soldier. During the investigation, Linge himself insisted that Hitler had committed suicide by shooting himself in the temple.
On December 16, 1945 Linge was taken to Moscow and placed in the USSR NKVD prison Butyrka, where he wrote his own testimony about the events at Hitler's headquarters.
„At a quarter to four on April 30, Hitler came to Goebbels' office to say goodbye to him. I was right in the reception room. Goebbels wanted to invite Hitler to his room, but Hitler refused, noting that his decision was final and irrevocable. He said goodbye to Mrs. Goebbels and Dr. Goebbels and returned to his office. Hauptscharführer Krüger /b. another valet/ and I followed him. Hitler said that we should try to break through to the West in order to fall into the hands of the Allies. I expressed my loyalty to him and promised to remain faithful to him in my thoughts. Then Krüger and I left the office.
About five minutes later a shot rang out. I immediately informed the head of the NSDAP party office, the Führer's personal secretary Martin Bormann, who was in the waiting room (the room in front of Hitler's chambers), about what had happened. Together with Reichsleiter Bormann, I went into Hitler's office. We wrapped the body in a blanket so that it would not be seen. I took the body by the legs and Bormann by the head and carried it out through the back entrance of the bomb shelter into the park. The guards carried the body of Hitler's wife after us“.
According to Linge, before his death Hitler gave the order to burn his body, as he was afraid that his body would be taken to Moscow and put on display.
“The reasons that prompted Hitler to commit suicide were: 1. The complete futility of continuing the fight, 2. Hitler was afraid of escaping from Berlin, 3. Hitler's poor physical condition, who could no longer bear any hardships, as well as his megalomania, which did not allow him to bow to the victor and enter into negotiations with him“, wrote Linge on December 29-30, 1945, in addition to his testimony. He also stated that there could be no talk of a Hitler double.
"Hitler's double could not have committed suicide because: 1) Hitler did not have a double, 2) it was impossible for Hitler to leave the premises, since there was only one exit from them", Linge testified.
In August 1948, Linge and Hitler's personal adjutant Otto Günsche were released from prison and until the fall of 1949 were engaged in "literary" work - memories of service in Hitler's entourage. On May 15, 1950 The military tribunal of the troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Ivanovo Region sentenced Linge and Gunshe, on the basis of a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 19, 1943, to serve their sentences in a labor camp for a term of 25 years (the term of serving the sentence was calculated from April 6, 1950). In 1955, both were deported to their homeland.
On May 5, 1945, in the garden of the Imperial Chancellery, employees of the SMERSH counterintelligence department of the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front discovered the badly burned bodies of a man and a woman in a crater left by an air bomb. The bodies were located three meters from the entrance to the bomb shelter and were covered with a layer of earth. On May 8, 1945, the conclusion of the forensic medical examination of the body of a man believed to be Hitler was ready. “The presence of remains of a broken glass ampoule in the oral cavity, the distinct smell of bitter almonds and the results of a forensic chemical examination of the entrails with the detection of cyanide compounds allow the commission to conclude that in this case death occurred as a result of poisoning with cyanide compounds“, the announcement also said.
On May 10-11, 1945, the assistant to Hitler's personal dentist, Professor Hugo Blaschke, Käthe Goisermann, and the dental technician Fritz Echtmann, who had made Hitler's dentures, were questioned. Both gave detailed descriptions of Hitler's teeth from memory. The characteristic features of the bridges, crowns and dental fillings exactly matched the records in the dental chart and X-rays that SMERSH investigators had. Goizerman and Echtman admit without hesitation that the jaws belong to Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler.
The fact that he was poisoned with potassium cyanide is confirmed by studies conducted in March and June 2017 by the famous French anthropologist Philippe Charlier, the FSB Public Relations Center recalled. Charlier examined fragments of Hitler's jaw stored in the Central Archive of the FSB of Russia and compared them with X-rays of Hitler's skull located in the United States. A French scientist, after examining fragments of the jaws, found traces of potassium cyanide on them and was convinced that the teeth were 100% identical to X-rays taken during Hitler's lifetime.
Source: TASS