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In the following sections, I review the six earliest known accounts while resisting the obvious temptations to dismiss certain accounts as wholesale fabrications or resort to the Trevor-Roper "cherry-picking" strategy. As we shall soon learn, the only way to make sense of the six accounts is to treat them as authentic accounts of different events. That said, it is not the case that each account represents a pure or unadulterated version of a particular cremation. The accounts of persons who had apparently observed two or more cremations—above all, Guensche—appear to represent a conflation of events remembered from different cremations. In the following sections, I review the six earliest known It would be easy, but unfair, to suggest that Mengershausen had accounts while resisting the obvious temptations to dismiss certain fabricated his story. Rattenhuber himself affirmed that accounts as wholesale fabrications or resort to the Trevor-Roper Mengershausen had been present at the scene.'’ It can therefore be "cherry-picking" strategy. As we shall soon learn, the only way to accepted that both Mengershausen and Rattenhuber were present at make sense of the six accounts is to treat them as authentic accounts a cremation on 30 April. The conclusion that makes most sense is of different events. That said, it is not the case that each account that this was a cremation that took place at around midday, just as represents a pure or unadulterated version of a particular Mengershausen said. This cremation is not to be confused with a cremation. The accounts of persons who had apparently observed subsequent cremation that took place nearby, sometime between two or more cremations—above all, Guensche—appear to represent 3.00 and 4.00 pm that same afternoon. a conflation of events remembered from different cremations. A helpful piece of information here is that while Guensche and Rattenhuber recalled the presence of Hitler's chauffeur, Erich Testimony from Soviet-held eyewitnesses Kempka—who also acknowledged his own presence on this The first eyewitness to give an account of occasion—Mengershausen did not notice the events that occupy our attention was Kempka. On the other hand, of all the Harry Mengershausen, who was a member of eyewitnesses who observed the latter Hitler's personal bodyguard, the RSD. cremation, Rattenhuber is the only one who Mengershausen was interrogated by a team of mentioned seeing Mengershausen. But this Soviet operatives headed by Lt-Colonel Ivan Although all three does not mean that Mengershausen was Klimenko on 13 May 1945, and by a different accounts referred to a present at the 3.00/4.00 pm cremation. The team headed by Lt-General Alexandr Vadis . . appropriate conclusion to draw, I suggest, is six days later. The second version came from cremation which had that Rattenhuber observed both cremations Hitler's aide-de-camp, Otto Guensche, who | taken place on 30 April, that day, and the account that he subsequently furnished a long written statement on 17 . gave the Soviets represented a conflation of May. The third version came from RSD Mengershausen claimed remembered elements from the two chief Hans Rattenhuber, who gave his to have witnessed the cremations he had witnessed. account in Moscow on 20 May. Although all . cremation around noon Statements from prisoners of the three accounts referred to a cremation Mengershavecn nimed *O Ne while Guensche and athe ones that were to be witnessed the cremation around noon Rattenhuber both stated given came from Erich Kempka and while Guensche and Rattenhuber both that the cremation had Karna. Both were reperted tvithe taken place around 3.00 or 4.00 pm. stated that the cremation had taken place press on the very same day, 20 June around 3.00 or 4.00 pm. 1945. I have long pondered the There are no reasons to think that Mengershausen was mistaken and that significance of the fact that both the British and Americans went public with in fact he witnessed the 3.00/4.00 pm their alleged eyewitnesses on the exact cremation. Mengershausen mentioned important details which were not same day. Indeed, Kempka's statement mentioned by either Guensche or was dated 20 June 1945, suggesting that Rattenhuber, the most problematic of only a very short time passed between which is that the male's face had been the drafting of Kempka's statement and visible. While Guensche and Rattenhuber both stated that the his presentation to the press. male's upper torso was covered with a blanket—so that nothing The most probable catalyst for such haste—and co-ordination— could be seen of him other than black trousers, socks and shoes— between the two Western Allies was the publication in Stockholm Mengershausen made no mention of a blanket, stating instead: of Count Folke Bernadotte's book The End: My Humanitarian "When Hitler was being carried out I clearly saw his profile—his Negotiations in Germany in 1945 and Their Political nose, hair and moustache.""" Mengershausen also gave a full Consequences." Published on 15 June 1945, only five weeks after description of the clothes in which Hitler had been dressed. Hitler the end of the war in Europe, this short book commands the "...had black trousers worn over high boots and gray-green uniform distinction of being the first insider account of the closing phase of jacket. Under the uniform jacket, I could see a white shirtfront and the Third Reich. It contains an appendix in which Bernadotte anecktie." He also described Eva's clothing as "a black dress with recounted the story of Hitler's fate as it had been related to him by several pink flowers made from cloth on the breast".'' Guensche SS-Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler's intelligence chief, SS- and Rattenhuber were unlikely to have overlooked such a touching Brigadefuehrer Walter Schellenberg, in Stockholm shortly after the detail as a corsage of pink flowers; they therefore cannot have war. No more authoritative version of Hitler's demise can exist witnessed the same cremation that Mengershausen described. Last, than such an account given freely, within a few weeks of the events Mengershausen stated that only four people were involved: themselves, and by one of the best-informed men in the Reich. "Except for Guensche and Linge, no one was present during While it is true that Bernadotte shared the Allies' goal of preventing burning of the corpses of Hitler and his wife, and the burial was the growth of a "Hitler legend", there is no reason to believe that he performed by two men of Hitler's guard." In contrast, the three misrepresented Schellenberg in order to do so. There has never available accounts of the 3.00/4.00 pm cremation mentioned a been, and probably never will be, a more reliable "inside" account larger cast of participants including Bormann and Goebbels— of Hitler's fate than that furnished by Schellenberg. important personages whom Mengershausen could not possibly For the Western intelligence agencies, the problem was that have failed to notice, if they had been present. Schellenberg told Bernadotte that Hitler had been murdered. Although all three accounts referred toa taken place around 3.00 or 4.00 pm. 40 = NEXUS cremation which had cremation around noon | while Guensche and ; that the cremation had www.nexusmagazine.com OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2007