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implication obviously being that Karnau had mistaken someone "We know nothing" else's cremation for that of Adolf Hitler and Eva Hitler. However, Clearly, there are no grounds to assume that accounts of the fact that Karnau had seen Hitler's face while Kempka had not cremations which took place on different dates can simply be suggests that it was Kempka, not Karnau, who must have been conflated as if they were all accounts of the same event. This raises referring to "other cremations". the question of whether on any of these occasions the real Adolf Kempka also stated that he was now certain that Hitler had been and Eva Hitler were cremated. This is a question that can be cremated on 30 April 1945, and added the claim that the wind had answered in the negative. blown Eva's dress, exposing her garters. However, in this respect, While he was interned for several years in two Soviet POW Dr Kunz's evidence seems decisive. Eva Hitler could not possibly camps in Strausberg and Posen, the Wehrmacht surgeon-general, have been cremated on 30 April because Dr Kunz spoke with her Major-General Walter Schreiber, had the opportunity to speak with on the same night. What's more, on this occasion Eva told Dr Kunz _ four persons, each of whom had been present in the bunker until that Adolf Hitler was still alive. Therefore, if Kempka saw any Berlin fell to the Soviets. While he was unable to draw any cremation at all on 30 April, the bodies he witnessed being burned information on the subject of Hitler's fate out of the "arrogant" were not those of Adolf and Eva Hitler. Wilhelm Mohnke,* Hitler's pilot Hans Baur told him only that he No serious attempt seems ever to have been made to reconcile had never seen Hitler dead. Heinz Linge and Otto Guensche were the discrepancies between Kempka's and Karnau's accounts, e.g., more forthcoming. Linge told him that he "did not see Hitler, but by confronting the pair with one another. The 1947 book Who toward the end noticed two bodies wrapped in carpet being carried Killed Hitler ?, by Herbert Moore and James W. Barrett,’ criticised out of the bunker". Linge told Schreiber that while at the time he Trevor-Roper's The Last Days of Hitler for "belittling" Karnau's had assumed the bodies to be those of the Hitler couple, only later testimony and relying instead on Kempka's. In her review of Who had he been told that this was the case. This admission is Killed Hitler? in the Oakland Tribune, Nancy Barr Mavity retorted — astounding, because Linge is the one person mentioned by all that Kempka's and Karnau's accounts "differ in detail, as eye- eyewitnesses as having carried Hitler's body up the stairs and into witness accounts of a complex occurrence notoriously do"*> Howa the Chancellery garden. Guensche, with whom Schreiber spoke single episode—the burning of two bodies—can be represented asa only a short time after the regime fell, proved even more "complex occurrence" I have no idea, informative. Like Linge, Guensche but her statement does show that the admitted that he had never seen Hitler's only option available to those who Eva Hitler could not possibly dead body. He added the enigmatic wish to believe Kempka involves comment: "Those things were all done explaining away or simply ignoring have been cremated on without us."” discrepancies between his account 30 April because Dr Kunz Such evidence is corroborated by and those of the other eyewitnesses. General Helmuth Weidling, who told the The third account, given to US spoke with her on the same Soviets on 4 January 1946: "After I was interrogators by RSD member Erich i U i taken prisoner, I spoke to SS- Mansfeld on 30 July 1945, which night. What Ss more, on this Gruppenfuchrer Rattenhuber and SS- referred to a cremation on either 26 or | OCCASION Eva told Dr Kunz that Sturmbannfuehrer Guensche, and both 27 April, establishes beyond i i i said they knew nothing about the details of reasonable doubt that there were Adolf Hitler was still alive. Hitler's death." numerous cremations and that at least On the basis of Schreiber's and some of the eyewitnesses were Weidling's revelations, it can be regarded mistaken when they asserted that they had witnessed Hitler's as certain that neither Guensche nor Linge, the two mainstays of the cremation. In fact, the first such cremation was observed by Hitler suicide legend, nor Mohnke nor Rattenhuber, had anything to Mansfeld while he was on guard duty on the afternoon of 27 April. do with Hitler's death or knew anything about it. It would seem After recounting what Mansfeld claimed he had seen, the statement —_ appropriate to conclude that no one who knew anything for certain concludes: "Subject claims there is a possibility these events took about what happened to Hitler has ever spoken about it publicly. place on the 26th instead of the 27th, but is positive it was not later _ Hitler's inner circle in Berlin knew nothing about what had than the 27th of April 1945 [my italics].'"° happened to him, and the stories they told publicly after 1945 (in The earliest six eyewitness accounts—effectively, the only the cases of Kempka and Karnau) and since 1955 (in the cases of reliable accounts we have—establish that at least four cremations of | Linge and Guensche) have been lies. They were either writing corpses, which were assumed by observers to be those of Adolf themselves into history or, as seems more likely, under pressure Hitler and Eva Hitler, took place in the Reich Chancellery garden from their captors to make statements to help buttress the Hitler between 26 or 27 April and | May. In each case, the male body suicide narrative. Indeed, it may well have been a condition of wore a pair of Hitler's trousers. Linge's and Guensche's release from Soviet captivity in 1955 that In each case, also, the male body was accompanied by a female they agreed to furnish such statements. who bore a convincing resemblance to Eva Hitler. It is obvious, Continued in the next edition of NEXUS... therefore, that many bunker veterans who thought they had About the Author: witnessed the cremation of Adolf and Eva Hitler had only Giordan Smith is an independent academic from Sydney witnessed the burning of other corpses—that is to say, corpses they australia, with a special interest in modern German history. He were meant to mistake for those of Adolf and Eva Hitler. No one can be contacted by email at giordansmith@gmail.com. was therefore in a position to say whether they had witnessed the The complete text of this article will be available at the NEXUS cremation of the real Adolf Hitler or of a substitute. However, one website, http://www.nexusmagazine.com at the time of of the two "Hitlers" whose face had been visible appears to have publication of part three in NEXUS vol. 15, no. 2. May Hider 's double, whose corpse was found by the Soviets on 4 Continued on page 80 Eva Hitler could not possibly have been cremated on About the Author: Giordan Smith is an independent academic from Sydney, Australia, with a special interest in modern German history. He can be contacted by email at giordansmith@gmail.com. The complete text of this article will be available at the NEXUS website, http://www.nexusmagazine.com at the time of publication of part three in NEXUS vol. 15, no. 2. Continued on page 80 42 = NEXUS Adolf Hitler was still alive. Continued in the next edition of NEXUS... www.nexusmagazine.com OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2007