Russians say Hitler skull fragment is genuine

Russian secret service officials claim they have genuine fragments of the skull of Adolf Hitler and have dismissed American reports which suggest it belongs to a woman.

Vassili Khristoforov, head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), said: ‘The FSB archives hold the jaw of Hitler and the state archives a fragment of Hitler’s skull.

‘With the exception of these remains, seized on May 5, 1945, there exist no other bits from the body of Hitler.’

In September academics from the University of Connecticut, in the US, said their DNA analysis showed the skull fragment to be that of a woman, aged between 20 and 40.

But they did not test the jawbone, and that, say the Russians, is positively male.

The researchers had not approached the FSB archives about testing the jawbone, said Khristoforov.

‘And even if they had the DNA of our fragments, with what could they then have compared it?’ he asked.

‘These remains are unique, there is nothing comparable. We are talking about the only evidence of this kind of the death of Hitler, and that is why the FSB had kept it in its archives.’

Adolf Hitler

The American report in October inflamed speculation that Hitler may have escaped from the blazing ruins of Berlin in 1945 instead of taking his own life in the bunker.

The piece of skull – complete with bullet hole – had been taken from outside the Fuhrer’s bunker by the Russian Army and preserved by Soviet intelligence.

The traditional story is that Hitler committed suicide with his lover Eva Braun as the Russians bombarded Berlin.

Although some historians doubted he shot himself and suggested it was Nazi propaganda to make him a hero, the hole in the skull fragment seemed to settle the argument when it was put on display in Moscow in 2000.

According to witnesses, the bodies of Hitler and Braun were wrapped in blankets and carried to the garden just outside the bunker, placed in a bomb crater, doused with petrol and set ablaze.

In May 1945 a Russian forensics team dug up what was presumed to be the dictator’s body. Part of the skull was missing, apparently the result of the suicide shot. The remaining piece of jaw matched his dental records, according to his captured dental assistants. And there was only one testicle.