Hitler’s Death: Russia’s Last Great Secret from the Files of the KGB

At last one of the greatest mysteries of the Second World War has been solved. Since historian Hugh Trevor-Roper made his name with the publication of Hitler’s Last Days, it has been accepted that the Nazi leader killed himself as Allied troops closed in. Many have suspected that the story was incomplete; now, with the help of previously unpublished documents from the KGB archives, one of the last great secrets of World War II can be revealed. With testimony from Germans and Russians who participated in the battle for the Reichstag and evidence from those sent to arrest the Führer, Hitler’s Death pieces together the astonishing truth of the final days of Nazism. Surrounded by secrecy, this book also includes a detailed examination of the complete diaries of Martin Bormann and graphic new evidence from Hitler’s inner circle. This revelatory work provides a unique insight into the death throes of the Third Reich and is guaranteed to cause controversy. ‘… at that moment, Linge came in and confirmed that Hitler was dead, saying that he had had to carry out the hardest order the Fuhrer had ever given him … Obviously Hitler, doubting the effectiveness of the poison after all the injections he had been given for such a long time, ordered Linge to shoot him after he had taken the poison. Linge had shot Hitler.’ — Hitler’s personal security chief SS Gruppenführer H. Rattenhuber, page 195