After World War II, 50 percent of Americans polled said they didn’t believe Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide in their bunker in 1945, as captured Nazi officials claimed. The mystery surrounding Hitler’s final days only deepened in 2009 when a U.S. forensic team announced that a piece of Hitler’s skull held in Soviet archives was not actually Hitler’s.
In a new book, author Robert Hutchinson explores what we know, and don’t know, about what really happened to Hitler 75 years ago — and whether the Nazi dictator escaped justice.
1. The world learned that Hitler was dead when …
A: Allied soldiers discovered Hitler’s body in his Berlin bunker.
B: Allied intelligence intercepted coded messages from Nazi generals discussing secret negotiations for Germany’s surrender.
C: German news reports announced Hitler’s death.
D: Captured Nazi prisoners reported they had seen Hitler’s body.
2. World leaders who said they thought Hitler escaped justice included …
A: Russian premier Joseph Stalin
B: Allied general Dwight Eisenhower
C: U.S. president Harry Truman
D: A and B
3. U.S. and British forces never discovered Hitler’s body because …
A: The Western Allies did not enter Berlin for two months after the end of the war.
B: The Nazis hurriedly cremated Hitler after he committed suicide.
C: Russian intelligence units removed all forensic evidence from Hitler’s bunker.
D: All of the above.
4. It’s possible Hitler could have escaped from Berlin at the last moment because …
A: The Nazis were able to land planes on Berlin’s broad avenues up to the moment Russian tanks arrived in the city.
B: Nazi submarines were able to travel to Argentina after the war ended.
C: There was a large colony of German ex-patriots in South America sympathetic to the Nazi cause.
D. All of the above
5. For 60 years, the Soviets claimed to have a piece of Hitler’s skull with a bullet hole in their archives. But in 2009, a U.S. pathologist examined the fragment and declared …
A: It was proof Hitler died in his Berlin bunker.
B: It was from the skull of a woman under 40 and could not have been from Hitler.
C: It proved that Hitler almost certainly shot himself in the mouth.
D: It proved Hitler’s body had been cremated.
6. In 2014, President Barack Obama signed an executive order allowing once top-secret FBI and some CIA files about Hitler to be released to the public. These files revealed …
A: There were reports in the 1950s that Hitler survived the war and escaped to South America.
B: The FBI dispatched a team of agents to South America to investigate.
C: A and B
D: The CIA helped Hitler escape in exchange for advanced Nazi rocket technology.
7. Many of Hitler’s underlings in the Berlin bunker survived the war. They would later testify that …
A: Hitler had a secret plan to escape by plane to his mountain fortress at Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps.
B: Hitler and Eva Braun were almost certainly replaced by body doubles who were then executed to make it look like suicide.
C: Hitler and his longtime mistress Braun committed suicide together.
D: None of the above
8. There were more than 40 attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Many failed due to …
A: The ability of the Gestapo to uncover plots in advance.
B: The large number of bodyguards the Nazis had assigned to guard their leader.
C: Hitler’s tendency to change his plans or schedule at the last minute.
D: The unwillingness of plotters to die in their attempts to kill Hitler.
9. Following the attempt by German army officers to blow Hitler up in July 1944, many Germans …
A: Became disillusioned with Hitler and began saying “Guten tag” again instead of “Heil, Hitler.”
B: Were outraged that Hitler was targeted by the German military during a war and rallied around their leader.
C: Were forced to attend mass rallies celebrating Hitler’s “miraculous” escape from death.
D: B and C
10. The Allies knew the location of Hitler’s secret hideout in Poland, the Wolf’s Lair, but did not try to assassinate him. They thought …
A: Hitler was too well guarded and the operation would be a suicide mission.
B: Hitler’s incompetence as a military commander meant he would help the Allied war effort more if he were alive than dead.
C: Hitler should stand trial for war crimes after the war.
D: There were too many civilians in the area and innocents would be killed.
Answers: 1-C; 2-D; 3-D; 4-D; 5-B; 6-C; 7-C; 8-C; 9-B; 10-B