Hitler's teeth

Excerpt from the book by Elena Rzhevskaya “Berlin, May 1945: Notes of a military translator”

What is it - to meet the long -awaited surrender of Germany with a piece of Hitler's skull in his hands? The famous Soviet military translator Elena Rzhevskaya says: in honor of Victory Day, we publish an excerpt from her book Berlin, May 1945.

Elena Rzhevskaya. Berlin, May 1945: Notes of a military translator

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When tyrants die, confusion occurs at the first moment - is it possible, really and they consist of mortal molecules?

Following the circumstances of their death, if they are at least somewhat vague, begin to grow with legends. In the case of Hitler, scope could arise for this.

But it turned out not the way Grossadmiral Denitz sought, to whom Hitler bequeathed all the supreme power, which declared a deliberate lie in a special statement: Hitler fell in a battle at the head of the defenders of the capital of the German Empire.

And not in the way that the Reichsfuhrer Aksman, who had carried away only the pistol, said this: he took Hitler's ashes.

And not like Hitler described the end of Hitler in his sensational book “I burned Hitler” by his driver Kemka, where a shot and scarlet flowers in a vase merged into one bouquet.

And not the way the English historian Trevor Roper summed up in his serious study:

“One way or another, but Hitler managed to achieve his last goal. Like Alarich, who destroyed Rome in 410 and secretly buried by his supporters at the bottom of the Buzento River in Italy, the modern destroyer of mankind is forever hidden from human eyes. "

The Red Army through the fourth anniversary of continuous heavy battles came to Berlin and liberated humanity from Hitler.

People who were instructed to establish the truth about Hitler performed a task with a sense of great responsibility. Any ambiguity in this regard, it seemed to them, is harmful, it will produce legends that can only contribute to the revival of Nazism.

"Hitler is a corpse or a legend?" - That was the name of the Reuters article transferred in May 1945.

“The examination of these human remains,” it was written in it, is the culmination point of the last week of tense search among the ruins of Berlin.

Soldiers of the Red Army, who achieved irrefutable evidence of Hitler’s death, were wanted. ”

We hoped that this irrefutable evidence would be announced from day to day. The people who gave everything to win over fascism have the right to find out that the last point in this war is set.

To answer exactly the question of whether Hitler was alive, it was also important for the future of Germany.

But on May 8, a message appeared in our press that Hitler was hiding somewhere.

By this time, some of the bosses capturing the fluids going “from above” had already ceased to experience interest in clarifying the circumstances of Hitler’s death and did not very approve of the zeal with whom we sought evidence.

In the search and at the first stage of the investigation, many people participated. But by May 8, the scouts had already parted through their buildings and divisions, and the group of Colonel Gorbushin was extremely reduced. Actually, besides Major Bystrov, she had only a translator - me.

We thought: if not now, in hot pursuit of events, but only in some distant years, in some obscure future will be presented to the whole world, our descendants obtained evidence, will they then be convincing enough? Is everything done so that the fact of Hitler’s death and the fact of detecting his corpse remains indisputable and years later?

Colonel Gorbushin in these difficult circumstances decided to obtain indisputable evidence.

The decisive argument

In Berlin Bukha on May 8, on the very day when in the Carlshorst there was a signing of the German surrender, which I still did not know, Colonel Gorbushin called me and handed me the box, saying that Hitler's teeth were in it and that I was responsible for her head for its safety.

It was somewhere that was rejoiced, a used, dark-beard-colored box with a soft gasket inside, sheathed with a satin-such boxes are made for perfumes or for cheap jewelry.

Now it contained a decisive argument - the immutable proof of Hitler’s death - because there are no two people around the world whose teeth would be exactly the same. In addition, this proof could be preserved for many years.

This box was awarded to me, because the fireproof box lagged behind with the second echelon and it was nowhere to attach it reliably. And it was to me that the group of Colonel Gorbushin, who continued to study all the circumstances of the end of Hitler, was reduced by this time, as I said, to three people. Everything that was connected with the establishment of Hitler's death was kept in strict secret.

All this day, saturated with the approximation of victory, was very burdensome to carry a box in my hands and get drunk at the thought that I could be abandoned somewhere by chance. She burdened and oppressed me.

The situation in which I found myself was strange, irreal, especially if you look at it now, outside the context of the war. The war itself is a pathology. And everything that happened in the war, which is experienced, unequivocally in the language of the concepts of peacetime and does not correlate with its usual psychological standards.

For me, by this time, a devaluation of historical attributes of the fall of the Third Empire had already occurred. We overloaded. The death of her leaders and everything that accompanied her already seemed to be something ordinary.

And not for me alone. The telegrapist Raya, with whom I saw when I was called to the front headquarters, tried on the white evening dress of Eva Brown, which was brought from the dungeon of the imperial office in love with her senior lieutenant Kurashov. The dress was long, almost to the floor, with a deep neckline on his chest, and Rai had no success. And as a historical souvenir, it did not interest her.

On the same day, on May 8, closer to midnight, I was going to go to bed in the room, which I was taken below in a two -story cottage, when I suddenly heard my name and hastily climbed a very steep wooden staircase to the second floor, from where the voices were heard that called me.

The door to the room was open. Major Bystrov and Major Pichko stood near the receiver, stretching his neck stressfully.

A strange thing, because we were ready for this, but when the dictator’s voice was finally heard: “The signing of the act on the unconditional surrender of the German armed forces,” we froze, were confused.

"1. We, who were not signed, acting on behalf of the German Supreme Command, agree to the unconditional surrender of all our armed forces on land, sea and in the air, as well as all forces that are currently under the German command - the Supreme High Command of the Red Army and at the same time the supreme command of the allied expeditionary forces.

2. The German Supreme Command immediately issues orders to all the German commander of the land, sea and air forces and all forces under the German command, to stop military operations at 23–01 hours on May 8, 1945, to remain in their places where they are at that time and completely disappoint ... "

Levitan's voice sounded: “To commemorate the victorious completion of the Great Patriotic War ...” We exclaimed something, waved our hands.

Silently poured wine. I put the box on the floor. The three of us silently snapped, excited, stuck, quiet, under the roar of the salutes coming from Moscow.

I went down the steep wooden staircase to the first floor. Suddenly, something was pushed by something, and I resisted the railing. Never forget the feeling that shocked me at that moment.

Lord, is it all happening to me? Is it really that I am standing here at an hour of the surrender of Germany with a box, in which it is complicated that it remains irrefutable from Hitler?