How Adolf Hitler's teeth confirmed his death 70 years later
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Warning: Contains reference to suicide
More than seven decades after his death, Hitler's teeth were still able to offer confirmation as to when the Nazi leader died.
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It has been widely established that Hitler died in his bunker in Berlin in 1945, the year the second world war came to an end, after the bodies of him and his wife, Eva Braun, were discovered there on 30 April, 1945.
However, some people throughout history have chosen not to believe this ending to his story.
Instead, some have spurred conspiracy theories suggesting he may have actually escaped.
Among the rumours is one which suggests Hitler ran off to Argentina, where he is alleged to have lived into old age following the end of WWII.
The speculation of Hitler's survival proved so popular that it sparked a TV series titled Hunting Hitler, which ran from 2015 to 2018 and showed a group of investigators travelling across South America in an attempt to find traces of the dictator.
It might not be a coincidence, however, that the show came to an end the same year that research published in the European Journal of Internal Medicine revealed confirmation of when Hitler died.
The research began after the English publication of the memoirs of a Russian interpreter, which revealed in 2018 that she had been given a set of teeth in 1945 and tasked with comparing them to Hitler's dental records.
They were found to be a match, and after months of negotiations, Russia’s FSB secret service and the Russian state archives gave researchers permission to examine a skull fragment and bits of the teeth.
The skull had a hole on its left side that was consistent with a bullet wound, and it seemed 'totally comparable' to radiographies of Hitler’s skull taken a year before his death.
Hitler only had four remaining teeth at the time of his death, but lead study author Philippe Charlier told AFP: "The teeth are authentic, there is no possible doubt.”
The study was not able to determine exactly how Hitler died; whether it was a gunshot or whether he took cyanide shortly before his death.
However, it did prove one thing: "Hitler died in 1945,” Charlier said.
"He did not flee to Argentina in a submarine, he is not in a hidden base in Antarctica or on the dark side of the moon."
The researcher added: "We didn’t know if he had used an ampule of cyanide to kill himself or whether it was a bullet in the head. It’s in all probability both."
Hitler's death came just over four months after the official end of WWII on 2 September, 1945.
Topics: Politics, World News, Science
