ARE THESE PHOTOS OF ADOLF HITLER?

Did He Really Die In the Bunker?

by Joelle Steele

I first analyzed photos of Hitler back in 1978. Since then, I have accumulated numerous images of Hitler along with a significant number of conspiracy theories surrounding him and other famous and infamous people. So, let's take a look at Hitler.

The Russians claimed to have recovered a fragment of Hitler's jawbone and two dental bridges. The U.S. Army consulted Hitler's dentist, Dr. Hugo Johannes Blaschke, Blaschke's assistant Käthe Heusermann, and his long-time dental technician, Fritz Echtmann, to see if they could confirm or deny that it was indeed Hitler's remains. In a 1946 report (declassified in 1963), Blaschke confirmed that they were Hitler's and Braun's based on work he had done on their teeth which, in Hitler's case, was extensive. Blaschke was Hitler's dentist from 1934 to 1944. He confirmed that Hitler had two old dental bridges (at least one of which he replaced), crowns, numerous untreated cavities, gingivitis, and teeth that were discolored, chipped, broken, and loose. But a death certificate was not issued until 1956, following investigations that collected the testimonies of 42 witnesses that resulted in an "assumption of death." Many years later, in 2018, the European Journal of Internal Medicine published the results of an investigation of the teeth by a French team of experts. They found the dental remains were definitively Hitler's teeth, no question. So, Hitler did die in the bunker.

But, despite these findings, conspiracy theories continue to abound. In 1945, almost immediately after he was presumed dead from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head, there were rumors that he had escaped with Eva Braun, and fled in a U-boat from Spain to Argentina … or Colombia … or Bolivia… One story cited his destination as Kentucky! As early as the 1960s, various men were spotted in South America and were either believed to be Hitler or claimed to be Hitler. A 2011 book, "Grey Wolf: The Escape of Adolf Hitler," by Gerrard Williams and Simon Dunstan, claims that the two British authors traveled to Patagonia in Argentina to investigate and found that Hitler, Eva Braun, and their two daughters had lived in the Andes foothills, and that Hitler died in 1962. The book was dismissed as pure fiction by experts. Another book, "Hitler murió en la Argentina" ("Hitler died in Argentina") by Manuel Monasterio, was later dismissed by the author himself who later admitted that it was made up of "strange ramblings and speculation." There are many other similar books and articles consisting of fabricated details that have never managed to check out with any facts.

But there are some photos that have raised questions. So, let's start with this well-documented non-match photo. The man with the bullet wound in his forehead is believed to have been a Hitler "double" named Gustav Weler (Weber), whose body was found by the Russians or was killed by the Russians.

Comparison #1: Hitler (left): Body found by Russians (right).

The most obvious differences in the above photos are the ears. When I enlarged them, the photos became blurry, but from the photos above it's easy to see the ears are not a match. The chin is close, the forehead is covered by a hat, and the nose is not clear. But, even without measuring, it is easy to see that the dead man is not Hitler. There are plenty of other differences that distinguished them as two different people, and those were differences that could not have been attributed to surgical alterations (e.g., the distance between the eyes). So, it's safe to assume the dead man was probably Gustav Weler or one of Hitler's other cohorts.

Did Hitler really die in the bunker or was his double executed so that he could stow away to Argentina in a body bag and live happily thereafter? Let's look at the blurry man in the center photo below, who was believed to be Hitler living in Argentina.

Comparison #2: Hitler in 1938 (left and right); unidentified man (center).

Comparison #3: Hitler in 1921 (left) and 1933 (right); unidentified man (center).

I used two different sets of exemplars (known photos of Hitler) to compare them to the man claimed to be Hitler living in Argentina (the questioned photo in the center in Comparisons #2 and #3). I started my comparisons with the ears. But the man in the questioned photo is blurry and I can't examine his ears other than their height and their placement on his head. To work around this dilemma, I sized the ears (made them the same size) as the ears of known images of Hitler. After sizing the ears, it is clear that the blurry man is not Hitler as his features don't line up at all with the known Hitler photos.

After I did the two comparisons above, I noticed a difference among the exemplars. Are they all really Hitler?

Comparison #4: Hitler in 1921 (left); Hitler in 1938 (center); Hitler in 1933 (right).

The photo in the center above is the same photo used to compare to the blurry Hitler-in-Argentina photo. The photos on either side of it are also of Hitler. Notice how those two photos don't match the one in the center? I again sized the ear height in all three images. The middle-man's features don't match. What's going on here?

I don't know what's going on. It could be slight variations in the angles of the faces in the photos. Or, it could be that the older, 1938 Hitler, with all his dental problems, has a sinking jaw. Or ... what about the possibility of Hitler doubles?

Comparison #5: Hitler's ear (left); film footage ear (right).

We're going to time-travel back to 1944. On July 20, 1944, Hitler was in a bomb attack. Nazi Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, issued a news reel to prove that Hitler had survived it. The news reel fell into Allied hands in France and was brought to London. There, at the request of the Daily Express, it was examined by a Harley Street aural surgeon. The surgeon compared the right ear in a known Hitler photo to the right ear of the man in the news reel. It is evident from the photos in Comparison #5 that the man in the film footage is not Hitler.

In reviewing some of my many photos of Hitler, I came across some that to me do not look exactly like Hitler. And I have come to the conclusion that Hitler did have at least two doubles who made appearances on his behalf, possibly when he was ill. But, I have a busy schedule, and I really don't have time to compare more Hitler photos. Maybe some day, but not today!