Hitler's death

• in the secret KGB dossiers
• Lana Parshina, Jean-Christophe Brisard

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Like some mythological monster and disturbing apparition, Hitler encourages many fantasies. Ever since the fall of Berlin on May 2nd, 1945, one question prevails: Is he dead or has he fled? According to testimonies of survivors of his bunker, he died on April 30th, 1945. He was then burned, so no one would get to his body. But the non-existence of his corpse had initiated an unstoppable string of rumors that he was alive.
Leonid Leonov, the favorite author of the Soviet regime, on May 8th, 1945, published a fiery text in Pravda: „We will require material evidence that the corporal-strategist has not turned into a werewolf. Babies all over the world can sleep peacefully in their cradles. The Führer's body in natural size is the only thing the Soviet armies and their Western allies want to see.“ The direction has been set. As long as this most important, evidence „natural-sized“ is lacking, Hitler’s apparition will continue to haunt human spirits. Testimonies claiming he was seen will be more and more numerous, and the persistent silence of the Soviet authorities will only expand and trigger the mystery of Hitler.
Seven decades after the fall of Berlin, the authors of the book tried to solve this mystery in the FSB's archives and via contemporary scientific methods with the help of experts to check the authenticity of documents and Hitler's remains.

***

After months of endless negotiations, repeated requests sent by e-mail, letters, telephone, fax and directly to rigid officials, here we are, finally, before the remain. Before the tip of the skull, at first glance, a quarter of its posterior left part (two parietal bones and part of the occipital, to be precise). The object that awakens so much greed in historians and journalists from all over the world.

Does it belong to Hitler, as the Russian authorities think? Or a woman in her forties, as an American Scientist recently stated? To ask this question is to talk about politics, casting a shadow of doubt on the Kremlin's official position on this matter. Investigating Hitler is not harmless. The story of the skull is a strong symbol in Russia, a symbol of suffering during World War II, a symbol of resistance and victory. Ever since the skull was presented to the public, its authenticity has been regularly questioned. This takes away a fraction of the Soviet Union's glorious past from the Russians. The skull is Hitler's. Unconditionally. At least for the Russians.

Jean-Christophe Brisard (1971) is a French journalist and director. He graduated history and geopolitics, specializing in conflict zones and dictatorships. He is the author of the book Enfants de dictateurs, written in collaboration with Claude Quétel, and La mort d'Hitler, which was created in collaboration with Lana Parshina. In 2011, he received the Paris Audiovisual Club Award (Club AudioVisuel de Paris) for a documentary about North Korea.

Lana (Svetlana) Parshina (1978) is a journalist and director of documentary films. She was born in Moscow, where she was educated. She started his business career as a highly trained translator from Russian, English and German, and worked as a freelance journalist and public relations advisor.
She replaced crisis management with projects in the film industry. Her works include Svetlana about Svetlana, a 2008 documentary about Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, and The Singer Who Fell from 2016. Lana Parshina lives in New York.

• ISBN: 978-953-8075-62-9
• Dimensions: 142x205 mm
• Number of pages: 328
• Cover: paperback
• Year of the edition: 2019
• Original title: La mort d'Hitler dans les dossiers secrets du KGB
• Original language: French
• Translation: Dubravka Celebrini