(Tablet) Alexandra Popoff - On May 8, 1945, Soviet military interpreter Elena Kagan was entrusted with a box that her superior in the SMERSH counterintelligence group told her contained Adolf Hitler's dentures and teeth. Elena, a Jew, described the situation in her book, Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter. Because Hitler's remains were badly burned, the teeth, with abundant bridgework, crowns, and fillings, presented the most important anatomic means of identification. The search for Hitler's dentist, Dr. Hugo Blaschke, who had fled Berlin, led to his dental assistant, Kathe Heusermann, who had worked for Dr. Blaschke since 1937 and had assisted in extracting Hitler's teeth. She helped locate Hitler's dental records and X-rays, having guessed correctly that they were kept at the Fuhrerbunker, where they were found, surprisingly intact. Everything concerning the investigation of Hitler's death was a Soviet state secret. Elena's book, first published in Moscow in 1965, disclosed the secret. The book was only translated into English in 2018.
2019-11-15 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive