Hitler’s Jawbone Found in Cigarette Box in Russian Archive

Eva Merkacheva, a member of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Civil Society and Human Rights (SPCH), published a photograph of the jawbone of Adolf Hitler, the Führer of the Third Reich. The bone is kept in the archives of the Federal Security Bureau (FSB).

"It [the jaw] is the main artifact stored in the archives of the Federal Security Service. It is considered the primary evidence that the Führer committed suicide, rather than spending the rest of his days somewhere else (for example, in Argentina),” the human rights advocate wrote in a post on her Telegram channel.

The archive also contains an intelligence-investigative file opened on Adolf Hitler in 1945, photographs of the Führer's bunker, and official reports on the excavation of the pit containing his remains and their incineration, she added.

Hitler's jaw is stored in a box from "Gvardeyskiye" cigarettes. It contains a total of nine preserved teeth.

On April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker in Berlin as Soviet forces closed in on the city during the final days of World War II. Facing imminent defeat and unwilling to be captured, Hitler shot himself in the head while his longtime companion, Eva Braun—whom he had married the day before—took poison. Their bodies were partially burned by aides in the garden of the Reich Chancellery, following Hitler’s instructions. The remains were later discovered by Soviet forces. The Soviet Union kept many details of the discovery classified, but among the key evidence preserved was Hitler’s jawbone, which was used to confirm his identity. Despite occasional conspiracy theories claiming he escaped, the consensus among historians is that Hitler died in Berlin in 1945.

Details

Adolf Hitler chancellor and dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, committed suicide via a gunshot to the head on 30 April 1945 in the Führerbunker in Berlin after it became clear that Germany would lose the Battle of Berlin, which led to the end of World War II in Europe. Eva Braun, his longtime companion and wife of one day, also committed suicide by cyanide poisoning. In accordance with Hitler's prior written and verbal instructions, that afternoon their remains were carried up the stairs and through the bunker's emergency exit to the Reich Chancellery garden, where they were doused in petrol and burned. The news of Hitler's death was announced on German radio the next day, 1 May. Eyewitnesses who saw Hitler's body immediately after his suicide testified that he died from a self-inflicted gunshot, presumably to the temple. Otto Günsche, Hitler's personal adjutant, who handled both bodies, testified that while Braun's smelled strongly of burnt almonds – an indication of cyanide poisoning – there was no such odour about Hitler's body, which smelled of gunpowder. Dental remains found in the Chancellery garden were matched with Hitler's dental records in May 1945 and are the only portion of Hitler's body confirmed to have been found.