The Murder of Adolf Hitler: The Truth About the Bodies in the Berlin Bunker - Hardcover

A sensational reinterpretation of the evidence surrounding the death of Adolf Hitler. Thomas is a forensic expert who practices and teaches surgery in Great Britain. Here he proposes a radically different scenario concerning Hitler's death. For 50 years, most of the world has accepted the account offered by Hugh Trevor-Roper in The Last Days of Hitler: Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide in the depths of the Berlin bunker, their bodies were taken outside by aides and set ablaze. The Soviets then arrived and took possession of the remains. Thomas challenges many of these points. He first offers a diagnosis of Hitler and concludes that the F hrer was suffering from the advanced stages of Parkinson's disease and showed signs of a personality disorder--probably schizophrenia. Of course, the diagnosis suffers from the fact that the physician is rendering judgment 50 years later, based on second-hand observations. But this section is the stronger part of the book. Thomas goes on to insist that the female body found in the bunker was not that of Eva Braun but a double. The ``corpse'' of Martin Borman, Hitler's personal secretary, was similarly misidentified, permitting Borman to escape to South America. The most startling and sensational claim is that Hitler did not commit suicide but was strangled by one of his servants. Thomas goes to great lengths to support his theory that an elaborate forensic fraud has been perpetrated, initially by Germans to preserve Hitler's heroic image and supported by British and Soviet intelligence. There are long passages on dental records and on how the body decomposes; yet for all its scientific objectivity, the account can offer no proof that Thomas's alternative scenario is the truth. ``Revisionist'' history without the proof; a story as entertaining, and as solid, as the supermarket tabloids. (16 pages b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Thomas, a British surgeon and author (The Murder of Rudolph Hess, 1979), uses forensic evidence from newly opened archives in the former Soviet Union and from Paraguay to reach his conclusions about the final days of Hitler and Martin Bormann. Most historians believe that Hitler committed suicide and that Eva Braun died with him. Thomas counters that Hitler was strangled by a member of his inner circle and that Eva Braun escaped. Before reaching this conclusion, Thomas examines Hitler's personality and health. He believes that the dictator had Parkinson's disease and was a borderline schizophrenic. The author spends over 75 pages on the mysterious Bormann, arguing that he escaped to South America and is buried there. Those who enjoy reading about conspiracies, mixed with forensics and the flight of Nazi war criminals, will enjoy Thomas's reasoning processes. Yet Thomas makes a few mistakes. For example, he has Gen. William J. Donovan, head of the OSS, as William O'Donovan. Thomas's book will find a readership in public libraries with large collections on World War II, but interested readers should also check the standard work on Hitler, Allan Bullock's Hitler: A Study in Tyranny (1964. rev. ed.).?Dennis L. Noble, Sequim, Wash.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.