The Death of Hitler

The Final Word

By: Shaun Whiteside - translator, Lana Parshina, Jean-Christophe Brisard

Narrated by: Peter Noble

Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

On April 30, 1945, Hitler committed suicide in his bunker as the Red Army closed in on Berlin. Within four days the Soviets had recovered his body. But the truth about what the Russian secret services found was hidden from history, when, three months later, Stalin officially declared to Truman and Churchill that Hitler was still alive and had escaped abroad. Reckless rumors about what really happened to Hitler began to spread like wildfire and, even today, they have not been put to rest. Until now.

In 2017, after two years of painstaking negotiations with the Russian authorities, award-winning investigative journalists Jean-Christophe Brisard and Lana Parshina gained access to confidential Soviet files that finally revealed the truth behind the incredible hunt for Hitler's body.

Their investigation includes new eyewitness accounts of Hitler's final days, exclusive photographic evidence and interrogation records, and exhaustive research into the power struggle that ensued between Soviet, British, and American intelligence services. And for the first time since the end of World War II, official, cutting-edge forensic tests have been completed on the human remains recovered from the bunker graves - a piece of skull with traces of a lethal bullet, a fragment of bone, and teeth.

In The Death of Hitler - written as thrillingly as any spy novel - Brisard and Parshina debunk all previous conspiracy theories about the death of the Führer. With breathtaking precision and immediacy they penetrate one of the most powerful and controversial secret services to take listeners inside Hitler's bunker in its last hours - and solve the most notorious cold case in history.

©2018 Jean-Christophe Brisard and Lana Parshina; Translation copyright Shaun Whiteside (P)2018 Hachette Audio

Some information I knew already, others not.

An interesting take on the ultimate Soviet cover up. A must have for people assuming Hitler is still alive. This no doubt will put those theories to rest.

Actually does play out like a novel

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, half expecting it to be another half-baked exercise in speculation. (A subtitle like *The Final Word* tends to be a red flag, indicating perhaps the authors are trying a little too hard to convince us). To be honest, there is a fair share of enthusiastic amateurism (meant in the best possible way) about the book. That kind of eager willingness to tell a story beyond the restrictions of cold, scientific inquiry or rehashed historical reports. But it works. Weaving between the maze of present-day Russian bureaucracy, the reminiscences of erstwhile Soviet bureaucracy, and the account of the last days of Hitler and his entourage, it keeps the listener engaged throughout. Of particular interest was the unravelling of the motivation behind the secrecy and disinformation about the evidence.

Much Ado About Nothing

These two hardworking researchers should have written a nice article for the New Yorker Magazine. Such is the length and depth of any new material they present. The actual, truthful death of Hitler was thrown in doubt by Stalin, seventy years ago, in order to make the allies squirm. The writers here try to stoke the fires of thriller-hood with descriptions of the tension they suffer at the hands of Russian bureaucrats, hiding the facts and files from western eyes.. But this is not anything but fluff. Did he take a cynanide pill or shoot himself? No one knows. To write an entire book about what the Russian army may have discovered in Hitler's bunker is thin gruel indeed. Ten pages yes. Full book, I returned it halfway through.