HITLER’S DEATH

Southland Times, Issue 25666, 8 May 1945, Page 4

HITLER’S DEATH

HAEMORRHAGE NOT LIKELY CAUSE

(Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, May 6. Major Erwin Giesing, the doctor who examined Hitler after the bomb attempt last July and regularly since to February 15, believes it most unlikely that Hitler died, from a cerebral haemorrhage as Himmler has suggested, says the correspondent of The Times in Bavaria. Major Giesing said: “He was sound in the heart and lungs, and above the average health for a man of 56 years. His condition could not have deteriorated in 10 weeks as to make a cerebral haemorrhage possible.”

When Major Giesing was summoned to examine Hitler and the 21 members of the General Staff injured in the bomb incident, he noticed that Hitler was unable to hear the higher harmonics of the violins in the overture to Wagner’s “Lohengrin.” His impaired hearing made it difficult for him to control his voice, and he spoke loudly. Major Giesing found that Hitler’s eardrums were perforated by the explosion, which tore his trousers to shreds and caused superficial injuries to his hands and legs. When Major Giesing last saw Hitler he noticed that the Fuhrer had lost some of his weight, and he was pale. Hitler said that the war was going badly, and he added that if the worst happened he would fall leading troops in battle. Major Giesing asked whether he should evacuate his family from Dusseldorf, but Hitler assured him that they were safe there because the west wall was unvulnerable. Major Giesing commented: “To Hitler, everything was possible; that was his and Germany’s undoing.” Major Giesing’s account of the bomb incident shows that the course of history might have been different if July 20, 1944, had not been a hot day at Hitler’s headquarters. The windows were wide open, so that the blast from the bomb dissipated. Major Giesing is probably the only man who could positively identify Hitler’s body. He has X-ray photographs of Hitler’s teeth and ears, and knows the exact position of the scars caused by the bomb.