A fragment of skull that is said to be part of the remains of Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler has been put on display as part of a historic exhibit in Moscow. The show is part of Russia's State Archive's centenary celebrations.
The piece of skull will be showcased until January 31. Among other items shown to the public are the bullets and bayonets the Bolsheviks used to execute the country’s last monarch Nicholas II and his family in 1918.
New website Life.ru quoted archive officials as saying that the skull fragment is part of the “supposed remains of Hitler.” The exhibit also contains Soviet classified documents from the investigation into the Nazi leader’s death.
Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945 just days before Soviet troops captured Berlin, effectively ending World War II in Europe. His body had been doused with gasoline and burned.
Hitler’s remains were buried in Magdeburg, Germany in 1946, but the Soviet government grew concerned that the burial site could become a shrine for Hitler’s followers, so it secretly exhumed the grave in 1970 and destroyed its contents. Moscow decided to keep the fragments of the skull and jaws that had been used to identify the Nazi leader.
Over the years, speculation has evolved about the authenticity of the suicide story. In 2009, American researchers claimed that the skull fragment showcased in the Russian capital did not actually belong to Hitler. The head of the archives of Russia’s Federal Security Service (the successor of the KGB), Vasily Hristoforov, however, said at the time that the Soviet forensic investigation had clearly established that the remains that are now kept in Moscow are of the Nazi leader.
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