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Luke Daly-Groves

Luke Daly-Groves is an English historian and author who wrote the 2019 book Hitler's Death: The Case Against Conspiracy.[1]

Hitler's Death (2019)

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Daly-Groves became fascinated with Hitler's death during his teenage years,[2] eventually leading to his 2015 dissertation,[3] providing the basis of his 2019 book, Hitler's Death: The Case Against Conspiracy. It sets out to re-affirm that Hitler died in 1945 and refutes claims of his surviving the end of World War II in Europe.[2] Daly-Groves cites recently declassified (and thus previously unexplored) British intelligence documents, which demonstrate that Hugh Trevor-Roper did not work in isolation in coming to the initial British conclusion that Hitler indeed died on 30 April 1945.[4][a] Daly-Groves takes a similar viewpoint as Michael Musmanno,[6] Anton Joachimsthaler, Joachim Fest and Ian Kershaw that Hitler's body was not discovered due to its being burnt to near ashes, with an alleged Soviet autopsy of his remains apparently being fraudulent and only his dental remains known to have been found.[7] (Contrarily, Trevor-Roper and Alan Bullock argue, in line with certain scientific studies, that bone withstands even indoor cremation.)[8][9][10] Daly-Groves also acknowledges 2009 DNA analysis which revealed that a skull fragment with gunshot damage, long claimed by Russian officials to belong to Hitler, actually belonged to a woman.[11] Further, Daly-Groves argues in favor of debunking conspiracy theories via objective analysis as opposed to dismissing their specific claims outright, saying the latter approach has weakened refutations of such theories, some of which cite exceptional documentary evidence.[12]

The book includes novelly published diagrams showing where Reichssicherheitsdienst (RSD) guard Hermann Karnau claimed he saw Hitler's remains buried in the Reich Chancellery garden, as if it were adjacent to the bunker itself,[13][3] as well a diagram based on the testimony of RSD guard Erich Mansfeld, who said he was in the guard tower when he saw two bodies burning several metres to the north-northwest and that he thought the bodies were later buried in a bomb crater a few metres further northwest.[14][b] Daly-Groves claims Karnau's map "closely matches" Soviet diagrams[15][c] and cites a diagram by Chancellery guard Hilco Poppen which he says supports Karnau's scheme;[16][d] however, both uniquely lack specificity as to the Chancellery layout, with Karnau also omitting the burning site.[13][e] In 1945, an excavation team led by United States intelligence officer William F. Heimlich referenced Karnau's "rather sketchy map" in an unsuccessful hunt for evidence of Hitler's remains.[13] Heimlich later disregarded both Karnau and Mansfeld as lacking knowledge of the bunker layout.[19] Citing declassified U.S. Army intelligence files, Daly-Groves points that some information about investigations of Hitler's death was withheld from Heimlich "because higher-ranking American intelligence officers were aware that he was attempting to capitalise on sensational rumours" of Hitler's survival.[20]

Daly-Groves notes that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's motivations in claiming Hitler's survival remain unclear, with most commentators asserting that he intended to secure disputed areas of West Germany on the basis that they would be safer under Soviet control if, somehow, Hitler returned. Alternatively, Stalin may have wished to override political underlings such as Marshal Georgy Zhukov (who had said that Hitler was dead) or motivate his totalitarian Communist forces (as claimed 72 years earlier in the U.S. book Who Killed Hitler?), with the possibility of even leveraging attacks on nations ostensibly harboring Hitler. Daly-Groves argues that significant documentation likely remains unexplored in the Russian archives, the release of which could end decades of speculation.[21] Additionally, the book includes over 20 images, including cleaned, high-resolution scans[f] of the Soviet photographs of Hitler and Braun's alleged burnt corpses.[22]

References

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ Daly-Groves notes that National Archives material related to MI6 activities in Germany in 1945 remains classified.[5]
  2. ^ Though not drawn by him, the diagram based on Mansfeld's statements visualises the bunker exit almost as far west as Hermann-Göring-Straße, omitting a large park between those two areas.[15]
  3. ^ One of these was a photograph SS-Rottenführer Harry Mengershausen used to specify the burning and burials sites to the Soviets, which is close to the location given by Mansfeld.[15]
  4. ^ Poppen's diagram vaguely relates a burial several metres to the northwest of the burning site (in fact agreeing with Mansfeld), but disregarding any locational reference to the bunker grounds.
  5. ^ Karnau made numerous contradictory statements as to the burnings, including the date and time, as well as the various states in which he ostensibly saw the remains.[17][18]
  6. ^ Compared to those published by Soviet journalist Lev Bezymenski in 1968 and 1982

Citations

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  1. ^ "Authors :: Luke Daly-Groves". Andrew Lownie Literary Agency. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  2. ^ a b Daly-Groves 2019, pp. xvii, 173.
  3. ^ a b Daly-Groves, Luke (January 2016). "The Death of Adolf Hitler: British Intelligence, Soviet Accusations and Rumours of Survival". ResearchGate. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  4. ^ Daly-Groves 2019, pp. xvii, 16, 29, 163.
  5. ^ Daly-Groves 2019, pp. 164, 216.
  6. ^ Musmanno, Michael A. (1950). Ten Days to Die. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. p. 233.
  7. ^ Daly-Groves 2019, pp. 156–158.
  8. ^ Trevor-Roper, Hugh (2002) [1947]. The Last Days of Hitler (7th ed.). London: Pan Macmillan. p. 182. ISBN 978-0-330-49060-3.
  9. ^ Bullock, Alan (1962) [1952]. Hitler: A Study in Tyranny. New York: Konecky & Konecky. p. 800. ISBN 978-1-56852-036-0.
  10. ^ Multiple sources:
  11. ^ Daly-Groves 2019, p. 158, 215.
  12. ^ Daly-Groves 2019, pp. 9–10, 15, 23–24.
  13. ^ a b c Daly-Groves 2019, pp. 138–139.
  14. ^ Daly-Groves 2019, pp. 142–143.
  15. ^ a b c Vinogradov, V. K.; Pogonyi, J. F.; Teptzov, N. V. (2005). Hitler's Death: Russia's Last Great Secret from the Files of the KGB. Chaucer Press. pp. 67, 80–81. ISBN 978-1-904449-13-3.
  16. ^ Daly-Groves 2019, pp. 140–141.
  17. ^ Moore & Barrett 1947, pp. 135, 155–156, 159–160.
  18. ^ Joachimsthaler 2000, pp. 213–214.
  19. ^ Moore & Barrett 1947, pp. iii, 114.
  20. ^ Daly-Groves 2019, p. 15.
  21. ^ Daly-Groves 2019, pp. 93, 164.
  22. ^ Daly-Groves 2019, plate 13.

Sources

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