The Long Death of Adolf Hitler: An Investigative History

Caroline Sharples

The Long Death of Adolf Hitler: An Investigative History

Caroline Sharples

Research output: Book/Report › Book › peer-review

Abstract

Adolf Hitler has taken a long time to die, despite the lethal efficiency of the gun he put to his head in April 1945. Although eagerly anticipated around the world, there were no available witnesses to his suicide—and his corpse was not put on display. This created the perfect vacuum for myth and survival legends, while rival intelligence agencies and propaganda further confounded the investigations of successive historians.

This book explores the aftermath of events at the Führerbunker in the first cultural account of this decisive yet elusive moment. Hitler’s death was widely anticipated, and the news elicited a huge range of emotions as governments and secret services scrambled to verify what they heard. The search for proof of death led to an outpouring of conspiratorial thinking, and the final moments of Hitler’s life have been reimagined ever since.

Original language	English
Place of Publication	London & New Haven
Publisher	Yale University Press
Number of pages	336
ISBN (Electronic)	9780300289657
ISBN (Print)	9780300284911
Publication status	Published - 10 Mar 2026

Keywords

Adolf Hitler
Death
Memory
National Socialism
Cultural History

Cite this

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