Danbury Library Blog

Recently I saw a fascinating documentary on the History Channel which was entitled "Hitler's Death." It was an in-depth look at the forensic evidence surrounding the death of Hitler in the bunker in April of 1945. The major reporter for this documentary was Nick Bellantoni. I knew I recognized his name and then realized that he is the Connecticut State Archeologist as well as an adjunct professor of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut. He visited Berlin and Moscow in order to review the forensic evidence. The Russians were the first to enter the bunker after Hitler's death. In the Moscow State Archive the Russians had a fragment of skull which they claimed had come from Hitler's brain and a bloodstained fragment from Hitler's sofa. Bellantoni was able to examine the brain fragment and sofa fragment in Moscow. He was able to take a swab of the blood on the sofa and took photographs of the skull fragment. He took these findings back to his laboratory at the University of Connecticut and had a team of scientists examine them. His findings were surprising. The skull DNA was female and also from a younger person. It could not possibly have been from Hitler. The blood on the sofa was from a male but could not be identified as Hitler's. The result is a mystery reopened and the possibility that Hitler did not die in the bunker. And Connecticut is at the center of it all. An interesting story about Hitler's possible survival is The Portage to San Cristobal of A. H. by George Steiner.