Dr Caroline Sharples has provided this list of books that she referred to in her talk “Documenting the death of Adolf Hitler” given to the Friends on 1st December.
The Death of Adolf Hitler: Book List
Trevor-Roper, Hugh, Last Days of Hitler (London: Macmillan & Co, 1947) – the seminal text, although only the final chapter deals specifically with the investigation into Hitler’s fate. Subsequent editions of this book have been published but the essential text never changes.
Daly-Groves, Luke. Hitler’s Death: The Case against Conspiracy (London: Osprey Publishing, 2019) – the only academic study of the investigation into Hitler’s death to date. The emphasis is on refuting conspiracy theories about a Hitler ‘survival’.
More journalistic (excitable) accounts
(If you want to read one of these, I’d recommend Brisard as the best written, first-hand account of the search for evidence. It is a gripping tale of wrestling with the Russian authorities to gain access to their archives!)
Brisard, Jean-Christophe & Lana Parshina. The Death of Hitler: The Final Word on the Greatest Cold Case in History: The Search for Hitler’s Body (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2018).
Fest, Joachim C. Inside Hitler’s Bunker: The Last Days of the Third Reich, translated by Margot Bettauer Dembo (London: Pan, 2012).
Joachimsthaler, Anton. The Last Days of Hitler: The Legends, The Evidence, The Truth, translated by Helmut Bögler (London: Arms & Armour, 1996).
McKale, Donald M. Hitler: The Survival Myth (New York: Stein and Day, 1981).
O’Donnell, James P. The Berlin Bunker (London: Dent, 1979).
Petrova, Ada & Peter Watson. The Death of Hitler: The Final Words from Russia’s Secret Archives (London: Richard Cohen Books, 1995).
