Re: what happened to the bodies of Goebbels children?
brandon
afranzenburg wrote:
> Anyone know what happened to the bodies of the Goebbels children
after
> they were found by the Soviets?
> --
As far as I know, all the bones found in the Reich Chancellory garden,
after the forensic tests were over (corresponding to about 10 bodies
including the children, and Gen Krebs also) were put in one or two
wooden ammuntion boxes and buried in the parking lot of a Soviet
military base in Magdeburg East-Germany.
In the 1970's German media curiosity started rising about the Hitler
bones, and there were some "rumours" about it being buried near a
military base. Also there was an issue or relocating the base later in
time, in which case the parking lot would be left open to the public.
Andropov the then head of KGB ordered the digging up of the bones and
incineration. According to various cources the ashes were either dumped
in a sewer or a river. I think the children bones at least deserved a
decent burial.
--
wb6...@hotmail.com
> Anyone know what happened to the bodies of the Goebbels children
> after they were found by the Soviets?
On 1 May 1945 at approximately 8:40 PM in the Fuehrerbunker in Berlin
the 6 Goebbels children - Helga, Hilde, Helmut, Holde, Hedda, and Heide
were first administered either a strong sleeping sedative mixed
together by SS Dr. Ludwig Stumpfegger, or they were given morphine
injections by Dr. Helmut Gustav Kunz of the Reich Chancellery staff.
In the movie "Downfall" ("Der Untergang"), Stumpfegger is shown giving
Magda Goebbels mixtures of the sedative, which she gives to the
children. However, in the book "Goebbels" by Ralf Georg Reuth, Kunz is
mentioned as having given the children morphine injections. In either
case, shortly after Kunz refused to poison the children and left, Magda
was joined by Stumpfegger in the children's bedroom. When the children
were asleep, it is believed that Magda personally placed cyanide
ampoules in the children's mouths and crushed the ampoules between
their teeth. This is also how the scene is depicted in "Downfall".
After all 6 children were poisoned with cyanide, their bodies were
carried up to the Chancellery garden near the emergency exit. This
occurred probably in the morning hours of 2 May by the Russians after
clearing the Bunker and occupying it. The bodies, clothed in white
sleeping gowns, were laid side by side next to the charred corpses of
Joseph and Magda Goebbels.
The bodies of all the Goebbels, including the children, were
transported to Berlin-Buch by the 79th SMERSH unit, the unit detailed
to find Hitler in Berlin. At Buch, forensic doctors of the 1st
Belorussian Front had set up a pathology lab to do autopsies and
identify bodies. All 6 children were identified, autopsied, and
photographed on or about 9 May 1945. The bodies were then transported
to 30-32 Klausenerstrasse, Magdeburg, where they were buried in a
driveway area.
Although some sources state that the remains of the Goebbels family
were transported to Moscow (as states Reuth in "Goebbels"), I see no
evidence that the remains ever left Magdeburg between 1945 and 1970.
All of the corpses were disinterred in 1970 and, at the direction of
the KGB, the corpses were incinerated. The ashes were then transported
to a river in the proximity of Magdeburg and scattered into the river.
Tim Watkins
--