A sensational reinterpretation of the evidence surrounding the death of Adolf Hitler. Thomas is a forensic expert who practices and teaches surgery in Great Britain. Here he proposes a radically different scenario concerning Hitler's death. For 50 years, most of the world has accepted the account offered by Hugh Trevor-Roper in The Last Days of Hitler: Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide in the depths of the Berlin bunker, their bodies were taken outside by aides and set ablaze. The Soviets then arrived and took possession of the remains. Thomas challenges many of these points. He first offers a diagnosis of Hitler and concludes that the FÅhrer was suffering from the advanced stages of Parkinson's disease and showed signs of a personality disorder--probably schizophrenia. Of course, the diagnosis suffers from the fact that the physician is rendering judgment 50 years later, based on second-hand observations. But this section is the stronger part of the book. Thomas goes on to insist that the female body found in the bunker was not that of Eva Braun but a double. The ``corpse'' of Martin Borman, Hitler's personal secretary, was similarly misidentified, permitting Borman to escape to South America. The most startling and sensational claim is that Hitler did not commit suicide but was strangled by one of his servants. Thomas goes to great lengths to support his theory that an elaborate forensic fraud has been perpetrated, initially by Germans to preserve Hitler's heroic image and supported by British and Soviet intelligence. There are long passages on dental records and on how the body decomposes; yet for all its scientific objectivity, the account can offer no proof that Thomas's alternative scenario is the truth. ``Revisionist'' history without the proof; a story as entertaining, and as solid, as the supermarket tabloids. (16 pages b&w photos, not seen)
