Burial place of the bodies of Hitler, Braun, Krebs and the Goebbels family

... after undergoing the forensic medical examination and the full set of identification procedures, all the bodies were buried near the Berlin district of Buch. Due to the reorganization of the counterintelligence department "SMERS", the bodies were exhumed and first transported to the surroundings of the city of Finow and then, on 3 June 1945, to the vicinity of the city of Rathenow, where they were definitively buried. 

The bodies are placed in wooden coffins and were buried at a depth of 1.7 meters, arranged in the following order: 

from east to west: Hitler, Eva Braun, Goebbels, Magda Goebbels, Krebs, the Goebbels children.

In the western part of the grave there is also a basket containing several dog corpses, one of which belonged personally to Hitler and another to Eva Braun.

The location of the buried bodies is as follows: Germany, the region of Brandenburg, surroundings of the city of Rathenow, eastern forest of the city of Rathenow, along the road from Rathenow to Stechow, shortly before the village of Neu Friedrichsdorf, 325 meters from the railway bridge, in a forest clearing, from the stone marker with number 111 northeastward to the tetrahedral marker also marked with number 111 - 635 meters. Then from this marker in the same direction to the next tetrahedral marker, also with number 111 - 55 meters. From this third marker strictly eastward - 26 meters.

The pit containing the bodies was leveled to ground level, and young pine trees were planted on its surface forming the number 111.

The map with the indications is attached to this document.

The report was drawn up in three copies. 

1. Original of the secret report produced by Soviet counterintelligence on the secret burial of Adolf Hitler and his wife Eva Braun on 4 June 1945, in a forest near Rathenow. 
2. Original of the map drawn up by Soviet counterintelligence on 4 June 1945 indicating the place where the bodies of the Hitlers, the Goebbels family and General Krebs were buried (FSB central archive)

THE BODIES ARE MOVED TO MAGDEBURG

On 21 February 1946, the SMERS (military counterintelligence combat) units stationed in Germany moved not only Hitler's body but also that of Eva Braun, those of the Goebbels spouses (parents and children) and that of General Krebs. Until that moment, all these bodies had been buried in a small wood near the town of Rathenow. No justification was presented to the Soviet authorities.

In a declassified document, the names of the relocated Goebbels children are also listed (the son Helmut, then the daughters Hildegard, Heidrun, Holdine and Hedwig; only five of the six children are mentioned - Helga, the eldest daughter, is missing.

...All the bodies, already decomposed and putrefied, were placed in wooden coffins and transported in this condition to the city of Magdeburg, to the headquarters of the SMERS counterintelligence department, where they were buried again. Their burial site is located at a depth of 2 meters, in the courtyard of the building at 36 Westendstrasse, near the southern stone wall, 25 meters from the garage of the house located to the east.

The pit containing the bodies was filled with earth. Leveled to ground level, it took on an appearance similar to the surrounding terrain. ...

In the spring of 1970, the group of bodies buried in Magdeburg under the control of counterintelligence was definitively destroyed. A decision taken at the highest levels of the state.

Purpose of the operation: to recover and physically destroy the remains belonging to war criminals buried in Magdeburg on 21 February 1946 at the military compound near the building at 36 Westendstrasse

Why decide, 25 years after the fall of the Third Reich, to destroy these skeletons? 

The geopolitical world was becoming bipolar: on one side the capitalist camp led by the United States, on the other the communist camp led by the USSR. At that time, Moscow officially continued to deny being in possession of Hitler's body. Operation Archive took shape within this complex geopolitical context. Secrecy had to remain absolute. The Kremlin distrusted everyone. 

Unique copy of the report on the successful completion of Operation Archive conducted by the KGB. It is dated 5 April 1970 and is preserved in the FSB archives in Moscow.

Following the plan of Operation Archive, the special group, composed of the head of the KGB special unit at the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 92626, Colonel Kovalenko N.G., and the members of the same unit, Commander Sirokov V.L. and Senior Lieutenant Gumenuk V.G., on 5 April 1970 carried out the combustion of the remains of the war criminals after extracting them from their burial place located near a building of the military compound at 36 Westendstrasse.

The destruction of the remains was carried out by burning them on a pyre lit on abandoned land near the city of Schönebeck, 11 km from Magdeburg.

The remains were burned, reduced to ashes by means of charcoal, collected and thrown into the Biderin River, as confirmed by this report.

Head of the KGB Special Unit No. 92626

Taken from the book: The Last Mystery of Hitler