Elena Rzhevskaya

Who is Elena Rzhevskaya?

Elena Moiseevna Rzhevskaya is a writer and former Soviet war interpreter of the counter-intelligence agency SMERSH. In April and May, 1945, she participated in the Battle of Berlin. According to her memoirs, called in English Memories of a War-time Interpreter, she was a member of the Soviet unit searching for Adolf Hitler in the ruins of the Reich Chancellery. The Führer's corpse was, according to her own words, found by soldier Ivan Churakov on 4 May 1945. Four days later, on 8 May, Colonel Vassily Gorbushin gave her a small box that allegedly contained Hitler's jawbones. During the identification of the corpse, the Soviet team worked in top secret conditions. It consisted of only three people, Rzhevskaya being one of them. She and Gorbushin allegedly managed to find in Berlin, Käthe Heusermann, an assistant of Hugo Blaschke, Hitler's personal dentist. She confirmed the identity of the Nazi leader. The information was, however, suppressed by Joseph Stalin, who later ordered the facts not to be publicized.