Elena Rzhevskaya, Belarusian-born Russian writer, Died at 97

  Writer

Elena Moiseevna Rzhevskaya was born Elena Kagan on October 27, 1919 and died on April 25, 2017.

She was a writer and former Soviet war interpreter of the counter-intelligence agency SMERSH.

During April and May, 1945, Rzhevskaya participated in the Battle of Berlin.

Written in her memoirs, called in English Memories of a War-time Interpreter (Записки военного переводчика), Rzhevskaya 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.

Which only consisted of three people, Rzhevskaya being one of them.

Rzhevskaya and Gorbushin allegedly managed to find in Berlin, Käthe Heusermann, an assistant of Hugo Blaschke, Hitler’s personal dentist.

Rzhevskaya confirmed the identity of the Nazi leader.

However, the information suppressed by Joseph Stalin, who later ordered the facts not to be publicized.

Elena Rzhevskaya passed away at 97 years old.