Hitler's skull

[PAEZ]

MOSCOW, April 26 - Russia geared up on Wednesday for the 55th anniversary of the end of World War Two, a major holiday commemorating more than 20 million dead, with an exhibition featuring what experts say is part of Adolf Hitler's skull.

Officials unveiled an exhibition of artefacts entitled ``The Agony of the Third Reich -- Retribution'' with the skull fragment as centrepiece of what they hoped would provide a new vivid image for the victory of the Red Army and its Western allies.

Archivists said Hitler's dentist provided proof that the skull, recovered by the Red Army and brought to Moscow in 1946, was that of the Nazi leader, who committed suicide in his Berlin bunker as Allied forces closed in on Berlin.

``I am convinced this part of Hitler's skull is proof that Hitler got his just deserts,'' Sergei Mironenko, head of Russia's State Archives, told reporters.

``He wanted to escape retribution, but it got him. Did he really want to end his life in a bunker with a bullet hole in his skull? I don't think so.''

Documents show Hitler committed suicide, along with his mistress Eva Braun on April 30, 1945, in a bunker beneath his Berlin chancellery.

Archivists said most of his remains were kept in East Germany and cited a March 1970 note by the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee noting they were burned before land where they were stored was turned over to local authorities.

Ho genetic tests have ever been conducted on the skull, now on public display for the first time.

``This was 1945. How can you speak about genetic tests? I believe there's no point in view of our financial situation,'' said Nikolai Mikhaikin, head of central archives of the Federal Security Service, one of the successors of the Soviet-era KGB.

``I would not spend millions of dollars on such tests when we have 100 percent certain material proof that it is Hitler's skull. Dental evidence shows it is Hitler's teeth and jaw.''

VICTORY DAY A MAJOR HOLIDAY

The end of the war, during Soviet rule and since, is one of the year's major holidays, featuring parades by ageing, bemedalled veterans and documentaries outlining how Russia overcame the Nazis after four years of destructive invasion.

It is also one of the few occasions that unites virtually everyone in Russia -- unlike neighbouring ex-Soviet Ukraine, where many people fought in partisan-style bands, some with the Germans, others against both Nazi and Soviet troops.

The war generated countless stories of heroism and survival of the Nazi sweep across Soviet territory, the 900-day siege of Leningrad, the seven-month battle for Stalingrad and the march to capture Berlin.

It still arouses passions as shown by angry reaction to the conviction in Latvia of a partisan who fought on the Soviet side and was charged with killing civilians. But many who helped win the war have been reduced to poverty by post-Soviet change.

Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko said on Wednesday the main aim of government plans to mark the anniversary was to devote attention -- and money -- to the plight of war veterans often living on monthly pensions equivalent to less than $25.

The equivalent of nearly $125 million was allocated to boosting pensions, improving retirement homes and subsidising transport and telephone tariffs.

The war artefacts exhibition highlighted several documents related to the final stage of the collapse of Nazi rule.

These included photographs of Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels's six children, poisoned by their mother days before the May 8 surrender. Also featured were Goebbels' pistols and a certificate his wife earned for helping stage the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Displayed for the first time was the act of surrender, in Russian and English, signed by Soviet and Allied commanders.

``This exhibition is unique because it allows you to see the final hours and days of the Nazi criminals and that enables you to get a better understanding of the scope of victory,'' said Vladimir Kozlov, head of Russia's Federal Archives Service.

``As troops were fighting for Berlin, explosions were occurring and people were on the move, you feel what is going on in that dreadful bunker.''

17:22 04-26-00