Adolf Hitler's possible monorchism

Adolf Hitler with Eva Braun and their dogs at the Berghof, Bavaria in June 1942.

The possibility that Adolf Hitler had only one testicle has been a fringe subject among historians and academics researching the German leader. The rumour may be an urban myth, possibly originating from the contemporary British military song "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball". Nevertheless, research, eyewitness testimony and historical study have not been able to prove or disprove the suggestion.

Hitler's doctor Erwin Giesing and his personal physician Theodor Morell disregarded the idea of Hitler's monorchism and said there was nothing wrong with Hitler's testicles.^[1] In December 2015, it was reported that doctor's notes from Landsberg Prison recorded that Hitler had "right-sided cryptorchidism".^[2]

Evidence

World War I medical records

In November 2008, the discovery of an eye-witness account on how Hitler was treated after being shot on the Western Front during World War I was announced in the press. According to these reports, a former German Army Medic named Johan Jambor gave an account to a Polish priest and amateur historian, Franciszek Pawlar, in the 1960s, of how he saved Hitler's life in 1916 after a groin injury and saw that he had lost a testicle.^[3] Jambor said that as they were carrying Hitler away, they came under French fire and had to temporarily abandon him, upon which he began to scream very loudly, imploring them to come back and threatening them with court martial if they left him behind.^[4] Pawlar's record of the conversation was discovered by Pawlar's relatives and published by Polish author Grzegorz Wawoczny.^[3] According to the British tabloid Sun, a surviving friend of Jambor's, Blassius Hanczuch, has confirmed the story, adding that Jambor and his co-rescuers dubbed Hitler "screamer".^[5] Tablod Bild says that according to Jambor, "His abdomen and legs were covered in blood. Hitler was wounded in the abdomen and had lost a testicle. His first question to the doctor was: 'Can I still father children?'".^[4]

Military records show that Hitler was wounded in 1916 during the Battle of the Somme, which has been described as a wound to the groin or in the left thigh when a shell exploded in the dispatch runners' dugout.^[6] Other more recent historians, such as Ian Kershaw, conclude the wound was to Hitler's left thigh.^[6]

Prison records

In December 2015, it was reported that documents from Landsberg prison were to be released and compiled for a book. Amongst them is a note in prison doctor Josef Brinsteiner's "Aufnahmebuch" (book of arrivals at prison), who reportedly examined Hitler in 1923, saying that he had "right-sided cryptorchidism".^[7][8]

Soviet autopsy

In 1970, the Soviet autopsy on Hitler's remains was released. This document, which was allegedly compiled shortly after the conclusion of World War II on the basis of the examination of the remains claimed to be those of the Führer, stated he was monorchid. It stated:

The autopsy performed by the Red Army pathologists on Hitler's body... [produced clear] findings:

The left testicle could not be found either in the scrotum or on the spermatic cord inside the inguinal canal, or in the small pelvis[...]

Robert G. L. Waite, in his book The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler (1978), accepted the accuracy of this evidence:

Since the matter is of considerable importance to the psychological development of Hitler from infancy onward, let us pause here and come to grips with the problem of the Fuehrer's testicles. It can now be affirmed that the British Tommies were right all along in the first line of their version of the Colonel Bogey March, they were although manifestly mistaken in the last—that is to say, unless Goebbels' six children were the progeny of adoption, paternal surrogacy or some hitherto unconsidered, presumably unpalatable "Gott mit uns" form of divine intervention.^[9][10]

Because the release occurred at the height of the Cold War, its conclusions have been questioned in terms of propaganda. Journalist Ron Rosenbaum argues in his book Explaining Hitler that the Soviet autopsy of Hitler cannot be accepted as authoritative because the Führer's body was said to have been almost completely immolated after his suicide inside the Führerbunker. There were insufficient remains for any proper analysis to be conducted. Rosenbaum suggests that based on information from Hitler's own doctor and recantations by the compilers of the published form of the report, the Soviet autopsy report was a fabrication. Noted historian Ian Kershaw describes the corpses of Eva Braun and Hitler as being fully burned when the Red Army found them, with only a lower jaw with dental work identifiable as Hitler's remains.^[11]

An interview with the Soviet doctor, Lt. Col. Favst Shkaravsky, who led Hitler's autopsy is in the extras section on the DVD of the 1970s documentary series The World At War. Shkaravsky claims that those performing the autopsy unexpectedly found one testicle missing. Shkaravsky states categorically that Hitler was not shot in the head. Although since the filming of the series, the evidence has been found showing that Hitler shot himself in the right temple, and it has been shown that different versions of Hitler's fate were presented by the Soviet Union according to its political desires.^[12][13]

Song

During World War II, the song "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball" was popular among British citizens. British author Donough O'Brien says his father, Toby O'Brien, wrote an original set of lyrics in August 1939 as part of the country's official program of propaganda.^[14] This has led to the suspicion that the source of this myth stems from the British song, usually put to the tune of the Colonel Bogey March.

Modern allusions

Before finding success with Violent Femmes in the 1980s, band members Brian Ritchie and Victor DeLorenzo were members of a group called "Hitler's Missing Testis".^[15] During the 1980s, the Brisbane anarcho-punk scene included the band "Hitler's Other Testicle". They regularly played songs on the subject of Hitler's possible monorchism, including "Where Did It Go?" and "The Sadness of Autumn".

References

External links

• Graphic showing the prison doctor's note from 1923