Hitler now “chief suspect” in niece’s death, German historian says

A German historian says new evidence challenges the 95-year-old official verdict that Adolf Hitler’s niece, Geli Raubal, died by suicide in 1931.

Harald Sandner told The Telegraph he found a death certificate placing the discovery of the 23-year-old’s body 24 hours earlier than previously known. Officially, Hitler’s servant, Georg Winter, found her body in Hitler’s Munich apartment on Sept 19, after Hitler had left for Nuremberg the previous afternoon, an alibi that appeared to exonerate him. Police never conducted a post-mortem.

Sandner argues the actual time of death must have been in the early hours of Sept 18 or the night before. He claimed the Munich police might have conspired with the Nazi party to protect its leader. He will publish his findings in a book in November.

However, Hitler historian Heike Görtemaker said she was “not convinced”. She believes the discrepancy is likely a transcription error, noting that eight witnesses corroborated a death on the afternoon of Sept 18 and that Munich’s police chief, an opponent of Hitler, would have seized the chance to arrest him.