Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter

From the Battle for Moscow to Hitler's Bunker

Yelena Rzhevskaya

• Publisher: Greenhill Books
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781784382810
• eBook ISBN: 9781784382827
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

"By the will of fate I came to play a part in not letting Hitler achieve his final goal of disappearing and turning into a myth I managed to prevent Stalins dark and murky ambition from taking root his desire to hide from the world that we had found Hitlers corpse" - Elena Rzhevskaya"A telling reminder of the jealousy and rivalries that split the Allies even in their hour of victory, and foreshadowed the Cold War"- Tom Parfitt, The GuardianOn May 2,1945, Red Army soldiers broke into Hitlers bunker. Rzhevskaya, a young military interpreter, was with them. Almost accidentally the Soviet military found the charred remains of Hitler and Eva Braun. They also found key documents: Bormann's notes, the diaries of Goebbels and letters of Magda Goebbels.Rzhevskaya was entrusted with the proof of the Hitlers death: his teeth wrenched from his corpse by a pathologist hours earlier. The teeth were given to Rzhevskaya because they believed male agents were more likely to get drunk on Victory Day, blurt out the secret and lose the evidence. She interrogated Hitler's dentist's assistant who confirmed the teeth were his.Elenas role as an interpreter allowed her to forge a link between the Soviet troops and the Germans. She also witnessed the civilian tragedy perpetrated by the Soviets. The book includes her diary material and later additions, including conversations with Zhukov, letters of pathologist Shkaravsky, who led the autopsy, and a new Preface written by Rzhevskaya for the English language edition.Rzhevskaya writes about the key historical events and everyday life in her own inimitable style. She talks in depth of human suffering, of bittersweet victory, of an author's responsibility, of strange laws of memory and unresolved feeling of guilt.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Plates
• Foreword by Roger Moorhouse
• Introduction: The Documents Speak
• 1 Into the Unknown: Moscow, 1941
• 2 The Paths of War: Russia, 1942–3
• 3 A Distant Thunder: Europe, 1945
• 4 Last Days: Berlin, May 1945
• 5 Talking to Zhukov: Moscow, 1965
• 6 Things Lyuba is too Young to Remember
• 7 Things We Should Never Forget
• Epilogue by Lyuba Summ
• Plate section