Faust Shkaravsky

Dr. Faust Iosifovich Shkaravsky (Russian: Фауст Иосифович Шкаравский; 1897–1975) was an officer and physician in the Soviet army during World War II. He was a forensic expert, most famous for overseeing an alleged autopsy of Adolf Hitler's charred remains in 1945.

Biography

Shkaravsky was born into a Jewish family in 1897 in the Ukrainian village of Kukavka (Russian: Kukovka) in Podolia Governorate of the Russian Empire (5 kilometres or 3 miles west of Vendychany in Vinnytsia Oblast) to Iosif Shkaravsky.[1] In 1925, he graduated from the Kiev State Medical Academy.[1] Prior to World War II, he worked as a civilian forensic expert in Kiev and then in the Department of Forensic Medicine in the Kiev Institute of Advanced Training of Physicians, today the P.L. Shupyk National Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education, along with Yuri Sergeyevich Sapozhnikov and Agnes M. Hamburg.

Shkaravsky served in the Soviet Red Army starting from 25 May 1941. He worked as a forensic expert at various fronts of the war. He was awarded several medals during his service, including the Order of the Red Star and the Order of the Patriotic War.[2]

Autopsy of Adolf Hitler

At the end of World War II, Shkaravsky served as chief medical examiner of the Central Front. He headed a commission of Soviet experts that examined the remains of several individuals found around the Führerbunker in Berlin, including Joseph Goebbels and his family, and allegedly including Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun.[3] This was detailed in the 1968 propaganda book The Death of Adolf Hitler.[4] The autopsy, which claims that Hitler died by cyanide poisoning instead of a gunshot, is widely dismissed by modern scholars as Soviet disinformation.[5] Soviet leader Joseph Stalin stated in 1945 that Hitler faked his death and fled to Spain or South America,[6] with the Soviets alleging that only a body double had been found.[7] Only the dental remains were confirmed to belong to Hitler.[5] Described in the book, these were sundered at the alveolar process and allegedly found loose on the body.[3][8]

In interviews for the 1970s documentary television series The World at War, Shkaravsky continued to claim that his team had examined Hitler's body, saying it tested positive for cyanide poisoning.[9][10] Mainstream Western historians such as Anton Joachimsthaler, Ian Kershaw, and Luke Daly-Groves conclude that the alleged Soviet autopsy of Hitler's remains was fraudulent in nature, perhaps even describing another body, with the exception of the authentic dental remains.[5][11] Daly-Groves opined in 2019 that Stalin's motivations for spreading disinformation remain unclear.[12]

After World War II

Shkaravsky used his expertise to help prosecute Nazi crimes connected to the Holocaust. He helped show the extent of crimes that took place in the Majdanek concentration camp.

After the war, he worked in Kiev as a medical examiner. He completed his Ph.D, Changes to the Lungs and Liver in Instances of Death by Drowning, in 1951.[1] In 1962 he retired from military service. He died in 1975.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Who's Who in Forensic Medicine". Forens (in Russian). Retrieved 27 November 2025.
  2. ^ "Shkaravsky Faust Iosifovich. Medal "For Battle Merit" — Memory of Nation".
  3. ^ a b Bezymenski, Lev (1968). The Death of Adolf Hitler (1st ed.). New York: Harcourt, Brace & World. pp. 44–47, 75, 110–114.
  4. ^ "Hitlers letzte Reise". Der Spiegel (in German). 19 July 1992. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  5. ^ a b c Joachimsthaler, Anton (2000) [1995]. The Last Days of Hitler: The Legends, The Evidence, The Truth. Translated by Helmut Bölger. London: Cassell. pp. 174, 252–253. ISBN 978-1-85409-465-0.
  6. ^ Beschloss, Michael (December 2002). "Dividing the Spoils". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  7. ^ Miller, Merle (10 August 1945). "Berlin Today". Yank, the Army Weekly. 4 (8). United States Department of War: 7.
  8. ^ Charlier, Philippe; Weil, Raphael; Rainsard, P.; Poupon, Joël; Brisard, J.C. (1 May 2018). "The remains of Adolf Hitler: A biomedical analysis and definitive identification". European Journal of Internal Medicine. 54: e10 – e12. doi:10.1016/j.ejim.2018.05.014. PMID 29779904. S2CID 29159362.
  9. ^ "The Two Deaths of Adolf Hitler". The World at War. 1975. Thames Television.
  10. ^ "Interview with Faust Iosifovich Shkaravsky". Imperial War Museums (13-minute reel). Retrieved 27 November 2025.
  11. ^ Daly-Groves, Luke (2019). Hitler's Death: The Case Against Conspiracy. Oxford, UK: Osprey. pp. 156–158. ISBN 978-1-4728-3454-6.
  12. ^ Daly-Groves, 2019, pp. 93, 157, 164.
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