Talk:Monorchism

No, Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler were not monorchids. I'm doubtful about Francisco Franco, but I have to look into it more to make a definite conclusion. I don't really want to go into Napoleon because the allegations of Napoleon's monorchism are unreliable, to say the least. However, I will try to repel the rumor about Adolf Hitler.

The notion that Hitler was a monorchid arose from anti-Nazi propaganda during WWII. Although it's likely that the governments of the Allied Nations understood the rumor was unfounded, they did nothing to dispel it in hopes of humiliating Hitler and diminishing his stature as a leader. In the early 1970s, a Soviet doctor, Lt. Col. Faust Shkaravski, commented on a purported Soviet autopsy contucted on Hitler in 1945. The autopsy supposedly found that Hitler had only one testicle and suffered no gunshot to the head. The Russian autopsy is the only documentation which supports the idea that Hitler was a monorchid. However, the autopsy has largely been discredited for a number of reasons, but primarily because (1) there is reliable evidence and testimony that Hitler did suffer a self-administered gunshot to the head. (2) There is reliable evidence and testimony that Hitler's body was almost completely burned immediately after he committed suicide, and therefore would have made a conclusive autopsy extremely difficult if not impossible. (3) In October of 2009, American scientists tested a skull fragment held in the Russian State Archive, allegedly belonging to Adolf Hitler. The DNA from the skull did not match the DNA taken from a blood stain on the couch on which Hitler killed himself. Additionally, the skull is determined to have belonged to a female, meaning that either the wrong, burnt remains were examined, or the autopsy was fabricated all-together.

Other accounts supporting this rumor have surfaced. In the 1960s, a WWI army medic named Johan Jambor told an amateur historian that Hitler lost a testicle in a groin injury. The amateur historian, named Franciszek Pawlar, kept records of the conversation, but never made them public. Then, more than 40 years after the interview, relatives of the now-deceased Pawlar discovered the records, and provided them to a Polish author who published them as proof that Hitler was a monorchid. In essence, it's like gossip. Some Polish author published a 40+ year-old interview conducted by an amateur historian featuring a German army medic chronicling events more than 50 years after they took place. It's not reliable.

Hitler's alleged monorchism is just an example of how people are willing to believe all sorts of things about those they don't like. Not just individuals but governments too, are vulnerable. Hitler's medical records as taken by his personal physician show that he, in fact, had two testicles, not one. I'm not expert, and I won't pretend to be, but it's likely that Hitler's alleged monorchism was just a silly rumor started in the 1930s and spread rapidly. Eager to deface their enemy, the Allied governments spurred the rumor, eventually culminating in the 1945 Soviet autopsy. So no, Hitler was probably not a monorchid.

---MilitHist — Preceding unsigned comment added by MilitHist (talk • contribs) 00:46, 31 July 2012 (UTC)

I have heard that Hitler had this condition, is that true? There is a song in England about it. 82.29.131.35 (talk) 16:32, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Who the hell is Kevin Ryan? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.192.210.172 (talk) 05:09, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Since there is no reliable evidence either way, and the question cannot therefore be answered, it seems reasonable to assume that he either had one ball or none at all. What about Himmler ? I'm assuming that both were small innit.

Napoleon

I have read that both Napoleon and Arnold Schwarzenegger both only had one but can't find a reliable source — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.162.138.165 (talk) 07:50, 22 September 2011 (UTC)