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Possible monorchism of Adolf Hitler

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The claim that Adolf Hitler had only one testicle has been scrutinized by historians, although a 1923 medical report claims that his right testicle was undescended.

Hitler's doctors denied that he was monorchid, but he often refused to undress for exams. An alleged Soviet autopsy published in 1968 claims that Hitler's left testicle was missing, but is most likely disinformation; only the dictator's dental remains have been positively identified.

Evidence

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World War I

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Military records show that Hitler was wounded in 1916 during the Battle of the Somme, which some have described as a wound to the groin[citation needed] when a shell exploded in the dispatch runners' dugout.[1] Historian Ian Kershaw states that the wound was to the left thigh.[1]

In the 1960s (after Hitler was culturally associated with monorchism, e.g. via song),[2] Polish priest Franciszek Pawlar recorded the alleged account of former German Army medic Johan Jambor, who claimed that he helped bring Hitler to safety after he was injured on the Somme.[3][4] The tabloid Bild quotes 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] Pawlar's writing was discovered by a relative, purportedly confirmed by a friend of Jambor's, and published in 2008.[4]

Nazi era

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Documents from Landsberg Prison (where Hitler was held after his failed Beer Hall Putsch) were released starting in December 2015. A note in the Aufnahmebuch (book of arrivals at prison) by prison doctor Josef Brinsteiner, who reportedly examined Hitler in 1923, states that he had "right-sided cryptorchidism".[5][6][7][8][9]

Hitler's doctor Erwin Giesing [de] and his personal physician Theodor Morell disregarded the idea of Hitler's monorchism and said there was nothing wrong with his testicles.[10] However, the dictator often refused to undress for medical exams.[11]

Alleged Soviet autopsy

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See also: Death of Adolf Hitler

In 1968, Soviet journalist Lev Bezymenski published his book The Death of Adolf Hitler. He describes a purported Soviet forensic examination and published the alleged autopsy[12] led by Faust Shkaravsky (who repeated his claims in interviews for the 1970s documentary series The World at War).[13][14][15][16] The book states that:

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

This prompted Robert G. L. Waite, in his book The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler (1978) to write that he found it likely that the dictator was monorchid:

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, [etc].[17][18]

The alleged autopsy claims that Hitler died by cyanide poisoning (with no physical evidence of a gunshot) after Joseph Stalin had claimed in 1945 that Hitler escaped.[13][19] Historian Anton Joachimsthaler and journalist Ron Rosenbaum[20] repeat American jurist Michael Musmanno's 1950 argument that Hitler's body was almost completely reduced to ashes,[21] although according to historian Hugh Trevor-Roper and certain scientific studies, bones survive even indoor cremation.[22] Regardless, the Soviet book is widely derided, even by its author, as propaganda,[23] with one German pathologist saying that the alleged autopsy "describes anything but Hitler".[24] Only Hitler's dental remains (a maxillar bridge and a mandibular fragment sundered around the alveolar process) were positively identified.[25][26] Summarizing mainstream historians, Luke Daly-Groves concludes that the Soviets did not find the rest of Hitler's body.[27]

DNA

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In 2025, a Channel 4 documentary detailed the DNA profiling of blood on the sofa where eyewitnesses found Hitler’s body. The results suggested that he likely suffered from Kallmann syndrome. This disorder hinders puberty and increases the chance of cryptorchidism.[28][29]

See also

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References

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Citations

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  1. ^ a b Kershaw 2008, p. 57.
  2. ^ Donough O'Brien, Fringe Facts, 2000, archived at the Wayback Machine, 14 March 2001.
  3. ^ German Medic's Account Confirms Hitler Had Only One Testicle The Sun (19 November 2008)– via Fox News. Retrieved on 13 November 2025.
  4. ^ a b c "Adolf Hitler: Sein Lebensretter lebte Jahrzehnte in Angst, weil er von der peinlichen Hodenverletzung wusste". Bild (in German). 19 November 2008. Archived from the original on 20 August 2010. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  5. ^ Hitler really did have only one testicle, German researcher claims The Guardian 19 December 2015
  6. ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff (18 December 2015). "Adolf Hitler litt unter angeborener Missbildung an seinen Hoden - DIE WELT". DIE WELT.
  7. ^ "Hitler really did have just one ball: historian". thelocal.de. 18 December 2015. Archived from the original on 25 April 2025. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
  8. ^ Ullrich, Volker (30 September 2013). Hitler: Ascent: 1889-1939. Knopf Doubleday Publishing. p. 1034. ISBN 9781101872055.
  9. ^ Jordans, Frank (22 December 2015). "Records show Hitler enjoyed special treatment in prison". Seattle Times.
  10. ^ Waite, Robert G.L. The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler, Basic Books, N.Y.C., 1977, pp. 150–152
  11. ^ Fuchs, Thomas (February 2000). A Concise Biography of Adolf Hitler. Penguin. ISBN 978-1-101-12737-7.
  12. ^ Joachimsthaler 1999, p. 174.
  13. ^ a b Eberle & Uhl 2005, p. 288.
  14. ^ Kershaw 2008, p. 955.
  15. ^ Joachimsthaler 1999, pp. 160–182.
  16. ^ Fest 2004, pp. 116, 163–164.
  17. ^ Waite, Robert (22 March 1993). The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler - Robert G. L. Waite - Google Books. Hachette Books. ISBN 9780306805141. Retrieved 25 June 2014.
  18. ^ Waite, Robert G.L. (1993). The psychopathic god : Adolf Hitler (Da Capo Press paperback ed., Unabr. republication of the ed. first publ. in New York, Basic Books, in 1977 / with the add. of a new foreword by the author and some emendations ed.). New York: Da Capo Press. pp. 150–152. ISBN 978-0306805141.
  19. ^ Kershaw 2001, p. 1037.
  20. ^ Explaining Hitler (1998)
  21. ^ Musmanno, Michael A. (1950). Ten Days to Die. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. pp. 231–32, 234, 236, 238–39, 242–43.
  22. ^ Multiple sources:
  23. ^ "Hitlers letzte Reise". Der Spiegel (in German). 19 July 1992. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  24. ^ Joachimsthaler 1999, pp. 252–253.
  25. ^ Kershaw 2008, p. 958.
  26. ^ 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.
  27. ^ Daly-Groves 2019, pp. 157–158.
  28. ^ Evans, Holly (12 November 2025). "Hitler had a genetic sexual disorder, new DNA analysis reveals". The Independent. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  29. ^ "Kallmann syndrome". Genetics Home Reference. US Library of Medicine. National Institutes for Health. Genetic and Rare Diseases Information. 26 June 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2025.

Bibliography

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