> I don't get this fascination with hunting down the truth behind a single person. He died, whether then or 20 years later, case closed. It's significant beca

> I don't get this fascination with hunting down the truth behind a single person. He died, whether then or 20 years later, case closed. It's significant because it gives us a rare insight into Mr Hitler's late-war psychology. The traditional story, at least in the English-speaking West, was that he finally realised that he had failed himself and Germany and took his own life to escape the inevitable wrath of the Soviets. An alternative narrative that I have encountered is that he saw the whole conflict as a competition between national character. He felt that the majority of the German people had failed him and Germany, in which case it is difficult to understand why he would have committed suicide.