Ewald Lindloff Ewald Lindloff ( 27 September 1908 – 2 May 1945 ) was a " Waffen - SS " officer , who rose to the rank of SS - " Hauptsturmführer " during World War II . Lindloff was present in the " Führerbunker " on 30 April 1945 , when Hitler shot himself . Thereafter , he was placed in charge of disposing of Hitler ' s remains . Lindloff was later killed during the break - out on 2 May 1945 while crossing the Weidendammer Bridge under heavy fire in Berlin . Biography . Ewald Lindloff was born in Stuba near Danzig . Lindloff attended engineering college during the years 1928 to 1933 . He joined the " Schutzstaffel " ( SS ) on 1 May 1932 . On 15 July 1933 , Lindloff was accepted into the " Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler " ( LSSAH ) . He married Ilse Borchert , a secretary for Hitler ' s staff officers on 4 February 1938 . He was promoted to the officer rank of SS - " Untersturmführer " on 30 January 1941 . From 20 October 1942 until 10 May 1943 , Lindloff was on active combat duty with the LSSAH . He was promoted to the rank of SS - " Obersturmführer " on 9 November 1941 ; and promoted to SS - " Hauptsturmführer " ( captain ) on 30 January 1945 . Berlin . Later in April 1945 , he was a member of the " Leibstandarte " ( LSSAH ) Guard Battalion ( assigned to guard the " Führer " ) in Berlin . Lindloff was present in the " Führerbunker " on the afternoon of 30 April 1945 , when Hitler shot himself and Eva Braun ended her life by taking cyanide . Afterwards , Lindloff , Hans Reisser , Peter Högl and Heinz Linge carried Hitler ' s blanket - wrapped corpse up the stairs to ground level and through the bunker ' s emergency exit to the bombed - out garden behind the Reich Chancellery . The lifeless bodies of Hitler and Braun were doused with petrol . After the first attempts to ignite the petrol did not work , Linge went back inside the bunker and then returned with a thick roll of papers . Martin Bormann lit the papers and threw the torch onto the bodies . As the two corpses caught fire , a small group , including Otto Günsche , Bormann , Högl , Linge , Lindloff , Reisser and Joseph Goebbels raised their arms in Nazi salute as they stood just inside the bunker doorway . After the salute , the men went back inside the bunker complex . Approximately 30 minutes later , SS - " Sturmbannführer " Günsche ordered Lindloff to go and see how far the cremation had progressed and to bury the remains in the Chancellery garden ; thus attempting to keep Hitler ’ s remains from being captured by the Soviet Red Army . Lindloff went out and checked on the situation . He reported back to Günsche that the bodies were " already charred and torn open " . The corpses " were in a horrible condition " in no small part due to the detonation of Soviet artillery . On and off during the afternoon the Soviets shelled the area in and around the Reich Chancellery . SS guards brought over additional cans of petrol to further burn the corpses . Just after 18 : 30 hours , Lindloff reported to Günsche that he had carried out his orders as to the disposal of the remains with the aid of SS - " Obersturmführer " Hans Reisser . By 30 April 1945 , the Soviet Army was less than 500 metres from the bunker complex . In one of Hitler ' s last orders , he had given permission for the Berlin forces to attempt a breakout of the Soviet encirclement after his death . General Helmuth Weidling , commander of the Berlin Defence Area , and SS - " Brigadeführer " Wilhelm Mohnke , the ( " Kommandant " ) Battle Commander for the centre government district , devised a plan to escape out from Berlin to the Allies on the western side of the Elbe or to the German Army to the North . Mohnke split up the Reich Chancellery and " Führerbunker " soldiers and personnel into ten main groups . Lindloff left the Reich Chancellery as part of one of the groups attempting to break out . After midnight on 2 May 1945 , Lindloff was part of a large group of German soldiers and civilians who crossed the Weidendammer Bridge while under heavy fire from Soviet tanks and guns . Lindloff and Högl were both killed during the crossing of the bridge . Lindloff was age 36 .