Nazi leader Herman Goring's wife's remains identified

Washington, December 22 (ANI): The putative remains of Carin Goring, wife of Nazi leader Herman Goring, were found in 1991 at a site close to where she had been buried, and researchers have now presented evidence supporting that it is her remains that have been identified.

The Swedish Carin Goring, who was married to the well-known Nazi leader Herman Goring, was buried in Stockholm when she died in 1931, but three years later Herman had her remains moved to his residence Karinhall outside Berlin.

At the end of the war, Karinhall was destroyed, and thereafter it was unclear what had happened to her remains.

In 1951 skeletal parts were found that were thought to come from Carin, and they were cremated and buried in Sweden. Forty years later, in 1991, treasure hunters found a casket with remains that could also be Carin.

They were sent to Sweden and the National Board of Forensic Medicine for identification.

In a recently published article, Marie Allen and her acssociates from Uppsala University together with Anna Kjellstrom at the Stockholm University, have now examined the remains to determine if they can come from Carin.

Analyses of the total of 26 bones showed that they are from an adult woman. DNA analyses confirmed that they are from a woman.

The researchers then performed two kinds of genetic analyses. A comparison of so-called mitochondrial DNA evinced identical DNA sequences between the skeleton and Carin's son, indicating a mother-child relationship.

"The variant of mitochondrial DNA we saw in the bones is a relatively common one, occurring in about 10 per cent of all Europeans. Therefore we went on to study nuclear DNA," Allen said.

Analyses of DNA from cell nuclei is difficult if the DNA is degraded, which is often the case in skeletons that have been buried. Nevertheless, the scientists managed to analyse several places in the nuclear DNA and thereby show probable mother-son kinship.

"The results of our anthropological and genetic analyses, together with historical data, provides several pieces of evidence in the identification of the remains of the former Nazi leader Hermann Goring's wife, Carin Gring," Allen said.

Carin Goring has now been reburied.

The study has been published online in the journal PLoS ONE. (ANI)