Legendary nude photos of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler taken by Eva Braun, long thought to have been lost, were found in a mysterious locked chest in Stuttgart on Monday. The photos had been the subject of intense speculation after several former Nazi generals including Heinrich Himmler mentioned them during testimony at the Nuremberg Trials. Historians had largely given up hope that the pictures would ever be seen, and many assumed that they had been burned by Soviet troops in the Berlin bunker where Hitler and Braun committed suicide on the morning of April 30, 1945.

The grainy photographs, which feature scenes of the Fuhrer posing in the buff in front of a number of different backdrops, have generally been described by those fortunate enough to have seen them as invaluable historical treasures. However, Dr. Peter Maxwell, history chair at Hamburg University commented to the AP, perhaps a bit disappointedly, that they "do not paint a flattering portrait of Mein Fuhrer."

One photo apparently shows a dissheveled Hitler lying nude on a floral bedspread, his withered legs spread apart, and what appears to be a shriveled masculine organ dangling limply between his thighs. Yet another photo has the Nazi leader ostensibly passed out on his stomach and a shiny object being inserted into his rectum by an unidentified hand. However, the photo of most interest to historians is said to depict Hitler at his most vulnerable; the uncovered leader of Germany staring blankly at the camera, pouting slightly, holding a crucifix in his left palm, and gently covering his atrophied genitalia with his saluting hand.

The photos are currently being pored over by an elite team of urological historians and World War II experts from across the world at Stuttgart's Brandenheim University. A spokesperson for the team told reporters that the Hitler nude photos would be released to the public later this month.

The photos were found in a locked chest belonging to a former low-level SS officer whose possessions were auctioned off by Christie's of London after his death in 2004. The box, which had remained unopened at the time of the sale, was purchased by a Swiss millionaire for $20,000, and sat untouched in a garage for 6 months before the photographs were discovered.