10 Strange and Unexpected Things Smuggled into Strict Authoritarian Countries
10 Terrible Crimes That Are Destroying the Amazon
10 Timely Stories about Clocks
10 Magnificent Heroines Who Went Undercover to Defeat the Nazis
10 Surprising Stories Behind Famous Songs
10 Crazy Things Your Body and Brain Do (Explained)
10 Historic Instruments Worth More Than a Luxury Car
10 Crazy AI Controversies… So Far
10 Fictional Plagues We’re Glad Aren’t Real
Ten Astonishing Stories about Underwater Life
10 Strange and Unexpected Things Smuggled into Strict Authoritarian Countries
10 Terrible Crimes That Are Destroying the Amazon
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More About Us10 Timely Stories about Clocks
10 Magnificent Heroines Who Went Undercover to Defeat the Nazis
10 Surprising Stories Behind Famous Songs
10 Crazy Things Your Body and Brain Do (Explained)
10 Historic Instruments Worth More Than a Luxury Car
10 Crazy AI Controversies… So Far
10 Fictional Plagues We’re Glad Aren’t Real
10 Genuine Reasons To Consider That Hitler Really Did Escape Berlin
Like the declarations that “Elvis Presley Is Alive,” the claims that Adolf Hitler didn’t die in Berlin have continued since the announcement of his apparent death. There are many reasons for this beyond just random sightings and suspicious claims.
For example, most of us have heard and dismissed the claims of body doubles and mismatched skull fragments. Also, Hitler’s dead body has never been found. However, an intriguing argument can be made that Hitler may have faked his death and escaped from the ruins of Berlin with the help of his closest Nazi officers.
So, where might he have gone?
10 Patagonia
Home Away From Home
The Patagonia region of Argentina was known to the Nazis long before the start of World War II. Its population was made up of German immigrants and their descendants. The belief in Nazism was rife and remained so for years after the war. Even the local schools taught the same beliefs as the schools in Germany under the Third Reich.
It would make sense then that Hitler would choose Patagonia (or have it chosen for him) as a place of refuge. By the mid-1940s, reports show that the area was closed off like a cult compound, with necessities delivered from the outside once a week.[1]
Interestingly, the waters come right up to this region and are deep enough to accommodate submarines on the coast. Also, there are purposely built and strengthened airstrips commissioned by the Nazi regime years before the war’s end.
To some researchers, this is an obvious sign of preparations for an exodus of the Third Reich’s most powerful and trusted ranking officers. If that was the case, then such an exodus would surely include Hitler. We already know that many other Nazi officials found their way to this part of the world.
9 Secret Tunnel Systems
So how did Hitler get out of Berlin in the first place?
According to some researchers, Hitler used the secret tunnel system that ran under Berlin and connected to the bunker. Through various levels and connections, he and a small team emerged, largely “hidden in plain sight,” in one of the train stations. From there, they made their way to a waiting plane.[2]
Supposedly, the station used to exit the tunnel systems is known today as Luftbrucke station. While filming Hunting Hitler for The History Channel, the producers uncovered the remains of the tunnel system using special sonar equipment.
Furthermore, although the dates don’t match exactly with other researchers’ claims, these producers uncovered records of “increased activity” from a nearby runway at Tempelhof Airport on April 21, 1945. The last official sighting of Hitler had occurred one day earlier on April 20, his birthday.
8 Submarine Journeys And Evidence Of Way Stations
Canary Islands
Some of the most intriguing clues to a predetermined plan were the vast amounts of fuel and supplies stored at a purposely built way station in the Canary Islands.
It is believed that Hitler flew to Spain shortly after arriving in Denmark, with Franco offering to provide Hitler safe passage from Spain to Gibraltar and then on to the Canary Islands. From there, Hitler and Eva Braun boarded one submarine and other high-ranking Nazi officers boarded one of two others.
In a further twist, the Germans sent a group of submarines toward New York at around the same time and appeared to feed false intelligence that they were planning to launch a V-2 missile from them as one final attack on the United States. It was enough to draw the Allies’ attention to track this group of submarines in the North Atlantic, leaving the three heading to South America virtually unnoticed.[3]
7 The Numerous Sightings By Many People
There is no doubt that many so-called sightings of Hitler are merely cases of mistaken identity or even attempts to cash in on conspiracy theories. However, numerous sightings of Hitler in South America, especially in Argentina, are on record, particularly in the decade or so after the end of the war.
Even as far back as 1945, journalist Johannes Steel wrote that “Argentina is teeming with unmolested Nazi War criminals!” Since then, many people have spoken of their sightings.
In summer 1945, 15-year-old Catalina Gomero was living with the Eichhorn family, who were known supporters of Hitler. Years later, she recalled that a man had stayed with them. She both recognized and was informed by Mrs. Eichhorn that he was Adolf Hitler.
Gomero went on to say that she had memorized HItler’s voice during the four days that he stayed with the family because she was so fascinated by his presence. According to her, Hitler had continued to telephone the Eichhorns until 1962.[4]
Another known supporter of Hitler and the Nazi regime was Ante Pavelic, who escaped from Europe following the war. While working as a carpenter at Pavelic’s building site, Hernan Ancin witnessed several meetings between Hitler and Pavelic in the early 1950s.
According to many people who claimed to have seen Hitler during this time, his mustache had been shaved off and his hair was considerably grayer. Ancin also stated that the former leader of the Third Reich looked ill and in distress.
6 The ‘Almost’ Apprehension On Necochea’s Beach
On the night that Hitler is thought by many researchers to have set foot on South American soil, an Argentinian patrol unit missed an opportunity to apprehend him. A short while later, they were seemingly hot on the fuhrer’s tail, with German soldiers arrested to boot. But then the patrol unit was ordered by their superiors to stand down, forget the matter, and let their prisoners go.
So, what happened?
On the evening of July 27, 1945, the police had received reports of “unusual activity” along the coast. Flashing lights were going back and forth from the Necochea beach to a point not far from the shore.
A small police unit arrested a German man who was using Morse code to signal an unidentified vessel in the waters. They interrogated the man for most of the night. By the morning of July 28, the man had admitted to aiding a German submarine that wished to “unload” on the beach.
When more police units arrived at the spot of the apprehension later that morning, they found clear evidence that such an unloading operation had taken place. Some officers followed tire marks to a secluded farm. After contacting his superiors, the leader led his men onto the property.
According to reports, four German soldiers with submachine guns soon approached the officers. As a result, the Necochea police arrested the soldiers and held them while awaiting further instructions. Two hours later, the police were ordered to release the soldiers.[5]
Whether Hitler was at the farmhouse is open to debate. But there was certainly evidence of activity involving heavily armed German soldiers and some kind of “delivery” from a German submarine. Of course, the order to release the soldiers without any follow-up is suspicious in itself.
5 Martin Bormann
Perhaps the person of most interest in the high ranks of the Nazis was Martin Bormann. Slowly, he moved any person of influence away from Hitler during the war years and thus became Hitler’s most trusted confidant.
Bormann appears to have been the brains behind Hitler’s escape, including where he would go and how he would get there—that is, if you subscribe to the conspiracy theories. And with Bormann, there are many.
According to some researchers, Bormann made his way to Patagonia after Hitler’s resettlement there. Bormann relied on contacts within the Vatican to travel south to Italy. From there, he supposedly left Europe.
As the years went by and Hitler’s health declined, it is claimed that Bormann distanced himself from the former fuhrer. Instead of organizing a Fourth Reich, Bormann simply became a ruthless, mercenary businessman who was concerned with his personal wealth and influence. Some researchers—including Paul Manning—claimed that Bormann lived well into the early 1980s.[6]
Officially, Bormann is still missing, although a corpse discovered near Lehrter station was identified as his body in 1972. Some researchers, however, believe that this was simply a way to tie up loose ends. In his book Babylon’s Banksters, Joseph Farrell claims that Bormann was alive and well after the war and was one of the driving forces behind the first Bilderberg meeting in 1954.
4 Hitler’s Death In 1962
According to the claims of Simon Dunstan and Gerrard Williams in their book Grey Wolf, Adolf Hitler was in his seventies when he died in his bed in February 1962. He had been long abandoned by his wife, Eva, and by virtually all his Nazi henchmen.
These claims are allegedly based on the papers of Dr. Otto Lehmann, who treated Hitler in the final months of his life. The papers were reproduced in Manuel Monasterio’s book about Hitler’s life in Argentina.
According to Lehmann’s notes, Hitler’s health rapidly declined in the early weeks of 1962. The doctor often heard moans and cries of anguish and despair from the room in which Hitler spent most of his time. Supposedly, Hitler suffered a paralyzing stroke on February 12. He died the following day after falling into a coma.
Incidentally, not everyone buys into the theories that Hitler survived the war. Some people attacked Grey Wolf as an absurd fantasy.[7]
3 The Pilot Who Flew Hitler To Denmark
Earlier, we mentioned that Hitler escaped his bunker through the tunnel systems under Berlin and then continued to a waiting plane. Captain Peter Baumgart, a former Luftwaffe pilot, claimed that he flew the plane. He stated this during a trial in which he was sentenced to five years in prison for SS membership.
He maintained that he flew Hitler, Eva Braun, and several other high-ranking officers from Berlin to the Danish town of Tonder in May 1945. Upon their safe arrival, Hitler shook Baumgart’s hand and transferred a piece of paper into it. When Baumgart looked at the paper later, it was a check for 20,000 marks.[8]
The pilot was ordered to return to Berlin. Although he wasn’t sure what happened to Hitler after he left, the rumor was that Hitler had boarded a submarine bound for South America.
Baumgart had to undergo serious mental evaluation after his trial, which led most people to label him an unreliable fantasist. However, those who subscribe to this theory argue that making such a key witness “unreliable” through mental evaluation is easily achieved if there is a conspiracy to cover up the truth.
2 FBI Documents And Media Reports
Many FBI documents have become declassified since the end of World War II. Although none of them conclusively prove that Hitler escaped from Berlin, the sheer number of previous classified reports about Hitler sightings tells us that the FBI took them seriously. And these are just the ones that have been released to the public.
These reports date to the immediate aftermath of the war, suggesting that the intelligence services at least entertained the possibility that Hitler’s escape was genuine. Many newspaper reports, that were based on intelligence reports to journalists, also suggested that Hitler escaped from his bunker and arrived safely in Argentina.[9]
Incidentally, some mainstream historians blame the Soviet Union for these theories and rumors as perhaps the first acts of disinformation during the Cold War.
1 The Assistance Of Juan And Eva Peron
Some of the more unsettling claims about Hitler’s escape to Argentina concern the support he received from then-President Juan Peron and his soon-to-be wife, Eva. She was also known as “Evita,” the same woman portrayed by Madonna in a movie years later.
Juan Peron was more than sympathetic to Nazi ideology, if only for monetary gain and power. It is claimed that Eva Peron was even more enthralled.[10] She allowed fleeing Nazis safe passage into Argentina using her status and influence. In exchange, she accepted treasures, jewelry, and even money stolen from Jewish families who had been murdered in the concentration camps of Europe.
The Perons were close friends with Hitler and supposedly met with him several times following his arrival in Patagonia after the war. Perhaps this relationship explains why the Necochea police unit was ordered to stand down in July 1945 when it appeared that they were one step away from the biggest arrest of the 20th century.
Marcus Lowth is a writer at Me Time For The Mind and Me Time For The Mind on Facebook.
Read more bizarre stories about Adolf Hitler on 10 Bizarre Tales About Adolf Hitler and 10 Plans Hitler Would Have Put In Motion If The Nazis Had Won.