1 00:00:05,708 --> 00:00:08,167 (tense music) 2 00:00:08,292 --> 00:00:12,000 - Tonight, one of the most notorious dictators in history. 3 00:00:12,083 --> 00:00:14,792 A man who led Germany into World War II. 4 00:00:14,875 --> 00:00:16,000 - You could go down the line. 5 00:00:16,083 --> 00:00:18,833 Mass murderer, destroyer of cities, 6 00:00:18,875 --> 00:00:20,083 destroyer of life. 7 00:00:20,167 --> 00:00:22,167 Basically, anything terrible 8 00:00:22,292 --> 00:00:23,375 you wanna say about Hitler 9 00:00:23,458 --> 00:00:25,083 would probably be accurate. 10 00:00:25,208 --> 00:00:27,458 - Most historians agree that Hitler perished 11 00:00:27,542 --> 00:00:30,125 as the War in Europe came to an end. 12 00:00:30,208 --> 00:00:33,958 Some claim there is not sufficient proof of his death. 13 00:00:34,042 --> 00:00:36,083 - Right from the outset, lies were being spread 14 00:00:36,167 --> 00:00:38,167 about how Hitler actually died. 15 00:00:38,250 --> 00:00:41,375 - They've never produced anything that can convince us. 16 00:00:41,458 --> 00:00:43,333 The human remains are not convincingly 17 00:00:43,333 --> 00:00:45,208 Adolf Hitler's human remains. 18 00:00:46,833 --> 00:00:48,917 - Now we uncover the top theories 19 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:50,458 about Hitler's end. 20 00:00:50,542 --> 00:00:52,833 Did the Nazi leader really die in Berlin, 21 00:00:52,917 --> 00:00:54,833 or was he able to escape? 22 00:00:54,917 --> 00:00:56,542 - If Hitler can get to Spain, 23 00:00:56,625 --> 00:00:58,875 then Franco will welcome him with open arms 24 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:01,667 and keep him cozy in secret. 25 00:01:01,750 --> 00:01:04,625 - There's a reason that we look suspiciously at Argentina, 26 00:01:04,708 --> 00:01:07,417 and that's because people did escape and make their way there 27 00:01:07,542 --> 00:01:09,000 in the aftermath of the Second World War. 28 00:01:09,042 --> 00:01:10,208 - Could Hitler have survived 29 00:01:10,292 --> 00:01:12,833 the last days of World War II? 30 00:01:12,917 --> 00:01:15,792 And if so, where did he go? 31 00:01:15,875 --> 00:01:18,292 (theme music) 32 00:01:29,833 --> 00:01:31,000 (tense music) 33 00:01:31,083 --> 00:01:33,958 May 1, 1945... 34 00:01:34,042 --> 00:01:36,083 - [Newscaster] The war is over. 35 00:01:36,167 --> 00:01:39,333 Six years of suffering, sacrifice, and death... 36 00:01:39,417 --> 00:01:40,917 - [Laurence] After 12 years in power 37 00:01:41,042 --> 00:01:43,333 and six years of war, 38 00:01:43,458 --> 00:01:45,417 the Nazi regime has come to an end. 39 00:01:47,042 --> 00:01:49,125 According to news reports, 40 00:01:49,208 --> 00:01:50,792 Adolf Hitler commits suicide 41 00:01:50,875 --> 00:01:52,625 as Soviet forces close in 42 00:01:52,708 --> 00:01:55,833 on his underground bunker in Berlin. 43 00:01:55,917 --> 00:01:58,833 - [Man] On April 30, 1945, 44 00:01:58,875 --> 00:02:00,208 the final fall of the last pocket 45 00:02:00,292 --> 00:02:02,375 of holdout Soviet troops move into the bunker 46 00:02:02,458 --> 00:02:05,292 and they confirm not just the fall of the Third Reich, 47 00:02:05,375 --> 00:02:07,417 but the death of Adolf Hitler himself. 48 00:02:09,667 --> 00:02:12,000 - Thanks to the work of Hugh Trevor-Roper, 49 00:02:12,125 --> 00:02:14,750 a British intelligence officer from MI5, 50 00:02:14,833 --> 00:02:17,958 we have a very good timeline of the events in the bunker. 51 00:02:18,042 --> 00:02:20,208 On April 26th, Hitler was briefed 52 00:02:20,292 --> 00:02:22,542 that his army could not counterattack, 53 00:02:22,667 --> 00:02:24,667 that the war was essentially lost, 54 00:02:24,750 --> 00:02:28,000 and he had a complete meltdown in the bunker. 55 00:02:28,042 --> 00:02:29,500 By April 29th, 56 00:02:29,583 --> 00:02:33,375 he was clearly contemplating suicide. 57 00:02:33,458 --> 00:02:34,875 - There had to be a Hitler legacy-- 58 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:36,792 if Hitler wasn't gonna survive the war, 59 00:02:36,875 --> 00:02:41,125 he needed to sort of martyr himself for the Nazi cause. 60 00:02:41,208 --> 00:02:42,500 - On the night of April 29th, 61 00:02:42,583 --> 00:02:45,083 probably slightly after midnight, 62 00:02:45,208 --> 00:02:48,250 he married Eva Braun, and then they had 63 00:02:48,375 --> 00:02:50,583 a celebratory breakfast before 64 00:02:50,667 --> 00:02:53,417 going on to kill themselves the next morning. 65 00:02:55,417 --> 00:02:57,500 - [Man] Shortly afterwards, newspapers worldwide 66 00:02:57,583 --> 00:03:00,667 printed the announcement that Hitler is dead. 67 00:03:00,792 --> 00:03:03,667 - International reaction to the news of Hitler's death 68 00:03:03,750 --> 00:03:05,792 is at first joyous. 69 00:03:05,875 --> 00:03:07,542 - [Newscaster] The sights and sounds of victory 70 00:03:07,625 --> 00:03:09,917 in Europe echo across the Atlantic 71 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:12,292 and around the world. 72 00:03:12,417 --> 00:03:16,000 - [Martin] That gave way rather quickly to suspicion. 73 00:03:16,083 --> 00:03:17,333 And that suspicion was based on the fact 74 00:03:17,375 --> 00:03:19,750 that there was no body. 75 00:03:19,833 --> 00:03:22,333 - [Laurence] The first Soviet troops into the bunker 76 00:03:22,417 --> 00:03:27,250 are allegedly more interested in trophies than evidence. 77 00:03:27,333 --> 00:03:28,833 - The Soviets, in taking Berlin, 78 00:03:28,917 --> 00:03:32,208 they're gonna shell the city to basically rubble. 79 00:03:32,292 --> 00:03:35,333 So by the time the Russians get to the bunker, 80 00:03:35,333 --> 00:03:37,542 they're not going in with scientific teams. 81 00:03:37,667 --> 00:03:40,208 It's really being discovered by frontline troops. 82 00:03:40,292 --> 00:03:43,792 - [Man] The Soviet troops who found Hitler's bunker 83 00:03:43,875 --> 00:03:47,625 weren't looking for evidence that Hitler shot himself. 84 00:03:47,708 --> 00:03:50,500 What they were actually looking for were mementos, 85 00:03:50,583 --> 00:03:53,667 were trophies that they could take home at the end of the war. 86 00:03:53,750 --> 00:03:57,208 So the people who were there, who could have provided us 87 00:03:57,333 --> 00:03:59,792 the evidence that Hitler shot himself, 88 00:03:59,875 --> 00:04:01,750 weren't looking for it. 89 00:04:01,833 --> 00:04:04,125 - [Martin] It's very difficult to contain 90 00:04:04,208 --> 00:04:07,292 the exuberant energy of a conquering army 91 00:04:07,375 --> 00:04:08,708 because the Soviet people had suffered 92 00:04:08,792 --> 00:04:11,208 brutally under the German invasion. 93 00:04:11,292 --> 00:04:14,167 No one is treating Hitler's bunker 94 00:04:14,250 --> 00:04:16,583 the way that it should be treated. 95 00:04:16,667 --> 00:04:18,750 - They weren't doing it with any kind of great caution. 96 00:04:18,833 --> 00:04:20,333 People were just digging everywhere. 97 00:04:20,417 --> 00:04:22,333 People were tramping through the bunker, 98 00:04:22,375 --> 00:04:25,125 they were going into the rooms, grabbing souvenirs. 99 00:04:25,208 --> 00:04:28,125 But it's done in a very ad hoc way. 100 00:04:28,208 --> 00:04:29,833 - [Laurence] Despite the chaos in the bunker, 101 00:04:29,875 --> 00:04:32,458 the Soviets are initially confident that they have found 102 00:04:32,542 --> 00:04:35,292 the dead bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun. 103 00:04:36,875 --> 00:04:39,542 - That confidence then erodes pretty quickly. 104 00:04:39,625 --> 00:04:42,417 Within weeks, Joseph Stalin himself 105 00:04:42,500 --> 00:04:45,708 is commenting that Adolf Hitler escaped from Europe. 106 00:04:47,417 --> 00:04:49,042 - Most historians think that Stalin was basically 107 00:04:49,125 --> 00:04:50,667 playing a political game. 108 00:04:50,708 --> 00:04:53,333 It was a way to strengthen Stalin's hand 109 00:04:53,417 --> 00:04:55,500 in territorial negotiations 110 00:04:55,583 --> 00:04:58,042 by suggesting that the threat of Hitler could mean 111 00:04:58,125 --> 00:04:59,500 that it's safer for Red Army soldiers 112 00:04:59,583 --> 00:05:01,875 to remain in disputed areas. 113 00:05:01,958 --> 00:05:04,917 - He was almost certain that they had Hitler's remains, 114 00:05:05,042 --> 00:05:08,542 but he was gonna keep it ambiguous to be able to wield it 115 00:05:08,625 --> 00:05:11,375 like a cudgel against the Western Allies. 116 00:05:11,500 --> 00:05:13,625 - [Laurence] The United States is one of several countries 117 00:05:13,708 --> 00:05:18,375 that quietly tries to ascertain the truth about Hitler's death. 118 00:05:18,458 --> 00:05:19,833 - In the aftermath of the conflict, 119 00:05:19,917 --> 00:05:21,167 the United States military 120 00:05:21,208 --> 00:05:23,333 is not allowed immediate access to Berlin. 121 00:05:23,375 --> 00:05:25,292 The Soviets eventually allow us there, 122 00:05:25,375 --> 00:05:27,625 but it's nearly two months later. 123 00:05:27,708 --> 00:05:29,917 What that leads to is, within months, 124 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:31,792 nearly half of America 125 00:05:31,875 --> 00:05:34,917 believes that Adolf Hitler did not die in Berlin. 126 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:36,375 (tense music) 127 00:05:36,500 --> 00:05:38,333 - When General Eisenhower is asked about it, 128 00:05:38,417 --> 00:05:41,000 he honestly responds, we don't have tangible proof. 129 00:05:41,042 --> 00:05:42,875 We have not seen anything. 130 00:05:42,958 --> 00:05:45,667 We're just relying on what the Soviets are giving us. 131 00:05:47,208 --> 00:05:49,042 J. Edgar Hoover at the FBI, 132 00:05:49,167 --> 00:05:51,500 He looks into it and he says, I don't have any evidence 133 00:05:51,542 --> 00:05:53,500 that Hitler's remains were found, 134 00:05:53,583 --> 00:05:54,833 because he didn't. 135 00:05:54,875 --> 00:05:57,500 The Soviets kept this stuff very secret. 136 00:05:57,583 --> 00:06:00,000 - [Martin] These narratives about the death of Hitler-- 137 00:06:00,083 --> 00:06:01,708 we must remember at all times 138 00:06:01,708 --> 00:06:03,708 that what information we do have 139 00:06:03,792 --> 00:06:06,000 went through a Russian filter. 140 00:06:06,083 --> 00:06:07,542 Ooh, and it's worse than. 141 00:06:07,625 --> 00:06:09,333 It was a Stalinist filter. 142 00:06:09,458 --> 00:06:11,250 The worst one of them all. 143 00:06:11,333 --> 00:06:16,208 - Hitler is so iconic that any inconsistency is going to be 144 00:06:16,333 --> 00:06:18,708 examined or exploited. 145 00:06:18,792 --> 00:06:21,083 - [Laurence] As the world recovers from the war, 146 00:06:21,167 --> 00:06:24,500 confidential investigations begin, and no one can quite 147 00:06:24,583 --> 00:06:26,333 find the answers they're looking for. 148 00:06:28,125 --> 00:06:30,667 - [Kevin] Adolf Hitler's death certificate is not issued 149 00:06:30,708 --> 00:06:34,875 until 1956, 11 years after his death. 150 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:38,125 And that's really because there wasn't a body to identify, 151 00:06:38,208 --> 00:06:41,583 and there was a lot of confusion in Berlin at that time 152 00:06:41,708 --> 00:06:43,333 and in Germany as it's trying to rebuild, 153 00:06:43,458 --> 00:06:46,000 so it wasn't a priority. 154 00:06:46,167 --> 00:06:50,500 - This death certificate is produced without the presence 155 00:06:50,583 --> 00:06:53,708 of physical evidence because in 1956, 156 00:06:53,792 --> 00:06:55,833 there was no dead body to stand over. 157 00:06:55,917 --> 00:06:59,792 - [Jesse] What we see is that the prevailing theory 158 00:06:59,875 --> 00:07:02,458 among most historians, most governments, 159 00:07:02,542 --> 00:07:05,000 is that Hitler shot himself in the bunker. 160 00:07:10,917 --> 00:07:12,500 - [Martin] The official story looks like this: 161 00:07:12,625 --> 00:07:16,000 Adolf Hitler was aware he wasn't going to escape. 162 00:07:16,083 --> 00:07:18,708 - He had promised that he would never be captured alive. 163 00:07:18,833 --> 00:07:21,292 He also said he was not going to leave Berlin, 164 00:07:21,375 --> 00:07:23,750 that he realized this was his fate. 165 00:07:23,833 --> 00:07:25,333 - [Laurence] Those convinced Hitler died 166 00:07:25,458 --> 00:07:27,708 by his own hand point to the dramatic death 167 00:07:27,792 --> 00:07:30,583 of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini 168 00:07:30,667 --> 00:07:32,458 two days earlier. 169 00:07:33,750 --> 00:07:35,333 - The word comes into the bunker 170 00:07:35,375 --> 00:07:37,250 that Mussolini and his mistress 171 00:07:37,333 --> 00:07:40,500 were captured, hung upside down, killed. 172 00:07:40,625 --> 00:07:43,875 And Hitler decides he does not want this for himself. 173 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:46,417 He is gonna control his own death. 174 00:07:48,333 --> 00:07:50,042 - [Martin] And so a decision was made 175 00:07:50,167 --> 00:07:51,333 that he would kill himself, 176 00:07:51,375 --> 00:07:52,667 that Eva would kill herself as well. 177 00:07:52,792 --> 00:07:54,333 The bodies would then be burned 178 00:07:54,458 --> 00:07:56,000 so that they could not be recovered, 179 00:07:56,042 --> 00:07:58,875 so that no spectacle could be made of 180 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:00,708 Adolf Hitler's dead body 181 00:08:00,792 --> 00:08:03,458 the way that it was made of Benito Mussolini's dead body. 182 00:08:03,542 --> 00:08:05,792 (tense music) 183 00:08:05,875 --> 00:08:08,083 - [Robert] On April 30th, Hitler calls his staff together 184 00:08:08,208 --> 00:08:09,833 and says goodbye to them, 185 00:08:09,875 --> 00:08:13,583 shaking hands with each of them as he goes around the room. 186 00:08:13,667 --> 00:08:15,250 One of his secretaries noted 187 00:08:15,333 --> 00:08:17,500 that he wasn't even looking at her. 188 00:08:17,542 --> 00:08:19,417 Rather, he was looking through her. 189 00:08:19,542 --> 00:08:22,792 - Otto Gunsche, one of Hitler's senior officials, 190 00:08:22,875 --> 00:08:25,333 stands outside the door while Hitler 191 00:08:25,375 --> 00:08:27,333 goes in with his wife, Eva, 192 00:08:27,417 --> 00:08:31,167 Eva Hitler now, and at about 3:15, 193 00:08:31,250 --> 00:08:33,542 he opens the door, and there's Eva, 194 00:08:33,708 --> 00:08:36,917 she had taken her shoes off, she's laying peacefully. 195 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:39,000 Hitler, however, had put a gun in his mouth... 196 00:08:39,042 --> 00:08:41,208 (cocking gun) 197 00:08:41,292 --> 00:08:42,833 ...and blew his brains out. 198 00:08:42,917 --> 00:08:45,083 (gunshot) 199 00:08:45,208 --> 00:08:48,208 - [Laurence] Gunsche is captured by the Soviets on May 2nd. 200 00:08:48,292 --> 00:08:51,333 He claims to be one of just a few people who handled 201 00:08:51,458 --> 00:08:53,917 the bodies of Hitler and Braun. 202 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:56,542 - The witnesses, Gunsche especially, 203 00:08:56,667 --> 00:08:58,208 report that there was also the smell 204 00:08:58,333 --> 00:08:59,750 of burnt almonds in the room. 205 00:08:59,833 --> 00:09:02,500 Now, that's a sign of cyanide. 206 00:09:02,542 --> 00:09:03,833 - The Soviets, when they interview Gunsche 207 00:09:03,917 --> 00:09:06,083 about Hitler's suicide, they ask him, 208 00:09:06,167 --> 00:09:09,333 is there any other access to this room besides 209 00:09:09,417 --> 00:09:11,792 the one door you stood by? 210 00:09:11,875 --> 00:09:13,583 And he said, no, there was not. 211 00:09:13,708 --> 00:09:15,792 This was the one, and that Adolf Hitler 212 00:09:15,875 --> 00:09:18,292 and Eva Braun did commit suicide. 213 00:09:20,375 --> 00:09:23,000 - Hitler had already instructed his adjuncts to gather petrol 214 00:09:23,125 --> 00:09:25,875 to burn his body, he was very clear on that. 215 00:09:25,875 --> 00:09:27,375 Otto Gunsche, along with a couple 216 00:09:27,458 --> 00:09:28,958 of the other people present, 217 00:09:29,042 --> 00:09:31,208 will wrap Hitler's body in carpet. 218 00:09:31,333 --> 00:09:32,500 Gunsche will carry them out 219 00:09:32,583 --> 00:09:34,667 into the Chancellery Garden. 220 00:09:34,708 --> 00:09:36,500 They place their bodies in a shell crater, 221 00:09:36,542 --> 00:09:38,250 douse them with petrol... 222 00:09:38,333 --> 00:09:39,792 (fire crackling) 223 00:09:39,875 --> 00:09:41,833 And then they will light them on fire 224 00:09:41,917 --> 00:09:44,333 and their bodies will begin to burn. 225 00:09:44,375 --> 00:09:47,167 - [Laurence] According to Soviet soldiers, Hitler's body 226 00:09:47,208 --> 00:09:51,000 was unrecognizable and reduced nearly to ash. 227 00:09:51,083 --> 00:09:53,125 - [Luke] The Soviets dug up two really badly 228 00:09:53,125 --> 00:09:55,792 fire-damaged sets of human remains. 229 00:09:55,875 --> 00:09:57,792 And from these remains, they took Hitler's 230 00:09:57,875 --> 00:10:01,042 jaw and teeth and they sent it back to Moscow. 231 00:10:01,125 --> 00:10:04,667 - The jaw is intact enough that they can examine the teeth 232 00:10:04,750 --> 00:10:06,875 and what they do is they find the two dentists 233 00:10:06,958 --> 00:10:09,667 that worked on Hitler's teeth, 234 00:10:09,708 --> 00:10:12,083 and they were able to point out specifically a bridge 235 00:10:12,208 --> 00:10:15,250 that they had done in the upper right jaw. 236 00:10:15,333 --> 00:10:16,875 - Dental assistants. 237 00:10:16,958 --> 00:10:18,917 That's how little the Soviets have. 238 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:20,917 They've got nothing, they've got a couple 239 00:10:21,042 --> 00:10:24,167 of fragments of a jawbone with some teeth. 240 00:10:24,250 --> 00:10:27,042 - Stalin is so paranoid that he starts to think 241 00:10:27,125 --> 00:10:29,667 there's real doubt about basically the remains 242 00:10:29,792 --> 00:10:32,125 of Hitler that had been verified by the dental assistant. 243 00:10:32,208 --> 00:10:36,167 So he sends another group of military intelligence officers 244 00:10:36,250 --> 00:10:40,333 back to Berlin in 1946, a year after the war. 245 00:10:40,375 --> 00:10:42,000 That's when they find the skull. 246 00:10:42,083 --> 00:10:43,500 The skull with a bullet hole in it. 247 00:10:43,583 --> 00:10:43,958 (gunshot) 248 00:10:48,958 --> 00:10:52,583 - [Laurence] In 1946, a year after the end of World War II, 249 00:10:52,667 --> 00:10:55,125 Stalin sends a team to Berlin 250 00:10:55,250 --> 00:10:58,500 to search for further proof of Hitler's death. 251 00:10:58,583 --> 00:11:00,500 - He says, I want you to go through that 252 00:11:00,583 --> 00:11:02,000 Reich Chancellery Garden again 253 00:11:02,042 --> 00:11:03,750 and look for remains of Hitler. 254 00:11:03,875 --> 00:11:06,167 And that's when they find the skull. 255 00:11:06,250 --> 00:11:08,667 They couldn't know that was Hitler's skull. 256 00:11:08,750 --> 00:11:10,333 They weren't doing DNA testing, 257 00:11:10,417 --> 00:11:12,708 but it was in the same area where they found the teeth, 258 00:11:12,833 --> 00:11:15,167 it had a hole, and he'd been shot in the head. 259 00:11:15,250 --> 00:11:16,833 - [Laurence] The skull fragment is filed away 260 00:11:16,917 --> 00:11:18,875 in Soviet archives. 261 00:11:18,958 --> 00:11:21,417 It's not until 2009, 262 00:11:21,542 --> 00:11:23,375 well after the fall of the Soviet Union, 263 00:11:23,458 --> 00:11:26,958 that this 1946 discovery can be properly examined. 264 00:11:28,708 --> 00:11:31,375 - [Luke] In 2009, Nick Bellantoni led a team 265 00:11:31,500 --> 00:11:34,125 of scientists to conduct DNA analysis 266 00:11:34,208 --> 00:11:36,333 on this skull fragment with the bullet hole in it. 267 00:11:36,417 --> 00:11:38,208 And what they found was that 268 00:11:38,292 --> 00:11:40,000 the skull was actually that of a female, 269 00:11:40,083 --> 00:11:42,167 and that it was the wrong age to be Eva Brown. 270 00:11:42,250 --> 00:11:44,083 - There's a bullet wound in the skull, 271 00:11:44,167 --> 00:11:45,792 and we know from eyewitness accounts 272 00:11:45,875 --> 00:11:47,417 that she poisoned herself. 273 00:11:47,500 --> 00:11:51,250 That skull fragment cannot have belonged to Eva. 274 00:11:51,333 --> 00:11:53,500 There were over 150 bodies surrounding 275 00:11:53,542 --> 00:11:54,917 the Chancellery building, 276 00:11:55,042 --> 00:11:57,125 so there were human remains everywhere. 277 00:11:57,208 --> 00:11:58,917 And the skull fragment, 278 00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:01,625 it's irrelevant because of the jawbone 279 00:12:01,708 --> 00:12:06,042 in the dental work that almost definitely confirms his death. 280 00:12:07,833 --> 00:12:09,917 - The evidence for Hitler's suicide in the bunker 281 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:12,333 on the 30th of April, 1945, 282 00:12:12,375 --> 00:12:15,125 is forensic evidence, it's eyewitness evidence, 283 00:12:15,208 --> 00:12:18,167 and it's documentary evidence, and it all adds up. 284 00:12:18,292 --> 00:12:20,333 - [Laurence] Nonetheless, some question 285 00:12:20,417 --> 00:12:22,708 the identity of those bodies in the bunker. 286 00:12:22,792 --> 00:12:24,542 Thanks to information gleaned at 287 00:12:24,667 --> 00:12:26,958 the Nuremberg War Crime Trials. 288 00:12:29,792 --> 00:12:31,000 - [Man] The United States of America, 289 00:12:31,125 --> 00:12:33,292 presents count one of the indictment. 290 00:12:33,375 --> 00:12:36,417 That all the defendants participated as organizers 291 00:12:36,500 --> 00:12:40,500 or accomplices in a common plan or conspiracy 292 00:12:40,542 --> 00:12:42,667 to commit crimes against peace, 293 00:12:42,750 --> 00:12:45,833 war crimes, and crimes against humanity. 294 00:12:45,917 --> 00:12:48,500 - The Nuremberg Trials were the first 295 00:12:48,583 --> 00:12:52,167 large scale war crimes trials in international history. 296 00:12:52,250 --> 00:12:55,958 It was an effort to hold Nazi leadership responsible 297 00:12:56,042 --> 00:12:58,625 for the horrors, the crimes against humanity that had been 298 00:12:58,708 --> 00:13:00,500 perpetrated during World War II. 299 00:13:00,583 --> 00:13:04,292 - What quickly emerges at Nuremberg is this realization 300 00:13:04,375 --> 00:13:06,708 that there were a large number of people that we thought 301 00:13:06,792 --> 00:13:08,042 were eyewitnesses, 302 00:13:08,167 --> 00:13:09,792 but they didn't actually see a thing. 303 00:13:09,875 --> 00:13:11,167 (tense music) 304 00:13:11,250 --> 00:13:12,875 "Did you actually see Adolf Hitler?" 305 00:13:12,958 --> 00:13:14,458 Was it definitely him?" 306 00:13:14,458 --> 00:13:16,208 "Yeah, well, I saw a person 307 00:13:16,292 --> 00:13:18,708 "that was rolled up in a carpet, and we set that on fire. 308 00:13:18,833 --> 00:13:20,958 I saw that happen." 309 00:13:21,042 --> 00:13:23,667 - Hitler's body from the head was covered in blood, 310 00:13:23,708 --> 00:13:25,792 so it made sense to wrap that body up. 311 00:13:25,875 --> 00:13:27,458 These people were close to Hitler 312 00:13:27,583 --> 00:13:30,250 and they wanted to preserve dignity of the dead bodies. 313 00:13:32,542 --> 00:13:35,375 - [Laurence] The eyewitness evidence is divisive. 314 00:13:35,542 --> 00:13:37,042 Does it prove Hitler's death, 315 00:13:37,125 --> 00:13:40,542 or suggest something else entirely? 316 00:13:40,625 --> 00:13:42,958 - [Martin] Adolf Hitler was also a little bit pragmatic, 317 00:13:43,042 --> 00:13:45,625 every now and then, when he absolutely had to be. 318 00:13:45,708 --> 00:13:47,833 As a result of the war, 319 00:13:47,917 --> 00:13:49,875 Germans were forced to recognize that 320 00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:52,500 they might have to retreat and continue fighting 321 00:13:52,542 --> 00:13:53,833 from some other location. 322 00:13:53,917 --> 00:13:57,042 They'd establish a headquarters complex elsewhere 323 00:13:57,125 --> 00:13:58,833 where the Reich would live on. 324 00:13:58,917 --> 00:14:02,375 And so Hitler is the one who approved plans 325 00:14:02,458 --> 00:14:04,000 for continuity of government 326 00:14:04,083 --> 00:14:06,917 in the event of the fall of Berlin. 327 00:14:07,042 --> 00:14:08,667 - [Laurence] But if Hitler somehow escaped, 328 00:14:08,708 --> 00:14:11,333 where would he go? 329 00:14:11,417 --> 00:14:14,000 - [Geoffrey] If you're trying to escape Nazi Germany, 330 00:14:14,042 --> 00:14:15,542 you needed to get into a neutral country 331 00:14:15,667 --> 00:14:18,000 that can shelter you. 332 00:14:18,083 --> 00:14:20,167 If you can get to the Spanish border, 333 00:14:20,250 --> 00:14:22,167 you will get asylum from Franco. 334 00:14:22,250 --> 00:14:25,958 (tense music) 335 00:14:27,833 --> 00:14:29,250 - [Kevin] Throughout World War II, 336 00:14:29,333 --> 00:14:31,042 Hitler wanted Franco to come on board 337 00:14:31,125 --> 00:14:32,833 to join the Axis Powers. 338 00:14:32,875 --> 00:14:35,542 Franco holds back, stays neutral, 339 00:14:35,625 --> 00:14:38,125 but is friendly with Hitler. 340 00:14:38,208 --> 00:14:39,542 - Was it possible for him to slip away? 341 00:14:39,667 --> 00:14:41,750 Yes, and he could have done it 342 00:14:41,833 --> 00:14:44,292 without ever seeing the light of day. 343 00:14:44,375 --> 00:14:46,000 - Underneath Berlin, 344 00:14:46,083 --> 00:14:48,000 like a lot of major European cities, 345 00:14:48,042 --> 00:14:50,000 you have a complex tunnel system. 346 00:14:50,083 --> 00:14:51,708 - [Laurence] Early in the war, 347 00:14:51,792 --> 00:14:54,333 Hitler expanded Berlin's subway system. 348 00:14:54,417 --> 00:14:56,708 Some of these tunnels were converted into bunkers 349 00:14:56,792 --> 00:14:59,000 and air raid shelters. 350 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:01,917 Together, they made up a vast underground network 351 00:15:01,917 --> 00:15:05,875 that might allow travel through the entire city. 352 00:15:05,958 --> 00:15:07,875 - A number of people are able to get out at 353 00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:10,000 the bitter end using the tunnel system. 354 00:15:10,125 --> 00:15:11,500 Famously, Martin Bormann, 355 00:15:11,542 --> 00:15:13,542 the chairman of the National Socialist Party, 356 00:15:13,542 --> 00:15:16,583 makes an attempt to get out, and doesn't make it in the end, 357 00:15:16,708 --> 00:15:18,417 and is killed by Soviet troops. 358 00:15:18,417 --> 00:15:21,292 - So the theory is that Hitler could have used that same 359 00:15:21,375 --> 00:15:24,583 bunker system to get out of Berlin himself. 360 00:15:24,667 --> 00:15:26,083 (tense music) 361 00:15:26,167 --> 00:15:27,958 - [Laurence] Some speculate that Hitler fled 362 00:15:28,042 --> 00:15:30,167 via a tunnel to Tempelhof Airport, 363 00:15:30,250 --> 00:15:32,667 a fortified airfield in Berlin. 364 00:15:32,792 --> 00:15:35,500 - Tempelhof Airport is the last exit 365 00:15:35,542 --> 00:15:38,542 out for the Nazi hierarchy. 366 00:15:38,625 --> 00:15:40,583 - [Robert] There are some people who have theorized 367 00:15:40,667 --> 00:15:42,667 that Hitler escaped by air. 368 00:15:42,708 --> 00:15:46,125 Now, that seems somewhat plausible in that there were 369 00:15:46,208 --> 00:15:48,375 some planes that made emergency escapes 370 00:15:48,500 --> 00:15:50,250 while under Soviet fire. 371 00:15:50,333 --> 00:15:53,917 Hannah Reitsch, the famous German female pilot, 372 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:56,500 flew into Berlin on April 26th 373 00:15:56,542 --> 00:15:59,333 in the company of Robert Ritter von Greim, 374 00:15:59,417 --> 00:16:03,125 a high ranking officer in the German Luftwaffe. 375 00:16:03,208 --> 00:16:07,167 They flew out on April 29th in the middle of the night, 376 00:16:07,208 --> 00:16:09,000 so they were able to escape. 377 00:16:09,083 --> 00:16:11,500 Because of that, it does seem plausible 378 00:16:11,583 --> 00:16:15,333 to some people that Hitler may have also flown out of Berlin. 379 00:16:17,083 --> 00:16:19,042 - One of the many stories about Hitler's escape 380 00:16:19,042 --> 00:16:22,542 from Berlin was that he, and Eva Braun, and some others, 381 00:16:22,625 --> 00:16:25,083 they flew out of Berlin 382 00:16:25,167 --> 00:16:28,375 and they made their way to a monastery 383 00:16:28,458 --> 00:16:30,250 called the Monasterio de Samos 384 00:16:30,375 --> 00:16:34,333 in Galicia, in the northwestern corner of Spain. 385 00:16:34,417 --> 00:16:37,667 - [Kevin] Francisco Franco is a fascist 386 00:16:37,750 --> 00:16:39,667 who rises to power in Spain 387 00:16:39,708 --> 00:16:42,000 through a large civil war. 388 00:16:42,083 --> 00:16:44,208 Because of his victory and his rise to power, 389 00:16:44,292 --> 00:16:46,000 he really owes it to Adolf Hitler 390 00:16:46,042 --> 00:16:48,958 and German equipment, and therefore stays 391 00:16:49,042 --> 00:16:51,167 friendly with Hitler throughout World War II, 392 00:16:51,250 --> 00:16:54,167 even though he holds back and never joins the Axis Powers 393 00:16:54,250 --> 00:16:56,292 like Hitler wants him to. 394 00:16:56,375 --> 00:16:58,833 - [Robert] Franco was a deeply religious, 395 00:16:58,917 --> 00:17:00,875 deeply conservative leader. 396 00:17:00,958 --> 00:17:03,625 He saw in the Nazis and in the Italian Fascists 397 00:17:03,708 --> 00:17:06,208 these rigorous systems worthy of emulation. 398 00:17:06,333 --> 00:17:09,167 There's no question that if Hitler had wanted to escape 399 00:17:09,333 --> 00:17:13,000 into Spain, he would certainly have allowed it to happen, 400 00:17:13,083 --> 00:17:15,125 and allowed Hitler to go into hiding in Spain 401 00:17:15,250 --> 00:17:18,250 and then denied all knowledge of Hitler's whereabouts. 402 00:17:18,333 --> 00:17:21,167 The view of the Catholic Church was that we need to protect 403 00:17:21,208 --> 00:17:24,167 the Nazis because we've got this godless Bolshevik, 404 00:17:24,208 --> 00:17:27,125 Joseph Stalin, and he's subsidizing 405 00:17:27,208 --> 00:17:29,583 Communist parties in Italy and in France. 406 00:17:29,667 --> 00:17:32,792 He's trying to make the revolution everywhere. 407 00:17:32,875 --> 00:17:35,167 "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." 408 00:17:35,250 --> 00:17:37,333 - From a political standpoint, 409 00:17:37,417 --> 00:17:40,208 that made a certain amount of sense that there would be 410 00:17:40,292 --> 00:17:42,750 elements within Spain's Catholic Church 411 00:17:42,833 --> 00:17:47,792 that were sympathetic in some ways to the German regime. 412 00:17:47,792 --> 00:17:51,333 - The Roman Catholic Church was really thick as thieves 413 00:17:51,417 --> 00:17:53,208 with the Nazis after the war. 414 00:17:53,333 --> 00:17:58,625 They were the ones who basically got travel documents, passports, 415 00:17:58,708 --> 00:18:03,292 visas for thousands of Nazi war criminals, 416 00:18:03,375 --> 00:18:05,000 and they would pass through monasteries, 417 00:18:05,042 --> 00:18:07,208 like the one in Spain. 418 00:18:07,292 --> 00:18:09,542 This monastery of Samos, 419 00:18:09,667 --> 00:18:11,625 along the Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay 420 00:18:11,708 --> 00:18:15,250 would've been a perfect rat line for Nazi leaders, 421 00:18:15,333 --> 00:18:17,167 because they could've gone in there and then they 422 00:18:17,250 --> 00:18:20,417 could've had safe haven in neutral Spain. 423 00:18:20,542 --> 00:18:23,458 The abbot of the Samos monastery 424 00:18:23,542 --> 00:18:26,208 was a close friend of Francisco Franco, 425 00:18:26,292 --> 00:18:28,417 the Spanish leader, so he could have made 426 00:18:28,500 --> 00:18:32,500 himself available to host Hitler there secretly. 427 00:18:32,542 --> 00:18:35,208 - [Laurence] The monastery in Samos may be part of 428 00:18:35,292 --> 00:18:37,083 a vast escape network. 429 00:18:37,167 --> 00:18:40,000 These overland routes are known as "rat lines." 430 00:18:40,042 --> 00:18:43,208 They connect escaping Nazis with sympathizers who provide 431 00:18:43,292 --> 00:18:46,333 falsified documents and identities. 432 00:18:46,375 --> 00:18:50,000 - The rat line itself had people who understood 433 00:18:50,083 --> 00:18:52,500 what they were doing and who they were helping 434 00:18:52,542 --> 00:18:54,958 slipping through gaps in the line 435 00:18:55,042 --> 00:18:57,500 and escaping to another country. 436 00:18:57,542 --> 00:19:02,125 - There are some monasteries that are used as waypoints 437 00:19:02,208 --> 00:19:04,292 in the escape from Nazi Germany. 438 00:19:04,375 --> 00:19:06,917 They're a good place to conceal yourself short term 439 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:10,417 as you're transitioning to your next mode of transportation. 440 00:19:10,500 --> 00:19:12,542 - If you were trying to escape Germany, 441 00:19:12,667 --> 00:19:14,375 it wasn't that hard, 442 00:19:14,458 --> 00:19:17,458 because there were something like 12 million ethnic Germans 443 00:19:17,542 --> 00:19:20,208 who'd all been expelled by the Soviets. 444 00:19:20,333 --> 00:19:22,500 These people were all going west as well. 445 00:19:22,583 --> 00:19:25,083 If you were senior a Nazi official, 446 00:19:25,167 --> 00:19:27,500 you could kind of disguise your appearance 447 00:19:27,583 --> 00:19:30,000 and you could just say, hey, I'm a German 448 00:19:30,125 --> 00:19:32,500 from Romania, and I have no documents 449 00:19:32,583 --> 00:19:35,958 because I was expelled from my country by the Red Army. 450 00:19:36,042 --> 00:19:39,583 - So you've got these rat lines, which are really a way to get 451 00:19:39,667 --> 00:19:43,708 Nazis, or Germans out of Germany 452 00:19:43,792 --> 00:19:47,333 by having friendly folks along the way helping you out, 453 00:19:47,375 --> 00:19:50,333 providing you money, clothes, food. 454 00:19:50,500 --> 00:19:52,500 And so the idea was that Hitler was going to make his way 455 00:19:52,583 --> 00:19:55,750 to this monastery and stay there, 456 00:19:55,875 --> 00:19:57,292 I don't know, as a monk, 457 00:19:57,375 --> 00:19:59,417 until he was ready to go further. 458 00:20:04,375 --> 00:20:07,542 - [Laurence] The 1945 fall of Berlin means the end 459 00:20:07,625 --> 00:20:09,792 of the Nazi regime in Germany. 460 00:20:09,875 --> 00:20:11,625 But at the end of World War II, 461 00:20:11,708 --> 00:20:14,333 did Hitler really commit suicide, 462 00:20:14,417 --> 00:20:18,292 as most historians agree, or did he somehow escape? 463 00:20:20,125 --> 00:20:22,208 - If you were going to try to escape in 1945, 464 00:20:22,333 --> 00:20:24,750 the best place to go would be Spain. 465 00:20:24,833 --> 00:20:27,167 - The theory here is that if Hitler could make it to Spain, 466 00:20:27,250 --> 00:20:30,375 there's a monastery, the Samos Monastery, 467 00:20:30,542 --> 00:20:33,792 that was very friendly to Nazis escaping Germany. 468 00:20:35,583 --> 00:20:37,125 - [Geoffrey] There was one guy who was 469 00:20:37,208 --> 00:20:39,792 a stonemason's apprentice, a teenager, 470 00:20:39,875 --> 00:20:42,625 and then he told the story when he was 80, 471 00:20:42,708 --> 00:20:46,292 "I was at Samos, and I remember when Hitler arrived 472 00:20:46,375 --> 00:20:48,542 "and he was hiding in the monastery with Eva Braun. 473 00:20:48,625 --> 00:20:51,167 They were both so kind to me. They tipped me so well." 474 00:20:51,250 --> 00:20:52,500 None of it could be true. 475 00:20:52,542 --> 00:20:54,000 None of it could, but he talked about it 476 00:20:54,083 --> 00:20:56,250 with absolute and utter conviction. 477 00:20:56,375 --> 00:20:59,417 - [Laurence] Many believe this theory is flawed. 478 00:20:59,500 --> 00:21:03,167 - A lot of this is a lot of stretched reality. 479 00:21:03,208 --> 00:21:05,333 The belief that they had gone through tunnels, 480 00:21:05,375 --> 00:21:07,667 the Tempelhof Airport, and flown out of there 481 00:21:07,708 --> 00:21:11,500 over occupied Allied territory and landed in Spain. 482 00:21:13,417 --> 00:21:16,292 Historically speaking, this idea of Hitler 483 00:21:16,375 --> 00:21:18,667 being content with staying in a monastery 484 00:21:18,750 --> 00:21:22,000 and living the life of a monk is pretty preposterous. 485 00:21:22,083 --> 00:21:23,917 This guy's a megalomaniac. 486 00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:27,500 He's pretty much insane by the end of World War II, 487 00:21:27,583 --> 00:21:31,125 and we're expecting him to keep a low profile? 488 00:21:31,208 --> 00:21:32,458 Ain't going to happen. 489 00:21:34,042 --> 00:21:35,375 - [Laurence] But is it possible 490 00:21:35,458 --> 00:21:39,500 Hitler moved on to another destination? 491 00:21:39,542 --> 00:21:42,875 - The idea is that if Hitler can get himself out of Berlin, 492 00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:45,458 get himself into Spain, Hitler's going to be safe 493 00:21:45,542 --> 00:21:48,125 for maybe the next leg of his journey. 494 00:21:48,208 --> 00:21:50,792 (tense music) 495 00:21:53,208 --> 00:21:57,750 - Then a number of noteworthy cases emerge of war criminals 496 00:21:57,833 --> 00:22:00,542 who escape justice in Europe, and they flee to South America, 497 00:22:00,625 --> 00:22:02,375 and they find a home in Argentina. 498 00:22:02,500 --> 00:22:05,583 Argentina ultimately joins the Allies during World War II, 499 00:22:05,667 --> 00:22:07,583 but does so very late in the game. 500 00:22:07,667 --> 00:22:09,708 There were those in the country 501 00:22:09,833 --> 00:22:12,042 who were sympathetic to Nazi Germany, 502 00:22:12,125 --> 00:22:15,917 and it's because of these sympathies that we have 503 00:22:16,042 --> 00:22:17,833 to recognize the possibility 504 00:22:17,917 --> 00:22:19,917 that Adolf Hitler could have gotten there himself. 505 00:22:21,667 --> 00:22:23,625 - [Robert] Germans had migrated into Argentina 506 00:22:23,708 --> 00:22:27,167 in significant numbers, in different waves. 507 00:22:27,250 --> 00:22:29,042 They were able to build communities, 508 00:22:29,125 --> 00:22:31,333 particularly in the southern part of the country, 509 00:22:31,458 --> 00:22:34,000 where they concentrated slightly more. 510 00:22:34,083 --> 00:22:37,083 - [Newscaster] The symbol of tyranny began to appear 511 00:22:37,167 --> 00:22:39,083 in the large South American cities 512 00:22:39,167 --> 00:22:41,667 and in the backwoods of Patagonia. 513 00:22:41,708 --> 00:22:45,000 - So would Hitler have found a welcome reception there? 514 00:22:45,083 --> 00:22:46,792 Could he have hidden there? 515 00:22:46,792 --> 00:22:48,500 Most likely. 516 00:22:48,583 --> 00:22:51,333 So the theory that Hitler escaped to Argentina 517 00:22:51,417 --> 00:22:53,708 seems plausible to some theorists, 518 00:22:53,792 --> 00:22:55,958 partly because it is plausible. 519 00:22:56,042 --> 00:22:58,458 - [Laurence] But if Hitler did escape to Argentina, 520 00:22:58,542 --> 00:23:01,667 how did he get there? 521 00:23:01,792 --> 00:23:04,042 - [Jesse] During the war, Germany had a group 522 00:23:04,167 --> 00:23:06,208 of submarines called U-boats. 523 00:23:06,333 --> 00:23:09,167 They were incredibly lethal, 524 00:23:09,250 --> 00:23:10,667 and they were far ranging, 525 00:23:10,708 --> 00:23:13,000 really traveling all around the world. 526 00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:16,208 - German U-boats could certainly range 527 00:23:16,292 --> 00:23:18,625 across the Atlantic into Argentinian waters. 528 00:23:18,708 --> 00:23:21,167 They frequently attacked Allied shipping. 529 00:23:21,250 --> 00:23:23,792 They had an incredibly dangerous fleet. 530 00:23:23,875 --> 00:23:25,667 They were sinking Allied shipping 531 00:23:25,708 --> 00:23:27,708 almost as fast as it could be built. 532 00:23:27,833 --> 00:23:31,667 - [Newscaster] Ordered out from Atlantic bases to destroy 533 00:23:31,708 --> 00:23:33,542 or be destroyed themselves, 534 00:23:33,625 --> 00:23:36,208 hundreds of newly built Nazi submarines 535 00:23:36,292 --> 00:23:37,958 take to the open sea. 536 00:23:38,042 --> 00:23:40,333 - [Laurence] When the Allies declare victory, 537 00:23:40,417 --> 00:23:42,500 all German submarines or U-boats 538 00:23:42,583 --> 00:23:45,958 are ordered to give themselves up to the Allied forces. 539 00:23:46,042 --> 00:23:48,083 Most do so, but not all. 540 00:23:48,167 --> 00:23:50,667 In fact, the U-530 submarine 541 00:23:50,750 --> 00:23:54,125 resurfaces in a surprising place. 542 00:23:54,208 --> 00:23:58,000 - On July 10, 1945, you actually have a U-boat 543 00:23:58,083 --> 00:23:59,500 showing up at 544 00:23:59,542 --> 00:24:01,375 an Argentinian naval base 545 00:24:01,458 --> 00:24:03,292 called Mar de Plata. 546 00:24:03,375 --> 00:24:05,833 - It's impossible not to recognize that 547 00:24:05,917 --> 00:24:09,167 U-530 could have potentially carried 548 00:24:09,208 --> 00:24:12,167 very important cargo in the form of Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler. 549 00:24:12,208 --> 00:24:14,792 The timing works out. 550 00:24:14,875 --> 00:24:16,583 - [Kevin] With this U-boat show up at Mar de Plata 551 00:24:16,667 --> 00:24:19,500 on July 10, 1945, 552 00:24:19,500 --> 00:24:21,542 that's almost two months to the day 553 00:24:21,625 --> 00:24:23,333 that Hitler commits suicide, 554 00:24:23,458 --> 00:24:25,167 and it takes two months for a U-boat 555 00:24:25,250 --> 00:24:28,917 to get from Spain to Argentina. 556 00:24:29,042 --> 00:24:30,167 - [Martin] There's a reason that we look 557 00:24:30,292 --> 00:24:32,167 suspiciously at Argentina, 558 00:24:32,208 --> 00:24:34,667 and that's because people did escape and make their way there 559 00:24:34,750 --> 00:24:36,333 in the aftermath of the Second World War. 560 00:24:36,458 --> 00:24:39,750 Most notoriously, Adolf Eichmann is living on 561 00:24:39,833 --> 00:24:43,083 a house on Garibaldi Street in Buenos Aires. 562 00:24:43,167 --> 00:24:44,833 - [Laurence] Eichmann, one of the main architects 563 00:24:44,875 --> 00:24:46,750 of the Holocaust, escapes Europe 564 00:24:46,833 --> 00:24:49,667 and reinvents himself in Argentina. 565 00:24:49,750 --> 00:24:52,708 He changes his name to Ricardo Clement, 566 00:24:52,792 --> 00:24:54,750 and works as a mechanic 567 00:24:54,833 --> 00:24:58,167 at the Mercedes-Benz factory in Buenos Aires before 568 00:24:58,208 --> 00:25:02,792 being captured and hanged by Israel's Mossad agents in 1960. 569 00:25:04,958 --> 00:25:08,500 - In 1954, the US Federal Bureau of Investigations 570 00:25:08,542 --> 00:25:11,583 conducts an investigation about sightings, 571 00:25:11,667 --> 00:25:14,500 supposed sightings of Adolf Hitler in Argentina. 572 00:25:14,583 --> 00:25:17,708 The FBI files include material about 573 00:25:17,792 --> 00:25:21,667 an unnamed German expatriate who is living in Argentina 574 00:25:21,750 --> 00:25:24,833 and exchanging correspondence with an Adolf Hitler 575 00:25:24,875 --> 00:25:29,292 who is alive and well and living somewhere in Argentina. 576 00:25:29,375 --> 00:25:31,750 - [Laurence] If he could somehow make it to Argentina, 577 00:25:31,833 --> 00:25:34,167 is it possible Hitler would have gone further than the coast? 578 00:25:36,083 --> 00:25:38,500 Archaeologists have recently unearthed something astounding 579 00:25:38,583 --> 00:25:40,667 deep in the Argentine jungle. 580 00:25:40,750 --> 00:25:42,542 - This could be an answer 581 00:25:42,625 --> 00:25:44,500 to what happened to Hitler after World War II. 582 00:25:48,542 --> 00:25:50,375 - In 1945, the Soviet Union 583 00:25:50,500 --> 00:25:52,208 told the world it had evidence 584 00:25:52,208 --> 00:25:56,125 that Hitler committed suicide in a bunker in Berlin. 585 00:25:56,208 --> 00:26:01,500 FBI documents declassified in 2014 bolster that fact. 586 00:26:01,583 --> 00:26:04,375 But there are those who speculate 587 00:26:04,458 --> 00:26:06,417 a different end, and believe 588 00:26:06,542 --> 00:26:08,625 a remote location in Argentina 589 00:26:08,708 --> 00:26:11,250 holds important new clues. 590 00:26:13,042 --> 00:26:15,917 - Destination number one for Nazi war criminals 591 00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:17,542 was Argentina. 592 00:26:17,625 --> 00:26:19,333 These guys came ashore, 593 00:26:19,417 --> 00:26:20,625 and there was no attempt by 594 00:26:20,708 --> 00:26:22,625 the Argentine government to punish this, 595 00:26:22,708 --> 00:26:25,625 they were welcomed into the country. 596 00:26:25,708 --> 00:26:28,250 - [Laurence] In 2015, a team led by 597 00:26:28,333 --> 00:26:31,458 former CIA agent Bob Baer travels to Argentina 598 00:26:31,542 --> 00:26:33,875 to pressure test 700 pages 599 00:26:33,958 --> 00:26:38,083 of recently declassified FBI documents. 600 00:26:38,167 --> 00:26:40,417 - Bob Baer goes down to Argentina to sorta 601 00:26:40,542 --> 00:26:43,458 check this out in 2015, 602 00:26:43,542 --> 00:26:44,583 and what he finds 603 00:26:44,667 --> 00:26:46,125 is a big school, 604 00:26:46,208 --> 00:26:48,042 a Hitler Youth school, 605 00:26:48,042 --> 00:26:51,500 and finds out it was used to teach Nazi doctrine to children, 606 00:26:51,542 --> 00:26:55,167 just like the Hitler Youth in Germany in the '30s and '40s. 607 00:26:55,250 --> 00:26:58,667 - What he was finding was evidence of a colony 608 00:26:58,750 --> 00:27:00,917 where they flew the Swastika flag, 609 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:02,542 where they were raising youth 610 00:27:02,667 --> 00:27:04,042 and teaching them in the ways 611 00:27:04,125 --> 00:27:05,625 of National Socialism, and teaching them 612 00:27:05,625 --> 00:27:08,000 about the history of Adolf Hitler. 613 00:27:08,042 --> 00:27:10,333 It appears that a colony lived on 614 00:27:10,458 --> 00:27:12,458 that kept the torch going 615 00:27:12,542 --> 00:27:14,333 about National Socialism 616 00:27:14,417 --> 00:27:16,958 even after the fall of Berlin. 617 00:27:17,042 --> 00:27:19,500 - This is almost like a cult waiting for its leader 618 00:27:19,583 --> 00:27:21,750 to come back to lead them to power. 619 00:27:23,625 --> 00:27:25,583 - [Laurence] But Bear's team doesn't stop 620 00:27:25,708 --> 00:27:27,875 at San Antonio Oeste. 621 00:27:27,958 --> 00:27:30,500 The trail takes them from the coastal town 622 00:27:30,583 --> 00:27:32,458 to areas that would be much harder 623 00:27:32,542 --> 00:27:34,500 for prying eyes to find. 624 00:27:34,625 --> 00:27:35,875 - [Kevin] In the Argentinian jungle 625 00:27:35,958 --> 00:27:38,042 in Missiones, there's a compound, 626 00:27:38,125 --> 00:27:40,708 and farmers there discover a bunker 627 00:27:40,792 --> 00:27:42,875 but it's not wood and dirt. 628 00:27:42,958 --> 00:27:45,125 It's tiled, looks rather fancy, 629 00:27:45,208 --> 00:27:47,958 they find Nazi coins and other Nazi memorabilia. 630 00:27:49,875 --> 00:27:51,583 - [Laurence] To Bob Baer, the complex seems 631 00:27:51,583 --> 00:27:54,417 intended for use by someone important. 632 00:27:54,500 --> 00:27:56,500 - Also in the FBI files, 633 00:27:56,542 --> 00:27:58,708 the locals have noted a network of roads 634 00:27:58,792 --> 00:28:01,208 that are controlled by the local German community. 635 00:28:01,292 --> 00:28:03,583 These roads, which are small and run through jungle towns 636 00:28:03,708 --> 00:28:05,250 and rural communities, 637 00:28:05,333 --> 00:28:07,292 could be used to move anyone, 638 00:28:07,375 --> 00:28:09,500 or anything anonymously. 639 00:28:09,625 --> 00:28:11,417 - Simple military engineering. 640 00:28:11,500 --> 00:28:12,875 If you have one way out, one way in, 641 00:28:12,958 --> 00:28:14,875 It's very easy to control 642 00:28:14,875 --> 00:28:17,167 who moves back and forth on that road complex. 643 00:28:17,250 --> 00:28:19,667 If anyone approached and began snooping, 644 00:28:19,750 --> 00:28:21,833 there would be plenty of warning 645 00:28:21,917 --> 00:28:25,042 whereby you could skirt off to someplace else. 646 00:28:25,125 --> 00:28:28,542 - [Schug] The Missiones complex does seem like a place where 647 00:28:28,625 --> 00:28:30,667 Hitler could survive safely and comfortably, 648 00:28:30,750 --> 00:28:32,750 and Argentina itself does seem like 649 00:28:32,875 --> 00:28:35,042 an ideal place for Hitler to be. 650 00:28:35,167 --> 00:28:38,000 But Germans have a strong presence in Argentina 651 00:28:38,083 --> 00:28:40,542 after the war, so having Hitler exist 652 00:28:40,625 --> 00:28:44,333 secretly among them seems like it would be a tall order. 653 00:28:44,458 --> 00:28:46,083 - [Martin] There's always the possibility that Argentina 654 00:28:46,167 --> 00:28:48,000 wasn't a great place to go because 655 00:28:48,125 --> 00:28:49,875 we were looking there after the war. 656 00:28:49,958 --> 00:28:53,417 Certainly U-530 provided us with a big fat arrow 657 00:28:53,500 --> 00:28:55,000 pointing directly at Argentina. 658 00:28:55,083 --> 00:28:56,667 If people are looking, maybe it's not 659 00:28:56,792 --> 00:28:58,875 the best place to hide, 660 00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:02,000 maybe someplace else more remote would be a better place to hide. 661 00:29:02,083 --> 00:29:04,750 - It's a hop, skip, and a jump 662 00:29:04,833 --> 00:29:07,500 from the southern tip of Argentina to the South Pole. 663 00:29:07,583 --> 00:29:09,458 (tense music) 664 00:29:12,875 --> 00:29:14,792 - There's a possibility that Adolf Hitler may have 665 00:29:14,875 --> 00:29:17,208 ended up in Antarctica. 666 00:29:17,292 --> 00:29:20,750 - There's been a lot of exploration of Antarctica 667 00:29:20,875 --> 00:29:23,167 by Germany even before World War I. 668 00:29:23,292 --> 00:29:27,000 - The first of two German Antarctic expeditions 669 00:29:27,083 --> 00:29:30,917 occurs between 1901 and 1903. 670 00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:34,083 The goal of this expedition was to survey a part of 671 00:29:34,167 --> 00:29:36,833 the Antarctic continent and to determine 672 00:29:36,875 --> 00:29:38,875 if it had strategic value. 673 00:29:38,875 --> 00:29:41,333 - The German industry needs fuel, 674 00:29:41,417 --> 00:29:45,083 and the concept is that the answer to this is whale oil. 675 00:29:45,167 --> 00:29:48,375 And so these German patrols go down to Antarctica. 676 00:29:48,458 --> 00:29:49,792 They survey the grounds. 677 00:29:49,875 --> 00:29:51,833 The idea is to build a plant 678 00:29:51,917 --> 00:29:54,292 to produce whale fat into fuel. 679 00:29:54,375 --> 00:29:56,917 - During the National Socialist period, there was an actual 680 00:29:57,042 --> 00:29:59,375 Nazi Antarctic expedition 681 00:29:59,500 --> 00:30:02,625 that carved out a slot of the Antarctic continent 682 00:30:02,708 --> 00:30:05,833 that was for National Socialist Germany. 683 00:30:05,958 --> 00:30:09,125 - [Kevin] In 1947, a book comes out claiming 684 00:30:09,208 --> 00:30:11,500 that German U-boats after the war were actually 685 00:30:11,583 --> 00:30:13,667 delivering ex-Nazis 686 00:30:13,708 --> 00:30:15,875 to Antarctica and the South Pole. 687 00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:18,750 But later, one of the German U-boat commanders, 688 00:30:18,833 --> 00:30:20,375 a guy named Heinz Schaeffer, 689 00:30:20,458 --> 00:30:23,000 he comes out and denies the whole thing. 690 00:30:23,125 --> 00:30:26,500 - The captain denies that they proceeded to Antarctica. 691 00:30:26,583 --> 00:30:27,958 But, of course, if he was trusted 692 00:30:28,042 --> 00:30:31,167 with moving the German head of state 693 00:30:31,250 --> 00:30:34,542 to an unidentified, undisclosed location, 694 00:30:34,625 --> 00:30:35,542 wouldn't that be the story he tells? 695 00:30:41,042 --> 00:30:43,417 - [Laurence] By the spring of 1945, 696 00:30:43,500 --> 00:30:45,000 Nazi Germany has fallen. 697 00:30:45,125 --> 00:30:47,500 But some international intelligence reports 698 00:30:47,583 --> 00:30:52,042 suggest that Hitler may have escaped and is on the run. 699 00:30:52,125 --> 00:30:54,125 Some theorists raise the possibility 700 00:30:54,208 --> 00:30:57,458 that his ultimate destination is Antarctica. 701 00:30:57,542 --> 00:31:01,167 - Prior to World War II, Nazi Germany is actually 702 00:31:01,250 --> 00:31:04,000 looking to establish bases to support its whaling fleet. 703 00:31:05,958 --> 00:31:10,000 - In 1938, the Germans take possession of an area 704 00:31:10,042 --> 00:31:12,833 of Antarctica called Neuschwabenland. 705 00:31:12,917 --> 00:31:15,333 This actually belonged to Norway, 706 00:31:15,417 --> 00:31:17,458 and the Germans basically just plucked up 707 00:31:17,542 --> 00:31:20,333 the Norwegian flag and put down their own. 708 00:31:20,417 --> 00:31:23,042 - [Jesse] Now, it sounds strange that Germany would send 709 00:31:23,125 --> 00:31:26,500 U-boats to Antarctica, but at that time, 710 00:31:26,583 --> 00:31:27,917 the continent was considered 711 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:31,167 to be a treasure trove of resources, 712 00:31:31,208 --> 00:31:33,000 especially for countries that were looking 713 00:31:33,042 --> 00:31:35,042 to expand their empires. 714 00:31:35,167 --> 00:31:36,833 - [Newscaster] A season's catch may be valued 715 00:31:36,875 --> 00:31:39,625 at over 2 million pounds. 716 00:31:39,708 --> 00:31:42,083 - [Martin] The purpose of these bases was to get Germany in 717 00:31:42,167 --> 00:31:44,000 on the whale oil game, 718 00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:47,417 when whale oil was as good as gold or as good as oil. 719 00:31:47,500 --> 00:31:49,500 But those same bases could also be used 720 00:31:49,583 --> 00:31:52,458 at the end of the war to harbor fugitives. 721 00:31:52,542 --> 00:31:56,250 In 1943, Grand Admiral Karl Donitz claims 722 00:31:56,333 --> 00:31:57,875 that Germany's submarine fleet 723 00:31:57,958 --> 00:32:00,583 has created an unassailable fortress 724 00:32:00,583 --> 00:32:01,625 on the other end of the world. 725 00:32:03,542 --> 00:32:06,000 - Now, while this sounds like, oh, there's obviously 726 00:32:06,042 --> 00:32:08,500 a fortress down there, this is what he would have said 727 00:32:08,625 --> 00:32:10,583 about any locations the Germans possessed 728 00:32:10,708 --> 00:32:12,167 during World War II. 729 00:32:12,250 --> 00:32:14,333 He understands the power of propaganda 730 00:32:14,375 --> 00:32:16,250 and what to use against the enemy. 731 00:32:16,333 --> 00:32:18,208 (tense music) 732 00:32:18,292 --> 00:32:20,250 - The German U-boat fleet was also known 733 00:32:20,333 --> 00:32:22,292 for sneaking off and doing secretive things 734 00:32:22,375 --> 00:32:23,917 and conducting secretive landings that we don't 735 00:32:23,917 --> 00:32:25,750 find out about until years later. 736 00:32:25,833 --> 00:32:28,375 In the example of U-537, it actually sails 737 00:32:28,458 --> 00:32:33,000 to what would eventually become part of Canada in 1943 738 00:32:33,083 --> 00:32:34,792 and it establishes a weather station that 739 00:32:34,875 --> 00:32:38,167 nobody knows a thing about until the 1970s. 740 00:32:38,250 --> 00:32:40,292 So we're not writing science fiction 741 00:32:40,375 --> 00:32:43,583 when we imagine the Germans using a U-boat to sail 742 00:32:43,583 --> 00:32:45,625 to a remote and very cold place 743 00:32:45,708 --> 00:32:49,250 to conduct a landing and put structures ashore. 744 00:32:49,250 --> 00:32:51,500 - Articles come out with this theory 745 00:32:51,583 --> 00:32:54,000 that months after the capitulation of Germany, 746 00:32:54,083 --> 00:32:56,208 April of 1945, 747 00:32:56,333 --> 00:33:00,458 a German U-boat shows up in Antarctica, 748 00:33:00,542 --> 00:33:03,167 and the crew gets off and they don't get back on. 749 00:33:03,250 --> 00:33:04,708 They stay and they start building 750 00:33:04,792 --> 00:33:07,125 shelters for themselves. 751 00:33:07,208 --> 00:33:10,083 - That leads to this tantalizing possibility 752 00:33:10,167 --> 00:33:12,417 that they may have been laying the infrastructure 753 00:33:12,500 --> 00:33:15,000 for the Fuhrer himself to come there 754 00:33:15,083 --> 00:33:17,667 and to begin this continuity of government program 755 00:33:17,708 --> 00:33:20,542 from Antarctica. 756 00:33:20,625 --> 00:33:23,542 - [Luke] Nazi Germany definitely had interest in Antarctica, 757 00:33:23,625 --> 00:33:25,458 but there's absolutely no evidence to suggest 758 00:33:25,542 --> 00:33:27,375 that Hitler escaped to Antarctica. 759 00:33:27,458 --> 00:33:29,292 Hitler wouldn't want to have lived in Antarctica. 760 00:33:29,375 --> 00:33:31,333 He would have hated living in Antarctica. 761 00:33:31,417 --> 00:33:34,042 - From a psychological perspective, 762 00:33:34,167 --> 00:33:35,417 it would seem odd for a person 763 00:33:35,500 --> 00:33:37,500 who's used to having all of this power 764 00:33:37,542 --> 00:33:40,833 and control to end up at the bottom of the world 765 00:33:40,958 --> 00:33:42,333 with no one around him. 766 00:33:42,417 --> 00:33:45,000 Doesn't seem like a good fit. 767 00:33:45,042 --> 00:33:46,583 - [Laurence] But talk of a German 768 00:33:46,667 --> 00:33:48,500 Antarctic base persists, 769 00:33:48,583 --> 00:33:51,208 and the international search continues. 770 00:33:51,333 --> 00:33:54,833 - Down the road, articles, books come out saying 771 00:33:54,917 --> 00:33:58,167 that after World War II, in August of 1945, 772 00:33:58,250 --> 00:34:00,333 just months after Germany's surrender, 773 00:34:00,458 --> 00:34:03,042 the British launched Operation Tabarin, 774 00:34:03,125 --> 00:34:06,583 the idea being that they sent troops down to Antarctica 775 00:34:06,667 --> 00:34:08,333 to take this fortress, 776 00:34:08,375 --> 00:34:10,292 but were held back by the Germans, 777 00:34:10,375 --> 00:34:13,292 who possessed it for decades after. 778 00:34:13,375 --> 00:34:16,500 So again, every time they tamp down, 779 00:34:16,583 --> 00:34:20,042 one rumor or another is gonna pop up. 780 00:34:20,125 --> 00:34:22,000 - [Paul] As the foremost maritime power in the world 781 00:34:22,042 --> 00:34:23,500 prior to World War II, 782 00:34:23,583 --> 00:34:25,833 it's unsurprising that the British Navy 783 00:34:25,875 --> 00:34:27,708 is involved in a substantial number 784 00:34:27,792 --> 00:34:30,583 of expeditions mapping out the rest of the world 785 00:34:30,667 --> 00:34:32,708 and looking for basing opportunities. 786 00:34:32,792 --> 00:34:34,375 However, Operation Tabarin 787 00:34:34,458 --> 00:34:36,042 was not a secret military mission 788 00:34:36,167 --> 00:34:38,875 to attack some Nazi base in Antarctica. 789 00:34:38,958 --> 00:34:40,333 It was a scientific mission 790 00:34:40,375 --> 00:34:43,500 designed to study the climate of Antarctica. 791 00:34:43,583 --> 00:34:46,292 - [Jesse] It doesn't look like the theory that Hitler 792 00:34:46,375 --> 00:34:49,000 left Germany after World War II 793 00:34:49,083 --> 00:34:51,208 and went to a secret Nazi base 794 00:34:51,292 --> 00:34:53,625 in Antarctica is in any way true. 795 00:34:53,708 --> 00:34:57,250 The only evidence that we've been able to find shows that 796 00:34:57,333 --> 00:35:00,458 Germany had a base in Antarctica for whale oil. 797 00:35:05,167 --> 00:35:07,542 - [Laurence] After the fall of Germany in 1945, 798 00:35:07,625 --> 00:35:11,250 some intelligence reports suggest Hitler may have escaped. 799 00:35:11,333 --> 00:35:14,333 Others have made an even more startling claim, 800 00:35:14,375 --> 00:35:18,500 one that boggles the imagination. 801 00:35:18,542 --> 00:35:20,167 - [Martin] There were a lot of people that didn't like him, 802 00:35:20,208 --> 00:35:21,833 and there were a lot of people who wanted him dead, 803 00:35:21,875 --> 00:35:24,292 even in Germany. 804 00:35:24,375 --> 00:35:28,375 So there's a possibility that the person who killed himself 805 00:35:28,458 --> 00:35:30,833 in the bunker in Berlin was somebody 806 00:35:30,875 --> 00:35:32,542 who just looked like Hitler, 807 00:35:32,625 --> 00:35:34,833 that it wasn't him at all, that it was a body double. 808 00:35:40,250 --> 00:35:42,958 - [Laurence] To support this theory, some turn to 809 00:35:43,042 --> 00:35:46,250 the many assassination attempts made against the Nazi League. 810 00:35:46,333 --> 00:35:49,292 - There were 42 assassination attempts, if we're counting 811 00:35:49,375 --> 00:35:53,250 actual attempts, and if you add up plots 812 00:35:53,333 --> 00:35:55,375 that were foiled before they could be sprung, 813 00:35:55,500 --> 00:35:58,000 the number reaches over 100. 814 00:35:58,042 --> 00:36:00,333 - One of them was a general 815 00:36:00,375 --> 00:36:02,458 was gonna hug him with two hand grenades 816 00:36:02,542 --> 00:36:04,500 in his hands and blow him up. 817 00:36:04,542 --> 00:36:06,667 They also put explosives on his airplane 818 00:36:06,750 --> 00:36:10,333 when he was traveling to the Russian front. 819 00:36:10,417 --> 00:36:13,667 - The most famous one probably being Operation Valkyrie, 820 00:36:13,792 --> 00:36:17,292 which has been immortalized in the film starring Tom Cruise. 821 00:36:17,292 --> 00:36:19,375 (tense music) 822 00:36:19,458 --> 00:36:22,875 - [Kevin] Valkyrie becomes known as the July 20 bomb plot, 823 00:36:22,958 --> 00:36:26,250 because it occurs on July 20, 1944, 824 00:36:26,333 --> 00:36:28,333 just a little bit after D-Day, 825 00:36:28,458 --> 00:36:31,333 where the Allies are coming across France. 826 00:36:31,458 --> 00:36:33,667 - [Laurence] By the summer of 1944, 827 00:36:33,792 --> 00:36:36,167 a growing number of Germany's senior military leaders 828 00:36:36,250 --> 00:36:37,833 are losing hope. 829 00:36:37,917 --> 00:36:41,083 Many blame Hitler for leading Germany to disaster. 830 00:36:41,208 --> 00:36:43,625 - [Kevin] One of Hitler's army officers, 831 00:36:43,708 --> 00:36:45,750 Von Stauffenberg, is going to bring 832 00:36:45,833 --> 00:36:47,542 a briefcase bomb 833 00:36:47,542 --> 00:36:49,625 down into his Wolf's Lair, 834 00:36:49,708 --> 00:36:52,500 and he's going to break two little glass tubes 835 00:36:52,583 --> 00:36:54,708 in the briefcase that will start a timer. 836 00:36:54,792 --> 00:36:57,292 He's gonna put the suitcase under a table 837 00:36:57,375 --> 00:36:58,792 and get out of there. 838 00:36:58,875 --> 00:37:00,167 (explosion) 839 00:37:00,250 --> 00:37:02,167 (tense music) 840 00:37:02,208 --> 00:37:04,125 Because of the heavy legs of the table, 841 00:37:04,208 --> 00:37:06,833 one of those legs absorbed a lot of the blast. 842 00:37:06,917 --> 00:37:08,667 Hitler survived it. 843 00:37:08,750 --> 00:37:11,042 He actually gets on the phone and begins calling people, 844 00:37:11,167 --> 00:37:13,292 putting down this insurrection, 845 00:37:13,375 --> 00:37:15,500 and it's probably the best known attempt 846 00:37:15,667 --> 00:37:16,833 to kill Hitler 847 00:37:16,917 --> 00:37:20,667 and restore some degree of normalcy in Germany. 848 00:37:20,750 --> 00:37:23,333 - [Martin] According to Bauer, he may have been killed 849 00:37:23,375 --> 00:37:25,667 in the July 20 assassination plot 850 00:37:25,750 --> 00:37:28,292 and they just didn't want to let Germany know 851 00:37:28,375 --> 00:37:30,375 because it was at a critical moment in the war. 852 00:37:30,458 --> 00:37:32,333 This is not a good time to have to go, oh, yeah, hey, 853 00:37:32,417 --> 00:37:33,667 by the way, somebody killed him, 854 00:37:33,708 --> 00:37:35,000 and it was one of our guys that did it. 855 00:37:35,083 --> 00:37:37,000 (tense music) 856 00:37:37,042 --> 00:37:40,625 - In 1939, Maximilian Bauer writes this book called 857 00:37:40,708 --> 00:37:42,792 "The Strange Death of Adolf Hitler" 858 00:37:42,875 --> 00:37:46,292 and claims that Hitler died in 1938. 859 00:37:46,375 --> 00:37:48,375 And so all events that are gonna take place 860 00:37:48,458 --> 00:37:52,625 hence on is actually gonna be from a body double. 861 00:37:52,708 --> 00:37:55,083 - [Martin] According to Bauer, Adolf Hitler is dining with 862 00:37:55,167 --> 00:37:56,625 some of his critical leaders, 863 00:37:56,708 --> 00:37:59,000 and he's poisoned during the meal. 864 00:37:59,125 --> 00:38:01,708 So the senior leadership, they felt like that would 865 00:38:01,792 --> 00:38:03,667 just be too much of a blow to morale. 866 00:38:03,792 --> 00:38:06,333 And so what they did was replace him 867 00:38:06,417 --> 00:38:08,667 with a series of body doubles. 868 00:38:08,708 --> 00:38:11,958 (tense music) 869 00:38:12,042 --> 00:38:13,458 - The Nazi propaganda machine 870 00:38:13,542 --> 00:38:16,708 is one of the most well-oiled machines there is. 871 00:38:16,792 --> 00:38:20,458 Joseph Goebbels is using every incident, everything, 872 00:38:20,458 --> 00:38:23,625 to churn out language of the Nazi Party. 873 00:38:23,708 --> 00:38:25,500 And so if anybody's going to be able to cover up 874 00:38:25,542 --> 00:38:27,250 the death of Adolf Hitler 875 00:38:27,333 --> 00:38:29,083 and convince everyone 876 00:38:29,167 --> 00:38:30,583 that this other person is him, 877 00:38:30,667 --> 00:38:32,375 it's gonna be Joseph Goebbels. 878 00:38:32,458 --> 00:38:33,542 (explosion) 879 00:38:33,625 --> 00:38:35,000 - [Laurence] If Hitler was dead 880 00:38:35,042 --> 00:38:36,542 long before the end of the war, 881 00:38:36,625 --> 00:38:39,833 is it possible he was replaced by a body double? 882 00:38:39,917 --> 00:38:42,500 As proof, some turn to a body found 883 00:38:42,583 --> 00:38:44,958 in the wreckage of the Reich Chancellery. 884 00:38:46,542 --> 00:38:48,833 - And he looks so much like Adolf Hitler 885 00:38:48,875 --> 00:38:51,458 that all these Soviet soldiers kind of pile in around him. 886 00:38:51,542 --> 00:38:53,667 They're taking photos of him. 887 00:38:53,792 --> 00:38:56,625 It actually belongs to a man named Gustav Weller, 888 00:38:56,708 --> 00:38:58,333 but he looks so much like Adolf Hitler, 889 00:38:58,417 --> 00:39:00,333 they at first thought, "Oh, my gosh, 890 00:39:00,375 --> 00:39:01,458 here's his dead body, we found him." 891 00:39:01,542 --> 00:39:03,375 They even placed a painted portrait 892 00:39:03,500 --> 00:39:06,333 of Adolf Hitler on the chest of the dead body, 893 00:39:06,375 --> 00:39:08,667 as if to confirm, see, it's the guy in the painting. 894 00:39:10,333 --> 00:39:11,833 - [Schug] Is this a coincidence? 895 00:39:11,917 --> 00:39:14,333 A man who looks exactly like Adolf Hitler is found 896 00:39:14,375 --> 00:39:16,500 just feet away from where he's cremated? 897 00:39:16,583 --> 00:39:18,625 - Maybe Weller is exactly 898 00:39:18,708 --> 00:39:21,500 what they wanted the Russians to find. 899 00:39:21,583 --> 00:39:23,750 You have personal accounts describing the bitter end. 900 00:39:23,833 --> 00:39:26,750 You have a body double that looks like Adolf Hitler 901 00:39:26,750 --> 00:39:29,125 with a bullet wound to the head. 902 00:39:29,208 --> 00:39:30,792 - [Laurence] Detractors of this theory 903 00:39:30,875 --> 00:39:33,500 point out that a body double would be unlikely to fool 904 00:39:33,542 --> 00:39:36,333 those who knew Hitler well. 905 00:39:36,417 --> 00:39:38,875 - [Luke] Hitler first met Mussolini in 1934, 906 00:39:38,958 --> 00:39:40,708 and although Mussolini was a very bad man, 907 00:39:40,792 --> 00:39:42,500 he wasn't an idiot, and I think 908 00:39:42,583 --> 00:39:45,125 he would notice if Hitler was replaced by a double. 909 00:39:45,208 --> 00:39:49,208 Similarly, Hitler was dating Eva Braun since 1932, 910 00:39:49,208 --> 00:39:51,125 and I think she would definitely tell the difference 911 00:39:51,125 --> 00:39:54,625 if Hitler had been replaced by a double in 1938. 912 00:39:54,750 --> 00:39:58,500 - There is no evidence, there is nothing written by Adolf Hitler, 913 00:39:58,583 --> 00:40:00,542 by anybody in his inner circle 914 00:40:00,625 --> 00:40:02,792 that said there was a doppelganger, 915 00:40:02,875 --> 00:40:04,500 there was a person looking like Hitler 916 00:40:04,583 --> 00:40:06,333 that we used to trick people. 917 00:40:06,458 --> 00:40:07,917 There's nothing like it. 918 00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:11,083 It was simply people found that look like Hitler, 919 00:40:11,167 --> 00:40:12,625 that this assumption was made 920 00:40:12,708 --> 00:40:14,875 that there was a doppelganger. 921 00:40:14,958 --> 00:40:18,500 - The idea of Hitler living anonymously as a Mr. X 922 00:40:18,583 --> 00:40:20,917 somewhere in Spain or in Argentina, 923 00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:23,375 in Antarctica, it's not Hitler's style. 924 00:40:23,458 --> 00:40:25,250 He was the Fuhrer of Germany, 925 00:40:25,333 --> 00:40:26,958 he wanted to go down as such. 926 00:40:27,042 --> 00:40:29,292 And one of the reasons why he killed himself 927 00:40:29,375 --> 00:40:30,667 is because he wanted to avoid 928 00:40:30,792 --> 00:40:32,750 the shame of overthrow or surrender. 929 00:40:35,542 --> 00:40:38,375 - [Jesse] Thousands of historians have spent decades 930 00:40:38,458 --> 00:40:40,083 looking at all of the theories 931 00:40:40,167 --> 00:40:42,750 of what possibly could've happened to Hitler 932 00:40:42,833 --> 00:40:45,000 at the end of World War II, 933 00:40:45,125 --> 00:40:47,500 and more outlandish theories 934 00:40:47,583 --> 00:40:49,625 seem to come out every day. 935 00:40:51,208 --> 00:40:52,750 - Hitler's death is a mystery 936 00:40:52,833 --> 00:40:55,625 that's really deliberately fanned by 937 00:40:55,625 --> 00:40:59,042 the specific circumstances of Hitler's demise 938 00:40:59,167 --> 00:41:01,792 in Berlin on April 30, 1945. 939 00:41:01,875 --> 00:41:03,750 And really, Stalin did his work too well. 940 00:41:03,875 --> 00:41:06,292 He clouded the issue so much at the outset that 941 00:41:06,375 --> 00:41:07,708 he left the mystery alive, 942 00:41:07,792 --> 00:41:09,167 and then the mystery just festered 943 00:41:09,250 --> 00:41:10,917 and persists down to this day. 944 00:41:14,583 --> 00:41:18,167 - Nazi Germany's downfall remains a source of fascination 945 00:41:18,167 --> 00:41:20,542 nearly 80 years later. 946 00:41:20,667 --> 00:41:22,917 The overwhelming majority agree 947 00:41:23,042 --> 00:41:24,167 that the official story 948 00:41:24,208 --> 00:41:25,292 is the true one. 949 00:41:25,375 --> 00:41:27,083 Hitler committed suicide 950 00:41:27,167 --> 00:41:28,542 in Berlin. 951 00:41:28,625 --> 00:41:30,542 But why is the idea 952 00:41:30,667 --> 00:41:32,167 of Hitler escaping 953 00:41:32,208 --> 00:41:34,583 such a long lasting theory? 954 00:41:34,708 --> 00:41:36,333 Perhaps it's the quest 955 00:41:36,375 --> 00:41:38,000 for justice that appeals 956 00:41:38,083 --> 00:41:39,292 to many of us. 957 00:41:39,375 --> 00:41:41,333 Regardless, Hitler's death 958 00:41:41,417 --> 00:41:43,167 may remain the subject of investigation 959 00:41:43,292 --> 00:41:44,583 for many years to come. 960 00:41:44,667 --> 00:41:46,583 I'm Laurence Fishburne. 961 00:41:46,667 --> 00:41:48,167 Thank you for watching 962 00:41:48,292 --> 00:41:50,750 "History's Greatest Mysteries."