Conspiracy theories have been running rampant
recently. Sometimes they can be harmless; other times
they can cause serious confusion. What would happen if the most evil man in
history didn’t die the way we thought he had? What if Adolf Hitler actually escaped his
fate, and was able to live out his life in relative peace? It is unthinkable, yet, some people believe
this is what happened. The conventional theory is that Hitler took
his own life by cyanide and a gunshot to the head in a Berlin bunker as Soviet forces closed
in from all sides. But, another theory has been floating around
for decades; that Hitler actually escaped Germany and fled to Argentina where he lived
out the rest of his days in secret. Is there any evidence to support this escape
theory? Where did this theory even start? Let’s find out. Hitler’s death is recorded as being April
30, 1945. On May 1, 1945 Supreme Commander of the Navy
Admiral Karl Dönitz, who was designated successor to Hitler, officially announced the death
of the Führer. That same year the war came to an end in Europe
and British counter-intelligence officer Hugh Trevor Roper was tasked with determining the
actual cause of death for Adolph Hitler. To this point in time the Soviet forces were
the only ones in Berlin who had access to the remains of Hitler, and they were not very
forthcoming with the details of the Führer’s death. Not only were the Soviets shady about releasing
the information on what happened to Hitler, but since they refused to hand over any remains
or evidence as to what happened to the Nazi leader, rummors started to circulate. Even Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union,
was recorded as mentioning that perhaps Hitler had escaped to Argentina after all. This had Hugh Trevor Roper worried. He needed to get to the bottom of what actually
happened to the leader of the Axis powers. As he dug deeper Trevor Roper found that the
disorganization of the Soviets was part of the problem. They may not have been withholding information,
so much as just misplacing or not knowing where things were. All Trevor Roper knew at this point in time
was that the Soviets possessed a statement of Hitler’s death, they had conducted an
investigation at the bunker where the suicide took place two days after it happened, and
they had captured key members of the Nazi party who claimed to be eyewitnesses to the
events in said bunker. Trever Roper worried that the lack of evidence
the Soviets were providing, may have somehow been motivated by the beginnings of the Cold
War. The Soviets may have been posturing and taking
credit for Hitler’s death as a show of power, without concrete evidence, Trevor Roper could
not be sure. It did not help that the Soviet leaders were
uncooperative or forthcoming with information pertaining to Hitler’s death. Trever Roper would wait long periods of time
before questions were answered, or any tangible evidence was provided. Again it did not help that the leadership
of the Soviet Union was doing very little in public statements to dissuade any conspiracy
theories about Hitler’s death, or provide the public with concrete information to prove
that Hitler had killed himself in the bunker. In a public address, Soviet Marshal Zhukov
and Colonel-General Berzarin went as far as to speculate that perhaps Hitler had escaped
from the bunker and was hiding out in Spain. It seemed that even the communication within
the Soviet leadership was in conflict, so it was no wonder that Trevor Roper couldn’t
obtain clear evidence. The British intelligence officer was unable
to make sense of the messaging, or lack of evidence, and concluded that it may have been
a tactic used to create suspicion and distrust among Allied forces. This would leave the Soviet Union in a more
powerful position as the Cold War started to unfurl. Trever Roper himself even said: “the infallible
Stalin had declared the truth, before which inconvenient evidence must bow and retire,”
meaning the misinformation campaign could all be a matter of Stalinist orthodoxy to
further the Soviet Union’s agenda. Trever Roper would leave Germany empty handed,
with only speculation and the word of the Soviets that Hitler was in fact dead. The alternative was unthinkable. But the messaging was mixed and there were
no official documents or remains handed over to the British intelligence officer to come
to a concrete conclusion. In fact, it would take until 1968 until the
Soviets divulged the information that resulted from the detailed investigation they had conducted
at the bunker. The results of the investigation were finally
made public, and the cause of Hitler’s death as sucide could be confirmed… at least for
the time being. So, it would seem the theory that Hitler escaped
with his wife Eva Braun to Argentina started as early as 1945 by the Soviets, right after
the war in Europe ended. But there were other aspects that fueled the
fire of this conspiracy theory. Even in the United States people started believing
that American intelligence officials allowed Hitler to escape in return for advance Nazi
technology. In 1945 Britain newspapers repeated the comments
of disinformation from the leaders of the Soviet Union, creating a sense of uncertainty
as to what actually happened to Hitler. The papers even reported that the charred
body discovered by the Soviets in the bunker, was actually “a very poor double” of the
Führer. This rhetoric led to several wild conspiracy
theories about Hitler’s escape. Some claimed he went to Argentina or Spain,
others that he somehow made it to the moon and built a Nazi empire there. However, all credible historians agree that
Hitler killed himself on April 30, 1945 in Berlin. Is there any real evidence to contradict the
historical account of what happened to Adolf Hitler? Some rogue researchers would argue that several
lines of evidence point to Hitler fleeing to Argentina, instead of meeting his ultimate
demise in Berlin. There were declassified FBI documents that
contained a number of alleged sightings of Hitler after he was supposed to have died. However, mustaches similar to Hitler’s—think
Charlie Chaplin— were in fashion during this time, and peoples eyes and brain can
trick them into seeing things that are not actually there. Just think of how many people see a man’s
face on the moon. Also, the FBI made public statements saying
that the sightings of Hitler could not be verified in any credible way. Some other rogue researchers use lack of evidence
early on to suggest that Hitler’s body was never actually found. This meant that he must have escaped. Unfortunately, forensic methods at the time
of Hitler’s death were not as advanced as they are today. But recently forensic anthropologists and
scientists have gone back to analyse the bone fragments and teeth of Hitler that are housed
in Russia. Their findings are very interesting. More recently the theory that Hitler escaped
to Argentina became popular again in 2014 with a book called Grey Wolf. It seems like around this time there was no
shortage of conspiracy theory shows circulating the television networks or books being published. The book Grey Wolf was researched and written
by the British authors Simon Dunstan and Gerrard Willliams. The authors proposed that rather than Hitler
killing Ava Braun and himself, he faked their deaths, boarded a U-boat acommpanied by high
ranking Nazi officials and treasures collected during the war, and made their way to South
America. The authors claim that Hitler already had
connections to the future president in Argentina, Juan Perón, who had received money from the
Nazis during World War II. In Grey Wolf Hitler makes a daring escape,
crosses the Atlantic completely undetected, sails around the tip of South America, and
lands in Argentina. He moves around for a bit and then settles
to live out the rest of his life quietly and happily, two things that Adolf Hitler was
not known for. The book claims Hitler actually died in February
of 1962. Just thinking about Hitler’s personality
it seems that he would not have been able to contain his enthusiasm for destruction
and genocide. He most likely would have tried to carry out
his vision of a Third Reich in South America, but like the entirety of the Grey Wolf book,
this is just speculation. Dunstan and Williams explain that it may have
been possible for Hitler to fund his escape using the treasures he stole from around the
world. He may even have been the wealthiest person
on the planet during the height of World War II. The funds would have been used to hire the
men he needed to flee to Argentina, and keep everyone silent about his plans by paying
them off. Again, all of the evidence that Grey Wolf
presents is tentative at best, and easily disprovable at worst. In fact, the authors were accused by Argentinian
researcher and author Abel Basti for plagiarizing his work. Basti claims that his research was used by
Dunstan and Williams without citing him properly. He also claims they misrepresented some of
his research in their book. Basti signed a contract with Williams stating
that he would introduce the author to two key witnesses that would provide credibility
to his theory. Basti held up his end of the bargain, but
was never paid by Williams. It doesn’t bode well for the reliability
of Dunstan and Williams that they used people in Argentina to try and fit evidence to their
theory, instead of allowing the evidence to speak for itself and coming to a logical conclusion. It also doesn’t seem like Dunstan and Williams
treated the people they hired, or other researchers, with respect, but that’s just an observation. Regardless, Grey Wolf was torn apart by historians
and established World War II researchers as soon as it came out. There was no actual evidence in the book that
could prove the theory of Hitler escaping to Argentina, or contradict history. Around the same time as Grey Wolf the History
Channel premiered a series called Hunting Hitler. The show claimed to have uncovered previously
classified documents of interviews with witnesses who claimed Hitler escaped from Germany and
traveled to Argentina by U-boat. However, upon scrutiny of the documents by
historians they were debunked. This was not discussed on the Hunting Hitler
TV show, which probably led to people further spreading unsubstantiated claims that Hitler
made it to Argentina. This brings us to the end of our journey down
the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories about Adolf Hitler escaping to Argentina. So, what really happened to Adolf Hitler and
how do we know? The answer is simple. Hitler killed Eva Braum, and himself, in the
Berlin bunker just like historians have maintained all these years. We know this from several lines of evidence,
but it is also okay to trust experts in their fields. Historians have their work peer reviewed and
scrutinized over by other academics. When experts in their field come to a consensus,
it is a safe bet you can believe them. But if you want even more evidence that Hitler
committed suicied here you go. In a recent study French scientists analyzed
the fragments of Hitler’s teeth that are kept secured in Russia. We know they are his teeth because experts
scoured dental records from the Nazi regime and found multiple copies of Adolf Hitler’s
dental files. The teeth the Russians have are an exact match. At the time of death Hitler only had four
real teeth remaining, which were all in very bad shape. Upon analysis, the scientists confirmed that
the residue and deterioration of the teeth are consistent with the vegetarian diet that
Adolf Hitler ate. They also concluded that Hitler did in fact
take cyanide before the gunshot to his head, but it is still unclear if it was enough of
the poison to have killed him on its own. The experts who examined the teeth and fragments
of the skull concluded that the remains belonged to Hitler, and as the Soviet reports indicated,
he was killed by a gunshot wound to the head. All of the evidence corroborates what historians
have known for decades, Hitler committed suicide in a Berlin bunker on April 30, 1945. As it turns out Hitler’s escape to Argentina
was just a fabricated myth. It may have started as a misinformation campaign
by Stalin and leaders of the Soviet party, or it could have just developed from the media
and public wanting a little more excitement in their lives. Either way, there is no concrete evidence
to support the escape to Argentina conspiracy theory, and there is ample amounts of evidence
to support what experts have been saying all along. Hitler committed sucide. Now go watch “How Hitler Survived Assassination
Attempts.” Or check out our video “How Rich Was Hitler
(Where Did All His Money Come From).”
