Hatred of the Jews was Hitler’s motor and central point perhaps even the very element which motivated him. The German people, the German greatness, the Empire, they all meant nothing to him in the last analysis. For this reason, he wished in the final sentence of his testament, to fixate us Germans, even after the apocalyptic downfall in a miserable hatred of the Jews ... When speaking of the victims of the bomb raids, particularly after the massive attacks on Hamburg in Summer 1943, he again and again reiterated that he would avenge these victims on the Jews; just as if the air-terror against the civilian population actually suited him in that it furnished him with a belated substitute motivation for a crime decided upon long ago and emanating from quite different layers of his personality. Just as if he wanted to justify his own mass murders with these remarks. Albert Speer, Munich June 1977
Some journalists claimed he’d fled to South America. According to some reports the Fuhrer and Eva Braun went into hiding in Argentina, protected by loyal Nazis. Another more far-fetched theory claimed that he went even further south in a U-boat. Hunting Hitler: The Hunt Begins, History 2015
Stalin’s reply was remarkable – he thought Hitler was still alive and living in Spain or Argentina. The British and US governments couldn’t confirm Hitler’s death either. ibid.
Over two-thirds of those questioned thought that the Fuhrer had survived the battle of Berlin. ibid.
Witnesses claiming to have seen him or to know his whereabouts came forward regularly. ibid.
Many German U-boats sailed to the coast of South America and surrendered. ibid.
A couple of months later British Intelligence were alerted, and orders to investigate the circumstances of Hitler’s death were received. ibid.
The Soviets had already discovered the truth, and carted key witnesses off to Moscow ... It was only decades later however that the wider public finally learned what had happened to the bodies. They were hidden away in a red army base near Magdeburg until they were destroyed in 1970. ibid.
May 8th 1947 J Edgar Hoover: Most of the statements in the public press allege that Hitler is in South America and that he went there by submarine. None of these allegations of course can be proven by fact and the American army officials have not located Hitler’s body, nor is there any reliable source who will say definitely that Hitler is dead. ibid.
60,000 Nazis lived in Argentina. ibid.
Charata, Argentina: reports of an underground bunker. ibid.
Misiones: Who built this [jungle] complex? Hunting Hitler s1e2: Secret Nazi Lair
Bunker: No-one sees his face and says, ‘That’s him!’ ... There’s no evidence – nothing. ibid.
Choke Point #1: How did he get out of Germany? How he could have entered Argentina? Hunting Hitler s1e3: Escape From Berlin
The first plane was loaded with Hitler’s property. ibid.
There’s only a short distance between the subway and the entrance to Tempelhof [airport]. ibid.
The US government was investigating Adolf Hitler’s whereabouts years after he was believed dead. Hunting Hitler s1e4: The Tunnel
46 U-boats went missing and operated in secret. ibid.
The hunt for a sunken U-boat that may have been Hitler’s escape vehicle to South America. Hunting Hitler s1e5: Ratlines
An intricate systems of escape routes known as Rat Lines were ... supported by both the Red Cross and the Catholic Church. ibid.
A nuclear physicist sent to the United States outsmarts the FBI. We have no idea what his true mission was here. Hunting Hitler: The Final Chapter, Bob Baer reporting
For decades historians and experts have debated exactly what the Nazi Party was planning at the end of World War II. Recently, hundreds of MI5, CIA and MSA documents have been declassified. ibid.
They all point in one directions: that the Nazis had a plan for a Fourth Reich. ibid.
It was one of the great discoveries of the last century. Sixty-two volumes of the hand-written personal diaries of one the most infamous and reviled men in modern history: Adolf Hitler. History’s Greatest Hoaxes s1e3: Hitler’s Diaries, 2016
Rupert Murdoch paid a cool $500,000 for the rights to publish them in The Sunday Times. ibid.
Having already put in place a deal to buy the Hitler diaries [Magnus] Linklater was tasked with trying to authenticate their contents and validate Murdoch’s proposed purchase. ibid.
The Sunday Times was still not completely sure that the diaries weren’t fakes so they asked revered Cambridge historian Hugh Trevor-Roper … started to have serious doubts. ibid.
Long before 1933, the year he rose to power, Adolf Hitler wrote: With the help of a persistent propaganda even Heaven can be represented to the people’s hell, and the most wretched life as paradise. Secrets of War s1e45: Nazi Propaganda
‘From my close observation of Hitler for many years I believe the Fuhrer to be a borderline case between genius and insanity. I predict he will be the craziest criminal the world has ever known.’ Secrets of War s1e54: Hitler’s Last Days, Hitler’s first doctor 1937
He not longer listened to his trusted advisers; he trusted almost no-one. ibid.
He believed the German people had let him down. ibid.
On April 20th [1945] Hitler turned 56. ibid.
Did Adolf Hitler die in a bunker under Berlin at the end of the Second World War or did he escape to Argentina with his wife Eva Braun where they lived out the rest of their lives in the foothills of Patagonia? Jamie Theakston, Forbidden History s3e2: Hitler: Suicide or Survivor? Yesterday 2016
Gerrard Williams & Simon Dunstan: Grey Wolf: The Escape of Adolf Hitler. ibid.
Former German Pilot Tells of Hitler’s Escape: Capt. Peter Baumgart, 32-year-old former German air-force pilot, told a district court yesterday that he flew Adolf Hitler to Denmark shortly before the fall of Berlin. ibid. Associated Press newspaper article Larry Allen
‘The evidence for Hitler’s death is absolutely compelling.’ ibid. Guy Walters
Is this his body? Ever since Hitler’s death mystery has shrouded the last moments of his life and the final resting place of his corpse. Are these fragments of bone in a Moscow archive the last mortal remains of Adolf Hitler after his death in the Berlin bunker? Secrets of World War II e2: Adolf Hitler’s Last Days, Military 1998
On the right were the switchboard room, generators and the quarters assigned to Hitler’s physicians; on the left were Hitler’s private rooms which included a conference room, office, sitting room and bedroom. Physically, the Fuhrer was a dreadful sight. ibid.
To capture the city [Berlin] the Russians were to lose 300,000 men. ibid.
Munich 8 November 1939: ‘We welcome the Fuhrer with three cheers …’ 13 Minutes: The Plot to Assassinate Adolf Hitler, Nazi on podium, BBC 2019
‘We National Socialists have always been fighters. Now the great moment has come to prove ourselves as warriors.’ ibid. Hitler on podium
We mourn the death of seven innocent people for which you are responsible. ibid. chief rozzer
The Fuhrer is alive. He left the Burgerbraukeller Hall 13 minutes before the explosion. Your assassination attempt failed. ibid.
Five men who refused to accept the unacceptable. Five men of honour. Five men who wanted to kill Adolf Hitler. What they didn’t know was that Hitler was protected by the luck of the devil. Kill Hitler! The Luck of the Devil, 2018
After Hitler first seized power in 1933 more than thirty attempts to eliminate him failed. Hitler had the luck of the devil on his side. ibid.
8 November 1939: The bomb went off at 21:20 as planned killing 8 people and injuring 63 others. Hitler was on his way to Berlin … Georg Elser was arrested as he attempted to cross the Swiss border. ibid.
In the aftermath of the Stalingrad defeat, many officers realised they had been duped by a madman. ibid.
13 March 1943: For the two conspiriators [Henning von Tresckow & Fabian von Schlabrendorff] it was vital to recover the package that could seal their fate. ibid.
21 March 1943, Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff had accepted the ultimate sacrifice – to blow himself up with the dictator … the second failure within a week. ibid.
In the weeks that followed, the Fuhrer would emerge unscathed from two further assassination attempts. ibid.
In his bag Stauffenberg had two bombs … Germany’s fate now rested on Colonel von Stauffenberg’s knees … Before them stood Hitler’s bunker … and it was here that von Stauffenberg wanted to strike … 12.40: Stauffenberg had left the building … ‘I felt the blast on my cheeks; Hitler was dead; no-one could have survived such an explosion.’ ibid.
During the post-Valkyrie investigation Rommel’s name was said to have been mentioned during certain interrogations. ibid.
Hampshire County, September 2012: ‘My name is Edgar Feuschtwanger. I am 88 years old. I have lived here for quite a long time … I was born in Munich in 1924. I was a German Jew. And I lived right across the road from Hitler’s private flat.’ Hitler Was My Neighbour, History 2019
At the age of 40 Hitler was a comfortable man. He left the room he’d occupied in a lower-class neighbourhood ... [for] a luxurious nine-bedroom three-hundred-metre square apartment. ibid.
‘He [Hitler] was always underestimated.’ ibid. Edgar
Hitler had a thing for Munich … He made it the symbolic capital of Nazism. ibid.
He’s one of History’s most hated men. Millions wanted him eliminated. But few would take action to end his reign of terror. From his early grab for power to the final days of the Third Reich, new research reveals there are at least 42 plots to kill Adolf Hitler. 42 Ways to Kill Hitler, History 2019
1932: A group of anonymous gunmen fired on his train outside Munich. Hitler was unharmed but this was just the beginning. In June he narrowly escaped attempt number two: an armed ambush … One month later his head was grazed during attempt number three: an attack on his car at Nuremberg. ibid.
Roger Moorehouse is the author of Killing Hitler, a book which details the various assassination attempts. ibid.
As Hitler’s aggression escalated, the attempts to kill him increased. ibid.