The Tennessean published an article following Adolf Hitler’s death with this headline: “Hitler dead, Nazis say: Allies to demand proof.” Although news spread that he supposedly took his own life in a German bunker in April 1945, many refused to believe so. One of them was the CIA, which launched a search party that operated until November 1955.
This secret mission was revealed through a few declassified documents, which also unveiled how few agents who were working in South America at the time believed that the Nazi leader faked the death. The CIA agents firmly believed that the dictator was still alive, living under an assumed name, and the agency attempted to find him even 10 years after his supposed death.
The declassified documents reported that a man named Adolf Schrittelmayor was spotted sitting on a bench in Tunja, Colombia, in the 1950s. It was an interesting photograph, as the person bore a strong resemblance to the Nazi dictator. According to the documents, some former Nazi soldiers also claimed that Adolf Hitler moved to Argentina in January 1955.
According to the Daily Mail, these declassified CIA documents showed that the U.S. War Department reported to the FBI about a secret hideout of Hitler. He was reportedly cordial with the owners of a spa hotel in La Falda, Argentina, who were massive Nazi supporters. This hotel was not only Hitler’s secret hideout, but he also shared vacations with the owners.
The Truth can be stranger than fiction.🤔👇
Declassified CIA documents that Hitler did not shoot himself but was taken to Argentina, where he lived happily until he was 78. https://t.co/R3jwMr8th3 pic.twitter.com/aMEyntucCb
— TruthSocial: @HoneeDesigner (@HoneeDesigner) May 30, 2023
Some sources also claim that the German dictator was living in Argentina for another two decades and even had two children. The declassified documents also recorded a statement by an informant known as CIMELODY-3. This source said that a former SS trooper named Phillip Citroen claimed that he spoke with Hitler on a monthly basis.
Interestingly, Citroen was also captured in the photograph of the man resembling the Nazi leader. However, details remain unknown, as many experts think either the CIA ended the mission shortly after, or it went on, but the related documents are yet to be released.
They told us Hitler died at the end of WW2. Apparently, he killed himself.
So why did Western governments spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer money, sending intelligence agents to South America to track him down?
CIA documents, declassified in 2017, officially report them… pic.twitter.com/CvImC0eda0
— C. A. Matthius (@CA_Matthius) May 8, 2024
Amid much curiosity, last month, Argentina’s President Javier Milei announced all government-held documents related to Nazis who fled or were sheltered by the nation after World War II should be declassified. Perhaps we would have a deeper insight into what really happened after WW2 through Argentina’s declassified records.
It is to be noted that the South American nation played a crucial role after 1945. After the war ended, many Nazi war criminals made their homes in Argentina. The Jewish Chronicle reports that the country offered refugees to approximately 5,000 Nazi fugitives; among those were some notorious names like Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele.
