Shocking documents declassified by the CIA have revealed a secret mission to find Nazi leader Adolf Hitler – 10 years after he supposedly died.
According to multiple reports from the CIA archives, agents in South America were convinced the dictator was still alive in the 1950s and changed his name to remain under cover.
One operative even said they found a photo in Colombia showing a man you resembled the infamous Nazi.
Despite Allied forces finding a burnt body suggesting Hitler took his own life in a German bunker in April of 1945, documents declassified in 2020 revealed that US intelligence officials were trying to locate his ‘hideout in Argentina’ just months after World War II ended.
Over the next decade, that search apparently never ended, and the CIA was still talking with informants who allegedly knew about Hitler’s secret escape in 1955.
Although the trail of documents appears to end in November of 1955, a shocking announcement out of Argentina is now reawakening the case.
In March, President Javier Milei of Argentina ordered that his government declassify all documents on Nazis who sought refuge and were protected by the country after World War II.
Argentina was a notorious hideout for former members of the Nazi party escaping punishment for war crimes 80 years ago, and now these documents could complete the puzzle an infamous CIA cold case.
Recently released CIA documents show that US intelligence agents believed Adolf Hitler escaped Germany and fled to South America
One document stated that officials were convinced Hitler would seek refuge in Argentina if he ever left Germany
The unearthed documents described how the US War Department sent information to the FBI that Hitler may have a secret hideout at a spa hotel in La Falda, Argentina.
The October 1945 file revealed that the owners of this hotel were major supporters of the Nazi party, making financial contributions to propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels, and became close friends of Hitler.
According to US intelligence, Hitler never forgot the family’s allegiance to the Nazis and even lived with them in the same hotel on their vacations in Germany.
The War Department told the FBI they were convinced that Hitler would retreat to the hotel should Germany lose WWII or he was deposed as the Nazi leader.
While Allied forces said they found Hitler’s charred remains, another CIA document released in 2020 included a photo of a man believed to be the Nazi leader sitting with a friend in Colombia in 1954.
The report from October 3, 1955 clearly stated that a US intelligence operation was taking place in order to confirm whether or not Adolf Hitler (also referred to as ‘Adolph Hitler’ in the files) had survived and secretly relocated to South America.
The file revealed that an informant known as CIMELODY-3 spoke to a trusted friend who served under Hitler’s command in Europe and had escaped to Maracaibo, Venezuela.
The friend said that a man by the name of Phillip Citroen, a former SS trooper, claimed that Hitler was still alive in Colombia, that he spoke with the former Nazi leader monthly, and he took a recent picture with him.
A photo secretly stolen by US agents revealed a man who former Nazis claimed was Hitler still alive in 1954 in Colombia
US intelligence agents followed this trail for 10 years, despite evidence that Hitler allegedly killed himself and had his body burned in 1945
CIMELODY-3’s friend, whose name was not given, was able to unknowingly steal the picture on September 28, 1955.
In it, the man alleged to be Hitler was referred to as ‘Adolf Schrittelmayor.’ He was photographed sitting on a bench next to Citroen in Tunja, Colombia.
The report added that former Nazi soldiers claimed Hitler eventually moved to Argentina in January of 1955.
By the time US intelligence agents acquired the photo and made copies, WWII had been over for decade and the Nazis believed made them immune to prosecution.
‘Philip Citroen – commented that inasmuch as ten years have passed since the end of World War II, the Allies could no longer prosecute HITLER as a criminal of war,’ the document stated.
Despite the alleged SS trooper’s claims, US agents continued the hunt for Hitler, even though skeptics in the intelligence community called the photograph a ‘fantasy.’
US spies reported that the man in the picture with Hitler was a former German soldier who stayed in regular contact with Hitler while they both lived in South America
The US intelligence community openly referred to this person of interest as Adolf Hitler (or Adolph Hitler) in their classified documents
On November 4, 1955, intelligence headquarters in Washington approved of agents making contact with a person known in the files as ‘GIRELLA’ in order to further investigate the history of ‘Adolf Schrittelmayor’ in Colombia prior to 1955.
However, the same classified document distributed to agents in South America also suggested that the case be dropped.
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‘It is felt that enormous efforts could be expended on this matter with remote possibilities of establishing anything concrete,’ intelligence officials admitted.
No other documents in this string of reports appear to be publicly available in the CIA’s declassified files – suggesting that the matter was dropped or anything else that was discovered may still be declassified by the US government.
Argentina’s decision to follow America’s lead in declassifying troves of old cases could soon open up even more information about the Pentagon’s dealings with Nazis in South America.
It is matter of fact and public record that the US government recruited former German scientists after WWII to work for America.
This program, known as Operation Paperclip, ended up bringing roughly 1,600 German scientists to the US – including Wernher von Braun, who famously paved the way for NASA and America’s early space missions.
The new Argentinian documents are expected to detail the country’s involvement with ‘ratlines’ – the secret international escape routes Nazis used to flee Germany before and after the end of WWII.
It’s currently unknown if any of the soon-to-be declassified reports will add any more evidence to the CIA’s files on Hitler’s alleged escape from death.