Many WWII documents have been released and digitized as of late, but the recent collection of files from the FBI takes the cake with suggestions of the possibility that Hitler may have moved to Argentina. Most people reasonably believed the news in 1945 that the Nazi leader had killed himself in a bunker along with his wife; however, it appears that the FBI suspected otherwise, and had been investigating the possibility that he escaped Germany on a U-boat. According to these documents, Hitler would have survived in Argentina for several years after the war ended.
In the foothills of the Andes in Argentina, there was an elaborate ranch built near the end of WWII. This is elaborated in detail by an FBI informant who may have aided the Third Reich leader’s escape. Hitler supposedly shaved his trademark mustache as a disguise of sorts and moved to South America while recovering from ulcers and other minor physical ailments. This information went all the way to the top of the FBI, even being seen by J. Edgar Hoover, the Express reports.
A great deal of the documents are redacted, so it is difficult to fully assess their validity. While suspicions were strong that the informant’s claims may be accurate, the investigation was eventually deemed untenable, as some details as to Hitler and his exact whereabouts were somewhat vague. This lack of credibility also extends to the fact that the Fuhrer was believed to have relocated to other places as well, including the United States and Switzerland. Interestingly enough, whether or not he went to Argentina, all claims had one thing in common—they all supposed him to have shaved his face.
All of this speculation is combined with a photograph, which itself is vague and hard to deem 100% credible due to the blurred face of its main subject. If real, the photograph depicts the incredibly racist Hitler with his arm around a black woman from Argentina. Making this picture even more questionable is the somewhat lazy “alias” of the subject, referred to as Adolf Leipzig.
Whether or not the veracity of the claims that Hitler moved to Argentina having faked his death are true, the release of the documents calls into question the FBI’s motives in having kept them hidden for so long, only to release the heavily redacted comments now. If the claims by their informant are true, and Argentina was a refuge for the still-living Hitler in 1945, many believe that the public should have been made aware much sooner.
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