Was the climax of World War II not quite as final as you've always
believed? One conspiracy theory suggests as much.
In 2011, British authors Gerrald Williams and Simon Dunstan published a book called "Grey Wolf:
The Escape of Adolf Hitler," which offers an alternate version of World War II's
final days — one that would totally change the world's understanding of 20th-century history
if it were true. In the book, the authors claim that Hitler didn't die at the end of the war,
as historians generally believe. Instead, they argue the führer faked his death and escaped
during the Battle of Berlin. Specifically, they say that he fled by U-boat and immigrated
to Argentina, where he lived out the rest of his days in relative comfort.
If true, it would mean that Hitler, one of the most evil and reviled figures in world history,
managed to escape justice and never face the consequences for the violence
he brought into the world. It would also suggest that even the Allied powers were
willing to push a false narrative to present their victory in World War II as absolute.
The first question concerning the conspiracy theory put forward in "Grey Wolf" is:
Why Argentina? Unless you're familiar with German history before the 20th century, it
may appear that the country was chosen at random — a far-flung region where a runaway Nazi might
hope to avoid capture by the Allied Forces seeking to bring them to justice. But the truth is that
German links to South America went back far longer than that. Turns out, the continent had long been
a focus of attention for the German imperialists, who made several colonies there throughout the
19th century. Even today, Argentina has a sizable minority population of German immigrants. So,
by the end of World War II, Nazis may have hoped to hide among them without arousing suspicion.
Indeed, thousands of prominent Nazis were confirmed as having made the voyage to South
America after the Third Reich crumbled, among them the SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann,
senior Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele, and SS Colonel Walter Rauff. While many figures
were eventually captured, others lived to a ripe old age without ever facing justice
for their crimes. It's no wonder then that conspiracy theorists and others concerned
with the details of the final days of the war have questioned whether the
true story of Hitler's demise is credible — or if something else happened entirely.
The accepted narrative concerning the death of Hitler was well-established shortly after
the end of World War II. Investigators interviewed several witnesses who were
with Hitler in the Führerbunker as Soviet forces closed in on them during the Battle
of Berlin. These witnesses said Hitler, who grew despondent as his regime collapsed,
died by suicide along with his wife, Eva Braun, whom he had married just the day before.
"Here is a news flash: the German radio has just announced that Hitler is dead."
After Hitler's death, his body and that of Braun were taken outside and burned
with gasoline. While several of Hitler's former allies fled to escape Soviet capture,
Hitler loyalist Josef Goebbels also died by suicide along with his family. Soviet
troops later had difficulty recovering Hitler's remains, but eventually found
fragments of jawbone and cranium that they claimed belonged to the Nazi leader.
But conspiracy theorists deny that the official story is true. Instead, some say that Hitler and
Braun survived the Battle of Berlin and were smuggled to Argentina. It was there that they
allegedly took a home in Patagonia, lived like normal German immigrants, and even had
two daughters together. More intriguingly, it's been claimed that American intelligence services
even turned a blind eye to Hiter's escape in exchange for technology developed during the
Nazi era. Sources including "Grey Wolf" claim that he actually died in 1962 at the age of 73.
Fears that Hitler may have escaped death in the final days of World War II are nothing new. In
fact, such theories go right back to the final year of the war, 1945, when information among
the Allies was already strained by the chaos of the final push to the center of Berlin.
"The German army has really been cut to pieces,
and they now find themselves in a powerless state."
These stories were compounded by supposed sightings of Hitler, including one in the
1950s detailed in a declassified CIA report. The document claimed the agency had received
correspondence from a former SS officer based in South America, with a photograph of the man
in question alongside another figure who bears a striking resemblance to the former
Nazi führer. The resemblance was ultimately never investigated due to a lack of resources.
Still, researchers have been keen to note that at the end of World War II,
the Soviet Union was already thinking ahead to the aftermath of the conflict and how the
dice would fall between the Allies. Though they claimed the discovery of Hitler's remains, Joseph
Stalin himself publicly expressed his belief that Hitler may have escaped. It's believed that such
statements may have been deliberate disinformation to sow doubt between the U.S. and the U.K., and
to refocus the Allies' attention on fascists in Spain and Argentina rather than the Soviet Union.
Despite the growing number of people who have come around to the idea that Hitler may not have
died by suicide in the Führerbunker as history says, experts in the field of European history
maintain the consensus that the official story is the correct one. Upon its release,
"Grey Wolf" and its accompanying documentary were met with a wave of criticism from academics,
who derided its content as nothing more than a fringe theory, citing a lack of evidence.
Noted historian Guy Walters describes the theory as "2,000% rubbish," adding:
"It's an absolute disgrace. There's no substance to it at all. It appeals to
the deluded fantasies of conspiracy theorists and has no place whatsoever in historical research."
And the fact is that there is now even more strong evidence to the contrary. In 2018,
a team of analysts examined the jawbone — which contained teeth — that the Soviet
Union claimed belonged to Hitler back in 1945. The results were published in the
European Journal of Internal Medicine and found the teeth consistent with his
vegetarian diet and use of dentures and noted they matched his dental records.
So it seems the far-fetched conspiracy theory that
he escaped to Argentina has been utterly debunked… but in the age of the internet,
whether that means the story will eventually die out remains to be seen.