Hunting Hitler

''Hunting Hitler'' is a History Channel television series based on the fringe theory that Adolf Hitler escaped from Berlin at the end of World War II in Europe, ostensibly by faking his death instead of committing suicide in Berlin in 1945. The show was conceived after the 2010s declassification of documents related to official investigations of this possibility.

The series explores how Hitler might have escaped, where he might have gone, and whether he plotted a Fourth Reich. The series ran for three seasons between 2015 and 2018, followed by a two-hour special in 2020.

Series overview

The show was conceived following the 21st-century declassification of government documents exploring the premise that Hitler might not have died in April 1945.

The show was hosted in Los Angeles by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) veteran Bob Baer and former international war crimes investigator John Cencich. Utilizing a database of intelligence files from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), CIA, MI6, and other international agencies, they look for information regarding the possible survival of Adolf Hitler or any other high-ranking Nazis, including plans for a Fourth Reich. The ground teams search for evidence supporting these leads. According to the show's creators, similar man-hunting techniques are employed as were used by the CIA to find Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.

Investigative team

* Bob Baer — Former CIA Operative
* Dr. John Cencich — Former international war crimes investigator, professor, and criminologist
* Nada Bakos — Former terrorist targeting officer
* Tim Kennedy — U.S. Army Special Forces operator and former MMA fighter
* James Holland — WWII historian
* Mike Simpson — Medical doctor, airborne ranger, and special forces operator
* Gerrard Williams — Investigative journalist and historian
* Lenny DePaul — Former U.S. Marshals commander
* Steve Rambam — Private investigator and Nazi hunter

Episodes

Season 1 (2015)

Season 2 (2016–2017)

Season 3 (2017–2018)

Special (2020)

Reception

The show has been criticized by various media outlets. Brian Lowry wrote for '' Variety'', "Seriously, guys, what's next, ' Hitlernado?'" Lowry wrote for '' CNN'' that "in a year when 'fake news' received so much attention, History is willingly promoting bad historyfilled with unsubstantiated theories and speculation". Tom Conroy wrote for '' Media Life Magazine'' that "One gets the impression that he serieswill continue to spin its wheels for the duration. But even if it unearths evidence of Hitler's survival, there's no way the government would let that information out." Contrarily, the ''National Police Gazette'', an American tabloid-style magazine and longtime supporter of the Hitler-escape narrative, wrote positively of the series' presentation.

Legacy

On May 17, 2018, popular podcast host Joe Rogan interviewed Tim Kennedy on his show; they discussed the series and its premise, including its focus on the Nazi escape routes known as " ratlines". Kennedy argued that the series is unlike the History Channel's pseudoscientific series '' Ancient Aliens'' and that Hitler indeed escaped to the Americas. Kennedy proclaimed, "The way history is written is wrong."

In 2019, series host Bob Baer stated that he actually agrees with the mainstream view that Hitler died in Berlin in April 1945, but that "there's no doubt" the dictator intended to carry out his agenda in South America. The subsequent ''Hunting Hitler'' closing special focuses on the potential Fourth Reich.

In 2020, team member and author James Holland tweeted that "I was certainly interested in learning more about how Nazis escaped, but was ''very'' careful never to mention on film that I thought either Hitler or Bormann escaped. Because they didn't." In 2021, he further derided the series on his podcast, calling it "absolute nonsense". Historian Richard J. Evans similarly dismissed all Hitler survival stories as "fantasies".

On April 20, 2025, Baer upheld his opinion that the investigation uncovered evidence of Hitler's survival, speculating that it would be supported by the declassification of an Argentine archive. Among other details, those files reveal that the Nazis may have bribed Perón's government with $200 million in gold to aid their escape effort.

See also

* Fred Trump – a New York builder implied by Donald Trump to have been, somehow, Hitler returned
* claiming Hitler died in South America

References

External links

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Transfer of Archives of Department 50 of the General Directorate of Investigations
– National Archives of Chile (in Spanish)

{{History shows

2015 American television series debuts
History (American TV channel) original programming
2018 American television series endings
Cultural depictions of Adolf Hitler