© ullstein bild via Getty ImagesAdolf Hitler during his speech at the 1935 Nuremberg Rally.
As Soviet troops battled their way into the heart of Berlin on April 30, 1945, Hitler and longtime girlfriend Eva Braun, whom he had married the day prior, killed themselves in his underground führerbunker to avoid capture.
Their bodies were partially burned and buried in a shallow bomb crater. Soviet soldiers later exhumed the remains, which the USSR identified through dental records, and held them in East Germany until KGB agents destroyed Hitler's body in April 1970, preserving only a jawbone and skull that were taken to Moscow, according to MI5.
However, immediately after reports of Hitler's death, conspiracy theories that he survived the war and fled Germany through Nazi "ratlines" began.
While the CIA has an autopsy report confirming Hitler's death, other documents show field agents suspected Hitler may have taken refuge in South America under an alias and obtained a photo of a man with a striking resemblance to the Nazi leader.
A declassified file from October 1945 shows that agents with the US War Department told the FBI of a possible secret hideout at a spa hotel in La Falda, Argentina, that Hitler may have used if he survived.
The document states that the owner of the hotel and her family were "enthusiastic supporters of Adolf Hitler" and had made financial contributions to the Nazi party in its early days in the 1920s through Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.
"This voluntary support of the Nazi party was never forgotten by Hitler," the docs claim. "During the years after he came to power, her friendship with Hitler became so close that she and members of her family lived with Hitler in the same hotel on the occasion of their annual visit to Germany."
© CIAA declassified file from October 1945 shows that agents with the US War Department told the FBI of a possible secret hideout at a spa hotel in La Falda, Argentina, that Hitler may have used if he survived.
Another document from October 1955 from a CIA agent with the code name "CIMELODY-3" said he received information from a friend who spoke to a man claiming to be former Nazi SS soldier Phillip Citroen, who "confidently" told him Hitler was still alive in Colombia.
Citroen claimed to have talked to the former Nazi leader monthly and provided CIMELODY-3's friend with a photograph showing him with the man he claimed to be Hitler on a beach in Tunja, Colombia.
CIMELODY-3's friend, whose name was not provided in the document, unknowingly stole the picture from Citroen long enough for the agent to make a copy.
© CIACitroen with the man he claimed to be Hitler on a beach in Tunja, Colombia.
"Philip Citroen - commented that in as much 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.
On Nov. 4, 1955, the CIA approved agents contacting a person known in the files as "GIRELLA" to further investigate the history of "Adolf Schrittelmayor" in Colombia before 1955.
© CIA“CIMELODY-3” reported that he received information from a friend who spoke to a man claiming to be former Nazi SS soldier Phillip Citroen, who “confidently” told him Hitler was still alive in Colombia.
It appears that following 1955, no other documents have been made publicly available in the CIA's declassified files to suggest agents were hunting for Hitler.
While there's no concrete proof of the theory that Hitler may have survived the war and fled Germany, members of the Nazi party did use "ratlines" to reach Argentina and other South American countries to avoid prosecution for their crimes after World War II.
© CIAThe CIA later suggested that the search for “Adolf Schrittelmayor” be dropped.
SS physician Josef Mengele — dubbed the "angel of death" for his disturbing medical experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz — escaped through "ratlines" and eluded capture. He died from drowning after suffering a heart attack while swimming in Brazil in 1979.
Late last month, Argentina's interior minister, Guillermo Alberto Francos, announced that classified files relating to "Nazis who sought refuge in Argentina and were protected for many years" after World War II would be released, the Buenos Aires Times reported.
© Getty ImagesThe home of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, in San Fernando, a suburb of Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he fled after World War II, circa 1960.
The records will detail banking and financial transactions and the use of Nazi "ratlines."
It is estimated around 10,000 Nazis and other fascist war criminals escaped prosecution for their roles in the Holocaust by fleeing to Argentina and other Latin American countries.
Reader Comments