Mussolini was killed on April 28, 1945, and hung upside-down at a gas station. Most historians agree that Hitler aimed to escape a similar fate when he fatally shot himself in his Berlin bunker two days later.
Since the Devil Incarnate's body reportedly was burned, little conclusive proof of his demise existed, leading some to wonder whether he got out of Germany after all.
"Could he have survived?" this episode asks. "If so, where did he go?"
Here we see a newspaper clipping of a Gallup poll stating that nearly half of Americans did not believe that Hitler had died in Berlin, and Eisenhower is quoted as saying that proof of his death was not found -- instead, we had to rely on the likes of the occupying Soviets for verification, and who'd trust them?
This intriguing program explores whether Hitler might have fled to Spain and the sympathies of fellow fascist Franco (we're told the Catholic Church, active in monasteries there, secured thousands of visas for escaping Nazis). Or maybe he went to the friendly turf of Argentina, which harbored Adolph Eichmann for years, or even a German whaling base in Antarctica.
The program points out that a megalomaniac like Hitler would have hated living in obscurity, and he had vowed that he'd never leave the capital.
There is also the theory, promulgated by a book of the era, that Hitler was poisoned in 1938, posing "too much of a blow to morale" for publicity, and necessitating a series of body doubles.
It's pointed out here that if stand-ins took over for the dictator, fellow villain Mussolini would surely have smelled a rat, and Hitler's lover Eva Braun clearly would have been wise to the scheme Proof enough? Who knows.
I once asked my Dad, a reader of history, what he thought of such theories and he deemed them not credible. Though the possibilities are intriguing, I tend to agree.
May Hitler, wherever he is, meet his fate at the hands of God. And, God willing, may we never see his likes, or anything close, ever again.
Since the Devil Incarnate's body reportedly was burned, little conclusive proof of his demise existed, leading some to wonder whether he got out of Germany after all.
"Could he have survived?" this episode asks. "If so, where did he go?"
Here we see a newspaper clipping of a Gallup poll stating that nearly half of Americans did not believe that Hitler had died in Berlin, and Eisenhower is quoted as saying that proof of his death was not found -- instead, we had to rely on the likes of the occupying Soviets for verification, and who'd trust them?
This intriguing program explores whether Hitler might have fled to Spain and the sympathies of fellow fascist Franco (we're told the Catholic Church, active in monasteries there, secured thousands of visas for escaping Nazis). Or maybe he went to the friendly turf of Argentina, which harbored Adolph Eichmann for years, or even a German whaling base in Antarctica.
The program points out that a megalomaniac like Hitler would have hated living in obscurity, and he had vowed that he'd never leave the capital.
There is also the theory, promulgated by a book of the era, that Hitler was poisoned in 1938, posing "too much of a blow to morale" for publicity, and necessitating a series of body doubles.
It's pointed out here that if stand-ins took over for the dictator, fellow villain Mussolini would surely have smelled a rat, and Hitler's lover Eva Braun clearly would have been wise to the scheme Proof enough? Who knows.
I once asked my Dad, a reader of history, what he thought of such theories and he deemed them not credible. Though the possibilities are intriguing, I tend to agree.
May Hitler, wherever he is, meet his fate at the hands of God. And, God willing, may we never see his likes, or anything close, ever again.
