Conspiracy theories about Adolf Hitler's death

Stemming from a campaign of Soviet disinformation, most of these theories hold that Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun, survived and escaped from Berlin, with some asserting that he went to South America.

The narrative that Hitler did not commit suicide, but instead escaped Berlin, was first presented to the general public by Marshal Georgy Zhukov at a press conference on 9 June 1945, on orders from Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

"[5] This disinformation, propagated by Stalin's government,[6][7] has been a springboard for various conspiracy theories, despite the official conclusion by Western powers and the consensus of historians that Hitler killed himself on 30 April 1945.

The book suggests that, barring further revelations, Hitler's death remained "a mystery without an ending", but argues that the myth of his survival was Soviet propaganda to motivate "Communist totalitarian" forces against "the continuing menace of Fascism".

[20] In March 1948, newspapers around the world reported the account of former German lieutenant Arthur F. Mackensen, who claimed that on 5 May 1945 (during the Soviet bombardment of Berlin), he, Hitler, Braun and Martin Bormann had escaped the Führerbunker in tanks.

[21] In a May 1948 issue of the Italian magazine Tempo, author Emil Ludwig wrote that a double could have been cremated in Hitler's place, allowing him to flee by submarine to Argentina.

[24] Unproven allegations include that Hitler conceived children with Braun around the late 1930s,[b] that he was actually in prime physical health at the end of World War II, and that he fled to Antarctica or South America.

It includes a purported Soviet autopsy report which concludes that Hitler died by cyanide poisoning, despite no dissection of internal organs being recorded to confirm this and eyewitness accounts to the contrary.

[29] He later admitted that he was acting as "a typical party propagandist" and intended "to lead the reader to the conclusion that [a gunshot] was a pipe dream or half an invention and that Hitler actually poisoned himself.

So in some versions of the survival myth, Hitler's escape was achieved by occult means, or involved his travelling to a secret Nazi flying saucer base beneath the Antarctic ice.

[39][41][c] In 2009, on an episode of History's MysteryQuest, University of Connecticut archaeologist and bone specialist Nick Bellantoni examined the skull fragment,[44] which Soviet officials had believed to be Hitler's.

[49][50][51] According to Ada Petrova and Peter Watson, Hugh Thomas disputed these dental remains in his 1995 book, but also speculated that Hitler probably died in the bunker after being strangled by his valet Heinz Linge.

[52] Ian Kershaw wrote that "The 'theories' of Hugh Thomas ... that Hitler was strangled by Linge, and that the female body burned was not that of Eva Braun, who escaped from the bunker, belong in fairyland.

"[54] FBI documents declassified by the 1998 Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act,[55] which began to be released online by the early 2010s,[56] contain a number of alleged sightings of Hitler in Europe, South America, and the United States, some of which assert that he changed his appearance via plastic surgery or by shaving off his toothbrush moustache.

[61] Richard J. Evans notes that the FBI was obliged to document such claims no matter how "erroneous or deranged" they were,[62] while American historian Donald McKale states that their files did not produce any credible indication of Hitler's survival.

[63] In spite of the disinformation from Stalin's government[6][7] and eyewitness discrepancies, the consensus of historians is that Hitler killed himself on 30 April 1945,[8][9][64][65][66] with some explaining the limited forensic evidence as due to the burning of the body to near ashes.

A declassified CIA document dated 3 October 1955 reported claims made by a self-proclaimed former German SS trooper named Phillip Citroen that Hitler was still alive, and that he "left Colombia for Argentina around January 1955."

[79][80][81] Contradictorily, in 2017 the series was praised by the tabloid-style National Police Gazette, which historically was a supporter of the fringe theory, while calling on Russia to allow Hitler's jawbone remains to be DNA-tested.

[24][i] After being featured on the series as an expert on World War II, author James Holland explained that "[I] was very careful never to mention on film that I thought either Hitler or Bormann escaped.