The Hitler Files: FBI Hunts Nazi Killer

Conspiracy theories are always abundant. Although occasionally strange or scary, what's more surreal - and frightening - is when these paranoid speculations are taken seriously.

The Federal Bureau of Investigations has declassified their Adolf Hitler files, which entertain the idea that Hitler survived World War II and went into hiding. The FBI investigated claims that the Nazi leader had faked his own death, and the newly released files show lab reports on Hitler's marriage certificate, will, as well as other political documents.

The bureau has made 867 pages of files and documents public, hundreds of which are devoted to speculation that Hitler escaped Germany and lived safely in Argentina with other Nazi leaders, body doubles, and possibly even Eva Braun after the war. One report details an eyewitness account of Hitler entering Argentina with a large party of men and women and proceeding on horseback to a secret location.

As in all the documents, names have been blacked-out. In the reprinted report below, the word blank designates such names. Otherwise, the text has been preprinted exactly.

BLANK reports contact with BLANK. Claims to have aided six top Argentine officials in hiding ADOLF HITLER upon his landing by submarine in Argentina. HITLER reported to be hiding out in foot-hills of southern Andes.

According to BLANK, he was one of four men who met HITLER and his party when they landed from two submarines in Argentina approximately two and one-half weeks after the fall of Berlin.

The documents also contain letters from people who either claim to have seen Hitler or know his whereabouts.

Dear Sir:

I'll bet a dollar to a doughnut that Hitler is located right in New York City!

There's no other city in the world where he could easily be absorbed. No doubt you have considered this possibility, but I mention it for what it is worth anyway.

Other amateur detectives say that Hitler is hiding out in Switzerland or along the Rio Grande River, and some even give the exact location of secret underground bunkers in South America.

The papers include correspondence from FBI agents discussing interviews with informants and officials on such topics as political assassinations, payments and American Jews.

J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI at the time, issued signed confirmation receipts on many of the reports and letters.

The newly public online FBI Vault also has a treasure trove of reports on topics ranging from Animal Mutilations to Organized Crime to UFO Sightings.