Recently declassified CIA files have unveiled a long-standing and little-known chapter of post-WWII history: a covert operation to track down Adolf Hitler, 10 years after he was presumed dead. Contrary to the commonly accepted account of his suicide in a Berlin bunker in April 1945, intelligence agents in the United States and South America continued investigating the possibility that the infamous dictator had faked his death and fled across the Atlantic.
The records, originally classified but made public in 2020, reveal that American operatives believed Hitler may have escaped to Argentina, where he was hiding under an assumed name. In fact, as late as 1955—over a decade after the war—CIA informants were still gathering intelligence that suggested the former Nazi leader was alive and had relocated further north into Colombia.
The initial phase of the investigation centered on La Falda, Argentina, where a spa hotel was believed to be one of Hitler’s possible hideouts. According to a War Department file dated October 1945, the owners of the hotel had been ardent supporters of the Nazi regime. They were not only sympathetic to the ideology but had financially backed Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s chief propagandist. Their close ties to Hitler reportedly extended to shared vacations in Germany.
US officials were convinced that this secluded hotel would serve as a logical refuge if Hitler were to flee Nazi Germany. The information was relayed to the FBI with the implication that this location could be crucial to locating the fugitive leader.
Hellbound and Down 