Adolf Hitler after the fall of Berlin allegedly fled to Argentina. Post about this after the war came to the FBI, they investigated the version, but found it unreasonable, and no active measures from the US did not follow. Now they have decided - either to the 130th anniversary of Hitler’s birth, or for some other reason - that “this can be told.” And declassified archival documents.
In the proposed history, many incongruous. If it is still possible to admit, as one of the versions says, that the Führer miraculously escaped arrived in South America five months after the end of the war (some Nazis succeeded in doing this), then the version according to which he ended up in Argentina in two and a half weeks, eat at the end of May 1945, looks incredible.
Still, it is necessary to break out of besieged Berlin, safely pass all the patrols and checks, which the travelers then underwent at every turn, to find some agreed point on the coast (and it is also not clear: either on the coast of the North Sea, or in the Bay of Biscay) where the submarine expects. Then, without incident, make a long way to South America, and most of the way - on the surface (the power reserve on batteries was not such as to cross the ocean), somewhere along the way to refuel with diesel fuel and, on the way, not found, to arrive at Argentina.
In Argentina, everything has really been easier. South America was a safe haven for fugitive Nazis: the authorities looked at the overhand, if not frankly, they were covered. Therefore, in that part of the version that Hitler, surrounded by a retinue of about 50 people, was living alone in the foothills of the Andes, you can just believe. Many Nazi criminals settled this way in South America - among them Eichmann, Dr. Mengele, Croatian leader Pavelic, and many others. The South American authorities began to touch them somehow (those who lived to a very old age) only in the 80s and according to the insistent demands of those countries where they did their work.
Until that time, the demands were ignored and the only way to get them was illegal actions, such as the abduction of Eichmann in 1960 by agents of the Mossad or the assassination attempt (unsuccessful) in 1957 of Serbian immigrants against Messenger Pavelic. But Eichmann was seized on the street in Buenos Aires, and to capture a man living in the mountain wilderness, surrounded by numerous adherents, would require a large-scale landing operation.
But all this fortune telling: "what would happen when ...". Whereas the flight from Berlin on a submarine to the New World is a plot suitable for a blockbuster, but not for real life. Thus, Hitler had no chance to escape.
In another way, there was a chance in principle. “Rat trails” (rat lines) is a term used by the US special services to describe two Nazi escape routes.
The first - through Spain, the second - through Italy. Both routes suggested a more or less prolonged overexposure (mainly in monasteries), during which the vigilance of the persecutors weakened, after which the Nazis with immaculate new documents bought a ticket for the steamer and sailed to South America, where they were waited for help and support.
There have been no cases of deratization of rat paths by Western intelligence agencies, so theoretically Hitler could have been saved in this way. If - this is an important condition - he was alive. But the examination of the remains in the courtyard of the Reich Chancellery was done with all care, the remains of Hitler were established with certainty, and there was no one to catch. As Comrade Stalin put it, “finished playing, scoundrel.”
Why now it was necessary to warm up this dish for dinner is another question. The fact that, even without Hitler, after 1945, the Nazis felt in the backyard of the United States (and it happened in the United States itself) like fish in water - a historical fact as immutable as it is unpleasant for the Shining City. Why arouse interest in this long-standing story is not clear.
Most of all similar to the general disorder and vacillation. The FBI wanted to share their heroic story - and shared. Again in the newspapers they will write, there is no posperity without publicity. And the fact that this publication does not quite correspond to the general types of the great promoter of democracy — who now thinks about these general types?
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.