Declassified documents from both the FBI and the CIA speculate that Hitler might have actually 'faked' his death, conducting a secret escape to South America where he would reside with other exiled Nazis.
Governments conduct many things behind closed doors that only come to light years later once files have finally become declassified, and you'd be stunned to know what certain officials are planning and what information has been hidden from view.
Documents reveal the shocking plans for the American government to build a U.S. Army base on the surface of the Moon prior to man's first exploration of the space rock, and there was also speculation from inside the CIA that John F. Kennedy's assassination was an inside job.
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You'd even be surprised to find out that there is evidence of the bone-chilling 'alien massacre' of an entire military unit, and reading things like this can only begin to make the mind wander.
Perhaps among the most unanticipated of rumors to come from declassified documents however surrounds the circumstances of Adolf Hitler following his death by suicide in 1945.
It is considered fact that the Nazi dictator killed himself and his wife inside of a bunker at the end of the Second World War, yet documents released in 2017 from both the CIA and FBI speculate that there was a possibility that his death was faked and part of an elaborate escape.
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As reported by CBS News, information from the CIA outlines that an operative known only by the moniker 'CIMELODY-3' received 'proof' from an informant that Hitler was alive and well in Colombia alongside other key Nazi expatriates.
This came to light after CIMELODY-3 was shown a photograph which appears to be of a man that looked an awful lot like Hitler alongside another man, and the source of the photo - former Nazi SS trooper Phillip Citroen - claims to have also met Hitler in Colombia.
"According to Citroen, the Germans residing in Tunja follow this alleged Adolf Hitler with an idolatry of the Nazi past, addressing him as 'der Fuhrer' and affording him the Nazi salute and storm-trooper adulation," a CIA memo reads.
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These theories are also corroborated by FBI documents that, as per the Mirror, indicate that a body double was used to mimic Hitler's dead body, allowing him to perform an elaborate escape.
They claim that Hitler was flown out of Germany, and allegedly moved through purpose-built secret tunnels and compartments in Samos, before eventually heading to Argentina via U-Boat from the Canary Islands.
Going by the CIA documents though it doesn't appear that these rumors were carried with much weight. Senior CIA officials began to doubt the veracity of the claims made by Citroen, and detailed:
"It is felt that enormous efforts (spent trying to confirm the rumors) could be expanded on this matter with remote possibilities of establishing anything concrete. Therefore, we suggest that this matter be dropped."
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There has been no further mention of Hitler's presence in Colombia in any documents after this assertion, yet there will no doubt be many that continue to believe that the dictator weaselled his way out of death like the reports from Citroen claim.