THE ESCAPE OF ADOLF HITLER

In the upcoming weeks - April 30th to be exact, it will mark 80 years since the death of Adolf Hitler. His death marked the end of terror and his reign as leader of the Nazi Party. However, did he die on that fateful day in his German bunker? There are theories that Hitler not only survived the end of the war, but he also went on to live another 17 years in South America. 

Grey Wolf: The Escape of Adolf Hitler is a 2011 book which concerns the allegations by its makers that Adolf Hitler did not die in his Berlin bunker in 1945 but escaped, along with wife Eva Braun, her brother-in-law Hermann Fegelein and several other Nazi officials, to Argentina staying first at a large ranch 29 kilometres (18 mi) from Bariloche owned by relatives of Prince Bernhard and later lived 10 kilometres (6 mi) east of Bariloche in a mansion overlooking Lake Nahuel Huapi that at the time was very remote and accessible only by boat or seaplane. Hitler allegedly met with Ante Pavelic who was also in Argentina and on multiple occasions visited Walter and Ida Eichorn, a German expatriate couple who had owned the Eden Hotel in La Falda prior to its seizure in 1945 due to their pro-Nazi sympathies when Argentina declared war on Germany. According to the film-makers, Hitler's escape was organized by Martin Bormann, who also fled to Argentina, where he posed as a businessman in Buenos Aires and was aided and abetted by the Government of Juan Perón. Bormann allegedly used multiple aliases including Daniel Dupree, of Belgium and lived in a suite in the Plaza Hotel with a German mistress.

In 1955 Peron was overthrown in a military coup and the new government began seriously investigating long held rumors that Nazi war criminals were hiding in Argentina. In October of that year, Bormann allegedly moved Hitler to a chalet in an even more remote location 43 kilometres (27 mi) from Bariloche and began to isolate him which angered the former German dictator. Supposedly, U.S. intelligence agencies were aware that Hitler was in Argentina, and that significant funds were also taken from Germany to Argentina and that these were later stolen by Bormann. Around the same time, reportedly Eva left Hitler but returned at the end as he laid dying in a bed. Allegedly, Hitler died in Argentina, poor and mentally ill on February 13, 1962 at the age of 73 after suffering a heart attack, leaving behind his estranged wife Eva, who was reputed to still be alive in 2008 at age 96, and at least one child.

Incredible as it sounds, the mystery surrounding Adolf Hitler’s final days only deepened in 2009 when a U.S. forensic team announced that a piece of Hitler’s skull held in Soviet archives was not actually Hitler’s. International interest increased further in 2014 when the FBI released previously classified files detailing investigations surrounding Hitler’s possible escape. Did Adolf Hitler die from suicide in Germany in 1945, or did history books and the world for that matter get it wrong. If Hitler indeed died in 1962, then he not only was the mastermind of the worst atrocities the world has ever known, but he also had the resources to be a part of one of the greatest escapes as well...