Adolf Hitler escaped alive from his Berlin bunker and was secretly flown to a secure military compound in Argentina, where his legion of Nazi supporters hoped to create the Fourth Reich.
It may sound like historical fiction, but these astounding claims may not be as far-fetched as they sound, according to the latest Hunting Hitler series, which airs on The History Channel this month.
Former CIA operative Bob Baer and Tim Kennedy, a US special forces sergeant who was involved in the capture of al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Abu al-Zarqawi, investigated whether the Fuhrer indeed escaped to a new life in South America.
Hitler And Eva Braun in a still from a home movie. Photo / Getty Images
Sifting through 14,000 declassified documents, the pair discovered there could be an alternative truth to the accepted story that the Fuhrer committed suicide alongside his wife, Eva Braun, on April 30, 1945.
One document, from British Intelligence, claims Hitler was flown out of the German capital by Luftwaffe pilot Captain Peter Baumgart the day before he purportedly took his own life.
The pair also found evidence of a previously unknown, fifth exit from the bunker, which led to an area large enough for a makeshift runway.
Site of Adolf Hitler's bunker underneath a carpark and various buildings on Gertrude Kolmar Strasse, Mitte District. Photo / Getty Images
Another document reveals an SS officer claiming to have seen Hitler in Denmark, shortly before changing planes to his final destination.
Meanwhile in Argentina, evidence surfaced of a military-style compound where Hitler may have stayed after his arrival. The Fuhrer had plans for a Fourth Reich centred in the South American country, according to Baer.
He points to the fact that "tens of thousands" of Nazis arrived in Argentina following the end of World War II, as well as evidence of a Nazi physicist working at a nuclear facility to test explosive devices.
There is also mystery surrounding the most important pieces of evidence that would conclude whether or not Hitler and Braun died on April 30, 1945 - their bodies. The only existing remains of Hitler, which has been accepted by historians, is that of a piece of lower jaw bone said to be held by the Kremlin.
According to the Russian Army, the bodies of Hitler and Braun were wrapped in blankets and carried to the garden just outside the bunker, placed in a bomb crater, doused with petrol and set ablaze.
In May 1945 a Russian forensics team dug up what was presumed to be the dictator's body. Part of the skull was missing, apparently the result of the suicide shot. The remaining piece of jaw matched his dental records, according to his captured dental assistants. And there was only one testicle.
The skull fragment was dismissed as belonging to Hitler in 2009, leaving only the lower jaw as evidence, which reportedly matched Hitler's dental records.
Unknown to the world, the corpse then believed to be Hitler's was interred in Magdeburg, East Germany. There it remained long after Stalin's death in 1953. Finally, in 1970, the KGB dug up the corpse, cremated it and secretly scattered the ashes in a river.
For Baer, only the lower jaw fragment that remains could conclusively reveal whether or not Hitler died in 1945. But Russia has yet to release it for forensic study.
Speaking to Sunday Express, Baer said: "It's like the Shroud of Turin: when are they [the Russians] going to bring it out? If we want to conclude this story, I would get the lower jaw. No one expects to find Hitler and there are no first-hand witnesses alive that are credible who actually saw him [in South America]. On the other hand, there are Nazi communities in Argentina who just refuse to talk."
