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Grey Wolf: The Escape of Adolf Hitler
DID HITLER--CODE NAME “GREY WOLF”--REALLY DIE IN 1945?
GRIPPING NEW EVIDENCE SHOWS WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED…
When Truman asked Stalin in 1945 whether Hitler was dead, Stalin replied bluntly, “No.” As late as 1952, Eisenhower declared: “We have been unable to unearth one bit of tangible evidence of Hitler's death.” What really happened?
Simon Dunstan and Gerrard Williams have compiled extensive evidence--some recently declassified--that Hitler actually fled Berlin and took refuge in a remote Nazi enclave in Argentina. The recent discovery that the famous “Hitler's skull” in Moscow is female, as well as newly uncovered documents, provide powerful proof for their case. Dunstan and Williams cite people, places, and dates in over 500 detailed notes that identify the plan's escape route, vehicles, aircraft, U-boats, and hideouts. Among the details: the CIA's possible involvement and Hitler's life in Patagonia--including his two daughters.
GRIPPING NEW EVIDENCE SHOWS WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED…
When Truman asked Stalin in 1945 whether Hitler was dead, Stalin replied bluntly, “No.” As late as 1952, Eisenhower declared: “We have been unable to unearth one bit of tangible evidence of Hitler's death.” What really happened?
Simon Dunstan and Gerrard Williams have compiled extensive evidence--some recently declassified--that Hitler actually fled Berlin and took refuge in a remote Nazi enclave in Argentina. The recent discovery that the famous “Hitler's skull” in Moscow is female, as well as newly uncovered documents, provide powerful proof for their case. Dunstan and Williams cite people, places, and dates in over 500 detailed notes that identify the plan's escape route, vehicles, aircraft, U-boats, and hideouts. Among the details: the CIA's possible involvement and Hitler's life in Patagonia--including his two daughters.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2011
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1652 people want to read
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July 8, 2013
As early as 1943, American journalist Drew Pearson was reporting in the popular press that Germany was building a remote postwar hideout for exiled Nazis in the remote regions of south Argentina. Around the same time radio gossip Walter Winchell was reporting the construction of Nazi getaway way-stations in the Canary Islands off Spain.
After the war, FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover took the escape of Hitler and senior Nazis seriously enough to have field reports filed on alleged sightings of the Fuhrer in Argentina and other South American locales.
The story of Hitler escaping Europe--duping everyone into thinking he'd actually committed suicide in his Berlin bunker with his new bride Eva Braun--is not a new one, but ultimately was one relegated to the realm of tin-foil hat wearers.
This book by Simon Dunstan and Gerrard Williams, while very well researched and moderately persuasive, may not convince most people to abandon the "comforting" official story of Hitler's wartime death, but what it does do is cast heavy doubt on it. Its central assertion is that Hitler and Eva Braun did not commit suicide in Berlin but fled the city by plane, via Denmark, Spain, the Canary Islands and then via U-Boat to South America, and that the gunshot heard in the bunker was a ruse to kill two inconvenient witnesses to a cover-up, the dead-ringer Hitler double Gustav Weber and an actress who looked spot-on like Eva Braun. Upon arrival in Argentina, Hitler was ferried to a heavily fortified estate built up and financed over several years by financial whiz and confidant Martin Bormann and fellow Nazi travellers.
What the book does do, very well, is tell behind-the-scenes stories about the machinations going on under the surface of World War II that are often obscured in more action-packed tales of generals and battles. Stories of the Vatican, German, Swiss, American and Latin American banking and industrial interests, diplomats, sketchy characters, backstabbing senior Nazis jockeying for wealth and influence and power -- all colluding to funnel hundreds of billions of dollars out of Germany to ensure the postwar security of a cadre of fleeing Nazi rats. Stories about Nazis being allowed to flee Europe (even while being tracked by enemy governments), under the protection of "higher authorities" are just some of the outrages documented in the book.
Dunstan and Williams supply a logical reason for this--since senior Nazis held most of Europe's artworks, and loot, hostage as well Germany's prized weapons and rocket scientists in abeyance, there were valuable bargaining chips at hand that senior Nazis could use to negotiate for themselves and Hitler a postwar getaway--playing Cold War rivals the U.S. and the USSR against one another. Although the authors introduce this concept early in the book, they never quite explore it fully or tie up those loose ends later in the story. I kept waiting for them to, but they really don't. The book mainly becomes a lot of eyewitness testimonies of people who claim to have seen Hitler, Eva Braun, the couple's alleged daughters, and even Hitler's dog Blondi lolling about in hotels and estates in Patagonia.
Some of the most fascinating stories in the book detail the intimate ties between Argentine fascist sympathizer and dictator Juan Peron and his beloved wife Eva "Evita" Peron and the Nazi party and Nazi industrial interests. In the end, the smartest character in the book, perhaps not surprisingly, turns out to be Evita, who commandeered one of the greatest heists in history by stealing billions entrusted to her by senior Nazi, Martin Bormann.
The book does a fair job trying to discredit the official story of Hitler's suicide death as told in Hugh Trevor-Roper's classic book The Last Days of Adolph Hitler (which I haven't read, admittedly, as of this writing), but one wishes the authors had more explicitly taken those assertions and made point-by-point refutations of them rather than trying to discredit Trevor-Roper's competence and credentials.
One thing does appear to be the case, and if so it is the most disturbing aspect of the whole case: If there is a corpus delecti--a body, or forensic evidence proving that Hitler and Braun died in Berlin in 1945--no one has ever produced it. As of the 1950s, even Stalin and Eisenhower admitted that there was not a shred of physical proof that Hitler was dead. Just the eyewitness accounts of a few Nazis whose self interests depended on the story being true.
Why would Hitler be allowed to escape, to go unpunished and unpursued by the victors? Was the world just too tired to continue waging the war? Did Bormann and Nazis manage to negotiate sweetheart deals as this book suggests to ensure a cover-up and a ruse? Have governments, for whatever reasons, hushed up the allegation that Hitler escaped and died in Argentina of poor health in 1962? The book doesn't quite seem to know the answers.
But, it should be no surprise to us that governments lie, and lie for their own reasons, usually to keep people calm, to gloss over indelicacies, to allow the perpetration of evils to cover up political and military agendas. As the recent NSA revelations prove, yet again, citizens who give their governments a few inches should not be surprised that miles and miles are taken instead.
This book was rattling good; imperfect, but thought-provoking.
After the war, FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover took the escape of Hitler and senior Nazis seriously enough to have field reports filed on alleged sightings of the Fuhrer in Argentina and other South American locales.
The story of Hitler escaping Europe--duping everyone into thinking he'd actually committed suicide in his Berlin bunker with his new bride Eva Braun--is not a new one, but ultimately was one relegated to the realm of tin-foil hat wearers.
This book by Simon Dunstan and Gerrard Williams, while very well researched and moderately persuasive, may not convince most people to abandon the "comforting" official story of Hitler's wartime death, but what it does do is cast heavy doubt on it. Its central assertion is that Hitler and Eva Braun did not commit suicide in Berlin but fled the city by plane, via Denmark, Spain, the Canary Islands and then via U-Boat to South America, and that the gunshot heard in the bunker was a ruse to kill two inconvenient witnesses to a cover-up, the dead-ringer Hitler double Gustav Weber and an actress who looked spot-on like Eva Braun. Upon arrival in Argentina, Hitler was ferried to a heavily fortified estate built up and financed over several years by financial whiz and confidant Martin Bormann and fellow Nazi travellers.
What the book does do, very well, is tell behind-the-scenes stories about the machinations going on under the surface of World War II that are often obscured in more action-packed tales of generals and battles. Stories of the Vatican, German, Swiss, American and Latin American banking and industrial interests, diplomats, sketchy characters, backstabbing senior Nazis jockeying for wealth and influence and power -- all colluding to funnel hundreds of billions of dollars out of Germany to ensure the postwar security of a cadre of fleeing Nazi rats. Stories about Nazis being allowed to flee Europe (even while being tracked by enemy governments), under the protection of "higher authorities" are just some of the outrages documented in the book.
Dunstan and Williams supply a logical reason for this--since senior Nazis held most of Europe's artworks, and loot, hostage as well Germany's prized weapons and rocket scientists in abeyance, there were valuable bargaining chips at hand that senior Nazis could use to negotiate for themselves and Hitler a postwar getaway--playing Cold War rivals the U.S. and the USSR against one another. Although the authors introduce this concept early in the book, they never quite explore it fully or tie up those loose ends later in the story. I kept waiting for them to, but they really don't. The book mainly becomes a lot of eyewitness testimonies of people who claim to have seen Hitler, Eva Braun, the couple's alleged daughters, and even Hitler's dog Blondi lolling about in hotels and estates in Patagonia.
Some of the most fascinating stories in the book detail the intimate ties between Argentine fascist sympathizer and dictator Juan Peron and his beloved wife Eva "Evita" Peron and the Nazi party and Nazi industrial interests. In the end, the smartest character in the book, perhaps not surprisingly, turns out to be Evita, who commandeered one of the greatest heists in history by stealing billions entrusted to her by senior Nazi, Martin Bormann.
The book does a fair job trying to discredit the official story of Hitler's suicide death as told in Hugh Trevor-Roper's classic book The Last Days of Adolph Hitler (which I haven't read, admittedly, as of this writing), but one wishes the authors had more explicitly taken those assertions and made point-by-point refutations of them rather than trying to discredit Trevor-Roper's competence and credentials.
One thing does appear to be the case, and if so it is the most disturbing aspect of the whole case: If there is a corpus delecti--a body, or forensic evidence proving that Hitler and Braun died in Berlin in 1945--no one has ever produced it. As of the 1950s, even Stalin and Eisenhower admitted that there was not a shred of physical proof that Hitler was dead. Just the eyewitness accounts of a few Nazis whose self interests depended on the story being true.
Why would Hitler be allowed to escape, to go unpunished and unpursued by the victors? Was the world just too tired to continue waging the war? Did Bormann and Nazis manage to negotiate sweetheart deals as this book suggests to ensure a cover-up and a ruse? Have governments, for whatever reasons, hushed up the allegation that Hitler escaped and died in Argentina of poor health in 1962? The book doesn't quite seem to know the answers.
But, it should be no surprise to us that governments lie, and lie for their own reasons, usually to keep people calm, to gloss over indelicacies, to allow the perpetration of evils to cover up political and military agendas. As the recent NSA revelations prove, yet again, citizens who give their governments a few inches should not be surprised that miles and miles are taken instead.
This book was rattling good; imperfect, but thought-provoking.
January 14, 2012
At first I was worried that the author was about to retell the entire second world war. But Simon Dunstan does an excellent job of taking us to the financial structure of the third Reich. This is important because it paints a picture of how Hitler could've escaped Berlin as the Nazi regime was crumbling.
The secret plan to remove the hierarchy of the Third Reich out of Europe and into Argentina was paid for by this secret stash of cash. And the secret money plan funneled gold, art, diamonds and valuables all to the Nazi regime. When you follow the money you understand that Hitler was the richest man in Europe.
Much of this money was sent to Swiss bank accounts. Gold bars were then converted to currency. Many argue that the Swiss built the banks on the misfortune of other countries.
More remarkable to me was the level of coordination between the Argentinian government and the Third Reich. The idea was to create a sympathetic space within the coastline of Argentina for the Nazi leadership. 400 German companies set up shop in Argentina during the war. Fascist friends all helped.
Dunstan argues, rather effectively, that Hitler was secretly moved out of Berlin as the city was crumbling under the weight of Soviet and Allied forces. He and Eva Braun were flown to the Canary Islands. From there the U-boats carried him and secret documents to Argentina where he lived out the rest of his days until he died of the stroke in 1962.
The evidence is overwhelming. FBI files offer descriptions of eyewitness accounts and individuals who worked and cared for Hitler in his dying days. The DNA evidence pulled from the bunker, where he allegedly committed suicide, came back false. And there's never been a shred of evidence to suggest that he actually died in the bunker. I'm convinced more than ever that Hitler did die in Argentina in the early 1960s. 17 years after the end of World War II.
The secret plan to remove the hierarchy of the Third Reich out of Europe and into Argentina was paid for by this secret stash of cash. And the secret money plan funneled gold, art, diamonds and valuables all to the Nazi regime. When you follow the money you understand that Hitler was the richest man in Europe.
Much of this money was sent to Swiss bank accounts. Gold bars were then converted to currency. Many argue that the Swiss built the banks on the misfortune of other countries.
More remarkable to me was the level of coordination between the Argentinian government and the Third Reich. The idea was to create a sympathetic space within the coastline of Argentina for the Nazi leadership. 400 German companies set up shop in Argentina during the war. Fascist friends all helped.
Dunstan argues, rather effectively, that Hitler was secretly moved out of Berlin as the city was crumbling under the weight of Soviet and Allied forces. He and Eva Braun were flown to the Canary Islands. From there the U-boats carried him and secret documents to Argentina where he lived out the rest of his days until he died of the stroke in 1962.
The evidence is overwhelming. FBI files offer descriptions of eyewitness accounts and individuals who worked and cared for Hitler in his dying days. The DNA evidence pulled from the bunker, where he allegedly committed suicide, came back false. And there's never been a shred of evidence to suggest that he actually died in the bunker. I'm convinced more than ever that Hitler did die in Argentina in the early 1960s. 17 years after the end of World War II.
January 5, 2013
Don't waste your time.
January 31, 2012
First of all....
This is one of those books in the vein of "Holy Blood Holy Grail", "Chariots of the Gods", Kennedy Assassination and endless Area 51 tell-alls that proposes a far-fetched thesis which is "supported" by distorted or incomplete "fact", faulty logic, supposition and leaps of faith from some slim factoid or silly rumor into pure fiction. The story of Hitler going to Argentina is completely preposterous and actually makes no sense in the light of reality or even simple critical reading. Parts of this book sound purely made up just to suit the story. Nothing in this book convinces me Hitler ever left that bunker alive in 1945.
Yes, lots and lots of Nazis did go to Argentina and other countries after the war, but Hitler was not one of them. As everyone knows, Hitler was captured by Superman and sent to Area 51 then hired by the CIA/Mafia/Cuban/FBI/KGB/Hollywood cabal to kill Kennedy (Hitler was the guy on the grassy knoll there in Dallas). We all know this to be true, so don't give me any of that Argentina stuff.
With that being said...
It was actually a rather fun read, even knowing it was pure bunk. I am sure this will make a great movie and like "The DaVinci Code" it will create a new fad-of-the-moment and lots of "documentaries" on cable TV. There is always an appetite for good conspiracy theories and scary stories, particularly if Nazis are involved. "Holy Blood Holy Grail", "Chariots of the Gods" etc were fun reads too... just don't take that stuff seriously!
This is one of those books in the vein of "Holy Blood Holy Grail", "Chariots of the Gods", Kennedy Assassination and endless Area 51 tell-alls that proposes a far-fetched thesis which is "supported" by distorted or incomplete "fact", faulty logic, supposition and leaps of faith from some slim factoid or silly rumor into pure fiction. The story of Hitler going to Argentina is completely preposterous and actually makes no sense in the light of reality or even simple critical reading. Parts of this book sound purely made up just to suit the story. Nothing in this book convinces me Hitler ever left that bunker alive in 1945.
Yes, lots and lots of Nazis did go to Argentina and other countries after the war, but Hitler was not one of them. As everyone knows, Hitler was captured by Superman and sent to Area 51 then hired by the CIA/Mafia/Cuban/FBI/KGB/Hollywood cabal to kill Kennedy (Hitler was the guy on the grassy knoll there in Dallas). We all know this to be true, so don't give me any of that Argentina stuff.
With that being said...
It was actually a rather fun read, even knowing it was pure bunk. I am sure this will make a great movie and like "The DaVinci Code" it will create a new fad-of-the-moment and lots of "documentaries" on cable TV. There is always an appetite for good conspiracy theories and scary stories, particularly if Nazis are involved. "Holy Blood Holy Grail", "Chariots of the Gods" etc were fun reads too... just don't take that stuff seriously!
March 6, 2014
Coffee/Screen
From that pool of erudite professionalism, The Sun Newspaper:
Co-author Gerrard Williams said: "There is no forensic evidence for his or Eva Braun's death and eyewitness stories about their survival in Argentina are compelling." Grey Wolf: The Escape of Adolf Hitler also accuses US intelligence of allowing the dictator to flee in return for access to Nazi war technology.
The book claims the "Hitler skull fragments" held by Russia are actually those of a woman.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/...
From that pool of erudite professionalism, The Sun Newspaper:
Co-author Gerrard Williams said: "There is no forensic evidence for his or Eva Braun's death and eyewitness stories about their survival in Argentina are compelling." Grey Wolf: The Escape of Adolf Hitler also accuses US intelligence of allowing the dictator to flee in return for access to Nazi war technology.
The book claims the "Hitler skull fragments" held by Russia are actually those of a woman.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/...
May 6, 2012
Lost about 75% of credibility when on page 102 the authors wrote that Harry S Truman was from the great state of Arkansas. LOL. He was from the Show Me State-- Missouri FOOLS! And they claim that this book went through an extensive editorial process. If the editors AND the authors couldn't look that fact up on wikipedia.com, what else did they miss??!!
August 20, 2016
The authors have written an engaging book where they provide background and describe key events leading to the climax of the Second World War and the demise of the Third Reich. They present documents, quote sources and interview or discuss people involved with or who have knowledge of the operation to bring Hitler to Argentina and help him live his life in freedom and peace.
The book's subject is of course about Adolf Hitler, but it is Martin Bormann who takes centre stage as we read of his plans and the execution for Hitler's escape and relocation to Argentina. These plans are well told as the tension builds up to the moment when the decision is made that the exfiltration must be made as the Russians near the bunker and the routes out of the city become fewer and riskier.
This escape is very well told and the intensity mounts as the bunker is left for the last time and by a series of different modes of transport the moves and transfers is recounted in great detail often down to the hour or even minute. We read of the route Hitler takes to first leave Berlin, and then Germany, and on across a Europe with complete Allied air superiority threatening to spot them, to Spain and then onwards to his new country in South America.
Once in Argentina, Bormann's plan ensures things go smoothly and Hitler is able to settle down to a new life in a remote part of Patagonia with a purpose build ranch complex. The senior Nazis, helped in a large part by Argentina's "first" couple, and the vast wealth looted from occupied Europe brought with them or held in Swiss bank accounts thrive and create schools and a society in part that harks back to the Thrid Reich.
And like the Third Reich, disappearances, murders and intrigue follow for people who played parts in Hitler's escape. Bormann continues to be the major player as he ensures Hitler is looked after and protected until finally the Fuhrer dies aged 72.
All in all this is a very good read and an enjoyable tale, but that is all it is: a tale and I remain unconvinced that Hitler left Berlin alive in 1945.
The book's subject is of course about Adolf Hitler, but it is Martin Bormann who takes centre stage as we read of his plans and the execution for Hitler's escape and relocation to Argentina. These plans are well told as the tension builds up to the moment when the decision is made that the exfiltration must be made as the Russians near the bunker and the routes out of the city become fewer and riskier.
This escape is very well told and the intensity mounts as the bunker is left for the last time and by a series of different modes of transport the moves and transfers is recounted in great detail often down to the hour or even minute. We read of the route Hitler takes to first leave Berlin, and then Germany, and on across a Europe with complete Allied air superiority threatening to spot them, to Spain and then onwards to his new country in South America.
Once in Argentina, Bormann's plan ensures things go smoothly and Hitler is able to settle down to a new life in a remote part of Patagonia with a purpose build ranch complex. The senior Nazis, helped in a large part by Argentina's "first" couple, and the vast wealth looted from occupied Europe brought with them or held in Swiss bank accounts thrive and create schools and a society in part that harks back to the Thrid Reich.
And like the Third Reich, disappearances, murders and intrigue follow for people who played parts in Hitler's escape. Bormann continues to be the major player as he ensures Hitler is looked after and protected until finally the Fuhrer dies aged 72.
All in all this is a very good read and an enjoyable tale, but that is all it is: a tale and I remain unconvinced that Hitler left Berlin alive in 1945.
December 11, 2015
If you believe Hitler escaped then you believe in Santa Claus.
I read this book a second time in conjunction with following the documentary on History Channel. Why Hitler would stage his own suicide then let the whole German Army see him is beyond me.
The authors must have been smoking deep shit to have written all this dust. Heil Santa!
I read this book a second time in conjunction with following the documentary on History Channel. Why Hitler would stage his own suicide then let the whole German Army see him is beyond me.
The authors must have been smoking deep shit to have written all this dust. Heil Santa!
January 6, 2016
There's a particular genre of writing, very specifically aimed at amateur history buffs, which focuses on alleged Great Mysteries of the Second World War, almost entirely based on claims that the official fates of certain top Nazis are polite fictions. The pioneer of this genre was Hugh Thomas who wrote two books dedicated to proving that Rudolf Hess was not exactly the same person as the man imprisoned for over forty years in Berlin; his research was laughable, his arguments full of holes, and yet he made a fortune. Soon enough he was claiming that Heinrich Himmler survived the fall of the Nazi state and someone else had committed suicide in his place. Meanwhile, Ladislas Farago "proved" (in 'Aftermath: Martin Bormann and the Fourth Reich') that Hitler's deputy Bormann had fled to Argentina and created a Fourth Reich there amongst émigrés (in reality, Bormann's skull was found in Berlin and verified to be his by DNA testing). And there was Hitler, with an entire mythology already dedicated to discussing his alleged escape and survival. This book (Grey Wolf: The Escape Of Adolf Hitler by Simon Dunstan and Gerrard Williams) is merely a belated entry on that list.
The book’s theory, if one can put it that way, is that Hitler and Eva Braun escaped from Berlin on 27th April 1945 (by which time it was surrounded by the Red Army and elements of Marshal Zhukov’s forces were already inside the city limits). They were replaced by a “double” of Hitler and an actress, who played Braun, and who went through a sham marriage on the 29th April before being executed the next day as the Russians were approaching the Reich Chancellery*. Hitler and Braun went off to Denmark, returned to Germany, thence left for Spain and finally to Argentina, where they lived near the Andes, had two daughters, and divorced before dying of old age (in Hitler’s case, in 1962 at the age of 73).
Actually, the evidence - physical evidence, in the form of documents (including Hitler's will and testament), survivor accounts, Hitler's state of mind and health - is overwhelming that Adolf did kill himself on the morning of 30th April 1945. Anyone who doubts this is welcome to read well-annotated (unlike this book) accounts such as Hugh Trevor-Roper's 'The Last Days Of Hitler'. If Hitler had actually escaped, in fact, it's more than likely that G öring or Himmler - both eager to succeed him to the last - would have had him quietly bumped off; and in any case by 1945 Hitler was aged decades beyond his years, a complete physical wreck, addicted to "Dr" Theodor Morell's drugs, possibly suffering from Parkinsonism, and certainly from severe neurological trauma from the assassination attempt on him in July 1944.
Also, Hitler was "historically minded" - he had refused to escape when he easily could have, with the Russians still far from Berlin, and had chosen a "Norse" end in the city - a Götterdämmerung (the Twilight Of the Viking Gods). Determined as he was to die mythologically, it's inconceivable that he would have tried to escape (as I said, he had repeatedly turned down desperate suggestions by his staff that he get away while there was time). Escaping would have been a complete betrayal of his own character. He always thought, and said so out loud and clear, that the German people were "unworthy of his genius", and so he was determined to pull the nation down with him.
Most Second World War Conspiracy Theory Industry books are hung on one minor and essentially unimportant point, which is blown out of all proportion and frequently fictionalised as well. With Hugh Thomas it was a “scar” Rudolf Hess should have had on his chest as a result of a wound in the First World War – but the Spandau prisoner, according to Thomas, did not. In reality, the “scar” was still there, though much faded, and Thomas misrepresented (or simply ignored) the type of bullet which caused it, and therefore its treatment, and its very nature. Bormann’s alleged survival revolved around rumours among Nazi émigrés in Argentina, with a fairly transparent impostor (whom the author Farago interviewed) stepping in to fill the role. Himmler’s case (Thomas again) revolved around the allegedly “incredible” way the man (a notoriously weak-willed Nazi whom Thomas built up into a monster of efficiency) allowed himself to be captured by the British and then committed suicide. And in this case, it turns on the fact that the skull alleged to be Hitler’s and which lies in a Moscow vault turned out to be female. (Actually, it wasn’t the skull the Soviets used to identify Hitler – it was a jaw fragment found near it – which is a point completely missed by the authors, for who knows what reasons of their own. Or, I might say I know quite well...)
These starting points, in the Industry literature, are then built up as the core of the investigation (they have to be, because usually there is exactly nothing else to go on), and other rumours, innuendo, insinuations and fantasies are weaved round them in order to make a whole structure that looks impressive on the outside but stands up to not even cursory scrutiny. Thomas never answers the question, for example, why the prisoner in Spandau prison in Berlin never revealed that he wasn’t Hess, when a word from him would have set him free. Farago never answers the question (which he himself raises) of why the “Bormann” he interviewed never seemed to allude in detail to his life in the Führer’s company, but almost exclusively focused on the Fourth Reich in Argentina. And the authors of this book never even approach the question of why Hitler should have been helped to escape by so many people, when it would have been in their own interests to see him dead and gone.
For instance, for the Nazis, a dead Hitler would have been a martyr and a symbol. A half-mad, cranky old man would have been a security risk, an embarrassment, and an anti-symbol as it were, living proof that Nazism had failed and was a thing of crackpot theorising and insane delusions of grandeur. For the Americans (the book claims they helped him get away in return for weapons secrets) Hitler alive would have been irrelevant to those weapons. He wasn’t a scientist and the Americans and Russians between them recruited the ex-Nazi scientific corps for their own efforts quite nicely without Hitler, thank you very much (check up Werner von Braun sometime). For the Spaniards and Argentines who allegedly helped him along and sheltered him, he would be another security risk and embarrassment (it’s one matter sheltering some relatively minor SS thug, quite another where it’s the Monster himself). And in any case these authors make absolutely no effort to prove, by hard evidence even approaching (let alone surpassing) the evidence proving otherwise, that Hitler got away. And in instance after instance they openly state that certain conclusions are the result of their “intuitive thinking” (a rather Hitleresque term, I find). They do not even attempt to track down Hitler’s two daughters – who would of course be priceless proof of the rightness of their theory, and whose DNA could be compared to the descendants of Hitler’s siblings to confirm their identity.
I’m not saying that Hitler didn’t get away. I suppose it’s possible. But there’s a hell of a distance, measurable in parsecs, between admitting that the evidence for his death (gathered in the ruins of a nation falling to pieces and with the shadow of the Cold War already looming overhead) might have holes in it, and claiming that Hitler actually did get away, had daughters, died at a specific time – and failing to back any of this up with evidence a court wouldn’t throw out in five minutes.
Even in styling the book is badly faulted, with most of the first hundred-odd pages devoted to a history of the Second World War. Pardon me for assuming that anyone who reads this book will already know all about the history of the V-weapon attacks on London, for instance, or the Allied offensives of early 1945. He or she is reading this book to know what the authors claim happened to Hitler. That information, such as it is, is singularly late coming. And when it does come, it is as full of logic and factual holes as the genre as a whole (no pun intended) is.
Verdict: save your money. I'm giving it half a star out of five, and that's because I'm feeling generous.
Go read a good novel instead.
*The "evidence" for this is a claim by a single "facial recognition expert" that some photos of Hitler taken on 20 March 1945 do not in fact depict Hitler, with no other backup of even this claim.
The book’s theory, if one can put it that way, is that Hitler and Eva Braun escaped from Berlin on 27th April 1945 (by which time it was surrounded by the Red Army and elements of Marshal Zhukov’s forces were already inside the city limits). They were replaced by a “double” of Hitler and an actress, who played Braun, and who went through a sham marriage on the 29th April before being executed the next day as the Russians were approaching the Reich Chancellery*. Hitler and Braun went off to Denmark, returned to Germany, thence left for Spain and finally to Argentina, where they lived near the Andes, had two daughters, and divorced before dying of old age (in Hitler’s case, in 1962 at the age of 73).
Actually, the evidence - physical evidence, in the form of documents (including Hitler's will and testament), survivor accounts, Hitler's state of mind and health - is overwhelming that Adolf did kill himself on the morning of 30th April 1945. Anyone who doubts this is welcome to read well-annotated (unlike this book) accounts such as Hugh Trevor-Roper's 'The Last Days Of Hitler'. If Hitler had actually escaped, in fact, it's more than likely that G öring or Himmler - both eager to succeed him to the last - would have had him quietly bumped off; and in any case by 1945 Hitler was aged decades beyond his years, a complete physical wreck, addicted to "Dr" Theodor Morell's drugs, possibly suffering from Parkinsonism, and certainly from severe neurological trauma from the assassination attempt on him in July 1944.
Also, Hitler was "historically minded" - he had refused to escape when he easily could have, with the Russians still far from Berlin, and had chosen a "Norse" end in the city - a Götterdämmerung (the Twilight Of the Viking Gods). Determined as he was to die mythologically, it's inconceivable that he would have tried to escape (as I said, he had repeatedly turned down desperate suggestions by his staff that he get away while there was time). Escaping would have been a complete betrayal of his own character. He always thought, and said so out loud and clear, that the German people were "unworthy of his genius", and so he was determined to pull the nation down with him.
Most Second World War Conspiracy Theory Industry books are hung on one minor and essentially unimportant point, which is blown out of all proportion and frequently fictionalised as well. With Hugh Thomas it was a “scar” Rudolf Hess should have had on his chest as a result of a wound in the First World War – but the Spandau prisoner, according to Thomas, did not. In reality, the “scar” was still there, though much faded, and Thomas misrepresented (or simply ignored) the type of bullet which caused it, and therefore its treatment, and its very nature. Bormann’s alleged survival revolved around rumours among Nazi émigrés in Argentina, with a fairly transparent impostor (whom the author Farago interviewed) stepping in to fill the role. Himmler’s case (Thomas again) revolved around the allegedly “incredible” way the man (a notoriously weak-willed Nazi whom Thomas built up into a monster of efficiency) allowed himself to be captured by the British and then committed suicide. And in this case, it turns on the fact that the skull alleged to be Hitler’s and which lies in a Moscow vault turned out to be female. (Actually, it wasn’t the skull the Soviets used to identify Hitler – it was a jaw fragment found near it – which is a point completely missed by the authors, for who knows what reasons of their own. Or, I might say I know quite well...)
These starting points, in the Industry literature, are then built up as the core of the investigation (they have to be, because usually there is exactly nothing else to go on), and other rumours, innuendo, insinuations and fantasies are weaved round them in order to make a whole structure that looks impressive on the outside but stands up to not even cursory scrutiny. Thomas never answers the question, for example, why the prisoner in Spandau prison in Berlin never revealed that he wasn’t Hess, when a word from him would have set him free. Farago never answers the question (which he himself raises) of why the “Bormann” he interviewed never seemed to allude in detail to his life in the Führer’s company, but almost exclusively focused on the Fourth Reich in Argentina. And the authors of this book never even approach the question of why Hitler should have been helped to escape by so many people, when it would have been in their own interests to see him dead and gone.
For instance, for the Nazis, a dead Hitler would have been a martyr and a symbol. A half-mad, cranky old man would have been a security risk, an embarrassment, and an anti-symbol as it were, living proof that Nazism had failed and was a thing of crackpot theorising and insane delusions of grandeur. For the Americans (the book claims they helped him get away in return for weapons secrets) Hitler alive would have been irrelevant to those weapons. He wasn’t a scientist and the Americans and Russians between them recruited the ex-Nazi scientific corps for their own efforts quite nicely without Hitler, thank you very much (check up Werner von Braun sometime). For the Spaniards and Argentines who allegedly helped him along and sheltered him, he would be another security risk and embarrassment (it’s one matter sheltering some relatively minor SS thug, quite another where it’s the Monster himself). And in any case these authors make absolutely no effort to prove, by hard evidence even approaching (let alone surpassing) the evidence proving otherwise, that Hitler got away. And in instance after instance they openly state that certain conclusions are the result of their “intuitive thinking” (a rather Hitleresque term, I find). They do not even attempt to track down Hitler’s two daughters – who would of course be priceless proof of the rightness of their theory, and whose DNA could be compared to the descendants of Hitler’s siblings to confirm their identity.
I’m not saying that Hitler didn’t get away. I suppose it’s possible. But there’s a hell of a distance, measurable in parsecs, between admitting that the evidence for his death (gathered in the ruins of a nation falling to pieces and with the shadow of the Cold War already looming overhead) might have holes in it, and claiming that Hitler actually did get away, had daughters, died at a specific time – and failing to back any of this up with evidence a court wouldn’t throw out in five minutes.
Even in styling the book is badly faulted, with most of the first hundred-odd pages devoted to a history of the Second World War. Pardon me for assuming that anyone who reads this book will already know all about the history of the V-weapon attacks on London, for instance, or the Allied offensives of early 1945. He or she is reading this book to know what the authors claim happened to Hitler. That information, such as it is, is singularly late coming. And when it does come, it is as full of logic and factual holes as the genre as a whole (no pun intended) is.
Verdict: save your money. I'm giving it half a star out of five, and that's because I'm feeling generous.
Go read a good novel instead.
*The "evidence" for this is a claim by a single "facial recognition expert" that some photos of Hitler taken on 20 March 1945 do not in fact depict Hitler, with no other backup of even this claim.
March 7, 2014
Many of the reviewers of this book say the book is a bunch of garbage and that Hitler didn't escape. Maybe he did...maybe he didn't but the premise is interesting.If you like the time period, you should like this book.
And can anyone say with absolute certainty that he didn't escape?
And can anyone say with absolute certainty that he didn't escape?
April 24, 2022
به عنوان یک رمان در ژانر آلترنت هیستوری که در اون راوی داره ادای روزنامهنگاری تحقیقی رو درمیاره کتاب خوبیه
ولی به عنوان اثری که قراره یک پژوهش تاریخی درست و درمون باشه نه اصلا
کلا بافته به هم
ولی به عنوان اثری که قراره یک پژوهش تاریخی درست و درمون باشه نه اصلا
کلا بافته به هم
January 9, 2016
I listened to this book on YouTube because it isn't available as a digital Kindle version (yet). Once it is available I'll be sure to buy it. I thought the premise of the book was intriguing as well, and was tipped off about it from a "documentary" done recently for A&E/The History Channel called "Hunting Hitler." As someone who is an avid WW2 buff, I am always intrigued by that period of time and what justice was finally meted out at the end of the war by the victors.
Before this book my opinion was that Hitler had died in the bunker. End of story. Now I'm not so sure - I thought the authors did an amazing job of researching the groundwork laid by Bormann, as well as the recently declassified FBI documents - obviously the US governments (as well as others) thought the possibility that Hitler was indeed in South America was a possibility. As the saying goes, where there is smoke there is fire. The abundance of testimony gleaned from eye witnesses, reported sightings, and the perfect opportunity to come under a Peron dictatorship is powerful fuel to the speculation.
I, too, had some problems with the book, however. The first and foremost is the inability of the authors to fully refute the DNA and bone / dental records claims made on both Hitler's jaw and Bormann's skeletal remains. Yes, the Hitler "skull" has been invalidated through DNA, but the extensive dental work done to Hitler matches his dental records as attested to by his dentist (from what I have read). Bormann's skeleton, as well, seems to be a match - which is "problematic" if it has been in Berlin between 1945 to 1972 when it was dug up and "discovered." So those are two big, glaring problems for me.
If those could be addressed in a logical, plausible manner, I would be ready to be 100% on board with the thesis. As it stands now, I'm about 50/50.
As a side note, I just finished reading a detective novel (the Bernie Gunther series - "The One For the Other"), in which the plot hinges on the main character being altered physically to match as a double for an infamous war criminal being sought after by the Allies. Given the two years Bormann had available to him to make his plans, I have no doubt that his ruthlessness, along with Gestapo Muller, could have altered at least one of Hitler's six body doubles to match any dental work in the eventuality of having to fake the Fuhrer's death.
Before this book my opinion was that Hitler had died in the bunker. End of story. Now I'm not so sure - I thought the authors did an amazing job of researching the groundwork laid by Bormann, as well as the recently declassified FBI documents - obviously the US governments (as well as others) thought the possibility that Hitler was indeed in South America was a possibility. As the saying goes, where there is smoke there is fire. The abundance of testimony gleaned from eye witnesses, reported sightings, and the perfect opportunity to come under a Peron dictatorship is powerful fuel to the speculation.
I, too, had some problems with the book, however. The first and foremost is the inability of the authors to fully refute the DNA and bone / dental records claims made on both Hitler's jaw and Bormann's skeletal remains. Yes, the Hitler "skull" has been invalidated through DNA, but the extensive dental work done to Hitler matches his dental records as attested to by his dentist (from what I have read). Bormann's skeleton, as well, seems to be a match - which is "problematic" if it has been in Berlin between 1945 to 1972 when it was dug up and "discovered." So those are two big, glaring problems for me.
If those could be addressed in a logical, plausible manner, I would be ready to be 100% on board with the thesis. As it stands now, I'm about 50/50.
As a side note, I just finished reading a detective novel (the Bernie Gunther series - "The One For the Other"), in which the plot hinges on the main character being altered physically to match as a double for an infamous war criminal being sought after by the Allies. Given the two years Bormann had available to him to make his plans, I have no doubt that his ruthlessness, along with Gestapo Muller, could have altered at least one of Hitler's six body doubles to match any dental work in the eventuality of having to fake the Fuhrer's death.
April 18, 2023
Since I've never had cable TV, I was surprised to learn that the History Channel was popularly referred to as the Hitler Channel. Later, watching television I grew to appreciate how much truth was in that glib label — Hitler and Nazis had taken over the airwaves!
This book explores the theory that Hitler escaped Europe at the end of the War and moved to South America, where funds and resources had already been relocated in advance.
I know little about the topic, although it is a fact that Nazis have been found in South America. Of course, it is also true that they have been found in North America.
Surprising how much evidence there is for this theory that Hitler and others escaped and survived. Evidently many people in Argentina just take it for granted.
This book explores the theory that Hitler escaped Europe at the end of the War and moved to South America, where funds and resources had already been relocated in advance.
I know little about the topic, although it is a fact that Nazis have been found in South America. Of course, it is also true that they have been found in North America.
Surprising how much evidence there is for this theory that Hitler and others escaped and survived. Evidently many people in Argentina just take it for granted.
March 15, 2013
Absolutely fascinating. There's a lot of information about World War II and there are moments when I wished there had been less. However, the premise that Adolf Hitler managed to escape to Argentina through the machinations of Martin Bormann is interesting. You decide whether it's truth or fiction. Well worth reading
March 14, 2021
Incredible story although so hard to believe.
February 8, 2018
There is a singular problem with reading Grey Wolf and that is whether the reader already believes he or she knows all there is to know about World War II and Adolph Hitler, or, if the reader has an open mind. Without the later, I would not encourage you to read this book unless of course you are looking for evidence to support your belief that you already know everything to be true as you know it.
I am NOT an expert on WWII or Hitler. I have been fascinated by both because it is so hard for me to understand how one person could do to another what the entire nations of Russia, Germany and Japan and to some extent Italy did to other people. In the end, over 50,000,000 people (that’s MILLION) died because of WWII and the leaders of these nations. Obviously that number includes people of the Allied nations as well, both military and civilians BUT does not include people of all nations who were wounded.
When I read this book, I was compelled to continue reading it and found it difficult to put down. The book reads like a novel and some readers may claim it to be a novel. I found it to read more like an extremely detailed history book of WWII and then of what may or may not have happened to Adolph Hitler. I found it very well documented as to the history of the War up until what most believe to be the death of Hitler in the bunker. Since my elementary school days of the 50s I was taught that Hitler committed suicide in the bunker and his body was burned. Since then there have been numerous documentary TV shows and books that have indicated that there has NEVER been any forensic evidence proving that the two bodies found outside the bunker to be Hitler and Braun as originally claimed. The fact that Stalin, Churchill and Eisenhower all said they did not believe Hitler died in the bunker and that governments continued to search for Hitler has always left me doubtfil about the “story” of Hitler’s death as it was taught.
As said, if you read the book with an open mind and follow the details, you, like the authors, may come to the same conclusion that it was MORE plausible that Hitler did in fact escape the bunker and did go to Argentina as described in the book. It is difficult to come away with a different conclusion yet I am certain others will read the same book and will come to a different conclusion. I am just not sure why. I came away with the belief that there is more evidence in the book confirming the two author’s conclusions than the lack of evidence that support the more famous history books written shortly after the war and taught in my elementary and junior high schools’ history classes.
There was one UNBELIEVABLE paragraph in the book regarding the number of trains and the number of train cars that were used to transport the TONNAGE of the wealth of millions of people whose belongings were confiscated by Germany that were required to ship it back into Germany; it was beyond my comprehension. That is NOT meant to suggest the information was not true just my ability to actually comprehend the numbers because they were so HUGE.
If History does repeat itself, then everyone should read this book if for no other reason than to read about the history of WWII. No one should ever want to see that repeated. Still, in 2018, there is fighting around the world that evidence of the lessons of WWII have never been learned or they have been forgotten. People want to be free. Other people want to control power over those who want to be free and are prepared to take that power through violent behavior. Grey Wolf is about those types of people, that amount of power AND about the “spoils of war” that when you read the numbers, if you are like me, they WILL BE over our collective heads. Frankly I had never thought about the billions of dollars of personal property that changed hands during and after the war.
Who should read this book? I would first recommend it to anyone with an open mind but actually there is no one that I would suggest should not read it over the age of 10 or 12. Would I buy the book as a gift? Actually yes but only for a select few people that might be interested in history. Would I read it again? Probably not in its entirety but certainly parts of it.
I am NOT an expert on WWII or Hitler. I have been fascinated by both because it is so hard for me to understand how one person could do to another what the entire nations of Russia, Germany and Japan and to some extent Italy did to other people. In the end, over 50,000,000 people (that’s MILLION) died because of WWII and the leaders of these nations. Obviously that number includes people of the Allied nations as well, both military and civilians BUT does not include people of all nations who were wounded.
When I read this book, I was compelled to continue reading it and found it difficult to put down. The book reads like a novel and some readers may claim it to be a novel. I found it to read more like an extremely detailed history book of WWII and then of what may or may not have happened to Adolph Hitler. I found it very well documented as to the history of the War up until what most believe to be the death of Hitler in the bunker. Since my elementary school days of the 50s I was taught that Hitler committed suicide in the bunker and his body was burned. Since then there have been numerous documentary TV shows and books that have indicated that there has NEVER been any forensic evidence proving that the two bodies found outside the bunker to be Hitler and Braun as originally claimed. The fact that Stalin, Churchill and Eisenhower all said they did not believe Hitler died in the bunker and that governments continued to search for Hitler has always left me doubtfil about the “story” of Hitler’s death as it was taught.
As said, if you read the book with an open mind and follow the details, you, like the authors, may come to the same conclusion that it was MORE plausible that Hitler did in fact escape the bunker and did go to Argentina as described in the book. It is difficult to come away with a different conclusion yet I am certain others will read the same book and will come to a different conclusion. I am just not sure why. I came away with the belief that there is more evidence in the book confirming the two author’s conclusions than the lack of evidence that support the more famous history books written shortly after the war and taught in my elementary and junior high schools’ history classes.
There was one UNBELIEVABLE paragraph in the book regarding the number of trains and the number of train cars that were used to transport the TONNAGE of the wealth of millions of people whose belongings were confiscated by Germany that were required to ship it back into Germany; it was beyond my comprehension. That is NOT meant to suggest the information was not true just my ability to actually comprehend the numbers because they were so HUGE.
If History does repeat itself, then everyone should read this book if for no other reason than to read about the history of WWII. No one should ever want to see that repeated. Still, in 2018, there is fighting around the world that evidence of the lessons of WWII have never been learned or they have been forgotten. People want to be free. Other people want to control power over those who want to be free and are prepared to take that power through violent behavior. Grey Wolf is about those types of people, that amount of power AND about the “spoils of war” that when you read the numbers, if you are like me, they WILL BE over our collective heads. Frankly I had never thought about the billions of dollars of personal property that changed hands during and after the war.
Who should read this book? I would first recommend it to anyone with an open mind but actually there is no one that I would suggest should not read it over the age of 10 or 12. Would I buy the book as a gift? Actually yes but only for a select few people that might be interested in history. Would I read it again? Probably not in its entirety but certainly parts of it.
September 4, 2023
I only read this as a petty action in retaliation to my boyfriend’s comment that I should try reading “more challenging” books. With that said, I actually enjoyed this book even though it mildly felt as if I were studying for some sort of World War II exam. It’s interesting to think that Hitler could’ve actually escaped his bunker. I felt depressed and disheartened at the fact that if he did escape he got to live a nice quiet life but knowing his life in Argentina was full of medical problems and PTSD brings me slight joy. Even if he escaped, his life was hell in the years leading up to his death :) but it overall was a good read and I learned a lot !!
September 30, 2018
This thesis was developed after a 2009 study by the University of Conneticut showed that a piece of skull held by the Soviets, supposedly from the remains of Adolf Hitler was actually that of a female (Eva Braun is said to have simply poisoned herself so it wasn't her). Before the Soviets had announced they had these remains in the 1960s, authorities in the West questioned whether Hitler had survived.
The main thesis of this book; that Hitler survived the Second World War and found refuge in Argentina, has been quite convincingly disproven after the Russian FSB allowed French scientists in 2017 to study jaw fragments spirited out of Berlin by Elena Rzhevskaya (who also has a journal of her war time activities). Rzhevskaya had met with Kathe Heusermann, the assistant to Hitler's dentist, who matched the jaw fragments with Hitler's records at the time. These were then taken back to Russia.
So why three stars if the thesis is probably wrong? It is a well written book and there is nothing wrong with asking questions. And indeed "conspiracy theories" (ie - asking questions when we didn't have a full picture, thanks to the Soviets keeping this to themselves) may have spurred the French scientists on to investigate the issue. You only get to the truth by asking questions.
The main thesis of this book; that Hitler survived the Second World War and found refuge in Argentina, has been quite convincingly disproven after the Russian FSB allowed French scientists in 2017 to study jaw fragments spirited out of Berlin by Elena Rzhevskaya (who also has a journal of her war time activities). Rzhevskaya had met with Kathe Heusermann, the assistant to Hitler's dentist, who matched the jaw fragments with Hitler's records at the time. These were then taken back to Russia.
So why three stars if the thesis is probably wrong? It is a well written book and there is nothing wrong with asking questions. And indeed "conspiracy theories" (ie - asking questions when we didn't have a full picture, thanks to the Soviets keeping this to themselves) may have spurred the French scientists on to investigate the issue. You only get to the truth by asking questions.
June 20, 2023
muss erst mal durchatmen
February 16, 2016
I started reading this book after watching the History channel series Hunting Hitler . The idea that Hitler could have escaped Berlin in 1945 was intriguing. Dunstan and Williams provide a detailed and well-sourced documentation of Hitler's escape; so well researched, in fact, that it becomes more and more challenging to believe that Hitler and Eva Braun died in the bunker in Berlin in 1945 as the Soviets closed in around them.
I would divide this book into two halves, one I found dull and dry, and one I found interesting. The first part of the book covers everything the reader needs to know in order to understand how Hitler and a few others could have pulled off such a daring escape. It includes the money trail (extensive), the history of the U-boats, and the Nazi presence in Argentina, as well as background info on the key players, ranging from Martin Bormann, the architect of the escape, to the Perons in Argentina, whose rule made Nazi hideouts possible. While necessary to know, this information seemed to drag. The second half of the book is much more interesting, and takes the reader on the journey with Hitler from Berlin, to Spain, to the Canary Islands, and finally, to Argentina, where he and Eva Braun lived out the rest of their days.
I can see why many would dismiss this as mere conjecture and conspiracy theory a la The DaVinci Code ; admitting that Hitler didn't die in 1945 and was able to escape to live in exile, unpunished for his crimes, amounts to an unsatisfying end for someone so evil. However, after reading this book, I think the story presented by Dunstan and Williams is much more likely than the one our history books would have us believe.
A must read for anyone interested in World War II history, this book is detailed and worth your time.
I would divide this book into two halves, one I found dull and dry, and one I found interesting. The first part of the book covers everything the reader needs to know in order to understand how Hitler and a few others could have pulled off such a daring escape. It includes the money trail (extensive), the history of the U-boats, and the Nazi presence in Argentina, as well as background info on the key players, ranging from Martin Bormann, the architect of the escape, to the Perons in Argentina, whose rule made Nazi hideouts possible. While necessary to know, this information seemed to drag. The second half of the book is much more interesting, and takes the reader on the journey with Hitler from Berlin, to Spain, to the Canary Islands, and finally, to Argentina, where he and Eva Braun lived out the rest of their days.
I can see why many would dismiss this as mere conjecture and conspiracy theory a la The DaVinci Code ; admitting that Hitler didn't die in 1945 and was able to escape to live in exile, unpunished for his crimes, amounts to an unsatisfying end for someone so evil. However, after reading this book, I think the story presented by Dunstan and Williams is much more likely than the one our history books would have us believe.
A must read for anyone interested in World War II history, this book is detailed and worth your time.
June 11, 2014
Shame on me for spending money on this book. The first 150 pages are basically a history of WWII, and flip back-and-forth between years. While the topic of Hitler's escape is interesting, this book is anything but. While reading this book, all I kept thinking was, "When are they going to talk about the escape?"
It read like:
Blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah? blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
It read like:
Blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah? blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
June 9, 2020
I love a conspiracy theory, but an unbiased review of the evidence is key.
This was not a good read - in fact it was a chore to finish.
My main gripes are:
The first third of the book recaps world war 2. Completely unnecessary, and not even a good recap.
Hitlers escape and life in Argentina is written as though it is fact. There is little discussion on the material that backs this up. There is a long list of notes at the back of the book which does cover evidence, but providing an unbiased review of the evidence is key to this theory.
There are fictionalised accounts of a few key events. These have no place in this book and should have been removed.
I think my main problem is horrendously poor choices by the editor as the theory is interesting and this could have been a very good read.
Do I believe any of it? Clearly lots of unusual events did take place in Argentina, but i do find it hard to believe Hitler would leave Germany and live a quiet life in exile.
This was not a good read - in fact it was a chore to finish.
My main gripes are:
The first third of the book recaps world war 2. Completely unnecessary, and not even a good recap.
Hitlers escape and life in Argentina is written as though it is fact. There is little discussion on the material that backs this up. There is a long list of notes at the back of the book which does cover evidence, but providing an unbiased review of the evidence is key to this theory.
There are fictionalised accounts of a few key events. These have no place in this book and should have been removed.
I think my main problem is horrendously poor choices by the editor as the theory is interesting and this could have been a very good read.
Do I believe any of it? Clearly lots of unusual events did take place in Argentina, but i do find it hard to believe Hitler would leave Germany and live a quiet life in exile.
February 26, 2021
2021 bk 28: A friend and I were caught up in the documentary Hunting Hitler that I found on the History streaming service and Amazon Prime. Gerrard Williams, one of the authors of this book, struck us as determined British reporter willing to go anywhere to ask his questions, although he is not the only investigator. This version of the book was printed in 2011 and does differ from the conclusions reached in Season 3 of the television documentary. It starts out slower, with the authors feeling the need to start with the rise of Hitler's power, quickly reprise the war, and then ease into the escape from there. The one chapter I did appreciate was how Hitler amassed the amount of wealth he did (through theft of national treasuries, etc.) I had never seen that laid out so well. As to the escape -I don't know if it went this way or the way described in the tv show, but I no longer believe that Hitler died in the bunker in May of 1945. He may have died in Berlin, but there really isn't evidence that it was in the bunker.
September 27, 2022
Lots of historical detail regarding the network of relationships (financial, commercial, and cultural) that lays a groundwork of plausibility for the speculative premise that Hitler escaped to Argentina. Where I may have been 99% certain he died in the bunker in Berlin, maybe now I'm closer to 75% certain.
November 6, 2011
A fascinating proposal. Hitler didn't commit suicide but instead was whisked away at the fall of Berlin and lived a life of exile in Argentina. Taking eye-witness accounts, FBI and CIA reports and following the money trail, the authors make a compelling case that is haunting in its implications.
April 10, 2012
Very interesting case that should make one think. Did Hitler real die in the bunker in 1945, or has been "history been written for the victors".
It's worth reading this book if your skeptical, I still can't decide but based on the evidence given it would not be surprising.
Very worth reading.
It's worth reading this book if your skeptical, I still can't decide but based on the evidence given it would not be surprising.
Very worth reading.
July 24, 2017
Unbelievable read! Don't forget to read the notes in the back! Even more information to be found in them as far as interviewing witnesses and the intimidation they faced when the book was written in 2008!!
March 9, 2012
Very convincing and highly feasible
December 28, 2012
Well, written book, and fascinating idea.
January 21, 2021
The book that opens one's eyes. Devil didn't die. The conspiracy of the XX century solved. Pity for both Communist and Western propaganda. Must read.
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