Released CIA Files: Hitler Survived WWII, Lived in Colombia?

Recently declassified documents from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency suggest that the agency investigated claims that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler survived the Second World War and briefly lived with his ex-Nazi comrades in Colombia in the 1950s.

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According to an agent code-named Cimelody-3, Hitler was living in the Colombian city of Tunja, where he had been corresponding with ex-SS agent Phillip Citroen.

While agents took the case with a grain of salt, they did receive a photo of a man standing alongside Citroen who went by the name “Adolf Schritteimayor” and bore a close resemblance to the Nazi dictator.

"Citroen claimed to have contacted Hitler about once a month in Colombia on his trip from Maracaibo to that country as an employee of the KNSM (Royal Dutch) shipping Co," the report by the CIA bureau chief in Venezuela read.

“Citroen claimed to have met this individual at a place called 'Residencies Coloniales' which is, according to the source, overly populated with former German Nazis.

“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,” the report added.

Released last week along with a packet of declassified files relating to the assassination of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy, the documents shed light on the theory that Hitler escaped from Europe and was hiding in South America in the years following the war.

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Citroen told the informant that the Germans who lived in the expatriate fascist colony revered the alleged Hitler with “an idolatry of the Nazi past, addressing him as ‘der Fuehrer’ and affording him the Nazi salute and storm-trooper adulation.”

Hitler killed himself with a gunshot to the head and cyanide capsules in his bunker during the Soviet liberation of Berlin on April 30, 1945.

The CIA ultimately dismissed Citroen's account as a rumor.

U.S. President Donald Trump released nearly 3,000 documents related to the Kennedy assassination, but conceded to "national security, law enforcement, and foreign affairs concerns," ordering a 180-day review for the agencies to reconsider their redactions

There was significant support for the Axis powers during World War II in countries such as Chile and Argentina. Conspiracies surrounding Hitler’s death often suggest that the dictator lived in Argentina following the war.

Among the thousands of former Nazi officials believed to have fled to South America are many senior members of Hitler's team.