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Declassified Files Reveal CIA Investigated If Adolf Hitler Survived The War And Fled To Colombia

Declassified Files Reveal CIA Investigated If Adolf Hitler Survived The War And Fled To Colombia

One former SS soldier even claimed to have taken a photo of the Nazi leader.

James Dawson

James Dawson

Who in their right mind would want to be Hitler? That might sound like a daft question because the answer should be nobody, but, according to a declassified report released by the CIA, that's not the case.

According to the documents, the CIA were told about a man who lived in Colombia among a community of ex-Nazis in the 50s who claimed to be Adolf Hitler.

Although agents didn't take the claim seriously - history tells us that Hitler died by suicide in 1945, although conspiracy theories abound - but the declassified reveal that a former SS soldier, Phillip Citroen, approached the intelligence agency with the claim.

The man alleged to be Adolf Hitler (R)

He told them he had met a man living in the town of Tunja, north of Bogota, who claimed to be the Nazi dictator.

He had been visiting the town while working for a railroad company and was introduced to a man 'who strongly resembled and claimed to be Hitler'.

The document reports: "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.

Credit: Hunting Hitler/The History Channel

"According to Citroen, the Germans residing in Tunja follow this alleged Adolf Hitler with an idolatry of the Nazi past, addressing him as Elder Fuhrer and affording him the Nazi Salute and storm-trooper adulation."

To try to prove his story, Citroen apparently even showed agents a photograph of himself sitting next to a man that strongly resembled Hitler, but agents still dismissed is as a fanciful rumour.

Credit: National Archives

The claim didn't end there, however. In 1955, a second man - identified only as Cimelody-3, approached agents with the exact same story, which he said Citroen had related to his friend.

Cimelody told them that Citroen - who by this point was living in Venezuela - claimed to be in contact with this so-called Hitler about once a month on his regular visits to Columbia.

Cimelody also gave agents a photograph of Citroen with the Hitler-a-like, who was named on the back of the image as Adolf Schuttlemayer. Cimelody said that Adolf left Colombia in 1955 and went somewhere unspecified in Argentina.

Agents once again doubted the veracity of the tale, but nevertheless wrote up a formal report to send to superiors in case of possible interest. It's likely untrue, but even if that man were Hitler, he'd be dead now, so it's kind of irrelevant. It's still fascinating, though.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: World News, Colombia, World War II, Nazi