Hunting Hitler Explained

Genre:Reality
Director:Jeffrey R. Daniels
Clint Lealos
Narrated:Dave Hoffman
Country:United States
Language:English
Num Seasons:3
Num Episodes:24 (+2 bonus episodes and 1 special)
Runtime:42 minutes
Company:Karga 7 Pictures
Network:History Channel

Hunting Hitler is a History Channel television series based on the conspiracy theory that Adolf Hitler escaped from Berlin at the end of World War II in Europe. The show was conceived following the declassification of government documents exploring the premise that Hitler might not have died in April 1945.[1]

The series explores how he might have escaped, where he might have gone, and whether he plotted a Fourth Reich.[2] The series ran for three seasons between 2015 and 2018, followed by a two-hour special in 2020.[3]

Series overview

The show was hosted in Los Angeles by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) veteran Bob Baer and former international war crimes investigator John Cencich. Utilizing a database of intelligence files from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), CIA, MI6, and other international agencies, they look for information regarding the possible survival of Adolf Hitler or any of his right-hand men. The ground teams search for evidence supporting these leads. According to the show's creators, similar man-hunting techniques are employed as were used by the CIA to find Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.[4]

SeasonEpisodesOriginally aired
Season premiereSeason finale
18
28
38
Special1

Investigative team

Episodes

Special (2020)

Reception

The show has been criticized by various media outlets. Brian Lowry wrote for Variety, "Seriously, guys, what's next, 'Hitlernado?'"[5] Lowry wrote for CNN that "in a year when 'fake news' received so much attention, History is willingly promoting bad historyfilled with unsubstantiated theories and speculation".[6] Tom Conroy wrote for Media Life Magazine that "One gets the impression that [the series] will continue to spin its wheels for the duration. But even if it unearths evidence of Hitler's survival, there's no way the government would let that information out."[7] Contrarily, the National Police Gazette, an American tabloid-style magazine and longtime supporter of the Hitler-escape narrative, wrote positively of the series' presentation.[8]

Legacy

On May 17, 2018, popular podcast host Joe Rogan interviewed Tim Kennedy on his show; they discussed the series and its premise, including its focus on Nazi escape routes known as "ratlines". Kennedy argued that the series is unlike the History Channel's pseudoscientific series Ancient Aliens and that Hitler indeed escaped to the Americas. Kennedy proclaimed, "The way history is written is wrong."[9]

In 2019, series host Bob Baer stated that he actually agrees with the mainstream view that Hitler died in Berlin in April 1945, but that "there's no doubt" the dictator intended to flee to South America to carry out a Fourth Reich.[10] The subsequent Hunting Hitler closing special focuses on the alleged Fourth Reich, at one point invoking a John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory—one of a few fringe narratives Baer has voiced interest in.[11]

In 2020, team member and author James Holland tweeted that "I was certainly interested in learning more about how Nazis escaped, but was very careful never to mention on film that I thought either Hitler or Bormann escaped. Because they didn't."[12] In 2021, he further derided the series on his podcast, calling it "absolute nonsense".[13] Historian Richard J. Evans dismisses all the survival stories of Hitler as mere "fantasies".[14]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Anderson. John. 10 November 2015. One Industry That Capitalizes On America's Hitler Fascination. limited. 28 January 2017. Fortune.
  2. Web site: Rampton. James. 2 November 2015. Another outing for one of the 20th century's most pernicious myths.. registration. 28 January 2017. History Today.
  3. Web site: Hunting Hitler: The Final Chapter. 2021-02-24. History.com. en.
  4. Web site: About Hunting Hitler. 16 July 2018. History.com.
  5. Web site: Lowry . Brian . 5 November 2015 . TV Review: 'Hunting Hitler' . 2022-05-12 . Variety.
  6. Web site: Lowry . Brian . 22 December 2016 . Weak TV of 2016 . 2022-05-12 . CNN.
  7. Web site: Conroy . Tom . November 10, 2015 . 'Hunting Hitler,' don't follow this trail . https://web.archive.org/web/20160401040858/http://www.medialifemagazine.com/hunting-hitler-dont-follow-this-trail/ . 2016-04-01 . 2022-05-12 . Media Life Magazine.
  8. Web site: July 21, 2017 . Police Gazette's First New 'Hitler Is Alive' Article Since 1972 . 2022-05-15 . National Police Gazette . en-US.
  9. Tim Kennedy . . 1117 . May 17, 2018 . 50:00, 1:05:00. Spotify. Episode transcript via JRE Scribe. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
  10. Web site: Harlow . Olivia . 2019-01-21 . History Channel's 'Hunting Hitler' host set to speak in Santa Fe . 2022-09-27 . . en.
  11. Web site: Watch Hunting Hitler: The Final Chapter . 2022-09-29 . History . en.
  12. 1288375246937042944. James1940. Crikey, I’m sorry if I gave that impression. I was certainly interested in learning more about how Nazis escaped,…. July 29, 2020. TweetCiteBot.
  13. Denmark at War . We Have Ways of Making You Talk . 349 . Acast. "I was there [in a bunker situated in the [[Atlantic Wall]]] with a guy who was a former presidential bodyguard and he said "you know Jim, when I look around this place and think it's a kind of place that I can see a top-ranking Nazi official hiding out", I was there thinking it was a piece of concrete that achieved very little but you know whatever ..."
  14. Book: Evans, Richard . Richard J. Evans . The Hitler Conspiracies . 2020 . Oxford University Press . London . 187–188 . 978-0190083052.