''Hunting Hitler'' is a
History Channel television series based on
the premise
''The Premise'' is an American anthology series created by B. J. Novak. It premiered on FX on Hulu on September 16, 2021.
Synopsis
Each episode tells a single character driven story about a current world situated issue.
Episodes
Product ...
that
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
escaped from the ''
Führerbunker
The ''Führerbunker'' () was an air raid shelter located near the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. It was part of a subterranean bunker complex constructed in two phases in 1936 and 1944. It was the last of the Führer Headquarters ( ...
'' in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
at the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The show was conceived following
the declassification of
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
documents exploring whether Hitler might have escaped
his apparent fate in Berlin, where he is widely believed to have died in 1945.
It explores how he might have escaped, where he might have gone, and whether he plotted a
Fourth Reich
The Fourth Reich (german: Viertes Reich) is a hypothetical Nazi Reich that is the successor to Adolf Hitler's Third Reich (1933–1945). The term has also been used to refer to the possible resurgence of Nazi ideas, as well as pejoratively of pol ...
.
The series ran for three seasons between 2015 and 2018, followed by a two-hour special in 2020.
Series overview
The show was hosted in Los Angeles by
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
veteran
Bob Baer
Robert Booker Baer (born July 11, 1952) is an American author and a former CIA case officer who was primarily assigned to the Middle East.Robert Bae"Don't Assume Ahmadinejad Really Lost" ''Time'' website, June 16, 2009 He is ''Times intellig ...
and war crimes investigator John Cencich. Utilizing a database of intelligence files from the
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
, CIA,
MI6
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
, and other international authorities, they look for information regarding the survival of
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
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
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...
and
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...
. Hitler's U-boats disembarked in Caleta de Los Loros
es.
Investigative team
*
Bob Baer
Robert Booker Baer (born July 11, 1952) is an American author and a former CIA case officer who was primarily assigned to the Middle East.Robert Bae"Don't Assume Ahmadinejad Really Lost" ''Time'' website, June 16, 2009 He is ''Times intellig ...
— Former CIA Operative
* Dr.
John Cencich
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second E ...
— Former international war crimes investigator, professor, and criminologist
*
Nada Bakos
Nada Glass Bakos is an American former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst and targeting officer who was involved in a number of notable Counter-terrorism, counterterrorism operations during her career. She was part of a group of CIA anal ...
— Former terrorist targeting officer
*
Tim Kennedy —
U.S. Army Special Forces
The United States Army Special Forces (SF), colloquially known as the "Green Berets" due to their distinctive service headgear, are a special operations force of the United States Army.
The Green Berets are geared towards nine doctrinal m ...
operator and former
MMA
Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incorp ...
fighter
*
James Holland —
WWII
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
historian
* Mike Simpson — Medical doctor, airborne ranger, and special forces operator
*
Gerrard Williams — Investigative journalist and historian
*
Lenny DePaul — Former
U.S. Marshals
The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The USMS is a bureau within the U.S. Department of Justice, operating under the direction of the Attorney General, but serves as the enforceme ...
commander
*
Steve Rambam
''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen
Notable people with the name include:
steve jops
* Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people
* Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people
* Steve ...
— Private investigator and Nazi hunter
Episodes
Season 1 (2015)
Season 2 (2016–2017)
Season 3 (2017–2018)
Special (2020)

Reception
The show has been criticized by various media outlets. Brian Lowry wrote for ''
Variety'', "Seriously, guys, what's next, '
Hitlernado?'" Lowry wrote for ''
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
'' that "in a year when '
fake news' received so much attention, History is willingly promoting bad historyfilled with unsubstantiated theories and speculation". Tom Conroy wrote for ''
Media Life Magazine'' that "One gets the impression that
he series
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
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." Contrarily, the ''
National Police Gazette'', an American
tabloid-style magazine and longtime supporter of the Hitler-escape narrative, wrote positively of the series' presentation.
Legacy
On May 17, 2018, popular podcast host
Joe Rogan
Joseph James Rogan (born August 11, 1967) is an American UFC
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly ...
interviewed Tim Kennedy on
his show
His or HIS may refer to:
Computing
* Hightech Information System, a Hong Kong graphics card company
* Honeywell Information Systems
* Hybrid intelligent system
* Microsoft Host Integration Server
Education
* Hangzhou International School, in ...
; 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
Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claim ...
series ''
Ancient Aliens
''Ancient Aliens'' is an American television series that explores the pseudohistorical and pseudoarchaeological ancient astronauts hypothesis, past human- extraterrestrial contact, UFOs, government conspiracies and related pseudoscientific top ...
'' and that Hitler indeed escaped to the Americas. Kennedy proclaimed, "The way history is written is wrong."
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.
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.
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." In 2021, he further derided the series on his podcast, calling it "absolute nonsense". Historian
Richard J. Evans
Sir Richard John Evans (born 29 September 1947) is a British historian of 19th- and 20th-century Europe with a focus on Germany. He is the author of eighteen books, including his three-volume ''The Third Reich Trilogy'' (2003–2008). Evans was ...
dismisses all the survival stories of Hitler as mere "fantasies".
See also
*''
Grey Wolf: The Escape of Adolf Hitler''
References
External links
*
*
Transfer of Archives of Department 50 of the General Directorate of Investigations– National Archives of Chile (in Spanish)
{{History shows
2015 American television series debuts
History (American TV channel) original programming
2018 American television series endings