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]
Steve Rambam — Private investigator and Nazi hunter
Episodes
Season 1 (2015)
No. overall
No. in season
Title
Original air date
Viewers (millions)
1
1
"The Hunt Begins"
November 10, 2015 (2015-11-10)
N/A
CIA veteran Bob Baer and war crimes investigator Dr. John Cencich begin investigating what might have happened to Adolf Hitler at the end of WWII if he had survived. An FBI report places Hitler residing in a small Nazi-connected town in Argentina over three months after he was believed dead.
2
2
"Secret Nazi Lair"
November 17, 2015 (2015-11-17)
N/A
Tim Kennedy, US Army Special Forces, joins archeologists Philip Kiernan and Daniel Schavelzon to explore a mysterious Nazi complex in the jungles of Argentina. They discover Nazi artifacts at the three-building site, as well as evidence of an opulent German residence. In response to the revelation that a skull fragment with gun damage—long thought to belong to Hitler—may instead belong to a female, an attempt is made to contact Eva Braun's only living relative to see if her DNA is a match.
3
3
"Escape From Berlin"
November 24, 2015 (2015-11-24)
N/A
Prominent death claims investigator Steven Rambam and Nazi profiler and historian Gerrard Williams join Tim Kennedy to investigate a site that the FBI reported Hitler used to disembark from a U-boat in Argentina. Former US Marshal Lenny DePaul uncovers an escape route from Hitler's bunker in Berlin to the nearby Tempelhof Airport, where multiple Nazi airplanes fled the Battle of Berlin.
4
4
"The Tunnel"
December 1, 2015 (2015-12-01)
N/A
Lenny DePaul and Sascha Keil find a never before discovered tunnel leading from Hitler's bunker directly to Tempelhof Airport. Kennedy joins a team of elite marine archeologists to search for a possible German U-boat off the coast of Argentina. DePaul joins Gerrard Williams to investigate if Hitler could have been concealed in Spain with the help of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.
5
5
"Ratlines"
December 8, 2015 (2015-12-08)
N/A
In Spain, DePaul and Williams investigate a monastery that could have been a Nazi hideout and meet an eyewitness who claims Hitler once lived there. Further investigation leads the team to a German plane landing and nearby Nazi communication devices. Kennedy investigates the possibility of a sunken U-boat off the coast of Argentina. The team is led to the Canary Islands, where they learn of a possible Enigma machine and tunnels used to supply U-boats with torpedoes.
6
6
"Hitler's Safehouse"
December 15, 2015 (2015-12-15)
N/A
In the Canary Islands, DePaul and Williams uncover secret tunnels and a large German compound which may have supplied Hitler's potential escape to South America. Kennedy infiltrates a German town in Argentina known for sheltering Nazis after the war. Williams locates an isolated lakeside mansion that could have housed Hitler.
7
7
"Friends in High Places"
December 22, 2015 (2015-12-22)
N/A
The team investigates a now-defunct resort which a close confidant of Hitler's once operated. They discover an eyewitness placing Hitler at the location. Kennedy and Williams travel to a small coastal town in Brazil, where Hitler reportedly attended a ballet performance.
8
8
"Hitler's Plane"
December 29, 2015 (2015-12-29)
N/A
An FBI report places Hitler landing a plane in Colombia. Baer and Cencich identify a marsh where they believe this plane was hidden, and the team gains unprecedented access to the protected site to use side-scan sonar to carry out their search.
Season 2 (2016–2017)
No. overall
No. in season
Title
Original air date
Viewers (millions)
9
0
"Inside the Investigation"
November 1, 2016 (2016-11-01)
N/A
The evidence from the first season is summarized, along with a preview of Season 2.
10
1
"The Hunt Continues"
November 15, 2016 (2016-11-15)
N/A
Lenny DePaul and Sascha Keil discover an unknown fifth exit from the Führerbunker and begin investigating areas that could have served as a makeshift runway out of Berlin. Meanwhile, Tim Kennedy and historical archaeologist Alasdair Brooks reunite with Daniel Schavelzon at the mysterious Nazi lair in Misiones, Argentina. There, they discover a new building that could be a military compound.
11
2
"The Compound"
November 22, 2016 (2016-11-22)
N/A
Intelligence reports indicate that Hitler would have taken a short-range plane from Berlin to Denmark. DePaul and James Holland head there and investigate an airstrip and a massive bunker system. In Misiones, Kennedy and Brooks unearth clues that the site could be that of a militarized Nazi compound.
12
3
"Eyewitness Accounts"
November 29, 2016 (2016-11-29)
N/A
A declassified document reveals that Hitler and a close associate, Leon Degrelle, could have moved from Denmark to San Sebastian, Spain. There, James Holland and Mike Simpson discover several eyewitnesses, a satellite of the Third Reich, and what could be a Nazi communications center. The team in Misiones speaks with a living relative of Hermann Göring and a man who claims his father worked for Martin Bormann (believed to have died in 1945) after the end of the war.
13
4
"The Web"
December 6, 2016 (2016-12-06)
N/A
While following leads on a Nazi escape network, the teams in Southern Spain and Northern Argentina both make discoveries of vast tunnel systems in the mountains.
14
5
"The Factory"
December 13, 2016 (2016-12-13)
N/A
Baer and Cencich continue to investigate leads in Spain, Morocco, and Argentina. The teams look into Hitler's possible escape route while uncovering a plan for a Fourth Reich.
15
6
"The Secret Island"
December 20, 2016 (2016-12-20)
N/A
Digging deeper into reports about the Fourth Reich, Baer and Cencich send the team to a rumored weapons testing site in Germany, and a mysterious deserted island in Argentina that could have housed nuclear facilities with Nazi ties after the war.
16
7
"Unmarked Grave"
December 27, 2016 (2016-12-27)
N/A
Baer and Cencich send their teams into Chile and Paraguay to investigate Hitler's whereabouts if he were forced to flee Argentina following Juan Perón's overthrow in 1955. In Chile, Kennedy and Williams follow a lead to the adopted daughter of a man locally believed to have been Bormann. They are then shown his grave, which seems to match red earth found on the remains found in Berlin in 1972 which were conclusively identified as Bormann's in 1998.
17
8
"Nazi Colony"
January 3, 2017 (2017-01-03)
N/A
Kennedy and Simpson investigate a secretive German community in Chile, formerly known as Colonia Dignidad, with reported Nazi ties. Inside the compound they find clues pointing to the potential formation of a Fourth Reich.
Baer and his team provide an inside look at their investigation, summarizing the evidence from the past two seasons. Along with previews of Season 3, they explain their strategies.
Baer recruits prominent terrorist targeting officer Nada Bakos. Enacting the hunting strategy which led to the capture of Osama bin Laden, the team finds two planned escape routes for Hitler out of Germany. To the south, Kennedy and Holland discover a tunnel system under Hitler's home. To the north, DePaul and Williams investigate a hidden Nazi compound.
DePaul and Williams make a startling discovery in a sabotaged aircraft hangar in northern Germany. Simpson and Holland scan an Austrian lake in search for a large cache of secret Nazi documents.
In Norway, Kennedy and Williams explore a hydroelectric plant where the Nazis were dangerously close to producing a nuclear weapon. Simpson and Holland investigate a cabin high in the Austrian Alps where Hitler's top associate made the ultimate sacrifice.
At the bottom of an Arctic fjord in Norway, Kennedy dives on Nazi relics that may blow the case wide open. Simpson and Holland encounter a smuggler who leads them to Nazi castle on the Italian border.
Simpson and Holland excavate the grounds of a remote Alpine hotel in search of buried Nazi dead drops. In Rome, DePaul and Williams make a shocking discovery that implicates some of the world’s most powerful people.
At a lagoon in Uruguay, Kennedy and Simpson uncover evidence of a long-range seaplane that was shuttling Nazis all around the continent. In Buenos Aires, Kennedy and Williams convince an informant to share a massive cache of explosive documents that could unravel the clandestine global Nazi network known as Die Spinne.
On the trail of Josef Mengele, Kennedy and Simpson investigate a key Nazi support point in Uruguay: the Rincón del Bonete dam, which may have been intended to produce heavy water. Kennedy and Williams follow rumors that Hitler went from Misiones to a jungle hideout outside the Nazi-aligned Colonia Independencia in Paraguay. A local German claims that decades earlier, he saw Hitler wearing a full mustache and old military garb at a jungle compound built in the 1930s. Only accessible via a road passing by an apparent guard structure, Kennedy finds evidence of a cliffside lookout providing an expansive view over the massive property.
At the National Archives of Chile, Simpson and DePaul are shown extensive photographic records of Nazi activity in the country and learn of an alleged network of over 700 outposts resembling Colonia Dignidad; they visit an apparent concentration camp ostensibly run by Walter Rauff. An anonymous source shows them microfilm of Hitler's last will and testament, indicating that not all of its copies were captured by the Allies. Baer presents his hypothesis of Hitler's escape route to a retired FBI agent, who opines that it would be enough to reopen the cold case.
Photograph of a Nazi assembly in Chile, from the country's 1939–1947 investigation of Nazi networks[15] (featured in the Season 3 finale)
Reception
The show has been criticized by various media outlets. Brian Lowry wrote for Variety, "Seriously, guys, what's next, 'Hitlernado?'"[16] Lowry wrote for CNN that "in a year when 'fake news' received so much attention, History is willingly promoting bad history – filled with unsubstantiated theories and speculation".[17] 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."[18] Contrarily, the National Police Gazette, an American tabloid-style magazine and longtime supporter of the Hitler-escape narrative, wrote positively of the series' presentation.[19]
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."[20]
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.[21] 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.[22][21]
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."[23] In 2021, he further derided the series on his podcast, calling it "absolute nonsense".[24] Historian Richard J. Evans dismisses all the survival stories of Hitler as mere "fantasies".[25]
A subsequent History series, Lost U-Boats of WWII (2024), explores potential Nazi submarine wreck sites near the Dominican Republic, which harbored Nazis.[26] It is theorized that craft could have been scuttled there after being used to shuttle Nazis and their loot.[27]
^"Denmark at War". We Have Ways of Making You Talk. Episode 349 – via 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 ..."
