Who got out of Europe either shortly before the end of the War or at any time over the next 18 months? After reading this month’s section of the letter from DON ANGEL, I think we should show some of the cards we are holding. At least then you might realize that we really are taking our information from old files and not out of the air.

About a year ago, we reported in our KTB Magazine that some files had surfaced on high-ranking Nazis, Abwehr operatives, SS people etc. The report said there were about 50,000 such people (including family members) who escaped from Europe in one way or another for South America. That is quite a lot, but we are only concerned with a few whose actual fate is in dispute.

Alfried Bormann, brother of Martin Bormann, is thought to have escaped to South America. Alfried Bormann had the secret bank account numbers for a huge fortune, which would make him a priority for any person or group wishing to keep their movement or a lavish lifestyle alive and to finance it. As we read the newspapers over the month of Sept. and Oct. 1996, we read that pressure is being brought against the Swiss banks to open their books regarding just such secret accounts. SENATOR AL D’AMATO (SH 4908) is heading one such effort. It’s unlikely they would spend so much time and effort if there was not something there.

Martin Bormann, second only to Adolf Hitler, died in the final moments of the war near the train station in Berlin, official reports tell us. His body was found some ten or twenty years later, so the story goes, when a construction crew was digging for a new building. At that time, there were hundreds and possibly thousands of bones of people who died in the final moments of the war so I’m curious how anyone would get the idea this was Martin Bormann and begin to check dental records etc. By the time this body was discovered, it was only bones - why would this skeleton make someone think it was Martin Bormann over another skeleton found in Berlin? That’s the official record - Martin Bormann died in Berlin

However, DON ANGEL tells a different story which you are now reading. I will say no more on that, because this story is still going on. When the letter from DON ANGEL is finished, we will present whatever files we have uncovered and you decide.

The book by GREGORY DOUGLAS (SH 4253) quotes Gestapo Chief Heinrich Müller as stating absolutely that Martin Bormann did indeed escape Europe for South America.

The well-known so-called Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal had long believed that Martin Bormann was living in the same area that we have already mentioned in KTB #122 and using the name that we reported in a previous issue of our KTB Magazine.

When we publish the files we have on hand, you decide - did Martin Bormann die near the train station in Berlin in the closing days of the war, or did he die in the 1970’s in South America?

Adolf Hitler - no name evokes so many emotions in the 20th century than this. SHARKHUNTERS and EAGLEHUNTERS will take no sides and will make no political statements about him or anyone else -- we’ll just report facts as we learn them. Officially, Hitler killed himself at the end of April 1945 by shooting himself in the head with his pistol. Recently released reports say that he also bit down on a cyanide capsule the same time as he pulled the trigger. If this is true, then you must give this guy credit for really wanting to get the job done. Let’s look a little deeper into this official report. Remember, it was the Russians who supposedly found the body when they overran the Chancellery in Berlin. Their level of forensic pathology was rather lacking. Further, it was to their best interest to have Hitler really dead because Stalin did not want any mystery over the fate of Hitler and it was not a good career choice to upset Stalin. So it was necessary to have him dead.

When the body was looked at and declared that it definitely was Hitler, some sharp-eyed Russian saw that this body had old worn-out socks. He felt the real Hitler would have new socks, so they looked for another body. Several bodies were found and each in turn was declared to be Hitler - then another was Hitler and so on.

In August of 1945, Marshall Zhukov, Commander of all Soviet forces, publicly stated he believed Hitler was alive. That was four months after the ‘suicide’ and after the Russians themselves declared the body (one of them) was Hitler. In September, Stalin himself echoed Zhukov’s statement -- they thought Hitler was still alive. If he died in April, why did these men with supposedly full knowledge of this situation, still think Hitler was alive five months later?

According to the letter from DON ANGEL, there was some possibility that Hitler was in South America in late 1952.

According to the book by GREGORY DOUGLAS, Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller stated that Hitler did escape Europe.

One of the most compelling pieces of this story was told to me by CAPTAIN ROBERT THEW (SH 333+) in 1988 when he visited here. BOB was an Annapolis graduate and was well placed in Naval Intelligence during the war, then went into a key position with the National Security Agency (NSA) which some jokingly say means ‘No Such Agency’. In fact, the NSA Museum was not open to the public and there was no mention of this museum anywhere. How is that for secret? When BOB visited us in 1988, I showed him the letter from DON ANGEL and told him about the part where DON ANGEL said he met with Hitler in 1952. I said I thought this guy was crazy to think anyone would believe this, since it was well know that Hitler killed himself in April 1945. I remember his response as if he were sitting here right now. “Hell, we knew Hitler wasn’t dead.”

I was shocked and asked what he was talking about. He said that they (the intelligence community) were looking for Hitler “into the 1950’s”. Remember that -- it is important. DON ANGEL said he met with Hitler in 1952, and as you will read later in his story, he met with Bormann in 1958 and was told that Hitler was ‘out of the picture’. You figure out what he meant. BOB said that every time they caught a high-ranking Nazi, Abwehr operative or SS man up to the middle 1950’s, the first thing they grilled him about was ‘Where is Hitler?’ If he had killed himself in April 1945, why look for him as much as ten years later? You decide.

The Russians recently released a story about having Hitler’s bones buried at Magdeburg and the Russian general laughed while telling this story. He said he was laughing because everyone was looking all over for Hitler’s remains while they had them at Magdeburg. Some think he was laughing because he was putting over a huge piece of mis-information on the world -- perhaps like the Warren Report on the assassination of John F. Kennedy by a lone gunman using a rifle that was well known as a piece of junk.

When the INTELLIGENCE PAGE series finishes with the letter from DON ANGEL and all the documents that follow; you make your own decision - who DID and who did NOT escape. Just remember -- we have no ‘ax to grind’ in either direction; we only want to report what we have learned and let you decide.