"Hitler Didn’t Die in the Bunker": Former CIA Agent Says He Escaped to Argentina

Could one of the most infamous deaths in history be a carefully constructed illusion?

A new report published by the Daily Mail is reigniting old controversies — with a dramatic twist. Brad Barr, a 72-year-old former CIA agent who served for over two decades in U.S. intelligence, has gone on record with explosive claims: Adolf Hitler did not die in his Berlin bunker in April 1945, but instead escaped to Argentina, where he lived under protection — and where Nazi loyalists attempted to resurrect the Third Reich.

Barr's allegations are based on a soon-to-be-released cache of formerly classified Argentine documents, which, he says, may force historians to reconsider what they think they know about the end of World War II.

According to Barr, the material includes evidence of collusion between senior figures in the Argentine government and Nazi war criminals, among them high-ranking SS officers. Some of these documents reportedly describe remote shelters built specifically to house fleeing Nazis in the Misiones province — including one archaeological site uncovered in 2015, where researchers found Nazi memorabilia and wartime-era German coins buried deep in the jungle.

These revelations coincide with growing suspicion about the official Soviet account of Hitler's death. While the accepted narrative states that Hitler and his wife Eva Braun committed suicide on April 30, 1945, in the Führerbunker and were cremated shortly afterward, forensic proof has always been murky. In fact, a piece of skull recovered by the Soviets — long believed to be Hitler’s — was DNA-tested in 2009 and found to belong to a woman under 40.

Barr calls that contradiction “one of the greatest unresolved mysteries in modern history,” and believes it justifies a deeper inquiry into alternative scenarios. “When the evidence we were given collapses under scrutiny, we must ask new questions,” he said.

Some of the documents expected to be declassified with the approval of Argentine President Javier Milei reportedly point to the involvement of former President Juan Perón in sheltering Nazi scientists, some of whom were allegedly employed at a nuclear research facility on Huemul Island near Bariloche.

Barr suggests these efforts may have even included early plans to develop nuclear weaponry — a genuine attempt, he says, to give birth to a so-called Fourth Reich.

Rumors of Hitler’s escape are not new. Western intelligence agencies received similar reports as early as the late 1940s. One CIA document from 1945 described a possible Nazi hideout at the Hotel La Falda in Argentina. Another widely circulated photo purports to show Hitler alive in Colombia in 1955.

While the CIA later released assessments supporting the official suicide account, Barr insists the very fact that these scenarios were investigated proves they were taken seriously at the highest levels. “The CIA doesn't chase ghosts,” he told the Daily Mail. “If a decade after the war they were still tracking escape leads, that speaks volumes.”

Dr. John Sanchez, a former UN war crimes investigator, took a more cautious approach. He acknowledged that many Nazis who escaped to South America remained ideologically loyal, but doubted that any true revival of the Reich was within reach. “They were former Nazis clinging to the past — not a vision for the future,” he said.

Whether the new documents set to emerge from Argentine archives will offer a final answer remains to be seen.