In April 2025, social media users claimed the CIA "just" released classified documents proving Nazi leader Adolf Hitler survived World War II and escaped Germany to South America.
This rumor spread weeks after the CIA released thousands of files on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and after the U.S. Justice Department sought to release surveillance records of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
A number of X posts shared images of old documents quoting a former German soldier who, in 1955, said Hitler was "still alive" and that he had "contacted Hitler about once a month in Colombia." The same soldier claimed he took a photograph with the dictator and stated "that Hitler left Colombia for Argentina around January 1955."
Another popular screenshot allegedly showed Hitler seated alongside the soldier purportedly alive and well in 1955.
The screenshots can be seen below:
(Screenshot via X)
(Screenshot via X)
In short, while the above images do show CIA documents with purported information on Hitler, these were not recent declassifications nor are they evidence that the Nazi leader survived WWII and escaped to South America. They rely on thirdhand information from dubious sources that the CIA dismissed and admitted it would not verify. As such, we have rated this claim as false.
The documents in question were not declassified in 2025 as the above posts claim. The CIA declassified the memo in 2017 under U.S. President Donald Trump's first administration, according to reporting at the time. The claim about Hitler emerged in a CIA memo released among thousands of files about Kennedy's assassination. The memo shows that the screenshots are accurate; however, the CIA admitted in the first paragraph of the document that it could not verify such claims.
Text in the memo states that "CIMELODY-3" is the code name for a CIA agent. Part of the memo, which was filed by the CIA station chief in Caracas, Venezuela, in October 1955, is outlined below (emphasis in bold ours):
On 29 September 1955, CIMELODY-3 reported the following. [ … ] CIMELODY-3's friend stated that during the latter part of September 1955, a Phillip CITROEN, former German SS trooper, stated to him confidentially that Adolf HITLER is still alive. CITROEN claimed to have contacted Hitler about once a month in Colombia on his trip from Maracaibo to that country as an employee of the KNSM (Royal Dutch) Shipping Co. in Maracaibo. CITROEN indicated to CIMELODY-3's friend that he took a picture with HITLER not too long ago, but did not show the photograph. He also stated that HITLER left Colombia for Argentina around January 1955. CITROEN commented that inasmuch as ten years have passed since the end of World War II, the Allies could no longer prosecute HITLER as a criminal of war.
However, the account is unreliable largely because it is not firsthand reporting. The CIA agent received this information from a friend who spoke to the German former soldier. The CIA cast doubt on the claims in the very first paragraph of the report, stating: "Neither CIMELODY-3 nor this Station is in a position to give an intelligent evaluation of the information and it is being forwarded as of possible interest."
The last paragraph of the report analyzes the photograph of Citroen alongside "Hitler," stating (emphasis in bold ours):
On 28 September 1955, CIMELODY-3's friend surreptitiously obtained the photograph which CITROEN referred to. On 29 September 1955, the photo was shown to CIMELODY-3 for purposes of getting his reaction to the possible veracity of this fantastic story. Obviously, CIMELODY-3 was not in any position to make any comments. Nonetheless, he borrowed the photograph long enough so that this Station could take any action deemed advisable. [ … ] The person on the left is alleged to be CITROEN and the person on the right is undoubtedly the person which CITROEN claims is HITLER. The back side of the photograph contained the following data: "Adolf SCHRITTELMAYOR, Tunga, Colombia, 1954."
Another October 1955 CIA memo added that Citroen claimed to have met Hitler in the "Residencies Coloniales" in Tunja, Colombia, which is, "according to the source, overly populated with former German Nazis" who follow Hitler with "an idolatry of the Nazi past."
The second October memo stated that Citroen provided a "member of this office" with a photo allegedly showing him and Hitler; however, the agency explained that the negatives were "too poor" to make copies of and called the report a "fantasy."
In a November 1955 memo to the station chief in Bogota, Colombia, the CIA headquarters' official conclusion was "enormous efforts could be expended on this matter with remote possibilities of establishing anything concrete. Therefore, we suggest that this matter be dropped."
Members of the Nazi party did use Argentina as a refuge when Germany lost the war. A 1945 CIA report said a proprietor of a hotel in La Falda, Argentina, had been heard offering her property as a possible hiding place for the German leader "should [Hitler] at any time get into difficulty wherein it was necessary for him to find a safe retreat, he would find such safe retreat at her hotel (La Falda) where they had already made the necessary preparations." However, the CIA added that it could not verify the reliability of the report.
The CIA has an autopsy report confirming Hitler's death available on its website. Historians and intelligence officials have presented overwhelming evidence confirming the death, detailed in the 1947 book "The Last Days of Hitler." In 1980, a man named Heinz Linge published a memoir of his time serving as Hitler's valet. He described standing outside the room when Hitler committed suicide and seeing the Nazi leader's dead body.