All language subtitles for Hunting Hitler - S01E05 - Ratlines

In the 1940s,
in Spain,

one of the most
important pilgrimage routes

in the whole of Christianity's
history was a ratline,

and down that is moving
Nazi war criminals.

The Catholic Church
were heavily involved.

Wow.
Look at this.

This space was renovated
to accommodate somebody.

This is one of the greatest
stories never told.

Perfect place to hide.

If we could find
an additional tunnel,

it's very feasible

that Hitler could have gotten
out of Germany by aircraft.

Oh!
Stop right there, Jeorg.

What's that?

- You hear the sound?
- We've got a tunnel here.

It takes me right
to the airport.

We think that Hitler lived
and got to Spain.

Were the Nazi criminals using
Vigo to escape from Europe?

Oh, big pop!
We got a pop.

If that submarine
is down there,

it will be a treasure trove
of evidence.

Oh, there we go.
We've got something man-made.

male narrator: In 2014,
an executive order

declassified over 700 pages
of secret FBI documents,

revealing that
the U.S. government

was investigating
Adolf Hitler's whereabouts

months and years
after he was believed dead.

In these files,
there are thousands of leads.

This is report,
after report, after report.

narrator: Bob Baer,
21-year CIA veteran,

and one of the most
renowned intelligence minds

in the world, has reopened
a 70-year-old cold case:

The death of Adolf Hitler.

All the witnesses are dead.

There's no fingerprints.

There's no decent forensics.

We are not gonna make
our conclusions in advance.

I just want to do

the definitive investigation
on Hitler.

For once and all,
settle this damn thing.

narrator: In the waters
of southern Argentina...

The speed's good now.

We're at 3 knots
speed over ground.

narrator: Tim Kennedy,
U.S. Army Special Forces,

and a team of world-renowned
marine archeologists

are on the hunt
for a sunken U-boat

that may have been Hitler's
escape vehicle to South America

as reported by a 1945 FBI file.

Can you loop back
and go back over that spot?

Okay.

narrator: After three days
of searching

with state-of-the-art sonar,

the team locates mysterious
metal debris

on the ocean floor.

It's a solid straight line

with at least one right angle
in it.

That's a good size target.

I think we got something
for you guys to dive on.

- Yeah!
- Whoo!

- That's absolutely a target.
- Oh, yeah.

That's for sure
a man-made object.

Yeah, there's a man-made
object. It's definitely hard.

You can see
that the bright return,

which is a lot different
than the geologic background.

Joe, do you have any idea
what that is?

I don't.
Man, it's hard to say.

It's surrounded
by so much other features,

that I think the only way
to really know

is to put eyes on it.

We have a metal object
underwater.

We know it's man-made.
We're excited.

Yeah, we got to get in the water

and see what this is.
- What do we do?

Well, we're getting
towards the end of the day.

Sunset's at 6:15.

So I think we wrap it up now
and regroup tomorrow morning,

and put some divers in
to see what it actually is.

All right.

Tomorrow morning,
we're gonna come back.

We're gonna dive on it and
we're gonna see what's there,

and I think we're gonna
find something.

- Throw it now.
- Throw.

narrator: They drop a buoy

to mark the location
of this underwater anomaly

and will return at first light
to search for what could be

the final remains
of a German U-boat.

- I'm a little excited.
- See what's there.

Nice job, guys.

It's definitely metal.
It's definitely man-made.

It fits in the parameters
of a U-boat.

narrator: Bob Baer
and war crimes investigator

John Cencich
review the findings

from the team
off the coast of Argentina.

If there's a U-boat
down there, I can tell you

that the potential for forensic
evidence is enormous.

We also need to look
at where the U-boat

supposedly left from,
and that would be Vigo.

narrator: After establishing
that it was indeed possible

for Hitler
to have escaped Germany,

and uncovering
declassified FBI files

that cite Hitler
seeking safe harbor in Spain,

the team has determined

the port town of Vigo would
have been the ideal location

for him to board a U-boat
out of Europe.

Vigo was an excellent exit
point for Hitler,

but what we don't know is
his entrance point into Spain.

You simply don't want
to take the airplane

you flew from Berlin

and land it
where you're catching a boat.

It's too obvious.

I would put the plane
down early

and then go on a land route.

The question is, once he lands
on the ground in Spain,

how does he move?
He's most vulnerable.

From my experience supervising
undercover operations,

I'd have to say
to get from point A to point B

he's gonna have to be disguised.

All we have to do then,really,

is to look
in this U.S. embassy report.

"The following Germans
left for Argentina from Vigo

under the disguise
of a priest."

Well, that sounds
like a ratline to me.

narrator: After World War II,

an intricate system of escape
routes known as "ratlines"

were established to help
Nazi war criminals flee Europe.

These ratlines were supported
by both the Red Cross

and the Catholic Church
in Europe by providing

false documentation
and places of refuge.

Many of these routes
travelled through Spain.

A lot of Catholics
during World War II

thought that Hitler was
preferable to Joseph Stalin.

So what we have here
is a network of supporters

to provide him with
an infrastructure in Spain.

If we could zero in
on the ratlines around Vigo,

what are the most likely spots?

Could lead us to the airplane.

What I've done
is undertaken an analysis

of the Catholic churches
and monasteries.

What really
brought my attention

is the largest monastery
in the area.

It's 125 miles from Vigo.

It's in Samos.

What's interesting
about the Samos Monastery

is that it was built
in the 7th century.

It's large.
It's private.

It's secluded.

It has 200 subject churches

that can be translated
into 200 potential safe houses.

If this was truly a ratline,

you will find witnesses there,

or documents that Germans
were coming through.

- Yeah.
- I think we're really

gonna make this connection
back to Berlin through Samos.

It's key to the investigation.

This must be it here.
Look at the size of this place.

narrator: Lenny DePaul,

former commander of the U.S.
Marshal's Fugitive Task Force,

and Gerrard Williams,
investigative journalist,

arrive at the massive monastery
that has sat above the town

of Samos, Spain,
for nearly 1,400 years.

The monastery itself is huge.
At its height,

there would have been hundreds
of Benedictine monks here.

Sanctuary is something
the Catholic Church

has always offered to people.

But in this case,
we have to find out

if sanctuary
was offered to Adolf Hitler.

Guess this is Xavier.

Hola.
all: Hi.

narrator: The team makes
contact with Galician historian

Xavier Quiroga,
who has spent years

writing a book
about the Samos monastery.

The place is amazing,
but we're here to look

at the movements of Germans--
escaped criminals--

through Spain
at the end of the war.

This place has lots
of history.

- In that period?
- Yeah.

Okay.

Mauro had a lot of power

because it was supported
by Franco.

What we have here is an abbot

very close to a very close
associate of Adolf Hitler--

General Francisco Franco,
the dictator here.

When the German war ends,
1945...

After the war.

They began to come
to the monastery.

Here in the monastery,

there's a lot of German military
dressed like monks.

He said that Germans
come here

in the monastery
because it's the way to Vigo.

The route of the rats.
- The route of the rats.

La ruta de las ratas.

And they used to do
a false documents

to give them a new identity.

This isn't just a part
of a ratline--

the escape route for Nazis.
This is a hub

that connects to submarines
waiting in the city of Vigo.

Next stop, South America.

Also, he was talking
with many monks of that time.

- Of that period, yeah.
- Yeah.

And a man who worked here
when he was 18 years old,

he said that he saw here
with his eyes Hitler.

- Here?
- Here, yeah.

Yep.
- When? When was that?

He said that
the 1st of May of 1945.

- Hitler was here?
- He said so.

A man who worked here
said that he saw Hitler

here in the monastery.
- Hitler was here?

- He said so.
- Sí. Sí.

narrator: Newly declassified
FBI files stating that Hitler

could have fled Germany
and sought refuge in Spain

have led the team
to the Samos Monastery,

where an eyewitness
places Hitler

less than a month
after his alleged death.

The team has also discovered
that the monastery

may have been a hub
on the ratlines,

an underground railroad
for fleeing Nazis.

There's some bits
about this story that,

for me, are just fantastical.
- Right.

However, you can never
knock an eyewitness.

We have a place
you can hide in plain sight.

We have a date
that fits in with the end

of the war in Berlin.

And then you chuck
an eyewitness in who says

he saw Adolf Hitler here.

You can't erase history.

You can still see the imprint
if you look really carefully.

What we're here doing
is looking really carefully.

- Wow.
- Yeah.

Is there any documentation
that I can see

that supports all this
that you're talking about?

- Of course there was.
- Yeah.

In 1950, the area
where the Germans used to live

and the library next door
all burnt down.

- I want to talk to you.
- We're just gonna have a chat,

and then we'll have a chat
with you guys.

Whole thing went up like a...

That part of the history
and more

went up in a puff of smoke.

There's absolutely
no doubt in my mind

this is a safe haven for
somebody that's trying to hide.

Completely.

It's not like you'd keep
a ledger going,

"Nazi in. Nazi out."

But now nothing.

I bet there's more than one way
into this place.

There would be ways
only known to the Abbot.

So there are secret tunnels
in and out of this building?

Of course, of course.

narrator: The team heads off
to investigate one

of these mysterious tunnels
that could have provided

clandestine access
to the property.

So this goes outside
of the walls of the monastery?

Yes.

Okay.

We don't know
where that leads to?

- Not yet.
- All right, let's take a look.

Time to be a tunnel rat.

Got about 50 yards
on the tunnel that was up top,

and now there's a smaller one
underneath it,

which you had to crawl through.

Wow, this thing goes pretty far.
Okay.

Not much air in here, guys.

This thing ends right here.

It's bricked up.

Ah, I bet if I could have
got through that wall,

I'd have been on the other side
of the wall of the monastery.

Knowing that the Germans
were here,

they were comfortable,
they were welcomed,

to have now a tunnel
underneath the monastery

is pretty significant.

I want to find out
where this tunnel ended up.

What'd you find?

- There was a tunnel.
- Okay.

I probably crawled 100 yards.

Boom, brick wall.

You could see where somebody
had blocked it off.

I had to have been on
the other side of the monastery,

on the other side of the wall.
- 100 yards would take you--

Easy.

Is there any other building

that was owned by the monastery
outside of the monastery?

Si.
It's very, very close.

narrator: 50 yards
beyond the wall in the tunnel

sits a building that was owned
by the monastery in the 1940s.

After 1943,
it became a station

for Franco's
paramilitary police.

- Guardia Civil.
- Yeah.

- Right. So it's not army...
- Okay.

But it's a paramilitary
police force.

Similar. Yep.

- All right. Military.
- Yeah.

These are the tough guys.

These are the guys
who run Franco's Spain for him.

Why would they man this place
with paramilitary personnel

outside of the monastery?

You don't have
to answer that question,

'cause I believe
I have the answer.

It's a police station,

but the Guardia Civil
are far more than police.

The Guardia Civil are men
who owe allegiance to Franco.

You really don't want
to meet these guys.

- Oh, look at this.
- Holding cells.

- Yeah?
- Yeah.

Huh.

There were cell blocks
downstairs in the office space.

So I was looking
in the cell blocks

and every floor was cemented.

Look at this.

That certainly has been
covered over.

In one cell,

there was a floor that had been
cemented in a perfect square

about 4x4, and part of it
was kind of broken.

That's a straight shot
to something right there.

You can see it.

I was able to dig in
a little bit.

I could see straight down.

It was definitely a tunnel
to someplace.

Ah, this has been filled
in with all kinds of dirt

and stone, very loose gravel.

Definitely a hole here.
Look at this.

The puzzle's starting
to come together.

With the possibility
of Hitler being here,

concentration of Nazis,
General Franco,

and now we found this tunnel,

there's a good possibility
that was utilized

to escort the Germans
in and out of the monastery.

You got to remember,
I went about 100 yards

in a tunnel which would have
led right to the building

that the Civil Guard
resided in.

Was some sort of an escape
route or in for somebody.

As an investigator,
you don't have

to hit me with a ton of bricks.

Good possibility that's
what that tunnel was used for.

That should be all I need.
So I'll swap out

and put the guardian onto this?
- Yeah.

narrator: 7,000 miles away,

Tim Kennedy and a team
of marine archeologists

prepare for an open ocean dive

to identify
the mysterious metal objects

they detected
on the ocean floor.

We're gonna be
extremely conservative.

We're not gonna come
anywhere near our limits.

We're super-remote out here,
and we want to make sure

that we're extra safe
because help is far away.

Sounds like a good plan.

narrator: Dive leader Joe Hoyt
prepares for an expedition

that could put them
face-to-face with the U-boat

the declassified FBI documents

claim delivered Hitler
to Argentina.

All right.
Let's go find a U-boat.

Let's do it.

That's good.

Obviously, the most important
thing is to get

a positive ID
on what's down there,

but let's actually get

hands-on 100% knowledge
of what that is,

and hopefully it's
what we've been looking for,

or at least a clue to it.

That moment right before you
roll back into the water,

that is the most exciting point

because you know that you're
about to go see something

that maybe nobody's
ever seen before.

Maybe something incredible.

17.

Ready?
Set. Go.

All three divers are go.

I've dove all over the world.

As a Green Beret,

we spend almost our
entire lives in the water.

But being in here and then
having the real possibility

that this a U-boat
off the coast of Argentina,

it's hard
to really put into words

how powerful that type
of moment is.

We got to the bottom.

The visibility's not fantastic,

and we start a search pattern.

narrator: At a depth
of 40 feet,

and battling poor visibility,

the team executes
a circular search pattern

in order to locate
their target.

narrator: They will increase
the search circle

by 15-feet every rotation,

in order to thoroughly cover
the area

where they believe
their targets will be.

I copy that top side.

Hey, come this way.
I think I, uh...

Say again, say again.
You came in broken.

narrator:
Off the Argentine coast,

the team's
state-of-the-art sonar

has come
across a significant hit.

narrator: Tim Kennedy
and Joe Hoyt lead a dive

on a metal object
they believe could be part

of the debris field left
by a scuttled German U-boat.

Roger, I copy.

You've come across
a steel I-beam.

So definitely
not U-boat wreckage.

It's pretty clear right away
what those objects were.

Solid metal beams,
you know, on the ocean floor.

You know, it's just
this big punch to the gut.

What you have to do
is keep executing

until you find real evidence.

narrator: After an extensive
search of the sea floor...

narrator: The team
finds more modern debris

but no U-boat wreckage.

You know,
you're hoping to see that gun

off the deck of a U-boat.

Pretty disappointing.

Right now,
we're stuck with modern trash.

Well, the good the thing is
that it shows

that the equipment
and the survey that we're doing

is just completely
comprehensive.

I mean, we found four tiny
little pieces of metal out here

in the open ocean.

narrator: With only half
of their survey grid complete,

the team resets course

to continue their hunt
for the scuttled U-boat.

The only real way
to do a survey like this

is to do it systematically,
and we built a survey area

based on the best information
that we had.

So we're gonna go ahead

and just continue to see
if there's anything there.

So hopefully the weather
will hold out for us

and we'll be able to complete
that entire planned survey grid.

- Good dive?
- Good dive.

Obviously, it was a major
disappointment that it wasn't

what we were looking for,
but it doesn't change anything.

We still have to go back to our
search area and keep looking.

This was a small battle

and we're gonna keep
fighting the big war.

You know, we pledged from
the outset of this investigation

that we would pursue any leads.
It's a good lead.

narrator: While the team
in Argentina continues

their search
for a sunken U-boat,

Bob Baer and John Cencich

discuss a bombshell lead from
their investigation in Spain.

I guess somebody would
bound to have seen Hitler

if he'd escaped from Berlin,
and anybody who claims

to have seen him,
we got to talk to.

Absolutely.

narrator:
An eyewitness who claims

to have seen Hitler
in the Samos Monastery

is alive and has agreed
to speak with them via Skype

from Venezuela,
where he now lives.

Why was he in a position
to be able to see Hitler?

I mean, that's really
what it comes down to.

Who is this person?

How did he know
the information?

Did he actually see it?

And why should we believe him?

Okay. Hello.

Thank you so much
for your time.

We have some questions for you.

If we go back for a moment,
how old were you in 1945?

What were you engaged in?

Okay, great.

What I'd like to ask you,
just in general terms,

what you saw--if anything--

related to Germans or Nazis
in Spain?

And these Germans were Nazis?

Yes.

So just for clarification,
which month?

Tell me about the airplane.

I went up to another town.

Did anybody
that you know saw Hitler

get off that plane
and told you this?

So Hitler was on that plane.
Is that what you're saying?

Si.

Where exactly was
the location of this plane?

In a little small town...

Perfecto.
We have to stop right now so,

muchas gracias por todo.
Hasta luego, yeah?

What I find interesting here
is the fact that our team

is in this monastery, they see
these secret compartments,

and this gentleman
built those compartments.

It fits very well.

We have a witness which places
Hitler there in 1945.

And later, second-hand,
this guy hears

about an airplane
that lands near the monastery.

The timeline and the airplane

fit our theory
of how he got out of Germany.

If we can find evidence
of how that plane landed,

we can fit how he got
into Spain,

and how he left from Vigo.

This could be our missing link.

There was a plane
that landed there.

Undoubtedly we'll find it.
- Yeah.

To get to South America,
you need to come through Spain.

This is a conduit
right to South America.

Yeah. Completely.

narrator: Lenny DePaul
and Gerrard Williams head

for Corneas, Spain,
in search of evidence

that could corroborate
an explosive eyewitness report.

Hitler was on that plane.
Is that what you're saying?

Si.

narrator: If a plane
did land in this area,

it would provide the team
a crucial puzzle piece:

How Hitler could have
entered Spain

before boarding a U-boat
in the port town of Vigo.

What's up?

Yeah?
Did you?

Good stuff.

Good job, Pablo.

narrator:
The team's local contact

has uncovered
a second eyewitness

who could provide
key corroborating testimony

to the events surrounding
this plane's landing.

One of the most
difficult things about handling

an investigation
like this 75 years on,

is that there are very few,
if any,

living witnesses
to what actually happened.

If we're gonna
tell the story properly,

we need to speak to people
who were witnesses at the time.

He was fishing by the river.

Did the plane crash?

What markings
were on the aircraft?

There was no paintings
at all.

Who was on the airplane?

He saw the pilot
stepping out the plane...

- Okay.
- And a few soldiers.

Hey, Pablo, you think
they could show me on my map

where the plane had landed?

You have to walk the ground,
meet people, talk to locals...

This is where
the plane landed?

¿Aqui?
- Aqui. Aqui.

And what we're getting here...

Thank you very much.

Are German planes landing
in northern Spain.

It's worth investigating.

All right.

narrator: Lenny heads
to the location

specified by the eyewitness

to see if the terrain would
allow for a plane landing.

You know,
for a plane to come down

in the middle of a field,

I want to be able to put
that together for myself.

Taking a look at the field
and the AO, we call it--

the area of operation--
that this went down in is gonna

give me a good look at whether
or not everything is accurate.

So we'll see.
It'll be good to be there.

narrator: Five miles away,

Gerrard makes contact with
journalist Serafin Terrajorres,

who has information
about German military activity

in the same area
as the reported plane landing.

So there were Germans
based here during the war?

- Is that a barracks?
- Yeah. It is.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Correct.

narrator: For decades,
this site

has only been known to locals.

If a plane wanted
to come to Spain,

this would be seriously
important to them?

They'd know where
to find this?

That's just mind-blowing.

- Even in 1945?
- Yeah. Yeah.

This is a neutral country
during World War II.

But this communications setup

with a German radio antenna
in it,

it's got to be central
to the Nazi war effort.

What's more important

is it's central to the Nazis
after the war.

This is a nasty nest of vipers
right in the middle of Europe.

Wow. This is pretty hilly.
Boy, I don't know.

Hell of a place
to land an airplane.

narrator: Lenny arrives
at the location

where the eyewitnesses claim
to have seen the plane land.

Right here.
Okay.

From a tactical point of view,
it's wide open.

It's miles and miles
of open area,

but it's surrounded
by rough terrain.

So it would have made
it very difficult to land here.

narrator: Lenny is armed with
a state-of-the-art survey tool

in order
to make his determination.

Now, I'm gonna map out
the topography

and see if this aircraft
possibly could have landed.

narrator: The Trimble TX5
3-D scanner

uses razor-thin lasers

to create 360-degree
topographic maps so accurate

it can reveal details down
to a single blade of grass.

The team will use
this terrain survey

to determine if a plane could
have feasibly touched down

based on the elevation,
level of the field,

and the dimensions
of this open space.

Now I'm gonna download
all this stuff,

have it evaluated
back at the situation room,

and see what they come up with.

narrator: Gerrard heads
to investigate an antenna

that has just been revealed
as the heart

of this nearby
German military base.

Okay, what happened to it?

- A hurricane put them down?
- Yeah.

- 120 meters?
- Correct.

So this instillation was built
with German technical help?

both: Telefunken?

Telefunken,
one of the most important

communications industries
in Germany

at the time
and post-war, as well.

In 1940,
the radio transmitters made

by Telefunken--we're talking
a seriously powerful kit.

This communications array
is pumping out a beam

that you can hone in on.

It's RDF.
It's radio direction finder.

narrator: RDF,
or radio direction finding,

is a key tool still used
to help

military ships and aircrafts
find navigational points.

At ranges
in the thousands of miles,

these three advanced radio
antennas allow for aircraft

to triangulate their position
much like modern GPS.

This technology would have been
one of the only ways

to facilitate the secret
landing of an inbound aircraft

in the remote potato field
five miles away.

So you're a German pilot
who takes his bearings

from this and the other two
around here.

You're flying in fog, you can
line up on this damn thing

and know exactly where you're
going and where your target is.

This is a lighthouse--
it's a beacon.

Spain is turning out
to be full of surprises,

some of them really big.

There's a Spanish military
here with German technicians

sending out signals
to Nazi aircraft,

telling them exactly
what position they're in.

Another wonderful example

of Franco's neutrality
during World War II.

From what we're seeing
on the ground here,

there's no reason at all why
Adolf Hitler with the aircraft

at his disposal could not
have transited through Spain.

This is not what you get
in the history books.

Okay, show me the scans
that Lenny did.

narrator: Bob Baer
and John Cencich

review the 3-D laser scans
from the field in Spain

to determine
whether Hitler's airplane

could have feasibly landed
at that location

as claimed by two eyewitnesses.

8,052 feet.

1,405 across.

Condor takes about 6,000 feet
to land.

I've surveyed enough
of these fields to tell you,

even at a slope like that,
it landed there.

Of course, you got to be able
to find the field

in the middle of the night.

The team has found,
approximately five miles

from this location,
Nazi RDF equipment,

or radio direction finder
equipment,

which certainly
could have been used

to aid in the landing
of an aircraft.

Well, yeah, you fly the
airplane right down the signal.

You take these witnesses,

and they seem pretty
fantastic,

but once you go
to the location they give

and right next to it
is a radio base--

a Nazi radio base--

that adds an enormous amount
of credibility

to what they're saying.

I feel really good
about getting Hitler to Spain...

landing him, getting him across
Spain, getting a U-boat out.

But what bothers me
is this distance

is 6,700 miles down
to Argentina,

and we know that the U-boats
that did make that,

people got off very sick.

narrator: After the war,
two German U-boats--

U-530 and U-970--surrendered
off the coast of Argentina.

When these sailors disembarked
from their long journey,

they could barely stand due
to malnutrition, dehydration,

and breathing uncirculated air.

We know
that his physical condition

was deteriorating in general.

His personal physician
is providing a lot of details

that Hitler was in great pain.

We look here.

Hitler was suffering
from asthma and ulcers.

I mean, what are the chances

he would take a U-boat ride
from Vigo, Spain, to Argentina?

It's not some place

you would like to spend
a couple of weeks underwater.

U-boats were very small.
Confined space.

These things were coffins.

I would want
to do this in stages

if I had a choice.

Let's say you split up the trip.
How would you do it?

There's really
only one location.

That's the Canary Islands.

narrator: At the end
of World War II,

the Allies controlled nearly
every coastal country along

the Atlantic Ocean, leaving
the Spanish Canary Islands

as the only territory friendly
to Hitler.

Years earlier, in 1940,

Franco and Hitler
had met in Hendaye, France,

to discuss secret Nazi use
of these strategic islands...

although they officially
remained neutral

during the war,
along with mainland Spain.

It's perfectly logical you
put the guy on a U-boat here,

take him a thousand miles
to the Canary Islands,

you resupply the boat,
take care of him.

You could stay there
a couple days

until he's feeling better
and then move him again.

So the question
that needs to be answered is,

could a U-boat have been
resupplied in the Canary Islands

and could a high value target
like Adolf Hitler

have used that location
to recoup, to regroup,

and then eventually
make his way to South America?

We need to get people
out there right now.

See if this is feasible.

Next stop, Canary Islands.

Where does he go
when he gets here?

Who protects him?

Somebody's gonna see him,
you know?

narrator: The team lands
in the Canary Islands,

an isolated group
of volcanic landmasses

in the Atlantic Ocean,
hundreds of miles

from the coastlines
of Europe and Africa.

What's this area here, Pablo?

This is Las Palmas
de Gran Canarias.

The capitol city
of Gran Canaria.

Beautiful.

narrator: They will investigate
whether Hitler could have used

this highly strategic location
as a pivotal point

in his escape
to the shores of Argentina.

We know there were now two
operations in mainland Spain.

Are they gonna be here too?

We got to work your sources
to death.

We got to find out anybody
that has any knowledge

of what went on 70 years ago.

You know, for the stuff
we're looking for,

it's not gonna be
in the official histories.

If we can find somebody
who's actually spot-on

in the 1940s,
we're gonna learn a lot.

We've been looking for
the footprints of Adolf Hitler

coming down from Berlin
all the way to Argentina.

Today, we get into one
of the most important points

in that whole journey out:

This jump-off point
to South America.

This is key
to the Nazi escape route.

It's very much like seeing
the top of a very big mountain.

There is still a huge amount
more to be discovered.

Let's go.
- Let's go to work.

Hooah!

This group of islands

is strategically really
important in World War II.

Mm-hmm.

narrator: Lenny DePaul
and Gerrard Williams

have arrived
in the Canary Islands

to investigate whether Hitler

could have used
these remote Spanish islands

as a stopping point
in his U-boat escape

to the shores of Argentina.

Why don't you speak to him

first, okay?
- Yep.

narrator:
Through local contacts,

they have tracked down
a crucial lead.

narrator: Francisco Kampof,
whose family owned

one of the largest
German businesses

on the island in the 1940s--

a shipping company
known as the Warman House.

His grandfather was the Chief
Director of the Warman House.

So when a German U-boat

arrive here and anything
that need to be fixed,

they did it.

He's telling me that they did
not just repair the U-boats.

Okay.

They also supplied with food
and guns and torpedoes.

Apparently, there was
on the island a storage

for torpedoes,
some tunnels.

I couldn't believe
what he was saying.

With respect to the U-boats,

they were just popping up here
in the harbor.

General Franco's military
wasn't even in the war

and they built tunnels

that apparently torpedoes
were stored there.

So they were able
to go inland and replenish,

bring some food, get on board
and get back out of here.

But ask him though.
This is a big secret going on.

Nobody knows about this.
How did they communicate?

One second, uno secundo.

He mentioned a word, enigma.
- Enigma.

Is he telling me
there was an enigma machine?

Enigma was seriously
important.

That was the German's almost
impossible to break code.

The Nazis would have
used Enigma

to get their information
back to Nazi Germany

and also to get orders
and instructions

from Nazi Germany.

To find four of them here.

They were planning
on something huge.

narrator: The team heads
to the tunnels rumored

to have been an ammunition dump
to supply Nazi submarines.

Secret U-boat bases.

A communications network.
We need to go there.

We need to find out
exactly what we can.

We're close.

It could have been turned
into an escape route

for Adolf Hitler.

Pablo, you spoke to Javier
on the phone, right?

Yes.

- He knows we're coming?
- Yeah.

He should be waiting for us.

Javier Duran,

he was the first person to be
able to explore these tunnels,

to take a look
at what was here,

why it was here,
and how it got here.

7,000 meters of tunnels
around here.

They have natural ventilation

and mechanic one.
- Okay.

narrator: Less than a mile
from the sea,

these tunnels would have been
a short drive to potential

U-boat landing points,
while the surrounding hills

would camouflage
the tunnels themselves.

You can drive trucks
through this thing?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That tunnel from there,
that's the torpedo one.

Can we--can we take a look
at those tunnels?

These are entrances here?
These two?

It's quite incredible.

We're surrounded
by military installations.

The Nazis build underground
like cathedrals above ground.

They're serious in their scope
and size,

and this feels very Germanic.

It's incredible.

We have no idea what was
going on on these islands

in the dark days
of World War II.

It has an amazingly dark
history.

It's something
that must be told.

This is not a vacation home.
This was built for a reason.

Everything points
to this being used

to get a high-ranking Nazi
officials out of Germany

and to safety.

Something like this
costs millions.

Germany's fingerprints
are all over this place.

It just goes on forever.

I mean, this place
was gearing up for war.

I don't care whose name
the title was in.

It was a German base.

So is it possible
to see the house?

We better not go over there,
you know?

I think we will go there.

If I'm gonna hide a high value
target, this is perfect.

We have to get on here.
We can't be compromised.

Stop, stop, stop.
Now you got somebody coming.

.