Original subtitles

Previously on "Hunting Hitler"...

This is from June 12, 1945.

Look at this line.

"At this time, the decision had been taken

to divide the ministries in two parts

and establish one government in the north

and one in the south."

What this file tells me is they're splitting up,

creating multiple escape routes.

This one's from U.S. Army.

"Kaltenbrunner was arrested.

He had been hiding in a mountain cabin

called 'Wildensee Hut.'"

He was Commander in Chief

of all German forces in Southern Europe.

He knows how to get away.

So why did he hang out in this hut?

We both agree that this is a dead-end spot.

What if his sole purpose was drawing somebody up

into the absolute worst direction to flee?

Meanwhile, everyone else is using all these better routes

to get out of here.

This file's telling us that they've got

a special-weapons plant here in Rjukan, Norway.

We know Hitler fantasized about destroying Manhattan.

Was that weapon being developed here?

What's going on at Rjukan will tell us

what their plans were for the Fourth Reich.

Heavy water wamade here?

It was made here, yes.

This is Adolf Hitler

developing a component for a nuclear weapon.

Where were they storing it?

I think I can fit in there.

We have to know where the Nazis could have moved heavy water

and what they were gonna do with it.

I see a room back there. There's nothing in there.

It's empty.

HUNTING HITLER - SEASON 3 EP - 4 - 150 Feet Below

Look at everything we found in Norway.

We've got a country that's sympathetic to the Nazis.

We found defenses. It's a fortress.

21-year CIA veteran Bob Baer

and former terrorist-targeting officer Nada Bakos

are using an asset-mapping strategy,

tracking Hitler's known associates

to pinpoint exactly where he could have gone after the war.

The team is investigating

two possible escape routes for Adolf Hitler...

A southern route through Altaussee, Austria,

and a northern route through Rjukan, Norway,

where, in the basement of a demolished factory,

they have uncovered evidence of a Nazi secret operation

to manufacture heavy water,

a key compound in nuclear-weapons production.

The team was able to get into that basement,

and they found that there wasn't any heavy water there.

The Nazis could have gotten it out.

Hitler fantasized about having a nuclear bomb,

and the key facility for making one is here in Norway.

Weapons of mass destruction

would be a "Get Out of Jail Free" card.

Hitler understood this.

If Hitler is gonna go to South America

and he wants to survive and establish the Fourth Reich,

he needs a bomb.

He's not gonna do it with a conventional army.

You don't have a plan without the bomb.

And South America has a fair amount of natural uranium.

So in order for this heavy water to be useful,

they need to get it from Norway down to South America

to combine it with the uranium.

In the 1940s, heavy water was at the center

of the Nazi nuclear program.

Created by running massive electrical current

through normal water, this key ingredient

was combined with uranium to make plutonium,

the explosive component of a nuclear bomb.

At this point in the war,

the only way to get this stuff to South America is by boat.

They do not have a plane that can make it to Argentina.

We have to dig into the records.

Look at this. U.S. Army.

April 7, 1945...

"Nazi U-boat bases in Norway."

"In Narvik was the Aviso Grille, formerly 'Fuehrer-Yacht, '

which served as headquarters for the command

of all U-boats in Norway."

What we've got here is Hitler

personally involved in this operation.

His personal yacht has been converted

to a command boat for U-boats.

Commissioned in 1935, Hitler's 440-foot Aviso Grille

was the largest yacht in the world,

a gift from the people to its ruler.

In addition to 35 luxury cabins for hosting diplomats,

the Grille was modified with three cannons,

six anti-aircraft guns, and two machine guns.

Hitler used the boat to inspect the German Navy

and had dreams of sailing victorious into London

if the Nazis had won the war.

Using Hitler's yacht tells me

that this was a clandestine operation.

Using it to move the heavy water, that would make sense.

Hitler's yacht tells us

that Narvik was extremely important to Hitler.

Something is going on here which I need an explanation for.

Where is Narvik?

Narvik is right here,

the top of Norway, completely off the grid.

Here's all the Allied activity right in here,

and you simply go around

either over the Faroe Islands or even over Iceland.

This completely bypasses the entire action

at the end of World War II.

Was Narvik the staging point to send heavy water to Argentina

to make a nuclear bomb to create the Fourth Reich?

This could have been headquarters

for U-boat activity, but we have to investigate

to see what they actually were doing here.

Investigating Hitler's potential northern escape route,

U.S. Army Special Forces Tim Kennedy

lands in Narvik, Norway.

If Hitler's yacht was located here in Narvik

and it was serving as the headquarters for U-boats,

they would also be capable of transporting cargo and materiel

like heavy water out of Europe and into South America.

Harald. Hello, Tim.

Tim makes contact with maritime historian Harald Isaksen

who has studied Nazi infrastructure and activity

in Narvik over the last century.

We have a document that says

the Fuehrer had his yacht here in Narvik.

Have you heard of Hitler's yacht

being used as the headquarters for the submarines? Yes.

Wow.

Even after Germany surrendered,

there are still 15 boats here, completely operational.

They were ready to go

and do whatever the Nazis needed them to do.

There's no question that this is a hub for Nazi activity.

Why did they move the headquarters

for the submarines to Narvik?

So on May 4th, the Allies did a bombing in this area?

That's incredible.

The Allies are coming here on May 4th.

The war is over.

They're... They're not trying to turn the tides.

They're not trying to win a battle.

There's no doubt that they knew

there was something valuable that they needed to bomb,

that they needed to destroy.

They were trying to prevent the Nazis

from getting something out.

We know that heavy water was being produced in Norway.

Do you think that that heavy water got out of Norway?

I-Is there any evidence that's left that they didn't destroy?

According to Harald,

there are things that shouldn't be on the ocean floor...

Equipment, cargo, or maybe even samples of heavy water

that they are transporting to South America.

Where should I look?

If we're gonna find any evidence of the Germans

moving heavy water out of the Narvik area,

it's gonna be right here.

This was their chance of making the Fourth Reich

come to fruition.

If there's something there, we're gonna find it.

Sounds to me like this is the last bastion of the Third Reich.

The question is, were they moving heavy water out of this port?

While the team continues to investigate

Hitler's potential northern escape route in Norway,

Bob and Nada dig into the findings

from the southern escape route

through Altaussee, Austria, where the team uncovered

that two of Hitler's close associates...

Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Adolf Eichmann...

Were hiding out after the war.

We know Eichmann gets to South America,

so we know the route worked.

But how did he get there?

It's not easy to cross borders in 1945.

We figure out how Eichmann managed this,

we can figure out how other Nazis managed it,

and we can figure out whether it was adequate to get Hitler out.

We need to look into the route that Eichmann used,

see if we can retrace his steps.

So let's search for Eichmann within 150 miles of Altaussee.

Look. Here we go.

CIA, 1950, "Eichmann's Flight."

"Good old Frau Huber gave me a schnapps

then dispatched me to another inn near the Brenner.

My hostess, who belonged to the 'organization, '

was on the ball."

This says it all.

We've got a network that gets Eichmann out of Altaussee

and out of the way of U.S. troops.

He had people that would protect him.

Yeah, they had a whole facilitation network set up.

The Brenner Pass is a mountain road

that goes from Austria to Italy.

The region is called Tyrol. It's German-speaking.

The Tyrol region is shared by Austria, Switzerland, Italy.

It's basically this area right in here.

We found Nazis operating in the tri-border region

between Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina,

and now we have Nazis operating in another tri-border region

between Switzerland, Austria, and Italy.

All fugitives head to border regions

because they know it's where you can operate freely.

This area reminds me of Afghanistan and Pakistan

and the tribal areas where the borders are somewhat irrelevant.

These are people who share culture and a language,

and that, especially for Eichmann,

is one of the most important reasons

for him to use this area.

We've established that Eichmann got to South America.

Were there other Nazis using this network?

Could that have included moving Adolf Hitler?

I want to get the team to Tyrol to investigate.

Just looking at this place

knowing that Eichmann was here makes me shudder.

Along Hitler's potential southern escape route,

World War II historian James Holland,

U.S. Army Green Beret Mike Simpson,

and their translator, Katja, land in Tyrol,

the border region between Austria and Italy.

Eichmann talked about coming here

and being sent over the border by an organization,

and we've come here to investigate this organization.

How widespread was it?

How important was it for Nazi war criminals on the run?

Hello. Guten tag.

The team makes contact with Andreas Hortnagl,

the former mayor of Gries am Brenner,

the town on the Austrian border of the Brenner Pass.

So where is the pass in relation to where we're standing now?

These are the Brenner Mountains.

The border is exactly on this mountain here.

The Brenner is right down the hill.

If we were to walk down, that's where we'd be.

So this is Austria, but that's Italy

right there on the other side of the pass.

This is the lowest part of the Alps.

So even in Roman times,

the legions came through this pass, here.

So, at the end of the war,

was there an influx of Nazis into this area?

He says, "People were flooding down this road.

You had civilian refugees, German soldiers,

and people, of course, fleeing justice."

Really, the perfect cover for fleeing Nazis to mix in with.

So, do you know where Eichmann crossed?

It was done in absolute secrecy.

So, first he spent three days there in the valley.

There was an inn, and if things got dangerous,

it was quite easy to, then, quickly move

to a farmhouse nearby.

Just down here?

Down here, went up that mountain,

and had a guide, a smuggler, to lead him up.

But why would you need a guide?

I mean, that looks not at all challenging in the slightest.

The same reason people crossing our southern border

need the coyotajes to bring them across.

You need somebody who knows the territory

and also knows where there might be

any border security patrols, how to avoid that.

It's not a simple matter

of getting a compass direction and going.

It was already known that Eichmann had been here

and had crossed the border here,

but then Andreas uses the word "smuggler."

This paints an entirely new picture.

Any Nazi soldier who was just fleeing

Germany after the war would have had a support network.

This was planned.

So, the question is,

what resources were at their disposal?

That's what we have to find out.

I just wonder whether there are

any of these smugglers still alive.

He knows of a Herr Schupf,

who had a very, very close relationship with the smuggling.

That's huge.

This is a place in our investigation

that hasn't been closely looked at before in this aspect.

James, Mike, and Katja made contact with Walter Schupf,

a former smuggler for Nazi war criminals in the Tyrol region.

So, how did you get into that line of work?

He's been a smuggler since he was 13 years old.

His father took him along.

They smuggled coffee and cigarettes from Switzerland,

and there was a great deal of poverty here,

and the only way to survive was through smuggling.

Do you remember the first time that your cargo was people?

After the war, there are a great many

displaced people and refugees,

especially soldiers trying to get back home,

and since he was born and raised here,

he knows every mountain path,

and he helped a lot of people cross.

Were there people that you smuggled

that you know for sure were Nazis?

He says, "There were Nazis being smuggled

from the other side of the border across to here."

Oh, wow.

Yep. Smuggling kept them alive.

Life at the end of the war

was incredibly tough in this corner of Tyrol.

There was just no jobs around, there was no money around,

and you had to do what you had to do.

So, in those years after the war,

if I was quite a well-known Nazi or a war criminal,

even a head of state,

and I was trying to get into Italy from Austria,

do you think it would be possible?

Absolutely easy because they had a lot of money.

Did they have specific smugglers that they preferred

and that they worked with?

They already had connections.

Do you think there was some kind of organization,

some network, for these war criminals?

Yes.

So they were using people that they trusted.

They'd already vetted them and organized them.

Paints a very coordinated picture.

Well, it's painting two pictures, isn't it?

There's the kind of ordinary people,

and then there's the special cases,

and that's two completely different setups.

It's a perfect recipe.

Not only were there smugglers for hire

willing to take these escaping Nazis across the border,

but the upper crust would have had more resources to cross.

This is very exciting news.

This could very well have been

the same organization and infrastructure

that helped Adolf Hitler to flee as well.

Obviously, this is a smuggling ring.

And you could smuggle about just anything you wanted

across these borders.

While the team continues to investigate

Hitler's potential southern escape route,

Bob and Nada shift their focus

to the northern escape route in Norway

where a declassified file points to the port of Narvik

as a possible location the Nazis used to move heavy water,

a key component in nuclear-weapons manufacturing,

out of Europe.

The Nazis put a lot of time and money

into making heavy water here in Norway.

At Bariloche in Argentina, they had a nuclear reactor

that required heavy water.

- Oh, my God. - This is the reactor place.

Was planning to make it very big.

This is to prevent radiation from escaping.

They didn't make it locally,

so you smuggle the heavy water out of Norway,

get it to Argentina, and you're ready to go.

So I think what we need to do is find concrete proof

of how they were moving heavy water

out of here to South America,

but our only evidence is gonna be underneath the water.

It is a port.

There's probably a lot of stuff scattered along there.

What we're looking for is ways to hold it... containers...

And ways to put it on boats.

If we can find examples of this infrastructure,

it's gonna put the pieces together for us.

We need to get the team out in the water.

If you put anti-aircraft guns on these mountains,

you put big guns by the sea, this is impenetrable.

Along Hitler's potential northern escape route

in Narvik, Norway, Tim Kennedy continues to investigate

whether the Nazis were able to move heavy water

out of Northern Norway and on to South America.

Guys, are we good?

- Yeah. - All right.

Joining the investigation

is marine surveyor Frank Anderson

and his research team.

Working off local intel,

the team will search two miles of a deep-water fjord

to try and uncover any remaining evidence of Nazi infrastructure

that could have supported the transportation of heavy water.

Let's start getting our gear on the boat and get on the water.

If the Germans were moving heavy water out of Narvik,

they would have to have infrastructure,

equipment, and boats.

We have a general area of interest.

The only thing left for us to do

is get on the water and see what we can find.

This is our target area. R.O.V.'s going in the water.

Tim deploys an underwater R.O.V.,

or remotely operated vehicle,

equipped with side-scan sonar technology,

similar to what the United States Navy

uses to reveal the location of enemy vessels

hiding along the ocean floor.

Using an acoustic pulse, this state-of-the-art equipment

is able to detect underwater anomalies

up to 1,000 feet in depth.

Have we had any potential targets yet?

After two hours of scanning the two-mile search area,

the team has yet to locate any anomalies on the seafloor.

What is that?

We are right in the center of our area of interest.

That's not coincidence. Can you tell what that is?

- So, we got something. - Yeah.

-Yeah.

Yeah, mark it.

Let's keep looking.

Located a half-mile offshore

and 30 feet below the water,

the team has detected a manmade object nearly 15 feet wide.

Zoom out a little bit.

Is there anything right there?

Just that section right there in the middle.

Yeah.

Yeahyou see, you have, like, perpendicular lines.

You have a vertical line here

and a horizontal line that cross section right there.

What was the depth of that?

50

- Yeah. - Mark it.

The team has now found a second anomaly,

located 2,600 feet from the first hit

and 60 feet down on the ocean floor.

With more than 90% of their search area covered,

the team begins to scan the final sector.

- Right there! Right there! - Yeah. Yeah.

Can you go back?

Right there! Right there! Right there!

Look at that. Look at... Look at the front.

What is that?

That's suspicious. Like, that's not rock.

Yes! Yes!

At the end of their search area,

the team has uncovered an enormous third anomaly,

resting at a depth of nearly 150 feet.

We have a hit.

Can we tell how big it rises from the seafloor?

That's massive.

So 150 feet, 160 feet...

-Yeah, most likely.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No doubt.

Holy

After completing our search,

we found three anomalies that are standing out.

Now I have to identify what they are.

That is me getting in the water and putting eyes on them,

and hopefully uncover evidence that the Nazis were moving...

Or could have the capability of moving...

Heavy water in and out of Narvik.

Now we got to get in the water.

This is from the sonar.

That's clearly a man-made object.

It looks like a boat to me. I think this is incredible.

While Tim lines up this mission in Norway,

let's focus on the southern route.

With the investigation into Hitler's potential

northern escape route in Norway,

Bob and Nada turn their attention

to the southern escape route

in the border region of Tyrol,

where a declassified document

points to an organization set up to help fleeing Nazis,

including the architect of the Holocaust, Adolf Eichmann.

I think we've established that the Brenner Pass

was a funnel for Nazis out of the Third Reich.

We've got a smuggler, very credible.

My question is, is there a possibility

they could have gotten Adolf Hitler across here?

You're not gonna take the chance

of using an ordinary smuggler with Adolf Hitler

simply for the fact he could be recognized.

Right, exactly.

Can we find proof of a high

We need to get more information on this smuggling network

and see if we can find out how it functions.

This is from the U.S. Department of State.

"On the Brenner Pass route, the first stop

on the underground railroad is at a castle

where the director is an agent of the SS task force

who was responsible to Kaltenbrunner and Himmler.

This castle is believed to be the 'Schloss Labers.'"

There it is. It's in black and white.

It's an underground railroad.

We're talking about the SS.

This is much more than an individual smuggler.

Kaltenbrunner and Himmler were devoted

to the survival of Adolf Hitler.

They have an organization, and they've got a castle.

I think we're onto the beginning of something really big here.

Kaltenbrunner and Himmler

were the most important people in the SS...

The personal guard of Adolf Hitler.

These were the guys ordered to keep Hitler alive.

The only group that's gonna get Hitler out is the SS,

period, end of story.

Could this castle have been a safe house for high-level Nazis

transferring through the Brenner Pass,

and was this SS task force

being used to smuggle Hitler out of Germany?

We're moving up into the hills,

ideal location to see the rest of town, commanding view.

Whoa! Look. Whoa.

That must be it.

Along Hitler's potential southern escape route,

Mike and James land on the Italian side

of the Tyrol border region.

The La Vista Report outlines hard intelligence

that an SS task force was operating out of a castle

here in the Tyrol region.

Could this be a key site on this escape route...

This ratline... For Adolf Hitler?

That's what we need to know.

Hello.

The team makes contact with Jeorg Stapf,

whose family has owned Castle Schloss Labers

and has been running it as a hotel for generations.

What was going on in this place?

Okay.

They took over entirely?

So what do you think it was about this castle

that made it attractive to the Nazis?

Who is Schwend?

That's a pretty big network.

- Yeah. - Yes.

Jeorg was clear that this was a castle occupied by the SS,

Adolf Hitler's personal bodyguards,

and, additionally, the SS man in charge here

went by the name of Schwend.

That's clearly the commander

of the task force mentioned in the document.

The fact that this location had such a large SS footprint here

tells me they were up to something very important.

Brigadefuehrer. Is that like a brigadier general?

Exactly, and a hauptsturmfuehrer

is the equivalent of a captain.

So this is, basically, they kept their roster

of where everybody was? That's right.

So zimmer... that's "room".

That's the rooms they occupied.

Yeah, okay, and this is the number of the room?

That's right.

Why isn't anyone allocated to room 18?

The fact that he says Schwend designated that

as an off-limits room

and didn't write anything down next to it,

that gets my interest right away. Yeah.

The fact that room 18 remains a mystery makes one wonder,

was that where the high-value targets were housed?

At one point, could it even have housed Adolf Hitler himself?

- Gosh, look at this. - Huh.

- This is the same furniture. - Yes, yes.

And this is very much like it would have been in 1945?

That's right.

And can we go out here? Sure.

It's an amazing view.

My first impression of room 18

is that this is the ideal command suite.

It's situated on the top floor far from the entrance

with a balcony and a window

that provide almost 360-degree view

of the surrounding area.

This castle has everything that Adolf Hitler

would need in a safe house.

It's strategically located,

it's opulent for its time period,

and he would be surrounded by fiercely loyal SS agents.

At the end of the war, where was Schwend?

What was he doing?

Counterfeit money?

That's incredible.

But what was he doing with the counterfeit pounds?

So, they hid it with the intention of coming back for it. Yes.

This was the dead drop for the ratline.

A dead drop is a place that you, basically, hide something

and then you have a map worked out

or you have reference points worked out,

so I can hide something in a certain location,

and then I can communicate it to you.

So all these dead drops could have been set up specifically

for the escaping Nazis.

A clear picture is emerging, here, isn't it?

Schwend suddenly becomes operations hub

of disseminating all this counterfeit money.

If you want a system that can help Nazis postwar

get out of here and away to freedom,

this is about as good as it gets.

From everything we've seen so far,

this escape route was a coordinated effort.

Finances, safe houses,

a 30-man SS security force guarding the castle...

It's perfect.

This place has all the indications

that it could have been a stopping point on the ratline

for very high-level Nazis

and possibly even Adolf Hitler himself.

This is a complex tech dive

at a depth that, if we make mistakes,

people are gonna get hurt.

Along Hitler's potential northern escape route in Norway,

Tim Kennedy is investigating a declassified U.S. Army file

that claims the Nazis could have been running

a clandestine operation

to move heavy water out of the Arctic port of Narvik.

Priority-first is diver safety.

Searching for evidence of infrastructure

that could have been used to transport heavy water,

Tim and an expert SCUBA team prepare to dive on an area

they scanned with sonar.

We need to treat every single phase of this dive

with complete professionalism.

We can't make any mistakes. This is serious.

We're in the Arctic Circle.

This is one of the most unforgiving bodies of water to dive in.

Technical diving is an unforgiving profession.

You have to be precise.

The body temperature,

the mixture of gases that you're breathing...

All of these are vital.

This perhaps is the most dangerous thing that we have done.

The team has identified three underwater anomalies

at the bottom of a deep-water fjord

located at 30, 60, and 150 feet below the surface.

Everybody good? Yeah.

All right. Let's do it.

The goal is finding evidence that the Nazis were moving

heavy water in and out of Narvik.

We're gonna go into the water so we can go down and identify

exactly what each of these anomalies are.

As the team travels to the site of their first target,

they put on pressurized dry suits

designed to maintain their core temperature

and prepare a specialized mixture of gases

to help regulate the forces on their lungs.

Of our three anomalies,

what we're gonna dive on first was selected

because it's in a depth that's easier to access.

We don't know exactly what it is,

but what we could see on the sonar looked very promising.

So we have a buoy right over the anomaly. Yeah.

We'll disembark right here

and just start a search pattern at the bottom.

In order to locate the first anomaly,

Tim and marine surveyor Frank Anderson

will execute a circular search pattern,

branching out farther on every pass

to ensure they cover the entire target area.

Okay, let's do it.

Roger that.

Roger that. All you see is rock.

It was a punch to the stomach.

It's clear there's nothing man-made.

We need to move on to target number two.

Tim and Frank head to the second anomaly,

located 60 feet beneath the surface.

Due to the depth of their target,

they'll descend along a weighted mooring line...

A guide rope, which runs vertically down from their boat

to the ocean floor

and will prevent them from getting lost

in the pitch-black waters below.

Target two is not easy to access. It's deep.

This is kind of the limits of recreational diving,

but we have to find that object.

Whatever is in this water

could be infrastructure, could be proof

of how they were moving heavy water out of Norway.

Along Hitler's potential northern escape route,

Tim Kennedy is investigating a declassified U.S. Army file

that claims the Nazis could have been running

a clandestine operation

to move heavy water out of the Norwegian port of Narvik.

Roger that.

Tim and an expert dive team

have uncovered a seaplane while diving on an anomaly

they identified with sonar at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean.

That's a discovery right there.

Did you see any cargo?

You couldn't put a lot of cargo on that plane.

Even with two propellers, and they were small,

that fuselage, there's not enough room to put anything.

The plane's small.

It's not something that you could move heavy water with.

It doesn't have the load capacity

to bring some barrels aboard and take off.

I don't know what the seaplane is,

and I don't know why it's here.

What I do know is, we have to keep looking,

which brings us to a complicated, difficult target.

The team prepares for its most challenging dive.

Their final target rests more than 150 feet below the surface,

sitting on the ocean floor at a depth

where extreme water pressure and freezing temperatures

can combine for life-threatening conditions.

I've been diving for over 20 years.

I have 1,000 dives under my belt.

This is something that I am not taking lightly.

One mistake, and we could be dead.

The deeper you go, the more pressure there is.

If you ascend too quickly,

those gases are gonna expand and can kill you.

We have to be perfect every minute of this dive plan.

Tim and Frank execute a controlled descent,

holding for several minutes at decompression stops

every 10 feet along their mooring line

to allow their lungs to adjust to the crushing water pressure.

Next time on "Hunting Hitler"...

If the Nazis buried anything here,

this is the way we're gonna find it.

Look at that. That's incredible.

The priest at the time would give aid to Nazis

fleeing through the area.

There is documentation that they were re-baptized.

Oh, my God!

If Austria is where the Nazis shed their skin,

then South Tyrol is where they were born again

and assumed a new identity.

The Red Cross was actually producing legitimate documents

with false identities.

The documents were something that was secure,

so if they had those documents,

they could easily get out of Rome.

Once they got a real passport, they're home free.

This is the last piece of the puzzle, then.

All roads lead to Rome,

and then from there to Latin America.

Subtitles Diego Moraes www.oakisland.tk