The Gray Wolf Escape of Adolf Hitler read online. Germans and Austrians

In general, I am not interested in such books; my father gave me this book to read. He is interested in the history of World War II and the Great Patriotic War, as well as the personalities of Hitler and Stalin.

The book reveals not only the story of the escape of Adolf Hitler, reconstructed by the authors bit by bit from various newspaper articles, declassified FBI documents, and eyewitness accounts. A significant part of the book is devoted, naturally, to the formation of Nazism, the history of the war, and most importantly, to various intrigues and scams. The book was written by Americans and therefore the history of World War II is revealed from an American point of view. No, it doesn’t say that the United States defeated Hitler. Just events on eastern front it practically does not consider at all outside the context of the actions of the United States and Great Britain, which is probably correct - you should not write about what you do not understand.

The story begins almost from the end of the First World War. Germany had to pay reparations beyond its means. When Germany was no longer able to pay reparations, the United States stepped in and helped Germany with a loan. The fact is that during the First World War, Great Britain and France took out loans from the United States. The USA made a simple calculation - they give a loan to Germany, Germany pays reparations to Great Britain and France, Great Britain and France pay off loans from the USA. As a result, the money is returned to the United States with interest and much faster. Germany is rebuilding its industry, purchasing industrial goods from the United States, but is hooked on the credit needle.

The book reveals the theme of cooperation between large corporations and the Nazis. Despite Roosevelt’s official ban on trading with Germany, despite the ban established in neutral Switzerland on trading with Germany, there were still various gray schemes that many large businessmen and bankers did not disdain. In particular, in addition to the well-known collaboration between Ford and IBM, the United States supplied Nazi Germany oil. Formally, the supplies were intended for Spain, but if you evaluate the pre-war oil consumption and reserves of Spain, you can see how with the establishment of the Nazi regime, oil supplies grew and, simultaneously with them, cash reserves grew.

If you try to assess what the Nazi leadership was actually doing, you can draw a simple conclusion - they were primarily engaged in robbery. Racial theory, the extermination of Jews - it was only an ideological justification. Well, in fact, for any war you need not only a reason, but also a reason. The reason can be considered the thirst for enrichment, and the reason is the alleged exploitation of Germans by Jews. Each state annexed to Germany was immediately plundered: all gold was immediately taken out of the central bank, paintings and sculptures were taken out of museums, Jews were sent to concentration camps, and all their valuables, from dental crowns to furniture from the house, were confiscated in favor of Germany. The main appraisers of art objects were Hitler himself and Goering. All confiscated cultural property was first presented to Hitler, who selected items for his collection, after which the remains were examined by Goering.

The book pays a lot of attention to Hitler's secretary, Bormann. According to the authors, Bormann eventually became the second most influential person in the Reich. He not only transformed Hitler's statements into documented orders, but also dealt with the financial issues of the party. He also owned the escape plan. Back in the summer of 1943, after the defeat of the Nazis in Stalingrad and Libya, it became clear that Germany would not have access to Baku and Libyan oil, and therefore the war would be lost. Then Borman began to withdraw the stolen funds abroad, mainly to Argentina, and also prepare routes and evacuation plans. Argentina was chosen as a country loyal to the Nazis - the head of Argentina was then dictator Peron, and lived on Argentine territory a large number of Germans, among whom it was easy to get lost.

Then the book begins with the very essence of why it was written - Hitler's escape is described. The authors collected a large number of newspaper publications, declassified FBI documents, interviewed eyewitnesses and visited the places where Hitler supposedly lived. The reconstructed course of events is something like this:

On the night of April 27-28, 1945, Hitler and his retinue leave the bunker and move along a secret passage in the direction of one of the Berlin metro stations. Then they move in tanks and armored vehicles to a temporary runway. There they board a Junkers-52 plane and head to Denmark, to Tønner.

On April 29, the plane lands in Denmark, from where it heads back to Germany, to the Travemünde base. There they board a Junkers-252 plane and head to Spain.

In Spain, the plane lands at the Reuse military base. There they again transfer to a prepared Junkers-52 aircraft, which, after an intermediate landing at the Morron military airfield in Spain, lands in the Canary Islands on the night of April 29-30. After relaxing at Villa Fuerteventura, the fugitives transfer to the submarine U-518.

On July 28, after 59 days of travel in a submerged position (possibly surfacing was carried out only at night), the submarine completed its journey near the coast of Argentina. After a short rest, on July 30, Hitler boarded a Curtis Condor plane and flew to San Ramon. He lives there until March 1946, when all the villa workers are told that Hitler and Eva Braun had died in a car accident.

In fact, at this time, Hitler was undergoing surgery in a private German hotel, the Grand Hotel Vienna, where they were trying to remove wooden splinters from his facial bones, from which he suffered during the assassination attempt in 1944.

In June 1947, Hitler and Eva Braun moved to the completed Inalco estate. Around 1954, Eva Braun decides to leave Hitler and moves with her children to the city of Neuquén. On February 13, 1962, Hitler died from a stroke he had suffered the day before.

Borman left the bunker on May 2 and subsequently hid in Europe using fake passports. He managed this easily, since he had a completely ordinary appearance. There is evidence from his former driver, who once saw Bormann in the passenger seat of one of the passing cars. There is a police report that talks about the observation of Bormann's motorcade as it moved from Switzerland to an Italian port. It is curious that on the way the motorcade stopped at the Vatican. The policeman did not attempt to detain Bormann, since his superiors had given instructions to simply observe and not take any action. Judging by how Bormann's motorcade passed through all the police checkpoints without any problems and was in the Vatican, it was not without the highest patronage. From Italy Bormann sailed to South America, where he lived on several passports. He sometimes saw Hitler, tried to ensure his safe old age, but on the whole he lived an independent life.

One can, of course, skeptically argue that the authors have collected all the available garbage. On the other hand, no significant evidence of the death of Hitler and Bormann was found, so the history restored by the authors has the right to further study in search of additional confirmation or refutation.

In the process of reading the book, I understood why we have such a seemingly artificial separation of the Great Patriotic War from the Second World War. It would seem that the first war is just an episode of the second war. The point, however, is, firstly, that the Nazis, due to racial theory the inhabitants of core Europe and the Slavs in eastern Europe and beyond were treated very differently. The former were considered slightly inferior to the pure Aryan race, and the latter were considered subhuman - something like hardworking cattle, over which the Jews seized power. Because of this, it was not considered shameful to treat prisoners of war and residents of occupied territories accordingly - like cattle. Secondly, if you read about what our allies from the USA and Great Britain were doing when they fought on the second front, then the difference is striking not only in the magnitude of losses, but also in goals. Citizens of the USSR fought in order to avoid their own destruction. The United States in Germany pursued two goals - to profit from the loot and to acquire German military technologies along with scientific and technical personnel capable of continuing work on these technologies.

In most of the occupied territories there were no serious forces capable of repelling the Americans. Local partisans suggested where the Nazi military forces were located. That is, neither significant military forces nor serious reconnaissance and preparation for military operations were required. As a result, American troops advanced towards Berlin as quickly as their logistics could allow. In the liberated territories, the Americans looked for Nazi caches with gold, cultural objects, and samples military equipment and documentation. Although cultural objects were confiscated for subsequent return, in fact the authors of the book report that many valuable works of art have still not been returned to their rightful owners. In terms of technology, the Americans at least managed to capture von Braun and his entire team working on the V-2, the heavy water uranium reactor and documentation for it, as well as encryption machine technology.

The book is equipped with a large number of high-quality documentary photographs with detailed comments, which allows you to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the events described. Overall, the book is very worthy and worth reading.

NAZI LEADERS WERE RESCUE
The Nazi leadership was carefully evacuated from Germany after the war

After the defeat in the Second World War against the USSR, the Nazi elite dispersed to previously prepared positions and continued their main task: the war against Rus'. Almost the entire West helped them in this “noble” cause...

Adolf Hitler, the authors claim, did not commit suicide, but “escaped from Germany and spent the rest of his life in Argentina; his party deputy, Reichsleiter Martin Bormann, and Heinrich “Gestapo”-Müller, a key figure in the development of the plan for the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question,” also escaped punishment and joined him in Argentina.

Equally egregious: America and Britain facilitated the escape of hundreds of former Nazis, such as rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and sadistic SS man Klaus Barbier, known as the Butcher of Lyon. IN post-war years both of them worked for US government services, while the rest were simply allowed to avoid prosecution and settle in different remote corners of the planet...”

Dunstan and Williams are not the first to question the official version, but unlike many works, their work is based on a huge number of documents and research, and the analysis is characterized high level deductive skill.

There is no clear legal evidence that Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide. DNA examination of a fragment of “Hitler’s skull” showed that in reality it belonged to a woman 30-40 years old; it has been proven that the “corpse of Eva Braun” has nothing to do with Eva Braun.

Yes, and it would be strange for Hitler to commit suicide, given that, at least since the summer of 1943, large-scale and systematic preparations were underway in the Reich for the evacuation from Germany of the leadership of the party, state and SS, gold, art objects, archives and the most advanced technology .

Since 1943, Bormann began to create hundreds of corporations outside the Reich, into which Nazi money, mainly “party gold,” was invested. “This task was solved as part of an operation under code name Aktion Adlerfl ug – “Flight of the eagle.” It was planned to open numerous accounts in foreign banks and create investment funds in foreign companies, control over which was exercised in the interests of Germany. For example, in 1943-1945, more than two hundred German companies registered their branches in Argentina.

Cash and other assets, such as patents for inventions, were transferred through shell companies in Switzerland, Spain and Portugal to Argentine branches of German banks such as Banco Aleman Transatlantico.

These funds were then funneled to German companies operating in Argentina, such as the automobile manufacturer Mercedes Benz, the first Mercedes plant built outside Germany. Headquarters inflated production costs for their foreign subsidiaries for products made in Argentina; the actual cost of a Mercedes truck could be $5,000, but Mercedes Benz Argentina had to pay the German parent company $6,000 for components.

The amounts resulting from the difference between the real price and the transfer price were secretly deposited in Argentine banks, and they could be withdrawn after the war without fear of suspicion from the Argentine authorities and especially from the Western allies.

These same companies became a source of employment for Nazi war criminals in hiding after 1945. For example, Adolf Eichmann worked at the Mercedes Benz plant in the town of Gonzalez Catan on the outskirts of Buenos Aires under the name Ricardo Clement from 1959 to May 11, 1960, until he was kidnapped by Israeli intelligence agents MOSSAD.

To others important aspect Operation Eagle Flight was the acquisition of stakes or interests in the capital of foreign companies, especially in North America. To solve this problem, Bormann turned to the once largest player in such games - the IG Farben concern.

Since its founding in 1926, IG Farben has acquired many American companies and they have become part of this worldwide cartel. By the time Germany declared war on the United States - shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor - IG Farben owned controlling stakes in 170 American companies and was a minority shareholder in another 108 companies.

Bormann turned for advice to its president, Hermann Schmitz, and to the former Reich Minister of Economics, Dr. Hjalmar Schacht. Together they could coordinate the movement of Nazi funds through Swiss banks, the Bank for International Settlements, or through third parties and companies. For example, brothers Jakob and Marcus Wallenberg from Sweden acquired, through their Stockholms Enskilda Bank (SEB), the American Bosch Corporation, a subsidiary of the Stuttgart-based Robert Bosch GmbH.

By the beginning of 1945, Bormann completed preparations for the evacuation of the leadership of the Third Reich. According to the authors, the Führer's flight is surprisingly well documented, thanks to which they were able to paint a fairly convincing picture of Hitler's departure from Berlin and his subsequent life (according to them) in Argentina.

On Friday, April 27, 1945, Bormann, out of several escape options, decided to use the underground passage (450 m) to the metro tunnels, tunnels, and then an airplane. But first, those who were preparing to flee had to “die”, or rather, their doubles had to die. Hitler had no problems with doubles - he had as many as 12 of them (most likely, Gustav Weber, who began to replace the Fuhrer after the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944, was killed).

For Eva Braun, they also found some young actress from Goebbels’ “harem” as a double; They even found a dog-double for the Fuhrer’s favorite shepherd Blondie, with whom he did not want to part. At midnight on April 28, the fugitives set off, and at midnight on April 29, the farce of the “suicide of Hitler and Eva” was played out.

The group entered the metro tunnel system in the area of the Kaiserhof station (now Mohrenstraße), leaving the Fehrbelliner Platz station building, the fugitives boarded three Tiger-II tanks and two SdK3 251 half-track armored personnel carriers, which took them to located a kilometer away from the airstrip on Hohenzollerndamm. The Ju-52 plane, flown by the experienced SS Hauptsturmführer Peter Erich Baumgart, landed in Travemünde, from where the fugitives, transferring to the Ju-252, flew to Spain to the Moron military airfield. “Hitler’s transfer from the German Junkers Ju-252 to the Junkers Ju-52 with the side insignia of the Ejercito del Aire - the Spanish Air Force - at the Spanish base in Reus on April 29 was carried out quickly and in secrecy.”

The Ju-52 took Hitler to Fuerteventura (Canary Islands), where he was taken on board by the submarine U518. Hitler chose the captain of this particular submarine - 25-year-old, but already very experienced Hans-Werner Offerman. Having covered 8.5 thousand km in 59 days (according to another version - 53 days), U518 arrived on the shores of Argentina (Mar del Plata) at the end of July 1945. Surprisingly, as the authors of “Gray Wolf” note, eyewitnesses’ memories of this landing have also been preserved - truly, “there is nothing secret,” you just need to dig.

From Mar del Plata, the fugitives flew to Estancia San Ramon near the city of San Carlos de Bariloche. There the ex-Führer and his wife lived for about a year as guests of the owners of the estancia. Meanwhile, 90 km from San Ramon, near the village of Villa Angostura (almost on the border with Chile), the Inalco estate was built for Hitler, reproducing the architectural elements of the Fuhrer's Berghof residence in the Alps.

In March 1946, all employees of the Estancia San Ramon were gathered, they were informed that the guests who arrived in the summer of 1945 had died in a car accident, and they were forbidden to discuss this topic in the future. Thus, the trace of the Hitler couple was cut short for the second time, and Adolf and Eva themselves moved in the meantime to Inalco, where they lived either until 1954 or until 1955. In any case, after 1955, Hitler's trace was lost again.

According to the authors, he died on April 13, 1962. This may be true, but given the previous disappearances, it can be assumed that 1962 is not the end. However, in 1962 he was already 72 years old, and anything was possible. The authors convince us that Hitler escaped, but there are doubts that he really lived in Argentina.

The world elite, primarily the American one, could not help but know that Hitler managed to escape. Moreover, the “escape” itself could only be carried out as a result of a deal between Nazi elite and the Americans. What could the Nazis put on the scale? Quite a lot. Bombing threat on the US east coast.

This is along the line of the “whip”. Well, the “carrot” offers could be simply super tempting: firstly, gold and art objects; secondly, some of the technical achievements of the Reich - patents, drawings, samples, plus the much-needed uranium-235 for the Americans (the Yankees did not have enough of their own) and fuses for atomic bomb; thirdly, dirt on the world elite, primarily on that part of the American that actively collaborated with the Nazis even during the war. In addition, by allowing the Nazi underground to take shape in the form of a global network organization of the “Fourth Reich,” the Americans could count on using this force against the USSR.

But even after making a deal, Hitler could not trust the Anglo-Saxons. Therefore, a double remained in Argentina (and more than one), and Hitler himself had plastic surgery and after some time (perhaps in 1946 or a little later) moved to Europe - to Germany or Austria - according to the principle: “Where is the smart one?” is a person hiding pebbles? Among the pebbles on the seashore,” that is, where they won’t look.

But Bormann really lived under different names in Latin America, shuttling between Argentina, Chile and Paraguay and leading the networked invisible “Fourth Reich”. But according to Dunstan and Williams, he did not get to Latin America right away. Until July 1946, Bormann was hiding either in Munich or somewhere else, not excluding the Soviet sector. In the summer of 1946, he moved to Spain and lived for some time in the Dominican monastery of San Domingo (province of Galicia). It is interesting that when Israeli intelligence began to approach the monastery in 1969, a fire broke out there, and it started in the part where records of the guests of the monastery for 1946 were kept.

At the end of the summer of 1947, Bormann decided that it was time to move to Argentina, where huge funds had already been transferred - the president of the country was Juan Peron, who was more than sympathetic to Hitler, Nazism and the Third Reich. However, his wife Eva Peron, a tough and greedy woman, had a huge influence on him.

In June 1947, she arrived in Spain, the main thing was the unofficial part of the visit - negotiations with Bormann, who was supposed to seal the Nazi pact with the Peron family: almost a billion dollars worth of valuables in exchange for a safe life in Argentina. And then the favorite of the Argentine people, Evita, presented a surprise: she told Bormann that a quarter of the loot transported to the country would be left to him, and the rest would be transferred through proxies for safekeeping in Swiss banks. “The rest of it was huge.

187,692,400 Reichsmarks in gold;

US$17,576,386;

£4,362,500;

CHF 24,976,442;

8,370,000 Dutch florins;

54,968,000 French francs;

87 kg platinum;

2.77 tons of gold;

4638 carats of diamonds and other precious stones.

Even the quarter of this wealth left to Bormann was a huge fortune. Together with investments in more than three hundred companies across the economic spectrum Latin America- in banking, industry and agriculture (the Lahusen corporation alone received 80 million pesos) - this money became “an important factor in the economic life of South America.”

Bormann could not do anything, since he was betrayed by several people privy to the secrets of the “party gold”. This Eva Peron scam, the authors write, “was made possible thanks to the connivance and tacit consent of the people whom Bormann trusted most in Argentina - Ludwig Freude, Ricardo von Leute, Ricardo Staudt and Heinrich Dörge; all of them had powers of attorney to manage bank accounts opened in Buenos Aires for Operation Tierra del Fuego.

However, Bormann was not one to forgive. The bankers who surrendered him “began to die suddenly one after another. Heinrich Dörge died under mysterious circumstances in 1949; Ricardo von Leute was found dead on the street in Buenos Aires in December 1950, and Ricardo Staudt survived Leute by only a few months. Ludwig Freude, a major figure in Operation Tierra del Fuego, died in 1952 after drinking poisoned coffee. Juan Duarte, Evita's younger brother, was shot in the head in 1954; According to the official version, he committed suicide.” Evita herself fell ill with cancer and died in 1952 at the age of only 33.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Bormann continued to lead the “organization” he created. On July 26, 1971, the Boston Globe quoted former Israeli intelligence officer Zvi Aldubi, co-author of a book on Eichmann, as confirming that Bormann was living on a ranch in Paraguay. The author of numerous works on the history of intelligence and secret wars, Ladislas Farago, stated that he saw a very aged Bormann in Bolivia.

According to Farago, after Peron returned to power in 1973, Bormann moved to Argentina. The author of a book about Bormann, Manning, claimed that back in 1980 Bormann and Müller (both born in Last year XIX century - in 1900) were still alive. These two hardly survived the crash Soviet Union- the winner of the Third Reich, but what role they played in this collapse is a research question for more than one analyst. As for “Grey Wolf,” this book is important for us as an illustration of the actual collusion between the Anglo-Americans and the Nazis immediately after the war.

In addition, we are well aware of the contacts of former Nazis (however, are there “ former Nazis"?) with American and NATO intelligence services and political circles, about their joint struggle against the USSR. This needs to be remembered more often today, when the West is trying to equate the USSR with the Third Reich and devalue our victory in the Great Patriotic War.

Simon Dunstan, Gerard Williams

Gray wolf. Flight of Adolf Hitler

Publisher's Foreword

When we received an offer to publish the book " Gray wolf. The Escape of Adolf Hitler,” our first reaction was to dismiss it as just another conspiracy theory. Everyone knows that Hitler and Eva Braun lost their lives in an underground bunker to avoid the humiliation and inevitable execution that awaited them. However, out of respect for the excellent reputation of the authors, Simon Dunstan and Gerard Williams, we have agreed to consider their proposal with the utmost seriousness. In addition, we were inspired to take this step by the recent discovery of independent researchers: the remains discovered near the bunker did not belong to Hitler and Eva Braun. After studying the proposal and consulting with the authors for several months, we were convinced that they raised serious questions that made the generally accepted idea of Hitler's death just a hypothesis - so we decided to publish this book.

The authors spent the last five years studying the subject: they traveled the world, interviewed eyewitnesses of the events of those years, looked for documents and bit by bit sorted through mountains of scattered evidence. As a result, they were convinced of a fact so terrible that it can hardly be taken seriously: Adolf Hitler escaped punishment unharmed and lived in relative peace in Patagonia until his death in 1962.

The prospect that opened up turned out to be so disgusting that at first we wanted to refuse to publish the book. We were afraid of offending the feelings of those people who might be offended by the very idea of Hitler's escape, regardless of whether the arguments presented seemed convincing to them. However, after much thought, after painstaking editorial work, during which the authors more than once had to prove the accuracy of the information they presented, we came to the conclusion that perhaps they had indeed succeeded in exposing the greatest deception in history.

The book raises many intriguing questions, but does not offer clear solutions. Perhaps we have before us a secret that, like many other secrets, is never destined to be revealed. It is also possible that after this topic is brought to the attention of the public, new facts will come to light that will bring us closer to the final answer. The authors wrote this book in search of the truth and, quite possibly, their search was crowned with success. In any case, our readers will judge this.

Characters

In the list of significant figures, we did not include comments on the personalities of such famous historical figures as Adolf Hitler, Martin Bormann, Hermann Goering, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Winston Churchill that we consider unnecessary. Our task was to introduce the reader to the lesser-known characters who appear on the pages of this book. Small in capital letters in the comments the names of those people about whom additional information can be found in the “Characters” section are highlighted.

Germans and Austrians

Abs, Hermann Joseph: Chairman of the Board of Deutsche Bank (1957–67). Member of the bank's board of directors (1938–45).

Alvensleben, Ludolf von: SS Gruppenführer and police lieutenant general, wanted as a war criminal, later manager of the Nazi-owned Inalco estate in the Argentine province of Rio Negro.

Arenstorff, Gerda von: Dietrich Niebuhr's assistant at the German embassy in Buenos Aires (1938–45), who recruited Eva Duarte as an agent.

Barsch, Franz: Oberleutnant zur See, captain of the submarine U-1235.

Baumbach, Werner: Oberst-lieutenant of the Luftwaffe, commander of Kampfgeschwader 200, air wing special purpose Luftwaffe; On April 29, 1945, he led Hitler’s flight from Travemünde (Germany) to Reus (Spain).

Baumgart, Peter Erich: Was born in South Africa, Hauptmann of the Luftwaffe and Hauptsturmführer of the SS, on April 28, 1945, flew a plane transporting Hitler and his companions from Berlin to Tønner (Denmark).

Bethe, Heinrich: A German sailor from the heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee, who became Hitler's last servant.

Brown, Werner von: Technical director of the V-2 ballistic missile program. After the war he worked in America.

Winter, Gustav: Abwehr agent who founded the secret intelligence base of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands.

Wolf, Karl: SS-Obergruppenführer, supreme leader of the SS and police in Northern Italy; negotiated with Allen Dulles about the surrender of the German army during Operation Sunrise.

Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Ernst Maximilian: Prince, German aristocrat and intermediary between Heinrich Himmler and Allen Dulles.

Dörge, Heinrich: A major official in the Reichsbank, sent to Argentina as an assistant to Ludwig Freude and financial adviser to the Argentine government.

Sandstede, Gottfried: Press attaché at the German embassy in Buenos Aires 1939–41, senior intelligence agent working for General von Faupel, executive director of the Delfino shipping agency.

Kai, Walter: Captain zur See, former chief mate on the cruiser Admiral Graf Spee, later active in Nazi intelligence in Argentina and Uruguay.

Kaltenbrunner, Ernst: SS Obergruppenführer and police general, head of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) from January 30, 1943 until the end of the war, replacing Himmler in this post; coordinated the work of the police, Gestapo (secret police) and SD (intelligence and counterintelligence division of the SS).

Canaris, Wilhelm: Admiral, head of the Abwehr - the military intelligence and counterintelligence body of Germany, which was part of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (the armed forces of Nazi Germany).

Kyon, Willie: Head of the Latin American Division of the German Foreign Office in Madrid, active intelligence agent.

Lanchner, Friedrich: SS Standartenführer, later owner construction company in the city of San Carlos de Bariloche in the Argentine province of Rio Negro.

Lehman, Otto(possibly a pseudonym): Military doctor at the Nazi-owned Inalco estate in Argentina, later personal physician to Hitler at his final refuge, La Clara.

Meinen, Otto: Senior intelligence agent at the German embassy in Buenos Aires 1939–44, succeeding Dietrich Niebuhr.

Simon Dunstan, Gerard Williams

Gray wolf. Flight of Adolf Hitler

Publisher's Foreword

When we received an offer to publish the book “Gray Wolf. The Escape of Adolf Hitler,” our first reaction was to dismiss it as just another conspiracy theory. Everyone knows that Hitler and Eva Braun lost their lives in an underground bunker to avoid the humiliation and inevitable execution that awaited them. However, out of respect for the excellent reputation of the authors, Simon Dunstan and Gerard Williams, we have agreed to consider their proposal with the utmost seriousness. In addition, we were inspired to take this step by the recent discovery of independent researchers: the remains discovered near the bunker did not belong to Hitler and Eva Braun. After studying the proposal and consulting with the authors for several months, we were convinced that they raised serious questions that made the generally accepted idea of Hitler's death just a hypothesis - so we decided to publish this book.

Characters

In the list of significant figures, we did not include comments on the personalities of such famous historical figures as Adolf Hitler, Martin Bormann, Hermann Goering, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Winston Churchill that we consider unnecessary. Our task was to introduce the reader to the lesser-known characters who appear on the pages of this book. The names of those people about whom additional information can be found in the “Characters” section are highlighted in small capital letters in the comments.

Germans and Austrians

Abs, Hermann Joseph: Chairman of the Board of Deutsche Bank (1957–67). Member of the bank's board of directors (1938–45).

Alvensleben, Ludolf von: SS Gruppenführer and police lieutenant general, wanted as a war criminal, later manager of the Nazi-owned Inalco estate in the Argentine province of Rio Negro.

Arenstorff, Gerda von: Dietrich Niebuhr's assistant at the German embassy in Buenos Aires (1938–45), who recruited Eva Duarte as an agent.

Barsch, Franz: Oberleutnant zur See, captain of the submarine U-1235.

Baumbach, Werner: Oberst-lieutenant of the Luftwaffe, commander of Kampfgeschwader 200, the Luftwaffe's special forces aviation wing; On April 29, 1945, he led Hitler’s flight from Travemünde (Germany) to Reus (Spain).

Baumgart, Peter Erich: Born in South Africa, Luftwaffe Hauptmann and SS Hauptsturmführer, on April 28, 1945, flew the plane transporting Hitler and his companions from Berlin to Tønner (Denmark).