| Genre: | Reality |
| Director: | Jeffrey R. Daniels Clint Lealos |
| Narrated: | Dave Hoffman |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 3 |
| Num Episodes: | 24 (+2 bonus episodes and 1 special) |
| Runtime: | 42 minutes |
| Company: | Karga 7 Pictures |
| Network: | History Channel |
Hunting Hitler is a History Channel television series based on the conspiracy theory that Adolf Hitler escaped from Berlin at the end of World War II in Europe. The show was conceived following the declassification of government documents exploring the premise that Hitler might not have died in April 1945.[1]
The series explores how he might have escaped, where he might have gone, and whether he plotted a Fourth Reich.[2] The series ran for three seasons between 2015 and 2018, followed by a two-hour special in 2020.[3]
The show was hosted in Los Angeles by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) veteran Bob Baer and former international war crimes investigator John Cencich. Utilizing a database of intelligence files from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), CIA, MI6, and other international agencies, they look for information regarding the possible survival of Adolf Hitler or any of his right-hand men. The ground teams search for evidence supporting these leads. According to the show's creators, similar man-hunting techniques are employed as were used by the CIA to find Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.[4]
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season premiere | Season finale | |||
| 1 | 8 | |||
| 2 | 8 | |||
| 3 | 8 | |||
| Special | 1 | |||
The show has been criticized by various media outlets. Brian Lowry wrote for Variety, "Seriously, guys, what's next, 'Hitlernado?'"[5] Lowry wrote for CNN that "in a year when 'fake news' received so much attention, History is willingly promoting bad historyfilled with unsubstantiated theories and speculation".[6] Tom Conroy wrote for Media Life Magazine that "One gets the impression that [the series] will continue to spin its wheels for the duration. But even if it unearths evidence of Hitler's survival, there's no way the government would let that information out."[7] Contrarily, the National Police Gazette, an American tabloid-style magazine and longtime supporter of the Hitler-escape narrative, wrote positively of the series' presentation.[8]
On May 17, 2018, popular podcast host Joe Rogan interviewed Tim Kennedy on his show; they discussed the series and its premise, including its focus on Nazi escape routes known as "ratlines". Kennedy argued that the series is unlike the History Channel's pseudoscientific series Ancient Aliens and that Hitler indeed escaped to the Americas. Kennedy proclaimed, "The way history is written is wrong."[9]
In 2019, series host Bob Baer stated that he actually agrees with the mainstream view that Hitler died in Berlin in April 1945, but that "there's no doubt" the dictator intended to flee to South America to carry out a Fourth Reich.[10] The subsequent Hunting Hitler closing special focuses on the alleged Fourth Reich, at one point invoking a John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory—one of a few fringe narratives Baer has voiced interest in.[11]
In 2020, team member and author James Holland tweeted that "I was certainly interested in learning more about how Nazis escaped, but was very careful never to mention on film that I thought either Hitler or Bormann escaped. Because they didn't."[12] In 2021, he further derided the series on his podcast, calling it "absolute nonsense".[13] Historian Richard J. Evans dismisses all the survival stories of Hitler as mere "fantasies".[14]