Tim Kennedy on history: what the evidence says · JRE #1117
SUBJECT: HISTORY
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
there were a bunch of specifically FBI documents that we were spending millions and millions of dollars actively searching for Hitler after the war
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Declassified FBI and CIA files do exist and show that agents logged and followed up on rumors and purported sightings of Hitler in South America (Argentina, Colombia) for years after 1945, including a 1955 secondhand account (surfaced in a 1955 CIA memo) from a former German soldier claiming contact with Hitler in Colombia. But per Snopes's review of the same files, these records show the FBI was "obligated to follow up all such leads reported to them in the immediate post-war era, no matter how far-fetched they might seem," not that a large-scale, multi-million-dollar manhunt was underway. Neither the FBI file nor the CIA memo names a dollar figure, and Snopes rated both the claim that FBI files prove Hitler escaped to Argentina and the claim that CIA files confirm Hitler survived in South America as False. Mainstream historical consensus remains that Hitler died by suicide in Berlin on April 30, 1945. Kennedy's claim that declassified documents show 'millions and millions of dollars' actively spent searching for Hitler is not supported by the sourced record; it overstates routine tip follow-up as an active, well-funded manhunt.