New History Channel Series "Hunting Hitler"

[Magda Hassan]

I saw it. Frankly, I was a bit underwhelmed. They look like a bunch of serious guys: a Nazi hunter, some Special Forces guys (I think one of them was the "I shot Bin Laden" guy), a couple historian/researchers. But they didn't really give any worthwhile background. Some magical software thingy sieves through 700 pages of declassified FBI "Hitler sightings" docs and out pops a location, so they go there.

The baffled locals deny there are/were Nazis around, and the investigators conclude "they are still too scared to talk after 70 years." (I was kinda thinking that verb tenses are the first thing that gets lost in English/Spanish translations.) They found a school with a Nazi Eagle painted on it, and a Nazi former administrator; so this 80 old guy talks in Spanish about being forced to march around...but he uses the words, "eins, zwei, drei..." so it is apparent that he actually heard a German guy marching people around the school. (That was actually the high point of the show for me, but the investigation team didn't make any apparent note of that.)

They found a small concrete underground "bunker" (or "root cellar", depending on who's describing it), that may, or may not, be a common feature of Argentinian rural architecture. Previews indicate finds of larger structures, scuba diving for planes or subs, etc. It has been known for 70 years that many ex-Nazis did, in fact, take root in Argentina after the war. And the show has indeed proven that the FBI kept an open file on Hitler sightings. However, there was not a shred of anything specific to Hitler (beside the aforementioned FBI documents) in the footage.

I'm going to follow it for a while longer. Perhaps future shows will flesh out any more official or unofficial "Doubting Thomases" about the death (chief among whom appears to be Stalin himself, that bulwark of bourgeoisie credibility), and past fact-finding efforts by anyone more reputable.

FWIW re Argentinian rural architecture it would be extremely rare to have a root cellar. It is not part of local building traditions but would likely be included if the building was designed by Germans or possible Northern Italians. There are numerous localities in Argentina and Chile (and other place in SA) which are German towns and local Spanish speakers are not welcome except as cheap labour or human experiment subjects (Colonia Dignidad) but there does need to be some communication between the different languages. Even George Bush speaks fluent Spanish most likely to order the help around and preparing for when he has to go to exile in Paraguay and not because he has any deep interest in Spanish literature and culture. Given he is barely literate in English after all. These towns mostly precede WW2 but were greatly expanded after then. Schools and hospitals were offered to the locals and the locals thought it was wonderful to have access to what they thought was European medicine and education but it wasn't quite what they were getting. But it is possible that the film crew were in a place where there were no German towns. But to me it makes more sense that the locals are really are still scared after 70 years because the Germans have not gone away. Hitler may or may not have been there but there is an excellent chance there are fascist about. And you are correct about Spanish/English verb tenses. Not all of them have an equivalent.