Philip Citroën

Achromatic, slightly torn photo print of two suited men indoors: to the left sits a balding blond eying the camera and to the right, a sunken-jowled Hitler.
An alleged original print of a photograph purported to show Citroën with Hitler in Colombia in 1954

Philip Citroën (born 29 May 1918) is most known for his claim of witnessing Adolf Hitler alive in Colombia c. 1954, when the pair were purportedly photographed together. Citroën shared his story and the photo with the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which took wider notice after another source claimed him to be an ex-SS soldier. The CIA declassified microfilm of its reports in 2017, fueling fringe theories that Hitler faked his death.

In 2023, Argentine author Abel Basti, who has written several books claiming Hitler escaped to South America, published what he asserts are an original print of the photo and other documents. Basti argues that Citroën was not SS, but a Dutch submariner who served the Allies.

Background

Further information: Netherlands in World War II

On 29 May 1918, Philip Citroën was born in the Netherlands.[1] The country was invaded by Nazi Germany in mid-1940 and Citroën received a identification card for the 'Dutch Construction Service',[2] through which the Nazis controlled demobilized Dutch soldiers.[3] Citroën was recorded as possibly providing forced labor in Germany from 1943 to 1944.[4]

Allegations of Hitler's survival

Microfilm of the photo from the CIA

After the war, Citroën reputedly moved to Venezuela and often traveled to Tunja, Colombia, on behalf of a Dutch shipping company. From about 1953–1954, he allegedly sometimes saw Hitler, supported by relocated Nazis.[5] In early 1954, Citroën shared his story and the purported photograph to a United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) station. He also provided the negatives, which were too damaged to make more prints.[5] The station noted this in a memo, which it only shared within the agency in October 1955, after another station received a similar report. In this case, a witness claimed Citroën was an ex-SS soldier and borrowed the photograph, reputedly without Citroën's consent.[5][6][7] Citroën had stated that Hitler had left around January 1955, allegedly for Argentina.[5][a] The station ascertained that it would not be able to verify the story.[5] In November 1955, the chief of the CIA's Western Hemisphere Division recommended that the matter be dropped due to its potentially expensive nature "with remote possibilities of establishing anything concrete", but suggested that it could be forwarded to a codenamed contact.[6][b]

A maxillar bridge and mandibular fragment (color) against the rest of the jaws (transparent)
Western scholars cite Hitler's dental remains as proving his death in Berlin.

In 2017, in accordance with the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, the CIA declassified microfilm of its reports. The grainy publication of the photo bolstered fringe theories about Hitler's death,[5][c] which Western scholars reject on the basis of Hitler's confirmed dental remains and eyewitnesses proving his death in Berlin in 1945.[10][11][12][13] In 2021, Worldcrunch alluded to an alleged photo in asserting that Hitler was seen wandering the streets of Tunja in 1954 "cloaked up like a peasant".[14]

In 2023, Argentine author Abel Basti, a fringe theorist on the topic, published a book about his research of the purported photo.[15][16] He includes Citroën's Construction Service ID, a Colombian foreigner document, and the original photograph (said to be provided by Citroën's son). Basti asserts that Citroën was multilingual and had royal ties as well as some Jewish ancestry.[2][15] He reputedly fought the Axis powers as a submariner with the Royal Netherlands Navy.[2] Allied leadership supposedly issued him a document of safe conduct on 18 June 1945 in Berlin, granting him immunity in Soviet areas of occupied Germany.[2] (Basti surmises that this was due to Allied Intelligence employing Citroën on an unknown task.)[2][15] Citroën reportedly returned to the Netherlands before immigrating to Colombia. Basti allegedly confirmed his presence in Tunja and found the residence from the photo.[2] The author suggests that the image was taken as proof of the living Hitler.[2][15][d]

The CIA copy of the purported photo resurfaced online in 2025, amid the 80th anniversary of the Fall of Berlin.[5][6][17] Fact-checking outlets argued that the photograph did not confirm Hitler's survival, without reference to Basti's claims (although one outlet used his photocopy).[18] Snopes cited the CIA's skepticism as a dismissal of the case, while LADbible noted that the CIA had filed a report on a supposed autopsy of Hitler's body.[5][19][e]

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Additionally, Citroën erroneously claimed that Hitler had evaded prosecution for his war crimes due to a decade having passed since the end of WWII.[5][8][9]
  2. ^ After a yearslong inquiry, in 1956 West Germany officially declared Hitler dead as an assumption of death, partially in order to relinquish his property.[9]
  3. ^ History suggested online that the photo might depict a Hitler imitator seeking publicity—albeit while promoting its network's series claiming the dictator escaped and suggesting the CIA missed a chance to catch him.[7]
  4. ^ Basti posits that Citroën offered Hitler support from alleged Nazi supporters like Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, whom Basti ties to Citroën's brother, supposedly the architect of Hitler's 1945 escape.[2][15]
  5. ^ This report is widely derided as Soviet propaganda except for its description of the dental remains.[20][21][11]

Citations

  1. ^ "Registration Philip Citroen on May 29, 1918". Open Archives. Retrieved 25 July 2025 – via Coret Genealogie.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Basti, Abel (2023). Las fotos de Hitler después de la guerra (in Spanish). Planeta Colombia.
  3. ^ "Nederlandsche Opbouwdienst". Oorlogs Bronnen (in Dutch). Retrieved 11 August 2025.
  4. ^ "Philip Citroen (locatie onbekend, 29 mei 1918 - locatie onbekend, datum onbekend)". Oorlogs Bronnen (in Dutch). Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ibrahim, Nur (8 April 2025). "Documents don't show CIA confirmed Hitler left Germany for South America after WWII". Snopes. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  6. ^ a b c Pollina, Richard (9 April 2025). "CIA files reveal search for Hitler in South America 10 years after his suicide as Argentina prepares to release classified docs on Nazi fugitives". New York Post. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  7. ^ a b "New Evidence: The Informant who told the CIA that Hitler survived WW2". Sky HISTORY TV channel. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
  8. ^ "Customary IHL - Rule 160. Statutes of Limitation". IHL Databases. Retrieved 4 August 2025. Israel's Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law provides that there shall be no period of limitation for prosecution of war crimes, [specifically those] committed by Nazis in the Second World War.
  9. ^ a b Joachimsthaler 1999, pp. 8–13, 159–161.
  10. ^ Oppenheimer, Andrés (3 November 2017). "Did Hitler escape and move to Colombia? Despite new CIA memo, there's reason to doubt". Miami Herald. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  11. ^ a b Charlier, Philippe; Weil, Raphael; Rainsard, P.; Poupon, Joël; Brisard, J.C. (1 May 2018). "The remains of Adolf Hitler: A biomedical analysis and definitive identification". European Journal of Internal Medicine. 54: e10 – e12. doi:10.1016/j.ejim.2018.05.014. PMID 29779904. S2CID 29159362.
  12. ^ Joachimsthaler 1999, pp. 22–23, 174, 252–53.
  13. ^ Kershaw, Ian (2000). Hitler, 1936–1945: Nemesis. New York; London: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 1110. ISBN 978-0-393-32252-1.
  14. ^ Vassigh, Alidad (4 December 2021). "Why Ghosts Of Hitler Keep Appearing In Colombia". Worldcrunch. Retrieved 27 July 2025.
  15. ^ a b c d e ¿Hitler visitó Colombia? Esta sería la prueba reina ante documentos desclasificados de JFK (in Spanish). Noticias Caracol. 26 July 2023. Retrieved 7 May 2025 – via YouTube.
  16. ^ Salomé, René (9 August 2023). "'Las fotos de Hitler después de la guerra': por qué afirman que el líder nazi no se suicidó". infobae (in European Spanish). Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  17. ^ Archacki, Liam (9 April 2025). "CIA Probed Photo of 'Hitler in Colombia' Years after the War". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  18. ^ Freixes, Josep (21 March 2025). "Declassified CIA Documents Fuel Belief that Hitler Fled to Colombia". Colombia One: News from Colombia and the World. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
  19. ^ Nair, Joshua (9 April 2025). "Truth behind photo of 'Adolf Hitler' taken years after death as it's shown in declassified CIA document". LADbible. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  20. ^ Brisard, Jean-Christophe and Parshina, Lana (2018). The Death of Hitler. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0306922589.
  21. ^ "Hitlers letzte Reise". Der Spiegel (in German). 19 July 1992. Retrieved 6 March 2021.

Sources

  • Joachimsthaler, Anton (1999) [1995]. The Last Days of Hitler: The Legends, The Evidence, The Truth. London: Brockhampton Press. ISBN 978-1-86019-902-8.
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