Original subtitles

male narrator: Previously on "Hunting Hitler"...

Perón is overthrown in '55. The page is turned in Argentina.

Hitler would have been obligated to get up and move.

From Bariloche, Chile is right over the mountain range.

The story started coming out that your father

was Martin Bormann.

If Bormann is here, Hitler is not very far away.

Four men came to her house, and they said

they came from Colonia Dignidad.

Colonia Dignidad, a German community

led by a Nazi corporal. But they're not gonna want to

talk about their Nazi past or any part of it.

They've changed their name to Villa Baviera.

Whoa, look at this.

Last time I saw a fence like that,

I was on a military base. Oh, my God.

Guard tower.

This road's locked down.

This is the only way in and the only way out.

Welcome to the utopian German colony of Villa Baviera.

1955, Perón is overthrown, Argentina is no longer

a safe haven for Adolf Hitler or any senior Nazi,

so they have to go somewhere.

All roads lead to Chile.

narrator: CIA veteran Bob Baer and war crimes investigator

Dr. John Cencich review the investigation

in Chile, where they have uncovered

Colonia Dignidad,

a secretive German community

that, according to a declassified CIA file,

operated as a cult and could have provided refuge

for Nazi war criminals.

If Hitler was in Chile, his only bet

is Colonia Dignidad.

You have a remote part of Chile.

A known Nazi sets this place up,

a community where Germans can go

and within those walls of that community

remain anonymous.

narrator: In 1959, Paul Schafer,

a former Nazi corporal, fled Germany and, along with

300 German followers, eventually set up

Colonia Dignidad deep in the mountains of Chile.

For over three decades, Colonia Dignidad

operated officially as a religious

and agricultural commune, but their true activities

were unknown, as access to the compound

was highly restricted.

In 2005, Schafer was arrested

on 25 counts of child abuse, and eventually died

in police custody. After his death,

colony members took over the compound

and changed its name to Villa Baviera,

where residents still live, as well as offer tourists

an authentic German experience in Chile.

You look at the defenses, location,

something was going on at Colonia Dignidad other than

a religious community.

The deeper we get into this, the more mysterious it becomes.

John, you look at this, the barbed wire fences.

This is like a military camp.

I worked on bases like this.

This is a protected area.

Absolutely.

This picture was taken by Tim and Mike.

They're calling it the Villa Baviera,

The restaurants, the hotel, the special events,

the outdoor activities-- this image here is not aligned

with what we know. They have a darker past.

They're trying to erase history.

It's gone down the memory hole.

We need to find out what's really going on.

What evidence is behind these walls that would allow us

to have a better picture of activities

that were designed to support

fleeing, high-ranking Nazi war criminals?

It's clear to me that they're not gonna

be able to go in there and ask direct questions.

To pull this off, the team needs to go

in an undercover capacity, and while doing that,

ferret out what really went on behind these walls decades ago.

It can be done.

I'm confident Tim and Mike are the people for that task.

Let's get into Colonia Dignidad.

Look at this.

Guard tower. Oh, my God.

There's no reason to have that there

except to cover the road.

If you put a machine gun up there,

this road's locked down.

narrator: U.S. Army Special Forces Tim Kennedy,

reconnaissance expert Mike Simpson,

and their translator America prepare to enter the compound

of Villa Baviera.

We came here to find evidence that Adolf Hitler could have

come to Colonia Dignidad.

We didn't expect to find a tourist attraction.

So we're operating on the ruse that we are there

for the purpose of making a travel show

about beautiful places in Chile to visit,

and this new tourist attraction, Villa Baviera.

narrator: The team makes contact

with a representative from Villa Baviera,

who has arranged for a guided tour of the site.

Mucho gusto. Tim.

Our first time here. Can you tell us

a little bit about it?

What are you gonna show us first?

- Lead the way. - Yeah.

Bienvenido.

- This is the restaurant. - Wow.

They open every day, and it's full.

- The food's that good. - Yes, yes. Very good.

The image that they're putting out to the general public

is completely different than the declassified information

that we have.

It literally feels like revisionist history.

- Sausage masters. - Ooh, look at that.

So, I mean, everything comes from here?

- Yeah, yes. - Your vegetables

come from here, your cheese comes from here,

your sausages come from here. - Yes, yes.

Now that we've seen these pictures of the sausage,

I wanna see where the sausage comes from.

It's very easy to see how someone could be swept away

in all of this, never knowing exactly what happened here.

How long have you guys been making sausages here?

What's your favorite part about living here?

He would say the freedom, the nature, the safety.

It's very safe here?

It was not always like that.

Maybe you didn't come here for those stories.

- Ooh. - You know?

You know, when you have a butcher that says

Colonia Dignidad is way safer now,

that bad things used to happen here,

those are the clues that are telling us

that we're not getting the full truth right now.

This was Paul Schafer's room.

We'll respect everything.

We're here for the tour. What else is there to see?

- The bunkers. - Sí.

Oh, yeah.

So in a communal society, why do you need Fort Knox here?

What was in here?

There is a massive safe built into the center of the bunker.

Just another red flag, just another thing that is

standing up saying something's not adding up.

Wow.

Wow, I wasn't expecting that.

So what exactly are we looking at here?

Every room in the place had a small set of speakers.

Like an intercom?

- Sí, sí. - Yes.

So they had extensive infrastructure

for communication. - Sí.

The technology for the time period that we're talking about

was state-of-the-art. There were thousands

of communication nodes. That tells me this entire

bunker complex underground was equipped

with two-way communications.

That's military grade right there.

All right, where to next?

I've seen what they wanted to show me,

but I've picked up on so much more.

This was built with a military perspective.

These are indications that this religious,

agricultural community was something else entirely.

We cannot stop until we find the truth

about Colonia Dignidad.

narrator: In the capital of Chile, Tim Kennedy,

Gerrard Williams, Mike Simpson, and translator America

have uncovered a man by the name

of Winfred Hemple...

- Hola. - Hola.

narrator: Who was once a resident of Colonia Dignidad.

Sit down, please.

Winfred Hemple lived in Colonia Dignidad.

He was born there. He was raised there.

There is no one better to tell us exactly

what went on behind those fences.

Thank you for meeting with us. Could you start by telling us

a little bit about Colonia Dignidad?

They couldn't even think about going out of the colony

because there were a group of men that had guns and dogs,

and they were the ones who would recover the prisoners

who were trying to escape.

What would happen to that person?

You're in prison without even knowing you're in prison.

Everything Schafer did was all about fear.

It is the most powerful tool you can wield psychologically.

When you've got this level of control,

people will do anything you want.

You could have marched a high-ranking Nazi

right into the compound, ordering everybody

to turn their backs and face away.

Nobody would've seen them.

- Is Schafer openly Nazi? - Yes.

There were people who were openly Nazis.

- In his group? - Yes.

- In the--in the... - In the Schafer group?

Yes, yes.

- Walter Rauff? - Yes.

- Who's Walter Rauff? - Walter Rauff is

a disgusting creature who invents the mobile gas van

for murdering Jews on the road.

Were they senior in the colony's organization?

The colony has a hierarchy.

The first level was Schafer and his associates,

then there were the colonists.

Do you think it would be possible for Paul Schafer

or his inner circle to hide people

inside of Colonia Dignidad without people knowing?

They knew they couldn't enter some areas of the colony,

but they always saw people from the army,

military people around the colony.

So even amongst the colonists, there were areas

that you do not go here?

Colonia Dignidad is segregated,

and each of these compartmentalizations

prohibited access from one colony member

to any other part of the camp.

This is ideal to move high-value targets.

If Adolf Hitler wanted to fly and land there

and gain access to all the other areas

that even the people living on the colony didn't have

access to, this is the place.

We went to Colonia Dignidad, and we got the formal tour.

Is there more there for us if we were to go back?

Sí.

What they show is this bucolic face

that Schafer cultivated.

We're not finished investigating.

What I'm asking is tough, but I wanna know:

will you go back there with us?

Whatever was happening there, they didn't want

the world to know about.

I've met a lot of heroic and courageous men,

and you are at the top of that list.

We are seeing the true face of Colonia Dignidad.

This is evil, this is brutality,

this is bigger than we ever thought.

I think there was a cult there,

but it's not the only thing that was there.

I think the cult was the front for something else.

narrator: Bob and John review the findings

from the field team in Chile.

Winfred was born there. All he knew

about the outside world was which way

was north, south, east, and west.

That says it all.

Completely secluded from the world.

And he was talking about the whole place

being compartmented. Civilians living on one side,

then you have the secret part of the base,

which is run for military purposes.

Keep the civilians out. Keep it separated.

Keep the security high.

I haven't seen communications facilities this complicated

on American military bases I've been on.

They were doing something there, and that's the question is what.

According to Winfred, there's a secretive aspect

that's perhaps more nefarious,

and that is the presence of Nazis.

They met in areas that were completely off limits

for everybody else in the compound.

The way Colonia Dignidad operates reminds me

of North Korea. You simply do not see

North Koreans leaving and talking to people

on the outside. Absolute total control.

But they were out to do bad things.

That's why they needed to keep secrets.

Who lived in that compound?

I mean who was so important to marshal

that kind of resources in total secrecy?

Let me show you something here.

Yeah, this is it right here. It's a now-declassified

German Parliament document, and it goes on to talk about

the arrests in Chile of eight more members

of the leadership of Colonia Dignidad,

including an ex-member of Adolf Hitler's

personal body guard formation, Kurt Schnellenkamp.

His bodyguard? This is huge.

Not only was he the one-time bodyguard of Adolf Hitler,

but a member of the leadership of Colonia Dignidad.

That's an amazing connection.

If Adolf Hitler's body guard

was in Colonia Dignidad, who else was

in Colonia Dignidad?

Who was he protecting? What was he doing there?

This is not just a colony of Germans with Nazi sympathies.

Right now in my mind, it's not a question

if Nazis were there, it's what were they doing there?

And it could be as simple as protecting Adolf Hitler

or planning for the Fourth Reich.

I think what we need to do now is go to the militarized parts

of this compound base and figure out

could it have housed Adolf Hitler?

I mean, was there a facility that he could have gone

and stayed at securely and his identity protected?

No matter how we look at this, this is not going to be

an easy mission.

With or without their cooperation,

we will get to the truth.

- That's Winfred right there. - Yep.

narrator: Tim Kennedy and Mike Simpson

reconnect with Winfred Hemple,

a former resident of Colonia Dignidad...

- Morning. - Morning.

narrator: Now known as Villa Baviera.

Winfred has agreed to help the team try and get

access to the hidden areas of the compound that,

according to a declassified German document,

was a refuge for Adolf Hitler's

personal body guard after the war.

We have to be able to get more access.

Mm-hmm.

They're just gonna show you what they want you to see.

Right.

I need to see where the bad things happened.

Mm.

You know, the things that they're hiding.

Yeah. How do we get in there?

There's a semi-public road. Trucks go in that way,

so they don't have such a strict control.

So they can't completely control it.

Exactly.

- So there's another way in? - Yes, yes.

We can't do this without Winfred.

He lived there. He understands the culture.

Winfred can see through the smoke.

That's exactly what we need to do

to get the truth from Colonia Dignidad.

narrator: Winfred leads the team

to a military installation located five miles south

of the center of the colony.

Wow.

You're on top of the world here.

Golly.

We're about just shy of 3,000 feet up,

off the valley floor.

I've been in special forces for 15 years.

That tower is better than some of the things that I had

on my own fire bases in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It's massive. It is tactically positioned

on top of the tallest point in the entire valley.

We have to know what you can see from there.

Check this door out.

There's a little bit of a gap between the top of the fence

and the barbed wire in the back.

There it's pushed down a little bit.

Yeah.

I'm gonna start the ascent.

He's roughly as high as a six-story building right now.

Roger that.

Standing right here, I'm able to see

absolutely everything.

I can see the Andes Mountains east of us.

To the west of us, on a clear day,

I can probably even see the ocean.

I can see the valley floor, which is 2,500 feet below me.

And here to the south, I can see all of Colonia Dignidad.

This is unbelievable.

Nothing could go in or out of Colonia Dignidad

for 100 miles without somebody seeing it from here.

They would have had an hour, if not more, of early warning.

This is the first sign that this was strategic,

this was planned and executed and built for a reason,

and that reason resonates military.

Anything that's gonna come from any direction,

they will have early warning from that watch tower

to be able to to get anyone they're hiding out safely

without anyone knowing.

Go in here, please.

narrator: Winfred leads the team toward the center

of the compound and the perimeter fence

that surrounds the entire property.

Here, there's something you should see.

The hell is that?

So there's an access ladder on this side.

All right, so there's the panel box here.

There's probably hundreds of wires running into it.

Oh, yeah.

These wires aren't-- this isn't power.

Where was all this running though?

Tim, look at this.

Wires coming out here.

Mike, there's way more over here.

This one connects to chain link fence.

This one connects to the barbed wire.

That's a different level-- it connects to

a different strand of barbed wire.

Yeah, there's tons over here, Tim.

Oh, man.

This is wired into a connector, going directly into

what holds this piece of wire on.

So somebody pushes on this, puts an electrical impulse

through this. This goes to

a command somewhere, and a light on

a switch board lights up. Tells you what number the post.

Somebody really did not want people climbing this fence.

Tim.

Mike!

- Yeah? - You gotta see this.

The hell is that?

- It's Styrofoam. - What?

It's painted like a rock.

You have moss on here, a little screen in front of it.

This is like Hollywood-level design.

This looks to me like an old-fashioned electric eye

infrared sensor. Basically an infrared trip wire,

so anything coming through here is gonna trip it.

We have concentric lines of defense.

FiFiyou had your primary.

The observation post is essentially early warning.

On the second one, we have the outside perimeter fence,

with thousands of sensors running into it.

You know this is an indication of thorough security.

The only reason you're doing things like this

is if you are protecting the people at the highest level,

the highest.

All right, so help us out here.

narrator: Deep in the mountains of Chile,

Tim Kennedy, Mike Simpson,

and an ex-resident of Colonia Dignidad,

Winfred Hemple, are investigating

the former grounds of this secret German community

with reported ties to Nazis on the run.

They have already uncovered multiple military-style

defenses surrounding the compound.

This is layer after layer with perfect control.

You have the fences, you have the observation,

you have the communication, you have everything you need.

Question is how do you hide and protect Hitler?

If Adolf Hitler is being harbored and protected

in Colonia Dignidad, you're gonna have hidden houses,

safe houses, hideouts, with the infrastructure

to be able to support that.

Is there a place anywhere in Colonia Dignidad

where, if I brought a very important person in,

I could hide them completely?

There was structure underground?

To your knowledge, were any of these some place

that somebody could live for an extended period of time?

Sí, sí.

There first-- there's a warehouse,

and there's a bunker.

Can we get inside any of the bunkers?

Can we get inside any of the tunnels?

We gotta go there. We have to see them.

Let's move.

narrator: To minimize their exposure,

the team heads out on foot to explore the tunnel

and bunker system in the heart of the compound.

It's like a cloak-and-dagger mission.

We're trying to move surreptitiously

through Colonia Dignidad, but there are eyes everywhere.

Every move counts. We have to be careful.

We have to stay under the radar.

We make a mistake, we get caught.

We get caught, we can't get to the truth.

- Mike, you gotta see this. - I'm on my way.

Oh, my God.

Look at this.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of sensors.

There would've been an alarm board here.

And this is just one layer.

This is just that one fence ring.

This is, like, a permanent duty station, you know.

There's massive, vast communication systems in place.

Most importantly, there's just line after line,

cord after cord, all going to different sensors

throughout that region of Colonia Dignidad.

If this is a military compound that's protecting Adolf Hitler,

you would expect to find security like this.

narrator: The team makes their way through

a complex network of tunnels, extending outwards

from the command base.

Got a bunch of machinery in here.

This is a compressed air tank.

These are hydraulic pistons. There's the fluid,

and then we got matching hinged pieces on the end.

Hey, look at this.

This is a movable piece here.

I think--you know what?

narrator: The team has discovered

what they believe to be a hydraulic-powered

barrier system. When deployed,

two high-powered hydraulic arms could have raised

the barrier upwards, preventing the movement

of personnel and vehicles.

Yeah.

This immediately reminded me of White House security.

It appears that they are really trying to protect

a very, very important person. They could lock down the gate

completely without ever exposing themselves in any fashion.

All right, we got the end of line here.

All right.

Holy [bleep]. We have a massive room.

- What the [bleep]? - Yeah.

There's some in here I didn't expect.

Soundproofing.

Yeah, they're soundproofing this room.

Why?

You know what this is?

A 12x12 reinforced concrete cement bunker

in the center of the compound is the perfect place

for Adolf Hitler to be protected,

and he has the perfect place to run to

when things get too hot for him.

If you wanted a safe house, if you wanted a hideout,

this fits the bill.

narrator: Winfred leads the team to the warehouse

located in the epicenter of the compound, just 500 yards

from the entrance to the bunker system.

When you lived here, what were you told this was?

What would happen to you if you came

and tried to look here?

What went on here?

- They built guns? - They built guns.

Not where they kept guns. They built guns here?

They used to copy them and then assemble new ones.

- Re-fabrication of firearms. - Yeah.

This is major. This is like a country

within a country where they can do

anything they want.

Yeah, yeah.

It makes my heart race.

- She's the person in charge. - Okay.

And we're allowed to visit just three places.

Are you telling us we have to leave?

Yes, we have to leave right now.

Okay.

Layers of security: towers, fences, motion sensors,

and now you have manufacturing weapons.

They could have been building this Fourth Reich,

armed and supplied, all from one location.

It's terrifying.

You couldn't write a fictional story like this.

Nobody would believe it.

I've been on a lot of military bases

all over the world. This type of security

is more consistent with the security measures

that are implemented relative to a military operation

than it is protecting a cult.

narrator: Bob and John review the findings

from their investigation of Colonia Dignidad in Chile,

where a declassified German document places

Adolf Hitler's personal body guard

hiding out at this secretive compound after World War II.

At the end of the day, some serious people

put this facility together, and they did it

with a purpose and a mission.

We have right here the watch tower.

This is tactically placed. You can see everything

in the whole area. It's the first line of defense.

Second line of defense, you've got infrared trips.

You've got wired fence. This security,

if this goes back to the '60s,

matches any military base security

in the United States.

And what you have here at the core

are tunnels and bunkers,

reinforced communications equipment.

A good place to hide out of the center of things.

And then you have a weapons warehouse.

You have to have a military force to recreate

the Fourth Reich. Here, you could create weapons.

In the center is the most important piece: the weapons.

Warehouse, development, we don't know what's in there,

but it's not Misiones, where, you know, fine,

you can go hide out in the jungle.

This is something much bigger than Misiones.

We cannot exclude the possibility

that Hitler made it to Colonia Dignidad,

and started planning the Fourth Reich.

You just can't.

But this weapons facility is still a mystery,

what they were making there.

Eliminate the possibility this is just

conventional weapons being made here.

They were not there making single-action rifles

to invade the United States. It just doesn't make sense.

I agree.

What would they need conventional weapons for?

It doesn't fit.

If this base was being used for the Fourth Reich,

we need to know what kind of weapons

are being made in this warehouse,

and that will tell us what this whole place

is really about.

If we can't get inside, at the very least,

we need a human source. We need an informant to tell us

who has actual first-hand knowledge

of what was going on on the inside of that building.

Gracias.

So, Gael, you can go in first 'cause you speak Spanish.

You can introduce us. - Okay.

And that'll help me out.

narrator: In hopes of determining the nature

of reported weapons manufacturing

at Colonia Dignidad...

Señor Fernandez, Gerrard.

Gerrard Williams, nice to meet you.

narrator: Gerrard Williams and his translator Gael

meet with Hernan Fernandez, a lawyer who represents

former residents of Colonia Dignidad

in a 20-year-long civil case

against the colony's leadership.

I know that you have a case against Colonia Dignidad.

What can you tell me about the colony making guns?

We know for a fact that Colonia Dignidad had

the weapon manufacturer there.

How many guns? What sort of guns?

Big amount of weapons of war, ready-to-be-used weapons of war.

Ready to be sold.

Rifles and sub-machine guns?

We know that Colonia Dignidad

effectively was a Nazi Community.

Now we have weapons manufacturing going on there.

Big question here: why?

There was also chemical weapons,

like the sarin gas. - Sarin gas?

Sí.

Sarin in its gas form is a very, very nasty chemical.

If it gets into the hands of the wrong people,

a lot of people are gonna die.

How did they make sarin gas in the middle of Chile?

They had the resources to both get national chemists,

but also to bring people from abroad.

It's just horrible beyond belief.

Amazingly, we're talking about one of the nastiest

chemical weapons the world has ever heard of.

We don't know exactly what they originally

planned to do, but this looks like

they're planning a Germany that can exist

in the 20th century.

I think the team is actually much closer

to resolving the question as to what was happening

in this warehouse.

narrator: Bob and John review the findings from Chile,

where they have uncovered testimony

regarding the possible nature of weapons manufacturing

at Colonia Dignidad.

Members of the team have interviewed a lawyer,

and he is alleging that they were manufacturing

weapons of war. But beyond that,

he is alleging that they were manufacturing

chemical weapons, specifically sarin.

Sarin is a battlefield biochemical weapon.

It's a weapon of mass destruction.

If you have a system to disperse sarin,

you could take out a major American city.

The casualties would be catastrophic.

Could this warehouse have been a facility

for the production of sarin?

Absolutely you could make sarin here and store it.

I was in Syria when they were making sarin gas,

and they just had a couple scientists

trained abroad, like the Nazis would be,

and took not particularly sophisticated labs

that were easily concealed and built these things.

It is hideously lethal.

We knew that Hitler, whether he lived or died,

had this vision for the continuation

of his empire in Colonia Dignidad.

The leads pan out.

Exactly, look, you've got sarin.

You've got weapons manufacturing.

You've got Nazis, and, for all we know, Adolf Hitler.

This isn't the Fourth Reich in theory.

This is the Fourth Reich in act.

I never thought we'd get this far.

Earlier in the investigation, we uncovered that Hitler

could have escaped, but now, with this leg

of the investigation, we've uncovered

so, so much more.

I found an exit into a new tunnel.

Are you kidding me?

Now Hitler's got another way out.

This isn't Saddam Hussein hiding in

a spider hole underground.

This was well-funded, well-planned, well in advance.

Any wealthy Nazi officials met to plan the formation of...

Hitler had, at his disposal, a massive network

with thousands of loyal Nazis.

All could have put together his escape plan

and sustained him for years.

Like Martin Bormann...

People were really scared to see him because there were

a lot of deaths happening around him.

Before the end of the war, Bormann had set up a plan

for Hitler's escape.

Adolf Eichmann.

Why was he here?

We got an escape tunnel. That's what this is.

In addition to that, he would have had

the highest levels of government support.

Yeah, we've seen it from Spain...

As well as in Argentina.

Perón essentially was giving Dr. Richter

anything he wanted moneywise.

We're not just talking about governments,

we're talking about heads of government,

dictators in South America who prepared

to protect Adolf Hitler. And once he was on the run,

he wouldn't have had just safe houses to hide out in.

He would have had military compounds.

That is huge. Why is this in the middle

of the jungle?

Like Misiones...

This feels like military barracks.

Bariloche...

Somebody sat back with a map and said,

"I'm gonna put Adolf Hitler here, a watch tower here,

and I'm gonna put a bunker here."

This is an interconnected military compound.

And now in Chile, we have a very large military compound.

In the center of the compound is the perfect place

for Adolf Hitler to be protected.

Military bases in South America

that were controlled by Nazis. The most terrifying thing for me

is that if Hitler had escaped, he didn't intend to give up.

He intended to attack the United States.

They had a plan using a weapon with a kill radius

which would've taken out Manhattan.

Not only did he intend to attack the United States,

he had the means to do major damage.

Secret munitions factories in Buenos Aires,

a nuclear program in the mountains of Argentina.

This is to prevent radiation from escaping.

That's how close they were.

Headquarters in Tangier, Morocco,

for the Nazi Fourth Reich.

This has all the markings of a military command center.

And Colonia Dignidad, where they could have used

weapons of mass destruction tucked away in Chile.

I started this out as a complete skeptic,

that this was impossible, Nazis going to South America

and setting up the Fourth Reich.

But every piece of information we keep digging up

points the same way.

And if there was ever a case to be made

that the Fourth Reich actually turned operational,

it's Colonia Dignidad.

What we found is something much more chilling

than Hitler's mere escape. The fact that you had people

committed to murdering us, that had the ability to make

weapons of mass destruction, and we were sort of

clueless what they were up to.

I think it's pretty damn scary.

Hitler was not a fugitive.

He was a man that intended to change history.

He was not gonna give up, he was not gonna retire,

he was not gonna go into permanent hiding.

He had the elements...

And the will.

He had big plans.

And the scariest part:

these people do not give up.