Hunting Hitler (2015–…): Season 3, Episode 4 - 150 Feet Below - full transcript
At the bottom of an Arctic fjord in Norway, Tim dives on Nazi relics that may blow the case wide open. Mike and James encounter a smuggler who leads them to Nazi castle on the Italian border.
Previously on
"Hunting Hitler"...
This is from June 12, 1945.
Look at this line.
"At this time,
the decision had been taken
to divide the ministries
in two parts
and establish
one government in the north
and one in the south."
What this file tells me
is they're splitting up,
creating multiple escape routes.
This one's from U.S. Army.
"Kaltenbrunner was arrested.
He had been hiding
in a mountain cabin
called 'Wildensee Hut.'"
He was Commander in Chief
of all German forces
in Southern Europe.
He knows how to get away.
So why did he hang out
in this hut?
We both agree
that this is a dead-end spot.
What if his sole purpose
was drawing somebody up
into the absolute
worst direction to flee?
Meanwhile, everyone else is
using all these better routes
to get out of here.
This file's telling us
that they've got
a special-weapons plant
here in Rjukan, Norway.
We know Hitler fantasized
about destroying Manhattan.
Was that weapon
being developed here?
What's going on at Rjukan
will tell us
what their plans were
for the Fourth Reich.
Heavy water wamade here?
It was made here, yes.
This is Adolf Hitler
developing a component
for a nuclear weapon.
Where were they storing it?
I think I can fit in there.
We have to know where the Nazis
could have moved heavy water
and what they were
gonna do with it.
I see a room back there.
There's nothing in there.
It's empty.
HUNTING HITLER - SEASON 3
EP - 4 - 150 Feet Below
Look at everything
we found in Norway.
We've got a country
that's sympathetic to the Nazis.
We found defenses.
It's a fortress.
21-year CIA veteran Bob Baer
and former terrorist-targeting
officer Nada Bakos
are using
an asset-mapping strategy,
tracking Hitler's
known associates
to pinpoint exactly where he
could have gone after the war.
The team is investigating
two possible escape routes
for Adolf Hitler...
A southern route
through Altaussee, Austria,
and a northern route
through Rjukan, Norway,
where, in the basement
of a demolished factory,
they have uncovered evidence
of a Nazi secret operation
to manufacture heavy water,
a key compound
in nuclear-weapons production.
The team was able to get
into that basement,
and they found that there
wasn't any heavy water there.
The Nazis could have
gotten it out.
Hitler fantasized about
having a nuclear bomb,
and the key facility for
making one is here in Norway.
Weapons of mass destruction
would be a
"Get Out of Jail Free" card.
Hitler understood this.
If Hitler is gonna go
to South America
and he wants to survive
and establish the Fourth Reich,
he needs a bomb.
He's not gonna do it
with a conventional army.
You don't have a plan
without the bomb.
And South America has a fair
amount of natural uranium.
So in order for this
heavy water to be useful,
they need to get it from Norway
down to South America
to combine it with the uranium.
In the 1940s,
heavy water was at the center
of the Nazi nuclear program.
Created by running massive
electrical current
through normal water,
this key ingredient
was combined with uranium
to make plutonium,
the explosive component
of a nuclear bomb.
At this point in the war,
the only way to get this stuff
to South America is by boat.
They do not have a plane
that can make it to Argentina.
We have to dig into the records.
Look at this. U.S. Army.
April 7, 1945...
"Nazi U-boat bases in Norway."
"In Narvik was the Aviso Grille,
formerly 'Fuehrer-Yacht, '
which served as headquarters
for the command
of all U-boats in Norway."
What we've got here is Hitler
personally involved
in this operation.
His personal yacht
has been converted
to a command boat for U-boats.
Commissioned in 1935,
Hitler's 440-foot Aviso Grille
was the largest yacht
in the world,
a gift from the people
to its ruler.
In addition to 35 luxury cabins
for hosting diplomats,
the Grille was modified
with three cannons,
six anti-aircraft guns,
and two machine guns.
Hitler used the boat
to inspect the German Navy
and had dreams of sailing
victorious into London
if the Nazis had won the war.
Using Hitler's yacht tells me
that this was
a clandestine operation.
Using it to move the heavy
water, that would make sense.
Hitler's yacht tells us
that Narvik was extremely
important to Hitler.
Something is going on here
which I need an explanation for.
Where is Narvik?
Narvik is right here,
the top of Norway,
completely off the grid.
Here's all the Allied activity
right in here,
and you simply go around
either over the Faroe Islands
or even over Iceland.
This completely bypasses
the entire action
at the end of World War II.
Was Narvik the staging point
to send heavy water to Argentina
to make a nuclear bomb
to create the Fourth Reich?
This could have been
headquarters
for U-boat activity,
but we have to investigate
to see what they actually
were doing here.
Investigating Hitler's potential
northern escape route,
U.S. Army Special Forces
Tim Kennedy
lands in Narvik, Norway.
If Hitler's yacht
was located here in Narvik
and it was serving as
the headquarters for U-boats,
they would also be capable of
transporting cargo and materiel
like heavy water out of Europe
and into South America.
Harald. Hello, Tim.
Tim makes contact with maritime
historian Harald Isaksen
who has studied Nazi
infrastructure and activity
in Narvik over the last century.
We have a document that says
the Fuehrer had his yacht here
in Narvik.
Have you heard of Hitler's yacht
being used as the headquarters
for the submarines? Yes.
Wow.
Even after Germany surrendered,
there are still 15 boats here,
completely operational.
They were ready to go
and do whatever the Nazis
needed them to do.
There's no question that this
is a hub for Nazi activity.
Why did they move
the headquarters
for the submarines to Narvik?
So on May 4th, the Allies
did a bombing in this area?
That's incredible.
The Allies are coming here
on May 4th.
The war is over.
They're... They're not trying
to turn the tides.
They're not trying
to win a battle.
There's no doubt that they knew
there was something valuable
that they needed to bomb,
that they needed to destroy.
They were trying
to prevent the Nazis
from getting something out.
We know that heavy water
was being produced in Norway.
Do you think that that
heavy water got out of Norway?
I-Is there any evidence that's
left that they didn't destroy?
According to Harald,
there are things that shouldn't
be on the ocean floor...
Equipment, cargo, or maybe even
samples of heavy water
that they are transporting
to South America.
Where should I look?
If we're gonna find any evidence
of the Germans
moving heavy water
out of the Narvik area,
it's gonna be right here.
This was their chance
of making the Fourth Reich
come to fruition.
If there's something there,
we're gonna find it.
Sounds to me like this is the
last bastion of the Third Reich.
The question is, were
they moving heavy water
out of this port?
While the team
continues to investigate
Hitler's potential northern
escape route in Norway,
Bob and Nada
dig into the findings
from the southern escape route
through Altaussee, Austria,
where the team uncovered
that two of Hitler's
close associates...
Ernst Kaltenbrunner
and Adolf Eichmann...
Were hiding out after the war.
We know Eichmann gets
to South America,
so we know the route worked.
But how did he get there?
It's not easy
to cross borders in 1945.
We figure out how Eichmann
managed this,
we can figure out
how other Nazis managed it,
and we can figure out whether it
was adequate to get Hitler out.
We need to look into the route
that Eichmann used,
see if we can retrace his steps.
So let's search for Eichmann
within 150 miles of Altaussee.
Look. Here we go.
CIA, 1950, "Eichmann's Flight."
"Good old Frau Huber
gave me a schnapps
then dispatched me
to another inn near the Brenner.
My hostess, who belonged
to the 'organization, '
was on the ball."
This says it all.
We've got a network that
gets Eichmann out of Altaussee
and out of the way
of U.S. troops.
He had people
that would protect him.
Yeah, they had a whole
facilitation network set up.
The Brenner Pass
is a mountain road
that goes from Austria to Italy.
The region is called Tyrol.
It's German-speaking.
The Tyrol region is shared
by Austria, Switzerland, Italy.
It's basically this area
right in here.
We found Nazis operating
in the tri-border region
between Brazil, Paraguay,
and Argentina,
and now we have Nazis operating
in another tri-border region
between Switzerland,
Austria, and Italy.
All fugitives head
to border regions
because they know it's where
you can operate freely.
This area reminds me
of Afghanistan and Pakistan
and the tribal areas where the
borders are somewhat irrelevant.
These are people who share
culture and a language,
and that,
especially for Eichmann,
is one of the most
important reasons
for him to use this area.
We've established that
Eichmann got to South America.
Were there other Nazis
using this network?
Could that have included
moving Adolf Hitler?
I want to get the team
to Tyrol to investigate.
Just looking at this place
knowing that Eichmann was here
makes me shudder.
Along Hitler's
potential southern escape route,
World War II historian
James Holland,
U.S. Army Green Beret
Mike Simpson,
and their translator, Katja,
land in Tyrol,
the border region
between Austria and Italy.
Eichmann talked about
coming here
and being sent over the border
by an organization,
and we've come here to
investigate this organization.
How widespread was it?
How important was it for
Nazi war criminals on the run?
Hello. Guten tag.
The team makes contact
with Andreas Hortnagl,
the former mayor
of Gries am Brenner,
the town on the Austrian border
of the Brenner Pass.
So where is the pass in relation
to where we're standing now?
These are the Brenner Mountains.
The border is exactly
on this mountain here.
The Brenner
is right down the hill.
If we were to walk down,
that's where we'd be.
So this is Austria,
but that's Italy
right there on the other side
of the pass.
This is the lowest part
of the Alps.
So even in Roman times,
the legions came through
this pass, here.
So, at the end of the war,
was there an influx
of Nazis into this area?
He says, "People were
flooding down this road.
You had civilian refugees,
German soldiers,
and people, of course,
fleeing justice."
Really, the perfect cover for
fleeing Nazis to mix in with.
So, do you know where
Eichmann crossed?
It was done in absolute secrecy.
So, first he spent three days
there in the valley.
There was an inn,
and if things got dangerous,
it was quite easy to, then,
quickly move
to a farmhouse nearby.
Just down here?
Down here,
went up that mountain,
and had a guide,
a smuggler, to lead him up.
But why would you need a guide?
I mean, that looks not at all
challenging in the slightest.
The same reason people
crossing our southern border
need the coyotajes
to bring them across.
You need somebody
who knows the territory
and also knows where
there might be
any border security patrols,
how to avoid that.
It's not a simple matter
of getting a compass direction
and going.
It was already known
that Eichmann had been here
and had crossed the border here,
but then Andreas uses the word
"smuggler."
This paints
an entirely new picture.
Any Nazi soldier
who was just fleeing
Germany after the war would
have had a support network.
This was planned.
So, the question is,
what resources
were at their disposal?
That's what we have to find out.
I just wonder whether there are
any of these smugglers
still alive.
He knows of a Herr Schupf,
who had a very, very close
relationship with the smuggling.
That's huge.
This is a place
in our investigation
that hasn't been closely
looked at before in this aspect.
James, Mike, and Katja made
contact with Walter Schupf,
a former smuggler for Nazi war
criminals in the Tyrol region.
So, how did you
get into that line of work?
He's been a smuggler
since he was 13 years old.
His father took him along.
They smuggled coffee and
cigarettes from Switzerland,
and there was a great deal
of poverty here,
and the only way to survive
was through smuggling.
Do you remember the first time
that your cargo was people?
After the war,
there are a great many
displaced people and refugees,
especially soldiers
trying to get back home,
and since he was born
and raised here,
he knows every mountain path,
and he helped
a lot of people cross.
Were there people
that you smuggled
that you know
for sure were Nazis?
He says, "There were
Nazis being smuggled
from the other side
of the border across to here."
Oh, wow.
Yep. Smuggling kept them alive.
Life at the end of the war
was incredibly tough
in this corner of Tyrol.
There was just no jobs around,
there was no money around,
and you had to do
what you had to do.
So, in those years
after the war,
if I was quite a well-known Nazi
or a war criminal,
even a head of state,
and I was trying to get
into Italy from Austria,
do you think
it would be possible?
Absolutely easy because
they had a lot of money.
Did they have specific smugglers
that they preferred
and that they worked with?
They already had connections.
Do you think there was
some kind of organization,
some network,
for these war criminals?
Yes.
So they were using people
that they trusted.
They'd already vetted them
and organized them.
Paints a very
coordinated picture.
Well, it's painting
two pictures, isn't it?
There's the kind of
ordinary people,
and then there's
the special cases,
and that's two completely
different setups.
It's a perfect recipe.
Not only were there
smugglers for hire
willing to take these escaping
Nazis across the border,
but the upper crust would have
had more resources to cross.
This is very exciting news.
This could very well have been
the same organization
and infrastructure
that helped Adolf Hitler to flee
as well.
Obviously, this is
a smuggling ring.
And you could smuggle
about just anything you wanted
across these borders.
While the team
continues to investigate
Hitler's potential
southern escape route,
Bob and Nada shift their focus
to the northern escape route
in Norway
where a declassified file
points to the port of Narvik
as a possible location the Nazis
used to move heavy water,
a key component in
nuclear-weapons manufacturing,
out of Europe.
The Nazis put a lot
of time and money
into making heavy water
here in Norway.
At Bariloche in Argentina,
they had a nuclear reactor
that required heavy water.
- Oh, my God.
- This is the reactor place.
Was planning to make it
very big.
This is to prevent
radiation from escaping.
They didn't make it locally,
so you smuggle
the heavy water out of Norway,
get it to Argentina,
and you're ready to go.
So I think what we need to do
is find concrete proof
of how they were
moving heavy water
out of here to South America,
but our only evidence is gonna
be underneath the water.
It is a port.
There's probably a lot of stuff
scattered along there.
What we're looking for is ways
to hold it... containers...
And ways to put it on boats.
If we can find examples
of this infrastructure,
it's gonna put
the pieces together for us.
We need to get the team
out in the water.
If you put anti-aircraft guns
on these mountains,
you put big guns by the sea,
this is impenetrable.
Along Hitler's
potential northern escape route
in Narvik, Norway, Tim Kennedy
continues to investigate
whether the Nazis
were able to move heavy water
out of Northern Norway
and on to South America.
Guys, are we good?
- Yeah.
- All right.
Joining the investigation
is marine surveyor
Frank Anderson
and his research team.
Working off local intel,
the team will search two miles
of a deep-water fjord
to try and uncover any remaining
evidence of Nazi infrastructure
that could have supported the
transportation of heavy water.
Let's start getting our gear on
the boat and get on the water.
If the Germans were moving
heavy water out of Narvik,
they would have
to have infrastructure,
equipment, and boats.
We have a general
area of interest.
The only thing left for us to do
is get on the water
and see what we can find.
This is our target area.
R.O.V.'s going in the water.
Tim deploys
an underwater R.O.V.,
or remotely operated vehicle,
equipped with side-scan
sonar technology,
similar to what
the United States Navy
uses to reveal the location
of enemy vessels
hiding along the ocean floor.
Using an acoustic pulse,
this state-of-the-art equipment
is able to detect
underwater anomalies
up to 1,000 feet in depth.
Have we had any
potential targets yet?
After two hours of scanning
the two-mile search area,
the team has yet to locate
any anomalies on the seafloor.
What is that?
We are right in the center
of our area of interest.
That's not coincidence.
Can you tell what that is?
- So, we got something.
- Yeah.
-Yeah.
Yeah, mark it.
Let's keep looking.
Located a half-mile offshore
and 30 feet below the water,
the team has detected a manmade
object nearly 15 feet wide.
Zoom out a little bit.
Is there anything right there?
Just that section
right there in the middle.
Yeah.
Yeahyou see, you have,
like, perpendicular lines.
You have a vertical line here
and a horizontal line
that cross section right there.
What was the depth of that?
00:22:32,952 --> 00:22:35,655
- Yeah.
- Mark it.
The team
has now found a second anomaly,
located 2,600 feet
from the first hit
and 60 feet down
on the ocean floor.
With more than 90%
of their search area covered,
the team begins to scan
the final sector.
- Right there! Right there!
- Yeah. Yeah.
Can you go back?
Right there! Right there!
Right there!
Look at that.
Look at... Look at the front.
What is that?
That's suspicious.
Like, that's not rock.
Yes! Yes!
At the end of their search area,
the team has uncovered
an enormous third anomaly,
resting at a depth
of nearly 150 feet.
We have a hit.
Can we tell how big it rises
from the seafloor?
That's massive.
So 150 feet, 160 feet...
-Yeah, most likely.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No doubt.
Holy
After completing our search,
we found three anomalies
that are standing out.
Now I have to identify
what they are.
That is me getting in the water
and putting eyes on them,
and hopefully uncover evidence
that the Nazis were moving...
Or could have the capability
of moving...
Heavy water in and out
of Narvik.
Now we got to get in the water.
This is from the sonar.
That's clearly
a man-made object.
It looks like a boat to me.
I think this is incredible.
While Tim lines up
this mission in Norway,
let's focus on
the southern route.
With the investigation
into Hitler's potential
northern escape route in Norway,
Bob and Nada
turn their attention
to the southern escape route
in the border region of Tyrol,
where a declassified document
points to an organization
set up to help fleeing Nazis,
including the architect of
the Holocaust, Adolf Eichmann.
I think we've established
that the Brenner Pass
was a funnel for Nazis
out of the Third Reich.
We've got a smuggler,
very credible.
My question is,
is there a possibility
they could have gotten
Adolf Hitler across here?
You're not gonna take the chance
of using an ordinary smuggler
with Adolf Hitler
simply for the fact
he could be recognized.
Right, exactly.
Can we find proof of a high
We need to get more information
on this smuggling network
and see if we can find out
how it functions.
This is from
the U.S. Department of State.
"On the Brenner Pass route,
the first stop
on the underground railroad
is at a castle
where the director is an agent
of the SS task force
who was responsible
to Kaltenbrunner and Himmler.
This castle is believed
to be the 'Schloss Labers.'"
There it is.
It's in black and white.
It's an underground railroad.
We're talking about the SS.
This is much more than
an individual smuggler.
Kaltenbrunner and Himmler
were devoted
to the survival of Adolf Hitler.
They have an organization,
and they've got a castle.
I think we're onto the beginning
of something really big here.
Kaltenbrunner and Himmler
were the most important people
in the SS...
The personal guard
of Adolf Hitler.
These were the guys
ordered to keep Hitler alive.
The only group that's gonna
get Hitler out is the SS,
period, end of story.
Could this castle have been a
safe house for high-level Nazis
transferring through
the Brenner Pass,
and was this SS task force
being used to smuggle
Hitler out of Germany?
We're moving up into the hills,
ideal location to see the rest
of town, commanding view.
Whoa! Look. Whoa.
That must be it.
Along Hitler's
potential southern escape route,
Mike and James land
on the Italian side
of the Tyrol border region.
The La Vista Report
outlines hard intelligence
that an SS task force was
operating out of a castle
here in the Tyrol region.
Could this be a key site
on this escape route...
This ratline...
For Adolf Hitler?
That's what we need to know.
Hello.
The team makes
contact with Jeorg Stapf,
whose family has owned
Castle Schloss Labers
and has been running it
as a hotel for generations.
What was going on in this place?
Okay.
They took over entirely?
So what do you think
it was about this castle
that made it attractive
to the Nazis?
Who is Schwend?
That's a pretty big network.
- Yeah.
- Yes.
Jeorg was clear that this was
a castle occupied by the SS,
Adolf Hitler's
personal bodyguards,
and, additionally,
the SS man in charge here
went by the name of Schwend.
That's clearly the commander
of the task force
mentioned in the document.
The fact that this location had
such a large SS footprint here
tells me they were up
to something very important.
Brigadefuehrer. Is that
like a brigadier general?
Exactly, and a hauptsturmfuehrer
is the equivalent of a captain.
So this is, basically,
they kept their roster
of where everybody was?
That's right.
So zimmer... that's "room".
That's the rooms they occupied.
Yeah, okay, and this
is the number of the room?
That's right.
Why isn't anyone
allocated to room 18?
The fact that he says
Schwend designated that
as an off-limits room
and didn't write anything
down next to it,
that gets my interest
right away.
Yeah.
The fact that room 18 remains
a mystery makes one wonder,
was that where the high-value
targets were housed?
At one point, could it even have
housed Adolf Hitler himself?
- Gosh, look at this.
- Huh.
- This is the same furniture.
- Yes, yes.
And this is very much like it
would have been in 1945?
That's right.
And can we go out here? Sure.
It's an amazing view.
My first impression of room 18
is that this is
the ideal command suite.
It's situated on the top floor
far from the entrance
with a balcony and a window
that provide almost
360-degree view
of the surrounding area.
This castle has everything
that Adolf Hitler
would need in a safe house.
It's strategically located,
it's opulent for
its time period,
and he would be surrounded
by fiercely loyal SS agents.
At the end of the war,
where was Schwend?
What was he doing?
Counterfeit money?
That's incredible.
But what was he doing
with the counterfeit pounds?
So, they hid it with the
intention of coming back for it.
Yes.
This was the dead drop
for the ratline.
A dead drop is a place that you,
basically, hide something
and then you have
a map worked out
or you have reference
points worked out,
so I can hide something
in a certain location,
and then I can communicate it
to you.
So all these dead drops could
have been set up specifically
for the escaping Nazis.
A clear picture is emerging,
here, isn't it?
Schwend suddenly becomes
operations hub
of disseminating
all this counterfeit money.
If you want a system
that can help Nazis postwar
get out of here
and away to freedom,
this is about
as good as it gets.
From everything
we've seen so far,
this escape route
was a coordinated effort.
Finances, safe houses,
a 30-man SS security force
guarding the castle...
It's perfect.
This place
has all the indications
that it could have been
a stopping point on the ratline
for very high-level Nazis
and possibly even
Adolf Hitler himself.
This is a complex tech dive
at a depth that,
if we make mistakes,
people are gonna get hurt.
Along Hitler's potential
northern escape route in Norway,
Tim Kennedy is investigating
a declassified U.S. Army file
that claims the Nazis
could have been running
a clandestine operation
to move heavy water out
of the Arctic port of Narvik.
Priority-first is diver safety.
Searching
for evidence of infrastructure
that could have been used
to transport heavy water,
Tim and an expert SCUBA team
prepare to dive on an area
they scanned with sonar.
We need to treat every
single phase of this dive
with complete professionalism.
We can't make any mistakes.
This is serious.
We're in the Arctic Circle.
This is one of the most
unforgiving bodies of water to dive in.
Technical diving is
an unforgiving profession.
You have to be precise.
The body temperature,
the mixture of gases
that you're breathing...
All of these are vital.
This perhaps is the most
dangerous thing that we have done.
The team has identified
three underwater anomalies
at the bottom
of a deep-water fjord
located at 30, 60, and 150 feet
below the surface.
Everybody good? Yeah.
All right. Let's do it.
The goal is finding evidence
that the Nazis were moving
heavy water in and out
of Narvik.
We're gonna go into the water
so we can go down and identify
exactly what each
of these anomalies are.
As the team travels to the site
of their first target,
they put on
pressurized dry suits
designed to maintain
their core temperature
and prepare a specialized
mixture of gases
to help regulate
the forces on their lungs.
Of our three anomalies,
what we're gonna dive on first
was selected
because it's in a depth
that's easier to access.
We don't know
exactly what it is,
but what we could see on
the sonar looked very promising.
So we have a buoy right
over the anomaly. Yeah.
We'll disembark right here
and just start a search pattern
at the bottom.
In order to locate
the first anomaly,
Tim and marine surveyor
Frank Anderson
will execute
a circular search pattern,
branching out farther
on every pass
to ensure they cover
the entire target area.
Okay, let's do it.
Roger that.
Roger that. All you see is rock.
It was a punch to the stomach.
It's clear
there's nothing man-made.
We need to move on
to target number two.
Tim and Frank head
to the second anomaly,
located 60 feet
beneath the surface.
Due to the depth
of their target,
they'll descend along
a weighted mooring line...
A guide rope, which runs
vertically down from their boat
to the ocean floor
and will prevent them
from getting lost
in the pitch-black waters below.
Target two is not easy
to access. It's deep.
This is kind of the limits
of recreational diving,
but we have to find that object.
Whatever is in this water
could be infrastructure,
could be proof
of how they were moving
heavy water out of Norway.
Along Hitler's
potential northern escape route,
Tim Kennedy is investigating
a declassified U.S. Army file
that claims the Nazis
could have been running
a clandestine operation
to move heavy water out
of the Norwegian port of Narvik.
Roger that.
Tim and an expert dive team
have uncovered a seaplane
while diving on an anomaly
they identified with sonar at
the bottom of the Arctic Ocean.
That's a discovery right there.
Did you see any cargo?
You couldn't put a lot
of cargo on that plane.
Even with two propellers,
and they were small,
that fuselage, there's not
enough room to put anything.
The plane's small.
It's not something that you
could move heavy water with.
It doesn't have
the load capacity
to bring some barrels aboard
and take off.
I don't know what
the seaplane is,
and I don't know why it's here.
What I do know is,
we have to keep looking,
which brings us to a
complicated, difficult target.
The team prepares
for its most challenging dive.
Their final target rests more
than 150 feet below the surface,
sitting on the ocean floor
at a depth
where extreme water pressure
and freezing temperatures
can combine for
life-threatening conditions.
I've been diving
for over 20 years.
I have 1,000 dives
under my belt.
This is something that
I am not taking lightly.
One mistake,
and we could be dead.
The deeper you go,
the more pressure there is.
If you ascend too quickly,
those gases are gonna expand
and can kill you.
We have to be perfect
every minute of this dive plan.
Tim and Frank execute
a controlled descent,
holding for several minutes
at decompression stops
every 10 feet
along their mooring line
to allow their lungs to adjust
to the crushing water pressure.
Next time on "Hunting Hitler"...
If the Nazis
buried anything here,
this is the way
we're gonna find it.
Look at that. That's incredible.
The priest at the time
would give aid to Nazis
fleeing through the area.
There is documentation
that they were re-baptized.
Oh, my God!
If Austria is where
the Nazis shed their skin,
then South Tyrol is where
they were born again
and assumed a new identity.
The Red Cross was actually
producing legitimate documents
with false identities.
The documents were something
that was secure,
so if they had those documents,
they could easily
get out of Rome.
Once they got a real
passport, they're home free.
This is the last piece
of the puzzle, then.
All roads lead to Rome,
and then from there
to Latin America.
Subtitles Diego Moraes
www.oakisland.tk
"Hunting Hitler"...
This is from June 12, 1945.
Look at this line.
"At this time,
the decision had been taken
to divide the ministries
in two parts
and establish
one government in the north
and one in the south."
What this file tells me
is they're splitting up,
creating multiple escape routes.
This one's from U.S. Army.
"Kaltenbrunner was arrested.
He had been hiding
in a mountain cabin
called 'Wildensee Hut.'"
He was Commander in Chief
of all German forces
in Southern Europe.
He knows how to get away.
So why did he hang out
in this hut?
We both agree
that this is a dead-end spot.
What if his sole purpose
was drawing somebody up
into the absolute
worst direction to flee?
Meanwhile, everyone else is
using all these better routes
to get out of here.
This file's telling us
that they've got
a special-weapons plant
here in Rjukan, Norway.
We know Hitler fantasized
about destroying Manhattan.
Was that weapon
being developed here?
What's going on at Rjukan
will tell us
what their plans were
for the Fourth Reich.
Heavy water wamade here?
It was made here, yes.
This is Adolf Hitler
developing a component
for a nuclear weapon.
Where were they storing it?
I think I can fit in there.
We have to know where the Nazis
could have moved heavy water
and what they were
gonna do with it.
I see a room back there.
There's nothing in there.
It's empty.
HUNTING HITLER - SEASON 3
EP - 4 - 150 Feet Below
Look at everything
we found in Norway.
We've got a country
that's sympathetic to the Nazis.
We found defenses.
It's a fortress.
21-year CIA veteran Bob Baer
and former terrorist-targeting
officer Nada Bakos
are using
an asset-mapping strategy,
tracking Hitler's
known associates
to pinpoint exactly where he
could have gone after the war.
The team is investigating
two possible escape routes
for Adolf Hitler...
A southern route
through Altaussee, Austria,
and a northern route
through Rjukan, Norway,
where, in the basement
of a demolished factory,
they have uncovered evidence
of a Nazi secret operation
to manufacture heavy water,
a key compound
in nuclear-weapons production.
The team was able to get
into that basement,
and they found that there
wasn't any heavy water there.
The Nazis could have
gotten it out.
Hitler fantasized about
having a nuclear bomb,
and the key facility for
making one is here in Norway.
Weapons of mass destruction
would be a
"Get Out of Jail Free" card.
Hitler understood this.
If Hitler is gonna go
to South America
and he wants to survive
and establish the Fourth Reich,
he needs a bomb.
He's not gonna do it
with a conventional army.
You don't have a plan
without the bomb.
And South America has a fair
amount of natural uranium.
So in order for this
heavy water to be useful,
they need to get it from Norway
down to South America
to combine it with the uranium.
In the 1940s,
heavy water was at the center
of the Nazi nuclear program.
Created by running massive
electrical current
through normal water,
this key ingredient
was combined with uranium
to make plutonium,
the explosive component
of a nuclear bomb.
At this point in the war,
the only way to get this stuff
to South America is by boat.
They do not have a plane
that can make it to Argentina.
We have to dig into the records.
Look at this. U.S. Army.
April 7, 1945...
"Nazi U-boat bases in Norway."
"In Narvik was the Aviso Grille,
formerly 'Fuehrer-Yacht, '
which served as headquarters
for the command
of all U-boats in Norway."
What we've got here is Hitler
personally involved
in this operation.
His personal yacht
has been converted
to a command boat for U-boats.
Commissioned in 1935,
Hitler's 440-foot Aviso Grille
was the largest yacht
in the world,
a gift from the people
to its ruler.
In addition to 35 luxury cabins
for hosting diplomats,
the Grille was modified
with three cannons,
six anti-aircraft guns,
and two machine guns.
Hitler used the boat
to inspect the German Navy
and had dreams of sailing
victorious into London
if the Nazis had won the war.
Using Hitler's yacht tells me
that this was
a clandestine operation.
Using it to move the heavy
water, that would make sense.
Hitler's yacht tells us
that Narvik was extremely
important to Hitler.
Something is going on here
which I need an explanation for.
Where is Narvik?
Narvik is right here,
the top of Norway,
completely off the grid.
Here's all the Allied activity
right in here,
and you simply go around
either over the Faroe Islands
or even over Iceland.
This completely bypasses
the entire action
at the end of World War II.
Was Narvik the staging point
to send heavy water to Argentina
to make a nuclear bomb
to create the Fourth Reich?
This could have been
headquarters
for U-boat activity,
but we have to investigate
to see what they actually
were doing here.
Investigating Hitler's potential
northern escape route,
U.S. Army Special Forces
Tim Kennedy
lands in Narvik, Norway.
If Hitler's yacht
was located here in Narvik
and it was serving as
the headquarters for U-boats,
they would also be capable of
transporting cargo and materiel
like heavy water out of Europe
and into South America.
Harald. Hello, Tim.
Tim makes contact with maritime
historian Harald Isaksen
who has studied Nazi
infrastructure and activity
in Narvik over the last century.
We have a document that says
the Fuehrer had his yacht here
in Narvik.
Have you heard of Hitler's yacht
being used as the headquarters
for the submarines? Yes.
Wow.
Even after Germany surrendered,
there are still 15 boats here,
completely operational.
They were ready to go
and do whatever the Nazis
needed them to do.
There's no question that this
is a hub for Nazi activity.
Why did they move
the headquarters
for the submarines to Narvik?
So on May 4th, the Allies
did a bombing in this area?
That's incredible.
The Allies are coming here
on May 4th.
The war is over.
They're... They're not trying
to turn the tides.
They're not trying
to win a battle.
There's no doubt that they knew
there was something valuable
that they needed to bomb,
that they needed to destroy.
They were trying
to prevent the Nazis
from getting something out.
We know that heavy water
was being produced in Norway.
Do you think that that
heavy water got out of Norway?
I-Is there any evidence that's
left that they didn't destroy?
According to Harald,
there are things that shouldn't
be on the ocean floor...
Equipment, cargo, or maybe even
samples of heavy water
that they are transporting
to South America.
Where should I look?
If we're gonna find any evidence
of the Germans
moving heavy water
out of the Narvik area,
it's gonna be right here.
This was their chance
of making the Fourth Reich
come to fruition.
If there's something there,
we're gonna find it.
Sounds to me like this is the
last bastion of the Third Reich.
The question is, were
they moving heavy water
out of this port?
While the team
continues to investigate
Hitler's potential northern
escape route in Norway,
Bob and Nada
dig into the findings
from the southern escape route
through Altaussee, Austria,
where the team uncovered
that two of Hitler's
close associates...
Ernst Kaltenbrunner
and Adolf Eichmann...
Were hiding out after the war.
We know Eichmann gets
to South America,
so we know the route worked.
But how did he get there?
It's not easy
to cross borders in 1945.
We figure out how Eichmann
managed this,
we can figure out
how other Nazis managed it,
and we can figure out whether it
was adequate to get Hitler out.
We need to look into the route
that Eichmann used,
see if we can retrace his steps.
So let's search for Eichmann
within 150 miles of Altaussee.
Look. Here we go.
CIA, 1950, "Eichmann's Flight."
"Good old Frau Huber
gave me a schnapps
then dispatched me
to another inn near the Brenner.
My hostess, who belonged
to the 'organization, '
was on the ball."
This says it all.
We've got a network that
gets Eichmann out of Altaussee
and out of the way
of U.S. troops.
He had people
that would protect him.
Yeah, they had a whole
facilitation network set up.
The Brenner Pass
is a mountain road
that goes from Austria to Italy.
The region is called Tyrol.
It's German-speaking.
The Tyrol region is shared
by Austria, Switzerland, Italy.
It's basically this area
right in here.
We found Nazis operating
in the tri-border region
between Brazil, Paraguay,
and Argentina,
and now we have Nazis operating
in another tri-border region
between Switzerland,
Austria, and Italy.
All fugitives head
to border regions
because they know it's where
you can operate freely.
This area reminds me
of Afghanistan and Pakistan
and the tribal areas where the
borders are somewhat irrelevant.
These are people who share
culture and a language,
and that,
especially for Eichmann,
is one of the most
important reasons
for him to use this area.
We've established that
Eichmann got to South America.
Were there other Nazis
using this network?
Could that have included
moving Adolf Hitler?
I want to get the team
to Tyrol to investigate.
Just looking at this place
knowing that Eichmann was here
makes me shudder.
Along Hitler's
potential southern escape route,
World War II historian
James Holland,
U.S. Army Green Beret
Mike Simpson,
and their translator, Katja,
land in Tyrol,
the border region
between Austria and Italy.
Eichmann talked about
coming here
and being sent over the border
by an organization,
and we've come here to
investigate this organization.
How widespread was it?
How important was it for
Nazi war criminals on the run?
Hello. Guten tag.
The team makes contact
with Andreas Hortnagl,
the former mayor
of Gries am Brenner,
the town on the Austrian border
of the Brenner Pass.
So where is the pass in relation
to where we're standing now?
These are the Brenner Mountains.
The border is exactly
on this mountain here.
The Brenner
is right down the hill.
If we were to walk down,
that's where we'd be.
So this is Austria,
but that's Italy
right there on the other side
of the pass.
This is the lowest part
of the Alps.
So even in Roman times,
the legions came through
this pass, here.
So, at the end of the war,
was there an influx
of Nazis into this area?
He says, "People were
flooding down this road.
You had civilian refugees,
German soldiers,
and people, of course,
fleeing justice."
Really, the perfect cover for
fleeing Nazis to mix in with.
So, do you know where
Eichmann crossed?
It was done in absolute secrecy.
So, first he spent three days
there in the valley.
There was an inn,
and if things got dangerous,
it was quite easy to, then,
quickly move
to a farmhouse nearby.
Just down here?
Down here,
went up that mountain,
and had a guide,
a smuggler, to lead him up.
But why would you need a guide?
I mean, that looks not at all
challenging in the slightest.
The same reason people
crossing our southern border
need the coyotajes
to bring them across.
You need somebody
who knows the territory
and also knows where
there might be
any border security patrols,
how to avoid that.
It's not a simple matter
of getting a compass direction
and going.
It was already known
that Eichmann had been here
and had crossed the border here,
but then Andreas uses the word
"smuggler."
This paints
an entirely new picture.
Any Nazi soldier
who was just fleeing
Germany after the war would
have had a support network.
This was planned.
So, the question is,
what resources
were at their disposal?
That's what we have to find out.
I just wonder whether there are
any of these smugglers
still alive.
He knows of a Herr Schupf,
who had a very, very close
relationship with the smuggling.
That's huge.
This is a place
in our investigation
that hasn't been closely
looked at before in this aspect.
James, Mike, and Katja made
contact with Walter Schupf,
a former smuggler for Nazi war
criminals in the Tyrol region.
So, how did you
get into that line of work?
He's been a smuggler
since he was 13 years old.
His father took him along.
They smuggled coffee and
cigarettes from Switzerland,
and there was a great deal
of poverty here,
and the only way to survive
was through smuggling.
Do you remember the first time
that your cargo was people?
After the war,
there are a great many
displaced people and refugees,
especially soldiers
trying to get back home,
and since he was born
and raised here,
he knows every mountain path,
and he helped
a lot of people cross.
Were there people
that you smuggled
that you know
for sure were Nazis?
He says, "There were
Nazis being smuggled
from the other side
of the border across to here."
Oh, wow.
Yep. Smuggling kept them alive.
Life at the end of the war
was incredibly tough
in this corner of Tyrol.
There was just no jobs around,
there was no money around,
and you had to do
what you had to do.
So, in those years
after the war,
if I was quite a well-known Nazi
or a war criminal,
even a head of state,
and I was trying to get
into Italy from Austria,
do you think
it would be possible?
Absolutely easy because
they had a lot of money.
Did they have specific smugglers
that they preferred
and that they worked with?
They already had connections.
Do you think there was
some kind of organization,
some network,
for these war criminals?
Yes.
So they were using people
that they trusted.
They'd already vetted them
and organized them.
Paints a very
coordinated picture.
Well, it's painting
two pictures, isn't it?
There's the kind of
ordinary people,
and then there's
the special cases,
and that's two completely
different setups.
It's a perfect recipe.
Not only were there
smugglers for hire
willing to take these escaping
Nazis across the border,
but the upper crust would have
had more resources to cross.
This is very exciting news.
This could very well have been
the same organization
and infrastructure
that helped Adolf Hitler to flee
as well.
Obviously, this is
a smuggling ring.
And you could smuggle
about just anything you wanted
across these borders.
While the team
continues to investigate
Hitler's potential
southern escape route,
Bob and Nada shift their focus
to the northern escape route
in Norway
where a declassified file
points to the port of Narvik
as a possible location the Nazis
used to move heavy water,
a key component in
nuclear-weapons manufacturing,
out of Europe.
The Nazis put a lot
of time and money
into making heavy water
here in Norway.
At Bariloche in Argentina,
they had a nuclear reactor
that required heavy water.
- Oh, my God.
- This is the reactor place.
Was planning to make it
very big.
This is to prevent
radiation from escaping.
They didn't make it locally,
so you smuggle
the heavy water out of Norway,
get it to Argentina,
and you're ready to go.
So I think what we need to do
is find concrete proof
of how they were
moving heavy water
out of here to South America,
but our only evidence is gonna
be underneath the water.
It is a port.
There's probably a lot of stuff
scattered along there.
What we're looking for is ways
to hold it... containers...
And ways to put it on boats.
If we can find examples
of this infrastructure,
it's gonna put
the pieces together for us.
We need to get the team
out in the water.
If you put anti-aircraft guns
on these mountains,
you put big guns by the sea,
this is impenetrable.
Along Hitler's
potential northern escape route
in Narvik, Norway, Tim Kennedy
continues to investigate
whether the Nazis
were able to move heavy water
out of Northern Norway
and on to South America.
Guys, are we good?
- Yeah.
- All right.
Joining the investigation
is marine surveyor
Frank Anderson
and his research team.
Working off local intel,
the team will search two miles
of a deep-water fjord
to try and uncover any remaining
evidence of Nazi infrastructure
that could have supported the
transportation of heavy water.
Let's start getting our gear on
the boat and get on the water.
If the Germans were moving
heavy water out of Narvik,
they would have
to have infrastructure,
equipment, and boats.
We have a general
area of interest.
The only thing left for us to do
is get on the water
and see what we can find.
This is our target area.
R.O.V.'s going in the water.
Tim deploys
an underwater R.O.V.,
or remotely operated vehicle,
equipped with side-scan
sonar technology,
similar to what
the United States Navy
uses to reveal the location
of enemy vessels
hiding along the ocean floor.
Using an acoustic pulse,
this state-of-the-art equipment
is able to detect
underwater anomalies
up to 1,000 feet in depth.
Have we had any
potential targets yet?
After two hours of scanning
the two-mile search area,
the team has yet to locate
any anomalies on the seafloor.
What is that?
We are right in the center
of our area of interest.
That's not coincidence.
Can you tell what that is?
- So, we got something.
- Yeah.
-Yeah.
Yeah, mark it.
Let's keep looking.
Located a half-mile offshore
and 30 feet below the water,
the team has detected a manmade
object nearly 15 feet wide.
Zoom out a little bit.
Is there anything right there?
Just that section
right there in the middle.
Yeah.
Yeahyou see, you have,
like, perpendicular lines.
You have a vertical line here
and a horizontal line
that cross section right there.
What was the depth of that?
00:22:32,952 --> 00:22:35,655
- Yeah.
- Mark it.
The team
has now found a second anomaly,
located 2,600 feet
from the first hit
and 60 feet down
on the ocean floor.
With more than 90%
of their search area covered,
the team begins to scan
the final sector.
- Right there! Right there!
- Yeah. Yeah.
Can you go back?
Right there! Right there!
Right there!
Look at that.
Look at... Look at the front.
What is that?
That's suspicious.
Like, that's not rock.
Yes! Yes!
At the end of their search area,
the team has uncovered
an enormous third anomaly,
resting at a depth
of nearly 150 feet.
We have a hit.
Can we tell how big it rises
from the seafloor?
That's massive.
So 150 feet, 160 feet...
-Yeah, most likely.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No doubt.
Holy
After completing our search,
we found three anomalies
that are standing out.
Now I have to identify
what they are.
That is me getting in the water
and putting eyes on them,
and hopefully uncover evidence
that the Nazis were moving...
Or could have the capability
of moving...
Heavy water in and out
of Narvik.
Now we got to get in the water.
This is from the sonar.
That's clearly
a man-made object.
It looks like a boat to me.
I think this is incredible.
While Tim lines up
this mission in Norway,
let's focus on
the southern route.
With the investigation
into Hitler's potential
northern escape route in Norway,
Bob and Nada
turn their attention
to the southern escape route
in the border region of Tyrol,
where a declassified document
points to an organization
set up to help fleeing Nazis,
including the architect of
the Holocaust, Adolf Eichmann.
I think we've established
that the Brenner Pass
was a funnel for Nazis
out of the Third Reich.
We've got a smuggler,
very credible.
My question is,
is there a possibility
they could have gotten
Adolf Hitler across here?
You're not gonna take the chance
of using an ordinary smuggler
with Adolf Hitler
simply for the fact
he could be recognized.
Right, exactly.
Can we find proof of a high
We need to get more information
on this smuggling network
and see if we can find out
how it functions.
This is from
the U.S. Department of State.
"On the Brenner Pass route,
the first stop
on the underground railroad
is at a castle
where the director is an agent
of the SS task force
who was responsible
to Kaltenbrunner and Himmler.
This castle is believed
to be the 'Schloss Labers.'"
There it is.
It's in black and white.
It's an underground railroad.
We're talking about the SS.
This is much more than
an individual smuggler.
Kaltenbrunner and Himmler
were devoted
to the survival of Adolf Hitler.
They have an organization,
and they've got a castle.
I think we're onto the beginning
of something really big here.
Kaltenbrunner and Himmler
were the most important people
in the SS...
The personal guard
of Adolf Hitler.
These were the guys
ordered to keep Hitler alive.
The only group that's gonna
get Hitler out is the SS,
period, end of story.
Could this castle have been a
safe house for high-level Nazis
transferring through
the Brenner Pass,
and was this SS task force
being used to smuggle
Hitler out of Germany?
We're moving up into the hills,
ideal location to see the rest
of town, commanding view.
Whoa! Look. Whoa.
That must be it.
Along Hitler's
potential southern escape route,
Mike and James land
on the Italian side
of the Tyrol border region.
The La Vista Report
outlines hard intelligence
that an SS task force was
operating out of a castle
here in the Tyrol region.
Could this be a key site
on this escape route...
This ratline...
For Adolf Hitler?
That's what we need to know.
Hello.
The team makes
contact with Jeorg Stapf,
whose family has owned
Castle Schloss Labers
and has been running it
as a hotel for generations.
What was going on in this place?
Okay.
They took over entirely?
So what do you think
it was about this castle
that made it attractive
to the Nazis?
Who is Schwend?
That's a pretty big network.
- Yeah.
- Yes.
Jeorg was clear that this was
a castle occupied by the SS,
Adolf Hitler's
personal bodyguards,
and, additionally,
the SS man in charge here
went by the name of Schwend.
That's clearly the commander
of the task force
mentioned in the document.
The fact that this location had
such a large SS footprint here
tells me they were up
to something very important.
Brigadefuehrer. Is that
like a brigadier general?
Exactly, and a hauptsturmfuehrer
is the equivalent of a captain.
So this is, basically,
they kept their roster
of where everybody was?
That's right.
So zimmer... that's "room".
That's the rooms they occupied.
Yeah, okay, and this
is the number of the room?
That's right.
Why isn't anyone
allocated to room 18?
The fact that he says
Schwend designated that
as an off-limits room
and didn't write anything
down next to it,
that gets my interest
right away.
Yeah.
The fact that room 18 remains
a mystery makes one wonder,
was that where the high-value
targets were housed?
At one point, could it even have
housed Adolf Hitler himself?
- Gosh, look at this.
- Huh.
- This is the same furniture.
- Yes, yes.
And this is very much like it
would have been in 1945?
That's right.
And can we go out here? Sure.
It's an amazing view.
My first impression of room 18
is that this is
the ideal command suite.
It's situated on the top floor
far from the entrance
with a balcony and a window
that provide almost
360-degree view
of the surrounding area.
This castle has everything
that Adolf Hitler
would need in a safe house.
It's strategically located,
it's opulent for
its time period,
and he would be surrounded
by fiercely loyal SS agents.
At the end of the war,
where was Schwend?
What was he doing?
Counterfeit money?
That's incredible.
But what was he doing
with the counterfeit pounds?
So, they hid it with the
intention of coming back for it.
Yes.
This was the dead drop
for the ratline.
A dead drop is a place that you,
basically, hide something
and then you have
a map worked out
or you have reference
points worked out,
so I can hide something
in a certain location,
and then I can communicate it
to you.
So all these dead drops could
have been set up specifically
for the escaping Nazis.
A clear picture is emerging,
here, isn't it?
Schwend suddenly becomes
operations hub
of disseminating
all this counterfeit money.
If you want a system
that can help Nazis postwar
get out of here
and away to freedom,
this is about
as good as it gets.
From everything
we've seen so far,
this escape route
was a coordinated effort.
Finances, safe houses,
a 30-man SS security force
guarding the castle...
It's perfect.
This place
has all the indications
that it could have been
a stopping point on the ratline
for very high-level Nazis
and possibly even
Adolf Hitler himself.
This is a complex tech dive
at a depth that,
if we make mistakes,
people are gonna get hurt.
Along Hitler's potential
northern escape route in Norway,
Tim Kennedy is investigating
a declassified U.S. Army file
that claims the Nazis
could have been running
a clandestine operation
to move heavy water out
of the Arctic port of Narvik.
Priority-first is diver safety.
Searching
for evidence of infrastructure
that could have been used
to transport heavy water,
Tim and an expert SCUBA team
prepare to dive on an area
they scanned with sonar.
We need to treat every
single phase of this dive
with complete professionalism.
We can't make any mistakes.
This is serious.
We're in the Arctic Circle.
This is one of the most
unforgiving bodies of water to dive in.
Technical diving is
an unforgiving profession.
You have to be precise.
The body temperature,
the mixture of gases
that you're breathing...
All of these are vital.
This perhaps is the most
dangerous thing that we have done.
The team has identified
three underwater anomalies
at the bottom
of a deep-water fjord
located at 30, 60, and 150 feet
below the surface.
Everybody good? Yeah.
All right. Let's do it.
The goal is finding evidence
that the Nazis were moving
heavy water in and out
of Narvik.
We're gonna go into the water
so we can go down and identify
exactly what each
of these anomalies are.
As the team travels to the site
of their first target,
they put on
pressurized dry suits
designed to maintain
their core temperature
and prepare a specialized
mixture of gases
to help regulate
the forces on their lungs.
Of our three anomalies,
what we're gonna dive on first
was selected
because it's in a depth
that's easier to access.
We don't know
exactly what it is,
but what we could see on
the sonar looked very promising.
So we have a buoy right
over the anomaly. Yeah.
We'll disembark right here
and just start a search pattern
at the bottom.
In order to locate
the first anomaly,
Tim and marine surveyor
Frank Anderson
will execute
a circular search pattern,
branching out farther
on every pass
to ensure they cover
the entire target area.
Okay, let's do it.
Roger that.
Roger that. All you see is rock.
It was a punch to the stomach.
It's clear
there's nothing man-made.
We need to move on
to target number two.
Tim and Frank head
to the second anomaly,
located 60 feet
beneath the surface.
Due to the depth
of their target,
they'll descend along
a weighted mooring line...
A guide rope, which runs
vertically down from their boat
to the ocean floor
and will prevent them
from getting lost
in the pitch-black waters below.
Target two is not easy
to access. It's deep.
This is kind of the limits
of recreational diving,
but we have to find that object.
Whatever is in this water
could be infrastructure,
could be proof
of how they were moving
heavy water out of Norway.
Along Hitler's
potential northern escape route,
Tim Kennedy is investigating
a declassified U.S. Army file
that claims the Nazis
could have been running
a clandestine operation
to move heavy water out
of the Norwegian port of Narvik.
Roger that.
Tim and an expert dive team
have uncovered a seaplane
while diving on an anomaly
they identified with sonar at
the bottom of the Arctic Ocean.
That's a discovery right there.
Did you see any cargo?
You couldn't put a lot
of cargo on that plane.
Even with two propellers,
and they were small,
that fuselage, there's not
enough room to put anything.
The plane's small.
It's not something that you
could move heavy water with.
It doesn't have
the load capacity
to bring some barrels aboard
and take off.
I don't know what
the seaplane is,
and I don't know why it's here.
What I do know is,
we have to keep looking,
which brings us to a
complicated, difficult target.
The team prepares
for its most challenging dive.
Their final target rests more
than 150 feet below the surface,
sitting on the ocean floor
at a depth
where extreme water pressure
and freezing temperatures
can combine for
life-threatening conditions.
I've been diving
for over 20 years.
I have 1,000 dives
under my belt.
This is something that
I am not taking lightly.
One mistake,
and we could be dead.
The deeper you go,
the more pressure there is.
If you ascend too quickly,
those gases are gonna expand
and can kill you.
We have to be perfect
every minute of this dive plan.
Tim and Frank execute
a controlled descent,
holding for several minutes
at decompression stops
every 10 feet
along their mooring line
to allow their lungs to adjust
to the crushing water pressure.
Next time on "Hunting Hitler"...
If the Nazis
buried anything here,
this is the way
we're gonna find it.
Look at that. That's incredible.
The priest at the time
would give aid to Nazis
fleeing through the area.
There is documentation
that they were re-baptized.
Oh, my God!
If Austria is where
the Nazis shed their skin,
then South Tyrol is where
they were born again
and assumed a new identity.
The Red Cross was actually
producing legitimate documents
with false identities.
The documents were something
that was secure,
so if they had those documents,
they could easily
get out of Rome.
Once they got a real
passport, they're home free.
This is the last piece
of the puzzle, then.
All roads lead to Rome,
and then from there
to Latin America.
Subtitles Diego Moraes
www.oakisland.tk