"Hunting Hitler" MMA Fighter Tim Kennedy Hopes to Make Fringe History His New Permanent Career

11/27/2015

Yesterday was the Thanksgiving holiday, and that means that it’s a relatively quiet day for fringe history. Most of the major fringe historians tend to be Americans or Brits, and both cultures devote this day to an orgy of pre-Christmas discount shopping. I thought it would be a good time to check in on the ratings for the History Channel’s two currently airing fringe history shows, Curse of Oaks Island and Hunting Hitler. Unfortunately, due to the holiday this week’s ratings aren’t being reported until next week, but last week the two shows continued to perform on par with their averages, with Curse coming in at 2.56 million viewers (800,000 of whom are 18-49), and Hitler doing significantly worse, with just 1.66 million viewers (500,000 of whom are 18-49). Those numbers remain stubbornly unchanging, and it seems that 1.7 million is the cap on anything that History airs after Curse of Oak Island.

I can’t help but agree with Variety TV critic Brian Lowry that something is amiss: “while TV remains fascinated with history, the assumption lingers that straightforward presentations of such fare won’t appeal to the demographics that advertisers covet. Small wonder that History has been on the leading edge of those cable networks that feel compelled to stretch confining brands that are deemed too stodgy in an effort to reel in younger viewers.” Advertisers target young idiots, ill-served by schooling and suspicious of facts, and we all suffer for it.

But if you really want to get depressed about the History Channel’s insidious influence, you only need to look at one of the hosts of Hunting Hitler, Tim Kennedy, a mixed martial arts fighter for the UFC who went into the production convinced that Hitler died in 1945. “Everybody knows this. This is ridiculous, and I don’t want to waste my time with some stupid conspiracy stuff,” Kennedy told MMA Junkie. “But the more involved I got, and the more research they sent me, the more questions it raised.” Kennedy told the website that not only had producers successfully made him question history, he discovered that pursuing fringe history on TV is both fun and lucrative. Kennedy said that he had such a good time and made so much money from the series that he hopes to turn fringe history into his permanent profession and retire from mixed martial arts. “This is a blossoming career for me,” he said, adding that his family feels it is better than being punched in the face in exchange for cash.

In short: Producers convinced Kennedy of a lie, sent him on a fun working vacation, and gave him a lot of money. Of course he’s happy to become a permanent fringe historian.

I couldn’t help but be struck, though, by the coincidence of two series about alternative Hitler stories airing near simultaneously. The History Channel offers the cheaply produced, pointless conspiracies of Hunting Hitler, which posits that the Führer escaped Germany to live on in South America or elsewhere, while Amazon.com released The Man in the High Castle, a sumptuously produced alternative history drama about a victorious Axis and their occupation of America. The first season climaxes with an encounter with Hitler himself, who is apparently a huge fan of the Nazi version of the History Channel, since he spends his days watching conspiracy theory films about “what might have been” in various alternate realities.

I enjoyed The Man in the High Castle quite a bit, particularly in the careful thought that went into the exquisite production design, which carefully visualizes the aesthetics of occupation, from flags and banners right down to lapel pins and consumer goods. I own a copy of the book Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics, and I have always been interested in how visual design is used to communicate nonverbal messages. It’s one of the reasons I harp on the production design of fringe history shows. The drama in High Castle, however, was a bit inert for the first five episodes, really only coming together as a compelling narrative in the second half of the ten-episode series. By the end, though, it really came together. I know that a lot of Philip K. Dick fans are upset by the changes from the novel the series is loosely inspired by, but I’m not. An adaptation should find something new to say about the material, or else there isn’t much point of adapting it at all—just read the book.

Anyway, if the History Channel had really wanted to find a new approach to Hitler, imagine how much prestige they might have gotten had High Castle aired on their network instead of Hunting Hitler. (They already air the drama Vikings, so it’s hardly a stretch.) In a better world, they might follow each episode with a Talking Dead-style talk show in which historians discuss the actual history behind the series and create a learning opportunity that Amazon can’t provide. There is precedent: History used to do just such a thing with its old Movies in Time series with Sander Vanocur. Instead, the History Channel has itself become like the Hitler of the Man in the High Castle by collecting films of histories that never were—but somewhat reversed, forcing all of us to watch rather than hiding them away.

49 Comments

Bob Jase

11/27/2015 12:16:48 pm

I look forward to the new A&E series, Fritz Hitler Today, that will feature Adoph's conjoined twin.

Clete

11/27/2015 12:33:16 pm

World War Two and history in general has always been something of major interest to me. My father fought in Europe as a combat Engineer and two of my Uncles were in the Navy during the war. It is depressing to see that period of history made into such drivel as "Hunting Hitler". I watched only the first episode mainly due to the fact that I couldn't sleep. It was a waste of time. A bunch of half-wits trying to prove that Hitler somehow escaped his bunker and made it to South America. It is highly unlikely that even if he hadn't committed suicide with Eva Braun (who is forgotten in the episode) that he could of somehow escaped Berlin. It is not much of a surprise that the "History" channel now produces nothing quasi-reality horse shit and poorly researched "Historical" show such as Hunting Hitler and the World Wars.

Shane Sullivan

11/27/2015 12:54:29 pm

The sad thing is that Kennedy is himself a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, so you'd think he would treat the subject with the gravity it deserves.

Kathleen Smith

11/27/2015 01:47:48 pm

Hitler was like today's mass shooters, he would kill himself rather than face the consequences of his actions, or humiliation at the hands of his enemies.

Eric

11/27/2015 03:49:24 pm

I'm waiting for the crossover episodes with Scott Wolter to give his expert opinion on Nazi rune stones they "discover" and Georgio to show up claiming the time travelling Nazis and aliens or whatever other nonsense they claim. After all, why not have the all star lineup to further ride the Nazi conspiracy gravy train. Nevermind the actual history of post 1945 Nazi involvement in intelligence in the Cold War for both sides or the very real Nazi involvement from the 1930's in fostering radical Islam, which we are actually seeing still claiming victims worldwide, rather than this nonsense. Of course, I gave up on the "History" Channel years ago of producing anything but utter garbage. For actual historical content, "TMITHC" is certainly though provoking, but falls short because the book it is based upon was written long before documents actually detailing Himmler's and other Nazi long term objectives and intentions were released from Allied archives. Plus, its been assaulted by Hollywood, who I know from personal experience on working as a consultant for historical programming from time to time, have the historical knowledge of a elementary school student overlaid with a decade of misinformation propagated by the "History" Channel-and they will never change anything based on historical accuracy when it conflicts with their "creative vision".

ANON

11/27/2015 05:38:06 pm

"I can’t help but agree with Variety TV critic Brian Lowry that something is amiss: “while TV remains fascinated with history, the assumption lingers that straightforward presentations of such fare won’t appeal to the demographics that advertisers covet."

Got to say I do see a difference in documentaries from now and the seventies. They used to be more sober and straightforward, less dramatic reconstruction and mood music, more addressing the audience like intelligent equals. Maybe having the BBC not depend on ad revenue makes a difference.

David Bradbury

11/27/2015 07:00:02 pm

It's not just the BBC's output in the UK. Even Channel 5, the sleaziest of the British mainstream channels, tends to produce documentaries which stick to the facts.

Time Machine

11/27/2015 07:49:57 pm

Here's a website about Freemasonry and top people in society

http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/category/secret-societies/

11/27/2015 07:56:37 pm

Freemasonry (and secret societies) is a legitimate and serious part of the academic history of Western Civilization. Anyone who thinks otherwise should start checking the Freemasonic memberships in their local community. The proof exists in plain open sight.

Only Me

11/27/2015 08:50:48 pm

Nobody Knows, aka, Time Machine:

"And for the record, I consider Freemasonry to be another absurdity."

Clint Knapp

11/28/2015 04:03:38 am

Yeah, well, according to this website which has Freemasonry in the URL:

http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/fiction/fraternities/buffalo.html

The Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes is a secret society that has been intimately involved in all manner of social and civic goings-on since the Stone Age.

The Buffaloes were even pre-dated by the Loyal Order of Dinosaurs; who you will find were clearly the secret power behind the Buffaloes, as the Templars were to Freemasons.

Obviously, from this evidence we can conclude that a highly advanced Stone Age civilization which co-existed with a domestic form of dinosaur (obviously secret and arcane wisdom lost to us now) has been secretly ruling the world through bowling, beer, and the careful maintenance of the bloodline of Sam Slagheap ever since the oft-forgotten Modern Stone Age.

(To everyone else: Happy Belated Thanksgiving)

11/28/2015 04:44:10 am

Western civilization is based upon the story of a crucified sophist (who in all likelihood never existed) and rose from the dead after three days. That is a patent absurditiy that lies at the very heart of Western civilization that is founded upon the fable of Christianity.

There you have a working example - operating in practice - of an absurdity making impact on civilization.

And yet there are those who pooh-pooh the very same thing in relation to Freemasonry within Western Civilization.

11/28/2015 04:50:06 am

In the UK, mandatory prayers at local government meetings were abolished ONLY LAST YEAR. Everybody WAS OBLIFED TO SAY THEM until 2014.

Mandatory attendance of Church Services was only abolished in the 19th century in the UK.

There you have examples of an irrational society structured upon a fairy tale.

11/28/2015 05:07:36 am

Clint Knapp,

The Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes, yes very funny - I used to think exactly the same way about Freemasonry and the Secret Societies. And I still think the same way today (Hiram Abiff never existed and the rituals are not intended to be taken literally) - except with the difference that I today acknowledge the facts.

It was Christianity and the Church that began the tradition of promoting the idea that Freemasonry was a world threat - and it was that very thing for Christianity - PRIEST AND KING WITHIN WESTERN CIVILIZATION was replaced by democracies and republics, The humdrum Christian way of life that lasted over a thousand years stopped.

The UK is officially a "kingdom" but in practice it has a constitutional monarchy (an ornament) where the Prime Minister writes the Queen's Speech and general elections are held every five years whereby everything is governed under the strict system of a republic.

Roman Catholicism had its own brand of Freemasonry when King James II of England was exiled to France - called Jacobotism. But the Vatican put a stop to it.

11/28/2015 05:07:47 am

"Western civilization is based upon the story of a crucified sophist"

Oh, yes, because your inconsistent and contradictory interpretations of human civilization and history are just so much better.

"There you have a working example - operating in practice - of an absurdity making impact on civilization."

You mean, like, Freemasonry, which you also call an absurdity? It's easy to dismiss you when your thought process goes like this:

"I renounce scholarship. To hell with scholars, I don't need them. Freemasonry is awesome. Just look at all the scholarship that talks about them! By the way, Freemasonry is stupid."

Carry on my wayward troll...

11/28/2015 05:11:18 am

"PRIEST AND KING WITHIN WESTERN CIVILIZATION was replaced by democracies and republics, The humdrum Christian way of life that lasted over a thousand years stopped."

Except for that link you provided from before that said:

"The failure of the revolution to transform society totally had provided matter for political thinkers ever since."

That would be the same revolution YOU claim Freemasonry supported. Oops.

11/28/2015 05:16:58 am

Only Me,

You got things mixed up and wrong again - as per usual.

Look back at those articles about the Sphinx again that you linked on this blog - the authors of those articles openly stated from the get-go that what they were offering were opinions and not rigid historical facts,.

There is no demonstrable information about the origin of the Sphinx.
The Sphinx bears an inscription dating from after it was built.,

11/28/2015 05:21:50 am

Only Me,

You are upholding a distorted pooh-pooh of Freemasonry for its own sake without any logical or rational reason to support it.

Read this again -

It was the Church that began promoting that Freemasonry was a World Threat, and this was mixed-in with anti-Semitism (racism and eugenics) in the bargain. That ultimately led to the Holocaust,

Part of the blame for the Holocaust lies with Christianity.

11/28/2015 05:35:53 am

"You got things mixed up and wrong again - as per usual."

Nope. You posted the quotes I'm using. Primary source, you know. Also, stop trying to distract with talk of other topics not related to the discussion.

"Part of the blame for the Holocaust lies with Christianity."

Uh huh. I bet it's also responsible for you not getting a fire truck for Christmas, too. Boo hoo hoo.

11/28/2015 05:57:36 am

Pooh pooh, or POOBAH?! Are you working for the descendants of Sam Slagheap?

Honestly, though. No one cares.

All you provide are lists of people and articles about how Person A was a Mason, so Action B that he took was Mason-inspired. And in the end, no one cares. Because none of those lofty goals you pretend Freemasonry brought to the world actually mean anything. There is no worldwide enlightenment and "free and rational society" as you'd like to prop them up for inciting; even in the Western world, which seems to make up the totality of your understanding of what "the world" is.

Your understanding of the evolution of Western culture and civilization is so woefully incomplete and reductionist that your arguments are entirely unworthy of rebuttal.

For Christ's sake, I can go down to the local Masonic Temple and find Catholics, Protestant Christians, atheists, deists, and self-professed agnostics on the active memberships. I can even show you the churches some of these men attend, as they are people I have known for twenty-plus years. Hell, one of them is a former mayor who held that seat for thirty years, but others are hardware store owners who went out of business, a gas station attendant who makes a good cup of coffee but can't find a pack of Camel Filters on a shelf he's been stocking his whole life, and others are farmers and bankers who will gladly profess their love for the current state of the History channel, how President Obama is ruining the nation, and how vaccines will make your children autistic while they sit around and gossip over their morning coffee.

The point is, no one cares. Freemasonry hasn't even universally influenced its own members into holding a cohesive world view. How the hell is it supposed to have done anything on the grander political scale? Or is this where we get into discussions of "degrees" of Masonry and how only the very top, super-secret Ultra-Masons are really behind it all while the local temples are just how they weed out potential prodigies?

11/28/2015 06:16:38 am

Clint Knapp,

For "God;s" Sake, the Grand Orient of France is cognate with the French Parliament - TODAY, IN 2015, dating from the French Revolution.

For "God's" Sake, there are Christians in the UK TODAY, IN 2015, that refuse to address this aspect of French history because it is about atheism conquering Christianity, Christmas Cards and celibate nuns.,

11/28/2015 06:41:33 am

And? There are Christians who believe God protects them from snake venom, too, and others who refute this. That doesn't mean either is indicative of the whole of Christianity any more than Masons in the French Parliament are indicative of a Masonic influence over the whole of Western civilization.

You'd like a single group of people, loosely affiliated through hundreds of years by way of holding the same office (while ignorant of the socio-political changes in the intervening time) and belonging to the same social club to stand for a vast influence over not only their own country but the whole of the western world, and simply refuse to see any other explanation.

But then, you have no use for scholarship or academia, so I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you've probably not spent much time at all in an institute of higher learning where you might have picked up on how the world actually works, how people actually function, and some of the nuances of how to discern critical thinking from an internet meme.

11/28/2015 06:45:20 am

"PRIEST AND KING WITHIN WESTERN CIVILIZATION was replaced by democracies and republics, The humdrum Christian way of life that lasted over a thousand years stopped."

BUT:

"there are Christians in the UK TODAY, IN 2015"

"it is about atheism conquering Christianity, Christmas Cards and celibate nuns."

BUT:

"there are Christians in the UK TODAY, IN 2015"

GIGO

11/28/2015 09:06:18 am

Western civilization is built on the irrationality of the Christian religion, itself based upon religious inspiration rather than upon provable and demonstrable historical facts.

It took something similar, in the form of Freemasonry, to demolish it.

Today, Christianity continues to exist on the basis of freedom of religious belief without any endorsement from the mainstream world of science (although there are bishops who are scientists).

Today's world of science evolved out of the Royal Society, its existence inspired by Freemasons.

11/28/2015 09:39:46 am

Only Me,

American Christians have abandoned the belief in creationism.

Christianity is creaking.

11/28/2015 01:53:51 pm

[feels swell of patriotic pride]

11/28/2015 03:18:18 pm

"the Christian religion, itself based upon religious inspiration rather than upon provable and demonstrable historical facts"

Except:

"nobody knows anything with any certainty about how Christianity originated in the first century"

Stay inconsistent.

Charles Rainey link

11/27/2015 08:10:19 pm

I believe Scott Wolter has already dabbled in Hitler. I seem to remember a show, before he had his own, where he examined something related to Adolph. Maybe some blood on a couch? I agree about Man in the High Castle. Not perfect but very interesting. I've spent much time pondering it since viewing it.

bkd69

11/28/2015 08:58:59 am

Ironically, I remember Sander Vanocur primarily from his stint hosting the Weekly World News' tv show back in the 90's.

Mike Jones

11/28/2015 10:56:17 am

Time Machine and Only Me, Why do you two use the comments section of this blog for your "intellectual" sparring? This is Jason's blog and the entry is about Tim Kennedy and Hunting Hitler. It has nothing to do with Freemasonry. You guys should respect Jason and the rest of us by staying at least peripherally on topic or else have your conversations elsewhere.

An Over-Educated Grunt

11/28/2015 12:01:07 pm

You haven't been here long, have you? :p

Seriously, the reason is because one poster routinely posts things completely unrelated to the topic at hand as if pronouncing from on high, and a bunch of regular posters here are sick of it. Only Me and Clint have both offered plenty of cogent, relevant comments over the years - yes, years - but that's just not true of KIF/666/Hermes/Nobody Knows/Time Machine. Instead it's "religion is absurd because I don't like Christianity, and Freemasons drive history but inn not a conspiracy theorist."

11/28/2015 02:26:13 pm

But why humor him over and over? It's like he has OCD about Freemasonry, but also thrives on the attention. And, you are correct, I've only been here about a year.

11/28/2015 03:45:18 pm

I defer to Grunt's wisdom on the matter:

"when someone says something ridiculous and it goes unchallenged, it becomes the new normal"

For example, here's something Time Machine said as Nobody Knows:

"Overturning accepted scholarship is admirable if it is deserving.
Like for example the suggestion that mind expanding drugs were responsible for the origin of human civilization."

This is from someone who has denounced scholarship, in general, and ALL archaeologists and historians specifically. His arguments are inconsistent and he contradicts himself regularly.

Ignoring him doesn't work, as he is using the same tactics another troublemaker once used. The effect is the same; troll EVERY blog post with comments about his pet theory, substituting quantity of off-topic subject matter for quality of argument.

While Jason still has the Forum (where such posting truly belongs), just like his predecessor, Time Machine won't take it there. Like you said, he craves the attention *here*.

11/28/2015 05:45:55 pm

For me it's a mix of things.

1. Addressing idiocy helps me keep from it myself.

2. If it were simple bad ideas I'd address them, probably with a dose of sarcasm and an insult, but no malice. Plenty of people, myself included, have endorsed stupid positions. He is however rude on levels I see no reason to tolerate.

3. It amuses me to needle him.

11/28/2015 06:13:19 pm

I agree that nonsense usually requires a response. However, you have to remember that a passive-aggressive troll like Bobo (Nobody Knows, et al) measures the length of his penis according to the length of the responses he receives. Probably better to respond with very, very brief posts which would more accurately reflect Bobo's unfortunate short...comings.

DaveR

11/30/2015 10:14:55 am

I watched a few if the "Hunting Hitler" episodes and found them mildly entertaining. Basically it boils down to: "It's POSSIBLE that he MIGHT have been ABLE to escape...therefor he escaped." It reminds me of Georgio's oft repeated deductions: "We don't know how they built this, we don't know why they built this, we cannot build this...therefor...ALIENS!"

There are many questions about what happened to certain NAZI leaders during the closing days of the war, and the days and weeks after. We know that some of them did manage to escape from Germany, and some even lived out their natural lives in hiding. Josef Mengele is probably the most famous.

In this program they look at possibilities, gaps in evidence, archived documents that at a cursory glance support their claims, etc., to arrive at their conclusion regarding Hitler.

The FBI had active investigations on where Hitler might have gone, considering at that time there was no proof Hitler was dead. Hitler was never seen after his last public appearance a few days before his birthday. Hanna Reitsch flew out of Berlin shortly before the city fell in 1945. Some U-Boats did not surrender until several weeks, or even a month, after the war ended, contradicting direct orders from Admiral Doenitz. A couple of U-Boats were seen off the coasts of Brazil and Argentina after the war ended.

Using these and other facts, and some conjecture, they conclude that Hitler was never seen in public again because he flew out of Berlin, possibly with Hanna Reitsch, boarded a waiting U-Boat, and sailed to Argentina, where he moved inland and lived out his days planning a NAZI resurgence.

Entertaining to watch, but it shows amazing mental dexterity to arrive at their conclusions. Although other high ranking NAZI officials fled Berlin at the end of the war, there is no evidence Hitler followed them.

There are interviews with survivors of the Fuhrer Bunker stating that Hitler and Eva were married and then committed suicide. The bodies were taken outside and placed in a pit where they were burned. This is corroborated by Soviet soldiers who found two burned bodies near the entrance to the bunker.

Since I didn't watch all of the episodes I don't know if this was brought up, however if other fringe programs are an indicator, this evidence would be ignored as it contradicts their conclusions.

11/30/2015 09:32:30 pm

Part of the confusion regarding this stems from British black propaganda from the Political Warfare Executive (PWE) in early 1945. A British station claiming to be German resisters inside the Reich broadcast laims that Nazi leaders were abandoning Germany and fleeing to South America in U-boats. In order to keep the cover of the station and it's credibility, the OSS was not informed, who then passed the false intelligence to the FBI, who had responsibility for South America, who investigated-this is the source of the "declassified documents" the show hypes up so much. The Soviets had all the eyewitnesses from the Fuhrerbunker in their custody, and none of them were released until the early 1950's. Bottom line, the Soviets in SMERSH knew they had fragments of Hitler because they matched his dental work with his skull x-rays from 1944 when they picked up his dentist in Berlin in May 1945. The bone fragments of Hitler and Eva Braun are still in Moscow, and backed up by the interrogations of the bunker survivors, and Hitler's stated determination in public and private to commit suicide, first to avoid capture and secondarily to create a Barbarossa style myth and keep Stalin from displaying his body as a trophy. Hitler had no interest in creating a "Fourth Reich" from expat Nazis in South America at all-he concluded (and this is backed up by Speer and others) that since the German people were too weak, the Soviets in the Social Darwinist view he espoused were more fit and that they would be wiped out by the victorious Slavs.He had no intrest in anything after his own failure.

12/1/2015 07:41:42 am

I hadn't heard about the PWE doing this, I'm going to look into that, thanks.

All of these facts and the evidence are completely ignored by the fringe people, why? Are they willfully ignorant? Perhaps a little stupidity? Maybe they really do believe what they claim. I think it's more about the money. Even the MMA guy has talked about how much fun it was going around the world "investigating" Hitler and his possible escape. Not to mention he loved how easy the work was, and the great pay.

James

9/23/2019 11:36:49 pm

Daver, the problem I have with HH is that so-call investigators had no interest in the political history of the time, no rational understanding of social history of the time and relied on the story they wanted to tell only. There is so many errors in their presentation of facts. As an example, the FBI files, many are made up of citizens and nutcases writing to the FBI saying they had information. One record says they saw hitler drinking coffee at a cafe in new york.

But what really insulted me was the over acting by the investigators, treating everyone as idiots.

The series was a joke at best.

11/30/2015 09:37:35 pm

Clarification-the purpose of the PWE broadcasts were to convince German soldiers and civilians that the Nazi leadership was abandoning them, so as to encourage surrender and acquiescence to Allied occupation, and discredit "Wehrwolf" guerrilla insurgent propaganda. In order to be believable, no other Allied intelligence organization knew the true origin of the broadcasts, thus beginning the myth.

12/1/2015 10:08:59 am

It's money and the free travel etc. Real academics won't touch the "History" Channel anymore, since it would discredit them, thus leaving the fringe historians with no academic reputation to lose in the first place free range to spout populist nonsense to the ignorant audience (not unintelligent audience, but American television always plays to the assumption that the viewer is an idiot)

12/1/2015 10:53:27 am

That's why they get an MMA fighter to host a program relating to history. I think he would be better suited hosting a program about relentlessly beating people in their faces rather than anything relating to history.

12/1/2015 11:37:12 am

The MMA has name recognition to the target audience. The BBC has actual historians present programs, and they don't dumb down the content for the audience or sensationalize it, and they have recognized experts in the topic who have a good on camera presence, like Mary Beard for Roman history, Janina Ramirez for medieval, David Starkey for the Tudor era, and Dan Brown as a sort of jack of all trades. Bottom line is that the BBC uses actual historians who publish actual scholarly works to interpret history in a way that mimics a survey level history class in a British university. American history TV programs are at a middle school level at best, Add to that the relentlessly non history programming that the "History" Channel has moved to, and you see new outlets like Fox News beginning to fill the vacuum with its' "Legends and Lies" series, which has been picked up for a second season. For actual scholarly documentaries, I simply see what the BBC has put out and avoid American programming altogether. It is a sad commentary when the British are the source I have to turn to to watch American history.

12/1/2015 01:21:44 pm

That's exactly my point. Rather than getting historians specializing in World War 2, they get an MMA fighter to walk around and say highly intellectual stuff like "Why would Hitler stay in Berlin and kill himself? Why wouldn't he escape?"

This program is clearly not intended for critically minded people who will actually do some research on their own, rather it's intended for the prized age group who will take what is flashed in front of their eyes without question, and all for advertising money.

12/17/2015 07:07:51 pm

I'm not in the History Channel's target demographic and I don't consider myself to be a conspiracy theorist at all. In fact, my opinions of historical matters tend to conform to the the orthodox.

Having said that, I've watched the first six Hunting Hitler episodes and found them to be interesting and thought-provoking. They are quite obviously not going to prove anything. At best, they can demonstrate that there was a possibility that someone of Hitler's means including his tremendous wealth and many remaining faithful followers might have been able to escape Berlin even as the Soviets captured the city and make it to South America where he would have had support.

It seems to me that the people here claiming this line of thought is somehow stupid or nonsensical are guilty of some hypocrisy. Given the dearth of physical evidence of Hitler's suicide, it seems extraordinary to me that one would uncritically accept the conventional explanations of what happened. I find this especially surprising when most of the evidence is based on the testimonies of people had reason to lie whether in service to the Reich, out of loyalty to their Fuhrer, or for personal reasons known only to them.

Personally, I find it interesting television that presents some alternative, if unlikely, scenarios in the context of background information about the end days of WWII that could very well be educational for many viewers who are not well read on the subject.

Roger Clark

2/16/2016 09:18:14 pm

TJ ... I could have been the first person to step on the moon, not Neil Armstrong. I may have been there. But 'could' and 'may' won't do. Until I can prove that I was the first man on the moon people better stick with the official version - Neil Armstrong was the guy who did it.

Just because something is possible is no proof that it happened. Hitler died in Berlin in 1945. He never escaped. What's so depressing about many Hitler survivalists is their failure to do any serious reading. Hence they spout nonsense. The "Hunting Hitler" series is a disgrace - shoddily researched and defamatory. The programs smear serious historians and institutions that have spent decades investigating Hitler's death and encourage the half-educated to dismiss expertise. These programs accuse thousands of experts of 'lying' - deliberately falsifying history. That is a monstrous accusation.

9/23/2019 11:49:07 pm

TJ,
I pose this question to you.

If the greatest admirer and devotee of hitler, Joseph and magda geobals were prepared to commit suicide and murder their 6 children, in a way that it was claimed hitler died, and hitler escaped, why didn't the Geobals escape with Hitler & Eva Braun?