Somewhere off this Rithscher Upland the Police Gazette was told, in one of the Neumayer group of mountains, Adolf Hitler’s Shangri-La was ordered built. The area was given a new name—New Schwabenland.
The Schwabenland crew found brilliant sunshine there even in February, with cloudless skies and light air. They found that men could work comfortably outdoors, stripped to the waist, although the climate was always cold—never rising above thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit. But because of the dry cold, it was a healthy climate, and disease would be virtually unknown. Few bacteria could live in that extreme cold.
Apart from the cold—an obstacle man’s ingenuity could overcome—conditions were ideal for an inaccessible hideout. Unlimited supplies of fresh water existed the year round; during the summer, seals and penguins were plentiful; birds of all kinds were everywhere; and there were tremendous quantities of edible fish—mainly a small rock cod—apart from the whales, which could keep the settlement supplied with fuel oil.
According to reports given to the Police Gazette by the Nazi informant in the Argentine, Captain Rithscher even chose the Shangri-La mountain hideout. A snow-free rocky spur that lay at the base of one of the higher mountains, it was honeycombed with natural caves, which made it virtually a hollow hill. It was within a few miles of one of the finest natural airfields in the world, and was within easy reach of a land-locked bay that needed little of man’s improvements.
Work on the Shangri-La was commenced in the summer of 1939. During that first summer, a fleet of between ten and twelve ships carried several hundred laborers (the picked product of the concentration camps) to the Polar region, together with heavy hauling and clearing machinery.
Building a dock and raising all supplies from the coastal harbor to the 2,000-foot plateau atop the ice cliffs wasn’t an insurmountable task for the German engineers. Within two months, skillful dynamiting and interior shoring with special cold-resistant steel made in the Ruhr enabled the engineers and construction foremen to seal up the mountain into comfortable living accommodations.
Long before the war ended so disastrously for Hitler, the Fuehrer’s hideout had been completed. German ingenuity and know-how had been exploited to the utmost. The hollowed-out mountain had been transformed into a fabulous retreat, lacking no luxury. Between three hundred and five hundred workmen had labored constantly over a period of five years to build this Antarctic Berchtesgaden designed to maintain one hundred persons in autonomous comfort for a minimum of ten years.
Entrance to the mountain retreat is gained via a series of three canal-lock-type double doors set in concrete flush in the mountainside. These insure that a minimum of cold air enters and hot air emerges during normal comings and goings. The factory-like interior, according to our Nazi informant from Patagonia, consists of two shells separated by air spaces. The outer shell is made of a special cold-resistant battleship steel, which will take temperatures of eighty degrees below zero Fahrenheit. The inner shell is made of reinforced concrete, lined mostly with pressed panels of fiber insulation.
Only a scant half-dozen of the one hundred Germans in this Shangri-La are permitted to visit the Fuehrer’s personal headquarters, reportedly situated in the rear of the “factory.” These headquarters have been copied, lavishly and almost exactly (although in miniature), from the Chancellery in Berlin, where Hitler used to live. There are certain basic differences in the furnishings. Steel has replaced wood; indirect lighting had replaced the huge crystal chandeliers; and plastic floors have replaced marble.
The Police Gazette was told that nothing is lacking in this hideout. Green vegetables are grown fresh in soil that previously knew only the primitive sparse and coarse Polar grass and the lower-life lichen and fungus. Specially constructed and heated “stables” hold domestic animals of various types, mainly fowl.
A most interesting aspect of this mountain retreat was revealed by the Nazi agent. An entire block has been set aside as laboratories for German scientists. These scientists are reportedly continuing their research into phases of atomic and radar research, guided missiles, and other “secret” war weapons—although the physical testing grounds for these weapons lie in the Argentine.
One detail the Police Gazette was unable to obtain from this source: “I do not know whether Eva Braun is with the Fuehrer in this Shangri-La. I haven’t seen her. But I do know she boarded the escape U-boat with him in the Norwegian fjords that day early in May. I heard rumors she died during the voyage to Colombia, but I just don’t know.”
Whether his wife is with him or not, Adolf Hitler has the physical means to lie hidden until the time is ripe, join forces with the new Soviet dictator, and then, once more, strike to win Germany.
HITLER IS ALIVE
By JAMES ROGERS
An isolated, mysterious fortress in South America hides Fuehrer’s secret fortune
Hidden from civilization and under heavy 24-hour guard, a string of modern ranch buildings near Lake Viedma in the remote plateau region of Argentina shelters two of the world’s best-kept secrets—
The mystery of Adolf Hitler’s vanished two-billion dollar fortune, and the even-more mysterious disappearance of Der Fuehrer himself.
For more than eleven years a group of heavily-armed men in this barren and unexplored region of South America have turned back occasional visitors to the ranch, and the native population long has been aware that this territory is forbidden ground.
But from authoritative Washington and Buenos Aires sources the Police Gazette has learned that this Patagonian territory of 10,000 sq. miles is the purported hideout of Hitler and his aides, who escaped before the fall of Berlin with his two-billion-dollar loot.
Long before Berlin fell in April, 1945, the Lake Viedma ranch had been prepared for Der Fuehrer’s coming. And from many spots on the continent—and even from the United States—millions of dollars had been cleverly siphoned into Argentina to await the dictator’s exile.
How It Was Done
These preparations were started in 1938 by Ludwig Freude, a close friend of Hitler and a key figure in the Nazi worldwide network. To assure cooperation from Argentina, Freude became an intimate of Juan Peron, the South American bully-boy, and through the war, Freude’s son was Peron’s personal secretary.
Although Freude’s old buddy, Peron, has been overthrown and is in exile, the present Argentina regime has given no indication that it intends to root out the nest of Nazis near Lake Viedma. Plenty of Third Reich money is still in industries in the Argentine and Hitler’s stronghold has not been molested. Land purchases in the isolated Patagonian plateau were made by the Nazis in 1938 and soon the region was buzzing with Nazi officials, SS guards and Berlin businessman, rushed there by plane on mysterious errands.
Former US Ambassador Spruille Braden reported these activities to the State Department.
“We have never been able to ascertain fully the complete scope of Nazi Infiltration into the Argentine.” Braden said. “Our intelligence and economic officers traced $400,000,000 of Nazi funds into the country. The Argentine government flatly refused to cooperate with us in developing further information of Freude’s Nazi activities and took every effort to cover him up and protect him from our intelligence investigation.”
What Braden—and the State Department—didn’t know until now is that the four hundred million dollars was only a drop in the bucket! Millions more were being smuggled to the Lake Viedma ranch under the Nazi code “Operation M Fund!”
A few top Hitler aides believed that this fund was for espionage in the Americas. But only Freude and another Hitler henchman Martin Bormann, knew that “Operation M Fund” was really Hitler’s own secret fortune, his insurance against the collapse of the Third Reich.
Another indication of how this fortune was handled can be gathered from a secret State Department record which the Police Gazette has obtained. According to this report, “When Counsellor of the Nazi Embassy Wilhelm von Pochhammer was repatriated July 6, 1944, he gave Freude po
wer of attorney to act on behalf of the Embassy and handed him 45,280 pesos of his own money for safe-keeping … At the time General Wolf, chief of armed forces in the German Embassy, left, the military attache’s fund of 200,000 pesos was turned over to Freude.”
Freude converted most of the cash to gold, and had it buried near the ranch. But another part of the fortune was invested in various Argentine projects, not only as long-range capital investment, but as a form of bribery to Peron, who it is also believed, cashed in on the secret. The vast amount of these investments was indicated in testimony of Assistant Secretary of State William L. Clayton, who told the Senate Armed Services committee June 25, 1945, that 108 major Argentina economic enterprises were under control of the Nazis.
Hitler’s Fortune
Meanwhile, Martin Bormann (reported by British Intelligence as “dead or missing,” now believed living in the Lake Viedma area) was handling Hitler’s secret fortune in Europe. More than $100,000,000 was channeled through Swiss banks to Argentina, and Allied intelligence agents traced the transactions to Bormann. They found his trail—but not the money.
Hitler’s personal treasures, including gold and silverware, rare paintings and other objet d’ art, were flown out of Germany by the Luftwaffe to the Balearic Islands, where Nazi sympathizers removed them to a hiding place in Palencia in northern Spain. From there the treasure, estimated to be worth at least twenty million dollars, was taken piecemeal to Argentina.
Hitler, in his book “Mein Kampf” and throughout his career, kept telling the German people that he was a poor man, but American agents discovered after the war that this was another of his “big lies.” They found that he truly was one of the world’s richest men.
Secret Financial Records
Secret Reich accounting records show that Hitler from 1935 to 1945 received a salary of from $2,640,000 to $6,000,000 a year, including expenses. He received $100,000 annually as president of the Reich, the same amount as Chancellor, and drew unlimited funds out of six different expense accounts which ran into millions.
In addition, Hitler had another scheme that netted him more than twenty million dollars. This was the issuance of commemorative postage stamps which were sold to stamp collectors throughout the world. These issues were called semi-postals—a stamp sold for a higher value than its value for postage, the difference going to the so-called National Cultural Fund. But this fund was Hitler’s own private financial baby, so the money went right into his bank account! It, too, was transferred by Bormann to Lake Viedma.
Another lucrative source of income was the book “Mein Kampf.” It earned more than seven million dollars in royalties throughout the world, while inside Germany, it brought Hitler nearly $15,000,000!
An idea of the vast extent of Hitler’s hidden fortune can be gained by what was confiscated at the end of the war—when the Allies were able to grab only a fraction of the loot. The US government found $3,000,000 in American currency hidden in the German Embassy in Washington. This was in 1945 after Germany had surrendered. Until that time, the Swiss government had looked after German property. Under international law the United States could seize the Embassy only after surrender, and since Switzerland had handled so much of the transferring of Nazi money, it could have been more than a coincidence that some of the cash was stashed there.
Hitler also got away with another fortune he had order Stored at Neuschwanstein Castle on the Austrian border. From October, 1940, Martin Bormann acting under Der Fuehrer’s instructions, used the castle to store priceless art collections stolen from France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland and other conquered nations. After the war Dr. Gunther Schiedlausky of the Berlin State Museum appraised the “remains” of the collection at more than fifty million dollars.
Also in the castle US Army officers found a three-quarter mile long tunnel in which was stored gold-encrusted, diamond-studded vessels, collections of precious stones and other jewels of untold value.
Near Hitler’s Berchtesgaden retreat, Allied intelligence officers, found $33,000,000 in gold bullion stolen from Hungary. In the retreat itself, Lt. Col. W. P. Machemehl, chief finance officer of the 101st Airborne Division unearthed a $2,642,000 hoard of currency from 26 nations. But evidence was found that at least ten million more in paper currency and gold had been removed form Berchtesgaden by Bormann prior to the entrance of the American forces.
After careful checking, the Allies took an inventory of the money, jewelry, art collections and other valuables stolen by Hitler. The total figures are:
Poland …………………….. $280,000,000
Czechoslovakia…………………….. $ 40,000,000
France…………………….. $470,000,000
Belgium…………………….. $180,000,000
Netherlands…………………….. $ 80,000,000
Hungary…………………….. $140,000,000
Roumania…………………….. $100,000,000
Norway…………………….. $ 50,000,000
This loot reached a staggering total of $1,340,000,000. Some of it was recovered and returned to the plundered nations, but thanks to Hitler’s two aides, Freude and Bormann, most of this huge fortune was transferred to the Argentine, where it still remains.
The above figures do not include the vast amounts taken directly from the Third Reich and also sent to the ranch hideout in South America.
The exact total of Hitler’s mighty fortune will never be known. His worldwide financial operation was a closely-guarded secret, as carefully hidden from the world as his escape by submarine to Argentina.
Guarded by Storm Troopers
US Intelligence officials feel certain that the entire plot was part of Hitler’s long-range plan to finance another Nazi offensive from South America if he lost World War II. And they are convinced that Hitler is still alive on that heavily guarded ranch, but so far no American secret agent has been able to penetrate the curtain of veteran Storm Troopers who watch every road and entrance night and day.
Until the curtain of sub-machine guns is penetrated, the world must assume that one of the world’s richest men is guarding his two-billion dollar fortune in a remote retreat in South America, biding his time to strike again.
And that man is Adolf Hitler.
World’s Greatest Medium …
LUCE VIDI SEES HITLER ALIVE
by KENNETH PETERS
Her prediction of President Kennedy’s assassination amazed the whole world!
Madame Luce Vidi, the world-famous medium who had seen in her crystal ball the assassination of President Kennedy and had predicted the time of the tragedy, and had also seen the death of French boxer Marcel Cerdan, the former middleweight champion, in a plane crash, has now revealed that she came face-to-face with Adolf Hitler.
It was five o’clock in the afternoon, on September 1, 1964, that the image of a man, tired and shrunken appeared in her crystal ball while she was sitting in the study of her Paris apartment.
The Face of Hitler
At first it was only a dark silhouette, but bit by bit the face brightened. It was the face of an old man. It was creased and wrinkled, but there was no gentleness in the lined face, and the eyes had a fixed, frightening and piercing gaze.
It was the face that had haunted her nightmares ever since 1945, when reports of Hitler’s suicide in his Berlin bunker were blazoned across the front pages of the world’s newspapers at that time. Madame Vidi was overwhelmed with a strange inner perception that Hitler’s presence still hung over Europe.
This is the way Adolf Hitler may look today, his mustache gone, his hair thinned with age.
The face of the former dictator lingered in Madame Vidi’s mind the whole night long. At 5 a.m. the next morning, she consulted the crystal ball again. After 20 minutes of intense concentration, the face reappeared, this time in even clearer detail; and as she stared into the ball, the image grew until Hitler’s whole body was revealed.
He looked completely
exhausted. He walked with a slight limp, shuffling awkwardly like a senile old man of 76. Yet a quality of ferocity still emanated from the ruined body. Behind smoked glasses, his gaze burned with demented madness and unrelenting hatred.
Hitler was clean-shaven and only a few wisps of white hair straggled over his forehead. There was an ugly scar, probably a souvenir of a previous assassination attempt on the left side of his chin.
The most noteworthy details of the face in the crystal ball, however, were the ears, which stuck out from the skull. The medium explained that the type of ears Hitler had indicate a violent temperament, with dangerous and uncontrollable passions. Hitler’s double, the man Luce Vidi believes died in the Berlin bunker in the dictator’s place—had ears that were set close to his head.
This would bear out a statement made by Col. W. F. Heimlich, former chief of US Army Intelligence in Berlin, who has said that the blood stains found on the couch in the bunker where Hitler supposedly committed suicide, were not the dictator’s blood type.
Luce Vidi has one more contribution to make to the Hitler mystery. Where is he hiding?
“All I can tell you,” she said to the French press, “is that I saw something behind him when his image appeared in the crystal ball. At first, I thought it was a rock. Then I recognized a large, immobile turtle sleeping on sand, under a blinding sun. So, I was able to identify the place as a tropical country, possibly South America.”
Luce Vidi’s remarkable revelations confirm the investigations of Jack Comben, correspondent of the London Daily Express who, in January, 1964, journeyed to an area in the remote provinces of Rio Negro and Chubut, to investigate reports that, before Germany’s defeat, hundreds of hard-core Nazis had purchased 10,000 square miles of land. It had been turned into an impregnable fortress for “very high-placed Nazi war criminals and their followers.”
Hitler Is Alive! Page 19