Philip Citroën

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

According to resurfaced documents, Citroën was a Dutch soldier subdued by the Nazis after Germany invaded the Netherlands. A purported original print of the photo was published in 2023 by Argentine author Abel Basti, a fringe theorist on the topic. Citing alleged family interviews and unreproduced records, Basti argues that Citroën was a submariner for the Allies, allowing him to help Hitler escape on behalf of certain members of Dutch royalty (which he ostensibly belonged to).

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

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

In accordance with the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, the CIA declassified microfilm of its reports and the photograph around the turn of the century. The low-quality reproductions were noted as unusual but "ultimately unconvincing" in the 2011 fringe book Grey Wolf: The Escape of Adolf Hitler.^[11] The online publication of the files in 2017 bolstered conspiracy theories about Hitler's death.^[5][d] Western scholars reject claims of Hitler's survival on the basis that his confirmed dental remains and eyewitness statements prove his death in Berlin in 1945,^{[12][13][14][15]} notwithstanding the possibility of mandibulectomy and supporting deception.^[10] In 2021, Worldcrunch alluded to an alleged photo in asserting that Hitler was seen wandering the streets of Tunja in 1954 "cloaked up like a peasant".^[16]

In 2023, Argentine author Abel Basti, who has written extensively on Hitler's supposed escape to South America, published a book about his research of the purported photo.^[19][20] It includes a Colombian foreigner document about Citroën and the original photograph—said to be provided by his son, who reputedly inherited and safeguarded it (in one case from theft).^[2] Basti asserts that Citroën was multilingual and had royal ties as well as some Jewish ancestry.^[2][19] He reputedly fought the Axis powers as a submariner with the Royal Netherlands Navy.^[2]

Allied leadership supposedly issued Citroën a document of safe conduct on 18 June 1945 in Berlin, granting him immunity in Soviet areas of occupied Germany.^[2] (Basti surmises that this was due to Allied Intelligence employing Citroën on an unknown task, perhaps in May 1945.)^[2][19] Citroën reportedly returned to the Netherlands before immigrating to Venezuela. Basti allegedly confirmed his presence in Tunja and found the residence from the photo.^[2] The author suggests that the image was taken as proof of the living Hitler.^[2][19] Basti posits that Citroën offered Hitler support from alleged Nazi supporters like Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, whom Basti ties to Citroën's brother, François. Basti contends that François was the architect of Hitler's 1945 escape.^[2][19]

The CIA copy of the purported photo resurfaced online in early 2025, amid the 80th anniversary of the Fall of Berlin.^[5][7][21] Fact-checking outlets argued that the photograph did not confirm Hitler's survival, without reference to Basti's claims (although one outlet used his photocopy).^[22] Snopes cited the CIA's skepticism as a dismissal of the case, while LADbible noted that the CIA had filed a report on a supposed autopsy of Hitler's body.^[5][23][f]

In September 2025, podcaster Joe Rogan opined that Hitler escaped, citing the ratlines and the controversial 2015–2018 History series Hunting Hitler.^[26][g] Rogan derided the low quality of the microfilm, which his producer Jamie Vernon asked ChatGPT to enhance;^[26] the artificial likenesses differed from other photos of both men.^{[26][19]: 5 [h]} Rogan expressed incredulity that anyone would be motivated to mimic Hitler down to the moustache.^[26][i][d]

Footnotes

Citations

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