Reviewing the Weird: Eyewitness to Hitler’s Escape by Peter David Orr

Peter David Orr’s Eyewitness to Hitler’s Escape follows other well-researched studies which offer provocative reasons to doubt that in the waning days of World War II and with the fall of Berlin imminent, Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide and before doing so, ordered their bodies be burned outside the Führer Bunker. I find two compelling threads woven through Orr’s book.  One involves an elaborate intelligence plan of deception; the other, hinging on the first, leads to the theory that Hitler escaped, resulting in several witnesses who spotted the Führer after he was allegedly dead.  Orr interviews one extensively in his book.

The nameless deception scheme is referred to simply as Plan V-S and involved Hitler and his officers, Gooring, Himmler and Speer.  These trusted officers seemed to go rogue on the Führer when they tried to negotiate a pact with the Nazis’ western enemies in the last phase of the war.  According to this book, seemed is the operative word here.  Orr believes these officers were operating with full knowledge and consent of Adolf Hitler.  There’s plenty of theorizing and some support for it.  For instance, In April 1998, Reichsleiter Philipp Bouhler’s former personal adjutant, Karl Freiherr Michel von Tussling wrote a letter to a former SS comrade.  The letter was in German, but I quote it in English here, per Orr’s translation:  “The plan was simply known under the name V-S, because it was a faked sellout scheme; a feigned treason scheme” (5).  Orr goes on to show how the actions taken by these Nazi officers seemed to contradict the German high command, even as they were acting to advance Hitler’s goal – if not to stop the enemy, then to ensure the rise of a new Reich outside of Berlin, perhaps even away from Germany.  Plan V-S also served as obfuscation to give key Nazi figures time to escape.  Complicated escape routes – what Peter Levenda calls “ratlines” – were drawn up and used.

This leads to the book’s second major revelation:  that Hitler escaped Berlin and eventually, Germany.  Orr has done extensive digging to support his points.  If this were a text forged on supposition without backup, it would be easy to dismiss.  It isn’t.  Orr substantiates his claims with many sources and voluminous footnotes throughout the text.  His theories are clearly articulated.   And while some will ding it for the occasional surface glitch and missing word, these can be easily eliminated if Orr revises the manuscript.

So how did Hitler escape the bunker?  By committing what Orr calls “pseudocide.”  The Führer didn’t die, one of his doppelgangers did.  And the body of a woman who could pass for Eva Braun was substituted for Hitler’s partner.

Over the years, the skull fragment that the Soviets touted as belonging to Hitler were shown to be otherwise by a University of Connecticut scientist.  The jawbone and bridgework that allegedly were recovered from the ashes where the corpses were burned should also be regarded with suspicion.  Yes, Hitler’s dentist confirmed they belonged to his infamous patient, but only years after the war and having been imprisoned for years then released by the Soviets – then flown back to inspect and legitimize the fragments!

Other reasons to doubt the official story: The SS guard who saw a male and female cadaver wheeled into Hitler’s underground command headquarters.  This guard also remembers Hitler’s dentist spending hours in a private room with the corpses shortly before Hitler’s alleged suicide.  Oh, and the blood on the couch on which Hitler shot himself?  It didn’t match the Führer’s blood type.

And yet, the notion that Hitler escaped death seems incredible.  Why should we doubt the official tales we’ve been told throughout the years?  In fact, once the subject is scrutinized, there are reasons aplenty to consider, one of which is that most of those who claimed Hitler offed himself were his loyal followers.  Contra their testimonials, Orr gives us exactly what the title of his book states: an “eyewitness to Hitler’s escape.”  Private Aubrey Temples was an American POW in the final phase of World War II.  In March 1945, Temples was transferred from Moosburg to a smaller camp in Southern Germany, Nussdorf-am-Inn, near the Austrian border.  While there, he was part of a farm detail and assigned to work for the Moser family, who liked Temples, treated him well, and even had him eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner with them each day.

On April 30th – a day or two after Hitler’s alleged suicide in Berlin – Temples claims he stood by the side of the road as a trio of SS-guarded Mercedes Benz limos drove by.  According to Temples, Hitler, riding in the middle car, spotted the young American POW.  Temples thought he had breathed his last, but the Führer and his entourage ignored him and drove on to their destination, an estate in the village.

Other members of the small community remember Hitler’s overnight visit.  The mayor’s daughter, for example, took fresh milk up to the estate because the Führer had a bad stomach.  The manor, by the way, was a gift from Hitler to his friend, the aforementioned Reichsleiter Phillip Bouhler.

Where was Eva Braun?  Private Temples makes no mention of her, which rather than discredit his narrative makes it even more convincing.  Testimony by other witnesses unearthed by Orr explain that Eva and her brother-in-law split from Hitler after the first part of the escape route.  They did so in order for Eva to visit her very pregnant sister, Gretl Braun.  The plan then, was for Eva to eventually join Hitler in Barcelona.

And their ultimate destination?  This book doesn’t cover it, but others do: South America.  Argentina.  How?  Possibly, by U-Boat.

Over the years, many have claimed that Hitler was too sick to make the arduous journey from Berlin to South America, especially given the convoluted routes he would have had to travel.  Yet again, we have reason to doubt the witnesses to Hitler’s allegedly ill health:  Many were loyal supporters.  There are dissenters – several of whom had encounters with Hitler in his last days in Berlin.  They claim Hitler wasn’t as ill as reports made him out to be.

So did Hitler escape the bunker and live for years in South America?  Peter David Orr gives us Private Temples’ fascinating tale and other well-documented reasons to consider that the last days of Germany’s participation in World War II may not have been the last days of Adolf Hitler.

— Oscar De Los Santos

Works Cited and Consulted

Dunston, Simon and Gerrard Williams. Grey Wolf: The Escape of Adolf

Hitler. New York: Sterling, 2011.

Levenda, Peter. Ratline: Soviet Spies, Nazi Priests, and the Disappearance of

Adolf Hitler.  Lake Worth, FL: Ibis Press, 2012.

Orr, Peter David.  Eyewitness to Hitler’s Escape.  Beachhead Press, 2018.