Nazi tourism in Tenerife might evoke associations with the dark period of World War II, but in the case of Tenerife, it refers to a completely different phenomenon.
On the largest of the Canary Islands, there are tourist tours and events organized that highlight the influence and presence of Nazi Germany before, during, and after the war. The presence of Nazi tourism on Tenerife was not intended to glorify the Nazi regime, but rather to inform and raise awareness about the historical impact this period had on Tenerife and the wider region.
During the war years and the subsequent decades, Tenerife served as a refuge for several prominent Nazis who fled to the island to escape prosecution. Additionally, the Canary Islands played a strategic role in the Atlantic war efforts, leading to various intriguing historical sites and stories that can still be discovered today.
In the conditional tense:
Tourists may visit old bunkers, secret meeting places, and other historical locations associated with Nazi tourism on Tenerife and this era. These sites offer a unique insight into how the war affected even the most remote parts of the world. Attention is also given to the post-war period when many former Nazis chose Tenerife as their new home, often under false identities.
By exploring these dark chapters of history, Tenerife offers a unique perspective on the impact of World War II, far from the European battlefields. The tours provide not only historical knowledge but also encourage reflection and understanding of the complex post-war world we live in. The numerous bunkers that have been preserved are a nod to the consequences of Nazi tourism on Tenerife.
This “story” is historically not proven to be 100% accurate, and therefore I immediately make a cautious note by stating: I write this account in the “conditional tense” and “as not proven” as long as the truth has not been scientifically and historically verified. With this, I dismiss all suggestive stories as unsubstantiated.
Also, following a Discovery Channel report suggesting that Hitler may have hidden on the Canary Islands in a large villa in the mountains fits surprisingly into this narrative.
Moreover, a debate arose in the Facebook group “Tenerife for Dutch Speakers,” where it was claimed that an escape route was created, with an estimated 10,000 SS officers and Nazi envoys traveling to Argentina. This story began in the 1930s with Nazi tourism on Tenerife.
STILL NOT DEAD
Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun staged their own deaths in a bunker in Berlin. This is claimed by various experts who analyzed a collection of dossiers released by the FBI. Seven hundred pages related to World War II were examined, leading to this unsettling explanation. “The suicide is a fabricated story by the American government,” claims Bob Baer, a former CIA agent who led the team of investigators. One of the released documents shows that American military officials in Germany could not officially confirm the deaths, no death certificates were found, and the bodies of Eva Braun and the dictator are still located at an unknown place. As a result, Baer suggests, the world-shattering story of the deaths of Hitler and Eva Braun must be rewritten based on these newly revealed elements.
TO ARGENTINA?
Researcher John Cencich claims that Adolf Hitler fled to Tenerife at the end of World War II and was not burned in Berlin as history has falsely told us. He bases this on a 700-page FBI dossier that he thoroughly examined. It is known that Adolf and Eva had several doubles, and it is considered suspicious that the burnt bodies found by Russian soldiers were smaller than the actual height of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun.
Scientists at the University of Connecticut performed a DNA test on a skull fragment found in Berlin, which showed that the skull belonged to a young woman, not a man. The story continues. The FBI dossier also mentions secret tunnels discovered from the hiding bunker to Tempelhof Airport, from which the couple flew to Tenerife, later traveling by U-boat or ship (there is no certainty on this) to Argentina, blending into the local population of previously escaped Nazi members.
THE STORY OF ABEL BASTI
Furthermore, Buenos Aires journalist and researcher Abel Basti, in his book El exilio de Hitler, reveals more details about Hitler. Basti has been trying to reconstruct the Nazi escape routes for decades and claims that Hitler and Eva Braun boarded as evacuated passengers with six other Nazis. Their flight departed from Tempelhof and ended in Hörsing (Linz). He claims to know this from the testimony of a high-ranking Gestapo officer who also stated that Hitler, four days later, on April 26, 1945, flew to Barcelona. The pilot of that plane was Werner Baumbach, who died in Argentina in 1953.
Basti also has testimony from a Jesuit whose family was friends with Hitler and had secret meetings with him at Bar Las Quebrantas in Cantabria. His book includes a document showing that Eva Braun and Hitler traveled with a convoy from Spain, stopping in the Canary Islands, to southern Argentina. The couple disembarked in Patagonia in the summer of 1945.
NAZI TOURISM ON TENERIFE
Hotel Martianez in Puerto de la Cruz, 1939 Luxurious cruise ships dock daily in Santa Cruz, with thousands of tourists on board who want to see as much of the island as possible in a relatively short time. Typically, visits focus on the capital area, and beyond La Laguna, La Orotava, and Puerto de la Cruz, time constraints do not allow further exploration. Looking back in time, we notice the rise of cruise tourism in the early 1930s.
During that time, many ships came to Tenerife, mostly British and German steamers bringing wealthy clients to a dream island in the ocean. Before World War II, a style of travel emerged that was reserved for the affluent. Later, a flow of passengers from German tourist ships began to be more and more related to the Nazi regime. This was noticeable from the flag under which these ships sailed. The German flag was systematically replaced by the Nazi flag.
It is estimated that in the decade of the 1930s, nine tourist ships with more than 10,000 German passengers docked in Santa Cruz. During that same period, dozens of warships under British and German flags also passed through the area. In 1935, Karl Dönitz, a high official of the Third Reich and Hitler’s successor after his suicide, was already in Tenerife as a captain. Did you know that the old Hotel Martianez in Puerto de la Cruz was specially prepared for Nazi tourism in Tenerife in 1939?
FRANCISCO FRANCO
For the island’s residents, this was entirely new. Never before had they witnessed tourism of this size and scale. People and authorities took to the streets to entertain the passengers, street festivals were organized, and even business meetings were held in the casino, says historian Jose Miguel Rodriguez, director of the exhibition on World War II and its relationship with the Canary Islands, which is being held at the Almeyda Museum in Santa Cruz.
In old photos of the Martiánez Hotel, we can see streets being decorated in honor of Nazi tourism in Tenerife. Buses were also chartered to Tacoronte for visitors to taste the local wines, as shown in an excursion brochure from that time. In fact, this still happens today; passengers are dropped off in coaches and taken to various tourist attractions. In that regard, nothing has changed in 75 years.
One of the “hot items” at the exhibition is a letter from 1936 addressed to Francisco Franco, the then-military commander of the Canary Islands, from the German consul, inviting him to a meeting aboard one of the docked Nazi ships. Coincidentally, one month later, Franco’s military uprising in Spain began, a historic event that sparked the Spanish Civil War.
Escape routes
We have previously discussed the escape routes used by German Nazis towards the end of World War II. One of these routes passed through the Canary Islands to Argentina. However, not all of them fled to South America. Some remained in places like Icod de los Vinos and Puerto de la Cruz. For example, Franz von Papen, a politician and diplomat under Hitler, lived in the north of Tenerife between 1950 and 1969, according to historian José Miguel Rodríguez.
Many other Nazi members and their families left the Third Reich and made the crossing using “Operation Odessa.” These sinister and organized escape routes ran along three lines. One of them, called the “Spider Route” (Ruta de la Araña), had Spain as its base, with SS officer Albert Fuldner tightly controlling the operation. Many Nazis, Gestapo, and SS officers escaped thanks to his efforts, avoiding the terrible fate often faced by the losing side of a war.
Another clandestine escape route was called the “Convent Route” (Ruta de los Conventos), made possible by a collaboration with the Vatican. A third route, the “Freedom Route” (Ruta Libertad), was set up to evacuate SS members and Nazi collaborators from more eastern regions to safer places.
Hitler on the Canary Islands
Other sources also report that Hitler arrived in Buenos Aires in 1945 by submarine after a stopover in the Canary Islands. It is claimed that Hitler made a stop in Jandia, Fuerteventura, where he hid for a month in Villa Winter, a building on a peninsula, according to statements made by SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann during his trial in Israel.
Villa Winter was owned by German engineer and colonel Gustav Winter, a Nazi spy and confidant of Hitler. The villa’s strategic location, at the foot of the Pico de la Zarza mountain, suggests that it may have been used for secret military actions, including escape routes that passed through Spain. According to some accounts, Eichmann and Mengele also hid there.
U-boats
What we know for certain is that the Canary Islands were one of the refueling locations for German U-boats. Evidence of this has been found on Gran Canaria. Recently, 8,000 square meters of tunnels were discovered in the Barranco de Tamaraceite, where torpedoes and fuel for U-boats were stored. The numerous bunkers along the coast, the countless shipments brought ashore, and the nearby airbase in Gando all prove that more was going on here than just tourism.
In any case, this story holds an undeniable uncertainty, and until proven otherwise, I will continue to respect history. For me, the content of this article is not definitive proof, but neither is it entirely dismissible.
Conclusion
Taking into account the reports from the CIA and FBI, and if we acknowledge that Hitler, according to the DNA tests, escaped death in Berlin, it is logical to consider the Canary Islands as a stopover on the way to Central America. The numerous clues are consistently present; now, we just need to gather the final evidence before we can truly believe it all.
There will be a continuation of this story, although it may not have much to do with the Canary Islands. What we do know is that this story began with Nazi tourism in Tenerife.
HITLER SURVIVES WORLD WAR II
Source: Het Nieuwsblad
Declassified documents reveal that the U.S. government sent a CIA agent to Colombia in the 1950s to investigate whether Adolf Hitler was still alive there.
An old SS officer living there told an informant that he regularly came into contact with the former Führer. A memo was even attached with a photo showing the SS officer next to someone who looked suspiciously like Hitler. The photo is believed to be from 1955.
The memo contains detailed information from an anonymous informant who passed it to the CIA. The man was in close contact with former SS officer Philip Citroen, who was living in South America at the time. The informant claimed that Citroen, in late September 1955, privately declared that Hitler was still alive and that he had monthly contact with him.
According to Citroen, Hitler lived in the Colombian city of Tunja, where several former Nazis had spent their final days. Hitler was still revered by them. They gave him the Hitler salute and continued to address him as “Der Führer,” according to the memo.
A photo was attached to the documents—allegedly from 1955—of Citroen and a man named Adolf Schrittelmayor, suggesting that Hitler had changed his name. It is further suggested that the former Nazi leader, who would have been 66 at the time, was working at a shipping company. Citroen claimed that Hitler left Colombia for Argentina a few months later.
When exactly he died is still unknown.
Diario de Avisos © Photography
Nazi Tourism on Tenerife ©
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