Hitler's Gestapo Chief Who Vanished Without a Trace: The Hunt for Heinrich Müller

Berlin, 1 May 1945. Hitler has been dead for a day, and the last men in the Führerbunker are getting ready to break out through the burning city. One of them refuses to go. "We know the Russian methods exactly," he says. "I haven't the faintest intention of being taken prisoner by the Russians." He is Heinrich Müller, chief of the Gestapo, and after that night nobody ever saw him again. Müller was the policeman behind the Gleiwitz lie that started the war, a participant in the Wannsee Conference, Adolf Eichmann's boss, and the man who ran the purge after the July 1944 plot. He was never tried for any of it. For decades, police, intelligence services and Nazi hunters chased his shadow: a fake grave in West Berlin that was opened in 1963, rumours that he worked for Stalin or for the CIA, a false arrest in Panama, Israeli agents in Munich, and a forged "CIA file". Then, in 2013, a German historian found documents showing that his body was most likely buried in a mass grave on the site of Berlin's oldest Jewish cemetery. Did Heinrich Müller die in Berlin in May 1945, or did he pull off one last escape? Tell us what you think in the comments. CHAPTERS 0:00 Introduction 1:40 The Policeman from Munich 2:56 Heydrich's Bloodhound 4:07 The Men in Polish Uniforms 5:03 The Man Behind the Desk 6:15 The Hunter 7:31 The Last Days 8:46 The Man Who Wasn't There 10:05 The Empty Grave 11:15 Sightings 12:47 A Grave Among His Victims SOURCES US National Archives, Interagency Working Group: "Analysis of the Name File of Heinrich Mueller" (CIA records, RG 263), by Timothy Naftali, Norman J.W. Goda, Richard Breitman and Robert Wolfe CIA name file "Mueller, Heinrich", declassified under the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act (copy on archive.org) Associated Press, "Researcher: Nazi Gestapo chief died in Berlin" (31 Oct 2013) The Local Germany, "Nazi secret police chief buried in mass Jewish grave" (31 Oct 2013) Wikipedia: Heinrich Müller (Gestapo); Gleiwitz incident; Wannsee Conference; Grosse Hamburger Strasse Johannes Tuchel, German Resistance Memorial Center (as reported in Bild, Oct 2013) FOOTAGE & IMAGES US Army Signal Corps films (National Archives, public domain): Berlin 1945 (Brandenburg Gate, Leipziger Strasse, Reich Chancellery ruins, 2nd Armored in Berlin), Berlin-Neukölln 1946, Munich 1945, Lidice 1945, Dachau prison 1946, Nuremberg sentencing 1946, bombing of Berlin 1944 US Army film of Berlin border activities, 1961 (National Archives, public domain) "Why We Fight: Prelude to War", "The Nazis Strike", "Divide and Conquer" (US War Department, public domain) War Department Film Bulletin 48, Invasion of Poland 1939 (public domain) Westerbork film, 1944 (Rudolf Breslauer) Universal Newsreel (public domain): Eichmann trial 1961, Panama 1956 Photo of Heinrich Müller and file page from his CIA name file (US government, declassified) Maps made for this channel Footage is used to illustrate the period and places; captions describe what is actually shown. No footage of Heinrich Müller himself is known to be in the public domain. MUSIC Frédéric Chopin, Nocturnes B. 108 in C minor, Op. 55 No. 1, Op. 72 No. 1, Op. 27 No. 1, Op. 9 No. 1 and Op. 48 No. 1, Musopen recordings, public domain (CC0). DISCLAIMER This video is made for educational and historical purposes only. It does not promote or glorify Nazism or any extremist ideology. No graphic footage is shown. #WW2 #Gestapo #HeinrichMuller #History #WW2History #NaziHunters #Documentary