Koi Alien Photo 73 appears to show Hitler greeting an alien. It has appeared on various websites with no accompanying text or a brief caption indicating that it shows an alien shaking hands with Hiler (although in fact the "alien" has its hands by its sides and isn't shaking Hitler's hands).
In fact, this photo is a manipulated version of a photograph that appeared on the front page of The Illustrierter Beobachter (the Nazi Party’s weekly illustrated magazine) in 1938. The original version shows Adolf Hitler shaking hands with the Italian leader, Mussolini.
The "alien" in this particular photograph looks like one of the "Asgard" aliens from the science-fiction television series Stargate SG-1 (including the character "Thor"). However, more detailed examination of images of the "Asgard" and also of other cinema aliens suggests that the relevant "alien" is in fact taken from an image of the alien devised for the "Roswell" movie in 1994 - note in particular the ears, shoulders, eyes and ridge in the middle of the alien's forehead.
It is rather disappointing to read online discussions of this photograph in which numerous individuals (a) do not appear to recognise the relevant "alien" and, more importantly, (b) seem to ignore individuals that point out the uncanny resemblance between the alien in this image and the relevant "aliens" in the Roswell movie and Stargate SG-1 and (c) ignore the obvious signs of tampering with the original photograph e.g. if you look at Hitler's hand - it is quite simply a mess.
The use of such a recognizable image suggests that the image was not really intended to fool anyone and/or that the hoaxer was rather lazy. The latter possibility is suggested by the fact that Hitler appears to be looking over the head of the "alien".
Despite these rather fatal problems, some of the individuals that have commented upon this photograph have indicated (rather surprisingly to me) that they remain open minded about the genuiness of the photo. For example, one individual commenting upon these problems in an online discussion suggested, apparently seriously, that "I don't see Hitler looking over the aliens head, I see his eyes, wide & his eyes looking down at the alien, like he was taken by surprise" and that "Just because the picture looks like Thor from Stargate SG-1, does not mean it's an image after him. I mean, how do you think they got the idea for Thor in the TV show?".
With such an apparently strong willingness to suspend disbelief, I have to wonder what evidence of a hoax would be found sufficiently compelling to convince everyone. I am afraid that the answer is that no amount of evidence would actually suffice.
Sections below:
2. Stories and claims relating to this image
3. The real background to this image
4. Relevant online forum discussions
5. Further references and resources
1. The relevant image
2. Stories and claims relating to this image
This image has appeared on various websites, with a title indicating that it is a picture of Hitler with an alien connected with "haunebuw".
"Haunebu" appears in connection with various stories relating to alleged Nazi development of flying disctechnology. For example, the "Crystal Links" website includes a webpage claiming : "In 1936 a 'flying saucer' allegedly crashes in the Black Forest opening the door for advanced German technology in aeronautics and space (reverse engineering). The ship and its occupants were spirited away to the dark heart of Nazi Germany, where all was dismantled and diligently studied. A resulting program was called Haunebu which also linked the Nazis to UFO underground bases in Antarctica."
3. The real background to this image
This photo is a manipulated version of a photograph that appeared on the front page of The Illustrierter Beobachter (the Nazi Party’s weekly illustrated magazine) in 1938. The original version shows Adolf Hitler shaking hands with the Italian leader, Mussolini (see image below labelled "Koi_ap_73_c").
This photograph of Hitler featured (in an altered form) on the cover of a UFO documentary ("UFO Secrets of the Third Reich") and the hoaxer may have borrowed the image from that documentary cover :
The "alien" in this particular photograph looks like one of the "Asgard" aliens from the science-fiction television series Stargate SG-1 (including the character "Thor"). However, more detailed examination of images of the "Asgard" and also of other cinema aliens suggests that the relevant "alien" is in fact taken from an image of the alien devised for the "Roswell" movie in 1994 - note in particular the ears, shoulders, eyes and ridge in the middle of the alien's forehead.
A Roswell "alien" is sold online made from the special effects artist Steve Johnson's original movie mold (see the photo labelled "koi_ap_73_f" and "koi_ap_73_g").
This "alien" mould was created by special effects artist Steve Johnson (see photo below, labelled "koi_ap_73_e").
Steve Johnson and his company XFX have also worked on Stargate SG-1, which may explain the similarities to the Asguard (see photo below, labelled "koi_ap_73_h").
4. Relevant online forum discussions
This photo featured on the popular AboveTopSecret.com forum as the first photograph in a discussion at:
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread182421/pg1
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread604673/pg1
5. Further references and resources
There is a rapid turnover of UFO material on the Internet. Many links to material on UFO websites quickly become out of date. Therefore, instead of giving many links to specific webpages I have instead included below a search box which can be used to search various leading UFO websites at the same time. You can then click on tabs at the top of the search results to list only results from forums, only results from websites I have labelled as "skeptical" etc. I have included tabs for a couple of specific websites that I find particularly useful, including the valuable archives of the UFO UpDates email discussion List. The relevant websites are all listed in the discussion of the "UFO Searchillion" search engine in Section 2.4 of the "Free UFO Researcher Starter Pack" and continues to evolve...
The relevant search box is one of the two main tools on this website which are intended to help reduce the amount of reinvention of the wheel within UFOlogy. The other main tool is the collection of tables of references to discussion of UFO incidents, personalities and other matters in various books. Those tables can be sorted by author, length and date. I hope these tools are useful.
6. Other Material
Please use the comments section below to share references to any particularly interesting relevant articles.