Nearly 2,000 secret files on Nazi activities in Argentina following WWII have been released
Nearly 2,000 secret files which lift the lid on Nazi activities in Argentina in the wake of World War 2 have been released.
Eight decades on from Germany's dire defeat, the next steps of those involved in Adolf Hitler's regime have been revealed after a hoard of declassified documents were released this week.
It's part of a pledge by Argentinian government to publicise the details surrounding how high-ranking war criminals sought refuge in the South American country to evade capture after WW2.
A whopping 1,850 documents have been painstakingly restored and digitised so that the public can have eyes on them, after years of the files being shrouded in secrecy.
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Officials explained the docs were complied during investigations conducted by the Federal Police's Foreign Affairs Directorate, the State Intelligence Secretariat (SIDE), and the National Gendarmerie between the 1950s and 1980s.
Dr Josef Mengele
The hundreds of pages offer an insight into how prominent Nazi figures, such as Auschwitz's 'Angel of Death' Dr Josef Mengele, were able to start a new life in Argentina despite the horrors they committed during the war.
The SS officer - who conducted grotesque experiments on those in the concentration camp - arrived in the country in June 1949, using a fake passport with the name 'Helmut Gregor' while claiming to be a 'mechanical technician'.
But it appears it didn't take long for him to comfortably settle into his new life, as he applied for documentation in Argentina under his real name to formalise his permanent residency just six years later, according to El Pais.
Mengele later fled to Brazil as the round up of disgraced German officers heated up, before dying as a free man in February 1979, while operating under the pseudonym 'Wolfgang Gerhard'.
Erich Priebke
Other documents discuss the movements of SS captain Erich Priebke, a ruthless Gestapo enforcer who made his way to Argentina in 1948 with a travel document issued by the Vatican, The Times reports.
He escaped a British prisoner-of-war camp in Italy and later set up a new life in the town of Bariloche in Patagonia, teaching at a German-language school for almost 50 years before he was eventually tracked down.
Priebke was convicted of war crimes despite insisting he was only following 'orders', but only served house arrest until his death in 2013 after saying he was too old and ill to serve his life sentence behind bars.
Martin Bormann
The journey of a man who went by the name of 'Walter Flegel' - who was long believed to actually be Hitler's private secretary and top Nazi official Martin Bormann - was also detailed in the newly released documents.
The Gestapo member vanished without a trace following WW2 and it was long believed that he had fled to Argentina to escape the consequences of his actions. Flegel was captured and interrogated in 1960.
But this theory turned out to be incorrect, as a skull found in Berlin close to Hitler’s bunker in 1945 was confirmed to belong to the real Bormann after genetic testing was conducted on it decades later.
Adolf Eichmann
The files released by Argentina also delve into the later life of SS officer Adolf Eichmann, who resided in the country from 1950 and even later bagged a job as a department head for Mercedes Benz in Buenos Aires.
The war criminal was eventually captured by Israeli forces, putting him on trial in Jerusalem for his crimes before executing him the following year.
It comes after claims resurfaced regarding Hitler supposedly faking his death and hiding out in Argentina, while declassified documents from the Soviet Union shed light on the dictator's actual final moments.
Topics: World News, History, News
Olivia Burke