Filo.explica│Nazis in Argentina: Why did so many criminals arrive from the Second War?

These are times in which the extreme right begins to have representation in many countries. In Argentina, for example, a few days ago the so-called “Black Eagles Command” appeared in Catamarca. But this story begins much earlier. Already in the 30s, as soon as Adolf Hitler assumed power in Germany, there were German descendants living in Argentina who expressed their sympathy with the Nazi regime. Once World War II ended, in 1945, many Nazi criminals had to flee. And several arrived in Argentina. While the figures are not official, they are believed to have been around 180. About 30 Germans, 50 Croats and 100 French were registered with name and surname. Two submarines of the Third Reich also arrived, but they did not carry hierarchs. According to a study carried out in 1999 by the Commission for the Clarification of Nazi Activities in Argentina, the greatest conspiracy theory of the twentieth century is false: Adolf Hitler was never in the country or took refuge in Bariloche. The one who did arrive in Argentina was Adolf Eichmann, one of the heads of the concentration camps during the Holocaust. It is believed that he arrived in 1950, five years after the end of World War II. And he lived in Argentina for more than a decade. The history of the Nazis in Argentina is so widespread that it was even included in various manifestations of popular culture. In 2006, for example, an SS criminal was included in an episode of the series Brothers and Detectives, created by Damián Szifrón. In 2013, director Lucía Puenzo premiered the film Wakolda, which tells the story of the sinister doctor Josef Mengele in Argentine Patagonia. Many of the Nazis who settled in Argentina, especially in Patagonia, lived with such impunity that they were interviewed several times by local journalists. For example, Erich Priebke, responsible for the murder of 335 Italians during World War II, lived for many years in Bariloche, and even appeared on television. One of the most incredible stories linking the Nazis to Argentina is the so-called Huemul Project. In charge was Ronald Richter, a Nazi physicist who had arrived in the country in 1948. Once here, he proposed to then-President Juan Domingo Perón a delirious project: to make our own atomic bomb. The traces of Nazis in Argentina reach our days. According to a study by the DAIA, Delegation of Argentine Israeli Associations, social networks contributed to the growth of neo-Nazi groups that disseminate anti-Semitic material and are even armed. In fact, in the attack on Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, some of those allegedly involved have sympathy for this type of activity.

Original source in Spanish