Source: Daily Mail
- As many as 5,000 Nazis went to Argentina
- Between 1,500 and 2,000 ended up in Brazil
- Around 500 to 1,000 settled in Chile
- The rest started new lives in Paraguay and Uruguay
Nine thousand Nazi war criminals fled to South America after the Second World War, it has been revealed for the first time.
After receiving tip-offs, German
prosecutors were recently granted access to secret files in Brazil and
Chile that confirmed the true number of Third Reich immigrants.
According to the documents, an
estimated 9,000 war criminals escaped to South America, including
Croatians, Ukrainians, Russians and other western Europeans who aided
the Nazi murder machine.
Most, perhaps as many as 5,000, went to Argentina; between
1,500 and 2,000 are thought to have made it to Brazil; around 500 to
1,000 to Chile; and the rest to Paraguay and Uruguay.
These numbers do not include several hundred more who fled to the safety of right-wing regimes in the Middle East.
Previous estimates as to how many Nazis fled to South America have varied wildly from 5,000 to 300,000.
The files also showed that during the war Argentine President General Juan Peron
sold 10,000 blank Argentine passports to ODESSA – the organisation set
up to protect former SS men in the event of defeat.
Kurt Schrimm, 62, head of the central war criminal authority in Germany, is among the legal team sifting through archives.
He said: 'These documents provide the hottest leads we have had for years.'
Mr
Schrimm said a female historian provided the clues about the Nazis who
got away, who included Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann, Auschwitz
doctor Josef Mengele and Treblinka death camp commander Franz Stangl.
There is also the hope that the mountain of documents may throw up a living fugitive.
But
Mr Schrimm added: 'Each day that passes makes that less and less likely
but I do not want people to say in the future that we did not try.'
Mr
Schrimm and his colleague Uwe Steintz, 52, believe the archives may
also provide clues to Nazis who sneaked back to the Fatherland to live
out their days undetected.
Of
particular interest to the hunters are details of the so-called 'rat
lines' - the escape routes out of a shattered Europe after WW2 that
allowed an estimated 800 murderers to escape on passports provided by
the Vatican.
Since arriving
in South America three weeks ago, Mr Schrimm and Mr Steintz have pored
over the Arquivo Historico records in Rio de Janiero.
The Archivo Nacional is the repository for all immigration documents.
They show that 20,000 Germans settled in Brazil alone between 1945 and 1959.
Mr Schrimm said: 'Many are under a false name with a dark past.'
Many
South American countries postwar were ruled by fascist-style military
dictatorships that welcomed the brutal servants of Nazism with few
questions asked.
Mr Steintz
said: 'Already we see something of a pattern in the way these criminals
operated. They almost always entered the country alone and sent for
their families afterwards.
'And
most entered on a passport of the International Red Cross. Eight
hundred higher functionaries of the SS and Nazi state entered Argentina
alone on such passports.'
The
files show that the contact point for many was German Bishop Alois
Hudal, priest-confessor to the German Catholic community in Rome.
Investigators
hope that the files will yield up cross references to the secret
services of Chile and Brazil detailing names of intelligence agents who
helped the Nazi war criminals.
