Photo: Facebook / Vitaliy Pogranichny
The Argentine government, led by President Javier Millais, has declassified more than 1,850 historical documents that shed light on the large-scale presence of Nazi criminals in the country after World War II. The archival materials, collected in several dossiers, cover not only the activities of former SS men in South America, but also the crimes of the Argentine military during the 1976-1983 dictatorship.
It is estimated that about 10,000 Nazis fled to Argentina and other Latin American countries after the war. Their route took them along the so-called “rat trails”, which were supported by some Vatican officials who helped them to issue false documents and change their identities.
Among the most famous Nazi criminals hiding in the region:
- Adolf Eichmann, one of the main architects of the Holocaust, was captured by the Israeli Mossad in Buenos Aires in 1960;
- Josef Mengele was a sadistic doctor from Auschwitz, known for his horrific experiments on prisoners;
- Klaus Barbie, the “Butcher of Lyon”, was the executioner of the French Resistance;
- Edvards Roshman, the “Butcher of Riga”, was responsible for the mass murder of Jews in Latvia.
The list of dossiers also includes documents about Erich Pribke, a Gestapo member involved in the executions in the Ardentine Caves in Rome in 1944, and Walter Kuchman, who hid in Argentina under an assumed name after participating in the mass extermination of Jews in Poland.
The declassification was personally initiated by President Milei as part of a policy of transparency and rethinking the tragic pages of Argentine history.
The publication of these documents was announced on Facebook by Vitaliy Pohranichnyi, head of the People’s Intelligence Agency. In his post, he stressed that access to such documents is critical for international investigations of war crimes, as well as for establishing the truth about post-war Nazi hiding networks:
“These documents are not just history. They are evidence of a conspiracy that covered up crimes against humanity for decades. We must remember and continue the investigation. No one is forgotten,” wrote Pogranichny.
