Nazi criminals allegedly paid $200M in bribes to Perón government
Then U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon speaks near a portrait of former Argentinean President Juan Domingo Peron and his wife Eva Duarte de Peron, during a visit to the Bicentenary Museum at the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2011. File photo by Leo La Valle/EPA-EFE
ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay, May 23 (UPI) -- Recently declassified files suggest that Nazi criminals may have paid $200 million in gold bribes to Argentine authorities to secure refuge in the country after World War II.
The files indicate German submarines transported the gold to Argentina's southern coast, where it was delivered to Eva Duarte, wife of then-President Juan Domingo Perón. The money was reportedly later handled by German bankers Richard von Frente, Ricardo Stauch and Rodolf Freude.
The released material includes 1,850 documents compiled into seven files dating from 1950 to 1980. The records confirm that Third Reich fugitives arrived in Argentina beginning in 1945 with the protection of Perón, and that their arrival was not isolated but part of a larger effort.
Nazi ideology had gained notable support in Argentina as early as the 1930s. On April 10, 1938, nearly 10,000 people attended a rally organized by the German embassy at Luna Park stadium in Buenos Aires.
Perón was reportedly an admirer of fascist aspects of Nazi Germany.
"The German government encouraged that sympathy by promising major trade concessions after the war. Argentina was full of Nazi spies. Argentine officers and diplomats held important posts in Axis Europe," said Christopher Minster, a Latin American history and literature expert, in an interview with ThoughtCo.
Among the most prominent Nazis who found refuge in Argentina were Josef Mengele, known as the "Angel of Death," Adolf Eichmann, one of the main architects of the Holocaust and leader of the so-called "Final Solution," and Josef Schwammberger, who commanded the Krakow concentration camp from 1942 to 1944.
Mengele evaded capture for years, living under a false identity in Argentina and Paraguay. He drowned off a Brazilian beach in 1979 and was buried under the name Wolfgang Gerhard.
Eichmann was captured by Mossad in a covert operation and brought to Israel, where he was tried and executed by hanging on June 1, 1962. He had entered Argentina under the alias Ricardo Klement.
Schwammberger was arrested in 1987 and extradited to Germany, where he was sentenced to life in prison.
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