Argentina Discovers Trove of Nazi Archives in Old Champagne Boxes

Newsweek

13-05-2025

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
Workers inside Argentina's Supreme Court uncovered a trove of Nazi propaganda hidden inside of old champagne boxes.
The workers were moving archival material out of the courthouse basement when they opened up the old boxes. Instead of champagne, they found crates of books and other material with swastikas on them.
Archivists ended up finding more than 80 boxes carrying Nazi material dating back to 1941. The crates were taken to the Buenos Aires Holocaust Museum.
Newsweek reached out to the museum via email for comment.
Archivists opening champagne cases filled with Nazi propaganda in Argentina.
Archivists opening champagne cases filled with Nazi propaganda in Argentina.
Supreme Court of Argentina
Why It Matters
The court described the finding as a "discovery of global significance" due to the documents' ability to illuminate events leading up to the Holocaust.
The documents may also help historians to uncover new information on the global spread of Nazism and Nazi trade routes.
What To Know
Following a review of the documents ordered by the Supreme Court president, Horacio Rosatti, historians determined that they had been held inside the courthouse since 1941.
The documents arrived in Argentina on June 20, 1941, aboard a ship sent by the German embassy in Tokyo. Despite German diplomats in Argentina asking for the ship, the Nan-a-Maru, to skip customs because it contained "personal effects for its members," the ship was halted and inspected.
Some of the 80 boxes containing Nazi propaganda in the courthouse basement.
Some of the 80 boxes containing Nazi propaganda in the courthouse basement.
Supreme Court of Argentina
Once impounded, customs officials opened five boxes at random and found Nazi propaganda including postcards and photographs and "thousands of notebooks belonging to the National Socialist German Workers' Party Organization Abroad and the German Trade Union."
Argentine officials then refused to return the boxes to Germany or Tokyo, saying they contained harmful anti-democratic material and that German officials had lied to them about the ship's contents.
The materials passed through different agencies, eventually landing in the Supreme Court. The court was tasked with figuring out what to do with them, but it ended up storing the documents, forgotten, in the basement for over 80 years.
Argentina remained neutral in World War II until 1944, when it declared war on Japan and Germany.
Although the country took in 40,000 Jewish refugees between 1933 and the end of the war, Argentina is also known for housing high-ranking Nazi officials, including Holocaust architect ​​Adolf Eichmann and Auschwitz "Angel of Death" Josef Mengele, during the post-war leadership of Juan Perón.
Researchers and historians inspecting the Nazi material found in the courthouse.
Researchers and historians inspecting the Nazi material found in the courthouse.
Supreme Court of Argentina
What People Are Saying
Supreme Court of Argentina: "A discovery of global significance has taken place in the archives of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation: within the framework of the works for the creation of the Museum of the highest court and the transfer of documentation from its archive, judicial officials detected a series of boxes containing material linked to Nazism, which had entered the country in 1941."
What Happens Next
The boxes are all being moved to the Buenos Aires Holocaust Museum. There, they will be further studied in the hopes of uncovering more information on the Holocaust and the still relatively unknown aspects of the regime's global money trail.