Hungary and Then Escape

By Steve Rodan

Hitler promised a 1,000-year Reich that would rule the world. But the vast majority of his supporters were not as sure. From the start of World War II, leading Nazis, including those in the Gestapo and SS, envisioned escape and sought a country that would accept them and their newly-acquired fortunes.

The preparation for Nazi flight influenced SS strategy in Hungary. By March 1944, the military campaign in the East had failed miserably, and entreaties to the West for a separate peace were rejected. The only option was flight. As a result, the genocide of the Jews planned in Hungary had to be rapid and collect as much money from the doomed before they were killed in Auschwitz. The SS also needed to be as flexible as possible in dealing with the Zionist movement, which worked with the Germans throughout the war and promised to help them escape justice.

"The other side has to know that it is not only money being offered to them," the Jewish Agency said in a message to SS chief Heinrich Himmler in September 1944. "We won't forget those that now stand by our side, and today this is more important than money." [1]

Looking for Germans

As early as 1940, senior Nazis were already thinking of flight. A key requirement was that any destination contain a large German-speaking community that supported Hitler. The second condition was that such a country welcome thousands of Germans, who themselves would form a community that could bribe local authorities to protect them. South Africa, an ally of Britain, was one option. South America, with millions of ethnic Germans and lovers of Hitler, was a better choice.

The Allies detected the flow of Hitler's accomplices to South America within the first year of the war. The United States, even before Pearl Harbor, determined that the Germans who had arrived in Buenos Aires and nearby capitals were intelligence agents. By 1942, U.S. Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles identified the Argentine capital as the base for Axis espionage. He said the agents were assigned such tasks as communications as well as smuggling strategic minerals to Germany. The FBI was ordered to stop this. [2]

By late 1944, the trickle into South America turned into a stream. For nearly two years, the SS had operated a camp outside Frankfurt to change the identities of members assigned to resettle abroad and prepare for massive Nazi resettlement. The SS facility supplied fake identities, money, jobs and plastic surgery for a new life in Buenos Aires or Sao Paolo. Prized Jewish agents who had served the Nazis were also flown to safe havens. [3] Those who could not leave Germany or occupied Europe sought to transfer their assets to Buenos Aires, often through Spain or Switzerland. The Allies determined that many in the German high command did just that.

Sometimes, the ratline was facilitated by Jews assigned to protect their coreligionists. In the summer of 1944, the U.S. embassy in Madrid reported on a ring that issued Argentine passports to fleeing Nazis for up to $7,000. The ring was led by the Argentine consul in Madrid, the son of a Romanian Jewish emigrant, identified only as Molina, Molina, who did nothing without Gestapo approval, worked with Samuel Sequerra, head of the so-called Joint Welfare Organization for Portugal and Spain, who recruited Jewish girls for South America. The girls sent by Sequerra, who worked with the American Joint Distribution Committee, found themselves as virtual slaves in Buenos Aires. [4]

Collaborators from France, Yugoslavia

Those who jumped aboard the ratline included the leading SS officers in Hungary. Eichmann and several of his aides, with loot taken from the Jews, joined the flow of Nazi fugitives after World War II. Otto Skorzeny, an SS general who captured Hungarian dictator Miklos Horthy in October 1944, fled to Spain and came under the protection of its dictator Francisco Franco.

After World War II, the Germans flooded Argentina. The flight from Europe was facilitated by President Juan Peron, who worked with the Roman Catholic Church and International Committee of the Red Cross. The escape routes included Italy and Spain and welcomed thousands of collaborators from France and Yugoslavia. Nazis with a military or technical background usually moved to the front of the line. [5]

How many Nazis found safety in South America? In 2012, German prosecutors determined that as many as 9,000 German officers and third-country collaborators escaped to South America after the war. The most popular destination was Argentina, which received up to 5,000 Nazi fugitives, including Eichmann and 800 of his SS colleagues. Brazil was said to have accepted up to 2,000 Germans, almost all who could have been classified as war criminals. Chile took in another 1,000. Later, authorities admitted that many thousands of additional Nazis either arrived or deposited Jewish loot in Argentina. [6]

The cultured couple

The SS killers, now living a pastoral life, never forgot their Jewish victims. The doomed gave the Nazis their most prized possessions. In May 1965, Argentinian actress Norma Aleandro took a vacation in the mountainous region of Cordoba. There, she befriended an old German couple, and the three would take long strolls and discuss world affairs. Back home, the husband would recite poems by Schiller and his wife would play Schubert on her violin.

When Aleandro won the couple's trust, they showed her something special. It was a rare edition of Goethe's Faust, published in Munich around 1850 and bound in soft shiny leather. The 29-year-old Aleandro, who eventually became the grand dame of the Argentine theater, asked about the leather, a type she had never seen before. The elderly woman looked down and murmured:

"It's Jewish skin. My husband was once an official at a concentration camp in Poland." [7]

Notes

1. Letters from Istanbul delegation to Budapest rescue committee, July 22 and Aug. 31, 1944. Z1063\HVI. Documents 236 and 245. Ghetto Fighters Museum

2. "Heroism in Hostile Territory: The Argentine Operations of the FBI's Special Intelligence Service. FBI. Nov. 30, 2017. WWII Intel Operations in Argentina — FBI

3. Another Side. Eldad Eyal. Pages 423-429. Pardes. Haifa. 2017.

4. U.S. Naval Attache , Madrid, Spain, to Naval Intelligence Division, No. 92278/ F-3-0644, August 30, 1944; U.S. Military Attache , Oct. 12, 1945. Also, JDC Archives, Samuel Sequerra. Finding Aid – Oral History Collection – Subcollections 1-3 | JDC Archives.

5. "How South America Became a Nazi Haven." Christopher Klein. History. July 27, 2023. How South America Became a Nazi Haven | HISTORY

6. "List of 12,000 Nazis in Argentina with money in Swiss bank." Aaron Reich. The Jerusalem Post. March 7, 2020. List found of 12,000 Nazis in Argentina with money in Swiss bank - The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com)

7. PERON AND THE NAZI WAR CRIMINALS Tomas Eloy Martinez, fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center. wp144_peron_and_the_nazi_war_criminals.pdf (wilsoncenter.org)

Below: A photo of the false document Eichmann used to enter Argentina