By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BUENOS AIRES/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Survivors of the Holocaust will soon learn more about their painful past after Argentina’s president ordered the opening of all archives about Nazi fugitives who settled in Argentina following World War II.
President Javier Milei’s decision to declassify the government’s Nazi documents came after he met with U.S. Senator Steve Daines, Worthy News learned Wednesday.
Daines asked the president to disclose information about the period when Argentina provided shelter to Nazis fleeing Germany after the war.
Milei had already pledged to grant access to documents related to the financing of escape routes, the so-called “ratlines,” that helped Nazis escape Europe after the Holocaust.
“There are still unpublished documents about the Nazis’ banking and financial operations,” Francos admitted. “Milei has ordered the release of all available information across all state agencies. The most significant files are likely in the Defense Ministry. There is no reason to keep these details hidden.”
In February, Milei already promised officials of the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center access to the documents during a meeting at the presidential palace in Buenos Aires.
THOUSANDS ESCAPED
For decades, organizations, including the Wiesenthal Center, named after the famed Nazi hunter, have sought records related to unofficial escape routes taken by thousands of Nazis during the years after World War II.
Milei’s decision came after he met with U.S. Senator Steve Daines, who requested that the president disclose information about the period when Argentina provided shelter to Nazis fleeing Germany after the war.
Up to 10,000 Nazis and other fascist war criminals escaped justice by fleeing to Argentina and other countries, according to investigators.
Several other countries in the Americas received Nazis, including Canada, the United States and Mexico.
Nazis also fled to Australia, Spain, and Switzerland. In some controversial cases, U.S. intelligence officials used plucked top Nazi scientists away from Soviet orbits, according to Israeli sources.
Not all escaped justice: In May 1960, Israeli intelligence agents kidnapped Adolf Eichmann, one of the major organizers of the Holocaust, in which at least six million Jews died, as well as others the Nazis didn’t like.
DEATH SENTENCE
On December 15, 1961, an Israeli court in Jerusalem sentenced Adolf Eichmann to death for crimes against the Jewish people and crimes against humanity.
The verdict followed a dramatic months-long trial in which Holocaust survivors gave powerful testimony about their experiences, and Israeli prosecutors pushed for the conviction of the former SS officer who sent millions of Jews to their deaths during World War II.
Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Jerusalem office, believes it’s never too late for justice, even if Nazis may be in their late 90s or even older.
“Think of someone at the height of his physical powers who was devoting all his energy to the mass murder of innocent people,” he told a Worthy News reporter earlier.
“Old age should not offer protection to people who committed such heinous crimes,” Zuroff stressed.
Zuroff says many Holocaust victims never had the opportunity to become old and frail because they were murdered in Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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