The Argentine government has decided to lift the secrecy surrounding documents related to Nazi refugees who fled to the country after World War II. The decision was announced by the chief of staff of President Javier Milei, Guillermo Francos, in an interview with TV channel DNews.
Francos stated that the president believes there is no reason to withhold information about the protection granted to Nazis in Argentina and that most of the documents, which will be published, are located in the Defense Ministry. Some of the files concern financial matters, including services provided by Swiss banks, he added.
Estimates suggest that around 10,000 war criminals, including the architect of the Holocaust, Adolf Eichmann and the infamous doctor of the death camps, Josef Mengele, escaped to other countries, including Argentina, along the so-called “Rattenlinie” or “rat line”. Half of these individuals chose Argentina as a refuge, a country known for its reluctance to comply with extradition requests.
The influx of Nazi refugees mostly occurred during the first presidency of Juan Perón, from 1946 to 1955, when his government explicitly supported Nazi exiles. Perón’s policies, which mixed authoritarianism with populist elements, were criticized for being influenced by fascism.
Milei’s decision to publish the Nazi files follows a previous decree aimed at accelerating the publication of documents related to the actions of the Argentine military during the military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, a period known as “the last junta”. The junta, which began with a coup against Isabel Perón, the widow and successor of Perón, after his death in 1974, was brutal in its suppression of political dissent, resulting in the deaths or disappearances of thousands of people. The government spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, stated that the administration aims to prevent political manipulation of this tragic period through the complete publication of the documents.