Ways the Nazi escaped from Europe to South America

Senior German criminals escaped by the use of different ratlines spread over Europe. There would be two networks that organized the operation: one operated through contacts in the Vatican and the other through the CIA, called at that time OSS (Overseas Secret Service).

The flight network in which the Vatican intervened was called "the route of the monasteries " or "the path of the rats" and was the most effective of all escape routes planned by the conspirators of the Maison Rouge in Strasbourg. Matching estimates indicate that five thousand Nazi leaders managed to escape thanks to this organization. Its headquarters were in the Italian capital, operating from offices under the umbrella of the Pontifical Commission of Assistance (PCA).

It was thanks to Italian and Vatican support that many fugitives managed to arrive in Argentina. In December 1946, Peron had made a man of the church by the newly Daie (Argentina Delegation of Immigration in Europe) whose headquarters was located in Rome. The priest Jose Clemente Silva, brother of General Peron's ultra-nationalist and friend, Oscar Silva, immediately went to Italy with instructions to organize the junction of four million Europeans to Argentina at a rate of 30,000 per month.

Permits entry were provided by the Directorate of Migration in Buenos Aires, the Red Cross passports, visas by the Argentine consulate and the ships of the line Dodero carrying the precious cargo from Genoa to Buenos Aires.

ODESSA:

"Organization of Former SS Members" is the name commonly given to the network of secret collaboration developed by Nazi groups to help escape SS members from Germany to other countries where they were safe, especially to Spain and South America.

This secret organization helped the former Nazi leaders to refugees in Argentina, Brazil and Spain mainly after the Second World War. Most of its members residing in Madrid. There is no evidence that the organization today, it is likely that given the age of the survivors, it no longer exists.

Adolf Eichmann

Adolf Eichmann.

Adolf Eichmann, born March 19th 1906 in Solingen, Germany was a war criminal under the third “reich”. He was one of Hitler’s main co-workers and provided the logistics that was needed during holocaust; the Nazis attempt to exterminate the Jews. He organized identification of the ones that was being sent to the concentration camps.

Member of SS.

Ernst Kaltenbrunner was a close friend of the Eichmann family; he was also one of the Nazis that was accused in Nurnberg. Kaltenbrunner recommended Eichmann to become a member of Schutzstaffel also known as SS. Adolf became a member in April first, 1932 as a recruit in Austria.

One year after becoming a member, Hitler’s Nazi party came to power in Germany. Eichmann then returned to Germany where he wanted to join the working SS troops, he was promoted and was placed as staff in the concentration camp Dachau.

Working at Dachau wasn’t enough for Eichmann, he wanted to be a “Sicherheitspolizei”, the safety police, Hitler’s so called body guards. His applications was approved and he was transferred to their main quarter in Berlin in 1934.

Second World War

When the WW2 broke out, Eichmann was still in the SS and was the leader of the “Office of Jewish emigration”. He travelled to Palestine to study the possibilities for a Jewish country; he cooperated with the Zionist movement to speed up a possible migration from Germany. Towards the end of 1939, his office was expanded to cover all of the increasing Germany.

In 1940 Eichmann was transferred to Gestapo. The same year he was promoted at two occasions in the SS. He was rewarded the responsibility of the Jewish section in Gestapo’s department for religious questions, also known as “Reichssicherheitshauptamt” (RSHA). His position here was coded “IV-B4”.

Already towards the end of 1941 Reinhard Heydrich told Eichmann that all Jews in the German-controlled part of Europe were to be exterminated. Afterwards, in 1942 Heydrich inviter Adolf to the Wannasee-conference where the Nazis reached a complete policy towards the Jews, they decided on the “Endlösung”, in English “The Final Solution”, which was extermination. Eichmann got the job of organizing transport to the concentration camps in Poland. Over the next two years, Eichmann became very dedicated to this job and was telling people that he had sent five million Jews to death in the camps.

A telegram from vice commander Reinhard to Eichmann, it is a list of the number of people who arrived to four of the concentration camps in 1942.

Camp	The last 14 days of 1942	1942 in total
Lublin	12 761	24 733
Belzec	0	434 508
Sobibór	515	101 370
Treblinka	10 335	713 555
In total	23 611	1 274 166

Hungary 1944-1945

Eichmann’s work was noticed and in March 1944 he was sent to Hungary after Germany occupied the country. He immediately began deporting Hungarian Jews to the concentration camps, in total he sent 430 thousand Jews to their death.

The Jews marching.

October 18^th 1944 Eichmann ordered 50 000 more Jews to Germany for labor, at the moment they didn’t have any form of transport available so they made the Jews walk the 170 km to the border. The Hungarian prime minister at the time, Ferenc Szalasi had earlier announced that no Jews were to be removed from Hungary, and Eichmann was pleased when he saw the Jews disappointment when Szalasi had to withdraw on the case.

At the time the Red Army had started to bomb Budapest, while some Hungarians that were on the German’s side began to attack the Jews. Houses were robbed and the women were raped. An example to show how brutal and terrible the Germans were in Hungary was that some of the Nazis in Budapest bounded six Jews at a time with a rope or a barbed wire, one or two of them were then shot, and they were pushed into Donau to drown.

The Germans were losing the war and in 1945 Heinrich Himmler ordered a stop in the Jew-exterminations and an attempt to destroy the evidence of Holocaust ever occurring. Eichmann crossed Himmler and continued his work in Hungary.

Eichmann’s escape from Hungary in 1945

When the Soviet troops entered Hungary, Eichmann escaped. On Christmas eve 1944 came the order to leave Budapest, and Eichmann’s terrain car just managed to make it through the remaining’s of the German troops. Of the 46 000 Germans that defended Budapest, only a few hundred came from it alive. SS-officers were shot on the spot. When Eichmann came back to Austria, he was wanted by the Allies.

Escape to Argentina

Towards the end of World War 2, Eichmann was captured by American forces. As a prisoner he presented himself as “Otto Eichmann” and the soldiers had no idea of his key role in Holocaust.

Early in 1946 he managed to flee and went undercover in different places in Germany.

In 1948 he gained access to enter Argentina under the name “Riccardo Klement”, but he chose not to go immediately.

By using his fake name and by impersonating himself as a soldier from Wehrmacht, he escaped in the beginning of 1950 from Germany to Italy. By lying he somehow got a humanitarian passport from the International Red Cross-committee in Geneve and an Argentinian visa. Both documents was made in the name “Riccardo Klement, technician”. Early in May 2007 his fake passport was discovered in Buenos Aires by a student covering the taking of Eichmann in 1960. The passport is now located in the Argentine Holocaust Museum in Buenos Aires.

Eichmann went by boat to Argentina the 14^th of July 1950. In Buenos Aires he lived as Riccardo Klement. The next ten years he worked in Buenos Aires at a factory. He earned just enough to serve himself and his family which joined him on the escape.

Tracked by nazi hunters

In the 1950s several of the Holocaust survivors dedicated their lives to look for the ones behind that escaped the Nuremberg Trials. In 1953 the Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal had, from his house in Wien tracked down Eichmann in Argentina. In 1954 he received a post card from a co-worker in Buenos Aires with the following message: “Ich sah jenes schmutzige Schwein Eichmann... Er wonth beinahe in Buenos Aires und arbeitet für ein Wassergeschaft”, “I have seen the dirty bastard Eichmann... He lives close to Buenos Aires and works at a waterwork”.

The man was willing to identify Eichmann, but could not travel to Buenos Aires because he did not have the money for the plane ticket. Wiesenthal turned to the president of the Jewish Worls Congress, Nahum Goldmann.

At the same time, Mossad (The official Jewish investigators for Nazi war criminals) had tracked down Eichmann and Joseph Mengele in Argentina. Mossad leader at the time Isser Harel claimed in 1991 that Simon Wiesenthals work did not contribute to the arrest of Adolf Eichmann.¨

Arrest and Trial

Mossad found out that “Riccardo Klement” was Eichmann. With the approval of Israel’s government he was abducted May 11^th 1960, brought to Jerusalem and put to trial.  

Israel’s government at first denied to have been a part of the abduction and claimed that it was performed by voluntary Jews.

The trial began in Jerusalem the 11^th of February 1961. There was 15 charges, including crimes against mankind itself, crimes against the Jewish people and the membership in an illegal organization. The trial was led by three judges, with no jury.

Death penalty for genocide

Eichmann was found guilty in all charges and sentenced to death the 15th of December 1961. He was hanged a few minutes after midnight 1^st of June in 1962 in the Ramla prison. This was the only execution under law that has ever been performed in Israel.

Introduction

This is an introduction to our web page. This blog is a school project whose main topic regards escaped Nazis after WWII ended. It mostly revolves around Nazis whose destination was Southern America, such as Joseph Mengele and Adolf Eichmann. These, in fact, are two big characters the blog gives a lot of information about. You will be able to read about what crimes they committed during WWII in the concentration camps; how they managed to escape and where and how Joseph Mengele continued his experiments on human beings in Brazil. The aim of the blog is that of providing a deep analysis of villains from the second global conflict, in order to explain how these people happened to become war criminals hunted worldwide.

THE TWIN TOWN

THE ANGEL OF DEATH IN PARAGUAY

There is some sort of evidence that proves that the Angel of Death, after having spent a brief period in Argentina together with his Nazi fellow Adolf Eichmann,  started travelling northward, first going to Paraguay and than in Brazil, in a small village called Candido Godoi. This is the village that become famous with the name “twin town” (we will find out the origin of the name later on the text). Mengele, as previously said, before fleeing, was working as a scientist and physician in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. His objective there was that of providing its furer (Adolf Hitler) a scientific method to obtain children carrying traits of the considered dominant race (blu eyed and blond children). These, in fact, where considered characteristics typical of the Aryan race, which, as we know, Nazis used to consider superior to any other. By doing this, he was aiming to increase significantly the Aryan birthrate to satisfy his furer volition. Escaping from justice and globally hunted as a Nazi war criminal, Josef did not stop his experiments. Some says that it was in South America that “finally” Josef got to a real and tangible formula or technique capable of turning his dreams into reality.

His life in Paraguay and Brazil is full of mystery. No one really knows what he did or did not after leaving Europe. There is lack of actual proof that he really kept on conducting chemical experiments on human beings. Although this, some writers and testimonies have provided significant help in trying to solve “Mengele’s case”.

MENGELE IN CANDIDO GODOI (BRAZIL)

Brazil has never been his stable location. Paraguay is the most likely place in which Josef is thought to have spent his last years. At the same time, trips to Brazil’s borders were really frequent. Candido Godoi was his first and main destination, a little village situated in the very south of the country. During the years in which the Angel of Death lived in Paraguay there has been a significant increase in the rate of twins, whose majority tended to be blue eyed and blond haired, in the area of Candido Godoi.  Being more specific, around 1950-1955, in Candido Godoi, as Mr Camarasa says in his book Mengele “The Angel of Death in South America”, one out of five pregnancies produced identical twins, always carrying Aryan-like aspect. Camarasa’s book is one of the most reliable testimonies of Mengele’s life in Paraguay and Brazil, containing direct interviews to many of the people living in Candido in the early 50s and 60s. Throughout this book, Josef is described as a nomadic doctor, who never settled down in the village. He was simply used to do random tests going “from house to house” (as Dr. Villa says in the book). Furthermore, there is evidence that Josef, as soon as arrived in Paraguay changed his name into Rudolph Weiss. This is the name he wanted to be called by the people he visited. This might have been done in order to erase everything about his past in Europe, even its name, and to make his capture harder.

The picture shows a community of twins in Candido Godoi in the late 50s. The surprisingly high and uncommon rate of twins is made even more unbelievable by the fact that all twins share light eyes and hair. This fact is really hard to be denied. Such a big “coincidence” would be easier to be explained if Mengele really carried on his experiments in the village.

Before going on, it would be important to clarify what kind of experiments Josef used to carry on young children. Techniques slightly changed from his Auschwitz-period to that in Candido, but both share a common characteristic: inhumanity. In Auschwitz, experiments were very often carried on dead bodies of Jews children. In fact, kids were instantly killed by injections of chloroform straight into their hearths. Once dead, the bodies were dissected nd each piece was meticulously noticed and studied. In Candido techniques changed completely. Women were given mysterious potions and nothing else. Rarely, blood tests were carried on and results were noted on a book he used to have with him. 

Hereafter are presented some of the testimonies about Josef Mengele coming from direct interviews of farmers and citizens of Candido Godoi who got to know the physician directly in those years (all reported interviews come from Camarasa’s book, since, as said, is the only actual evidence available).

·         “He told us he was a vet. He asked about illnesses we had among our animals, and told us not to worry, he could cure them. He appeared a cultured and dignified man.”

o   Aloisi Finkler, a local farmer, affirms that Mengele did not look at all as a war criminal, a terrorist or someone to be scared of. But, on the contrary, he appeared as a man of dignity and culture, good-looking, a nice person who should be welcome and thanked.

·           “He went from farm to farm checking the animals. He checked them for TB, and injected those that were infected. He said he could carry out artificial insemination of cows and humans, which we thought impossible as in those days it was unheard of.”

o   Another farmer, Leonardo Boufler, is emphasizing the rural side of his horrible job. With his modern techniques of aritificial insemination was able to astonish the farmers and gain their trust. Moreover, he was liked first of all because of the positive effects on their animal, the infected animals of the village.

·         “In the testimonies we collected we came across women who were treated by him, he appeared to be some sort of rural medic who went from house to house. He attended women who had varicose veins and gave them a potion which he carried in a bottle, or tablets which he brought with him. Sometimes he carried out dental work, and everyone remembers he used to take blood.”

o    Dr da Silva is paying more attention to the procedure Mengele used to follow, such as the paterial he used to bring with him and medication he used to give to the patients

·         “Nobody knows for sure exactly what date Mengele arrived in Candido Godoi, but the first twins were born in 1963, the year in which we first hear reports of his presence”

o   This last quote comes straight from Camarasa. It is sort of a conclusion to the book. It shows the extreme coincidence that the high rate of twins begun exactly the same year in which Mengele stepped onto Paraguay and visited for the first time Candido Godoi  

If all these quotes were proven right, than Mengele would have reached for real a trustable method to obtain the master race his furer has always asked for.  

Mengele's Experiments

The twins were a particular interest to Mengele. This interest was in the deep influences instilled by Otmar von Verschuer and Ferdinand Sauerbruch the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Genetics and Eugenics, where he imbibed the concepts of inheritance and pure race and the Jewish problem was the core of the discussions. Mengele, in the footsteps of Von Verschuer had developed a strong interest in twins as a source of information about these pseudo-scientific concepts, therefore, when he knew that Auschwitz was their destination, could not hide his satisfaction, because the field concentration was for him a lab full of rats Jewish. Since 1943, the twins were selected and placed in special barracks. When the selection ramp localized twins, for they constituted a longer life expectancy belonging to that condition. The twins were placed in a special area and were treated better than other inmates. Almost all of Mengele's experiments had no scientific value, but were funded by the Nazi government. Including, for example, attempts to change eye color by injecting chemicals into children's eyes, various amputations and other brutal surgeries, and at least once in a while, an attempt to create artificially conjoined veins joining of twins (the operation was a failure and the only result was that the hands of children severely infected). Persons subject to Mengele's experiments, if surviving the experiment were almost always killed for dissection.
Mengele drew the eyes of his victims and placed them on a wall as a display the varieties of heterochromic that existed. He also attempted to chemically change the hair color of inmates by applying painful subcutaneous injections and in some cases performed castrations and experiments on the spinal cord paralyzed leaving the surgery.

Josef Mengele "The Angel Of Death"

Josef Mengele was an SS physician, infamous for his inhumane medical experimentation upon concentration camp prisoners at Auschwitz. Studied philosophy at Munich and medicine at Frankfurt University. In January 1937, at the Institute for Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene in Frankfurt, he became the assistant of Dr. Otmar von Verschuer, a leading scientific figure widely known for his research with twins.In 1937 Mengele joined the Nazi Party. The following year, the same year in which he received his medical degree, he joined the SS. In 1940, he was drafted to the Army and was wounded while in campaign and returned to Germany, in January 1943 he began work at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Genetics, and Eugenics, directed by his former mentor von Verschuer. Later that year in April, he received a promotion to the rank of SS captain, this shortly proceeded to his transfer to Auschwitz on May 30, 1943.

 Once settled in Auschwitz, Mengele used this as an opportunity to carry with his research on heredity. Mengele was especially interested in identical twins, he used to separate them from the other inmates and placed in special barracks.

The SS abandoned the Auschwitz camp on January 27, 1945, and Mengele transferred to Gross Rosen camp in Lower Silesia, again working as camp physician. Gross Rosen was dissolved at the end of February when the Red Army was close to taking it. After the war, Mengele managed to escape from a British internment hospital and, with the aid of false papers, fled via Rome to Buenos Aires. One of the most wanted Nazi war criminals, Mengele was reported to have seen by various eye-witnesses in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, and substantial rewards were offered for his capture.

Naturalised as a Paraguayan citizen in November 1959, Mengele was sought by the West German Bonn government after 1962, but all efforts to capture or bring him to trial failed. In 1985, after a large reward had been offered in Israel for information leading to his capture, it was announced that he had most probably died in a swimming accident in Embu, Brazil, on 7 February 1979. In July 1985 a body, presumed to be that of Mengele, was exhumed in Brazil and autopsied by an international panel of forensic pathologists. They concluded that there was a high probability that it was indeed Mengele’s last remains, but an element of doubt still exists in some quarters.

Facts about Mengele:

•  Fled to Argentina, where he worked in construction but soon came in contact with influential Germans who helped him regain an affluent lifestyle.
• Practised medicine specializing in illegal abortions.
• Befriended other Nazis in Buenos Aires such as Hans-Ulrich Rudel and Adolf Eichmann.
• Left Argentina in 1962 for Paraguay for fear of being captured.