Argentine authorities discovered a large cache of Nazi paraphernalia in a Buenos Aires home this week, a physical reminder of the thousands of former Nazis who fled to the South American country following the end of the Second World War.
The objects, which include busts of Hitler, medical experimentation devices, and tools used for judging ethnic characteristics were found behind a false wall during a house raid by the Cultural Crimes section of the Federal Police. Other finds included statues of the German imperial eagle and multiple pieces bearing swastikas. Such items are prohibited under Argentine law.
Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said she was “shocked” by the find, adding that she would push for the it to be donated to the local Holocaust museum.
“The main hypothesis is that someone who was part of the regime entered into Argentina because the amount of objects of the same style is difficult to find in private collections that can have one or two objects, but not of this amount and of this quality,” according to one investigator.
Around five thousand former Nazis who escaped Europe made their way to Argentina with the aid of President Juan Peron, whose government established escape routes through Spain and Italy. The most famous of these was Adolf Eichman, one of the primary organizers of the Holocaust. He was kidnapped by Israeli intelligence in 1960 and brought to the Jewish state, where he was subsequently tried and executed,
