Argentinian President Javier Milei has pledged full cooperation in granting access to documents detailing how Nazi war criminals escaped to Argentina following World War II. The commitment was made during a meeting at the Casa Rosada presidential palace with officials from the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), an organization dedicated to bringing Nazi war criminals to justice.
For decades, organizations like the SWC have sought information on the so-called “ratlines”—the covert networks that allowed up to 10,000 Nazis and other fascist war criminals to flee justice by settling in Argentina and other countries. Despite previous pledges from past Argentinian leaders, Milei is the first to act.
The Nazi escape routes to Argentina were primarily established through Spain and Italy, with some routes benefiting from Vatican assistance. Many of the world’s most notorious war criminals used these routes, including Adolf Eichmann, one of the architects of the Holocaust, who was captured in Buenos Aires in 1960; and Josef Mengele, the infamous Auschwitz doctor, who entered Argentina under the alias Helmut Gregor in 1948.
Despite efforts to expose these ratlines, many records remain classified or inaccessible—until now.
Argentina has long been known as a safe haven for Nazi war criminals, with support for their escape reaching the highest levels of government. Historians note that former President Juan Perón was openly sympathetic to the Nazis, angered by the Nuremberg Trials, and authorized key elements of the ratline system, effectively making the sheltering of war criminals a state-sponsored operation.
Milei’s decision is part of a broader shift in Argentina’s stance on historical justice. Last week, the Argentinian government declared two days of national mourning for Israeli hostages murdered by Hamas, projecting the faces of Shiri Bibas and her children, Ariel and Kfir, onto Buenos Aires’ iconic Obelisk monument.
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This will look very bad for Juan Peron (who died over 70 years ago), the Catholic Church and the American intelligence agencies (who found some Nazis to be very useful for the Cold War).