When it’s your 10th time in a city, it’s time to try something a little different – hence our having signed up for a walking tour that promised to tell us all about the Nazis in Buenos Aires.
Of course we already knew all about the Nazis and Argentina, how Peron welcomed them with open arms and how they were able to find a safe refuge in the country.
Max set out to rapidly disabuse us of this notion. Yes, there was a large Nazi movement in Buenos Aires before the second World War but that was due to the large Germanic immigrant population from Russia before the first World War. Unlike the Spanish and Italians, the Germans had not integrated so well, maintaining a separate identity.
All this was explained in front of the 25 tonne lump of metal that is the Juana Azurduy statue opposite the Palacio Libertad – this wild looking woman was apparently a Bolivian freedom fighter.
We then ambled down the road to the Luna Park Theatre which is famous for being the venue for Maradonna’s wedding. Sinatra also sang there but long before that it also hosted, in 1938, the second largest Nazi rally outside Germany (the largest was in America).
15,000 people attended the event which was organised by the Landesgruppe and which followed on from similar events in 1936 and 1937. This one was of added significance as it celebrated the Anschluss when Germany annexed Austria.
There were supposedly 350,000 Germans living in Buenos Aires at the time, many of whom would have been Jews escaping German persecution or those with communist views. However, there were 9000 who were members of the Landesgruppe. There was an elite Goethe Schule (which still exists today) and a German newspaper – and obviously a core network sympathetic to the Nazi movement.
Backing up his talk with photos and even graphs, Max led us on to the ABC Cafe whose sign proudly proclaims that it has been in business since 1929 – long enough for Eichmann and Mengele to enjoy a coffee there frequently.
Eichmann is the famous Nazi when it comes to Argentina as he was snatched off the street by MOSSAD in 1960 when he was living in the German enclave of San Fernando with his wife and 4 children, one of whom, Klaus, made the mistake of mentioning to his girlfriend (whose father was a German Jew and a Dachau survivor) that the family’s real name was Eichmann and not the Ricardo Klement that Eichmann had been quietly living under!
Eichmann was high on the wanted list, having been instrumental in the Wannsee conference in 1942 which decided the fate of the Jews and for organising the logistics in removing them.
In 1950 he escaped to Argentina using a Red Cross Safe Conduct pass and settled in Tucumán but moved to Buenos Aires in 1953 when the company for whom he was working went bust. Working for Mercedes Benz, he ended up living on Garibaldi Street – from where the MOSSAD operation gained it’s name.
After snatching him off the street, MOSSAD flew him out disguised as part of an aircrew and his trial in Israel in 1961 was televised. He was sentenced to death and hanged the following year. Mengele had also been living in Buenos Aires under his own name but Eichmann’s kidnap caused him to flee to Paraguay and subsequently Brazil where he was to die from natural causes in 1979.
Post War Industrialization
Our next stop was the Museo de Armas de la Nación. Max suggested that one could take a look inside and it would be apparent just how much had been developed by foreigners. During the second World War, Argentina had stayed neutral until near the end, partially to protect it’s relationship with the UK, USA and France who bought most of its meat and corn exports.
Max spoke about Juan Perón, who was president in 1946- 1955, surviving a coup in 1955, and then exiled only to return again in 1973 (he died in 1974). He seemed a curious mix of socialist and right wing dictator.
He created a minimum wage, a 2 week holiday for workers and free higher education and healthcare. Women were given the vote in 1947.
However, he was also acutely aware of the industrial isolation of Argentina and wanted to create a military and economic independence. He wanted engineers and scientists and Argentina was happy to accept people with just Red Cross papers – it was easy to get in and Nazi war criminals were happy to exploit the loophole.
We walked on to the massive front of Palacio San Martin, designed in 1905. It was once privately owned but has been part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1936. Immigration papers had been stamped within the building.
Max told us the story of one more Nazi: Erich Priebe who was responsible for a massacre in Rome in 1944 when 335 Italian civilians were killed in retaliation for a partisan attack on the German troops which killed 33 soldiers.
He settled in Bariloche and taught at a school under his real name. Eventually he was confronted by an American newscaster, Samuel Donaldson, in 1994 and extradited to Italy for trial. Sentenced to life imprisonment, it became house arrest due to his advanced age – he died in Rome in 2013 at the age of 100, claiming to the end that he was only ‘following orders’.
The Modern Day
Our final stop at the site of the old Israeli Embassy brought the story more up to date and covered some of the ramifications which filter down to this day. In the 1960s, there were Jewish attacks orchestrated by the children of the Nazis, a movement known as Tacuara which claimed (especially after Eichmann’s kidnap) a Jewish conspiracy and attempts to influence Argentine politics.
Members of the movement were responsible for shooting a 16 year old teenager and then raped and tortured a 19 year old girl, carving swastikas into her thighs. The Jews staged a two day strike to demand the Government take the attacks seriously. The group was dismantled in 1965.
In the 1990s anti Semitism came back with a vengeance when the Israeli Embassy was car-bombed on 17th March 1992, destroying the building and killing 29 people. Today only an outline on a wall remains and a little remembrance square where 22 trees are planted for those whose remains were identified.
Two years later in July 1994 another bombing of an Israeli Association killed 85 people. There were mutterings that it was linked to Hezbollah and Iran but no-one was ever arrested. Menem was president at the time and was seen as friendly towards the US, even sending troops to aid in the first Gulf War.
We finished in a refreshingly posh part of Retiro and said our goodbyes to Max. On the opposite corner to the old embassy is the Farinelli cafe, it’s a great spot for coffee or lunch with a suitably glossy clientele.
We later received a reading list which was a great idea for those interested in learning more on this fascinating footnote in history. It is thought about 180 Nazi criminals entered Argentina, in some cases their children and grandchildren still live there. Wherever the truth lies in this game of chimeras and mirrors may yet be revealed over the coming years.
NOTES
You can find Max and the Nazis in Buenos Aires walking tour on GetYourGuide – approximately £22 per person.
