Ratlines (World War II)

Two primary routes developed independently but their operators eventually collaborated.{{sfn|Phayer|2008|p=173}} The first went from Germany to Spain, then Argentina; the second led from Germany to Rome, then Genoa, and finally South America. As many as 9,000 Nazi war criminals and their collaborators reportedly escaped to Argentina (up to 5,000), Brazil (up to 2,000), and Chile (up to 1,000).{{Cite web |last=Klein |first=Christopher |date=2015-11-12 |title=How South America Became a Nazi Haven |url=https://www.history.com/articles/how-south-america-became-a-nazi-haven |access-date=2025-05-16 |website=History.com |language=en}} Some immersed themselves in Latin America by pretending to be farmers and/or Catholic.{{Cite web |title=The Perfect Hideout: Jewish and Nazi havens in Latin America |url=https://wienerholocaustlibrary.org/exhibition/the-perfect-hideout-jewish-and-nazi-havens-in-latin-america/?__cf_chl_tk=Zx7s7Us.ymf5aW7VVcqiUj19rmhZpMhOjFiAi566I.g-1747992461-1.0.1.1-Tmso9pMuV02X2GJPC1c5cFCNSI08g8Hi7SKWxglSt5s |access-date=2025-05-23 |website=The Wiener Holocaust Library |language=en-GB}}

The origins of the first ratlines are connected to various developments in Vatican-Argentine relations before and during World War II.{{sfn|Phayer|2008|pp=173–79}} As early as 1942, the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Luigi Maglione{{snd}}evidently at the behest of Pope Pius XII{{snd}}contacted an ambassador of Argentina regarding that country's willingness to accept European Catholic immigrants in a timely manner, allowing them to live and work.{{sfn|Phayer|2008|p=179}} Anton Weber, a German priest who headed the Roman branch of {{ill|Saint Raphael's Society|de|Raphaelswerk}}, travelled to Portugal with intentions to continue to Argentina, seemingly to lay the groundwork for Catholic immigration.{{sfn|Phayer|2008|p=179}}

Some Catholic leaders accepted working with the Nazis to fight the common enemy of Bolshevism. By 1944, ratline activity centered in Francoist Spain was conducted to facilitate the escape of Nazis.{{sfn|Phayer|2008|p=180}} Among the primary organizers were Charles Lescat, a French member of Action Française{{snd}}an organization suppressed by Pope Pius XI and rehabilitated by Pius XII{{snd}}and Pierre Daye, a Belgian with contacts in the Spanish government.{{sfn|Phayer|2008|p=182}} Lescat and Daye were the first to flee Europe with the help of Argentine cardinal Antonio Caggiano.{{sfn|Phayer|2008|p=182}}

By 1946, there were hundreds of war criminals in Spain, as well as thousands of former Nazis and fascists.{{sfn|Phayer|2008|p=183}} According to U.S. Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, Vatican cooperation in turning over these "asylum-seekers" was "negligible".{{sfn|Phayer|2008|p=183}} Unlike the Vatican emigration operation in Italy which centered on Vatican City, the Spanish ratlines{{snd}}though fostered by the Vatican{{snd}}were relatively independent of the Vatican Emigration Bureau's hierarchy.{{sfn|Phayer|2008|p=188}}

{{See also|Pontificia Commissione di Assistenza}}

Austrian Catholic bishop Alois Hudal, a Nazi sympathiser, was rector of the Pontificio Istituto Teutonico Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome, a seminary for Austrian and German priests, and "Spiritual Director of the German People resident in Italy".{{harv|Aarons|Loftus|1998|p=36}} After the end of the war in Italy, Hudal became active in ministering to German-speaking prisoners of war and internees who were being held in camps throughout Italy. In December 1944, the Allies allowed the Vatican to appoint a representative to visit the German-speaking civil internees in Italy, a job assigned to Hudal.{{Cite book |last=Dear |first=Ian |author-link=I. C. B. Dear |url=http://archive.org/details/escapeevasionpow0000dear |title=Escape and Evasion: POW Breakouts and Other Great Escapes in World War Two |date=2010 |publisher=History |isbn=978-0-7524-5581-5 |location=Stroud |pages=173 |orig-year=1997 |url-access=registration}}

Hudal used this position to aid the escape of wanted Nazi war criminals, including Franz Stangl (commanding officer of the Treblinka extermination camp), Gustav Wagner (commanding officer of the Sobibor extermination camp), Alois Brunner (responsible for the Drancy internment camp near Paris and in charge of deportations in Slovakia to Nazi concentration camps), Erich Priebke (who was responsible for the Ardeatine massacre), and SS officer Adolf Eichmann (architect of the Holocaust); Hudal was later unashamedly open about his role.{{Cite news|last=Agnew|first=Paddy|title=Nazi funeral that's forcing Italy to face its past|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/nazi-funeral-that-s-forcing-italy-to-face-its-past-1.1565777|access-date=2020-09-02|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en}}{{sfn|Phayer|2000|p=11}} Some of these wanted men were being held in internment camps; generally lacking identity papers, they would be enrolled in camp registers under false names. Other Nazis hid in Italy and sought Hudal out after learning about his role in assisting escapes.{{sfn|Sereny|1983|p=289}} In his memoirs, Hudal said of his actions, "I thank God that He [allowed me] to visit and comfort many victims in their prisons and concentration camps and to help them escape with false identity papers."Hudal, Römische Tagebücher {{harv|Aarons|Loftus|1998|p=37}} He explained that in his eyes:

The Allies' War against Germany was not a crusade, but the rivalry of economic complexes for whose victory they had been fighting. This so-called business ... used catchwords like democracy, race, religious liberty and Christianity as a bait for the masses. All these experiences were the reason why I felt duty bound after 1945 to devote my whole charitable work mainly to former National Socialists and Fascists, especially to so-called 'war criminals'.

According to Mark Aarons and John Loftus, Hudal was the first Catholic priest to dedicate himself to establishing escape routes.{{sfn|Aarons|Loftus|1998|loc=ch. 2}} The Rome office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) issued refugees Laissez-passer documents allowing passage from Italy. These were accepted as de facto passports in South America.{{sfn|Sereny|1983|pp=315–317}} Although typically required to be signed for in person, blank forms were accessible to Hudal and the signature of the ICRC official was confirmed to be forged in a number of cases.{{sfn|Sereny|1983|pp=315–317}}

File:Red Cross issued travel ID using Ratline routes for a Croatian national escaping to South America.jpg]]

A small but influential network of Croatian priests, members of the Franciscan order, led by Father Krunoslav Draganović, organised a highly sophisticated ratline with headquarters at the San Girolamo degli Illirici Seminary College in Rome, with links from Austria and an embarkation point in Genoa. The ratline initially focused on aiding members of the Croatian Ustaše including its leader, Ante Pavelić.{{sfn|Aarons|Loftus|1998|loc=ch. 5}}

A number of priests were active in the chain, included Father Vilim Cecelja (former Deputy Military Vicar to the Ustaše),{{sfn|Aarons|Loftus|1998|pp=91, 98-99}} who founded a branch of the Croatian Red Cross (which the IRC only supported in an unofficial capacity) in Austria. He used his Red Cross and United States papers to travel freely around Salzburg, where many Ustashe and Nazi refugees remained, providing Red Cross identities to numerous individuals who lacked identification. In October 1945, Cecelja was arrested by the US Army's Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) for his Ustaše ties.{{sfn|Aarons|Loftus|1998|pp=92-93}} Father Dominik Mandić (an official Vatican representative at San Girolamo and treasurer of the Franciscans), used his Italian secret police connections to ensure that the Franciscans' identity cards would be considered sufficiently official to issue them Italian identity cards.{{sfn|Aarons|Loftus|1998|pp=100}} Finally, Draganović would phone Monsignor Karlo Petranović in Genoa with the number of required berths on ships to South America.{{sfn|Aarons|Loftus|1998|pp=106-107}}

The Draganović ratline was an open secret among the intelligence and diplomatic communities in Rome. As early as August 1945, Allied commanders in Rome were asking questions about the use of San Girolamo as a "haven" for Ustaše.{{cite web|url=http://www.domovod.info/showthread.php?277-Krunoslav-Draganovic-From-Pavelic-Papers-com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221232606/http://www.domovod.info/showthread.php?277-Krunoslav-Draganovic-From-Pavelic-Papers-com |url-status=usurped |archive-date=21 December 2016 |title=Krunoslav Draganovic - From Pavelic-Papers.com|website=Domovod.info|date=13 June 2012|access-date=21 December 2016}} A US State Department report of 12 July 1946 listed nine war criminals, including Albanians and Montenegrins as well as Croats, plus others "not actually sheltered" at San Girolamo Seminary who "enjoy Church support and protection".{{cite web|url=http://www.krajinaforce.com/dokumenti/pavelic-papers.pdf|title=The Pavelic Papers: Documents|website=Krajinaforce.com|access-date=2016-12-21|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304100747/http://www.krajinaforce.com/dokumenti/pavelic-papers.pdf|url-status=dead}}

In February 1947, CIC Special Agent Robert Clayton Mudd reported ten members of Pavelić's Ustaše cabinet living either in San Girolamo or in the Vatican itself. Mudd had infiltrated an agent into the seminary and confirmed that it was "honeycombed with cells of Ustashe operatives" guarded by "armed youths". Mudd reported a car protected under diplomatic immunity transported unidentified people between the Vatican and the seminary.{{cite book |last=Avraham |first=Yerachmiel Ben |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781622176335/page/237/mode/2up |title=All in the Name of Jesus: The Murder of Millions |date=2016 |publisher=WaveCloud Corporation |isbn=9781622176342 |pages=237 |quote=Mudd's conclusion was the following: 'DRAGANOVIC's sponsorship of these Croat Ustashes definitely links him up with the plan of the Vatican to shield these ex-Ustasha nationalists until such time as they are able to procure for them the proper documents to enable them to go to South America. The Vatican, undoubtedly banking on the strong anti-Communist feelings of these men, is endeavoring to infiltrate them into South America in any way possible to counteract the spread of Red doctrine. It has been reliably reported, for example that Dr. VRANCIC has already gone to South America and that Ante PAVELIC and General KREN are scheduled for an early departure to South America through Spain. All these operations are said to have been negotiated by DRAGANOVIC because of his influence in the Vatican.'}} Additionally, by mid-1947, British intelligence was aware that Petranović mainly helped war criminals.{{sfn|Aarons|Loftus|1998|pp=106-107}}

{{Main|Pro-German resistance movement in Finland}}

In 1944, Sturmbannführer (Major) Alarich Bross founded a network of extreme right-wing Finns and Nazis in Finland. Organized to engage in an armed struggle against the Soviet occupation that never occurred, it smuggled out those who wanted to leave Finland for Germany or Sweden. A system of Finnish safehouses were created under the cover of a company called 'Great Fishing Cooperative' with routes provided by a 50–70-man maritime transport organization. Its targets in Sweden were secret loading bays in the small town of Härnösand, western Norrland. Others were smuggled to Sweden from the north over the Tornio river. Access to Europe was opened through the Swedish safehouse network.Lappalainen, Niilo: Aselevon jälkeen. WSOY, 1997. ISBN 951-0-21813-8. p. 111, 113–114

Through the safehouse routes, the resistance movement transported German citizens, officers, intelligence personnel, Finnish Nazis and fascists, and Estonian and East Karelian refugees out of Finland. Hundreds of people were assisted in Sweden, including more than a hundred German prisoners of war who had fled the Finns. Hundreds were spirited to Germany via {{Nowrap|U-boat}} after the September 1944 break.Alava, Ali: Gestapo Suomessa. Hämeenlinna: Arvi A.Karisto Osakeyhtiö, 1974. ISBN 951-23-0844-4.

{{See also|Department 50}}

During the war, Germany sent Nazi propaganda from its embassy in Tokyo, Japan, to Buenos Aires, Argentina.{{Cite web |last=Vulcano |first=Andrea |date=2025-05-11 |title=Argentina's Supreme Court finds archives linked to the Nazi regime |url=https://apnews.com/article/argentina-supreme-court-nazi-archives-25907b60590a74c15cf9edf564591456# |access-date=2025-05-14 |website=AP News |language=en}} After Germany's surrender on 8 May 1945, the captain of the {{Nowrap|U-530}}, which had been operating in the northern Atlantic Ocean, decided to surrender to the Argentine Navy in Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires Province, which occurred on 10 July.{{Cite magazine |date=1945-07-23 |title=ARGENTINA: U-530 |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,803598,00.html |access-date=2025-05-23 |magazine=Time |language=en-US |issn=0040-781X}} He was unable to explain why the voyage had taken two months nor the absence of the ship's log and the crew's identities. The Navy reported that no officers were aboard, although the police purportedly reported that Adolf Hitler and perhaps Eva Braun had been seen disembarking from a submarine in Argentina. The captured sub and its crew were sent to North America, which did not discourage the {{Nowrap|U-977}} from surrendering in Buenos Aires in mid-August in hopes of being given shelter.{{cite web |author=Office of Naval Intelligence |date=19 September 1945 |title=Report on the Interrogation of Prisoners from U-977 (File Op-16-2) |url=http://www.uboatarchive.net/U-977INT.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090329085015/http://www.uboatarchive.net/U-977INT.htm |archive-date=29 March 2009 |access-date=21 August 2009 |publisher=U.S. Navy}} According to The New York Times, the US State Department reported in 1945 that "the personal fortunes of Nazi officials" were delivered to Buenos Aires via diplomatic pouch, with Nazi higher-up Hermann Göring possessing over USD $20 million and a {{Nowrap|U-boat}} loaded with Nazi plunder.

On 18 January 1946, Bishop Antonio Caggiano, leader of the Argentine chapter of Catholic Action, flew to Rome to be consecrated as cardinal by Pius XII. Both Caggiano and French cardinal Eugène Tisserant heavily interceded in helping Lescat and Daye and their associates emigrate from Spain to Argentina.{{sfn|Goñi|2002|p=93}}{{sfn|Phayer|2008|p=182}} During the spring of 1946, Caggiano implored the Argentine consul in Rome to stamp the passports of three confirmed French war criminals (and five other Frenchmen) with Argentine tourist visas, regardless of missing return tickets and health certificates.{{sfn|Goñi|2002|p=96}} The first documented case of a French war criminal arriving in Buenos Aires was Émile Dewoitine, who was later sentenced in absentia to 20 years of hard labour. He sailed first class on the same ship back with Caggiano.{{sfn|Goñi|2002|pp=96–98}}

{{See also|Juan Perón#Jewish and German communities of Argentina}}

File:Rodolfo_Freude_and_Perón.jpg (second from left) with Perón (right foreground)]]

German-Argentine millionaire Ludwig Freude, who was reportedly aligned with Nazi intelligence, coordinated contributions from Nazi collaborators to the 1946 presidential campaign of Juan Perón,{{sfn|Goñi|2002|p=xii, 102}}{{Cite news |last=Bardach |first=Ann Louise |date=1997-03-22 |title=Opinion {{!}} Argentina Evades Its Nazi Past |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/22/opinion/argentina-evades-its-nazi-past.html |access-date=2025-06-26 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} who condemned the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals (1945–1946).From the 'Perón tapes' he recorded the year before his death, published in Yo, Juan Domingo Perón, Luca de Tena et al. {{harv|Goñi|2002|p=100}} "In Nuremberg at that time something was taking place that I personally considered a disgrace and an unfortunate lesson for the future of humanity. I became certain that the Argentine people also considered the Nuremberg process a disgrace, unworthy of the victors, who behaved as if they hadn't been victorious. Now we realize that they [the Allies] deserved to lose the war." Perón appointed anthropologist Santiago Peralta (an avowed anti-Semite) as his immigration commissioner and Ludwig Freude's son Rodolfo as the head of the country's first intelligence bureau;{{sfn|Goñi|2002|pp=xii, xiv, 39}} the two Péron subordinates evidently aided European war criminals by streamlining their pathway to citizenship and employing them within their departments.{{sfn|Goñi|2002|pp=109, 125}} Péron's regime collaborated with Draganović's ratline and operated additional ratlines through Scandinavia and Switzerland.{{Sfn|Goñi|2002|pp=xiv–xv, xxi, 128–29, 153–54}} As many as 5,000 Nazi war criminals escaped to Argentina, some as late as 1950, the year Adolf Eichmann arrived.{{Sfn|Goñi|2002|p=160, 300}}

From the late 1940s to the 1950s, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) investigated reports that Hitler had not died in 1945, but escaped to South America{{Snd}}typically via Argentina, as the Soviets suggested after taking Berlin.{{cite book |last=Joachimsthaler |first=Anton |author-link=Anton Joachimsthaler |title=The Last Days of Hitler: The Legends, The Evidence, The Truth |publisher=Brockhampton Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-1-86019-902-8 |location=London |pages=22-23, 174, 252–53 |orig-year=1995}}{{Cite web |title=Adolf Hitler Part 01 |url=https://vault.fbi.gov/adolf-hitler/Adolf%20Hitler%20Part%2001 |access-date=2025-05-28 |website=FBI.gov |language=en-us}} The CIA even received a purported photograph of Hitler.{{Cite web |last=Andringa |first=Peter |date=2017-11-01 |title=CIA documents detail Hitler could have fled to Colombia |url=https://thebogotapost.com/cia-documents-detail-hitler-fled-to-colombia/25034/ |access-date=2025-06-26 |website=The Bogotá Post}} According to Western scholars, however, the dictator's 1945 death is proven by his dental remains and eyewitnesses{{sfn|Kershaw|2000|p=1110}}{{Snd}}excluding the possibility of mandibulectomy and supporting deception.Multiple sources:

• {{cite book |last=Bezymenski |first=Lev |url=https://archive.org/details/deathofadolfhitl0000unse_c0c9 |title=The Death of Adolf Hitler |publisher=Harcourt, Brace & World |year=1968 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=45 |quote=The alveolar processes are broken in the back}}.
• {{cite book |last1=Petrova |first1=Ada |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780393039146 |title=The Death of Hitler: The Full Story with New Evidence from Secret Russian Archives |last2=Watson |first2=Peter |author-link2=Peter Watson (intellectual historian) |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-393-03914-6 |pages=93–101}}
• {{Cite web |date=2019-11-22 |title=Mandibulectomy |url=https://thancguide.org/cancer-basics/treatments/surgery/ablative/mandibulectomy/ |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=THANC Guide |language=en-US}}
• {{Cite web |last=Gross |first=Terry |date=2017-03-07 |title=Author Says Hitler Was 'Blitzed' On Cocaine And Opiates During The War |url=https://www.npr.org/transcripts/518986612 |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=NPR |language=en}}
• {{Cite magazine |date=1945-07-02 |title=International: Where There's Smoke ... |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,775985,00.html |access-date=2025-05-20 |magazine=Time |issn=0040-781X}}
• {{cite book |last=Trevor-Roper |first=Hugh |author-link=Hugh Trevor-Roper |url=https://archive.org/details/lastdaysofhitler0000trev_j2d4/ |title=The Last Days of Hitler |publisher=Pan Macmillan |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-330-49060-3 |edition=7th |location=London |page=lvi |orig-year=1947}}
• {{cite book |last1=Brisard |first1=Jean-Christophe |title=The Death of Hitler |last2=Parshina |first2=Lana |author2-link=Lana Parshina |publisher=Da Capo Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-0306922589 |pages=219 |language=en |name-list-style=and}}
• {{Cite web |last=O'Malley |first=J. P. |date=2018-09-04 |title=Putin grants authors partial access to secret Soviet archives on Hitler's death |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/putin-grants-authors-partial-access-to-secret-soviet-archives-on-hitlers-death/ |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=The Times of Israel |quote=Baur said to the other two witnesses, 'Never say what really happened.'}} In accordance with the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, the FBI started releasing relevant files online {{Circa|2011|lk=off}}.{{cite web |author=Wayback Machine |author-link=Wayback Machine |date=10 April 2011 |title=FBI – Adolf Hitler |url=https://vault.fbi.gov/adolf-hitler |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110410163948/https://vault.fbi.gov/adolf-hitler |archive-date=10 April 2011 |accessdate=8 January 2019 |website=Internet Archive}}

After entering Argentina under a false name, in the mid-1950s Josef Mengele (known as the "Angel of Death" due to his role in the Holocaust) reclaimed his surname to marry his brother's widow in Uruguay, then brought her to Argentina.{{Cite web |last=Centenera |first=Mar |date=2025-04-30 |title=The trail of Nazis Mengele and Eichmann in Argentina |url=https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-04-30/the-trail-of-nazis-mengele-and-eichmann-in-argentina.html |access-date=2025-05-05 |website=El País |language=en-us}} In 1959, he used his real name to apply for a passport at the German embassy in Buenos Aires. By 1960, he had fled to Paraguay (drawing the attention of the Argentine police), and {{Circa|1963}} authorities of Brazil suspected his presence. He died in Brazil in 1979, with his remains identified via DNA analysis in 1992.{{Cite web |date=2025-05-06 |title=New Evidence Reveals How Mengele Evaded Capture |url=https://evrimagaci.org/tpg/new-evidence-reveals-how-mengele-evaded-capture-344227 |access-date=2025-05-07 |website=The Pinnacle Gazette |language=en}} The same year, Argentina's government declassified a voluminous file regarding Nazi escapees.

In early 2025, President of Argentina Javier Milei met with representatives from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who requested in conjunction with the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee for cooperation in the latter's investigation of Credit Suisse's Nazi patronage.{{Cite news |last=Genoux |first=Flora |date=2025-04-11 |title=Argentina continues investigating its painful past as a refuge for Nazis |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/04/11/argentina-once-again-confronts-its-past-as-refuge-for-nazis_6740088_4.html |access-date=2025-04-12 |work=Le Monde |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2025-03-05 |title=Grassley Lauded for 'Leadership and Commitment' to Credit Suisse Investigation |url=https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/rep/releases/grassley-lauded-for-leadership-and-commitment-to-credit-suisse-investigation |access-date=2025-04-11 |website= United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Stub |first=Zeb |date=26 March 2025 |title=Argentina to declassify documents about Nazi 'ratline' escape routes after WWII |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/argentina-to-declassify-documents-about-nazi-ratline-escape-routes-after-wwii/ |access-date=2025-04-03 |website=The Times of Israel |language=en-US}} Late in April 2025, Argentina published 1,850 such documents online, many of which were previously declassified in 1992.{{Cite web |last=Martin |first=Christopher |date=2025-04-28 |title=Argentina releases huge trove of declassified Nazi and dictatorship documents |url=https://buenosairesherald.com/politics/argentina-releases-huge-trove-of-declassified-nazi-and-dictatorship-documents |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Buenos Aires Herald |language=en-US}} In May 2025, United Press International reported that these files indicate that the Nazis may have bribed Perón's government with $200 million in gold, some of which was allegedly delivered via {{Nowrap|U-boat}} before being delivered to Perón's wife, Eva.{{Cite web |last=Hermosilla |first=Macarena |date=2025-05-23 |title=Nazi criminals allegedly paid $200M in bribes to Perón government |url=https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2025/05/23/paraguay-argentina-nazi-leaders-bribes/6981748030375/ |access-date=2025-05-26 |website=UPI |language=en}} The funds were reportedly handled by German "bankers" said to include Rodolfo Freude.

Additionally, in May 2025, the Supreme Court of Argentina discovered 83 boxes of archived material evidently sent by the Germans to spread wartime propaganda. This included passports and party membership documents. As of June 2025, an exhaustive restoration and digitization project was underway.{{Cite web |date=2025-06-21 |title=Argentina’s Supreme Court digs deeper into discovered Nazi archive |url=https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/argentinas-supreme-court-digs-deeper-into-discovered-nazi-archive.phtml |access-date=2025-06-26 |website=Buenos Aires Times |language=en}}

Starting in 1947, U.S. Intelligence used existing ratlines to move certain Nazi strategists and scientists.

According to a declassified U.S. Army intelligence report from 1950, by mid-1947 U.S. forces had begun to use Draganović's established network to evacuate"History of the Italian Rat Line" (10 April 1950), document signed by "IB Operating Officer" Paul E. Lyon, 430th Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC), Headquarters of the U.S. Forces in Austria. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071008205604/http://www.jasenovac-info.com/cd/biblioteka/pavelicpapers/army/ar0002.html|date=2007-10-08}}, from [http://www.jasenovac-info.com/cd/biblioteka/pavelicpapers/army/ar0002.html the original], jasenovac-info.com; accessed 7 February 2023.{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable (WP:NOTRS).|date=February 2024}}

visitors who had been in the custody of the 430th CIC and completely processed in accordance with current directives and requirements, and whose continued residence in Austria constituted a security threat as well as a source of possible embarrassment to the Commanding General of USFA, since the Soviet Command had become aware that their presence in U.S. Zone of Austria and in some instances had requested the return of these persons to Soviet custody.

The deal with Draganović involved getting the visitors to Rome:

Dragonovich {{sic}} handled all phases of the operation after the defectees arrived in Rome, such as the procurement of IRO Italian and South American documents, visas, stamps, arrangements for disposition, land or sea, and notification of resettlement committees in foreign lands.

{{more sources|section|date=April 2024}}

Some of the Nazis and war criminals who escaped using ratlines include:

• Andrija Artuković, escaped to the United States; arrested in 1984 after decades of delay and extradited to SFR Yugoslavia in 1986, where he died in prison in 1988.
• Klaus Barbie, fled to Bolivia in 1951 with help from the United States, as he had been an agent of the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps since April 1947;{{cite web |last1=Wolfe |first1=Robert |date=15 August 2016 |title=Analysis of the IRR File of Klaus Barbie |url=https://www.archives.gov/iwg/research-papers/barbie-irr-file.html |access-date=January 3, 2017 |website=National Archives – Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group |publisher=The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration}} captured in 1983; died in prison in France in September 1991.
• Alois Brunner, fled to Syria in 1954; died around 2001.
• Herberts Cukurs, fled to Brazil in 1945, murdered by Mossad in Uruguay in 1965.
• Léon Degrelle, fled to Spain in 1945; founded the neo-Nazi organization CEDADE in 1966 while under protection by the Franco regime; died in Spain in 1994.
• Adolf Eichmann, fled to Argentina in 1950; captured 1960; executed in Israel on 1 June 1962.
• Aribert Heim, disappeared in 1962; most likely died in Egypt in 1992.
• Olavi Karpalo, fled to Venezuela in 1945, died in 1988.[http://www.skhs.fi/suomalaiset-ss-miehet-ja-sotarikokset/ André Swanström : Suomalaiset SS-miehet ja sotarikokset, Suomen kirkkohistoriallinen seura 11.10.2017]
• Aarne Kauhanen, fled to Venezuela in 1945; arrested 1947; died in mysterious circumstances in 1949.Silvennoinen, Oula: Salaiset aseveljet : Suomen ja Saksan turvallisuuspoliisiyhteistyö 1933–1944, s. 306, 319. Helsinki: Otava, 2008. ISBN 978-951-12150-1-1.
• Sándor Képíró, fled to Argentina, returned to Hungary in 1996. He stood trial for war crimes in Budapest in February 2011, before his death in September.
• Josef Mengele, fled to Argentina in 1949, then to other countries; died in Brazil in 1979.
• Arvid Ojasti, fled to Norway in 1945, then Sweden, and finally Venezuela. In December 1963, he was shot and killed under unclear circumstances.Uola, Mikko: Unelma kommunistisesta Suomesta 1944–1953. Helsinki: Minerva, 2013. ISBN 978-952-492-768-0.
• Ante Pavelić, escaped to Argentina in 1948; died in Spain, in December 1959, of wounds sustained two years earlier in an assassination attempt.
• Erich Priebke, fled to Argentina in 1949; arrested in 1994; died in 2013.
• Walter Rauff, fled to Chile via Ecuador; protected by Augusto Pinochet; died in 1984.
• Eduard Roschmann, escaped to Argentina in 1948; fled to Paraguay to avoid extradition and died there in 1977.
• Hans-Ulrich Rudel, fled to Argentina in 1948; started the "Kameradenwerk", a relief organization for Nazi criminals that helped fugitives escape; died following a stroke in Rosenheim, Germany in 1982.
• Dinko Šakić, fled to Argentina in 1947, arrested in 1998 and extradited to Croatia. He was tried and found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, serving a 20-year sentence. He died in 2008.
• Otto Skorzeny, escaped an internment camp in 1948 and fled to Spain in 1950; in 1953 moved to Egypt and served as a military advisor to Gamal Abdel Nasser; travelled between Spain and Argentina serving as an advisor to Juan Perón; allegedly worked for Mossad; died in Spain in 1975.
• Boris Smyslovsky, fled to Argentina in 1948 from Liechtenstein with the First Russian National Army. He returned to Liechtenstein in 1966, and died of natural causes in 1988.
• Tscherim Soobzokov fled to the United States; died 1985
• Franz Stangl, fled to Brazil in 1951; arrested in 1967 and extradited to West Germany; died in 1971 of heart failure.
• Paavo Talvela, fled to Brazil in 1946, eventually returned to Finland.Uola, Mikko (2001). "Talvela, Paavo (1897–1973)". Kansallisbiografia. Studia Biographica (in Finnish). Vol. 4. The Finnish Literature Society. ISSN 1799-4349. Retrieved 24 October 2021.
• Ludolf von Alvensleben, fled to Argentina in 1946, sentenced to death in absentia, managed to avoid prosecution; died in 1970.
• Gustav Wagner, fled to Brazil in 1950; arrested in 1978; committed suicide in 1980.
• War criminals in Canada – Canada was the destination for many ratline escapees from non-German-speaking countries, including veterans of the Waffen-SS Galicia Division. (see also: Deschênes Commission)
• Peter Savaryn, Ukrainian veteran of the Galicia Division, who became a lawyer in Canada. He became Chancellor of the University of Alberta, and president of the Ukrainian World Congress and Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta. He was awarded the Order of Canada in 1987, and died in 2007.
• Yaroslav Hunka, Ukrainian veteran of the Galicia Division. In September 2023, Hunka was invited by Speaker Anthony Rota to be recognised by the Canadian House of Commons during a state visit by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. This incident provoked enormous scandal, and prompted Rota to resign five days later, triggering the 2023 speakership election.

• Aunt Anna's, a safe house in Merano, Italy, often used by Nazi and SS members
• Die Spinne
• Nazism in the Americas
• Otto Wächter
• U.S. intelligence involvement with German and Japanese war criminals after World War II

{{Reflist}}

;Sources

{{Refbegin}}

• {{Cite book|last1=Aarons|first1=Mark|author1-link=Mark Aarons|last2=Loftus|first2=John|author2-link=John Loftus (military author)|name-list-style=amp|title=Unholy Trinity: The Vatican, The Nazis, and the Swiss Bankers|url=https://archive.org/details/unholytrinityvat0000aaro|year=1998|orig-year=1991|location=New York|publisher=St. Martin's Press|edition=revised|isbn=978-0312181994}}
• {{Cite book|last=Goñi|first=Uki|author-link=Uki Goñi|title=The Real Odessa: Smuggling the Nazis to Perón's Argentina|url=https://archive.org/details/realodessasmuggl0000goti/|year=2002|edition=1st|location=London|publisher=Granta|isbn=1862075816}}
• {{cite book | last = Kershaw | first = Ian | author-link = Ian Kershaw | title = Hitler, 1936–1945: Nemesis | location = New York; London | publisher = W. W. Norton & Company | year = 2000 | isbn = 978-0-393-32252-1 }}
• {{Cite book|last=Phayer|first=Michael|author-link=Michael Phayer|title=The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930–1965|year=2000|location=Bloomington and Indianapolis|publisher=Indiana University Press|url=https://archive.org/details/catholicchurchho00phay|url-access=registration|isbn=0253214718}}
• {{Cite book|last=Phayer|first=Michael|title=Pius XII, The Holocaust, and the Cold War|year=2008|location=Bloomington and Indianapolis|publisher=Indiana University Press|title-link=Pius XII, The Holocaust, and the Cold War}}
• Sachslehner, Johannes (2019). Hitlers Mann im Vatikan: Bischof Alois Hudal. Ein dunkles Kapitel in der Geschichte der Kirche. Vienna-Graz: Molden, 2019. {{ISBN|978-3-222-15040-1}}.
• {{Cite book|last=Sereny|first=Gitta|author-link=Gitta Sereny|url=https://archive.org/details/intothatdarkness0000sere |title=Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience|year=1983|orig-year=1977|location=London|publisher=Picador|isbn=9780394710358}}
• Wiesenthal, Simon (1989). Justice not Vengeance. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. {{isbn|0802112781}}

{{Refend}}

• Birn, Ruth Bettina. Review of Goñi, Uki, Odessa: Die wahre Geschichte: Fluchthilfe für NS-Kriegsverbrecher and Schneppen, Heinz, Odessa und das Vierte Reich: Mythen der Zeitgeschichte. [https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=21871 H-Soz-u-Kult, H-Net Reviews]. October, 2007.
• Breitman, Richard; Goda, Norman J. W.; Naftali, Timothy; and Wolfe, Robert (2005). U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis. Cambridge University Press; {{ISBN|9780521617949}}.
• Graham, Robert and Alvarez, David. (1998). Nothing Sacred: Nazi Espionage against the Vatican, 1939–1945. London: Frank Cass.
• Loftus, John. (2010). America's Nazi Secret: An Insider's History. Waterwille: (Trine Day); {{ISBN|978-1936296040}}.
• Simpson, Christopher (1988). Blowback: The First Full Account of America's Recruitment of Nazis and Its Disastrous Effect on The cold war, Our Domestic and Foreign Policy. New York: (Grove/Atlantic); {{ISBN|978-0020449959}}.
• Steinacher, Gerald (2006). The Cape of Last Hope: The Flight of Nazi War Criminals through Italy to South America, in Eisterer, Klaus and Günter Bischof (eds; 2006) Transatlantic Relations: Austria and Latin America in the 19th and 20th Century (Transatlantica 1), pp. 203–24. New Brunswick: Transatlantica.
• Steinacher, Gerald (2012; P/B edition). Nazis on the Run: How Hitler's Henchmen Fled Justice. Oxford University Press; {{ISBN|978-0199642458}}.

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