Dreaded attire of Hitler’s SS, designed to represent death and inflict social terror.
Escape networks for Nazi SS, Gestapo, Hitler’s elite henchmen and war criminals, scientists and financiers have been documented, moving the ‘fictional’ ODESSA network or “Ratlines” from conjecture to factual. Findings from extensive research dating from 1946 to the present substantiate the role of Argentina, the Vatican, Swiss government and financiers, and many more in providing phony passports and exit visas, plus financing, for ‘safe passage’ for those heinous Nazis who were not caught and tried by military tribunals as the Nuremberg trials.
From a Wikipedia entry posted in 2018 I excerpted this segment, followed by information from War History Online:
“During World War II, Gen. Peron -- a populist military leader -- made no secret of his sympathies for Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany. Even as the Third Reich crumbled in the spring of 1945, Peron remained a pro-fascist stalwart, making available more than 1,000 blank passports for Nazi collaborators fleeing Europe.
Hitler and Mussolini laughing together as they spread fear and murder across Europe.
With Europe in chaos and the Allies near victory, tens of thousands of ranking Nazis dropped out of sight, tried to mix in with common refugees and began plotting escapes from Europe to Argentina across clandestine "ratlines." At the Argentine end of that voyage was Rodolfo Freude. He also was Juan Peron's private secretary, one of Evita's principal benefactors and the chief of Argentine internal security. Freude’s father, Ludwig, played another key role. As managing director of the Banco Aleman Transatlantico in Buenos Aires, he led the pro-Nazi German community in Argentina and acted as trustee for hundreds of millions of German Reichsmarks that the Fuehrer's top aides sent to Argentina near the war’s end.
Evita and Juan Peron wave to supporters from the Casa Rosada balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina
By 1946, the first wave of defeated fascists was settling into new Argentine homes. The country also was rife with rumors that the thankful Nazis had begun to repay Peron by bankrolling his campaign for the presidency, which he won with his stunning wife at his side. In 1947, Peron was living in Argentina's presidential palace and was hearing pleas from thousands of other Nazis desperate to flee Europe. The stage was set for one of the most troubling boatlifts in human history.
Glamorous Evita Peron dressed to impress the rich and powerful during her dramatic Rainbow Tour of Europe.
The archival records reveal that Eva Peron stepped forward to serve as Gen. Peron's personal emissary to this Nazi underground. Already, Evita was an Argentine legend. On June 6, 1947, Argentina's first lady Eva Peron left for her glittering Rainbow Tour of Europe. Eva Peron, known as "Evita" by her adoring followers, was superficially on a trip to strengthen diplomatic, business and cultural ties between Argentina and important leaders of Europe. But there was a parallel mission behind the high-profile trip, one that has contributed to a half century of violent extremism in Latin America.
Official portrait of Peron & Evita, President & First Lady of Argentina
According to records now emerging from Swiss archives and the investigations of Nazi hunters, an unpublicized side of Evita's world tour was coordinating the network for helping Nazis relocate in Argentina. This new evidence of Evita's cozy ties with prominent Nazis corroborates the long-held suspicion that she and her husband, Gen. Juan Peron, laid the groundwork for a bloody resurgence of fascism across Latin America in the 1970s and '80s.
Joseph Mengele, the monster doctor of Auschwitz, responsible for the medical
mutilations of countless children
One of the first Nazis to reach Buenos Aires via the “ratlines” was Erich Priebke, an SS officer accused of a mass execution of Italian civilians. Another was Croat Ustashi leader Ante Pavelic. They were followed by concentration camp commander Joseph Schwamberger and the sadistic Auschwitz doctor, Joseph Mengele. Later, on June 14, 1951, the emigrant ship, “Giovanna C,” carried Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann to Argentina where he posed as a Mercedes-Benz technician under a false name.
It was an escape for some with zero consequences, while justice caught up with others. Now, as then, without enduring consequences, the menace persists, and spreads. We don’t escape injustice.