The Simon Wiesenthal Center announced this week that it had gained access to a list of 12,000 Nazis who lived in Argentina in the 1930s who may have held accounts with stolen Jewish money.
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The center, which has become famous for its mission of hunting down Nazis, said the documents show many of the Nazis listed in the papers, "had contributed to one or more bank accounts at the Schweizerische Kreditanstalt, which became the Credit Suisse bank, based in Zurich, Switzerland."
According to a press release from the center, "during the 1930s, the pro-Nazi military regime of President José Félix Uriburu, who was nicknamed 'Von Pepe' as a Germanophile, and of his successor Agustín Pedro Justo, welcomed a growing Nazi presence in Argentina." The center said the papers were found in a storage room that used to serve Nazi organizations in Buenos Aires.
The center's Director for International Relations Dr. Shimon Samuels and its Director for Latin America Dr. Ariel Gelblung said some of the dormant accounts were probably used to hold Jewish assets.
The center wrote Credit Suisse Vice-President, Christian Küng, stating: "We believe very probable that these dormant accounts hold monies looted from Jewish victims, under the Nuremberg Aryanization laws of the 1930s ... "We are aware that you already have claimants as alleged heirs of Nazis in the list."
During World War II and afterward, South America became a preferred destination for Nazis who wanted to avoid justice, because the countries there were run by dictators who sympathized with the Third Reich.
Adolf Eichmann, who was the key architect of the Holocaust, was among the Nazis who settled there under a false identity. He was captured by the Israeli Mossad and brought to trial in Israel, where he was executed.
