Why Did So Many German Officers Flee to Argentina after WW2?

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Me, an Argentinian: Hey Grandpa, have you ever been in Germany?
My Grandpa: nein

My parents came from Guatemala and my grandfather was German, it took 20 years for my dad to tell me the truth about his dad’s service in the SS

If you find the migration of Germans to Argentina interesting, I suggest checking out "Hunting Hitler".
Not for the main story line that Hilter may have made it out of Germany, but to see all the huge amounts of infrastructure that Germany had built in South America, among other places. It's insane!

And not just the geography. It
was actually the climate. The majority settled in Bariloche, a place with all the German characteristics of the German and Austrian population that lived in the 19th century. The climate of the Andes and its landscapes were practically identical to those of the Swiss Alps.

I met a guy many years ago in Indonesia, he was from Uruguay, first name Manfred, blonde hair blue eyes. I found out later he was the nephew of Klaus Barbi “the butcher of Lyon”. Manfred’s father went to Uruguay from Germany at the end of WW2 and was a lecturer in a university there.

My grandfather was a reputed doctor and also a military officer in Paraguay and friends with then president Stroessner (German descendant). The president asked him to receive and work (signing recipes in some cases) with this german doctors that were living here, and also with a doctor who was living in Argentina and wanted to come to Paraguay regularly to do some business and work. This doctor coming from Argentina was as my grandfather called him, "José" Menguele, or as the allied called him "The angel of death". They worked together for some time in the 50's, "José" was selling some medical products. For his collaboration, José "awarded" my grandfather with a couple medals he had, one is an Iron Cross and the other is a medal given to the spanish volunteers in Russia. I still have the latter, while the former, sadly was given by my grandfather to Stroessner as a birthday present. José later went to Brazil and never came back here.

Never ask a man his salary.
A woman her age.
An Argentine his abuelito's SS rank.

My Oma's husband was a Nazi officer, who was imprisoned during the war. Oma rode for hours on her bicycle each day to deliver food to him in his POW camp in Europe, food she bought from selling the family linen and silver.
At the end of the war, they were told they could go to Argentina or Australia. They chose Australia because she said they'd never heard of Argentina. (Maybe this is because they were Hungarian, not German?) Oma and her husband divorced in Australia and I think she largely raised her three sons here on her own.
Nazis would not have stood out in Australia post-war, as tens (hundreds?) of thousands of Europeans migrated here then. They provided much of the know-how and labour for one of Australia's biggest infrastructure projects - the Snowy Mountains hydroelectric scheme.
Oma was not my blood relation as she was the grandma of my step brothers, but I often felt I was her favourite in our blended family in the 70s. She taught me to cook some of her traditional Hungarian recipes and I travelled with her in Germany in 1979, when she went back to visit her sister, who was trapped behind the Berlin Wall but allowed out a few weeks a year.
Oma and her husband met Hitler and Mussolini at formal dinners, so I guess her husband was of some rank.

I have friends in Argentina whose parents were aircraft designers. Although they were in the cutting edge of jet aircraft technology and aerodynamics they couldn't find work in the USA, so they opted for Argentina because of the opportunities in the field. Their uncle was a Luftwaffe fighter pilot, and he lived his whole life in Germany after the war.

The Old Marine says: There was already lot of Germans in Argentina from the results of the first world war who had blended in with locals and they owned all types of businesses and they helped and aided the second world war Germans. Peron had went to different schools and ect. in Germany, the German high command were his heros.

Brazil's south states (close to Argentina) also have strong ties with germans to the point some cities were actually built to look like german towns. Gramado is one of them.

Josef Menguele, the angel of Death, unfortunatelly lived peacefully in Brazil with a false identity after having fleed from Argentina and Paraguai. People only found out that he was here in 1985, six years after his death (he had a heart atack while swimming in the beach).

I am Argentine and my grandfather was German. I think now I understand everything.

This was an excellent documentary. The history was accurate. The Spanish subtitles were an excellent translation. I appreciated the use of historically appropriate borders and flags for the time. What I did not care for was the black-hatted secret agents. This is how I dress in the cold weather! This is my exact style but for the cigarette. Store clerks have followed me around their stores thinking I was a potential shoplifter.

As a veteran, I can’t help but think of all the fellow servicemen and women who lost their lives! Only to find out many wealthy people supported their cause! And thousands of our own citizens adopted and imitated the same ideas. I don’t have a problem with what people believe, but if they felt so strongly about it! They should’ve been known while the fighting was happening!! Don’t wait until after the war and sneak around under the safety provided by others to to finally decide to grow a pair!! That cowardly act was no different than the enemy taking shots at the ground pounders, hiding in a crowd of civilians!! Thinking we wouldn’t shoot back 🤔👀!

The history of German-Argentinian relations goes back to before German unification. Prussia ( pre German state) trained Argentina on modern war tactics in the 1800s. Argentina even uses the picklhalb (German spiked helmet ) in ceremonial March

I was talking with my grandfather the other day and he told us that his father served in WW1 as a medic (bc of his lungs), and he has some medals from the war but he never showed them because he thought they were nazis. Poor man thought his dad fought for the nazis for most of his life.

I grew was born and grew up in Argentina.
I've personally met people who were previous WWII military.
However Argentina wasn't the only place who took such people.
They always keept a low profile and assimilated themselves into society.
But there are cases in other countries where they had very active roles. (Chile, US...

Because they heard there was an entire town for buenos airians.

This only tells part of the story. Prior to the outbreak of the war, the Germans were sourcing aircraft and automotive parts made in the US by using Argentina as a proxy, to get around trade bans. There was a supply pipeline and relationship established long before the war. This also explains why the Germans launched their Antarctica expeditions from Argentina. They already had logistics bases there.

Hans Ulrich Rudel. Was one of the greatest fighter and bomber pilots in Aviation history. He also fled to Argentina after the war.

In the South of Chile there are a lot of German immigrants and their descendants. There are even cities that seem to have been built in their entirety by Germans, like Puerto Varas, Valdivia, Osorno.

Not Argentinian but I am Bolivian. My great grandma was German, and apparently fled because of the war. Heritage and mixing in South America is pretty interesting

It is true that you said in the beginning.
My Soviet friend once told me story how how his grandpa fought Nazi and their collaborators in West Ukraine for many years after war ended.
There were plenty of Nazis hiding in Europe as well.

Imagine running into your old sergeant in Argentina while on vacation then you go down the road and find the captain as well

The thing is that worldwide many politicians of that time had pretty much the same ideas and actually admired the Germans for how they recovered from the great recession that had been particularly harsh on them as they were still bound to paying damages from the previous war. These officers often possessed skills and knowledge that were very welcome even for USA who also took in quite of few of them.

I saw a documentary about many going to Sweden too. Often story went like this - dude was stationed there and met a woman. Then he lost his home/family in Germany and decided to move back in to have a life. The documentary featured a Swedish woman who even got pregnant as a result of her relationship. She feared her future husband would never come back, but he did and he settled in Sweden.

I toured South America 15 years ago and when we arrived in Bariloche I was amazed it's looked just like a German/Austrian town and Yes! many many people had German names even the shop had German names and many dressed in those funny leather shorts and peaked hats with feathers, how strange. R.

Love this type of history! My father was a ww2 veteran.

Germans went to Argentina because it was closer to German military base in Antarctica. The same base US Navy tried to destroy at the end of 50s or 60s and they were defeated by "strange" objects according to the American General who was in charge of that operation.

My father was Russian, my mom German, they met in Austria after WW2, wanted to come to the USA then but had to wait a long time, they wanted to get the hell away from Europe quickly so they went to Brazil, where I was born, now I am 71 years old and been living in Chicago since 1961, this report is quite true. Also, one of the main reasons why Germans went to Argentina was because the climate there is very similar to the climate in Germany, unlike other northern S. American countries as Brazil, which is mostly tropical.

In America there was also a mixed feeling about how far to carry the war trials. You can see how we treated Japan... very few trials.
Most normal people wanted to get the trials over with quickly and let civilization move on.
Understandably, those who had suffered had a different take on things. Hey I understand that.
But I just wanted to say that what you missed was that tolerance of Germans in South America happened partly coz both in regular life and in political+work life, there was not really a strong desire to nail everyone's ass to the wall. I think the way things rolled out were pretty optimal, given the wretched situation of the time.
Also- we are Americans. We are mostly Christian. It is our job to forgive, but not necessarily forget.

My grandfather was born in Yugoslavia but I know there's family of him in Germany, he joined the nazi youth for a short period and even witnessed one of Hitler's speechs before realising what was going on and scaped to Argentina where he died years after. My father told me he would never talk about what he saw and what he went through. Then I learned a couple of relatives in Paraguay knew germans as neighbours, someone even dated one but they all had fake names and never spoke to many people. They knew how to blend and disappear.

When working in Niteroi and large city close to Rio, we noticed an awful lot of Bavarian/German style older houses in the area.
Coincidence ?

Brazil and Argentina are with open arms to all Germans, and Europeans. Both beautiful countries, great weather, fertile lands and friendly people.

It’s because Argentina is close to the Arctic Circle. Within that region is one of the entrances to the inner earth and the area known as Neuschwabenland.

My family were Jews who escaped the Holocaust, surprisingly, they all fled to Argentina, one of the only places who were allowing Jewish immigration. Imagine fleeing Nazis just to find more living around you after you fled.

I was born in Mexico and my ancestors arrived along with many refugees from the European wars mainly from Germany, Poland, Czech Republic.
we still retain many Czech traditions

Falto decir que la mayoría se fueron a la patagonia , concretamente la región de Bariloche cual tiene mucha similitud con ciertas zonas de Alemania y Austria

Many german fleeing after the war ended up in Bolivia also.
Try Klaus Barbie who was
later captured and extradited to France. He changed his last name to Altmann. He lived in Bolivia over 30 years.

Don't forget that early, before we got directly involved in WWII, the Germans tried to set up airline servics in Argentina, etc. If they had succeeded, Germany would have rady-made air bases there and in the rest of Latin America. In response, the US rushed in with help for local airlines as well. Executives from PanAm went down there as advisors to the locals, and helped set up the air routes and airplanes they needed to make their own airline business (Latin American) viable. BBTW, I was there and knew Max Healey who helped Avianca in Colombia. So, the only place the Germans got a footlold was in Argentina. Many germans were there when the war ended. Meanwhile, the local airlines are viable today as a result of our efforts..

If someone want to know... In córdoba Argentina, where i live, its a place called Villa General Belgrano, that village look very German for me a lot of germans come to cordoba

Germany:*loses*
German officers: *adios*

I agree with the major precept of this vid, especially as it dealt with war criminals and collaborators who found South American as the best chance to acquire a haven after the war. However, on a relatively minor note, there were significant numbers of Germans who were NOT criminals who saw the future Europe, especially vis a vis the Soviet Union, as a place they did not want to live. Historically, strong Communist groups formed in France, Italy, Greece and Eastern Europe. Pro Communist armed conflicts broke out in Greece and Northern Italy, with strong political movements in France and Eastern Europe. Argentina was attractive, especially to Germans from Bavaria. Well established German communities existed in Argentina, especially in the western areas. The Andean climate and geography was quite similar to that of places like Bavaria. I'm pretty sure the vast majority of the Germans fled to escape well deserved justice. Just say there were essentially innocent Germans, civilian and ex military who looked to the Soviet juggernaut and simply were not willing to live in the path of what, at the time, appeared to be an almost predestined hot war and potential fall of Europe as a whole to a socialist hegemony. A large number of Germans and Austrians migrated to the US and Canada as well, for pretty much the same reasons.

The last days before the end and the first days after the war is such an interesting period that too few people talk about, thanks for that video.

She seems so genuine and pure. Love seeing this

I'm from the Northeastern region of Argentina, in my province we have a significant German presence. My dad grew up in a small mostly German town, he would always tell me that when he went to his neighbor's house his parents would sometimes display Nazi imagery.

I want to state something, Argentina is not a tropical country, has a large size, have desert, tundra, glacial, mountains, woods, jungle, etc
Is like United States, having every climate

I am an Argentine painter . My great grandfather was a austrian-german. On may 2 1945 he escaped to Argentina and settled there for almost 30 years . He died in Argentina at 1975

I moved a Mexican Austrian's household goods by truck from Laredo to Jackson Hole WY in 97. He was about 80, old enough to be an SS officer. The guys who unloaded the truck called him "the Nazi". So your Austrian, immigrated to Mexico, & now are moving to a town that looks a lot like the Alps in old age. Let us guess why you left Austria for Mexico. All of his furniture was gold gilded. It was the most surreal load I ever hauled in trucking.

I'm born in Argentina and never forget as a kid how my parents were in awe when they were watching TV last breaking news, some special
israeli forces kidnapped Eichmann and took them out of Argentina thru other countries, to Israel, where he was judged: death penalty. Something my parents and a lot of argentinians used to say always was that we are geografically in the "cul du monde" (the rear part of the world) 😀 but there were lots of german immigrants to Paraguay and Brazil too, since the 1900's. For sure they got some connections with german expats.

I think also the terrain was similar to Germany. You can ski in Argentina.

There is a lot of German and Italian influence in the architecture in Argentina as well.

Way back in 1978 I was a kid who worked at a rural lumbermill deep in BC, Canada. There was a older guy working there then that had a German accept who had moved up from South America. I asked him once about war criminals living down south and he blew up and stated in a loud German voice " Zer are no Germans living in Argentina !" lol. There were rumors in the small town that he'd rigged a shotgun to his door. Being isolated out there, long before the internet, there was no way to check on him. I'll always wonder.

Never ask a man his job
A woman her age
And a Argentinian why their grandpa is German
Edit: Zoey mama

I've visited Argentina, visited Evita Peron's family vault,2008, plus actually stood on Gen. Franco's grave in Spain,1984, but also spent nearly two weeks in Venezuela, 1987. This is where I went to an upscale town in the hills outside of Caracas, (can't recall the name), which is entirely run by wealthy Germans, shall we say ex-patriots, who came there after WWII! It looks like a little bit of Bavaria! Hmmm!

I well remember Hauptsturmführer Erich Priebke's extradition from Argentina to Italy, in 1997. 87 years old, back ramrod-straight, he marched into the courtroom with his cop "escorts" hurrying to keep up. He was every inch a first-class SS officer.

Respect 🇦🇷

Maybe because South America weren’t in the war so they could hide there easier. Also their leader was for sale. It wasn’t a bad choice as it worked out pretty well for a lot of them by all accounts.

That's a good question. I think they cruised through the artic. And had enough resources kept at America's back.

I don’t know why but when my Argentinian grandfather gets angry, he yells in German and gives a weird high-five that lingers.

Interestingly Brazil, who fought alongside the allies in WWII, sent many soldiers of Italian and German descendance to the war. The same, btw, happened in the US - there was even a General called Eisenhower there!

You really paid attention to detail in this video. I noted that when you showed Canada's flag, it was the correct one from the period - the red ensign, Union Jack in the corner, subsequently replaced in 1965 by our current red on white with maple leaf.

Strangely with my curiosity, this is a question I always asked myself and accidentally I came across your video.

Our family visits Disneyworld a lot...at least pre-pandemic. When we go, it is late June/early July and there are lots of South American tour groups. The most notable are the Brazilian ones but I recall one group with light blue and white striped shirts suggesting that they were Argentinian. The Brazilian ones are almost all exclusively a single colored shirt with the name of the tour group on it. I remember that assumed Argentine group had a majority of blond haired kids. Although the video mentioned existing emigration from Germany and Italy prior to the war, I could not help but think at the time "What did your granddad/great granddad do during the war?"

Thank you for clarifying this for me. I always thought that most nazies went through Spain to Brazil, and didn’t understand why they went to a country where the colonization by Portugal had influenced language and culture, not Spain. My understanding was that Portugal was ostensibly neutral, but sided with the Allies. Now I think, just like Spain “neutral” was used as an excuse to provide refuge to escaping Germans.

I'm Argentine, and my girlfriend has blond hair, blue eyes, German descent and her surname is Reich, I think now I understand everything

This just made me sprint to Eva Peron's wikipedia page, and there's literally nothing on there about her husband inviting Nazis to chill in Argentina (they actually made great pains to say that Juan was not a Nazi). I've known about the Nazi emigration to Argentina for years, so seeing that they left that out was more than disappointing.

Not all the Germans who left for Argentina were war criminals, or even members of the Nazi Party. The country was completely devastated, after the war. It was bombarded into rubble, partitioned, and occupied by several foreign powers including the Soviets. Adolph Galland, a former fighter pilot and Luftwaffe general took the ratline to Buenos Aires through Italy. He left Germany because he was prohibited from obtaining gainful employment sufficient to earn any reasonable standard of living. Galland immigrated to Argentina at the invitation of the well known German aircraft engineer, Kurt Tank, who designed the FW-190 and the Ta-152. He had lived through a devastating war of attrition on the losing side, Göring had attempted to have him executed for insubordination prior to the collapse, he was imprisoned by the Allies after the war and was threatened with arrest by over-eager war crimes investigators. Forced by these circumstances to work as a game warden and living off of wild game and foraged edibles. He accepted Tank’s invitation.
Galland worked in Argentina as a military advisor for the Argentine Air Force and a test pilot for Kurt Tank who was helping to develop. When Peròn was deposed his presence in Argentina was more tenuous. He was invited back to Germany to take charge of the new West German Air Force but was eventually denied that opportunity because he had left the country without the permission of the occupying forces.

My grandfather was a German general who fled ... he died and let us all his stories and journals . He was Hitlers personal advisors

What an interesting story. I always wondered why the Germans went to Argentina.

It was a safe/staging point before they moved on to the Antarctic base, Schwabin Land.

Very interesting. I always wondered why so many Germans ended up in South America, particularly Argentina.

Before WWII Germany and Argentina had common interests. The Nazi officers did not suddenly decide to move to Argentina, they had Young Nazi schools all over, but heavily there in Argentina and a popular vacation spot was Argentina for the Germans. Many large German companies had factories and other locations there. One major war criminal worked on the factory line at Mercedes there. They were already welcomed and could live and work freely the rest of their lives, of course they went to Argentina. Not that the citizens wanted them there, I met some Argentinans last week, and they we very open about everything, we talked a lot until I mentioned the large German population and they quickly changed the subject

The first time I went to Brasil in 1990, I thought I was in Germany.
Everywhere you looked the companies/people had German or Germanic names.
I went to a museum where the story of H Stern the jeweller was being told.
He had escaped from Europe and ended up in Brasil, along with thousands more.
South America was a haven for the German Army after the war and only Israel went there to get them for their wrong doings.

¡El mejor país del mundo, papá!

Its worth noting that Peron is by far the most influential figure Argentine history, and his support of Nazi Germany is almost always understated or ignored when learning about him.

Fascinating, very well done

I was born in Argentina. Growing up in Buenos Aires, there was German neighbor who delighted in showing us kids his WWll military uniform.

What I found crazy is that it lasted just for about 5 years but there is so many artifacts still not found today like it was alive for a thousand years. So many things and small things with the nazi logo, it’s incredible how much they made.

Argentina is also the staging area for access to the South Pole where Germany had a military installation and still does.

I’ve spent a lot of time in South America and in Buenos Aires. Yes, you are right-especially during this era, many Spaniards and Italians and German (speakers).

I know of a few Poles that went to Argentina, then onto Brazil. Ironically, flew for the RAF.

Wait, does that mean my argentinian grandpa isn't an electrician?

Thanks to the video for helping me to figure it out.
It makes sense now why my neighbor who has German features rarely socialize to prevent some conversation to happen.
Every morning, he just left very early then drive back home very very late with his Tiger I tank.

The climate of Argentina is also similar to Germany. They would have felt comfortable in the mountains at those latitudes. It looks similar to Bavaria

same as Argentina, the US had a lot of interest to get german scientist to their country, also known as Operation Paperclip.

North Argentina has the same climate as Southern California or Italy. In the 1980’s I vacationed in Northern Argentina. Many of the cities looked like Europe with cobbled stone streets and “fack Verk “style buildings.

When you find out that bolt symbol on your grandpa's helmet didnt mean that he was an electrician

You failed to mention that, at the time, Argentina had a high standard of living; It is a huge country inhabited by a 90% European-descent population, with very good infrastructure. An ideal place to blend in with the locals.

There was an unclear position and a big controversy about the Vatican at the time, especially with the Pope Pius XII, most of the following Popes were not in a hurry to explain...
I was also thinking that if these German officers wanted to flee Europe might have left through Barcelona or Vigo ( both in Spain ), it was only a matter of changing their entire identity and it wasn't too hard, but now with the internet, it became far more tricky to pull it off, but it wasn't impossible...
But despite that, a lot of them had been discovered, some of them even ended up in Israel, worst place of them all to be a Nazi....
Like Klaus Barbie ( don't know for sure how to spell it under German name, just that my birth language ain't German ) when his trial took place as I was much too young to even try to understand what it was about at the time...
Somehow, the Mossad tracked him back and got him, after his trial, he was obviously executed later on....
I heard somewhere that there was an enter division in the Mossad whose job was to track down Nazis that somehow escaped after the war, living in hiding for the rest of their lives...

Even if I don't completely buy into all of these interpretations .. there are angles here I had never considered before. And I like challenging my interpretation of history or any other science. Therefore, I approve of this video! Like anyone cares right? 😆 liked/subbed

It's called Operation Paperclip! They also came to America and Canada!

Imagine:
Your an Argentinian, which is attending your grandfathers funeral, and you inherit a cool and badass uniform in black, that matches with a visor cap with a skull design in it.

My ex wife's grand father fled to Mexico or just ended up there somehow. Must have gotten on the wrong boat. I wished he'd gotten on the correct boat.

It's important to remember that the U.S also allowed some scientist and spies from Germany to come to the US to help them against the USSR.

Another fascinating topic, speaking of Germans going to South America, you should do a video about Friedrich Nietzsche's sister Elizabeth ad her husband establishing the colony of "Nuevo Germania" in Paraguay. It was supposed to become an "Aryan" utopia, but failed miserably.

Great video. Recently visited Argentina, and the German influence is very obvious.

It looked like the fatherland and it was a long way from justice.