BUENOS AIRES (EFE news agency) -- Adolf Hitler lived in Patagonia after fleeing Germany in 1945, claims Argentinean journalist Abel Basti in a tour-guide style book which discloses the locations in the Andean foothills which served as a refuge for several former Nazi leaders. Hitler and his lover Eva Braun did not commit suicide--rather, they fled to Argentinean shores aboard a submarine and lived for many years in the vicinity of San Carlos de Bariloche, a tourist site and ski haven some 1350 km southwest of Buenos Aires, according to the journalist.
San Carlos de Bariloche, usually known as Bariloche, is a city in the province of Río Negro, Argentina, situated in the foothills of the Andes on the southern shores of Nahuel Huapi Lake and is surrounded by the Nahuel Huapi National Park. After an extensive public works and architectural buildup the city emerged in the 1930s and 1940s as a major tourism centre with ski, trekking and mountaineering facilities apart from numerous restaurants, cafés and chocolate shops. The city has a permanent population of 108,205 according to the 2010 census.
By LARRY ROHTER Published: March 09, 2003
Under fire because of a new book that documents for the first time how Juan Peron clandestinely maneuvered to bring Nazi and other war criminals to Argentina after World War II, the Peronist government here is resisting calls to release long-secret official records about the collaboration. According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center here, both the Foreign Relations Ministry and the Interior Ministries have failed to respond to letters, sent to them shortly after the book was published here late last year, asking that the records be made public. In addition, seven members of Congress have now called for an investigation into how crucial immigration records were apparently destroyed six years ago in defiance of existing laws.Nazis & Argentina: a History Lesson:
Any expat living in Buenos Aires will be aware of Argentina’s open door policy towards immigration. After all, lots of us just hop over to Uruguay every three months to perpetually renew our tourist visas. Technically it’s illegal to spend more than six months per year here on a tourist visa, but no-one seems to mind. In fact, Argentina has had an open door policy on immigration for the last 200 years, including a long period where immigration (specifically from European countries) was actively encouraged. And how’s this for a factoid: between 1821 and 1932, Argentina was #2 in the world in the number of immigrants that it admitted, a staggering 6,405,000 people. (Wondering which country was #1 in the world during this period? It was of course the United States of America, admitting approximately five times as many immigrants as Argentina!) . . .
Investigators believe that following the war, a cabal of ex-Nazis and Nazi collaborators formed in Argentina and worked with the Perón government (he became president in 1946) to organize the emigration of hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of their kind to Argentina. Members of the group frequently travelled to Europe to look for and bring back more of the fugitives.
It’s not known exactly how many ex-Nazis were brought to Argentina during the late 1940s and early 1950s. One researcher identified 300, but there easily could have been more. What is known is that they included Josef Mengele, Adolf Eichmann and his adjutant Franz Stangl, Erich Priebke (a former Captain in the Waffen SS), Klaus Barbie – also known as ‘the Butcher of Lyon’ (a former Captain in the SS and a member of the Gestapo), Ustasha Dinko Šakić (former commandant of the concentration camp that was nicknamed ‘the Auschwitz of the Balkans’) and many, many others.
The ex-Nazis were given landing permits and visas and it has also been claimed that many of them were even given jobs in Perón’s government.Nazi Past Haunts Fallen Argentine Hotel - ABC News:
By Simon Gardner - La Falda, Argentina, Nov. 18, 2011
It was supposed to be a paradise on Earth, a luxury spa deep in the New World. But this fallen Eden is now in ruins — haunted by its past as an Argentine haven for Nazis and their supporters. The Eden Hotel, famous before the end of World War II as a posh resort for Germans in central Argentina, is now an empty shell managed by the local municipality, which offers tours and is trying to restore it as a museum.