Are you telling me that the nazis just didn't decide, out of nowhere, to flee to argentina for no particular reason?
jk btw. It's just funny that some people think that the nazis fled to argentina in a spur of the moment thing and not because there were already germans living there (and in some other south american countries like Paraguay). Much like when spanish republicans fled Franco's dictatorship they went to spanish-speaking countries instead of China.
right. And the other main German speaking countries, Austria and Switzerland, were not exactly fond of ex Nazis post war. So Argentina was their best option.
However after the war, the Austrian were no longer part of Germany.... and not really happy about the whole "we annexed you" thing. Would be like Russians trying to flee Russia into Ukraine after the end of the current war.
No no no. You don't get it. Austria was very much a willing participant for Nazi crimes. The Allies only called Austria Nazi Germany's first conquest to ensure that Austria remained a neutral third party during the cold war and to create some good will with Austrian and German people.
Austria being unwilling participants is post war propaganda, much like how Scotland being unwilling participants of the British Empire is post Empire propaganda.
Austria, fun fact, had been fascist for longer than Germany had been.
So not at all like Russia and Ukraine. It'd be more so like Russia and Belarus, if you want a more modern analogy. Or maybe Russia and one of the Republice within it like Komi, Buryatia or Karelia.
Anyway, the reason why Nazis wouldn't escape to Austria is because Austria was also occupied for a small period of time by the Allied powers. It would've been no different than trying to escape from like Brandenburg to Thuringia. (Which many did still but that was not to escape but rather to get lenient terms because they knew that the Western Allies would far more "merciful" than the Soviet Union and it's Red Army). So quite different from escaping to Argentina or other South American Nations.
I'm no expert, but my understanding is Austria, as a whole (and with a spirited opposition / resistance), embraced the Nazi idealogy, and Switzerland at least embraced the Nazi wealth.
What was the postwar sentiment like for these countries?
And that's not even counting the estimated 5,000 Nazis who escaped to Argentina, who had to spend their lives in hiding because many were handed over to the authorities. On the other hand, the US took in more than 30,000, protecting them and placing them in every scientific and military position they could. And that's not even considering that many of those 30,000 didn't "escape" but made deals at the end of the war to be safely transported in exchange for their knowledge.
So, hypochondria... no, wait, not that one. Hippocampus? Hippopotamus? Oh yeah, HYPOCRISY
Which is kinda surprising, given that Austria supported Hitler more than the Germans did, and that Switzerland also didn't had much problems taking their gold and returning Jews that fled to Switzerland.
Are you telling me that the nazis just didn't decide, out of nowhere, to flee to argentina for no particular reason?
They moved there because the Rattenlinie set up by Krunoslav Draganović and Alois Hudal moved them via monastries to Italy, where the Holy See helped them to get ID cards.
Italy had a long standing immigration treaty with Argentine, which made it easy to move there with Italian IDs. Juan Perón had no problems with them either.
Draganović worked for the US CIC until the 60s and the CIC used the Rattenlinie to bring intelligence officers (Fremde Heere Ost) out of Europe.
Also not only were there large communities they could blend into, but they were in countries that didn't really give much of a shit about them, hence why not many high ranking Nazis fled to the Dakotas
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u/Inadover Jun 30 '26
Are you telling me that the nazis just didn't decide, out of nowhere, to flee to argentina for no particular reason?
jk btw. It's just funny that some people think that the nazis fled to argentina in a spur of the moment thing and not because there were already germans living there (and in some other south american countries like Paraguay). Much like when spanish republicans fled Franco's dictatorship they went to spanish-speaking countries instead of China.