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July 10, 2014

Germany/Argentina



It is ironic that Germany is playing Argentina in the World Cup Final. The two countries have a dark history that links them. For example, Heinrich Müller was a notorious Nazi Gestapo chief. His last confirmed sighting was in the Führerbunker on the evening of May 1, 1945. It is uncertain however what happened to him. According to the CIA, his record indicates that his fate is inconclusive but that it is most likely that he died in Berlin in early May of 1945. Yet, they are not certain. Just how many of these Nazi’s actually died or did escape to points elsewhere? It is believed that over 9000 of them ventured to South America, with Argentina being the prime destination. Some of the more infamous ones were:

Adolf Eichmann who hid under the alias of Ricardo Klement in Argentina as early as 1952. He raised a family and worked in a car plant. During the war, Eichmann was the chief associate to SS chief Heinrich Himmler in the Third Reich. Himmler was responsible for the trains that carried millions to their deaths at extermination camps in Nazi occupied Poland. Eichmann was captured and hanged in Israel in 1962.

Josef Mengele was known for his horrific genetic experiments in concentration camps including the dissection of live babies and injecting dye into the eyes of prisoners. He successfully hid out in Argentina until his death in 1979.

Several others escaped to Chile. Walter Rauff a high-ranking SS officer who invented the 'Death Trucks' - with which 500,000 prisoners were murdered with lethal gas at Auschwitz - arrived in South America in 1950. He spent a short amount of time in jail and died in Santiago in 1984.

Paul Schaeffer began his career in the Hitler Youth before rising up through the ranks. He made his way to Chile in 1960. He was not locked up by Chilean authorities until 1996. He died in 2010.