In late March 2025, Argentine President Javier Milei followed through on his promise to declassify government archives related to Nazi war criminals who fled to Argentina after World War II, revealing a trove of documents that exposed the intricate “ratlines” used by Nazis to escape justice. The declassified files, made public on March 30, 2025, detailed the financial and logistical networks that facilitated the escape of up to 5,000 Nazis, including notorious figures like Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele. These records, housed in Argentina’s General Archive of the Nation, included previously unpublished banking transactions and Defense Ministry logs that showed how Nazi-linked funds were laundered through Argentine institutions, often with the complicity of local officials during Juan Perón’s presidency. The documents also confirmed the role of international actors, such as certain Catholic Church clergy and Red Cross officials, who provided false passports and travel documents to fleeing Nazis, corroborating long-standing historical suspicions about these escape routes.
 

The declassified archives shed light on the extent of local support that enabled Nazi fugitives to integrate into Argentine society, often under assumed identities. For instance, the files revealed that Eichmann, living as “Ricardo Klement,” had been aided by a network of sympathetic Argentine bureaucrats who shielded him until his capture by Mossad in 1960. Similarly, Mengele’s movements were traced through financial records showing payments to intermediaries in Buenos Aires, confirming his presence in the country from 1949 until he fled to Paraguay a decade later. The documents also exposed how Perón’s government actively encouraged Nazi immigration, viewing German specialists as valuable for national development, while turning a blind eye to their war crimes. This revelation has sparked renewed debate in Argentina about the country’s historical accountability, with some historians arguing that the findings, while significant, largely confirm what was already detailed in works like Uki Goñi’s 2002 book The Real Odessa, rather than uncovering entirely new perpetrators.
 

However, the declassification has also reignited conspiracy theories, particularly around the fate of Adolf Hitler. While mainstream historians maintain that Hitler committed suicide in 1945, the release coincided with renewed speculation fueled by a 2017 CIA memo—already public—that investigated rumors of Hitler’s survival in South America as late as 1955. The Argentine files did not provide definitive evidence to support this theory, but they did include references to unverified reports of Nazi officials in Argentina discussing a high-profile figure they referred to as “der Führer,” which some fringe groups have seized upon as evidence of Hitler’s escape. Critics, including Holocaust researchers like Efraim Zuroff, have cautioned that the documents are unlikely to lead to new convictions since most perpetrators are long deceased, but they underscore the need for transparency to honor the memory of Holocaust victims. The release has also prompted calls for other nations, such as Brazil and Paraguay, to declassify their own records on Nazi fugitives, as the global network of complicity continues to unravel.