FILES, LETTERS & History

During the war he worked with the I. G. Farben Company which put a cloud of suspicion over him and his citizenship was questioned. He had to depart quickly and after spending time in Turkey, Switzerland and Spain, he made his way to Argentina where he worked as an advisor on processes to make fuel from coal as well as making sugar from wood.

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War Criminals

We will not waste space here attempting to describe what a war criminal is. That definition can change with the wars and the times in which they are fought. Despite the claims of the Allies in World War Two that all the Germans were terrible people, no nation can claim clean hands. However, let us remember that all the war heroes were on the winning side and all the war criminals were on the side that lost. Amazing, isn’t it?

The winning side therefore, is able to create the definitions of a war criminal and because they are able to create such definitions, they are able to tailor these definitions to fit certain individuals and specific types of people. The winners have the time, money and other resources to relentlessly pursue those determined to be war criminals indefinitely while the alleged war criminals do not usually have the money to keep running or the specific talents to be protected.

Adolf Eichmann

One such escapee who had no fortune when he arrived Argentina nor great talent was SS Standartenführer (Colonel) Adolf Eichmann, Commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp.

When he escaped the crumbled Reich and made his way to Argentina, he did not have great wealth as most of the others, and he had no talent that was in great demand by the Perón Government like most of the others. He was a poor factory worker who lived in a tiny house at 6067 Garibaldi Street.

He and his sons built this tiny house, about 20 feet by 20 feet in a poor neighborhood, now a very dangerous neighborhood, on Garibaldi Street. He first worked in the factory at FV Manufacturing, a company that made fixture for toilets. Later he worked in the factory at Orbis making water heaters and water softeners. The last place he worked was in the factory at Mercedes Benz which required a three hour bus ride each way. One night as he returned from work at about 9pm, half a dozen men of the Mossad lay in wait for him as he got off the bus near the railroad embankment and kidnapped him. Here is the little house with the Reich Flag raised by Eichmann’s oldest son protesting the kidnapping of his father. As we see in the photo of his oldest son, the young man carried the protest even further by putting on the Swastika armband.

To protect their father’s identity in the early days, the two sons referred to Eichmann as their uncle stating that their father had been killed in the war. When Adolf Eichmann first arrived in Argentina, he was welcomed by many of the elite including the Eichhorn family who owned the Hotel Eden in La Falda in Cordoba Province.

This exclusive Sharkhunters photo was taken in the late 1940’s at a picnic grove called El Chorito located some distance behind the Eden Hotel. During the Asado, the cooking of the meat over an open fire, he was using his Hitler Youth dagger to cut the meat – it is in his belt in this photo. He is at the left in the photo and his hat is at its usual rakish tilt.

We spoke at length with Francisco, the tailor who made Eichmann’s suits when he lived on Garibaldi Street. Francisco said that his kids and the two sons of Eichmann were friends and played together when they were young. He said that the younger Eichmann son told Francisco’s kids that they lived for some time in the Vatican before coming to Argentina and that they had met the Pope on several occasions.

To make ends meet, Eichmann also sold fruit juices at the beach on weekends. Both his sons still live in Buenos Aires, but they have changed their names for obvious reasons.

Doctor Carl Värnet

A Dane, Värnet received his Doctorate at the University of Copenhagen and practiced medicine in that city. He studied further in Germany, France and the Netherlands and he became interested in hormonal treatments to modify certain types of behavior.

During the war he held the rank of SS Sturmbannführer (Major) and was a doctor at the Buchenwald concentration camp. He was introduced to various important men of the SS and eventually to Heinrich Himmler himself. He performed glandular experiments on seventeen homosexuals in Buchenwald in an effort to show that their homosexuality can be changed but after some time with no solid results to show, he was more or less defunded.

After the war he was arrested in Copenhagen and Danish authorities were going to bring him to trial, he pretended to have heart trouble. When his chance presented itself, he escaped first to Brazil then to Argentina. He died there in 1965.

This is a memo of Värnet’s describing his treatment to change homosexual behavior. During my expedition to Argentina in in January 2014, I visited what was once his clinic. It is now a residence hotel.

Ludwig Freude

Ludwig Freude (his name is German for Joy or Delight) was a high level German businessman and in the 1940’s was the Director of the Banco Aleman Transatlantico, a subsidiary of the massive Deutsche Bank. At that time he was one the ten wealthiest businessmen in Latin America, was president of the German Clubs in Buenos Aires and one of the most influential men of the Third Reich. He was also a friend of Juan Perón as we see in this photo. The arrow points to Freude and we see Perón putting his hankie into his pocket.

Even before the war ended, Freude worked to help preserve the vast fortunes of individuals on the Reich as well as the treasures of the Reich itself. When things were closing in on Freude, he fled to Argentina.

Because of his friendship with Perón and his financial power, he was instrumental in helping organize “die Spinne” better known as “Odessa”! And when the Allies requested Freude’s extradition, Perón more or less said that Freude was his personal friend and that he was not going to be extradited. His grave is in the beautiful German Cemetery in Buenos Aires, not far from that of Kapitän zur See Langsdorff.

ABC Restaurant

This restaurant, right in the center of Buenos Aires only a few steps off the ultra high-buck Calle Florida, is where many men of the Third Reich met for lunch in the years after the fall of Germany. Two of these were Doctor Josef Mengele and Adolf Eichmann.

Since this restaurant is only a few blocks from the Navy Hotel where I always stay, my guide and I went there for lunch.

The food was great and while the service was adequate at best, the decor and ambiance put us right back into the post war years. One could almost feel the presence of former warriors all about in the place.

It was a bit out of place when two beautiful Irish lasses finished their lunch and brought their half-finished bottle of wine to our table and said it was for us. That was the good memory. Then we watched the waiter go to a table that had just been vacated where he took the guest’s water glass, splashed a bit of water on the used bread plate and wipe it with the napkin then put the plate on another table. Memories, eh?

Doctor Josef Mengele

We all know this name so there is no need to go into his history but we traced his movements through Argentina. An important man, Gerhard Malbranc, picked up Mengele at his hotel a few days after he arrived in Buenos Aires and brought him to the Malbranc home where he lived for some time. In the photo left we see Mengele on the porch at 2460 Aeronales with the cat.

Malbranc was a close friend of Juan and Evita Perón.

The Malbranc house at 2460 Aeronales.

Soon afterwards, Mengele bought a nice house at 968 Juan Jose Vertez, just around the corner from 1065 Gaspar Campo, the Presidential Palace of Juan Perón. Mengele ultimately owned three houses in Buenos Aires.

Fridolin Guth

Fridolin Guth was born in the Tyrol and was involved in the 1934 attempt to place the NSDAP in Innsbruck. He fled to Bavaria then in 1938, back to Innsbruck. He held the rank of SS Hauptsturmführer (Captain) in the SS Police Regiment 19 and was sent into Slovenia in March 1944. The 2nd Company was headed by Guth stationed in Annemasse.

After he made his way to Argentina, he ended up in Cordoba Province in the town of Agua de Oro. It means “Golden Water” because there was a brewery in the area.

Guth however, was an excellent baker and it is said that his Black Forest Cake was excellent. He opened a restaurant called the Nueve Tyrol. Guth died some years ago but the restaurant is still open and we ate there in January 2014. No Black Forest Cake at the time, I am sorry to report.

This photo shot by the author in January 2014. There really isn’t anything in this remote area. Fridolin Guth apparently was afraid that he would be grabbed and taken out of Argentina as he almost never left this house/restaurant except when the German Ambassador came by. They would go for a drive together. Other than that, Guth never went out.

Kurt Christmann

He was a Member of the Hitler Youth and participated in the “Beer Hall Putsch” on 9 November 1923. He then joined the SS and received his Doctorate in Law. Quite athletic, Christmann won the German championship in canoeing and he worked as a sports instructor of the SS.

He was transferred to the SS Police at Gestapo Headquarters in Vienna in 1938 then to Innsbruck in 1939. He was there until July of 1942 where he was a Task Force Leader with an Einsatzgruppe in Krasnodar. Lateron he was Gestapo Chief in Klagenfurt, Austria when he was promoted to SS Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel).

He worked for the British Army occupation under the name Doctor Ronda until 1948 when he flew through Rome to Argentina. He was helped by “die Spinne” (Odessa) then he participated with this organization to help others escape Europe.

In 1956 Christmann tried to return to the Federal Republic of Germany as a lawyer but was denied admission. Returning to Argentina, he quickly rose in the real estate business and soon owned a company.

On 19 December 1980 the München Regional Court convicted Kurt Christmann of war crimes involving the activities in Krasnador and sentenced him to ten years in prison. He appealed but on 11 November 1982 the German Federal Court of Justice confirmed the sentence.

Kurt Christmann (alias Doctor Ronda) died on 4 April 1987.

Martin Bormann and the Plaza Hotel

Martin Bormann was the second most powerful man in the Third Reich and apparently, at some point, he assumed control of the Party and Adolf Hitler was not much more than a figurehead. As you have already read, Bormann assumed control of the Party and everything else pertaining to the Third Reich. We know that he came to Argentina aboard a U-Boat thanks to DON ANGEL ALCAZAR de VELASCO (158-1985) and that he quickly took quarters in the Plaza Hotel, the most elegant hotel in Buenos Aires.

This hotel is only four blocks from my hotel, so I walked there and entered the lobby. Senora Rodriguez at the front desk was cordial; I introduced myself and told her I was doing research for this book. I also told her that we had reason to believe that Martin Bormann lived here for some time after the end of the war. Without any expression, she said:

“Oh yes, room 470: the Presidential Suite.”

Naturally I was a bit taken aback and asked how she knew this. She told me that everyone there knew that Bormann stayed in the Plaza for quite some time and, she added, this was about the same time that Adolf Hitler came to Argentina. I grabbed a thick book about the history of the Plaza Hotel, thumbed through it and asked Senora Rodriguez why there was nothing about Bormann in the book. She said this was not really the kind of advertising the Plaza thought was positive. Guess she has a point there.

Professor Kurt Tank

Kurt tank was one of the most brilliant aircraft designers of the war years and his most famous aircraft was the Focke-Wulf FW 190 fighter, called the Würger (Shrike) by the Luftwaffe but more accurately called “the Butcher Bird” by Hermann Göring. The various versions of this single seat fighter were Tank’s brainchild throughout the war.

When the war was over, naturally the US tried to bring him to America in Operation “Paperclip” and other countries wanted him and his talents as well. The US did not snare him nor did the Soviets. Tank had been talking with the British as well as the Nationalist Government of China but to no avail.

He did not reach agreement with China, and the British felt he was too important and could not be incorporated into an already smoothly working group. The US and the Soviet Union could not tempt him so he went north then south.

He went north into Denmark then over the Denmark Straits to Norway where he obtained transport to Argentina. He brought with him about fifty of his engineering team and worked in Argentina until Perón was ousted from power. Many of his team went to the USA but Tank went to India and designed aircraft there for a while.