Ratlines: Nazi Escape Routes After World War II

Following the collapse of Nazi Germany and the end of World War II, many individuals involved in the regime, including high-ranking officials and war criminals, sought to evade justice. They utilized clandestine escape routes, often called “ratlines,” to flee Europe and resettle in other parts of the world, primarily South America. These routes, developed with unofficial support from various sources, facilitated the flight of thousands of Nazis and other fascist war criminals who sought refuge to avoid prosecution for their roles in the Holocaust and other crimes.

While Latin America had served as a place of refuge for exiles, including Jews fleeing persecution, during the 1930s and 1940s, the post-war period saw a new wave of immigration by Nazis escaping prosecution. Two primary escape routes are identified: one through Germany and Spain, crossing the Atlantic to Argentina, and another from Germany to Rome, then Genoa, and across the Atlantic. These elaborate networks are said to have developed with unofficial support from several Vatican officials starting in 1942, initially as paths for Catholics fleeing Europe.

Argentina became a particularly popular destination for Nazi fugitives, primarily due to its reluctance to grant extradition requests. Estimates suggest that as many as 10,000 Nazis used ratlines to escape as the Axis powers collapsed. Around half of these, perhaps as many as 5,000 to 10,000, are believed to have sought refuge or settled in Argentina. Other destinations included the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Spain, Switzerland, and countries in the Middle East. In some instances, U.S. intelligence officials reportedly used ratlines to extract top Nazi scientists.

The financing of these escape routes and the fugitives’ lives in hiding was often facilitated by banking networks and the use of stolen assets. Investigators are actively working to uncover the scope of South American banking networks and the role of specific financial institutions, such as Credit Suisse and its predecessor banks, in facilitating the flight and supporting Nazi activities. These banks are believed to have helped Nazis hide gold, camouflage illicit transactions, loot Jewish assets, and generally support the Nazi war economy, with these same funds later financing the ratlines.

Several notorious Nazi figures successfully used ratlines to reach Argentina. Among the most prominent were Adolf Eichmann, often described as the logistics chief and architect of the Holocaust, and Josef Mengele, an SS officer and physician known as the “Angel of Death” for his inhumane medical experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz. Mengele entered Argentina in 1949 using the alias Gregor Helmut and later legalized his birth certificate under his real name in 1956. While living in Argentina, he worked in a hardware store, as a taxi driver, and as a purchasing director for an Osram lighting firm branch. Eichmann was captured in Argentina by Israeli Mossad agents in 1960 and later tried and executed in Israel. Mengele eluded capture, reportedly dying from drowning after a heart attack in Brazil in 1979. Other Nazi officials mentioned in connection with their presence in Argentina include Martin Bormann, Erich Priebke, Walter Kutschmann, Klaus Barbie, Eduard Roschmann, Rudolf Hess, Josef Schwammberger, Friedrich Wegener, Ante Pavelić and others. Speculation also existed and was investigated by the CIA until 1955, that Adolf Hitler may have survived and fled to South America under an alias like “Adolf Schrittelmayor.” However, mainstream historians widely hold that he died by suicide in Berlin in 1945. The CIA investigation into this possibility was eventually dropped.

Efforts to understand the extent of the Nazi presence and the functioning of ratlines in Argentina have involved the declassification of government documents. In 1992, Argentina’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs declassified over 139,000 documents under a presidential decree, though they were only accessible for viewing in person at Argentina’s National Archives (AGN).

More recently, in April 2025, Argentina publicly released and digitized a trove of over 1,850 documents detailing Nazi activities in the country following World War II. Argentine President Javier Milei ordered this action following a request by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley. The documents, titled “Documentation on Nazi Presence in Argentina,” include intelligence reports, police records, photographs, banking and financial transactions, and records from the nation’s top intelligence agency and the Defense Ministry, compiled between the 1950s and 1980s.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center and Senator Grassley continue to investigate the historical involvement of financial institutions like Credit Suisse in facilitating Nazi escapes and supporting their networks. This ongoing work, complemented by the newly released documents, continues to shed light on this tragic historical period.

Sources: “The Perfect Hideout: Jewish and Nazi havens in Latin America,” The Wiener Holocaust Library.
“Documentation on Nazism,” General Archive of Argentina. [Spanish]
Zev Stub, “Argentina to declassify documents about Nazi ‘ratline’ escape routes after WWII,” Times of Israel, (March 26, 2025).
Michael Dorgan, “Secret documents on Nazis who fled to Argentina after WWII being declassified,” Fox News, (March 27, 2025).
Richard Pollina, “CIA files reveal search for Hitler in South America 10 years after his suicide as Argentina prepares to release classified docs on Nazi fugitives,” New York Post, (April 9, 2025).
Joshua Rhett Miller, “Argentina Releases Declassified Post-WWII Nazi-Related Files,” Newsweek, (April 29, 2025).
“Argentina publishes files on notorious Nazi fugitives,” RT World News, (April 29, 2025).
Ailin Vilches Arguello, “Argentina Releases Trove of Documents Detailing Nazi War Criminals’ Activities After World War II,” Algemeiner, (April 30, 2025).
James Reinl, “Truth about Hitler and secret Nazi escape plans... as bombshell banking reports could finally unmask collaborators,” Daily Mail, (April 30, 2025).