Argentina has discovered hundreds of documents and membership cards from Nazi organisations stored in boxes within the archives of the Supreme Court.
According to Clarín newspaper, the files relate to a case that was opened in 1941.
The discovery was made by judicial staff who were relocating files as part of preparations for a future Supreme Court museum. The boxes were found in the basement of the Palace of Justice in Buenos Aires, where old paper case records are kept.
Seven boxes were opened on Friday, May 9, and their contents were secured for classification, documentation, and preservation, under the orders of the Supreme Court. Authorities aim to determine whether the materials contain relevant information concerning the Holocaust or the escape of Nazi officers to Argentina.
The materials include propaganda from Adolf Hitler’s regime, intended to spread Nazi ideology within Argentina. Initial inspections by Clarín also revealed photographs and hundreds of membership booklets from the so-called “Unión Alemana de Gremios,” featuring swastikas on their covers.
Some of the documents were in poor condition, while others were remarkably well preserved, according to images published by Clarín.
The boxes were officially opened in the presence of Supreme Court Chief Justice Horacio Rosatti, AMIA’s Chief Rabbi Eliahu Hamra, Buenos Aires Holocaust Museum Director Jonathan Karszenbaum, researcher Marcia Ras, and other legal officials and experts.
So far, the Supreme Court has not issued an official statement.
Records indicate the materials arrived in Argentina on June 20, 1941, aboard the Japanese ship Nan-a-Maru, sent by the German Embassy in Tokyo. Though declared as “personal effects,” the shipment was flagged by Customs and brought to the attention of then-Foreign Minister Enrique Ruiz Guiñazú.
Local media reports say that the Comisión Especial Investigadora de las Actividades Anti-Argentina del Congreso (“Special Congressional Commission for the Investigation of Anti-Argentine Activities”)—which was later dissolved—requested judicial intervention to examine whether the contents posed a risk to Argentina’s neutrality during World War II.
In August 1941, investigators found membership booklets, postcards, and photographs containing Nazi propaganda. The German Embassy attempted to reclaim the shipment, but a federal judge ordered its seizure.
The documents were transferred to the Supreme Court in September 1941, as the case involved a foreign government. The boxes remained in judicial custody for over 80 years until their rediscovery.
Chief Justice Rosatti has ordered that the materials be preserved and inventoried to assess whether they offer new insight into the Holocaust or possible Nazi financial networks.
After World War II, several Nazi war criminals, including Josef Mengele and Adolf Eichmann, fled to Argentina, along with hundreds of German collaborators.
Earlier this year, on April 1, Argentina declassified additional files to aid the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Holocaust investigations. It is estimated that thousands of Nazis either passed through or settled in Argentina following the war.