The Real Odessa: How Peron Brought the Nazi War Criminals to Argentina

This is a very good account of the fleeing to Argentina but readers should keep in mind that this was only one country who offered a safe haven to war criminals. The Real Odessa chronicles how Perón's government brought Nazi war criminals to Argentina yet ignores the other countries who did the very same thing for a wide variety of reasons. The five primary hiding places were Syria, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and... ta-da! --the United States. I would like to see a more complete history of the help given to Nazis. Some countries did it for pay, the United States for intelligence information. In either case, murderers were knowingly set free among citizens of five nations.

Great book on the tie of Argentina to Hitlers Germany during WWII. Excelelnt insight into how the criminals were tracked down and why. Good stuff and very interesting.

The Real Odessa: Smuggling the Nazis to Peron's Argentina. Uki Goni. New York: Granta Books, 2002, 382 pp. $29.95. Reviewed by Kenneth Maxwell, Foreign Affairs, January/February 2003 A chilling, detailed story of one of Argentina's most shameful secrets: the enthusiastic role of dictator Juan Peron in providing cover for major Nazi war criminals as the Third Reich collapsed, allowing them to lead prosperous and protected lives after the war. Few characters get off easily in this passionate account, which untangles the networks and escape mechanisms that made it all possible. Coming to Peron's assistance were numerous institutions and individuals: the Vatican, the Argentinean Catholic Church, the Argentinean government, and the Swiss authorities who cooperated through a secret office set up by Peron's agents in Bern. Operatives from Heinrich Himmler's secret service arrived in Madrid as early as 1944 to prepare an escape route; in 1946, this operation moved to Buenos Aires, establishing its headquarters in the presidential palace. Eventually, this operation's tentacles stretched from Scandinavia to Italy, aiding French and Belgian war criminals and bringing in gold that the Croatian state treasury had stolen from 600,000 Jewish and Serb victims of the Ustasha regime. Ingrained antisemitism, anticommunism, greed, and corruption all fortified these clandestine protection rackets. Today, the stain remains, as does the secrecy. This astonishing book delineates in gripping detail what was long suspected -- and also hints at how much remains to be told.

A very interesting book. A subject by which I have always been fascinated.