The Simon Wiesenthal Center has exposed a former Nazi army intelligence agent, Reinhard Kopps, who has lived for more than 40 years in Argentina under the assumed name of Juan Maler while maintaining active ties to the neo-Nazi movement in Germany.
The center has not accused Kopps, 80, of being a war criminal, but is investigating the possibility that he was involved with war crimes, possibly against Albanian civilians.
Maler’s true identity as Kopps was a “fairly well-kept secret,” according to Rick Eaton, a researcher for the center who visited Kopps in Argentina posing as a neo-Nazi sympathizer.
However, after the center revealed its findings, Kopps admitted to the media he had served as an intelligence officer under Hitler.
In fact, Kopps described some of his wartime activities in a book he wrote in German and distributed among the far-right movement in Germany.
The center’s identification of Kopps came about through its investigation of right-wing groups in Germany, conducted by an Israeli journalist and Eaton.
The two infiltrated neo-Nazi groups and were told about Kopps in Argentina.
In response to the Wiesenthal Center’s report, the Argentine interior minister ordered the police to investigate Kopps’ legal situation.
According to the Wiesenthal Center, Kopps also has financial contacts enabling him to send money to neo-Nazi groups in Germany through banks in Luxembourg.
In an interview with a local newspaper, Kopps denied accusations he had been involved in the persecution and extermination of resistance fighters in Albania.
And he described the accusations about his links with neo-Nazi groups as “a huge lie.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
