Argentina, Responding to Outcry, Makes Nazi Files Available to Jews

The Argentine government has signed an agreement to let Jewish organizations have direct access to the state’s secret files on Nazi war criminals.

The move came after an outcry by Jewish groups and Nazi-hunters that one year after President Carlos Menem declared the files would be made available, they were still being denied information on Nazi war criminals who had lived in Argentina.

Last week, Foreign Minister Guido Di Tella signed the accord with Ruben Beraja, head of the DAIA, the umbrella group representing Argentina’s Jewish community, and Edgar Bronfman, chairman of the World Jewish Congress.

Under the March 11 agreement, the DAIA will be given full access to national, provincial, police, navy and immigration files.

Beraja said he was encouraged by the Foreign Ministry’s making the files directly available. This will allow Jewish investigators to conduct inquiries independently, without having to rely on the files being first handed over to the national archives, as was the original arrangement.

“By investigating, we are also doing a service to the country,” Beraja said.

At the signing ceremony, Di Tella said, “Countries must learn their history, even if there are regrettable events in their past, such as the refugee status given by Argentina to Nazi war criminals.”

Gen. Juan Peron, who led Argentina during the late 1940s and early 1950s, was known as an admirer of fascism and Nazism.

During his reign, many Nazis found haven in Argentina. Among them were Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz doctor who performed sadistic experiments on inmates; Martin Bormann, Hitler’s deputy; Josef Schwammberger, commander of several Polish ghettos and labor camps; and Eduard Roschmann, SS captain in Riga, Latvia.

Bronfman also expressed his satisfaction at Di Tella’s decision, saying “This act is of historic importance because it doesn’t let anyone forget the Holocaust.”

It is “a way of fighting today’s racism,” Bronfman said.