The effort by Argentine authorities to determine whether the German arrested here was Martin Bormann, Hitler’s wartime deputy, brought a reminder today that the World Jewish Congress here reported publicly in 1945 that Bormann had come to Argentina that year in one of two German submarines. The report was later confirmed by Vladimir Dormesson, the then French Ambassador to Buenos Aires.
It was also disclosed today that an Italian physician from Milan who lives here told Mark Turkow, representative of the WJC, a few weeks ago that after the war he saw Bormann in Buenos Aires and reported it to the Italian Ambassador in Buenos Aires at that time.
The WJC said that Bormann had been seen in Santa Catalina. Brazil last February and in Paraguay in July, traveling with Argentine documents. It was noted that the seizure of the suspect was an indication that the Argentine Government was now seeking Nazi war criminals who reportedly settled in Argentina after the war, in contrast to signs of reluctance to do so previously.
(The Israel Foreign Ministry said today in Jerusalem that Israel was ready to provide all available material on Borman to whatever country would try him, if the arrested suspect is Bormann. There is no material on Bormann in Government archives but there is in other collections in Israel, including that of the Yad Vashem.)
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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.