Story By: Jonathan Macias, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
A list thought burned a long time ago of 12,000 Nazis who lived in Argentina that includes all those who transferred money looted from Jewish victims to a bank in Switzerland has been uncovered.
According to local media, Argentinian investigator Pedro Filipuzzi discovered the list of 12,000 names of former Nazis and Nazi sympathisers in Argentina who apparently contributed to one or more bank accounts at Schweizerische Kreditanstalt, which became Credit Suisse, in Zurich, Switzerland.
The list, which was believed to have been burnt, is a register of 12,000 names who belonged to the Nazi organisation in Argentina called ‘Union Alemana de Gremios’ (The German Union of Syndicates), a cover-up for Nazis who had fled to the Latin American country.
Reports state Filipuzzi shared the list with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organisation that researches the Holocaust and confronts anti-Semitism, hate and terrorism.
Dr Ariel Gelblung, the centre’s Director for Latin America, said: “Many of the names listed were related to pro-Nazi companies blacklisted by the US and UK during World War Two (sic).”
According to the organisation, the money transferred to the Swiss bank could have been looted from Jewish victims and was often transferred on from Credit Suisse to German banks.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center said in a press statement that they had sent a letter to Credit Suisse Vice-President, Christian Kung, saying: “We believe it very probable that these dormant accounts hold monies looted from Jewish victims, under the Nuremberg Aryanization laws of the 1930s (sic).
“We are aware that you already have claimants as alleged heirs of Nazis in the list.”
The centre reportedly requested access to Credit Suisse’s archives to settle the matter on behalf of the diminishing number of Holocaust survivors.
Dr Gelblung said: “Not all of the 12,000 people on that list were people who transferred Nazi money to Germany, but all the people who did so are on that list. The bank has to open its files so we can investigate.”
Credit Suisse has not answered the request, local media report.
According to historical records, the pro-Nazi military regime of President Jose Felix Uriburu, who was nicknamed “Von Pepe”, and his successor Agustin Pedro Justo, had welcomed a growing Nazi presence in Argentina during their time in office.
The documentation, with the names of the contributors to the Nazi cause, was reportedly found at the Argentine Congress in 1941, after a police raid on the headquarters of the German Union of Guilds during the government of the anti-Nazi Argentinian President Roberto Ortiz.
When the pro-Nazi Grupo de Oficiales Unidos (United Officers’ Group) took power of Argentina in 1943, they reportedly burnt the reports and findings from the raids on the headquarters, including the list of 12,000 names.
But Filipuzzi reportedly found an original copy of the list when he was working in a storage room at the former Nazi headquarters in Buenos Aires.
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