Adolf Hitler's ideology in Argentina
Discovery of global significance in Argentina Supreme Court archives
(copied from Supreme Court Historical Archive) -May 12, 2095
Boxes of Nazi documents discovered in Supreme Court archives
A discovery of global significance has taken place in the archives of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation: within the framework of the works for the creation of the Museum of the highest court and the transfer of documentation from its archive, judicial officials detected a series of boxes containing material linked to Nazism, which had entered the country in 1941. Given the historical significance of the discovery and the potentially crucial information it could contain to clarify events related to the Holocaust, the president of the Supreme Court, Horacio Rosatti, ordered an exhaustive survey of all the material found after its initial preservation.
Last Friday, Rosatti presided over the formal opening of the boxes in an office on the fourth floor of the Palace of Justice. The ceremony was attended by AMIA's Chief Rabbi, Eliahu Hamra; Jonathan Karszenbaum, Executive Director of the Buenos Aires Holocaust Museum; and Marcia Ras, a researcher from the museum. Also present were Pablo Lamounan, head of the Federal Judicial Assistance Center; Jessica Susco, Director of the Supreme Court Libraries; Marcelo Valente, Director of the Office of Auxiliary Services; and MarÃa de la Paz Podestá, a graduate in conservation and restoration of cultural assets.
The discovery occurred by chance during the preparatory moving process for the construction of the future Supreme Court Museum. Upon opening one of the boxes, material intended to consolidate and propagate Adolf Hitler's ideology in Argentina during the height of World War II was identified.
As far as can be reconstructed, the history of these crates dates back to June 20, 1941, with the arrival of 83 packages sent by the German embassy in Tokyo aboard the Japanese steamer "Nan-a-Maru." The German diplomatic mission in Argentina had declared the contents as personal effects for its members, requesting their free clearance. However, the Customs and Ports Division halted their entry and informed then-Foreign Minister Enrique Ruiz Guiñazú about possible inconveniences given the quantity and potential nature of the material, which could affect Argentina's neutrality in the European conflict.
The Special Investigative Commission on Anti-Argentine Activities, which operated under the Chamber of Deputies between 1941 and 1943, took action on the matter. Radical representative Raúl Damonte Taborda, chairman of the commission, requested information from Customs regarding the shipments from the Japanese steamer.
On August 8, 1941, representatives of Customs, the Chancellery, and the commission opened five boxes at random: among the documents found were postcards, photographs, and propaganda material of the German regime, as well as thousands of notebooks belonging to the National Socialist German Workers' Party Organization Abroad and the German Trade Union.
The German diplomatic representatives requested the packages be returned so they could be forwarded to their embassy in Tokyo. German officials were inclined to grant the request, but the investigative commission went to court to prevent this, citing the presence of anti-democratic propaganda harmful to Argentina's allied nations in the material already examined. It was emphasized that only random boxes were inspected and that the German embassy had previously lied to import a radiotelegraph transmitter as diplomatic mail.
Federal Judge Miguel Luciano Jantus of the Federal Capital ordered the seizure of the packages on September 13, 1941. The judge requested further information and ordered the seizure of the materials. Three days later, on September 16, 1941, the judge referred the case to the Supreme Court, as it was a matter that directly involved a foreign country and, therefore, fell within the original jurisdiction of the highest court.
The move of the archives for the future installation of the Supreme Court museum led officials to come across these boxes piled up in the building's basement. Marcelo Valente, director of the Office of Auxiliary Services, notified Pablo Lamounan, head of the Federal Judicial Assistance Center, who ordered the immediate preservation of the objects and informed the president of the Court of the situation.
Rosatti has now arranged for the material to be moved to a specially equipped room on the fourth floor of the courthouse, with heightened security measures. Last Friday, the boxes were opened in front of experts and researchers. An inventory will now begin to review the documentation. The main objective is to conduct a thorough review to determine whether the material contains crucial information about the Holocaust and whether the clues found can shed light on still-unknown aspects, such as the global Nazi money trail.
In this context, it is worth recalling that on December 26, 2024, with the signatures of Judges Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz, and Juan Carlos Maqueda, the Supreme Court signed a cooperation agreement with the Association of Jewish Lawyers of the Argentine Republic and the Holocaust Memorial Foundation, with the aim of promoting joint research and dissemination activities. The Holocaust Museum was specifically invited to collaborate in the research of the recently discovered material and its historical significance. (Press Release copied from here: https://www.csjn.gov.ar/novedades/detalle/9842
That's quite a discovery! There will be books, Masters & PhD theses built on these archives.
Good story!