THE NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1991
At a time when Eastern European and Baltic countries are acknowledging
their duty to review their role in the Nazi horrors, Argentina steadfastly refuses to
conduct such an examination.
Argentine police files almost certainly include answers to some of the last great World
War II mysteries, including the fate of Martin Bormann, Hitler's deputy, and the
disposition of hundreds of millions of dollars in treasure looted from Europe and smuggled
to South America.
The files may well resolve the controversy over whether Bormann, who oversaw the, exodus
of the treasure, died in 1945, or escaped to Argentina. While Bormann, who was born in
1900, doubtless is dead, expert opinion remains divided about his postwar fate. The basis
for concluding that Bormann is dead is a set of bones discovered in Berlin in 1972. But
the forensic examination was slipshod. No German court has certified his death. The
Bormann family was so skeptical that they refused to accept the remains. Besides,
eyewitness testimony makes a compelling case for Bormann's escape and survival.
Yet Argentina has steadfastly balked at releasing the Bormann file, much less conducting a
soul-searching review of its collaboration with the Third Reich.
Why should a Government whose President, Carlos Saul Menem, will visit President Bush and
address a joint session of Congress tomorrow, protect the files of war criminals 46 years
after the war ended? The answer is that Argentina has much to hide in the Bormann affair.
During World War II, pro-Axis Argentina was the largest listening post for Nazi
intelligence outside of Germany. The dictator Juan Peron unabashedly admired Hitler. Peron
set aside more than 10,000 blank passports and identity cards for Nazi fugitives. Bormann
was at the top of the list.
Bormann directed a German submarine operation whose purpose was to ship death-camp booty
to Argentina. Nazi records show that as much as 550,000 ounces of gold, 3,500 ounces of
platinum and 4,638 carats of diamonds, hundreds of works of art as well as millions in
gold marks, pounds, dollars and Swiss francs were sent aboard six U-boats to Argentina.
Those boats landed along the coast in 1945. The Argentine Government stills classifies the
interrogations of the crew members.
Did Bormann arrive to enjoy the spoils? Or did Peron keep the treasure for himself?
Argentina's files, if not purged, may answer these questions.
In 1984, I was in Buenos Aires researching a biography of Dr. Joseph
Mengele, who conducted often fatal experiments on Auschwitz inmates and selected prisoners
who were sent to the gas chambers. The civilian Government of President Raul Alfonsin,
which had recently replaced the military dictatorship, gave me limited access to the
Federal Police's secret archives. While reviewing the Mengele folder, I noticed a
foot-thick file marked "Bormann, Martin." Sources who are apparently reliable
say a Bormann dossier also existed at national intelligence headquarters.
In numerous letters to the Menem Government, including five to President Menem himself
(which were never answered, not even perfunctorily or as a courtesy by a lower ranking
aide), I have tried, unsuccessfully, to get the police file on Bormann released.
In October 1990, the Federal Police rejected the request, citing a 1958 law that protects
individuals from the release of any information about them in Government files. How
preposterous that a 1958 law is used to shield a Nazi criminal sentenced to death by the
military tribunal at Nuremberg!
I hope that during President Menem's current weeklong visit to the U.S., especially in New
York, those he meets make clear their distaste for Argentina's secretiveness about Bormann
and its unwillingness to come to terms with its pro-Nazi past.
A first step in this direction would be the release of the Bormann papers. There should be
no safe haven for the files of mass murderers.
Copyright 1991, Gerald Posner
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