What Really Happened to the SS Men After the War?
When World War II ended in 1945, the machinery of the Third Reich collapsed. With Germany’s surrender, SS soldiers—one of the most feared organizations of the Nazi regime—faced different fates: some were captured and tried, others managed to disappear for decades, while a small group reintegrated into society under false identities.
However, the fall of the Reich did not mean the end of its legacy, nor did it prevent many of those responsible from evading justice.
Over the years, the Allies, Mossad, and various intelligence agencies launched a global manhunt against those responsible for the Holocaust and other war crimes.
From the Nuremberg Trials to secret missions in South America and the Middle East, the pursuit lasted for more than seven decades. How were these Nazi war criminals hunted down, and what became of them?
WARNING: This channel does not tolerate any form of discrimination or extremist political ideologies. Our sole purpose is to educate and enrich our viewers' knowledge of history and the past by presenting the facts objectively and respectfully. We are committed to offering content based on historical truth, without promoting any ideological agenda or giving space to hate speech or intolerance.
#SecondWorldWar #HistoryoftheSecondWorldWar #SecondWorldWar #Hitler #ThirdReich #Alemanianazi #AxisPowers #AlliedForces #WarDocumentary #MilitaryHistory #Holocaust #WW2Battles #derkommandantespañol #WWIIVeterans #NurembergTrials #Dday #Blitzkrieg #OperationBarbarossa #Wehrmacht #WarHistory #MilitaryHistory
When World War II ended in 1945, the machinery of the Third Reich collapsed. With Germany’s surrender, SS soldiers—one of the most feared organizations of the Nazi regime—faced different fates: some were captured and tried, others managed to disappear for decades, while a small group reintegrated into society under false identities.
However, the fall of the Reich did not mean the end of its legacy, nor did it prevent many of those responsible from evading justice.
Over the years, the Allies, Mossad, and various intelligence agencies launched a global manhunt against those responsible for the Holocaust and other war crimes.
From the Nuremberg Trials to secret missions in South America and the Middle East, the pursuit lasted for more than seven decades. How were these Nazi war criminals hunted down, and what became of them?
WARNING: This channel does not tolerate any form of discrimination or extremist political ideologies. Our sole purpose is to educate and enrich our viewers' knowledge of history and the past by presenting the facts objectively and respectfully. We are committed to offering content based on historical truth, without promoting any ideological agenda or giving space to hate speech or intolerance.
#SecondWorldWar #HistoryoftheSecondWorldWar #SecondWorldWar #Hitler #ThirdReich #Alemanianazi #AxisPowers #AlliedForces #WarDocumentary #MilitaryHistory #Holocaust #WW2Battles #derkommandantespañol #WWIIVeterans #NurembergTrials #Dday #Blitzkrieg #OperationBarbarossa #Wehrmacht #WarHistory #MilitaryHistory
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00:00When the Second World War ended in 1945, the machinery of the Third Reich collapsed.
00:06With the German surrender, the SS soldiers, one of the most feared organizations of the Nazi regime, faced different fates.
00:14Some were captured and tried, others managed to disappear for decades, while a small group reintegrated into society with false identities.
00:22However, the fall of the Reich did not mean the end of its legacy, nor did it prevent many of its perpetrators from evading justice.
00:30Over the years, the Allies, the Mossad and various intelligence agencies undertook a global manhunt against those responsible for the Holocaust and other war crimes.
00:40From the Nuremberg Trials to secret missions in South America and the Middle East, the pursuit extended for over seven decades.
00:47How were the Nazi war criminals pursued and what was their fate?
00:51The Reich in Ruins. The Path to Defeat.
01:02By the end of 1944, both the Axis and the Allies understood that the balance of the war was irreversibly tilting against Nazi Germany.
01:11What was once a solid regime began to crumble rapidly.
01:15Hitler lost control over his troops, and within his own circle, conspiracies arose.
01:21Operation Valkyrie, designed as an emergency mechanism to ensure the continuity of command in case of extreme crisis,
01:28ended up becoming an assassination attempt against Hitler by high-ranking officers.
01:32His elimination was key to executing the coup and allowing the army to be freed from the oath of loyalty to the Führer.
01:39However, the conspiracy failed, keeping Hitler in power until the total collapse in 1945.
01:45While the British and Americans advanced in the liberation of France, Soviet troops initiated their final offensive from the east.
01:54By early 1945, they were rapidly approaching the German capital.
01:58High-ranking Nazi officials entered and exited the Führer's bunker, unable to find an effective way to stop the bloody defeat of their forces.
02:06The relentless bombing forced several cities to capitulate, making it clear that Hitler's dream of absolute domination was crumbling.
02:13Berlin, the symbol of the regime, became the epicenter of the battle.
02:18Sheltered in his underground fortress, Hitler began to completely disconnect from reality.
02:23Joseph Goebbels, in charge of propaganda, kept him in a bubble of illusions with fictitious reports of non-existent victories,
02:30while Soviet artillery resonated at a short distance.
02:34The civilian population faced a devastating scenario.
02:37Basic supplies were insufficient, infrastructures were in ruins,
02:41and most sought refuge in bunkers or fled to rural areas.
02:45Regional Nazi party leaders, in an act of denial, clung to power,
02:50imposing brutal measures against those who attempted to desert or showed discontent.
02:54Even within the Nazi leadership, fragmentation was evident.
02:58On April 23rd, Hermann Goering sent a message to Hitler proposing to assume leadership,
03:03which unleashed the dictator's fury, accusing him of treason.
03:07With no other alternative, Goering fled south with the hope of negotiating a surrender with the Allies.
03:14Meanwhile, Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the SS, attempted to reach a secret agreement with the Western powers,
03:21but was captured and held in custody, where he ended his days as a prisoner.
03:25During the early hours of April 29th, with his fate sealed, Hitler married Eva Braun and left his final will in writing.
03:33The alarming news about the imminent arrival of Soviet troops to the bunker did not cease.
03:39At 3.30 in the afternoon of April 30th, a strong detonation shook the underground refuge.
03:45SS soldiers entered the Führer's office and found both Hitler and Eva lifeless.
03:49Their closest followers, following precise orders, ensured that the bodies were incinerated to prevent the Allied armies from capturing them.
03:57And so it happened. They were never found.
04:00The announcement of Hitler's death plunged Germany into absolute chaos.
04:04Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda decided to follow the same fate and were not the only ones.
04:09Before doing so, they ensured that their six children would never be taken by the enemy.
04:14On May 2nd, when Berlin was already completely besieged, Soviet soldiers took the Reichstag building and raised the red flag at its top.
04:23At that moment, Nazi domination ceased to exist in practical terms.
04:28Despite the fall of the capital, confrontations in various parts of Germany continued for a few more days.
04:35Finally, on May 7th, Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, who had assumed leadership of the Reich after Hitler's death,
04:41signed the unconditional surrender, sealing the end of the war in Europe.
04:46However, peace did not come immediately.
04:49At that moment, the Allies began an intense pursuit to capture and try the Nazi regime's perpetrators,
04:56who were attempting to disappear and escape as far from Germany as possible.
05:00Some of Hitler's closest collaborators, such as Martin Bormann, Heinrich Himmler and Robert Ley,
05:07preferred to disappear rather than face a trial in Nuremberg.
05:10Others decided to surrender with the hope of obtaining clemency.
05:14Hermann Göring, who had been arrested for planning a coup against Hitler,
05:18was released on May 5th after being rescued by a Luftwaffe unit.
05:22He then headed directly to the American lines to surrender,
05:25trusting that the treatment with the Americans would be more lenient than with the Soviets.
05:30This decision probably allowed him to stay alive,
05:33as the Red Army did not usually show mercy to Nazi officers who fell into their hands.
05:37The Pursuit of Nazis in the European Continent
05:40Before the Second World War came to an end,
05:44the Allied powers had already designed a plan to try the Nazi regime's perpetrators
05:48through an international tribunal.
05:51This involved not only the arrest of as many officers and officials of the Third Reich as possible,
05:56but also obtaining key witnesses who could testify against them.
05:59Among these were, of course, the wives of some of the high-ranking officials.
06:04Gerda, wife of Martin Bormann, attempted to escape from Germany with her nine children.
06:10Amid the chaos caused by the entry of Soviet troops into Berlin,
06:14she posed as the director of an orphanage, dressing some of her children as orphans.
06:18With this false identity, she managed to board a school bus and cross the border into Italy,
06:23where she found refuge in South Tyrell.
06:26There, she was received by a local Nazi party leader,
06:29who provided her with a hiding place and took care of safeguarding sensitive documents she carried with her.
06:35Eventually, the family settled in a small village about 50 kilometers from Bolzano.
06:40Despite having temporarily evaded capture,
06:42Gerda's health was rapidly deteriorating due to ovarian cancer,
06:47making urgent surgery necessary.
06:49However, her whereabouts did not go unnoticed.
06:52Allied intelligence agents located her and notified British forces in the area.
06:56A local doctor, when interrogated, informed them about her health condition and location.
07:02Shortly afterward, a British officer presented himself at her residence.
07:06Frightened, she believed she would be sent to a prisoner camp,
07:09but the officer assured her that she was not in danger.
07:12Instead of being arrested, she was transferred to a military hospital in Murano.
07:17Despite the surgical intervention, her condition did not improve,
07:21and she passed away on March 23, 1946, months before turning 37 years old.
07:28Some lower-ranking members within the Nazi regime,
07:31realizing that their only option to survive was to cooperate with the victors,
07:35decided to collaborate with the United States Office of Strategic Services, OSS, the future CIA.
07:42A representative case was that of Wilhelm Hüttl, who had been a major in the SS in Austria.
07:48With a doctorate in history, he spent most of his career working as an agent for both the security police and the SS.
07:55When the war was nearing its end, Hüttl understood that German defeat was inevitable.
07:59Therefore, he made several trips to Switzerland to meet with the head of the OSS station in Bern.
08:04He sought to gain the favor of the Americans by offering them information about the Axis' military plans
08:10for a last defense in the Alps, and about gold reserves hidden in the Austrian mountains.
08:16However, events moved faster than expected.
08:18Before a deal could be struck, Soviet troops were already near Berlin.
08:24In May 1945, he attempted to cross into Switzerland,
08:28but the presence of French troops at the border prevented his passage.
08:32Detained in Liechtenstein, he opted to return to Austria in search of a safe place.
08:37Finally, that same month, he surrendered to American forces in Badausi.
08:41Later, he was transferred to Germany, and in October 1947, was sent to Lagerklesheim in Salzburg.
08:50During this time, Hüttl became a key witness in the Nuremberg trials,
08:55providing relevant information for the prosecution.
08:58In December 1947, he was released as part of an agreement with American intelligence services,
09:05after which he began collaborating with them in espionage tasks against the Communist Party of Austria.
09:10In subsequent years, in addition to continuing his work in intelligence,
09:15he dedicated himself to writing and published several books.
09:19Not all members of the Nazi regime managed to evade justice.
09:23Rudolf Hürs, known for directing the Auschwitz concentration camp
09:27and responsible for the death of over two and a half million Jews,
09:31managed to remain hidden for almost five months after the fall of the Third Reich.
09:35To avoid being discovered, he adopted a false identity
09:39and established himself as a farmer in a rural area of northern Germany, near the Danish border.
09:45His capture occurred when American forces first detained his wife.
09:49During the interrogation, she provided the information that led to his location.
09:54Two army units surrounded the farm where he was hiding
09:56and found him completely unprepared, still dressed in his sleepwear.
10:00After his arrest, he was transferred to Auschwitz, where he faced his sentence.
10:06There, a short distance from the house where he had lived with his family until 1945,
10:11his execution was carried out.
10:13Fugitives of the Reich, the Organized Escape
10:16On July 3rd, 1946, a report from the United States Army Counterintelligence Corps
10:23was sent to the President.
10:25It stated that the Nazis had designed escape routes since at least 1944.
10:30This strategy was dubbed ODESSA, an acronym for Organization of Former SS Members.
10:38To date, there is no certainty whether it was a coordinated effort by the Nazi government
10:42or a series of independent plans executed by different groups within the regime.
10:48However, what is certain is that these routes allowed many Nazis to leave the country undetected,
10:53with surprising success.
10:55In Argentina alone, it is estimated that at least 300 former military personnel of the Third Reich took refuge.
11:02Other nations where they found asylum included Brazil, Paraguay, and some Middle Eastern countries.
11:08In total, about 10,000 people linked to the Nazi party left Germany before the end of 1945.
11:15Some historians have pointed to the involvement of institutions such as the Red Cross,
11:20the Vatican, and even the United States Army in this mass escape.
11:24However, amid the devastation of the post-war period,
11:28controlling each exit from the country proved to be an almost impossible task.
11:32To evade the authorities, many fugitives resorted to false identities,
11:37posed as displaced persons, or sought help from various organizations.
11:42It was not until years later that the CIA, the Mossad, and MY5 took concrete measures to locate,
11:48identify, and arrest these criminals in various parts of the world.
11:52The immediate priority after the conflict was to stabilize the region and rebuild what remained of Germany.
11:58Whether Odessa existed as an organized structure, or only in the minds of American intelligence agents,
12:05the networks that helped thousands of Nazis escape were an undeniable reality.
12:10In the first years after the war, it is estimated that about 90% of the fugitives escaped through the Alps to Italy,
12:17similar to what Gerda Bormann did.
12:19The first destination was usually the South Tyrell region in northern Italy.
12:23There, many Nazis found temporary refuge in Catholic monasteries,
12:27including the Order of the Teutonic Knights in Murano,
12:30the Capuchins near Bressanone, and the Franciscans in the vicinity of Bolzano.
12:35This escape route was known as the Monastery Route,
12:38contributing to the myth that the Vatican and Pope Pius XII played a key role in protecting war criminals.
12:44It was not an outlandish idea, as it was well known that Pius XII saw communism as the greatest threat to the Church and the Western world.
12:53In South Tyrell, priests provided documents confirming the identities of the fugitives,
12:59even though the information was completely false.
13:02These documents allowed the fugitives to obtain Red Cross passports without much scrutiny.
13:08Between 1945 and 1951, at least 120,000 of these documents were issued.
13:15However, long before the decade ended, American authorities were already aware of what was happening.
13:22In 1946, following a mass escape from a prisoner-of-war camp in Rimini,
13:27American soldiers discovered that former SS officers were hiding in local monasteries
13:31and obtaining travel documents issued by the Red Cross.
13:36Even before those events, after the arrival of American troops in Rome,
13:40some Georgian clerics obtained authorization from the Pope to establish a seminary in the city.
13:45A few months later, Allied authorities began to notice an unusual fact.
13:51Several of the seminarians appeared to be in romantic relationships.
13:55After a thorough inspection, it was discovered that the place served as a refuge for SS officers,
14:00who had set up a radio station with advanced technology in the basement.
14:04When examining the Vatican's involvement in protecting Nazi criminals,
14:08the name Alois Hudal stands out.
14:11This Austrian bishop had openly expressed his affinity for the Hitler regime
14:15and later justified his actions by claiming that many of those persecuted were innocent.
14:20He argued that providing them with false documentation was the right decision.
14:25However, the most accessible and convenient destination for the Nazis' escape was Spain,
14:30governed at that time by Generalissimo Francisco Franco.
14:33Due to the absence of precise official records,
14:37it is difficult to determine how many former members of the Nazi regime found refuge there.
14:42However, the emergence of numerous neo-Nazi groups in the country in subsequent decades
14:47suggests that there were several thousand.
14:50One of the most famous refugees was Léon de Grel, commander of the Walloon SS.
14:55From his hideout in Malaga, he repeatedly spoke out without being subjected to a trial for his war crimes.
15:00However, in the 1980s, he faced charges related to Holocaust denial.
15:06Stillehilfe, the silent network of the SS.
15:10Unlike Odessa, there existed another group called Stillehilfe, or Silent Help,
15:15which operated within Germany and other nations after the Second World War.
15:20Its purpose was to support former SS members who had been arrested, convicted or were fugitives.
15:25They provided legal assistance, facilitated resources, and in many cases, helped them hide or escape.
15:33Through this network, hundreds and even thousands of Nazis managed to flee to South America and the Middle East.
15:39In 1951, Stillehilfe acquired legal status as a non-profit organization, allowing it to receive funding through donations.
15:49Its founding act took place in Munich, a city that three decades earlier had been the cradle of the Nazi party.
15:56From the beginning of the Nuremberg trials, the group attempted to influence public opinion to avoid death sentences.
16:01They used media campaigns, personal and collective letters, as well as various petitions, to present the accused as victims.
16:10The legal representation of the detainees was handled by Rudolf Aschenauer, who also managed clemency requests and appeals of sentences.
16:19The organization promoted benefits such as prison leaves, financial compensations, and aid for the families of prisoners.
16:26They did not limit themselves to providing humanitarian support, but also promoted revisionist activities, organizing meetings and sending demands to the authorities.
16:37However, one of their most stealthy actions was direct aid in the evasion of Nazi criminals.
16:42One of the beneficiaries of this network was Johann von Leers, a prominent member of the Waffen-SS and a relevant editor within the Ministry of Propaganda.
16:52After the war, he escaped to Italy and lived there for five years.
16:56In 1950, he moved to Argentina, where he continued his ideological work.
17:02During this time, he collaborated with Derweg, a Nazi-leaning publication founded in Buenos Aires in 1947.
17:09His stance earned him recognition from Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who praised him for his support of Arab nationalism.
17:17This relationship influenced his decision to convert to Islam and settle in Egypt, where he served as an advisor to the government of Abdel Nasser in drafting propaganda materials.
17:29Another individual who managed to escape with the support of Stillehilfe was Erik Priebke.
17:34His name is remembered for his participation in the mass execution of civilians in the Ardiatine Caves near Rome.
17:42On March 24, 1944, more than 330 people were taken to that site.
17:49With their hands tied, they listened to their names being called before being led in groups of five into the cave.
17:54Priebke, who supervised the procedure, used an Italian machine gun to kill two victims.
18:01The massacre ended before nightfall, and afterward, access to the caves was sealed with explosives.
18:07Unlike other Nazis who took refuge in Italy, he chose to go to Latvia before boarding a ship bound for Argentina,
18:14where he settled in Bariloche, under the identity of Otto Pepe.
18:17For almost 50 years, he managed to remain anonymous until he was discovered and extradited to Italy in 1995.
18:26Three years later, he received a life sentence and spent his final days under house arrest until his death on October 11, 2013.
18:35Walter Rauf designed the macabre mobile gas chambers,
18:39in which toxic gases from the engines were channeled into the rear compartment of modified trucks.
18:43According to the report of his capture, he is attributed with the death of at least 97,000 people.
18:50In 1949, he escaped with his wife and children,
18:54following a clandestine route that first took him to Quito, Ecuador, and then to Chile.
19:00In 1963, West Germany requested his extradition,
19:04but Chilean authorities rejected the request,
19:07arguing that the crimes for which he was accused had prescribed under local legislation.
19:11In Chilean territory, he prospered economically in the food industry
19:16and died of a heart attack on May 14, 1984.
19:20Franz Stangel, former SS commander and key figure in the T4 euthanasia program,
19:26worked for Volkswagen Brazil for 16 years before being arrested in 1967.
19:32Before his capture, he oversaw extermination facilities
19:35where hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives.
19:38He was notable for his absolute indifference and lack of remorse,
19:42which facilitated his work in the camps of Treblinka, Sobibor, and Trieste.
19:47Once arrested, he faced trial,
19:49but he died of a heart attack in 1971 before receiving his sentence.
19:54Joseph Mengele, from Auschwitz to clandestinity.
19:56For some lower-ranking members within the Nazi regime,
20:01their capture was not a priority
20:02because the cost of locating them exceeded the gravity of their crimes.
20:06However, in cases like that of Joseph Mengele,
20:10his atrocities were so indescribable
20:11that no effort seemed excessive if it led to his lifelong imprisonment.
20:16During the war, his name was not among the most recognized,
20:19but after the conflict, his crimes came to light,
20:22revealing his brutality.
20:23Only then did the Allies discover the magnitude of his sadism,
20:28executed under the guise of scientific research.
20:31His role in Auschwitz was decisive,
20:34as he decided who would be sent directly to the gas chamber
20:36and who would temporarily retain their life.
20:40For Mengele, the elderly, the sick, pregnant women and children were dispensable,
20:44while those in better physical condition could be used in his experiments.
20:48These prisoners were forced to undress,
20:50their heads were shaved,
20:51and then they were transferred to the hospital to be subjected to his studies.
20:55His main obsession was what he called racial hygiene,
20:59a pseudo-scientific doctrine that sought to justify
21:01the supposed superiority of the Aryan race over others.
21:05His experiments with twins are infamously renowned.
21:09He subjected them to interventions without anesthesia,
21:12amputated healthy limbs,
21:14introduced viruses into their bodies,
21:16and deliberately caused infections in their wounds.
21:18He sought to analyze how the bodies of those he considered inferior
21:22responded to pain, diseases, and extreme stress.
21:27Upon learning of Hitler's death,
21:28Mengele joined a group of German soldiers heading to Bavaria under American control.
21:34Disarmed and disoriented,
21:35they were apprehended and taken to the Schauenstein Prisoner of War camp,
21:39about 120 kilometers from Nuremberg.
21:41There, Mengele reunited with Dr. Kaila, an old acquaintance.
21:46Since the American soldiers did not know his true identity,
21:49and he introduced himself as Joseph Memling,
21:51they managed to deceive their captors.
21:54Additionally, he avoided being identified as an SS member,
21:57as he never allowed his blood type to be tattooed on his arm,
22:00something common among officers of that unit.
22:03Thanks to this, he and Kaila were released,
22:06considered simple doctors without serious antecedents.
22:09After his release, Mengele headed to Auschwitz
22:12with the intention of recovering his notes,
22:15which he considered valuable.
22:17He then managed to escape by crossing the southern border to Italy,
22:20where he arrived in Genoa in 1949.
22:23There, he obtained a Red Cross passport in the name of Helmut Gregor.
22:28In July of the same year, he set sail for Argentina,
22:32settling in Vicente López.
22:34During his stay in the South American country,
22:36he first worked as a carpenter and later in the sale of agricultural machinery.
22:41Convinced that no one was looking for him,
22:44he used his real name without fear.
22:46However, in 1958,
22:49he was interrogated along with other doctors
22:51on suspicion of practicing medicine without authorization
22:54after the death of a young woman in an abortion procedure.
22:58No charges were brought against him,
23:00but this made him reflect on the danger of being identified.
23:03To avoid possible capture,
23:06he decided to move to Paraguay,
23:08where in 1959 he obtained citizenship under the name José Mengele.
23:14The name appeared several times
23:15during the Nuremberg trial proceedings
23:17in the second half of the 1940s,
23:20but the Allies assumed that he had probably died.
23:23It was not until the 1960s
23:25that the Mossad began its search
23:26with the intention of capturing him
23:28and bringing him to justice in Israel.
23:31Investigations carried out in Paraguay
23:33did not yield clear indications of his whereabouts.
23:37Additionally,
23:38attempts to track his correspondence with Martha,
23:40his wife residing in Italy,
23:42were fruitless.
23:43The undercover agents sent to South America
23:45managed to reach a rural area
23:47on the outskirts of Sao Paulo,
23:49where they identified a European man
23:51who could have been Mengele.
23:52However,
23:54due to the lack of absolute certainty,
23:56the Mossad decided to halt the operation in 1962.
24:00This decision allowed
24:01one of the most infamous Nazi criminals,
24:04known as the Angel of Death,
24:06to spend the rest of his days
24:07undisturbed in southern Brazil.
24:10In 1979,
24:11while swimming,
24:12he suffered a stroke
24:13and drowned.
24:15Klaus Barbie,
24:16the protection of a Nazi butcher.
24:19When the Germans took control of France,
24:21Klaus Barbie,
24:22an SS intelligence officer,
24:24was initially sent to Dijon.
24:27Shortly afterward,
24:28he was transferred to Lyon,
24:29where he established
24:30his base of operations
24:31in the Hotel Terminus.
24:33There,
24:34he subjected prisoners,
24:35both adults and children,
24:36to brutal torture sessions.
24:38Additionally,
24:39he trained German shepherd dogs
24:40to attack detainees indiscriminately.
24:43His ruthless behavior
24:44earned him the nickname
24:46Butcher of Lyon.
24:47He is estimated
24:48to have been directly responsible
24:49for the death of 14,000 people
24:51in French territory.
24:53After the war ended,
24:54the provisional French government
24:56sentenced him
24:56to the death penalty
24:57in absentia,
24:58as his whereabouts
24:59were unknown.
25:01Later,
25:01it was discovered
25:02that he had been under
25:03the custody of American forces,
25:05which led France
25:06to demand his extradition.
25:08However,
25:09instead of complying
25:10with the request,
25:11the Americans helped him
25:12escape to Bolivia,
25:13where he spent the next
25:14three decades
25:15with a new identity,
25:16Klaus Altmann.
25:17There,
25:18he collaborated
25:19with the United States
25:20Counterintelligence Corps,
25:21which at that time
25:22sought to curb
25:23the spread of communism
25:24in Latin America.
25:26Barbie also maintained
25:27close ties
25:28with military governments
25:29in Bolivia and Peru,
25:31where he ensured
25:31he had contributed
25:32to the persecution
25:33of Che Guevara.
25:35In 1971,
25:36while visiting Peru,
25:38his true identity
25:38was discovered
25:39by French groups
25:40dedicated to locating
25:41fugitive Nazis.
25:43However,
25:44due to the lack
25:44of an extradition agreement
25:45between France and Bolivia,
25:47he remained safe.
25:49A year later,
25:50a journalist travelled
25:50to La Paz
25:51to interview him.
25:52When asked
25:53if he was the German war criminal,
25:55he vehemently denied
25:56any connection
25:57to that name.
25:58Even when shown photographs
25:59of victims
26:00who had suffered
26:01under his command,
26:02he insisted
26:03he did not recognise anyone.
26:05However,
26:06when returning
26:06the photographs,
26:07he left his fingerprints,
26:09which allowed
26:09his true identity
26:10to be confirmed.
26:12Despite this,
26:13the Bolivian government
26:14continued to reject
26:15the extradition.
26:17The situation changed
26:18when a new democratic government
26:19took power
26:20and allowed his arrest.
26:22Subsequently,
26:23he was sent to France
26:24to face justice.
26:26In 1984,
26:28he was tried
26:28for the atrocities
26:29committed during his time
26:30at the head
26:31of the Gestapo
26:32in Lyon
26:32between 1942
26:34and 1944.
26:37Among his worst crimes
26:38was the raid
26:39on the Rue Sainte-Catherine
26:40when he ordered
26:41the capture
26:42of 86 Jews
26:43who were sent
26:44to extermination camps.
26:46To carry out
26:47the operation,
26:48he chose a Tuesday,
26:49as on that day
26:50a Jewish federation
26:51offered assistance
26:52and free food.
26:54First,
26:54he detained
26:54the workers
26:55of the place
26:55and then arrested
26:56each person
26:57who entered the building.
26:59None returned home.
27:01The victims
27:01were deported
27:02to Bergen-Belsen,
27:03Sobibor and Auschwitz
27:04and only three survived.
27:07On July 4, 1987,
27:10Klaus Barbie
27:11was declared guilty
27:12and received a life sentence.
27:14Four years later,
27:15at the age of 77,
27:16he died in a prison
27:17in Lyon
27:18due to leukemia
27:19and cancer
27:19in the spine and prostate.
27:21Both Barbie
27:22and Wilhelm Hötl
27:23were part of the small group
27:24of Nazi criminals
27:25who were recruited
27:26by American agencies,
27:28such as the
27:28Counterintelligence Corps.
27:30Another of the collaborators
27:31was Robert-Jan Verbelen,
27:33a member of the Flemish SS
27:35responsible for at least
27:36101 murders
27:37in Belgium
27:38during the war.
27:39Verbelen,
27:40in addition to ordering executions,
27:42carried out grenade attacks
27:43in bars and cafes.
27:45In 1946,
27:47American authorities
27:48hired him in Austria
27:49to work on Project Newton,
27:51whose objective
27:52was to infiltrate
27:53the Austrian Communist Party.
27:55In 1959,
27:56he obtained
27:57Austrian citizenship,
27:58but in 1965,
28:00he faced a war crimes trial.
28:02Despite the evidence,
28:04he was acquitted
28:04and was able to live freely
28:06until his death in 1990.
28:08The case of Verbelen
28:10revealed two realities.
28:12First,
28:12that the United States government
28:14did not always prioritize
28:15prosecuting Nazi criminals.
28:17Second,
28:18that if the Israeli Jews
28:19wanted these individuals
28:20to face justice,
28:22they would have to take matters
28:23into their own hands.
28:25Herbert Cukas,
28:26the fall of a murderer.
28:28During the 1960s,
28:30Israel decided to take justice
28:31into its own hands
28:32without relying
28:33on international tribunals.
28:35The foreign intelligence
28:37of Israel,
28:37known as the Mossad,
28:39was tasked with locating
28:40and eliminating
28:41Herbert's Cukors.
28:42This man,
28:43nicknamed the Butcher of Riga,
28:45was involved in the execution
28:46of at least 30,000 Jews
28:48in Latvia.
28:49His elimination,
28:50whose authorship
28:51was never officially recognized
28:52by Israel,
28:53was designed to expose
28:54his atrocities
28:55and demonstrate
28:56that Nazi criminals
28:57would not go unpunished.
28:59It also served
29:00as a warning
29:01to those
29:01who still remained
29:02unaccounted for.
29:03Before the conflict,
29:05Cukors was a respected
29:07figure in Latvia.
29:08He was compared
29:09to Charles Lindbergh
29:10due to his achievements
29:11in aviation.
29:13In 1933,
29:14he piloted an airplane
29:16that he himself
29:17had assembled,
29:18covering the distance
29:19between Latvia
29:20and the British colony
29:21of Gambia.
29:22At the end of 1939,
29:24he made another
29:25long-distance journey,
29:27this time to Palestine.
29:29Everything changed
29:30when, in 1940,
29:31the country fell
29:33under Soviet control
29:34following the
29:34Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
29:37A year later,
29:38the German invasion
29:39of the USSR
29:39brought Nazi domination
29:41to Latvia.
29:42For some,
29:43the Germans represented
29:44hope against Soviet repression,
29:46but for the Jewish population,
29:48they signified
29:48a mortal threat.
29:50In Riga,
29:51the Nazis established
29:52a system of persecution
29:53and extermination
29:54in which Cukors stood out
29:56as one of the cruelest
29:57collaborators.
29:58During the occupation,
29:59he became the right-hand man
30:01of the Commando Araj Group,
30:03a paramilitary force
30:04composed of 300 Latvians
30:06who pursued and killed
30:07thousands of Jews.
30:09The brutality of the organization
30:10was extreme.
30:11They shot indiscriminately
30:13in the streets,
30:14killed for entertainment,
30:15and looted their victims.
30:17There are records
30:18linking Cukors
30:19to the Rumbula massacre,
30:20which occurred on November 30th
30:22and December 8th,
30:231941,
30:25where approximately
30:2525,000 people
30:27were executed
30:28in the vicinity
30:28of the forest
30:29of the same name.
30:31At the end of the war,
30:32like many Nazi criminals,
30:33he escaped to South America.
30:36Unlike other fugitives,
30:37he did not change
30:38his identity.
30:39He arrived in Brazil
30:40using his real name
30:42and began to relate
30:43to members
30:43of the local Jewish community.
30:45He presented himself
30:46as a political refugee
30:47who had supposedly
30:48saved Jews
30:49during the Holocaust,
30:50a lie that some believed
30:52for a time.
30:53However,
30:53over the years,
30:54his story was disproven
30:55and his past
30:56caught up with him.
30:57His egocentric character
30:59led to his downfall,
31:00as he never really
31:01tried to hide.
31:02His public statements
31:03and proximity
31:04to the Jewish community
31:05drew the attention
31:06of the Mossad,
31:08which soon located him.
31:10Although initially,
31:11it was expected
31:12that he would face
31:12trial in Germany,
31:14this never happened.
31:15In 1965,
31:17Mossad agents
31:18devised a plan
31:19to trap him.
31:20An undercover Mossad agent
31:21convinced Cukors
31:22to travel to Uruguay
31:23with the promise
31:24of starting a business
31:25related to aviation.
31:26The offer
31:27seemed too good
31:28to refuse,
31:29leading Cukors
31:29to accept
31:30without hesitation.
31:32His contact,
31:33who introduced himself
31:34as Anton Kunzler,
31:35was actually
31:36Yakov Maidad,
31:37a Mossad veteran
31:38known for his participation
31:40in the capture
31:40of Adolf Eichmann
31:41in Argentina
31:42in 1960.
31:44In mid-1965,
31:47Maidad sent him
31:48a telegram
31:48from Montevideo,
31:50inviting him
31:50to a recently rented house
31:52by a supposed
31:52Viennese businessman
31:53in a secluded area.
31:55When Cukors
31:56crossed the threshold,
31:57a group of men
31:58surprised him.
31:59The Latvian
31:59tried to resist
32:00with all his might,
32:01even biting
32:02one of the assailants
32:03so hard
32:03that he nearly
32:04tore off his finger.
32:06However,
32:06the struggle ended
32:07when one of the attackers
32:08struck him in the head
32:09with a hammer,
32:10leaving him defenseless.
32:12At that moment,
32:13Cukors begged
32:13to be allowed to speak
32:14before they made a decision
32:15about his fate.
32:17No one responded
32:18to his plea.
32:19Two gunshots
32:20to the head
32:20from a silencer-equipped pistol
32:22ended his life instantly.
32:24The body was found
32:25inside a trunk
32:25on March 6th.
32:27It had multiple
32:27gunshot wounds
32:28and the bone structure
32:29of his skull
32:30had been destroyed.
32:31Alongside the body
32:32were documents
32:33linking him
32:33to the massacres
32:34in the Riga ghetto.
32:36Adolf Eichmann,
32:37the mission
32:37that changed justice.
32:40Capturing Adolf Eichmann
32:41proved to be
32:42much more complicated
32:43than apprehending Cukors.
32:45He managed
32:45to hide his tracks
32:46well while fleeing
32:47to Argentina,
32:49but ultimately,
32:50his behavior
32:50gave him away.
32:52Born in Sollingen
32:53in 1906,
32:55he became a high-ranking
32:56SS officer
32:57when the Second World War
32:58broke out,
32:59and he fulfilled
33:00his role
33:00with absolute dedication.
33:03In the final years
33:04of the conflict,
33:05his primary responsibility
33:06was organizing
33:07the mass deportation
33:08of Jews
33:08to extermination camps
33:10and devising
33:11the strategy
33:11for genocide
33:12in Europe
33:13following the agreements
33:14of the Wannsee Conference
33:15in 1942.
33:18Although he rarely
33:19set foot
33:19in the concentration camps,
33:20his role was key
33:22in the execution
33:23of the Holocaust,
33:24making him responsible
33:25for millions of deaths.
33:28On December 24, 1944,
33:31Eichmann left Budapest
33:32just before the Soviets
33:33managed to encircle the city.
33:35He returned to Berlin,
33:37where he was in charge
33:37of destroying
33:38the documentary evidence
33:39of his activities.
33:41Like many other SS members
33:43who were escaping
33:43in the final days
33:44of the Reich,
33:46Eichmann took refuge
33:47in Austria
33:47with his family
33:48after the German surrender
33:50on May 8, 1945.
33:53However,
33:54at the end of the war,
33:55American troops
33:56apprehended him
33:57and he spent some time
33:58detained in various camps
33:59for Nazi officers,
34:01passing himself off
34:02as a man named
34:03Otto Eichmann
34:04thanks to false documents.
34:06Realizing that
34:07his true identity
34:08was in danger
34:08of being discovered,
34:10he escaped from
34:10a labor camp
34:11in Cham, Germany.
34:13By that time,
34:14Rudolf Huss,
34:15the former commander
34:16of Auschwitz,
34:17had already pointed him out
34:18in the Nuremberg Trials
34:19as the mastermind
34:20of the Holocaust.
34:22Eichmann understood
34:23that he had to disappear
34:24completely.
34:25In 1948,
34:27he obtained false papers
34:28to emigrate to Argentina
34:30under the name
34:31Ricardo Clement,
34:32thanks to the support network
34:33led by Bishop Alois Hudal.
34:36Following the so-called
34:37monastery route,
34:38he made his way
34:39to Italy,
34:40where he managed
34:40to reach South America.
34:42Finally,
34:43he settled in Olivos,
34:44a neighborhood
34:45in Buenos Aires,
34:46where he adopted
34:47a low-key lifestyle.
34:48He found employment
34:49at the Mercedes-Benz factory
34:51and rose to become
34:52the head of a department.
34:54Shortly afterward,
34:55his wife and children
34:56joined him.
34:57One of his sons,
34:57Klaus,
34:58began a relationship
34:59with Sylvia,
35:00a young German woman
35:01whose father had survived
35:02the Dachau concentration camp.
35:04Unaware that the girl
35:05had Jewish ancestry,
35:07Klaus made offensive remarks
35:09suggesting that the Nazis
35:10had not finished their job
35:11of exterminating
35:12certain groups.
35:13As expected,
35:15the relationship
35:15did not last.
35:17The following year,
35:18Sylvia's father
35:19heard a testimony
35:20during a war crimes
35:21trial in Frankfurt.
35:22In the process,
35:24Adolf Eichmann
35:24was mentioned
35:25as a key figure
35:26in the annihilation
35:27of the Jewish people.
35:28Upon hearing that surname,
35:30he recalled that it matched
35:31that of his daughter's
35:32ex-boyfriend.
35:33Without delay,
35:35he brought his suspicions
35:36to the prosecutor,
35:37Fritz Bauer,
35:37in Frankfurt.
35:39Bauer demanded
35:39additional details,
35:41especially the exact location
35:43of the man
35:43who could be Eichmann.
35:45However,
35:45Sylvia's father
35:46had a major obstacle.
35:48The brutal beatings
35:49he had suffered
35:49in Dachau
35:50in the 1930s
35:51had left him blind.
35:53Therefore,
35:53Sylvia decided
35:54to investigate
35:55on her own
35:55in Olivos.
35:57After some inquiries,
35:58she obtained
35:59an address,
36:00Chakabuco 4261.
36:02One Sunday afternoon,
36:03she went to the residence
36:04and knocked on the door.
36:06The woman who answered
36:07was Vera,
36:08Eichmann's wife,
36:09who told her
36:09that Klaus was not home.
36:11Nevertheless,
36:12she invited her in
36:13for coffee and cake.
36:15Sylvia accepted
36:15the hospitality
36:16and shortly afterward,
36:18a man joined
36:18the conversation.
36:20When she asked
36:20if he was Klaus's father,
36:22the man firmly denied it,
36:24asserting that
36:24he was only his uncle.
36:26Minutes later,
36:27Klaus appeared
36:28in the kitchen
36:28and upon seeing Sylvia,
36:30looked visibly surprised.
36:32Immediately,
36:33he ordered her
36:33to leave the house.
36:35Eichmann escorted them
36:36to the exit
36:37and before saying goodbye,
36:39Klaus mentioned
36:40that he would take
36:40Sylvia to catch the bus.
36:43His supposed uncle
36:44suggested that
36:44it would be more appropriate
36:45to escort her home.
36:47Then,
36:48Klaus responded
36:48with a phrase
36:49that sealed Eichmann's fate.
36:51Thanks, father.
36:52I will make sure
36:53she gets home safely.
36:55That confirmation
36:56allowed Sylvia
36:57and her father
36:57to inform prosecutor Bauer
36:59that the architect
37:00of the final solution
37:01was living openly
37:03in a neighborhood
37:03of Buenos Aires.
37:05However,
37:06the only difficulty
37:07was that,
37:08although the testimony
37:09was impactful,
37:10Bauer considered it
37:11insufficient to justify
37:12a large-scale operation
37:14outside Germany.
37:16Simon Wiesenthal,
37:17the legacy of Nazi hunting.
37:20Fortunately,
37:21there was someone
37:22who did not give up easily.
37:24This was Simon Wiesenthal,
37:26a Holocaust survivor
37:27who spent nearly three years
37:28imprisoned in Janowska,
37:30then in Krakow-Plasov,
37:31and finally survived
37:32a death march
37:33to Mauthausen.
37:35After living through
37:35those atrocious experiences,
37:38he decided to dedicate
37:39the rest of his life
37:40to tracking down
37:41Nazi criminals.
37:42In 1953,
37:44a letter revealed to him
37:45that Eichmann
37:46had been seen
37:46in Buenos Aires.
37:48The following year,
37:49he brought that information
37:50to the Israeli consulate
37:52in Vienna.
37:53Then,
37:53in 1960,
37:55after the death
37:55of Eichmann's father,
37:57he organized
37:57for private detectives
37:59to photograph
37:59relatives of the fugitive,
38:01It was known
38:02that his brother Otto
38:03bore a striking resemblance
38:04to him,
38:05and there were no recent images
38:06of the former SS officer.
38:08On February 18,
38:10Wiesenthal handed over
38:11those photographs
38:11to Mossad agents.
38:13Thanks to that material,
38:15they were able to verify
38:16his identity in Argentina.
38:18Since Argentina
38:19had a history
38:19of rejecting extraditions
38:21of Nazis,
38:22requesting one
38:22would have been futile.
38:24Therefore,
38:25Israeli Prime Minister
38:26David Ben-Gurion
38:27ordered his capture
38:28and transfer to Israel
38:29for trial.
38:31In April 1960,
38:33a group of eight agents
38:34traveled to Buenos Aires
38:35with that mission.
38:37On May 11 of that year,
38:39Eichmann was intercepted
38:40near his home
38:40on Garibaldi Street
38:41in San Fernando.
38:43For weeks,
38:43the agents
38:44had observed
38:44his movements
38:45and discovered
38:45that he took
38:46the same bus
38:46every night.
38:48However,
38:48on the designated day,
38:50he did not appear
38:50on the usual transport,
38:52almost foiling the plan.
38:54Finally,
38:54he arrived on another bus
38:55half an hour later.
38:57Peter Malkin,
38:57a Mossad agent,
38:58approached him
38:59and spoke to him
39:00in Spanish,
39:01asking if he could
39:01ask him a question.
39:03Eichmann,
39:03surprised,
39:04tried to walk away,
39:05but two more agents
39:06held him.
39:07He struggled with them
39:08until they subdued him
39:09and put him in a car,
39:10where they covered him
39:11with a blanket.
39:12He was taken
39:13to a Mossad safehouse,
39:14where he remained
39:15for nine days.
39:16There,
39:17additional verifications
39:18were made
39:18to confirm his identity.
39:21Finally,
39:21on the night of May 20,
39:23Yonah Elian,
39:24an anesthesiologist
39:25who was part of the team,
39:27sedated him
39:27and disguised him
39:28as a flight attendant
39:29to take him out
39:30of the country
39:30on an Israeli plane.
39:32Upon arriving in Israel,
39:34he was held
39:34in a fortified police station
39:36in Yagor for nine months.
39:38During that time,
39:39he underwent
39:40daily interrogations
39:41until his trial began
39:42on April 11, 1961.
39:45He faced 15 charges,
39:47including crimes
39:48against humanity,
39:49war crimes,
39:50genocide,
39:51and membership
39:51in a criminal organization.
39:53Shortly after midnight
39:54on June 1, 1962,
39:57Eichmann was executed
39:58in Ramla prison.
40:00Meanwhile,
40:01Wiesenthal became recognized
40:02as a hero in his country.
40:04In the following years,
40:05Wiesenthal continued
40:06his relentless pursuit
40:07of Nazi criminals
40:08through various methods.
40:10He founded the Jewish
40:11Historical Documentation Center
40:13in Austria,
40:14where he gathered information
40:15about war crime perpetrators
40:17and offered assistance
40:18to displaced persons.
40:19He dedicated himself
40:21to meticulously recording
40:23the horrors of the Holocaust,
40:25interviewing witnesses,
40:26and using the media
40:27to keep the interest
40:28in the pursuit of Nazis alive.
40:31He was convinced
40:31that all the guilty,
40:32from high-ranking officials
40:34to simple collaborators,
40:35should face justice.
40:37His tenacity earned him renown,
40:39and from the 1960s onward,
40:42his name became synonymous
40:43with Nazi hunting.
40:45He was nominated
40:46for the Nobel Peace Prize
40:47four times,
40:48received a knighthood
40:49in the United Kingdom,
40:51the Presidential Medal of Freedom
40:52in the United States,
40:54the Légion d'Honneur of France,
40:56and at least 53 additional recognitions.
40:59For many,
40:59Wiesenthal became
41:00a kind of secular saint.
41:02He is credited
41:03with having located
41:041,100 Nazi criminals,
41:06but his legacy is questionable.
41:09Throughout his life,
41:10he fabricated stories
41:11and exaggerated his role
41:12in numerous captures.
41:14Since the end
41:15of the Second World War
41:16until his death in 2005,
41:18he gave inaccurate accounts
41:20of his work
41:20in the pursuit of Nazis,
41:22created false stories
41:23about his past
41:24during the conflict,
41:25and also distorted details
41:27about his academic background.
41:30Despite his ambiguous
41:31relationship with the truth,
41:32his contribution was key
41:34in bringing several war criminals
41:35to trial.
41:36His figure remains controversial,
41:38but his impact
41:39on the pursuit of justice
41:40is undeniable.
41:42Nazis in Exile,
41:43The Refuge of War Criminals
41:45in the Middle East
41:45In 1948,
41:49just three years
41:50after the end
41:51of the Second World War,
41:52a notorious war criminal
41:53managed to escape
41:54from a prison
41:55in Linz, Austria.
41:57Franz Stangel,
41:58who had commanded
41:59the extermination camps
42:00in Sobibor and Treblinka,
42:02was responsible
42:03for the death
42:04of nearly one million Jews.
42:06His escape route
42:07took him through Gras,
42:08Murano,
42:08and Florence
42:09until he reached Rome.
42:10There,
42:11Bishop Alois Hudal,
42:13also Austrian,
42:14took him in
42:15and provided him
42:15with false documentation
42:16that allowed him
42:18to travel to Syria,
42:19where his family
42:20later joined him.
42:22In 1951,
42:23the Stangels
42:23moved to Brazil.
42:26Unintentionally,
42:26Stangel had opened
42:27a new escape route
42:28for the Nazis,
42:29the Middle East.
42:31Alois Bruner,
42:32one of the most
42:32ruthless executors
42:33of the Holocaust,
42:34was still at large
42:35at that time.
42:37During the conflict,
42:38Bruner held a high position
42:39in the Gestapo,
42:40being Adolf Eichmann's
42:42main collaborator
42:42and leader
42:43of the Jewish Affairs Department.
42:46His skill
42:46in organizing
42:47mass deportations
42:48and killings
42:49in countries like France,
42:50Greece,
42:50and Slovakia
42:51made him a key figure
42:53in the genocide.
42:54Eichmann considered him
42:55his best agent.
42:57After the end of the war,
42:58he hid in Germany,
42:59but in 1954,
43:01he felt that the authorities
43:02were closing in,
43:04especially when a French court
43:05sentenced him to death
43:06in absentia.
43:08With the support
43:09of old allies,
43:10he followed in Stangl's footsteps
43:12and escaped to Egypt,
43:13then ruled by Gamal Abdel Nasser.
43:16Thus began his exile
43:17in the Middle East,
43:18which lasted until his death
43:20several decades later.
43:22Nasser employed
43:23various German experts
43:24in military technology
43:26and missiles,
43:27as well as some strategists
43:28and security specialists.
43:30However,
43:31he had no interest
43:32in figures like Bruner,
43:33whose only expertise
43:34was extermination.
43:36With the help of
43:37Amin al-Husseini,
43:38the former Mufti of Jerusalem
43:39and protector of the Nazis
43:41in the region,
43:42Bruner managed to reach Syria,
43:44where he obtained
43:44a work visa in 1955.
43:47He integrated into a growing group
43:49of arms traffickers
43:50in Damascus.
43:52In the Syrian capital,
43:53he joined other fugitive Nazis,
43:55such as Franz Rademacher,
43:57a former official
43:58of the Foreign Ministry
43:59of the Third Reich,
44:00and Wilhelm Beisner,
44:02a German spy
44:02tasked with eliminating
44:04the Jewish population
44:05in Palestine
44:05if Germany had won.
44:07Together,
44:08they established
44:09the Orient Trading Company,
44:11a firm that actually
44:12served as a front
44:12for a lucrative
44:13arms trafficking business.
44:15Their network
44:16obtained weaponry
44:17from the communist bloc
44:18and supplied it
44:19to the Algerian resistance,
44:21the National Liberation Front,
44:23in their struggle
44:23against French occupation.
44:25Bruner amassed
44:26a great fortune
44:27with this activity,
44:28but in 1959,
44:30his luck began to fade.
44:33Unbeknownst to him,
44:34Syrian agents
44:35were already tracking
44:36his movements
44:37and did not look favorably
44:38upon his operations.
44:40At some point
44:41in late 1959,
44:43Syrian authorities
44:44detained Bruner
44:45and transferred him
44:46to a secret facility
44:47where prisoners of war
44:48were interrogated
44:49and tortured.
44:51Suspecting him
44:51of being an undercover agent,
44:53they accused him
44:54of drug trafficking
44:55and ordered that he remain
44:57in custody
44:57until his situation
44:58was clarified.
45:00Facing the threat
45:01to his life,
45:02Bruner made a final attempt
45:03to save himself.
45:05He assured the officers
45:06that he was being persecuted
45:07for his role
45:08in the fight
45:08against the Jewish people.
45:10The reaction
45:11of the captain in charge
45:12changed immediately.
45:13He stood up
45:14and offered him
45:14a handshake.
45:16Welcome to Syria,
45:17he said.
45:18The enemy of my enemies
45:19is my ally.
45:21From then on,
45:21he began collaborating
45:22with the Syrian government
45:23in various tasks.
45:25During the 1980s
45:26and 90s,
45:27Damascus continued
45:28to provide him
45:29with refuge,
45:30ignoring multiple
45:31extradition requests
45:32from Austria,
45:33West Germany
45:34and the United States.
45:36Each official response
45:37was the same.
45:38That person
45:39was not in the country.
45:41However,
45:41the media pressure
45:42exerted by Nazi hunters
45:43Serge and Beate Klaasfeld
45:45made his presence
45:46in the capital a problem.
45:48Over time,
45:49his usefulness
45:50to the government
45:50diminished.
45:52During those years,
45:53Bruner's movements
45:54were increasingly restricted,
45:56especially after he ignored
45:57direct orders
45:57from the president
45:58to keep a low profile.
46:00Despite the warnings,
46:01he granted interviews
46:02to German,
46:03Austrian
46:03and international media,
46:05causing discomfort
46:06in the highest circles
46:07of power.
46:08Finally,
46:09in 1996,
46:10the Syrian government
46:11decided to get rid of him.
46:13They removed him
46:14from his residence
46:15and locked him
46:16in an underground cell
46:17in the Muhajirun
46:17police station.
46:19The door was closed,
46:20never to be opened again.
46:22Bruner spent the rest
46:22of his life
46:23in deplorable conditions,
46:25surrounded by filth
46:26and neglect.
46:27He is believed
46:27to have died in 2010.
46:29Late justice,
46:31the pursuit of Nazis
46:31in the 21st century.
46:34People like Wiesenthal
46:35and Bauer
46:36never ceased
46:37in their mission.
46:38For decades,
46:39they managed
46:39to bring thousands
46:40of those responsible
46:41for the Holocaust
46:42and their accomplices
46:43to trial.
46:44However,
46:45due to the passage
46:46of time,
46:47capturing war criminals
46:48today has become
46:50a race against the clock.
46:52Even those
46:52who were very young
46:53during the Second World War
46:54are now over 90 years old.
46:57A clear example
46:58is the case
46:58of Johann Rehbogen,
47:00who in 2018,
47:01at the age of 94,
47:03was identified
47:03as a former guard
47:04at the Stutthof
47:05concentration camp,
47:07where he served
47:07between 1942
47:09and 1944.
47:12Since he was not yet
47:1321 years old
47:14when the events occurred,
47:15he was tried
47:16in a juvenile court
47:17in Münster.
47:18He was charged
47:19with the death
47:19of more than 100
47:20Polish prisoners
47:21and 77 Soviet soldiers
47:23using Zyklon B gas.
47:26Another similar case
47:27occurred in 2019,
47:29when Bruno Day,
47:30at the age of 93,
47:31received a sentence
47:32for his complicity
47:33in the murder
47:34of more than 5,000 people
47:35in an extermination camp
47:37between 1944
47:38and 1945.
47:41The tracking
47:42and prosecution
47:43of these individuals
47:44have been possible
47:45thanks to a specialized team
47:46operating in the German
47:47city of Ludwigsburg,
47:49in the southwest
47:50of the country.
47:51There,
47:52the Central Office
47:53for the Investigation
47:54of National Socialist Crimes
47:55has been in operation
47:56since 1958.
47:59Its task
48:00is to locate
48:00the last perpetrators
48:01of the Holocaust
48:02who have not yet
48:03faced justice
48:04and who can still be tried.
48:06Each year,
48:07the prosecutors
48:07of this institution
48:09identify around 30 suspects
48:11still alive.
48:12Subsequently,
48:13the cases are transferred
48:14to regional prosecutors,
48:16who spend approximately
48:17a year determining
48:18whether the evidence
48:19is sufficient
48:19to initiate a trial.
48:21Since the beginning
48:22of the 21st century,
48:24this meticulous process
48:25has resulted in six trials,
48:27including the aforementioned cases.
48:30Currently,
48:30the minimum age
48:31of the accused
48:32is around 90 years old
48:33and most of them
48:34held lower ranking positions
48:36within the Nazi regime.
48:38Guards,
48:38kitchen staff,
48:39doctors
48:39and communications operators.
48:42The problem lies
48:42in the fact
48:43that many of those involved
48:44die before their trials conclude,
48:47reducing the possibility
48:48of obtaining convictions.
48:50In 2013,
48:51for example,
48:52the Central Office
48:53compiled a list
48:54of 30 individuals
48:55who had previously
48:56worked at Auschwitz
48:57and could be immediately tried.
48:59However,
49:00only five of them
49:01faced justice,
49:02as the others died
49:03before their appearance
49:04or were deemed
49:05unfit to stand trial.
49:07Despite this,
49:08the importance
49:09of this institution
49:10does not lie
49:10in the number of sentences
49:12handed down,
49:13but in the message
49:14it conveys.
49:15No crime against humanity
49:16will be forgotten.
49:18Thanks to its work,
49:19those who participated
49:20in the horrors of Nazism
49:22must live knowing
49:23that at any moment
49:24justice could catch up
49:25with them.
49:26Its existence
49:27keeps the memory
49:28of the Holocaust victims alive,
49:30reminding the world
49:31of the magnitude
49:31of the atrocities
49:32committed between 1933
49:34and 1945.
49:37The history of these crimes
49:39is so chilling
49:39that it is imperative
49:41not to let it fade
49:42into oblivion
49:43no matter how many
49:44decades pass.
49:45The end of the Second World War
49:47marked the fall of Nazism,
49:49but it did not put an end
49:50to the pursuit of justice.
49:52For decades,
49:53the escape networks,
49:54the complicity
49:55of various institutions
49:56and the efforts
49:57of those who pursued
49:58war criminals
49:59were revealed.
50:00Some found refuge
50:01in South America,
50:03the Middle East
50:03or even in Europe,
50:04protected by regimes
50:06that sheltered them
50:06for strategic interests.
50:08Others were captured
50:09and tried.
50:11However,
50:11many never faced consequences,
50:13and with the passage of time,
50:15the possibility
50:15of prosecuting them
50:17diminished.
50:18Nevertheless,
50:19the Central Office
50:20for the Investigation
50:21of National Socialist Crimes
50:22in Germany
50:23has continued its work,
50:25demonstrating that justice
50:26does not expire
50:27for crimes against humanity.
50:29This account
50:30is not just history,
50:31but a warning
50:32about the importance
50:33of memory.
50:34The atrocities
50:35committed by the SS
50:36must not be forgotten,
50:37and impunity
50:38cannot be acceptable.
50:40Although the years pass,
50:42history continues
50:43to remember their names,
50:44their deeds,
50:45and the consequences
50:46of their ideology.
50:48Justice, though late,
50:49remains necessary
50:50to honour the victims
50:51and reaffirm humanity's
50:52commitment to truth.
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