Argentina’s Supreme Court finds archives linked to the Nazi regime

The Argentine Supreme Court has found documentation associated with the Nazi regime among its archives including propaganda material that was used to spread Adolf Hitler’s ideology in the South American nation, a judicial authority from the Court told the Associated Press on Sunday.

The court came across the material when preparing for the creation of a museum with its historical documents, the source said. The official requested anonymity due to internal policies. Among the documents, they found postcards, photographs, and propaganda material from the German regime.

Some of the material “intended to consolidate and propagate Adolf Hitler’s ideology in Argentina, in the midst of World War II,” the source said. It was unclear whether the items would eventually be displayed at the museum, which is still in the works.

In this photo released by Argentina’s Supreme Court on Sunday, May 11, 2025, documents associated with the Nazi regime sit in boxes found by staffers in the court’s archives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as they prepared a museum of historical records.

Argentina Supreme Court via AP

The boxes are believed to be related to the arrival of 83 packages in Buenos Aires on June 20, 1941, sent by the German embassy in Tokyo aboard the Japanese steamship “Nan-a-Maru.” 

At the time, the German diplomatic mission in Argentina had requested the release of the material, claiming the boxes contained personal belongings, but the Customs and Ports Division retained it.

The president of the Supreme Court, Horacio Rosatti, has ordered the preservation of the material and a thorough analysis.

Argentina is home to the largest Jewish population in Latin America, according to the World Jewish Congress, which has estimated that 200 Holocaust survivors remain in the country. It was where many Nazis and sympathizers, including Adolf Eichmann — a war criminal and one of the organizers of the Holocaust — fled following the end of the war.

The county has one museum dedicated to the Holocaust, the Holocaust Museum of Buenos Aires, which opened in 2001.

In 2017, police raided an antiques collector’s home and found a secret room with more than 80 Nazi-era relics, Reuters reported. The objects were later displayed at the museum, according to the report.

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