Wooden crates filled with documents linked to Nazi Germany have been found in the basement of Argentina’s Supreme Court, the court said last week.
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The discovery happened while workers were clearing out the building’s storage area to prepare for a museum archive. According to the BBC, the documents were sent by the German embassy in Tokyo and arrived in Argentina on 20 June 1941. They came inside 83 diplomatic pouches on board a Japanese steamship.
Court officials said in a statement, “Upon opening one of the boxes, we identified material intended to consolidate and propagate Adolf Hitler’s ideology in Argentina during World War II.”
The crates were originally taken by Argentine customs officials in 1941. Officials had opened five of the diplomatic pouches at random and found Nazi propaganda, photographs, and postcards inside. The items were then sent to the Supreme Court, where they remained in storage.
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. (AP)
The BBC reports that the German embassy in Buenos Aires had requested the return of the pouches to its embassy in Tokyo. But an Argentine judge ordered that all the pouches be seized instead.
Officials from the Buenos Aires Holocaust Museum have joined the court in cataloguing the contents. Images published by the court show black-and-white photographs, membership booklets with swastikas on their covers, and handwritten notes.
Historians say the documents may help researchers understand the financial and international connections of the Nazi regime.
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Court records show that the crates were declared as ‘personal effects’ at the time of arrival. However, because of the shipment’s size, customs officials informed the Argentine foreign minister. Argentina had remained neutral in World War Two until 1944.
After that year, relations with the Axis powers ended. The BBC reports that it is unclear whether the court ever decided what to do with the boxes, which may explain why they stayed in the basement for so long.
Following the war, Argentina became a safe place for some former Nazi officials. Among those who fled there were Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele.
In 2000, Argentine President Fernando de la Rúa gave an official apology for the country’s role in sheltering Nazi war criminals.
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