Argentina’s parliament turns over documents on Nazism to Buenos Aires Holocaust museum

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — Argentina’s national parliament gave to the Holocaust Museum of Buenos Aires historic documents generated between 1941 and 1943 by a commission that investigated the Nazi influence in the country.

The Special Commission of the National Congress of Anti-Argentine Activities, was created with “the purpose of investigating and combating the penetration of extremist ideologies in the country, fundamentally those of Nazi-Fascist inspiration.”

Between 1941 and 1943 the parliamentary commission followed up on the denunciations and dissemination of Nazi activities in the country, with results recorded in four reports. They were digitized under an agreement with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. in 2015.

At the National Parliament on Tuesday a cooperation agreement was signed by the vice president of the Lower Chamber, Luis Petri, and the president of the Buenos Aires Holocaust Museum, Marcelo Mindlin.

“This agreement makes us custodians of this valuable information. While there was persecution and extermination of European Jews, there were those in Argentina who looked at Nazism with total distrust, which allowed the emergence of the commission. As a museum we will make these investigations available for academic researchers,” said Mindlin.

Holocaust survivors living in Argentina participated in the event, as did Argentina’s Secretary of Human Rights and Cultural Pluralism Claudio Avruj, and Israeli Ambassador Ilan Sztulman.

Argentina was a refuge for Nazis after World War II. Adolf Eichmann was captured in Buenos Aires in 1960; another Nazi war criminal, Erich Priebke, also lived there.

The primary South American destination for Holocaust survivor was also Argentina, which became home to at least 4,800 Holocaust survivors.