How did so many of Adolf Hitler’s henchmen flee from justice in the aftermath of the Second World War? Gerald Steinacher, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, contends that underground organisations of SS veterans and powerful industrialists did not in fact exist. The reality is more disturbing. Even after the full extent of the Nazi terror was known, there was no shortage of respected and powerful organisations prepared to assist in the spiriting away of some of history’s most odious criminals.
Steinacher’s attention is focused on South Tyrol, which served as an important highway for war criminals. Although subjected to intense Italianisation under Benito Mussolini, its population retained a bond with German ethno-nationalism. Fugitives, smuggled in, were welcomed with open arms; the Italian authorities either turned a blind eye or afforded them safe passage to Latin America. Those so indulged include Adolf Eichmann, who made his way to South Tyrol in 1950; Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz doctor who conducted the most gruesome experiments on children; and Franz Stangl, the commandant of Treblinka, responsible for the murder of 900,000 mostly Jewish men, women and children.
Post-war Europe was awash with refugees. The victims of the Nazis were often found intermingling with the Germans, and their collaborators, fleeing the advance of communism across Eastern Europe. By 1951, the International Committee of the Red Cross had issued some 120,000 travel documents. Thousands of Nazis were the recipients of such invaluable transit papers. Steinacher describes the vetting procedures as lax. His research also reveals how Red Cross officials, including Paul Ruegger, its president, were well aware of the abuse of such documents but chose not to intercede. Others, such as Carl Jacob Burckhardt, had a history of pro-German anti-Semitic sentiment.
The conduct of the International Committee of the Red Cross in post-war Europe contrasts starkly with its nonchalant attitude during the war. It was aware of the existence of the Nazi extermination camps but refused to express outrage, claiming its mandate was confined to the welfare of prisoners of war and not civilian captives. It even lent itself to disseminating Nazi propaganda by claiming, following a visit to Theresienstadt, that its Jewish inmates were being “well treated” without questioning why they were incarcerated. Steinacher documents the intimate
co-operation between the Red Cross and powerful figures within the Vatican.
The silence of Pius XII – Hitler’s Pope – concerning the Holocaust has been the subject of numerous studies. This work acknowledges the Vatican’s desire for self-preservation, but also reveals how it was more concerned about the fight against “godless communism” and the apprehension of a communist takeover in Italy. The Austrian bishop, Alois Hudal, based in Rome and Assistant to the Papal Throne, saw his role as constructing a Christian form of National Socialism. One that would buttress German nationalism, act as a bulwark against Soviet Russia and propagate religious anti-Judaism, as distinct from racist anti-Semitism. Steinacher recounts in nauseating detail how Hudal provided Nazi fugitives, such as Gestapo chief Erich Priebke, with false identities to enable them to escape justice.
Steinacher also emphasises the nefarious role played by US intelligence services in the initial phase of the Cold War. SS officers with a good working knowledge of Eastern Europe were “recycled”. Those recruited included Otto von Bolschwing, the SS veteran of Eichmann’s Jewish Affairs Department. His CIA recruiters ignored ample evidence demonstrating his central role in the persecution of Hungarian Jewry. He was bestowed with a “presumption of innocence of truly munificent proportions”.
Latin America was a popular destination for escaping Nazis. Syria and Egypt were not far behind. The author surprisingly fails to mention how Damascus provided sanctuary to the likes of Alois Brunner, Eichmann’s assistant, who was sentenced to death in absentia for his role in transporting 140,000 Jews to the gas chambers. Brunner played a leading role in the shaping of Syria’s internal repressive security services. Nor does he refer to the recruitment by Gamal Nasser in Egypt of 2,000 German officers and technicians, including many known war criminals, who assisted in the development of the country’s missile and biological warfare programme.
Gerald Steinacher has, nevertheless, produced an important, expertly researched and vivid account of a most shameful episode in post-war history.
