Ratlines were a system of escape routes for Nazis and other fascists fleeing
Europe at the end of
World War II. These escape routes mainly led toward havens in
South America, particularly
Argentina,
Paraguay,
Brazil,
Uruguay,
Chile,
and Bolivia. Other destinations included the
United States,
Great Britain,
Canada and the
Middle East. There were two primary routes: the first went from
Germany to
Spain, then Argentina; the second from Germany to
Rome to
Genoa, then South America; the two routes "developed independently" but eventually came together to collaborate.
One ratline, made famous by the
Frederick Forsyth thriller
The Odessa File, was run by the
ODESSA (
Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen; "
Organization of Former SS-Members") network organized by
Otto Skorzeny.
The origins of the first ratlines are connected to various developments in Vatican-Argentine relations before and during World War II.[2] As early as
1942,
Monsignor Luigi Maglione contacted
Ambassador Llobet, inquiring as to the "willingness of the government of the
Argentine Republic to apply its immigration law generously, in order to encourage at the opportune moment
European Catholic immigrants to seek the necessary land and capital in our country".[3]
Afterwards, a
German priest,
Anton Weber, the head of the Rome-based
Society of
Saint Raphael, traveled to
Portugal, continuing to Argentina, to lay the groundwork for future Catholic immigration; this was to be a route which fascist exiles would exploit - without the knowledge of the
Catholic Church.[3] According to historian
Michael Phayer, "this was the innocent origin of what would become the Vatican ratline".[3]
Spain, not Rome, was the "first center of ratline activity that facilitated the escape of
Nazi fascists", although the exodus itself was planned within the Vatican.[4]
Charles Lescat, a
French member of
Action Française (an organization suppressed by
Pius XI and rehabilitated by
Pius XII), and
Pierre Daye, a
Belgian with contacts in the
Spanish government, were among the primary organizers.[5] Lescat and Daye were the first able to flee Europe, with the help of
Argentine cardinal
Antonio Caggiano.[5]
By 1946, there were probably hundreds of war criminals in Spain, and thousands of former Nazis and fascists.[6] According to
US Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, Vatican cooperation in turning over asylum-seekers was "negligible".[6] According to Phayer, Pius XII "preferred to see fascist war criminals on board ships sailing to the
New World rather than seeing them rotting in
POW camps in zonal Germany".[7] Unlike the Vatican emigration operation in
Italy, centered on
Vatican City, the ratlines of Spain, although "fostered by the Vatican" were relatively independent of the hierarchy of the Vatican Emigration
Bureau.
Bishop Alois Hudal was rector of the Pontificio Istituto Teutonico
Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome, a seminary for
Austrian and German priests, and "
Spiritual Director of the
German People resident in Italy".[9] After the end of the war in Italy, Hudal became active in ministering to
German-speaking prisoners of war and internees then held in camps throughout Italy. In
December 1944 the
Vatican Secretariat of State received permission to appoint a representative to "visit the German-speaking civil internees in Italy", a job assigned to Hudal.
Hudal used this position to aid the escape of wanted
Nazi war criminals, including
Franz Stangl, commanding officer of
Treblinka,
Gustav Wagner, commanding officer of
Sobibor,
Alois Brunner, responsible for the
Drancy internment camp near
Paris and in charge of deportations in
Slovakia to
German concentration camps, and
Adolf Eichmann[10]— a fact about which he was later unashamedly open. Some of these wanted men were being held in internment camps: generally without identity papers, they would be enrolled in camp registers under false names. Other Nazis were in hiding in Italy, and sought Hudal out as his role in assisting escapes became known on the Nazi grapevine.[11]:289
In his memoirs Hudal said of his actions "I thank God that He [allowed me] to visit and comfort many victims in their prisons and concentration camps and to help them escape with false identity papers." [12] He explained that in his eyes:
"
The Allies'
War against Germany was not a crusade, but the rivalry of economic complexes for whose victory they had been fighting. This so-called business
... used catchwords like democracy, race, religious liberty and
Christianity as a bait for the masses. All these experiences were the reason why I felt duty bound after
1945 to devote my whole charitable work mainly to former
National Socialists and Fascists, especially to so-called 'war criminals'."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratlines_%28World_War_II_aftermath%29
- published: 13 Feb 2015
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