The U.S. Provided Refuge to Nazis

U.S. intelligence agencies harbored fugitive associates of Hitler after the war. Among them was an officer from Adolf Eichmann’s department that was responsible for the Holocaust of the Jews. This information is contained in a report that was leaked to the press. The document also details Washington’s unsuccessful attempts at forcing Latvia to prosecute fascist criminals.

After World War II, intelligence officers helped many Nazis and collaborators escape retribution across the ocean. The most noteworthy of those was [Otto] Von Bolschwing, who had worked in Eichmann’s department, helping devise the plans to exterminate Germany’s Jews. Washington aided Von Bolschwing in obtaining asylum in 1954. Von Bolschwing started working for the CIA.

While Von Bolschwing may have been a valuable asset to the American spy service, its officials were worried that his past would be uncovered. CIA officials issued several memos in case that were to occur. Some of them suggested he should deny any Nazi affiliation; others [felt] that he should explain it away on the basis of extenuating circumstances.

Eventually, the Justice Department sought to deport him in 1981. But he died that year at age 72.

The information about Washington creating a safe haven for criminals is contained in the 600-page report prepared by the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations. The Justice Department has kept the report secret for four years. Independent researchers sued the department, demanding to make the report public on the basis of the Freedom of Information Act. The New York Times obtained the complete version.

The newspaper quotes a characteristic phrase from the report. “America, which prided itself on being a safe haven for the persecuted, became — in some small measure — a safe haven for persecutors as well.”

What does “in some small measure” mean? Previously, it was about 10,000 people. In fact, the figure is much smaller than that. However, among those who did make it to the U.S. were some prominent officials of the Third Reich. One example is Arthur Rudolph, who ran the Mittelwerk munitions factory. He organized the use of the concentration camp prisoners as slave labor. The U.S. authorities closed their eyes on that stain on Rudolph’s biography and brought him into the U.S. After all, Rudolph knew a lot about making rockets. Rudolph has been honored by NASA. He is credited as the father of the Saturn V rocket.

It would be wrong to conclude from the above that the Office of Special Investigations was seeking to hide all of Hitler’s associates from punishment. No, it investigated the cases of about 300 Nazis who entered the U.S. and had them deported.

The U.S. Justice Department entered into conflict with the government of Switzerland when it established that Swiss banks had bought gold from the Nazis. That gold had previously been taken from Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Eventually Switzerland was forced to admit its complicity in those “transactions.”

In 2000, American representatives held a series of talks with Latvian officials, urging them to prosecute persons suspected in Nazi crimes, but to no avail. Riga refused to cooperate with the senior partner.

Former Nazis have a lobby in the U.S. consisting of Latvian immigrants. They spoke, among other issues, in defense of the notorious Ivan Demjanjuk, accused of executing the Treblinka camp prisoners. Those immigrants unearthed the discarded fragments of the Justice Department archives concerning Demjanjuk. Using those documents, they are fighting to acquit their charge, who is on trial for his war crimes in Munich.