12 World War II Moments (That Hardly Anybody Ever Talks About)

Separating the fact from the fiction when it comes to fugitive war criminals is difficult given that Simon Wisenthal, the most notable figure associated with ‘Nazi hunting’, was known to be an unreliable source who would take great liberties with the truth to weave a good story. The enigmatic ODESSA Nazi aid organisation he proclaimed the existence of is now largely believed to be a myth despite its popularisation in Frederick Forsyth’s bestselling novel The Odessa File.

What is known to historians but largely unknown to the public is the methods and individuals that were employed to relocate wanted men to South America in the war’s aftermath, such as the ratlines engineered by the likes of Bishop Alois Hudal and Father Krunoslav Draganovic.

Hudal and Draganovic were pro-Axis members of the Catholic Church, which controversially turned a blind eye to their actions (and those of many other affiliated individuals) in sheltering and procuring passage for the likes of wartime Croatian Ustasha dictator Ante Pavolovic and Nazis heavily associated with the extermination of Jews such as Adolf Eichmann, Franz Stangl and Alois Brunner. Also heavily involved was Argentine president Juan Peron, who issued Visas by the thousand to welcome such individuals into his country with open arms.

Few of the organisers or the subjects were ever brought to justice outside of independent actions by Nazi hunters or covert operations by the Israeli government, their crimes largely ignored by the Americans and Soviets as the Cold War took centre stage.