thumb|upright=1.68|Italian passport used by SS officer [[Josef Mengele to immigrate to Argentina under a false name]]

The ratlines () were systems of escape routes used by Nazis and their collaborators to flee Europe from 1945 onwards in the aftermath of World War II. These routes mainly led toward havens in South Americaparticularly Argentinain addition to Brazil, Chile, and Paraguay. Some escapees also settled at the various transfer points or used them to flee elsewhere.

Two primary routes from Germany to South America developed independently with their operators eventually collaborating; the first transferred through Spain and the second through Rome and Genoa. The ratlines were supported by some clergy of the Catholic Church, such as Austrian bishop Alois Hudal and Croatian priest Krunoslav Draganović, as well as some outlets of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The Nazis paid Argentine officials (starting ) to shield their agents, bolstering the rise of Juan Perón, whose regime set up additional ratlines through Scandinavia and Switzerland.

Significant Nazis and their collaborators escaped, including Ustaše leader Ante Pavelić, as well as SS officers Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele, both perpetrators of the Holocaust. Starting in 1947, the United States utilized Draganović's network and an official at the International Refugee Organization to aid the escape of some Soviet defectors and informants, as well as Gestapo leader Klaus Barbie (who had traded intel with the U.S. Army while being held in Austria). Decades later, the ratlines remain a subject of investigation

In early 2025, Argentine president Javier Milei met with representatives from the SWC, who requested in conjunction with the Judiciary Committee for cooperation in the latter's investigation of Credit Suisse's Nazi patronage. In May 2025, United Press International reported that these files indicate that the Nazis may have bribed Perón's government with USD $200 million in gold, some of which was allegedly delivered via before being delivered to Eva Perón. The funds were reportedly handled by German "bankers" said to include Rodolfo Freude. The court associated the boxes with those impounded from the MS Nana Maru in June 1941, but Argentine historian Julio Mutti pointed out that the party memberships seem instead to match the material confiscated during the July 1941 raids on Nazi offices in Argentina.

Role of U.S. intelligence

thumb|upright|SS-Obersturmführer [[Klaus Barbie]]

Although the CIC arrested Father Vilim Cecelja (who provided some Ustaše with false identities) in October 1945, the U.S. agency reportedly helped some of the Croatian nationalists flee from Europe. The CIC is also estimated to have aided the escapes of perhaps 70 Soviet defectors and informants to South America, as well as Klaus Barbie, Meanwhile, he learned about the Austria-based Document Disposal Unit (DDU), a U.S. State Department intelligence unit led by CIA director Allen Dulles and staffed with Office of Strategic Services (OSS) men, also sometimes operating as War Department or OSS entities.

<blockquote>visitors who had been in the custody of the 430th CIC and completely processed in accordance with current directives and requirements, and whose continued residence in Austria constituted a security threat as well as a source of possible embarrassment to the Commanding General of [the U.S. Forces in Austria], since the Soviet Command had become aware [of] their presence in [the] US Zone of Austria and in some instances had requested the return of these persons to Soviet custody.&nbsp;... [Draganović] handled all phases of the operation after the defectees arrived in Rome, such as the procurement of IRO Italian and South American documents, visas, stamps, arrangements for disposition, land or sea, and notification of resettlement committees in foreign lands.</blockquote>

According to the CIC, Draganović charged fees for his role in the escapes: USD&nbsp;$500 per child, $1,000 per adult, $1,400 for a very important person and over $1,500 for individuals older than 60.

Ratline escapees

Notable Nazis and war criminals who escaped using the ratlines include:<!--Alphabetical by last name-->

  • Andrija Artuković (Ustaše official) entered the U.S. as a tourist . After decades of overstaying his visa and resulting legal battles, he was arrested in 1984 and extradited to SFR Yugoslavia in 1986, where he died in prison in 1988. In 1983, he was extradited to France,
  • Alois Brunner (SS officer) fled to Syria, where he died perhaps as late as 2010.
  • László Csatáry (Nazi collaborator) fled to Canada. His citizenship was stripped in 1997 and he fled, but was placed under house arrest in 2012. He died the next year while awaiting trial.
  • Herberts Cukurs (Nazi collaborator) fled to Brazil by 1946. He was assassinated by Mossad agents in Uruguay in 1965.
  • Léon Degrelle (SS officer) intended to flee to South America in 1945, but his escape plane crashed at the Spain rendezvous. He was detained, but fled his hospital in 1946 while recovering. He died in Spain in 1994.
  • Adolf Eichmann (SS officer) fled to Argentina in 1950. He was captured in 1960 and executed in Israel on 1 June 1962.
  • Hans Fischböck (Nazi collaborator) escaped to Argentina before returning to Europe under amnesty
  • Aribert Heim (SS doctor) fled Germany in 1962 and most likely died in Egypt in 1992.
  • Friedrich Kadgien (Nazi collaborator) escaped with loot to Switzerland in 1945, later going to Brazil and around 1950 Buenos Aires, where he died in 1978.
  • Olavi Karpalo (SS volunteer) fled to Venezuela , dying there in 1988.
  • Michael Kast (NSDAP member, army soldier) fled to Chile in 1950 and died there in 2014.
  • Aarne Kauhanen (Nazi collaborator) fled to Venezuela . He was arrested in 1947 and died in 1949.
  • Reinhard Kopps (Nazi intelligence officer) fled to Argentina and was able to support neo-Nazi groups in Germany. He was exposed by the SWC in the early 1990s.
  • Josef Mengele (SS officer) fled to Argentina in 1949, then to Paraguay around 1960 and then Brazil, where he died in 1979.
  • Ante Pavelić (founder of the Ustaše) escaped to Argentina in 1948, surviving an assassination attempt in 1957, then moved to Spain, where he died from his wounds.
  • Erich Priebke (SS officer) fled to Argentina and was arrested there in 1994. In 2013, he died at the age of 100 during his house arrest in Rome.
  • Walter Rauff (SS officer) fled to Ecuador then Chile, where he was shielded by dictator Augusto Pinochet and where he died in 1984.
  • Eduard Roschmann (SS officer) escaped to Argentina in 1948, then to Paraguay, where he died in 1977.
  • Hans-Ulrich Rudel (Nazi pilot) fled to Argentina in 1948 and aided other fugitives. He later moved to Paraguay and died in Germany in 1982.
  • Dinko Šakić (Ustaše official) fled to Spain then Argentina in 1947. He was arrested in 1998 and extradited to Croatia. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity. He died in 2008.
  • Otto Skorzeny (SS officer) escaped an internment camp in 1948 and fled to Spain. He made many trips to Argentina, serving as a bodyguard for Eva Perón. He died in Spain in 1975.
  • Boris Smyslovsky (Nazi collaborator) fled to Argentina in 1948 from neutral Liechtenstein, where he later returned and died in 1988.
  • Franz Stangl (SS officer) fled to Syria in 1948 then Brazil in 1951. He was arrested in 1967 and extradited to West Germany, where he died in 1971.
  • Ludolf von Alvensleben (SS officer) fled to Argentina . Although Poland sentenced him to death in absentia, he evaded justice by remaining in Argentina until his death in 1970.
  • Gustav Wagner (SS officer) fled to Brazil in 1950 and was arrested there in 1978. The country refused to extradite him and he committed suicide in 1980.

Fictional works about the ratlines include a novel by Stuart Neville and stories based on Hitler's alleged escape, the hypothetical ODESSA organization and/or the Fourth Reich. They also inspired the revived Galactic Empire (led by a resurrected Palpatine, a villain largely modeled on Hitler) in the Star&nbsp;Wars sequel trilogy (2015–2019).

Since late 2024, the ratlines have sometimes been satirically invoked by comedians in relation to U.S. president Donald Trump and his father, Fred Trump. After Donald claimed that his father had told him never to say "Nazi" or "Hitler", In early 2025, after Trump declared that the U.S. would provide $20–40&nbsp;billion to Argentina, Colin&nbsp;Jost jested that Trump administration officials might be preparing to flee there. In mid-2026, news outlet The Daily Beast made the comparison about businessman Peter Thiel, a Trump ally who relocated to Argentina with his family.

See also

  • Nazism in the Americas
  • U.S. intelligence involvement with German and Japanese war criminals after World War II
  • War criminals in Canada

References

Footnotes

Citations

;Sources

  • Sachslehner, Johannes (2019). Hitlers Mann im Vatikan: Bischof Alois Hudal. Ein dunkles Kapitel in der Geschichte der Kirche. Vienna-Graz: Molden, 2019. .

Further reading

  • Birn, Ruth Bettina. Review of Goñi, Uki, Odessa: Die wahre Geschichte: Fluchthilfe für NS-Kriegsverbrecher and Schneppen, Heinz, Odessa und das Vierte Reich: Mythen der Zeitgeschichte. H-Soz-u-Kult, H-Net Reviews. October, 2007.
  • Breitman, Richard; Goda, Norman J. W.; Naftali, Timothy; and Wolfe, Robert (2005). U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis. Cambridge University Press; .
  • Graham, Robert and Alvarez, David. (1998). Nothing Sacred: Nazi Espionage against the Vatican, 1939–1945. London: Frank Cass.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed -->
  • Loftus, John. (2010). America's Nazi Secret: An Insider's History. Waterwille: (Trine Day); .
  • Simpson, Christopher (1988). Blowback: The First Full Account of America's Recruitment of Nazis and Its Disastrous Effect on The cold war, Our Domestic and Foreign Policy. New York: (Grove/Atlantic); .
  • Steinacher, Gerald (2006). The Cape of Last Hope: The Flight of Nazi War Criminals through Italy to South America, in Eisterer, Klaus and Günter Bischof (eds; 2006) Transatlantic Relations: Austria and Latin America in the 19th and 20th Century (Transatlantica 1), pp.&nbsp;203–24. New Brunswick: Transatlantica.
  • Steinacher, Gerald (2012; P/B edition). Nazis on the Run: How Hitler's Henchmen Fled Justice. Oxford University Press; .
  • Wiesenthal, Simon (1989). Justice not Vengeance. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.