Buenos Aires - 10 June 2005
Since December 2002, the Argentine government has received a series of appeals from the Wiesenthal Center, the Wallenberg Foundation and from author Uki Goņi for the release of 58 secret Nazi-related files. The appeals are based on Goņi's research for his book The Real Odessa. So far, three of the requested documents have been released. Below is a description of the requested documents:
-1) Directive 11: In 1938, the Argentine Foreign Ministry issued 'Directive 11', a secret order denying visas to Jews fleeing Nazi persecution. The existence of this order was first revealed in The Real Odessa in 2002, leading the Wiesenthal Center and the Wallenberg Foundation to appeal its release. In April 2005, Goņi wrote a letter to Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa requesting the abolishment of this inhuman order. His appeal received the support of leading Argentine intellectuals and of Jews who were forced to enter Argentina illegally because of the secret order.
-2) Argentine 'Saviours': In July 2001, a plaque was unveiled at Argentina's Foreign Ministry honouring 12 Argentine diplomats alleged to have saved Jews during the Holocaust. In fact, one of these diplomats refused to save 100 Argentine Jews that the Nazis wanted to hand over to the Argentine Embassy in Berlin for repatriatriation to Argentina. In the face of this refusal, Eichmann ordered the Argentines to be transferred to Bergen-Belsen. The remaining diplomats on the plaque, it was discovered, were being honoured in their majority for the renewal of passports of other Argentine Jews in Europe, or for granting visas to non-Argentine Jews already outside the territory of the Reich. In November 2002, the Wallenberg Foundation asked the Argentine government to provide documentary evidence that these 12 diplomats had actually saved anybody. A similar appeal was presented by the Wiesenthal Center.
-3) Caggiano-Tisserant Talks: In 1946, Argentine Cardinal Antonio Caggiano met in Rome with Vatican Cardinal Eugene Tisserant. In the name of the Argentine government, Caggiano offered to rescue fugitive French war criminals, who promptly started moving to Argentina. The first fugitive French criminal arrived on the same ship that brought Caggiano back to Buenos Aires. In December 2002, the Wiesenthal Center asked the Argentine Foreign Ministry and the Argentine Episcopal Conference for the release of all documentation related to the Caggiano-Tisserant talks.
-4) State Intelligence Documents: In December 2002, the Wiesenthal Center appealed to Argentina's SIDE state secret service for the release of two sets of documents:
a) The files of the Information Bureau, the predecessor of the SIDE, which between 1946 and 1949 was in charge of rescuing Nazi war criminals from Europe.
b) Documentation regarding four war criminals (Roschmann, de Mahieu, Dumandzic and Ingrand) who requested Argentine citizenship (in order to obtain Argentine citizenship, applicants had to pass an 'ideological' inspection by the SIDE).
-5) Immigration Documents: In December 2002, the Wiesenthal Center asked for the release of 49 secret numbered immigration files compiled by Goņi, pertaining to suspects and notorious war criminals such as Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele.