In late 2002, the Wiesenthal Center asked the Argentine government to open 58 Nazi-related secret documents. Of these, 49 were immigration dossiers of World War II criminals and suspected war criminals who entered the country under the protection of former president Juan Perón.

The files, containing the voluminous paperwork for the entry of SS criminals such as Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele, among others, were reportedly kept in a special safe for secret documents at Argentina's Immigrations Office.

In 1998, Immigrations refused access to these dossiers to writer Uki Goñi, who was researching material for his book The Real Odessa. Goñi was nonetheless able to identify 49 such 'secret' numbered files.

Current situation:

• Two of the 49 requested dosssiers were opened in July 2003.
  
• A total of 21 others, including those of Eichmann and Mengele, remain hidden.
  
• According to documentation opened by Immigrations, the remaining 26 files were incinerated years ago. (Of these, 22 are stated as having been incinerated in 1958, three in 1967, and one, the file of SS criminal Josef Schwammberger, is confusingly reported as having been incinerated twice, first in 1958 and again in 1967).