Argentine documentary sheds light on mystery of Nazi gold
By Hernan di Bello

Buenos Aires, Oct 7 (EFE) - A new Argentine documentary presents images and testimonies that shed light on the mystery surrounding a huge cache of gold supposedly brought to South America by escaping Nazis following World War II.

"Oro nazi en Argentina" (Nazi Gold in Argentina), which will compete in several international film festivals before appearing in cinemas, is the first documentary to look at the subject "from a Latin American point of view," director Rolo Pereyra told EFE on Thursday.

Pereyra researched the film for 10 years and faced the challenge "of discovering unknown elements. A lot was said about the Nazis' arrival in the country, but nothing about the gold they brought."

The film - shot last year in Argentina, Spain, Switzerland, Italy and Germany - was invited to participate in this month's Sao Paulo International Film Festival.

"We're taking the film to the festival in Brussels in November and will probably be in Toulouse (France) in March," production director Daniel Botti said.

Inspiration for the movie came from the book "Odessa al sur," by Argentine journalist Jorge Camarasa, which recounts the activities in South America of Odessa, an organization of former SS officers that facilitated the escape from Europe of high-ranking Nazis after World War II.

The new documentary not only offers proof of the arrival of Nazi war criminals in Argentina, but also of the fortunes Adolf Hitler's supporters took with them from Europe.

"There are isolated facts. It is known that a person exchanged what would be worth $500 million today near here and another brought in a like amount," Pereyra said, adding that "there were people in charge of whitewashing all this information."

The film's approximately 30 witness accounts, some of them never seen before, shed light on the participation of Swiss banks and the Vatican in the transfer of Nazi loot to South America.

Among those interviewed was Wilfred von Oven, a Bolivian-born German who fought on the Fascist side in the Spanish Civil War before becoming an adviser to Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. The 95-year-old lives in Argentina and "is still a fervent Nazi sympathizer," Pereyra said.

"By chance, we also spoke with one of Erich Priebke's sons when we filmed the house" in Argentine Patagonia where the former SS captain once lived. The elder Priebke is now jailed in Italy for leading the wartime massacre at the Ardeatine caves in Rome.

Pereyra said that although the story concentrates on the 1946-1955 rule of Juan Peron, an Argentine general who admired Prussian military discipline, the documentary "does not stop there but demonstrates that the ties continued."

"It was always suspected that Peron took part of this money, but that isn't clear, although it is clear that he knew about these matters. Most of the Nazi gold arrived at this time (between 1946 and 1955) and was later taken to the United States, secretly and silently," he added.

To enrich the movie's "visual language," the director used photographs and film clips as well as "dramatizations that lend mystery to the plot without abandoning the work's documentary rigor."

Pereyra added that "hidden cameras" are also used, permitting access to the estates of those highly implicated in the management of the Nazi plunder and "microfilm from the United States that was was recently declassified after 50 years."

The documentary also includes statements by Argentine scholars like Camarasa, Uki Goņi and Beatriz Urevich, as well as Jean Ziegler of Switzerland, "an expert in the role Swiss banks had in this affair."

After opening at Argentine movie theaters at the end of next April, production chief Botti said, "the film will surely be seen on European and U.S. television," thanks to a strategic alliance between the local production company Ledafilms and U.S. cable giant HBO.