how did a hate group that ran an entire country seemingly disappear into thin air spoiler alert they didn't while world war ii has fascinated historians and the public light since 1945 what happened to the perpetrators of one of the greatest evils of all time is less often discussed today on nutty history we're examining the hard truth about what happened to the nazis after world war ii after the allied victory in world war ii germany was divided into zones of occupation between the us britain france and the soviet union the allies adopted various policies under the general plan of denotification denotification was a plan implemented to rid german and austrian society from nazi power and influence life for detained nazis was not equal depending on the zone they lived in the soviet internment camps had the poorest conditions this prompted many to attempt to relocate to one of the western zones under the guise of anti-communist sentiments of the most western zones french occupied germany was the most lenient area in their view germany as a whole was responsible for the war and they put less importance on classifying between nazis and non-nazis in the five years following the war about four 000 germans were detained in internment camps while awaiting possible penalties this sounds like a lot at first but when you consider that up to 45 million germans at the time were either members or supporters of the nazi party something doesn't add up the problem with denotification was one of sheer magnitude there were simply too many germans involved to process who had done what imagine an entire country in line at the dmv that's the kind of bureaucratic sluggishness we're talking about another issue was rebuilding germany's economy according to denotification rules offenders were to be removed from higher ranking jobs and forced to do manual labor but if every nazi and nazi sympathizer was held responsible there literally wouldn't be enough skilled workers for a functioning society in the british zone for instance it was found that 90 of lawyers were nazis since they couldn't very well have a functioning society without any law or order britain determined that 50 percent of the german legal civil services could be staffed by nominal nazis nazis but not nazi nazis the french zone encountered a similar problem with teachers after firing three-quarters of teachers due to nazi influence they had to re-hire them in order to have an education system reconstructing a country while simultaneously trying to categorize and penalize a large number of culpable citizens was far from a simple process when denotification began eisenhower an army general at the time estimated the process would take 50 years but by 1946 the allied powers had handed over the reigns of denotification to germany wait what yep germany was now in charge of enforcing their own punishment a popular destination for the worst of the worst nazis south america contained many sympathetic dictators at the time who opened their proverbial doors up to 9 000 nazi officials and collaborators are thought to have escaped to south america after the war while brazil and chile had their fair share of exiles argentina by far had the most juan peron the argentine president was a pretty big fan of fascism himself especially after serving as a military attache in italy early on in world war ii he also sought to grow his own country's power by recruiting those with particular military and technical expertise perron and his government officials worked to create rat lines for not to escape through the ports in italy and spain he also aided in forging documents for leaving the country most of the nazis made their way down the pacific using falsified red cross passports staffed with argentine tourist visas once they were in argentina most nazis changed their name for time to go into hiding but some resume living under the real names as it became clear that argentina would not extradite them back to germany even if their identity was discovered of course argentina wasn't the only country to poach nazis for their own gain as an arms race began between the united states and the soviet union collecting expert scientists and engineers became a higher priority to their respective governments than punishing crimes against humanity in 1945 the u. s had secretly enacted the program operation paper clip to take german scientists and engineers back to the mainland many of them nazis essentially as human weapons near the end of the war germany had realized the need for these skills and german scientist benner osenberg created a list of identifying names a polish lab technician ended up finding the list torn up in a toilet which eventually made its way from m16 to u. s intelligence in addition to wanting these people for their own side another crucial motivation of operation paperclip was preventing the soviets from gaining their technical expertise while called an evacuation operation identified targets were essentially kidnapped and forced to the u.
s where they were held for months at a time for interrogation still many of these literal rocket scientists went on to have incredibly successful careers in the us and were part of the nasa space program despite a suspected high level of nazi involvement among them [Music] for the most serious offenders that hadn't managed to escape into hiding the nuremberg trials prosecuted nazis in 1946 for war crimes crimes against humanity and wars of aggression these trials were important for determining international law specifically when it came to prosecuting war crimes they were also a crucial step in holding some of the most common criminals responsible for the holocaust the first and most well-known trial indicted 24 men with outcomes ranging from acquittal to 10 years imprisonment to execution 12 were sentenced to death while the trials represented justice for some 12 men receiving capital punishment pales in comparison to the millions that died in the holocaust and the large number of perpetrators that were never held responsible for their actions some have criticized the legality of the nuremberg trials calling them an example of victor's justice and judicially invalid other criticisms have pointed to a hypocrisy of allied nations prosecuting crimes against humanity after their own various wartime actions [Music] after the allied powers gave up their denotification efforts after only a few months germany was tasked with the challenge though they were still occupied by ally countries unsurprisingly germany adopted a looser set of rules when it came to identifying and punishing nazis anyone born after 1919 was considered brainwashed and exempt from punishment of the public officials that the u. s had removed from office 75 percent were reinstated and to avoid getting bogged down by the lengthy and pesky business of trials 90 of nazis were classified as lesser offenders by 1948 the cold war had become a greater concern for the us and any remaining cases were sped through with proceedings that were legally sketchy at best by 1951 denotification ended and emphasis shifted toward paying reparations to victims and their families from pardons and amnesties enacted by the german government nearly 800 000 people were freed from any punishment or penalty so was germany finally denotified at the german ministry of justice at the time 77 of senior officials were former nazis post-war some of the most notorious nazis managed to go into hiding and later escape germany while some lived entire lives getting away with mass murder other big names were captured by nazi hunters who popped up to deliver justice to war criminals who were living anonymously adolf eichmann the mastermind behind hitler's final solution and network of concentration camps led to buenos aires where he worked in a mercedes-benz automotive plant and lived with his wife and four children it wasn't until 1960 that eichmann was captured by israeli agents drugging him and flying him out of argentina disguised as an israeli airline worker who'd suffered a head trauma despite protests for his return from argentina eichmann was later tried and executed in israel not all nazi hunters were government operatives however simon wiesenthal a holocaust survivor turned nazi hunter tracked down franz steingel in sao paulo steinwool was held responsible for the action t4 euthanasia program that killed those with mental and physical disabilities after wiesenthal discovered him stangle was extradited to west germany and sentenced to wife imprisonment as late as 2019 in the united states jacqui pali was deported from the country at 95 years old an historian at the u.
