These Nazi war criminals escaped trial and lived a life on the run in Latin America
In 1945, when WWII ended and everybody was trying to recover after everything, plenty of Nazi war criminals managed to escape prison. Among their “favorite” destinations was Latin America. Alois Hudal, a declared Nazi sympathizer and renegade Catholic bishop, helped them escape unnoticed.
The Nuremberg trials brought to light the German leaders who backed the Nazi regime. Out of the 177 defendants, 24 were given the death penalty, 20 were given life sentences, and 98 were given other prison terms. Twenty-five of the defendants were found not guilty, and some were able to get away and will never come back to Europe.
There were also two of the major Nazi war criminals, Hermann Goering and Heinrich Himmler, who committed suicide right before their execution. Curious about details about this topic? Continue reading to learn more about what became of some of the worst Nazi war criminals at the end of World War II.
Joseph Mengele
Without a doubt, Dr. Josef “Angel of Death” Mengele is one of the most famous Nazi war criminals because of the cruel medical tests he did on Jews and Roma prisoners in the Auschwitz death camp. From 1943 on, the qualified doctor worked at the concentration camp and did what Britannica calls “pseudoscientific racial studies.”
Mengele not only did horrifyingly cruel experiments, but he also took part in the “selections,” which meant sending people to the gas chambers because they were too sick or weak to work. Mengele did horrible things in the medical field, like intentionally infecting wounds, killing people so their bodies could be examined, and sterilizing procedures. Mengele posed as a normal German army officer after the war and was locked up for a while in an American POW camp. But he was let go because no one knew where he came from.
He then worked on farms in Germany for four years under a fake name. He went to Argentina in 1949 because he was afraid of being arrested there. In 1959, he actually became an Argentine citizen under his real name. But he found out that police in West Germany and Israel were after him, so he went to Paraguay and then Brazil.
Unfortunately, he was never caught and convicted for these war crimes, and until his last day on Earth, he lived in Brazil. He died because of a stroke while swimming in 1979.
Franz Stangl
Franz Stangl, the youngest master weaver in his native Austria, seemed poised for success. After a sudden shift in focus, he joined the Austrian police and joined the Nazi Party in 1935, when the party was still illegal in the nation. Stangl joined the Nazi Gestapo after Hitler annexed Austria in 1938. He now participated in the savage T4 Euthanasia project, which targeted and killed disabled people.
Because of his unusual white uniform, Stangl was nicknamed “White Death” by the inmates at Sobibór. In addition to Sobibór, he oversaw the equally horrifying death camp at Treblinka. He was one of the Nazi war criminals who After escaping from prison, he went to Italy. There, Bishop Hudal, who supported the Nazis, helped him get to Syria, which was a safe place for him for the moment.
However, he and his family relocated to Brazil in 1951. After being found by Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, Stangl was brought back to West Germany in 1967, and he was found guilty and given a life sentence.
Erich Priebke
Not many people know about Erich Priebke, but I will tell you his story and how this Nazi criminal managed to disappear until 1994. Members of the Italian resistance in Rome detonated a bomb in a garbage cart in March 1944 as part of a prearranged operation that killed 28 Nazi police officers and injured 100 more, with more people dying from their wounds later.
Hitler personally ordered retaliation, and 335 men were captured, transported to the Ardeatine Caves in Rome, and brutally shot in the back of the head. Erich Priebke, an SS captain, was one of the Nazis who committed the murders. Priebke was imprisoned at a British prisoner-of-war camp at the end of World War II, but he managed to get out. With the assistance of the infamous Bishop Alois Hudal, he traveled to Argentina.
Before being exposed in 1994 by an ABC TV investigation, he lived in peace with his family in his adopted nation. He was then extradited to Italy and given a life sentence in 1998. He was permitted to complete his sentence under house arrest, much to the ire of many, on the grounds of age and infirmity. In 2013, he passed away at the age of 100.
Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann, one of the most notorious Nazi war criminals, has been living under a false identity in Argentina since 1948. For those who aren’t familiar with this name, Eichmann led a modest life as a traveling salesman in Austria before rising to the position of high-ranking Nazi. He joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and worked his way up to a senior position in the Jewish affairs division of the Reich Security Central Office. His “job” during Nazi Germany was to transport the Jews from all over Europe to concentration camps in Poland. Hence his nickname “Holocaust architect.”
Eichmann was captured by the Americans following the end of World War II, but he somehow escaped in 1946 and lived in Germany for several years under a false identity before relocating to Argentina in 1948.
However, Mossad agents abducted him and spirited him to Israel in 1960 after learning of his location. He continuously denied his guilt while he was on trial. However, the court gave him a death sentence, and in 1962, he was hanged—the only time the death penalty was ever applied in Israel and we can all understand why.
Gustav Wagner
When the Sobibór camp first opened in 1942, Gustav Wagner was there to oversee its construction, which included constructing gas chambers. In particular, Sobibór was charged with reducing SS officers from the difficult duty of shooting Jews to death. Only 34 out of the 250,000 individuals transported to Sobibór in railroad cattle trucks managed to escape alive.
There were also rumors that he murdered children in front of their parents before they reached the camp.
Wagner was released from the American prisoner-of-war camp after a brief stay in 1945. He fled to Syria with his former boss, Stangl, in 1948. Four years later, he began a new life in Brazil using his real identity.
He wasn’t that lucky because the Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, however, found him in Brazil in 1978 and imprisoned him while German and Israeli extradition requests were being processed. Cowardly Wagner managed to trick justice by ending his life in 1980.
As I am collaborating with the team from Historical Files, I have written over 10 articles about Nazi Germany, Hitler, and his loyal followers, as well as their war crimes. This topic is so horrific and controversial that new aspects of it will likely continue to be uncovered. I said multiple times, and our loyal readers already know it; since I was a kid, I have been an avid reader of history books; I binge-watched documentaries a lot in my free time, and despite this, I still find myself amazed by how many things happened in WWII, and many people still don’t know about them.
If you’ve been following us for a while, you know that we’re always on the lookout for new topics to explore and historical stories worth sharing. I also enjoy recommending books related to our articles, which is why I searched for this book today.
The Nuremberg Trials: The Nazis and Their Crimes Against Humanity, written by Paul Roland, shows how true evil exists in our world, and much worse, how all these Nazi war criminals never showed a minor sign of remorse, completely denying their contribution to one of the worst eras of humanity. The book is available in all formats: paperback, Kindle, and hardcover on Amazon.
Are there any Nazi war criminals you would like to know about? Let me know in the comments.
Related: 6 Must-See Nazi Relics Located Across the USA.
