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Accessing records to trace how those Nazis escaped arrest

The arrest of Adolph Eichmann in Argentina back in the 1960's is well known......as is his eventual trial in Israel. The question which has intrigued historians for years is how all those Nazis escaped Germany, mainly to South America, at the end of WW2.

A recent decision in a German court may lead to answers, as Spiegel OnLine International reports:

"Germany's secret service has lost a court battle to keep secret thousands of potentially embarrassing files on Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann. Even though it remains unclear when and how many of the files will be opened, the ruling sets a precedent that could force Germany to reveal the full extent of collusion between West German authorities and fugitive Nazis half a century ago.

A German court has ruled against a decision by the country's foreign intelligence service, the BND, to keep classified thousands of files on Adolf Eichmann, one of the main organizers of the Holocaust.

A German freelance journalist based in Argentina, Gabriele Weber, has been seeking access to the BND's 3,400 documents on Eichmann, who escaped to Argentina after the war, was abducted by Israeli agents in 1960, put on trial in Israel and hanged. She took legal action after the BND refused to open the Eichmann files on the grounds that disclosure would damage Germany's national interests.

The BND's refusal to open the files, which date back to the 1950s and 1960s, has triggered speculation that they contain embarrassing information about possible collusion between West German authorities and former Nazis in the 1950s and 1960s.

The Federal Administrative Court in the city of Leipzig ruled on Friday that the refusal to declassify the files was unlawful. "The reasons given for keeping them classified were only partly justified by the contents of the files and did not permit withholding them completely," the court said in a statement issued on Friday.

Historians say the files could show whether West German authorities knew about Eichmann's whereabouts long before his capture, or even helped him. German law enforcement and intelligence agencies had many former Nazis, including SS and Gestapo officers, working in senior positions after the war."

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