199 “direct pay of Berlin”: In 1945, the former diplomat Prince Stephan of Schaumburg-Lippe (an SS lieutenant colonel—who thus outranked the German ambassador to Argentina, Edmund von Thermann) would tell the war crimes commission in Berlin of some specific checks among many such payments: check number 463803, dated June 26, 1941, made out to Eva Duarté in the amount of $33,600; and check number 682117, dated June 30, to Col. Juan Domingo Perón in the sum of $200,000. In 1942, “Evita” was able to buy her own apartment at 1567 Calle Posadas in the exclusive Buenos Aires neighborhood of Recoleta; see Roberto Vacca, Eva Perón (Buenos Aires: Centro Editor de América Latina, 1971). Von Thermann, the former German ambassador, would confirm the handing over of such payments. He told war crimes investigators that one of the embassy’s messengers was the personal representative of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler and that one of Thermann’s own valets—he was never able to find out which—was the highest-ranking officer in the spy service, in direct communication with Reichsleiter Martin Bormann at the Reich Chancellery. See Silvano Santander, Técnica de una Traición [The Technique of Treachery]: Juan D. Perón y Eva Duarté—Agentes del Nazismo en la Argentina (Montevideo, Uruguay: Editorial Antygua 1953); see two notes down, and Von Thermann’s testimony detailed in online PDF entitled “Vier Prinzen zu Schaumburg-Lippe,” listing Supplement of January 15, 1946 to the Consolidated Interrogation Report No. 4, Attachment 76: “Partial List of Purchases for Linz Made in Germany,” http://edocs.fuberlin.de/docs/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/FUDOCS_derivate_000000000030/ vierprinzen_letzte_fassung_copia.pdf;jsessionid=452DFAE5507E3516FFD859EB792902B6?hosts=, hosted by Freie Universität, Berlin. The “authorized version” of Evita’s life has her meeting Juan Perón only in May 1944 during relief work following the San Juan earthquake; the documents studied by Santander refute this date. 201 “tirelessly in exile”: Ladislas Farago, Aftermath: Martin Bormann and the Fourth Reich (New York: Simon & Shuster, 1974). Santander, like other Argentine politicians opposed to the Péron regime, had to go into exile on several occasions. After the war he worked closely with the Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal and was hailed as a “staunch and liberal friend of the Jews” (Jewish Telegraph Agency, Buenos Aires, December 3, 1964). 201 Santander’s published work: After publication, in Montevideo in 1953, of Santander’s book Técnica de una Traición, there was a concerted effort to silence him. His work was dismissed by several Argentine historians, and the (U.S.-authenticated) documents that he quoted were denounced as “communist fakes”; however, none of the libel suits against him succeeded. In 1956, Santander went back to West Germany to look for further proof of the Nazis’ transfer of their wealth to Argentina with Perón’s complicity. On December 26 that year, the German news magazine Der Spiegel published a virulent attack on him titled “The Painstaking Forger.” Many of Santander’s 1953 accusations in Técnica de una Traición have subsequently been proved true by the work of researchers, including the authors of this book, as well as by the testimony of contemporary sources such as Von Thermann and Gerda von Arenstorff. 201 Von Thermann’s memorandum: Santander, Técnica de una Traición. 201 “Siemens & Haske T43 encryption machine”: Based on the reports that the final messages from Berchtesgaden were to agents in South America, discussed in Mitchell, Hitler’s Mountain. 202 “We always let them win”: Santander, Técnica de una Traición. Also “Final Interrogation Report of Edmund Freiherr von Thermann,” July 11, 1945, NARA, Record Group 59, Records of the Department of State, 862.20235/7-1145. Regarding Niebuhr’s naval rank, “captain” is our translation of Kapitän zur See—see “Treatment of Military Ranks” on p. xiv. 2 0 2 Delfino shipping: Manning, Bormann; also “Axis Espionage and Propaganda in Latin America,” NARA, Record Group 319, Records of the Army Staff, Records of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, Military Intelligence Division. Separate Binder. Quoted in R. L. McGaha, “The Politics of Espionage: Nazi Diplomats and Spies in Argentina, 1933–1945” (PhD dissertation, Ohio University, 2009): “The F.B.I. suspected that the Delfino company and Sandstede’s office were a cover for the movement of German agents, funds, and propaganda materials from Europe to South America.… Sandstede used his cover as a Casa Delfino employee to spy for the Nazis.” 203 “recalled to Berlin”: Time magazine, “Argentina: Hunting a Nazi,” September 8, 1941. See also http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,849464,00.html. 203 “simply waved through”: Santander, Técnica de una Traición. 203 Damonte report: Damonte Taborda, cited in Chase, Falange. Time magazine (see two notes above) suggested that it would not be long before Ambassador von Thermann would have to “pack his trunks.” This expectation was premature by a year. 203 “enjoy the trust of the Nazi agents”: Santander, Técnica de una Traición. 204 Faupel’s voyage: Paul Meskil, Hitler’s Heirs (New York: Pyramid Books, 1961); Santander, Técnica de una Traición. 204 Scasso: Marysa Navarro Gerassi, “Argentine Nationalism of the Right,” Studies in Comparative International Development 1, no. 12 (1965). 204 “maintain it at all costs”: Santander, Técnica de una Traición. 205 Meynen-Niebuhr correspondence: Ibid. 206 “To hell with the U.S.”: Time magazine, “The Americas: Misunderstood Argentina,” September 20, 1943, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,774570,00.html. 206 “Vice President Perón moved into overdrive”: Joseph Page, Perón: A Biography (London: Random House, 1983). 207 Goebbels’s article: Das Reich, March 26, 1944, from Sayers and Kahn, Plot Against the Peace. 207 Perón’s vision: Sayers and Kahn, Plot Against the Peace. 2 0 7 “threat of an Allied trade embargo”: Time magazine, “Argentina: Action Ahead,” July 10, 1944, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,791494,00.html. See also Roosevelt’s letter to Winston Churchill at docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/PSF/BOX37/a335bb02.html. Britain’s continuing desperate need for food imports in the immediate postwar years, when food rationing was even more severe than during the war, may explain the unwillingness of British governments to draw attention to Argentina’s postwar dealings with Nazis refugees. 208 1944 Freude-Faupel correspondence: Santander, Técnica de una Traición. 209 “he would meet Martin Bormann there”: Authors’ conversation with Jorge Silvio Adeodato Colotto, Perón’s former police bodyguard, Buenos Aires, 2008. 2 0 9 Paul Ascher: “German Disembarkation at San Clemente del Tuyu,” declassified Argentine document, Coordinación Federal CF-OP-2315 from Central de Reunión to Navy Ministry, April 18, 1945, Argentine National Archive in Buenos Aires. For facsimile copy, see Farago, Aftermath. Captain junior grade is our translation of Fregattenkapitän—see “Treatment of Military Ranks” on p. xiv. 209 Hermann Göring: U.S. State Department report, 1945. Cited in Chesnoff, Pack of Thieves. See also Corky Siemaszko, “Memo Hit Swiss Over Nazi Loot,” New York Daily News, December 5, 1996, http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/1996/12/ 05/1996-12-05_memo_hit_swiss_over_nazi_loot.html. 209 “weapons to Spanish Republicans”: Antony Beevor, The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939 (London: Phoenix, 2006). 209 $10 million of Göring’s loot: Declassified MI5 (Security Service) document, 2007; interrogation of Ernesto Hoppe, KV 2/ 2636, The National Archives, Kew, London. Following a tip from an MI6 (Secret Intelligence Service) agent in Argentina, Hoppe, a naturalized Argentinean of German birth, was arrested in Gibraltar aboard a ship sailing from Bilbao to Buenos Aires and interrogated at length. Hoppe, code-named “Herold,” eventually told his interrogators that his mission was to receive about forty boxes of Nazi contraband that were to be delivered at a coastal landing point by the crew of a U-boat and then loaded into a truck for transport to Buenos Aires. There, depending on the markings on the boxes, they were to be delivered to a bank, to a house in the suburb of Villa Ballester in Buenos Aires—owned by two Nazi brothers—and to another address. While conceding Hoppe’s courage and resourcefulness, MI5 concluded that he was an unprincipled rogue equally willing to take pay from Argentina, Germany, or Britain. Hoppe was repatriated to Argentina in October 1945. See also https://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/german-intelligence-agents-and-suspected-agents-5.html and Michael Evans, “‘Unprincipled Ruffian’ Told MI5 of Nazi Plot to Get Gold to Argentina,” Sunday Times, September 4, 2007, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2381177.ece. 209 Joachim von Ribbentrop: Santander, Técnica de una Traición. See also interrogation of Otto Reinebeck, February 4, 1946, NARA, Record Group 59, Records of the Department of State, File 862.20235/4-2646. 210 “The gold alone came to $1.12 billion”: Estimates of value come from multiple sources; see notes passim. 210 “deposits of gold and various currencies”: “German Disembarkation at San Clemente del Tuyu”; for facsimile copy, see Farago, Aftermath. 210 “more than two hundred German companies”: U.S. Government Blue Book on Argentina. 211 “Nazi considered dangerous”: The Associated Press, Washington, DC, April 27, 1946. 211 “Gerda von Arenstorff”: Santander, Técnica de una Traición. 211 Ludwig Freude memo: Ibid. 211 transfers of assets to Argentina: Ibid. 212 “state of siege … retained … and improved on”: Time magazine, “Argentina: End of a Siege,” August 20, 1945, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,797675,00.html. 212 “Argentina was back to normal”: Time magazine, “Argentina: Back to Normalcy,” October 8, 1945, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,776258,00.html. 212 “revelations”: Santander, Técnica de una Traición; “Vier Prinzen zu Schaumburg-Lippe.”
Chapter 18: THE U-BOAT LANDINGS 217 San Carlos de Bariloche: Authors’ multiple visits, 2007–8. 217 “place of exile”: Drew Pearson, “Washington Merry-Go-Round,” Bell Syndicate, December 15, 1943. Until July 1942, Pearson’s syndicated column had been cowritten with Robert S. Allen, who at that time obtained a major’s commission in the U.S. Army. 218 Estancia Moromar near Necochea: Declassified FBI document, August 1, 1945; see page 222. Declassified FBI documents here supplied via http://www.paperlessarchives.com/hitler.html. 2 1 8 “Kay normally ran his operation”: Authors’ multiple visits to Buenos Aires, 2007–8. See also Juan Salinas and Carlos De Napoli, Ultramar Sur: La Ultima Operación secreta del Tercer Reich (Buenos Aires: Grupo Editorial Norma, 2002), and Jorge Camarasa, Puerto Seguro (Safe Haven) (Buenos Aires: Grupo Editorial Norma, 2006). 2 1 8 Schultz, Dettelmann, Brennecke: Depositions to Commission of Enquiry into Nazi Activities in Argentina (CEANA). This was set up by President Carlos Menem in May 1997, with both Argentine and international membership and a broad remit to investigate all aspects mentioned in Parts III and IV of the present book. Schultz, Dettelmann, and Brennecke were engineering and radio ratings, all of whose grades came under the category of Unteroffiziere ohne Portepee—roughly, “junior petty officers.” From documents contained in Camarasa, Puerto Seguro. Original Argentine documents available at http://admiral-graf-spee.blogspot.com. 218 “eight trucks”: Depositions to CEANA; from documents contained in Camarasa, Puerto Seguro. 221 “Interrogated though the night”: Salinas and De Napoli, Ultramar Sur. 222 “Commissioner Mariotti telephoned the chief of police”: Depositions to CEANA; from documents contained in Camarasa, Puerto Seguro. 222 “FBI message”: Declassified FBI documents, Buenos Aires, August 1945. 223 Petty Officer Heinrich Bethe and Capt. Manuel Monasterio: Jeff Kristenssen, Hitler murió en la Argentina [Hitler Died in Argentina]: Operacion Patagonia (El Dios Abandonado) (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Lumiere, 1987). “Jeff Kristenssen” is the pen name of an Argentine former merchant navy officer, congressman, and successful businessman, Capt. Manuel Monasterio. We interviewed Monasterio several times in 2007 and 2008. The retired merchant skipper was then an imposing figure in his mid-eighties, lucid, with a sharp wit, fluent in English, and still involved in the welfare of the elderly in Buenos Aires. Monasterio was convinced by Bethe’s story and promised he would wait ten years until after Bethe’s death before publishing the account. His Hitler murió en la Argentina is a strange book, as it appears almost to have been written by three separate authors. He insists, however, that the main characters, a “Pablo Glocknik” and Dr. Otto Lehmann, were real. Jorge Camasara, in his book Puerto Seguro, identifies “Glocknik” as Heinrich Bethe. On the Admiral Graf Spee crew list there is a Heinrich Bethe, born October 26, 1912, working as a mechanic’s mate in the 6th Division. Capt. Monasterio says that he met “Glocknik” in 1967 at Caleta Olivia on the Patagonian coast; he was looking for someone to fix his car when a local suggested he try the “gringo loco” (mad European), a German mechanic who lived up the road. Possibly because of their shared maritime background, the two men soon hit it off. The captain admits that he made up the name “Pablo Glocknik” to protect his German acquaintance. Patrick Burnside, in his book El Escape de Hitler, gives the false name that Bethe actually used as “Juan Paulovsky,” who is confirmed as having lived and died at Caleta Olivia. Monasterio and Hitler murió en la Argentina are discussed at greater length in the first note for Chapter 23, page 324. 223 “Bethe’s recollections of the U-boat landings”: Kristenssen (Manuel Monasterio), Hitler murió en la Argentina. 223 “Ingeborg Schaeffer replied”: Television interview, Eyeworks Quatre Cabezas, Berlin, 2007. 224 Wermuth’s interrogation report: Interrogation of Otto Wermuth by Argentine authorities. Full reports on U-530, including Wermuth’s interrogation, are available at http://www.uboatarchive.net/U-530NAReport.htm. There is a “Miramar” on the coast of Argentina, some thirty miles from Mar del Plata, but there would be no reason to surrender at this tiny coastal village. It is most likely that this was a typing error for “Moromar,” the estancia near Necochea that housed Hitler on his first night in Argentina. Official translations and documents, such as the interrogation reports from the Nuremberg investigations, are littered with typos far more obvious than this. 224 “within a week of his own arrival”: Ibid. 226 Television interviews with Wilfred von Oven: Unused interview for Channel 4 UK documentary, Secret History: Hitler of the Andes, Barking Mad Productions; also Argentine documentary Oro Nazi en Argentina (Nazi Gold in Argentina), Rodolfo Pereyra (see http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/nazi-gold-shipped-byuboat-to-argentina-532304.html); and Patrick S. Burnside, El Escape de Hitler: Su vida invisible en la Argentina—Las conexiones con Evita y Perón (Buenos Aires: Editorial Planeta, 2000). 226 Argentine government memorandum: Dirección de Coordinación Federal, Estrictamente Secreto y Confidential, document DAE 568, October 14, 1952. 227 “described as the commander of U-235”: William Stevenson, The Bormann Brotherhood (London: Corgi, 1975). 2 2 6 “lost with all hands”: Contemporaneous German signals decoded from Enigma traffic at Bletchley Park prove beyond doubt that this was a Kriegsmarine action that destroyed its own submarine by accident. It is also significant that even the British Admiralty muddled the number when releasing data into the public domain—see HW18/421 (U2325 [sic]) at The National Archives, Kew, London. Five U-boats have been raised from the Kattegat, though U-235 is not among them—see http://www.uboat.net/boats/u235.htm. 227 Lt. Cdr. Franz Barsch: Stevenson, Bormann Brotherhood. 228 “in a letter dated as early as August 7, 1939”: Santander, Técnica de una Traición. Material on Niebuhr’s activities up until his expulsion in 1942 is to be found in KV 2/3301 in the British National Archives at Kew. This deals substantially with Nazi operations in Brazil, but leaves many questions unanswered about activities in Argentina. 228 “seeking a secret U-boat”: Declassified FBI report, Buenos Aires, August 1943. 228 “Argentine navy carried out antisubmarine operations”: Salinas and De Napoli, Ultramar Sur. 228 “in a rubber boat”: Joseph Newman, “Two Mystery Figures Landed by U-boat,” New York Herald-Tribune, Buenos Aires, July 14, 1945. 229 Stanley Ross report: Overseas News Agency, “U-Boats Base Spy Surge in Latin America,” Christian Science Monitor, January 24, 1945. 229 “Koehn was already back”: The Associated Press, Montevideo, Uruguay, August 18, 1945. 229 Colonel Bustos’s recollections: Ernesto G. Castrillon and Luis Casabal, “Historia Viva Busquedas and Yo Fui Testigo,” La Nación, Buenos Aires, March 23, 2008. 230–31 U-234: Wolfgang Hirschfield, The Secret Diary of a U-Boat, trans. Geoffrey Brooks (London: Cassell, 2000). 231 “Call off all coastal patrols”: Salinas and De Napoli, Ultramar Sur. 231 “Along the coast of Patagonia”: Drew Pearson, Bell Syndicate, July 24, 1945. 232 Raúl Damonte Taborda: United Press, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, October 20, 1945. 232 “Not long after the German army was defeated”: Ernesto Guevara Lynch, Young Che: Memories of Che Guevara by His Father, trans. Lucía Álvarez de Toledo (London: Vintage/Random House, 2008.
Chapter 19: TO PATAGONIA 234 Descriptions: Authors’ travels to San Carlos de Bariloche, 2007–8. 234 Prince Stephan zu Schaumburg-Lippe: McGaha, “Politics of Espionage.” Prince Stephan is not to be confused with his brother, Prince Friederich Christian, also a committed Nazi, who was an aide to Joseph Goebbels and held rank in the SA. 235 “Abwehr agents in Turkey”: Gerald Reitlinger, The SS: Alibi of a Nation (London: William Heinemann, 1956). 235 “Adm. Canaris was hanged”: Geoff Sullivan and Frode Weierud, “Breaking German Army Ciphers,” Cryptologia 29, July 2005. The article mentions a four-part message called No. 69, sent at 4:33 p.m. on April 9, 1945, from Walter Huppenkothen. The message was marked Geheim (Secret) and was addressed to SS-Gruppenführer Glücks. The article notes: “Glücks [was] kindly requested to immediately inform the chief of Gestapo, SS-Gruppenführer Müller, by telephone, telex or through messenger that his mission has been completed as ordered. The mission he had accomplished was the summary execution of the last prominent members of the German resistance movement connected with the assassination attempt on Hitler on 20 July 1944.” SS-Standartenführer Walter Huppenkothen was chief of Gruppe E–Spionageabwehr (Group E–counterespionage) in the RSHA department IV, Gestapo. Otto Thorbeck was a legal officer. 236 “thorough investigation as to Hitler’s whereabouts”: Drew Pearson, Bell Syndicate, July 24, 1945. 236 Carmen Torrentuigi: Television news magazine La Cornisa, Channel 7 Argentina, reporter Martin Jáuregui, 2005. In the television piece the crew members are filming a building on the estancia when Angela Soriani, Carmen’s niece, arrives and asks them what they are doing. When they reply that they are filming the house where Hitler was said to have lived, Angela shakes her head and then points to another spot on the estate and says, “He lived there.” The house where the Hitlers had lived was pulled down in the 1980s. 236 “liver dumplings and squab”: Ryan Berry, Hitler: Neither Vegetarian Nor Animal Lover (New York: Pythagorean, 2004). 237 “Hitler and Eva Braun stayed in the main house”: Carmen Torrentuigi via her niece, who said that the staff at the Estancia San Ramón were told that the Hitlers had died in a car crash in March 1946. 237 “dark-haired, buxom Eva Braun”: Time magazine, “Italy: Spring in the Axis,” May 15, 1939, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,761275,00.html. 2 3 7 “born in San Remo”: Reuters, Bad Godesburg, Rhineland, January 19, 1946; published in Baltimore Sun, January 20, 1946. A German journalist, Bernard Lescrinier, quoted this date and place to a press conference for the launch of his book Behind the Scenes in the Third Reich (apparently never actually published). “Fatty” Lescrinier was a notoriously shady character, who fed material mainly to the London Daily Telegraph and United Press; according to Michael Tracy, biographer of Sir Hugh Carleton-Greene, Fatty’s value lay in his close contacts with Göring’s circle and the Reich Chancellery. When his story is followed backward, it does not stand up in detail. However, a young man who had followed Eva in the job of studio assistant to Hitler’s “court photographer” Heinrich Hoffman did say that she had a child. This claim was allegedly backed up by Eva Braun’s father, who was quoted as saying, “The important thing is that Hitler will not die now without a successor.” 237 “three-day trip to Bavaria”: United Press, Stockholm, June 11, 1945. A former member of the Swedish Legation in Berlin, Erik Wesslen—who said he had been in close contact with Hitler’s headquarters during the siege of the city—believed that the reported marriage of Hitler and Eva in the bunker was to legitimize both a boy and a girl born to Eva during their long relationship. Wesslen said that prominent Germans believed the children to be living in Bavaria with distant relatives of Eva Braun’s mother and that the Hitlers left for a three-day trip to Bavaria on April 8 or 9. Hitler and Eva moved into the Führerbunker on April 12 or 15 (historians differ). There is no historical record to prove or disprove that they were in Berlin between April 8 and 12. 237 “many happy hours”: In late fall of 1945, The Associated Press reported that U.S. intelligence officers had found Eva Braun’s “treasure chest,” including “beneath its hoard of jewelry and money, dozens of photographs showing family pictures of her and Adolf Hitler and a mysterious baby girl called Uschi [the diminutive of Ursula],” which were displayed “as normally as they would be in any family album.” See “Americans Find Treasure Chest of Eva Braun,” Frankfurt, published in St. Petersburg Times on November 16, 1945, http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gBIwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=pE4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4925,2133570&dq=eva+braun%27s+treasurechest&hl=en. On many of the snapshots, which show the little girl from infancy to about three years of age (the last was dated 1944), Eva had handwritten the words, “and here is Uschi again.” Eva’s personal home-movie library was found in 1945. The library is archived at NARA, Record Group 242.2, Motion Pictures Branch, Archives II, and was eventually released commercially on DVD to the public in 2004. The movies feature Uschi on dozens of occasions, with many scenes showing the great affection in which Hitler and Eva held her. After the war there were many theories about who Uschi was, the prevailing view being that she was the daughter of Eva’s best friend Herta Ostermeyer, née Schneider. However, in the newspaper archives there is no mention of the child after this time, and the story seems to have been closed off. Intriguingly, this little girl who features so prominently in Eva’s personal life, photographs, and home movies is not even mentioned by Eva’s biographer Angela Lambert. 238 “Eva Braun was again pregnant”: London Sunday Chronicle, June 17, 1945. 238 “a stillborn child in 1943”: Interview with Eva Braun’s mother, North American Newspaper Alliance, February 18, 1946. 238 “car crash close to the property”: La Cornisa, Channel 7 Argentina, reporter Martin Jáuregui, 2005. 239 “none of them were submariners”: Contemporary newspaper reports describe the extra prisoners aboard the Highland Monarch as former Nazi diplomats, spies, and other “undesirables” being thrown out of the country under the instructions of Foreign Minister Juan Cooke. Details of the “passengers” on the Highland Monarch are contained in Admiralty files ADM 116/ 5474 and 116/ 5475 at The National Archives, Kew, London. 239 “neuralgic pain”: North American Newspaper Alliance, New York, March 3, 1947. 239 “Hitler needed surgery”: Dr. Otto Lehmann, Hitler’s personal physician, quoted in Jeff Kristenssen (Manuel Monasterio), Hitler murió en la Argentina. See note “Petty Officer Heinrich Bethe and Capt. Manuel Monasterio” on page 316. 239 Gran Hotel Viena: Authors’ visit to hotel, 2007. While visiting Córdoba and staying at one of the city’s hotels, the author’s interpreter asked for directions to Mar Chiquita. The young receptionist behind the front desk obliged, recommending the saltwater fish available from the inland sea. She then blithely suggested that if we had nothing better to do we should visit the Gran Hotel, where “Hitler and his wife used to stay after the war.” 239 Max Pahlke: James Stewart Martin, All Honorable Men (Boston: Little and Brown, 1950). Pahlke’s ostensible reason for building the complex at a cost of US$25 million was personal: the eldest of his two children, Máximo Junior, was said to suffer severely from psoriasis, and Pahlke’s wife Melita suffered from asthma. The “cure” was apparently found in the saline waters and therapeutic mud of the Mar Chiquita. The story that the motive for building the facility was a relieved father’s gratitude was contradicted after the war by a family member, who said that young Max had never had the disfiguring skin disease. 240 “he then left”: Fernando Jorge Soto Roland, “Hotel Viena,” research paper, January 2010, http://letras-uruguay.espaciolatino.com/aaa/soto_fernando/gran_hotel_viena_y_el_hotel_baln.htm. Roland is a professor of history at the University of Mar del Plata. It has been suggested that the hotel was a money-laundering operation for part of the huge amount of Nazi loot that had arrived in Argentina, but this seems illogical. “Laundering” is a process by which “dirty” money becomes “clean” and available again for use. It would make little sense to pour millions into a huge hotel complex in the middle of nowhere and then just leave it to stagnate.