March 23, 2015 5:17 AM EDT
A rcheologists have discovered ruins in a remote jungle region of Argentina that are believed to be Nazi hideouts intended to act as safe havens if Germany lost World War II.
Inside three run-down buildings in the Teyú Cuaré park, near the border with Paraguay, researchers found five German coins minted during the Nazi regime and a porcelain plate marked “Made in Germany,” the Clarín newspaper reports.
“Apparently, halfway through World War II, the Nazis had a secret project of building shelters for top leaders in the event of defeat — inaccessible sites, in the middle of deserts, in the mountains, on a cliff or in the middle of the jungle like this,” team leader Daniel Schávelzon told Clarín .
In fact, the hideouts would prove unnecessary because after the war then Argentine President Juan Perón allowed thousands of Nazis, and other European fascists, to resettle in the South American nation. Most notorious among them was arguably Adolf Eichmann, a leading architect of the Holocaust, who in 1960 was found in Argentina by an Israeli intelligence group. He was abducted and eventually executed in Israel for his crimes.
[Clarín ]
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George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images American GI, Battle of the Bulge. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Previously unpublished portraits of American soldiers during the Battle of the Bulge, December 1944. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images American troops with Belgian children, Battle of the Bulge. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images A wounded German soldier rests on makeshift bedding after being taken prisoner during an attack on an American fuel depot on Dec. 16, 1944, the first day of the Battle of the Bulge. John Florea—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Germans surrender during the Battle of the Bulge. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images German POWs, Battle of the Bulge, January 1945. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images German prisoners, some of them wearing coveralls for camouflage in the snow, are herded by Allied troops. 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The firing squad, all military police, consisted of three groups of eight men, each with one additional marksman along as a spare.John Florea—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Caption from LIFE. After execution, spies lurch and sag forward from the posts. The cement wall is pocked with bullet holes. The prisoners refused the ministrations of a U.S. chaplain. They kept their nerve by singing patriotic German songs. After they were officially pronounced dead, the spies were cut down by MP's, carried away and buried.John Florea—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images A German shot as a spy in the early days of the Battle of the Bulge, 1944. John Florea—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images A German shot as a spy in the early days of the Battle of the Bulge, 1944. John Florea—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images American troops in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Listen to the most important stories of the day.
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