DENY SECRET GROUP HELPS NAZIS ESCAPE

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP73-00475R000402510001-5
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
1
Document Creation Date: 
December 27, 2016
Document Release Date: 
December 18, 2013
Sequence Number: 
1
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
July 12, 1964
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
File: 
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PDF icon CIA-RDP73-00475R000402510001-5.pdf103.77 KB
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STAT C'HiCAGO TM:BUN Declassified in Part- Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @50-Yr 2013/12/18: CIA-RDP73-00475R000402510001-5 ? JUL 1Z 19b4 ? , /for .49 PjeluP .T\T ,? ? [Are nazi bigWigs \still shel-. ? ? tering war criminals a a d helping them escape abroad?' No, say authorities, but ? ni-.! Mors persist. Here's a look at the situation by a reporter who criscrossed West. Ger,. Many ? to check with people who. should know.] . BY JOHN FIEHN FRANKFURT, Germany, jply 11 (RI?Hans-Walter Zech- . Nenntwich,,.47, - a former ma- jor in T the SS na/zi elite guards, ? , was ?.1; sentenced to ' tA four, years in prison for com- plicity in the. War time mur- der of Jews. ' Three months ' ago he escap- Zech-Nenntwich ed from the Brunswick jail, made his way' to Egypt, and calmly deClared:? ? , "I could have walked out of prison_ any time of the day in.a. tuxedo, if you like." I ? Claims He Geit Zind (left) and Skorzeny ica. ? Dr. Ernst Thiele, Brunswick. chief pros'ecutov, directing in- vestigations in the Zech-Ncnnt- wich case,' dissented thusly: "Every phase of his flight is known to us. There is .no 'evi- dence whatsoever that former SS comrades helped him." ? "Not the Slightest Proof" And Dr. Ludwig Mar ti n, chief federal prosecutor rof West Germany, said: "We have not the slightest bit of proof of the existence of an organization of old Nazis helping others escape abroad."' . Security men of the thrd e western, a.11iesL--always looking for any signs of -a possible re- birth of nazism?also have re- jected the idea of a? nazi un- derground/ . But what about "the Spider"?. If it doesn't exist now, it once. did. West German and western in-, telligence officers said it was. forined in 1946 ..at an American . , He boasted that an, under- ground of old officers of the SS and Wehrmacht planned : every step of his escape. This lent weight to rumors that a powerful underground, sometimes called "the Spider," : exists to help Nazis reach sane- I iluary in Egypt or _Latin Arng- internment , camp for Nazis at Glasenbach, near Linz, Austria: Allied officials appear pretty certain ''that the Spider 'helped at lust one top Nazi reach sanctuary abroad. That wa s SS' Gen. Otto ? &orzeny who freed 'Benito Mussolini f r om anti-fascists atop Mount Gran Sasso, Italy, in September, 1943. Skorzeny escaped from an in- ternment.- camp at Darinstpdt in 1943 and fled .to Spain. He now is a wealthy business man with offices in ? Madrid and ' a Country estate in 'Ireland. People who contend that the Spider's Web still reaches far and- wide point not only to Zech-Nenntwich's _successful jailbreak. Cite Other Cases ? ? They also cite these cases: In July, 1953 Dr. Hans Ei- ? sele, _alleged to have killed thousands of inmates . of t h e nazi Buchenwald concentration camp with carbolic acid -in- jections, escaped to E gyp t. Eisele's whereabouts long .had been known to authorities in Bavaria, where he lived. But nobody detained him 'or with- drew his passport. Ludwig Zind? sentenced to a year in prison for his beer hall r cm ark that "not enough Jews had been gassed" in nazi Germany, fled to Egypt before starting to serve his sentence in November, 1953. ; fled to Argentina In July, 1963, Gerhard Bohne, charged with being a key fig- ure in Hitler's so-called eutha- nasia ? "mercy killing" ? campaign against. mentally , and physically disabled per.. sons, escaped to Argentina.. "It cannot be denied," said Chief Federal Prosecutor Mar- tin, "that persons. clinging to the nazi ideology fielp their Comrades when in trouble. But the help they are extending does not violate any para- graph of Our penal code." Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/12/18: CIA-RDP73-00475R000402510001-5