A person holds Nazi-related material that was originally confiscated by local authorities when it was shipped to Argentina in 1941, after several boxes containing the material were recently discovered by chance in the archives of the Supreme Court of Argentina, in Buenos Aires, Argentina in this handout picture released on May 11, 2025. Photo: Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Republica Argentina/Handout via REUTERS

Argentine Supreme Court officials have uncovered hundreds of long-forgotten Nazi documents, membership cards, and propaganda materials in the court’s archives, potentially revealing crucial information about the Nazis’ global financial networks and activities outside Germany during World War II.

On Monday, the judicial body revealed that court staff had discovered these documents during the relocation of materials for the upcoming Supreme Court museum, 84 years after they were first confiscated.

According to a press release, the documents were shipped to Argentina in 1941 from the German embassy in Tokyo and seized by local authorities upon the discovery of their contents, but they remained forgotten in the Supreme Court basement until their recent uncovering.

“When opening one of those boxes, we identified material destined to consolidate and spread Adolf Hitler’s ideology in Argentina, when WWII was in full swing,” the release said.

Inside wooden crates in the court’s basement, authorities found documents, photographs, postcards, propaganda materials, and thousands of notebooks connected to the Nazi Party’s overseas organization and the German Trade Union Confederation.

Photos show the boxes filled with notebooks bearing swastikas on their covers, along with data cards that appear to hold personal information and Argentine addresses.

Argentine Supreme Court Minister Horacio Rosatti requested that the boxes be preserved and moved to a more secure office within the building, with “intensified security measures.”

Present at the opening of the boxes were Rosatti, representatives from the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center and the Buenos Aires Holocaust Museum, as well as conservation specialist María de la Paz Podestá — who will oversee the preservation and rehabilitation of all the documents.

“The goal is to carry out a detailed analysis to determine if the material has crucial information about the Holocaust […] and whether the clues found in them can throw light on issues that remain unknown, such as the Nazi money route at a global level,” the press release said.

Local authorities check Nazi-related documents that were recently discovered in the country’s Supreme Court basement. Photo: Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Republica Argentina/Handout via REUTERS

According to the Supreme Court’s historical reconstruction, the German embassy in Tokyo shipped 83 boxes to Argentina on June 20, 1941. At the time, the German embassy in Buenos Aires claimed those boxes contained personal belongings of diplomats and requested they be allowed entry without inspection.

However, the Argentine customs office asked then-Foreign Minister Enrique Ruiz Guiñazú to intervene, expressing concerns about the potential nature of the documents, which could have compromised Argentina’s neutrality during World War II.

After discovering the contents of such documents, local authorities denied the German diplomats’ request for the boxes to be handed over so they could be sent back to Tokyo. They cited the presence of “antidemocratic propaganda” and noted that the German embassy had previously lied to smuggle a radiotelegraph transmitter as diplomatic mail.

In September 1941, a federal judge ordered the material to be seized and sent to the Supreme Court, where it was stored in an underground basement and remained forgotten until now.

Employees handle a box with Nazi-related material that was among several boxes originally confiscated by local authorities when they were shipped to Argentina in 1941. Photo: Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Republica Argentina/Handout via REUTERS

Argentina is home to the largest Jewish community in Latin America, but the country was also a prime destination for many high-ranking Nazi officials who fled Germany after the fall of the Nazi regime during World War II.

Last month, the Argentine government released nearly 2,000 previously classified secret service documents detailing the arrival of hundreds of Nazi war criminals who escaped to the country.

According to these documents, it is estimated that more than 10,000 Nazis used so-called “ratlines” to flee Germany as the Axis powers collapsed, with around half of them believed to have sought refuge in Argentina — known for its reluctance to grant extradition requests.

The documents shed light on the activities of prominent Nazi war criminals who fled to the Latin American country, including Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann and the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp doctor Josef Mengele.