In Argentine Court's Basement, a Trove of Nazi Material

Crates of documents related to Nazi Germany have been found in the basement of Argentina's highest court—a "startling discovery" linked to "the country's efforts to discourage the spread of Nazi ideology," according to the New York Times. Court officials say the documents were sent to Argentina by the German Embassy in Tokyo in the midst of World War II. They arrived inside 83 diplomatic pouches aboard the Japanese steamship Nan-a-Maru on June 20, 1941, were confiscated, and landed at the Supreme Court that same year, reports the BBC. They were rediscovered last week in wooden crates in the court's basement by workers transferring the court's archives to a new museum.

The initial shipment was declared as "personal effects" by the German Embassy in Buenos Aires, but it was flagged by Argentine custom officials suspicious about its size and fearful that acceptance could threaten Argentina's neutrality in the war, according to court officials. Opened at random, five pouches were found to contain Nazi-related files, per the BBC. Though the German Embassy in Buenos Aires requested that the pouches be returned to the Tokyo embassy, an Argentine judge ordered the pouches seized. It was left up to the Supreme Court to decide what to do with them, but it appears no decision was made before Argentina broke relations with the Axis powers in 1944.

When workers opened one of the crates in the Supreme Court's basement, they "identified material intended to consolidate and propagate Adolf Hitler's ideology in Argentina during the Second World War," the court said, per CNN. Officials have now asked the Buenos Aires Holocaust Museum for assistance in preserving and taking stock of the files, also said to include photographs and Nazi membership booklets. The court's president, Horacio Rosatti, notes the files could contain "potentially crucial information ... to clarify events related to the Holocaust," per the Times. Historians hope to find "clues to the Nazis' financial networks and their international ties," per the BBC. (More Argentina stories.)