31.3./1.4.2022 (Vienna, live event only)
Vienna Wiesenthal Institute, Research Lounge
1010 Vienna, Rabensteig 3, 3rd Floor
Adolf Eichmann, Josef Mengele, Klaus Barbie, and Erich Priebke: These names are exemplary of the Nazi criminals who found refuge in South America after 1945. There, they either remained untroubled or were only made accountable for their crimes many years later. Investigations into their whereabouts in South America – when they were still alive – were conducted painstakingly among others by Simon Wiesenthal as well as the Klarsfelds. Since then, many publications by historians and journalists have dealt with the biographies of individual former Nazis (with the focus always lying on men), their escape routes, their acceptance into their destination countries, and partly also with their political activities in their new homelands. Aside from the prominent perpetrators and their thoroughly researched biographies, there were numerous other cases of more or less influential (former) Nazis and Nazi sympathizers who ended up in Argentina, Chile, and other South American countries. Their life trajectories and professional as well as private activities in their new homes have hardly been subject to systematic research to date. Their biographies and their new lives in South America will therefore be the focus of this workshop.
full program (download)
Short program overview:
*** Thursday, 31 March 2022
10:00 Welcome Notes
10:15 Keynote
11:00 Panel 1: Old And New Connections: The Establishment Of Fugitive National Socialists In South America
13:30 Panel 2: NS-Continuities in German Institutions After 1945
15:15 Panel 3: Rome as a Hub for Nazis on the Run: Migration Management and Support for War Criminals After 1945
17:00 Guided Tour Through the Simon Wiesenthal Archive
19:00 Podium Discussion, Bookshop Singer am Rabensteig 3
Legacies of Simon Wiesenthal: The Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies – Looking Back, Moving Forward
*** Friday, 1 April 2022
9:30 Panel 4: Austrian National Socialists in Argentina: Old Comrades From Vienna
11:10 Panel 5: Export/Import. Chemists In Military Research in Argentina Under Perón
13:45 Panel 6: New Perspectives on Familiar Faces. Writing History In A Different Way
15:15 Closing Session
*** *** ***
Organised by the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies and the Department of Contemporary History at University of Vienna
Concept: Linda Erker (University of Vienna)
In cooperation with the Department of History at the University of Salzburg and Ibero-American Institute Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.
Kindly supported by the Research Network Latin America at the University of Vienna, the Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies at the University of Vienna, the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism and the Future Fund of the Republic of Austria.
This will be a live event only. Due to limited number of places, we kindly ask you to register at anmeldung@vwi.ac.at by 24 March 2022. We will then confirm your participation and inform you about the COVID-safety regulations in place via e-mail.
By participating in this event, you consent to the publication of photos, video and audio recordings that are made during the event.
Participants: Brigitte Bailer (DÖW), Suzanne Brown-Fleming (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C.), Sandra Carreras (Ibero-American Institute Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation), Christian Cwik (University of Graz), Linda Erker (University of Vienna), Martin Finkenberger (Bonn), Kinga Frojimovics (VWI), Jutta Fuchshuber (University of Vienna), Gustavo Guzmán (University of Potsdam/Tel Aviv University), Karin Harrasser (University of Art and Design Linz), Susanne Heim (VWI-International Academic Advisory Board), Éva Kovács (VWI), Jason Lemberg (Goethe-University Frankfurt a. M.), Kerstin von Lingen (University of Vienna), Holger M. Meding (University of Cologne), Robert Obermair (University of Salzburg), Ursula Prutsch (Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich), Raanan Rein (Tel Aviv University), Margit Reiter (University of Salzburg), Shimon Samuels (SWC Paris), Dorothee Schlüter (Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation), Andreas Schrabauer (University of Vienna), Erhard Stackl (Vienna), Daniel Stahl (Friedrich Schiller University Jena), Klaus Taschwer (Vienna), Alexia Weiss (WINA), Marianne Windsperger (VWI), Efraim Zuroff (SWC Jerusalem)
Rückblick auf zwei Programmpunkte des internationalen Workshops
Keynote von Raanan REIN (Tel Aviv University) “From the Blue Book to the CEANA Report and Back. Narratives of Argentina’s Complicity with the Third Reich and Nazi Fugitives” am 31.3.2022.
Podiumsdiskussion am 31.3.2022: “The Legacies of Simon Wiesenthal: The Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies – Looking Back, Moving Forward” mit Brigitte BAILER (DÖW), Shimon SAMUELS (SWC Paris), Efraim ZUROFF (SWC Jerusalem), moderiert von Alexia WEISS (WINA)
