Some 90% of Nazi perpetrators who escaped Europe are thought to have fled across the Alps to Italy — that was the first loophole.
Their first stop was in the South Tyrol region of northern Italy: the monastery of the Teutonic Order in Merano, the Capuchin monastery near Bressanone or the Franciscan monastery near Bolzano. The war criminals would often hide out in monasteries — these ratlines are also known as the "monastery route" — for years, collecting money to continue their escape overseas. Sometimes, the Nazis were accommodated right next to their former victims, Jews headed to Israel.
Rome was the next stop. The Nazis who had a letter from the Catholic Church confirming their identity were handed a passport by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which issued about 120,000 papers until 1951 — a mere formality.
"The story goes that even before the end of the war, there was a clearly thought-out and elaborate plan for Nazi escapees," Stahl said. "That is wrong, even the likes of Franz Stangl first wandered around Rome without knowing what to do next." Information was passed on word of mouth.
A name that regularly crops up is Alois Hudal. The Austrian bishop had clearly positioned himself as a Nazi sympathizer during Nazi rule, and later he said many of those persecuted were "completely blameless" and that he "snatched them from their tormentors with false identity papers."
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Popular clandestine route
"It would have been much more difficult for Stangl and the others to flee" if the Catholic Church had not protected many Nazis, Stahl said.
The list of infamous Nazis who used the ratlines is long.
Adolf Eichmann
Josef Mengele
Klaus Barbie
Erich Priebke
Walther Rauff
Adolf Hitler