Police reported that they had discovered more than 75 Nazi artifacts outside Buenos Aires in Argentina. The residence was mentioned to belong to a collector which they hadn’t named yet but the artifacts were believed to belong to high-ranking Nazi officers in Germany during World War II.
According to New York Times, the federal police commissioner for the protection of cultural heritage, Marcelo El Haibe stated that they had discovered the Nazi artifacts in the collector’s home. They first investigated the room and found out that behind a suspicious bookcase is a hidden passageway that could be entered using the door on the wall.
With that said, the officers then saw more than 75 artifacts which belong to the World War II era. They had noted that the pieces were authentic Nazi artifacts. Having the collector’s name not disclosed, the officers believed that the objects belong to high-ranking Nazi party members. The artifacts consisted of Nazi knives, Nazi symbols, sculptures, medical devices and even Adolf Hitler’s portrait bust.
Yet, the thing that captured them most is the magnifying glass seen in an original photograph showing Adolf Hitler holding onto it. The head of Argentina’s federal police, Nestor Roncagli then stated that they had already asked historians and confirmed that the magnifying glass found in the hidden room is the same magnifying glass held by Hitler shown in the photograph.
Aside from those, a large statue of the Nazi eagle above a swastika and several toys were also discovered in the hidden room. The toys were said to be used by children but were used under the Nazi propaganda. “There were jigsaw puzzles and little wood pieces to build houses, but they always featured party-related images and symbols,” El Haibe stated on ABC News.
The officers then deemed that the artifacts were entered in Argentina by some high-ranking Nazi or Nazis after World War II as the country served as somewhere where fleeing war criminals seek refuge. "Finding 75 original pieces is historic and could offer irrefutable proof of the presence of top leaders who escaped from Nazi Germany," president of the DAIA, Ariel Cohen Sabban concluded.
Nonetheless, it was revealed that agents along with the international police force, Interpol raided the house last June 8. However, the information regarding the collector who lived in the residence wasn’t still given. The collector was said to still be free as of now but still remains under investigation by a federal judge.