DENY SECRET GROUP HELPS NAZIS ESCAPE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73-00475R000402510001-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 18, 2013
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: July 12, 1964
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT C'HiCAGO TM:BUN
Declassified in Part- Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @50-Yr 2013/12/18: CIA-RDP73-00475R000402510001-5
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[Are nazi bigWigs \still shel-. ?
? tering war criminals a a d
helping them escape abroad?'
No, say authorities, but ? ni-.!
Mors persist. Here's a look
at the situation by a reporter
who criscrossed West. Ger,.
Many ? to check with people
who. should know.] .
BY JOHN FIEHN
FRANKFURT, Germany,
jply 11 (RI?Hans-Walter Zech-
. Nenntwich,,.47, -
a former ma-
jor in T the SS
na/zi elite
guards, ? , was
?.1; sentenced to '
tA four, years in
prison for com-
plicity in the.
War time mur-
der of Jews. '
Three months '
ago he escap-
Zech-Nenntwich ed from the
Brunswick jail, made his way'
to Egypt, and calmly deClared:?
? , "I could have walked out of
prison_ any time of the day in.a.
tuxedo, if you like." I ?
Claims He Geit
Zind (left) and Skorzeny
ica. ?
Dr. Ernst Thiele, Brunswick.
chief pros'ecutov, directing in-
vestigations in the Zech-Ncnnt-
wich case,' dissented thusly:
"Every phase of his flight is
known to us. There is .no 'evi-
dence whatsoever that former
SS comrades helped him." ?
"Not the Slightest Proof"
And Dr. Ludwig Mar ti n,
chief federal prosecutor rof
West Germany, said:
"We have not the slightest
bit of proof of the existence of
an organization of old Nazis
helping others escape abroad."'
. Security men of the thrd e
western, a.11iesL--always looking
for any signs of -a possible re-
birth of nazism?also have re-
jected the idea of a? nazi un-
derground/ .
But what about "the Spider"?.
If it doesn't exist now, it once.
did.
West German and western in-,
telligence officers said it was.
forined in 1946 ..at an American
. ,
He boasted that an, under-
ground of old officers of the
SS and Wehrmacht planned :
every step of his escape.
This lent weight to rumors
that a powerful underground,
sometimes called "the Spider,"
: exists to help Nazis reach sane- I
iluary in Egypt or _Latin Arng-
internment , camp for Nazis at
Glasenbach, near Linz, Austria:
Allied officials appear pretty
certain ''that the Spider 'helped
at lust one top Nazi reach
sanctuary abroad. That wa s
SS' Gen. Otto ? &orzeny who
freed 'Benito Mussolini f r om
anti-fascists atop Mount Gran
Sasso, Italy, in September, 1943.
Skorzeny escaped from an in-
ternment.- camp at Darinstpdt
in 1943 and fled .to Spain. He
now is a wealthy business man
with offices in ? Madrid and ' a
Country estate in 'Ireland.
People who contend that the
Spider's Web still reaches far
and- wide point not only to
Zech-Nenntwich's _successful
jailbreak.
Cite Other Cases ?
? They also cite these cases:
In July, 1953 Dr. Hans Ei-
? sele, _alleged to have killed
thousands of inmates . of t h e
nazi Buchenwald concentration
camp with carbolic acid -in-
jections, escaped to E gyp t.
Eisele's whereabouts long .had
been known to authorities in
Bavaria, where he lived. But
nobody detained him 'or with-
drew his passport.
Ludwig Zind? sentenced to a
year in prison for his beer hall
r cm ark that "not enough
Jews had been gassed" in nazi
Germany, fled to Egypt before
starting to serve his sentence
in November, 1953.
; fled to Argentina
In July, 1963, Gerhard Bohne,
charged with being a key fig-
ure in Hitler's so-called eutha-
nasia ? "mercy killing" ?
campaign against. mentally ,
and physically disabled per..
sons, escaped to Argentina..
"It cannot be denied," said
Chief Federal Prosecutor Mar-
tin, "that persons. clinging to
the nazi ideology fielp their
Comrades when in trouble. But
the help they are extending
does not violate any para-
graph of Our penal code."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/12/18: CIA-RDP73-00475R000402510001-5