Podchaser Logo
Home
Are Nazi War Criminals Still At Large?

Are Nazi War Criminals Still At Large?

Released Wednesday, 30th April 2008
 1 person rated this episode
Are Nazi War Criminals Still At Large?

Are Nazi War Criminals Still At Large?

Are Nazi War Criminals Still At Large?

Are Nazi War Criminals Still At Large?

Wednesday, 30th April 2008
 1 person rated this episode
Rate Episode

Episode Transcript

Transcripts are displayed as originally observed. Some content, including advertisements may have changed.

Use Ctrl + F to search

0:00

Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve

0:02

camera. It's ready. Are you welcome

0:06

to stuff you should know? Runhouse

0:08

Stuff Works dot Com?

0:15

I welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark.

0:18

I'm a staff writer here at how Stuff Works dot

0:20

Com. With me as always is my very

0:22

attractive and trust the editor Chris Palette.

0:25

Chris, how's your go kie? Oh? It's great?

0:27

Thanks. So we wrote

0:29

this article about whether or not Nazi

0:31

war criminals are still a large and UM

0:33

the Simon Weisenthal Center. UH.

0:36

This this group that's dedicated to finding

0:38

rooting out the last of the Nazi

0:40

war criminals who may or may not be

0:42

still alive. UM has launched

0:45

Operation Last Day, Last Chance

0:48

UH in a in a in a last ditch effort.

0:50

But UM, while

0:52

I was researching this, Chris, I found a

0:55

lot of stuff that that just I couldn't

0:57

fit into the article. UM. One

0:59

of the things that that stuck out to me

1:01

the most was the Massad. You know

1:03

what the Massada is. That's the Israeli

1:06

secret service right it is now.

1:08

They have been chasing

1:10

Nazis for decades and

1:12

have been fairly successful at it. They found

1:15

Klaus Barbie. UH. They also

1:17

found Adolf Eichmann, who was pretty

1:19

much the engineer of the nazis

1:21

final solution of exterminating

1:24

all these um supposedly unwanted

1:26

races. UM. But I also

1:28

found something very um interesting.

1:31

The Massad actually engaged

1:34

in UH employing and hiding

1:36

some wanted Nazi war criminals, which

1:39

I found startling. You know, this this group

1:41

that's dedicated to rooting out

1:44

for conviction UM or at the very

1:46

least for trial Nazi war criminals

1:49

UM having employed one

1:51

the guy they employed UM was

1:53

this doctor who actually

1:55

came up with the idea of mobile

1:58

gas vans, right, so

2:00

that the the Nazis wouldn't

2:02

have to shoot the Jews any

2:04

longer to kill them. They could just load them up in

2:06

these vans and carbon monoxide

2:08

was put into the end of the vans

2:11

and and whoever was inside was killed. And the

2:13

worst part was these vans were

2:15

they looked like Red Cross ambulances,

2:18

which is just just about as bad as it gets

2:20

time to think. Yeah, I think it's also a violation

2:23

of the Geneva Convention. I'm quite sure, but I

2:25

think pretty much percent of what the

2:27

Nazis did was in violation of the

2:29

Geneva Conventions. That was much

2:31

out the window from day one, you know, not about

2:33

following the rules. Well you said too

2:36

in the article that they weren't the only ones who

2:38

had employed some of the

2:40

former Nazis certainly not. Yeah,

2:43

who else, um, you know, even the American

2:45

government. Um, I think you said the British

2:48

too. You know. Basically, if they had something,

2:51

uh that that they could use, the governments

2:53

could use that, they were willing to

2:55

take them on. I know a lot of that. The nuclear

2:57

and rocket scientists too, were

3:00

were very important for them to uh

3:02

to grab before they could be tried.

3:04

I guess definitely Project paper Clip.

3:07

It was an actual secret

3:09

project undertaken by the United States

3:11

government to poach as many Nazi

3:14

scientists as possible. Some of them

3:16

were war criminals, some of them were lesser

3:19

known, lesser involved people. But

3:21

you know, a lot of people argue that

3:23

we wouldn't have made it to space first had

3:25

it not been for former Nazi

3:28

scientists like Verna von Brown and

3:30

some of the other guys like him who really

3:32

helped on the American rocket

3:35

team. That's amazing to think about

3:37

that they would be exonerated, you know, simply because

3:39

of you know, some of the other things that they

3:42

could bring. But at least maybe they could uh

3:44

make some positive contributions. And I think

3:46

also, um, from my understanding, Americans

3:49

did undertake a process of determining

3:51

just how involved you know, a certain

3:53

person was, at least

3:55

the the U. S. Government. I think with the c i A.

3:57

It was a a different matter.

3:59

I think they used whoever they

4:02

felt could help them. I wouldn't no matter

4:04

what involvement they had. Do you know anything about

4:06

that? Honestly, I don't. I haven't done

4:09

done nearly as much research as year. Well,

4:11

let me Adolf Eichmann,

4:13

who, like I said, was finally captured.

4:15

He was actually kidnapped in Argentina by the

4:17

massade. Uh. He was

4:20

used by the CIA as a

4:22

West German agent um

4:24

and they knew who he was, they knew what he'd

4:26

done, and they were still using him as a secret

4:29

agent in West Germany. It's

4:31

amazing. Well that's it for

4:33

for Are there still Nazi more criminals

4:36

at large? You can find out more about it on

4:39

how stuff works dot com. Thanks for listening

4:43

for more on this and thousands of other topics.

4:46

Because it how stuff works dot Com

4:50

brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve

4:52

camera. It's ready, are you

Unlock more with Podchaser Pro

  • Audience Insights
  • Contact Information
  • Demographics
  • Charts
  • Sponsor History
  • and More!
Pro Features