San Fernando, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 11 May 1960, 8:05 p.m.

Abstract

Chapter Five is introduced by the actions of three Mossad agents who ambushed and kidnapped SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann on 11 May 1960 in Buenos Aires. The capture of Eichmann, one of the architects of the Final Solution, is used as a starting point for a discussion focusing on the aftermath of the Holocaust in Latin America; the chapter looks at the ways in which amateur films, newsreels, documentaries and fiction films have addressed the relocation of Nazis and Holocaust survivors alike in Brazil, Argentina and other countries. In particular, this investigation considers the connections between fiction films articulating fantasies of Nazi resurgence in Latin America and factual films addressing the complexities of the topographical interrelations between the war in Europe and remote Latin American landscapes. This investigation also dissects the connection between the Nazi escapees and the emergence of totalitarianism in post-war Latin America as it surfaces in film.