Office of the Historian

862.20235/10–1645: Telegram

The Chargé in Argentina (Cabot) to the Secretary of State

Buenos Aires, October 16, 1945—8 p.m.
[Received 8:26 p.m.]

2560. Legal Attaché informs me that five dangerous German agents are now en route to Buenos Aires. These five have been released by British, who arrested them in 1942 to 1943.

(1)
Ernest Hoppe, naturalized Argentine of German birth, was recruited by Sicherheitsdienst64 to supervise in Buenos Aires arrival and disposal of articles valued at 10 million German marks to be transported by submarine.
(2)
Oscar Liehr, Argentine national, German spy on Allied shipping movement, who was given radio training, secret writing, and code training.
(3)
Andrés Blay Pigrau, Paraguayan Consul General in Barcelona, caught with espionage note sewn in leg of trousers.
(4)
Juan Sindreu Cavatorta, Argentine national, German espionage agent.
(5)
Osmar Alberto Hellmuth,65 Argentine national, whose case is too well-known for repetition.
[Page 484]

I cannot too strongly insist to Department upon utterly disastrous effects return of these five German agents to Argentina will have on local situation. Their records are notorious in this country. Department will understand that it is useless to request Argentine Government to turn over to us German spies, to urge internment of Freude,66 and to plan to return some hundreds of dangerous Germans to Germany as soon as repatriation program becomes feasible, if this sort of thing is to go on. Obviously other parts of our program against Nazi activities in Argentina will suffer only in lesser degree.

To make matters worse, if that were possible, these agents are reportedly travelling first class at moment when returning Allied veterans cannot even secure accommodations. The impression which this will cause locally when facts become known can well be imagined. British Embassy is deeply concerned as I at this incredible development.

I must strongly urge upon Department immediate and energetic steps:

(a)
To prevent these people from reaching Buenos Aires, if it is at all possible. Hellmuth and Pigrau reported arriving October 23; Hoppe and Liehr, October 26; arrival Cavatorta not known.
(b)
To secure British agreement to their return to internment or sending to Germany.
(c)
To get firm assurances from British that they will release no other Axis agents who wish to return to this hemisphere without our previous assent.
(d)
To arrange that no one once repatriated to Germany should be permitted to leave that country without assent of Allied authorities.

If these five agents cannot be prevented from reaching Buenos Aires I ask authority to request Argentine authorities to intern them. I assume that this matter has not been previously known to Department and it is therefore superfluous to point out that return of these agents to Argentina would be utter violation of various Mexico City Resolutions, notably Resolution VII.

I must again stress to Department importance and urgency of not only taking measures regarding these five agents, but also to prevent any recurrence of this kind of thing.

Cabot
  1. Nazi Security Service, intelligence and counterintelligence agency beaded by Heinrich Himmler.↩
  2. For an account of Hellmuth’s activities, see Department of State, Consultation Among the American Republics With Respect to the Argentine Situation (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1946), pp. 6–17 passim.↩
  3. Ludwig Freude, German espionage agent.↩