Interview concerning Fernando Amarante

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 2012.70.2 | RG Number: RG-50.868.0001

Overview

Interview Summary: The son of Fernando Amarante discusses his father’s work in the Police force, where he was in charge of capturing German spies; how Fernando Amarante was shot in the head and killed in 1946 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and his death was labeled a “suicide”; being very proud of his father’s activities; his father being in the “department of Federal coordination” of the Police; his father finding German gold and returning it to the treasury; his father being a Peronist; an incident with his uncle and Eva Peron; his maternal grandfather, Count Sotocassa, in Italy, funding Vittorio Emanuele in his campaign of independence; his father’s mission to Brazil with a suitcase full of secret documents, intending to discuss a wheat purchase, and Rolando Hagomosino going along with the mission; the different branches within the Peronist party; his father being a radical, although in uniform he could not express it openly; the connection between Basiani, Chief of Police, and his father; Vincente Palomin investigating the whereabouts of the brother of a Nazi spy in Montevideo in 1945; his father’s remains arriving in Buenos Aires on October 5, 1946 and Rodriguez’s eulogy; the “Blue and White” book galleys, which was written with Abel Rodriguez, and is a compilation of newspaper articles of that time; his father’s treatment of detainees; his father not holding a specific opinion on either side of the war; his view of the Monroe Doctrine and the plundering of South America by North American governments; a possible affair between Evita and Amarante Sr. when he was put in charge of her entourage; details about Ludwig Freude, whose son, Rodolfo Freude, became head of information services for Peron; the money that was printed in Germany with the idea to flood the market and destabilize the economy; the conflict between Amarante Sr. and Osimole (Peron’s associate); the American government asking for the extradition of Ludwig Freude; Amarante Sr. being against blocking the extradition; medals being given to Amarante Sr. by both Syrian-Lebanese and Jewish communities for his intervention on their behalf; and Contal managing to exchange the sterling in the Central Bank despite the fact that it was proven fake.
Interviewer: Uki Goñi
Date: interview: 1997 September-1997 October
Credit Line: Forms part of the Claims Conference International Holocaust Documentation Archive at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This archive consists of documentation whose reproduction and/or acquisition was made possible with funding from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Physical Details

Language: Spanish
Extent: 2 sound cassettes (90 min.).

Rights & Restrictions

Conditions on Access: Restrictions on access. Interview is viewable onsite at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum only.
Conditions on Use: Restrictions on use. Fair use for research purposes only. Publication of the materials may require a written permission from the source archive. No use for commercial purposes.
Copyright Holder: Uki Goñi

Keywords & Subjects

Topical Term: Criminal investigation--Argentina. Espionage, German. Jewish refugees--Argentina. Nazis--Argentina. Peronism. Police--Argentina. World War, 1939-1945--Argentina.
Geographic Name: Argentina. Buenos Aires (Argentina) Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
Personal Name: Amarante, Fernando. Perón, Juan Domingo, 1895-1974. Perón, Eva, 1919-1952.

Administrative Notes

Legal Status: Permanent Collection
Provenance: Uki Goňi contributed his interviews produced as research for his book "The Real Odessa: Smuggling the Nazis to Peron’s Argentina" to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2007.
Special Collection: The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
Claims Conference International Holocaust Documentation Archive

Record last modified:: 2024-04-03 14:05:44
This page:: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn112360

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Also in Uki Goni collection : The Real Odessa research material

Contains the research materials collected by Uki Goňi, author of "The Real Odessa: Smuggling the Nazis to Peron’s Argentina." In course of his research for this book, Mr. Goňi collected relevant documents over a period of 20 years in various archives worldwide, including in Argentina, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the United States. Uki Goňi shows how from 1946 onward a Nazi escape operation was based at the presidential palace in Buenos Aires, harboring such war criminals as Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele. Goni uncovers an elaborate network that relied on the complicity of the Vatican, the Argentine Catholic Church, and the Swiss authorities.

Date: 1945-1995

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Interview concerning Fernando Amarante

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