Reinhard Kopps (29 September 1914 in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

– 11 September 2001 in

Bariloche San Carlos de Bariloche (from the Mapuche name ''Vuriloche'', meaning "people from the other side of the mountain"), commonly known simply as Bariloche (), is the largest city in the Argentine province of Río Negro and the seat of the departm ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

) was an SS officer for the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Following the defeat of Germany in World War II, he helped Nazis escape to Argentina, finally fleeing there himself. Under the assumed name of Juan Maler, Kopps was hiding in the small town of Bariloche in the

Andes Mountains The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long and wide (widest between 18°S ...

. Bariloche was the home of some Germans after World War II. Recently opened Nazi archives in 1994 caused

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

to research Nazi war criminals. After research revealed a certain number of Nazis living in Argentina,

Sam Donaldson Samuel Andrew Donaldson Jr. (born March 11, 1934) is a retired television reporter, and also news anchor. He broadcast with ABC News from 1967 to 2009. He was well known as the White House Correspondent (1977–1989 and 1998–99) with a boomin ...

confronted Maler on camera, getting him to admit that he was Reinhard Kopps, a former Nazi, and that he assisted Nazis to leave Germany and settle in Argentina. In order to deflect attention away from himself, he told Donaldson that an even worse war criminal,

Erich Priebke Erich Priebke (29 July 1913 – 11 October 2013) was a German mid-level ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) commander in the ''Sicherheitspolizei'' (SiPo) of Nazi Germany. In 1996, he was convicted of war crimes in Italy for commanding the unit which was res ...

, was also living there, confirming ABC News' research. Priebke was soon arrested, and Kopps temporarily fled to

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South America, South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main is ...

. The story was made for ABC's ''

Primetime Live ''Primetime'' was an American news magazine television program that debuted on ABC in 1989 with co-hosts Sam Donaldson and Diane Sawyer and originally had the title ''Primetime Live''. The program's final episode aired May 18, 2012. History ...

'', as well as ''

Nazi Hunters A Nazi hunter is an individual who tracks down and gathers information on alleged former Nazis, or Schutzstaffel, SS members, and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, Nazi collaborators who were involved in the Holocaust, typically f ...

''.

References

1914 births 2001 deaths Military personnel from Hamburg SS officers {{Germany-bio-stub German expatriates in Argentina German neo-Nazis Nazis who fled to Argentina