This sounds like the setup to Indiana Jones V

March 25, 2015 3:53 PM

WWII-era German coins and parts of a broken plate suggest that a ruin in the Argentinian jungle may have been built as a shelter for Nazi leaders in case of a defeat. (Or maybe it's just archaeologists fooling themselves.)
posted by Blue Jello Elf (14 comments total)

Seen on Twitter:

Archaeologists in Argentina have found what is believed to be the remnants of a Nazi hideout. The hideout is called “Argentina.”
posted by Nevin at 3:58 PM on March 25, 2015 [30 favorites]

There are approximately three million German-Argentines who could have left that stuff there (cf. 50M German-Americans, including these ones and these ones), to say nothing of the twenty-four million Italian-Argentines (cf. 17M Italian-Americans) and sixteen million French-Argentines (cf. 11M French-Americans).
posted by Sys Rq at 4:10 PM on March 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Pretty much all Italian-Argentines and French-Argentines, and most German-Argentines, arrived before WWII, though.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 4:46 PM on March 25, 2015

I think the presence of Third Reich-era German coins is pretty much a red herring. There were a lot of European migrants in Argentina at the time, including undoubtedly many who had left Nazi Germany (indeed, Buenos Aires has a Jewish heritage paralleling that of New York). It's far more likely that an emigrant or refugee from Nazi Germany had a few Reichsmark coins in their pocket on the boat over than that Nazis were stockpiling the legal tender of their regime on the other side of the world for the eventuality of that regime ceasing to exist.
posted by acb at 4:46 PM on March 25, 2015

Real nazis know which way their swastika rolls. Just sayin'
posted by Thorzdad at 5:17 PM on March 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

I like the bit about how no secret hideout was needed as the Argentine government invited then to just come over openly and chill.
posted by Artw at 5:41 PM on March 25, 2015

Nazis?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 5:42 PM on March 25, 2015

Only three buildings, none of which was a doghouse, because the Nazis took their Dobermans to Brazil.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:24 PM on March 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

I chuckled at one report that showed some swastika graffiti as "proof" that it was a secret hideout. Based on that sort of evidence, I can prove conclusively that the Nazis' post-WWII hideout was in Normal, Illinois.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:27 PM on March 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

I hate Illinois Nazis!
posted by dougzilla at 8:06 PM on March 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

I just watched a really interesting documentary on this very topic.
posted by dhartung at 12:04 AM on March 26, 2015

More shockingly, the same evidence has led me to believe that high ranking Nazi taggers also found refuge during the post-war years in Port Maria, Jamaica.
posted by Seamus at 6:53 AM on March 26, 2015

(It should be noted that George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party, was born in Bloomington, just south of Normal. More recently, Matt Hale made his home in East Peoria, before his incarceration.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:43 AM on March 26, 2015

Rarely is the question asked: Is it safe?
posted by I-baLL at 11:45 AM on March 26, 2015