Is There A Nazi Hideout In The Jungle?

If there were ever a piece of news that sounds like promo for an action movie, this would be it. Many a movie has hinged on the discovery of a secret hideaway in the middle of the jungle where a mysterious people conduct mysterious and possibly nefarious rituals — here I'm thinking of the entire Indiana Jones series — but this happens in real life only rarely. This realization is tragic for those of us who grew up thinking we could be set for life if we found hidden treasure in the jungle, which seemed to happen all the time in the movies. Now, archaeologists think they really have stumbled upon a mysterious hideout in the wild — there might be a secret Nazi outpost in the Argentinian jungle.

Years ago, researchers from the University of Buenos Aires and La Plata Museum came across the site in Northern Argentina, near the border with Paraguay. But they only began studying it in earnest this month. Deep in Teyu Cuare Park, the researchers found three old, time-worn buildings, filled with artifacts like German coins minted during the Nazi regime and a plate marked "Made in Germany." They believe this secret hideaway may be one of many the Nazis were rumored to have built during World War II in case of defeat.

The hideouts were supposedly built to house Nazi leaders in case they needed to flee Germany, but as it turned out, they didn't need to hide in Argentina — the country welcomed Nazis after World War II. In fact, about 5,000 Nazis eventually ended up there after the war.

So what did these archaeologists find in the jungle that led them to believe they were looking at a long-lost secret Nazi hideaway? Well, first there were the walls.

Daniel Schavelzon, who led the team of six researchers from the University of Buenos Aires, said:

We found German coins minted between 1938 and 1944, fragments of a porcelain plate that said it was made in Germany and Nazi symbols and German inscriptions carved into the walls. It's hard to prove the site was definitely made by the Nazis, but we're working to unearth more evidence to support this hypothesis.

So according to Schavelzon, there were Nazi symbols and German words written on the walls of this stone hideout — they even found a swastika.

As for the coins the researchers located, at least five were dated from exactly the time of World War II.

Although the stone buildings are covered by moss and vines now, researchers said they think they have an idea of what purpose each building was constructed to fulfill. Schavelzon said of the three buildings discovered, one was likely used for housing, one for storage, and one as a lookout.

It's known that Adolf Eichmann, one of Hitler's right-hand men, escaped to Argentina after the Holocaust and was later arrested and executed. But rumor has it that Martin Bormann, head of the Nazi Party Chancellery, fled Germany to live in a house in the jungles of Argentina. This rumor is unsubstantiated, but this sign found at the site references Bormann.

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