Dutch airline KLM to probe flights for fleeing Nazis
Dutch documentary last week claimed airline played role in helping suspected war criminals flee Germany.
By ReutersDutch airline KLM will probably seek an independent investigation into whether it flew Nazi fugitives to Argentina after World War II, the national airline said on Tuesday.
Questions over KLM's past surfaced last week after a Dutch television documentary claimed to have discovered archive documents showing the airline played an active role in helping suspected war criminals flee Germany.
KLM, now part of Air France, said it had never found any proof in its own archives but had also never denied a possible involvement.
"The checks we have done in our archive so far have not delivered any specific information about this sort of transportation. But that does not mean that it has not been done," KLM spokesman Bart Koster said.
Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele, the doctor of the Auschwitz death camp nicknamed the "Angel of Death," were among the large number of fugitive Nazis harbored by Argentina after the war.
"We take these signals seriously and if we are a responsible company, we should also be responsible for what has been done in the past," Koster said, adding that KLM was in talks about initiating an independent inquiry.
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About 80% of Dutch Jews were deported during the Nazi occupation, not without help from the Dutch civil service. However well meaning, the Dutch were also rather cooperative, aside from the occasional strike. It would be no surprise if the Nazis ordered KLM to fly them off to Argentina.
While they're at it, they should also find out how the German rocket scientists made it to the US and were granted citizenships and jobs in the American airline/space industry. Without these bright scientists, the American space program would still be trying to land on the Moon.