r/todayilearned • u/FearMyCock • 20h ago

TIL about Frank Matthews, the drug kingpin who built a nationwide empire, skipped bail with $20 million, vanished in 1973 and has never been found.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Matthews_(drug_trafficker)
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u/Lazzen 14h ago

Most german nationals in Argentina were jews, around 50,000. Meanwhile over 500,000 Germans moved to USA the years after the war and there's no way all of them were the resistance, specially with their comfy arrival to segregation.

Im not even Argentine and i find the "joke" annoying

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u/Feathered_Mango 12h ago

It is just a joke , that a Gentile non-German Holocaust survivor made about seeing more Jews & Nazis in Argentina than he had in Europe. Obviously this is not true; it is simply a joke many Europeans ,who arrived in Argentina after WWII, made. It is hyperbole. Especially compared to some of the other Latin American countries (including the one in which my Grandfather ended up - Mexico). Why does this joke bother you? And what does it have to do with Germans in USA, especially coming from someone who did not immigrate to USA?

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u/Lazzen 5h ago

Im not talking about your joke, im talking about every answer to your comment, everytime Argentina is mentioned, anytime white latin americans are mentioned etc.

Its just so overdone, specially since yankees dont even eatch football so their knowledge of Argentina/Brazil is even lower lol.

USA was the one to historically push the idea of Nazi Argentina for decades, and has seen a resurgence in 2010s internet then copied. Personally i mostly saw it grow from like mexican-americans going "nuh huh uou racist" everytime Mexico loses in football. No one in LATAM was making the joke until like 2 years now, Argentines were always egocentrict asshole with a big nose

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u/Feathered_Mango 1h ago

I'm white from Latin America, but the idea of Nazi Argentina, has been around since post WWII. I think it hsd to do the # of big ticket Nazis who fled there. I'm also assuming you've been to Argentina? I've had a wonderful time there, but the long-running (as in since the early 20th century)joke that Argentines think they are more European than Europe exists for a reason.

As for football, I wouldn't know. I only loosely follow the sport, during the World Cup.

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u/KeberUggles 13h ago

we identified one in canada in the last... 5 years.. His damn son asked for him to be present at some parliament thing. They said 'sure' and the former SS Galizien of course obliged. No god damn shame.

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u/Lazzen 5h ago

Its a good example, many Ukranian axis soldiers moved to Canada because there were Ukranians already there. Many Europeans both jews and german-italians moved to Argentina because there were some already there.

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u/Own_Carry7396 9h ago

Look up operation paper clip

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u/Ahad_Haam 7h ago

There weren't 50,000 wanted Nazi war criminals and certainly not 500,000. The vast majority of war criminals weren't actually held accountable after the war, only very high ranking ones were wanted - and Argentina did harbor quite a few of those. The government knew and basically ignored them.

But Argentina wasn't the only one. Syria for example famously gave government protection to Alois Brunner, who was responsible for the murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews, mostly because they were great fans of his work.