Argentina shuts down Nazi and antisemitic publisher

Federal police in Argentina have raided and shuttered a publisher that sold books with Nazi and antisemitic content online, authorities said on Wednesday.

Offiicals described the haul of over 230 books as a "historic seizure" of Nazi propaganda.

What police said about the Nazi propaganda

Following a two-year probe, law enforcement officers raided a printing press run out of a home in suburban Buenos Aires' San Isidro. They found publications bearing swastikas and markings of the SS paramilitary group — which played a key role in enforcing Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler's ideologies.

"We're still astonished by the amount of material from what is truly a printing press for the dissemination and sale of Nazi symbolism, books and indoctrination," Police Commissioner General Carlos Alejandro Namandu said in a statement.

One person was arrested.

"This is the first stage of the investigation," Namandu. "The first thing we did was cut off the sales and distribution channel. We're moving on to a second stage. The law penalizes not only those who manufacture, but also those who buy."

Argentina's laws against Nazi symbols

Displaying Nazi symbols is a crime in Argentina, which has the largest Jewish population in Latin America.

"We are shocked by how profuse the material is," said Marcos Cohen from the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations, the Jewish group acting as plaintiff in the process.

"I don't remember anything like this being found before."

Argentina became a haven for Nazis in the aftermath of World War II. Many fled to the country with the blessing of former president Juan Peron, according to the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Adolf Eichmann, who was considered one of the main architects of Hitler's plan to exterminate Jews in Europe, was captured in Buenos Aires in 1960.