This should add in a chapter or two to the high school history books… some ruins have been discovered in an Argentine jungle, and they could be a secret Nazi lair.

The series of ruins was found near the Paraguay border by archaeologists, and “contain stashes of German coins from the late 1930s, fragments of “Made in Germany” porcelain, and Nazi symbols on the walls”. Daniel Schavelzon, from the University of Buenos Aires and who leads the team says:

We can find no other explanation as to why anyone would build these structures, at such great effort and expense, in a site which at that time was totally inaccessible, away from the local community, with material which is not typical of the regional architecture.

Legend says that “a house in the forest belonged to Martin Bormann – Hitler’s right-hand-man” but Schavelzon says there is no evidence to support this.

Apparently, halfway through the Second World War, the Nazis had a secret project of building shelters for top leaders in the event of defeat – inaccessible sites, in the middle of deserts, in the mountains, on a cliff or in the middle of the jungle like this. This site also has the bonus of allowing the inhabitants to be in Paraguay in less than 10 minutes. It’s a protected, defendable site where they could live quietly.

Luckily for ze Germans, they didn’t need to sneak into the jungles during the war or after – President Juan Peron (of Evita fame) welcomed them to Argentina. It is estimated some 5 000 Germans went to Argentina after the war.

[Source: The Telegraph]