Argentine Supreme Court officials revealed Sunday that 83 long-forgotten boxes containing Nazi materials confiscated during World War II have been found in the court’s basement.

The boxes, according to archival research conducted by the court, were originally shipped from the German embassy in Tokyo to Argentina in June 1941 aboard the Japanese steamship “Nan-a-Maru.” At the time, their arrival raised suspicions among Argentine authorities concerned that the contents could threaten the nation’s wartime neutrality.

Though German diplomats claimed the shipment merely held personal belongings, customs officials opened five of the boxes and found Nazi propaganda materials, including photographs, postcards, and thousands of notebooks belonging to the Nazi party. A federal judge ordered the seizure of the cargo and referred the matter to the Supreme Court. What followed, however, remained a mystery—until now.

Eighty-four years later, the boxes resurfaced as court staff began preparations for a new Supreme Court museum.

“Upon opening one of the boxes, we identified material intended to consolidate and propagate Adolf Hitler’s ideology in Argentina during the Second World War,” the court said in an official statement.

The boxes have since been relocated to a secure, restricted-access room, and the court has invited the Buenos Aires Holocaust Museum to assist in cataloging and preserving the contents. Researchers hope the trove may shed light on lesser-known aspects of the Holocaust, including potential financial networks the Nazi regime may have maintained in South America.

Argentina maintained neutrality for most of the war, only breaking ties with Axis powers in 1944 and formally declaring war on Germany and Japan in 1945. Between 1933 and 1954, roughly 40,000 Jews fled Europe and found refuge in Argentina, which today holds the largest Jewish population in Latin America.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)