Heinz Dieter Menge papers

Heinz Dieter Menge was born Heinrich Dieter was born on September 13, 1919 in the Ilten district of Sehnde, Germany. During World War II he was a German Luftwaffe fighter pilot who was interned as a German prisoner-of-war from October 1941 to March 1947 in Camp Dhurringile, an Australian POW camp reserved for Luftwaffe officers. After his release, he immigrated to Buenos Aires, Argentina on August 27, 1948 aboard the SS Brasil leaving from Genoa, Italy. In Buenos Aires, Heinz obtained his commercial pilot’s license and worked in the scrap metal business. As described in Uki Goňi's book The Real Odessa, Menge's home on the outskirts of Buenos Aires became a regular gathering place for Nazi fugitives such as Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele, and he was also present at the Eichmann interviews conducted by Dutch war criminal Willem Sassen in 1957. The collection documents the World War II-era and post-war experiences of German Luftwaffe fighter pilot Heinz Dieter Menge, who was a prisoner-of-war in Australia from 1941-1947 and later immigrated to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Included is biographical material, correspondence, clippings, immigration documents, two guest books with personal inscriptions and signatures by Menge's guests from the 1950s to 2000s, and photographs. There is also material pertaining to the German POW camp Dhurringile in Australia and reunions of former POWs, including over 50 group photographs. Many of these photographs were taken at a reunion at the Winterscheider Mühle in North Rhine-Westphalia in the 1980s. One separate photograph, most likely taken at Menge's home in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, depicts Menge and his friends in front of a Nazi flag.