"BLOWBACK: The First Full Account Of America's Recruitment Of Nazis, And Its Disastrous Effect On Our Domestic And Foreign Policy"

By Christopher Simpson

pub by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, New York, 1988,

pp. 176-198; a significant passage from one section of Simpson's book describes the role of the [Roman] Catholic Church's organization of "ratlines" to aid Nazi war criminals escape to first to Spain, Portugal and South America, and later, to Canada and the United States:

"...these refugee routes became the most important pipelines out of Europe for Nazis and collaborators fleeing war crimes charges.

Factions within the [Roman Catholic] church that had long been sympathetic to the Nazis' extreme anti-Communist stand organized large-scale programs to facilitate the escape of tens of thousands of Nazis and collaborators from Germany, Austria, Croatia, Slovakia, the Ukraine, and a number of other Eastern European states.

The pivotal role of the [Roman Catholic] church in the escape of Nazis has been emphasized by Luftwaffe Colonel Hans Ulrich Rudel, the highly decorated German air ace who became an international spokesman for the neo-Nazi movement after the war.

"One may otherwise view [Roman] Catholicism as one wishes. But what the [Roman Catholic] Church, especially certain towering personalities within the [Roman Catholic] Church, undertook in those years [immediately after the war] to save the best of our nation, often from certain death, must never be forgotten!"

Colonel Rudel exclaimed in a speech at Kufstein in 1970.

"In Rome itself, the transit point of the escape routes, a vast amount was done. With its own immense resources, the [Roman Catholic] Church helped many of us go overseas. In this manner, in quiet and secrecy, the demented victors' mad craving for revenge and retribution could be effectively counteracted.""