Revealed: The story behind Nazi who ‘stole’ missing painting that was spotted last week in an Argentina apartment

‘This person is a snake of the worst kind’.

Those were the chilling words of an American interrogator after spending four hours in the company of the slippery Nazi Friedrich Kadgien.

Now, nearly 50 years after his death, the misdeeds of the wartime SS officer and leading aide of the monstrous Hermann Goering are finally getting the attention they deserve.

As the Mail reported last week, the listing of a property owned by his daughter in a suburb of Buenos Aires – where he died in 1978 – sparked a police search for a painting allegedly stolen from a Jewish art dealer.   

But when officers arrived at the home of Patricia Kadgien, they found that Portrait of a Lady, by 18th century painter Fra Galgario, had been replaced with a tapestry depicting horses. 

Now, amidst global interest and confusion about where the painting has ended up, the Mail can reveal the astonishing story of how Kadgien fled Allied clutches after the Nazis’ defeat in the Second World War.

His escape was made possible in part by incompetence, but also a willingness by authorities in Switzerland in the immediate aftermath of the war issue Kadgien with a visa and to shield him from an American extradition request.

He was able to build a new life and career as a deal broker and arms dealer in Brazil and Argentina, the latter of which in particular became notorious for sheltering leading Nazis.

War criminals Adolf Eichmann – the chief architect of the Holocaust – and Auschwitz death camp doctor Josef Mengele were among those who found a safe haven under the regime of Juan Peron. 

Speaking of Kadgien’s flight to safety, Argentine historian Julio Mutti told the Mail: ‘The truth is that it doesn’t surprise me at all. 

‘There are many stories of worse Nazi criminals, even with insistent extradition requests from Europe, who were able to do it without any problems. 

‘These Nazis were sheltered and protected by the Argentine government. How could Kadgien not have been able to do it, having had numerous financial resources?

‘Besides, he only faced a weak extradition attempt by the Americans when he was in Switzerland.

‘What does surprise me is that his long and prosperous presence in Argentina went unnoticed during the deep investigations that were carried out in the 1990s and 2000s in Argentina.’

Kadgien, who was born in Elberfeld, western Germany, in 1907, became a member of the Nazi party in late 1932, just weeks before Adolf Hitler was elected leader of Germany.

As the 1930s progressed and the Nazis’ grip on power tightened, so did Kadgien’s career.

The currency expert joined the feared SS in 1935, and by 1938 had become a key aide to Hitler’s right-hand man, Hermann Goering. 

Although Goering is perhaps best known as the drug-addled chief of the German air force, he was also – as ‘commissioner for the four-year plan’ – charged with growing the Nazi war economy.

According to the 2002 expert report of the Swiss Bergier Commission, titled ‘Switzerland, National Socialism and the Second World War’, Kadgien became ‘heavily involved in criminal methods for acquiring currency, securities and diamonds stolen from Jewish victims’.

In other words, he used his guile to shamelessly plunder the assets of victims of the Holocaust.

Mr Mutti said: ‘The speciality of the official department where Kadgien worked was converting the proceeds from looted Jewish property into foreign currency. 

‘For example, works of art, gold, and other valuable items. Goering, in turn, was the main organizer of the looting of all kinds of works of art in the occupied territories.’

Exactly how and when Kadgien came into possession of Portrait of a Lady remains a mystery.

But it is among at least 800 pieces owned by Dutchman Jacques Goudstikker that were seized or bought under duress by the Nazis. 

He died in 1940 aged just 42 after falling into the hold of a ship and breaking his neck while fleeing the Nazis for England, where he was buried 

In December 1944, with defeat at the hands of the Allies looking certain, Kadgien and two other Nazis – Ernst Fischer and Ludwig Haupt – planned their escape.

As detailed by the authors of the mentioned report and historians Regula Boschler and Mr Mutti, Kadgien and his fellow escapees enlisted the help of Swiss lawyer Ernst Imfeld.

Imfeld, an official at Swiss fuel firm Petrola, found a space for the Nazis on a Switzerland-bound train that was carrying fuel.

He also got them all visas. In late April 1945, Kadgien, Fischer and Haupt met in the relative safety of a Zurich hotel.

The trio were flush with money they had been withdrawing from Germany over the previous months. 

Now though, British officials were on the hunt for Kadgien. Having learned he was in Switzerland, they tried to request his extradition.

Remarkably, a mistake in the spelling of his name helped him escape.

Next, he ended up under the scrutiny of American officials, who ordered him to report to the US embassy in Bern. 

It was there that Kadgien was subjected to four hours of interrogation. But the Nazi, having not confessed to anything, was released.

Attention then turned to plotting an escape to South America.

Imfeld was charged with getting the Nazis passports. He turned first to Paraguay, then Italy, but was unable to get the documents from either source.

Kadgien was then interrogated by Dutch investigators searching for diamonds he had transported from the Netherlands to Germany.

Again though, Kadgien’s denials earned him his freedom.

By late 1946, Kadgien had learned that his phone was being tapped. 

Now, the French were investigating his whereabouts, and the Americans had demanded to the Swiss authorities that he be extradited.

The Swiss police in Bern also received anonymous letters denouncing Kadgien and his fellow conspirators as Nazi fugitives.

But Kadgien is said to have bribed the authorities to ensure he remained free and that the American extradition request was refused.

Worse, the Nazis’ visas were extended until 1948. 

That same year, Kadgien, Imfeld and Haupt founded the firm Imhauka AG, which was named from an amalgamation of their initials.

Remarkably, the trio’s first business deal was to broker the sale of Argentine meat to the Allied occupation zone in Germany.

By 1951, they had made it to South America. Exactly who provided their visas remains unclear.

Kadgien lived first in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, where he ran a branch of Imhuka with Haupt and Antoinette ‘Tony’ Imfeld, the wife Ernst.

According to the 2002 report’s analysis of Kadgien’s route to freedom, the Swiss authorities had ‘protected him from the Allies’ requests for extradition, and allowed him to leave for Latin America early in 1951 without batting an eyelid.’

A 1954 photo originally published by Swiss newspaper NZZ shows Kadgien and Imfeld posing in front of a plane on the huge cattle ranch they had bought that year.

By then, Kadgien had obtained Argentina citizenship and had founded a branch of Imhauka in Buenos Aires.

He would go on to marry a younger German woman, with whom he is believed to have had his two daughters.

Kadgien reportedly bought a house in Buenos Aires’ Vicente Lopez neighbourhood.

There he allegedly brokered deals between German companies and the Argentine government of Juan Peron.

He is said to have also sold millions of dollars’ worth of weapons to the Brazilian military junta.

In 1978, the seemingly unrepentant Nazi died in Buenos Aires and was buried in the city’s German cemetery. 

Now, in death, the Nazi is under greater scrutiny than ever before.

The recent furore began after Patricia Kadgien’s home in the city of Mar del Plata, near Buenos Aires, was marketed for sale on the website of estate agent Robles Casas & Campos.

A Dutch journalist investigating the disappearance of Portrait of a Lady spotted the work in the listing’s photos.

It had pride of place in the family living room.

Police were alerted, but when they came to search the property, a hook and marks on the wall were the only evidence of the painting having been moved. 

Portrait of a Lady is listed in Dutch archives as having passed to a man bearing Kadgien’s surname.

An officer who took part in the search of Ms Kadgien’s house said: ‘It’s clear that where we found a tapestry… not long ago, there was something else.’

Ms Kadgien, her lawyer and her partner watched the search.

Officers did seize cell phones and two unregistered firearms as well as drawings, engravings and documents from the 1940s that could advance the investigation 

Marei von Saher, 81, Goudstikker’s only surviving heir, said last week she now plans to file a claim and launch a legal action to have the painting returned to her family.

‘My search for the artworks owned by my father-in-law Jacques Goudstikker started at the end of the 90s, and I won’t give up,’ von Saher told Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad.

‘My family aims to bring back every single artwork robbed from Jacques’s collection and restore his legacy.’