“The ratlines were not a thoroughly structured system, but consisted of many individual components,” said Daniel Stahl, a historian at the Department of Modern and Contemporary History at Jena’s Friedrich Schiller University. “It was more of a spontaneous cooperation of different institutions that gradually established itself after World War II.”

Some 90% of [Axis] perpetrators who escaped Europe are thought to have fled across the Alps to Italy — that was the first loophole.

Their first stop was in the South Tyrol region of northern Italy: the monastery of the Teutonic Order in Merano, the Capuchin monastery near Bressanone or the Franciscan monastery near Bolzano. The war criminals would often hide out in monasteries — these ratlines are also known as the “monastery route” — for years, collecting money to continue their escape overseas. Sometimes, the [Fascists] were accommodated right next to their former victims, Jews headed to [Palestine].

Rome was the next stop. The [Fascists] who had a letter from the Catholic Church confirming their identity were handed a passport by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which issued about 120,000 papers until 1951 — a mere formality.

“The story goes that even before the end of the war, there was a clearly thought-out and elaborate plan for [Axis] escapees,” Stahl said. “That is wrong, even the likes of Franz Stangl first wandered around Rome without knowing what to do next.” Information was passed on word of mouth.

A name that regularly crops up is Alois Hudal. The Austrian bishop had clearly positioned himself as a [Fascist] sympathizer during [Fascism], and later he said many of those persecuted were “completely blameless” and that he “snatched them from their tormentors with false identity papers.”