For years, governments knew there were Nazis living in Australia and covered it up

Australia accepted more Holocaust survivors per capita outside of Israel than any other country on Earth. Almost 30,000 Jews escaped to Australia, believing they would be far from the clutches of Hitler’s henchmen. 

That's the truth. But it’s not the whole truth. 

An estimated 4,000-5,000 alleged Nazis were also welcomed here. Horrifically, many of them travelled on the same boats as the Jews. 

Perpetrators and survivors. The torturers and the tortured. Nazis and Jews.

It gets worse. The government knew there were Nazis living next door, turned a blind eye and even covered it up. 

This is one of several bombshell revelations I discovered while making The Hunt for the Last Nazis, a new feature documentary for SBS.

The context is key: World War II was over. The Nazis defeated. Communists were the new enemy. Fear of the “Red Peril” was real.

At the same time, “Populate or perish” was Australia’s post-war mantra. The nation-building project required young, strong immigrants. Men who were not Communists. And, crucially, who were white.

The so-called “Beautiful Balts” ticked the boxes. Of the 170,000 displaced persons who were welcomed here, many were from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

Unsurprisingly, some had blood on their hands. The Jewish communities of these three Baltic states were all virtually wiped out. Of the 210,000 Jews in pre-war Lithuania, almost 195,000 were murdered – more than 90 per cent. Latvian Jewry suffered a similar near-annihilation. Estonia was declared “Judenfrei” by 1942.