Justin Marozzi

The Nazi influence in Egypt

Cairo teemed with Hitler’s henchmen after the second world war, and their legacy may even persist today, says Vyvyan Kinross

Aribert Heim, known as ‘Dr Death’ and the ‘Butcher of Mauthausen’, escaped justice and lived quietly in Cairo as the Muslim convert Tarek Hussein Farid until his death in 1992. [Bridgeman Images]

The law of supply and demand is a powerful thing. In the aftermath of the second world war there were many thousands of suddenly underemployed German and Nazi rocket scientists, jet engine technicians, military leaders, chemical engineers, propagandists and other specialists on the international market. While many were snapped up by the Americans and Soviets, voluntarily or otherwise, there was no shortage left for countries such as Argentina and Egypt, which reckoned they could learn a thing or two from the market leaders in internal repression and weapons of mass destruction.

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