[ProPublica] A ProPublica-ICIJ investigation into shadow diplomats identified about 20 honorary consuls suspected of supporting the Third Reich through espionage and other activities.In 1942, as Nazi Germany began to send hundreds of thousands of Jews to killing centers, Brazilian police swooped into a port city in the South American country and arrested a wealthy landowner.
To locals, he was Otto Uebele, a Brazilian manager of a prominent coffee trading company. He also served as honorary consul for Germany — and was an accused Nazi spy.
"One of the leaders of German espionage in South America," Allied intelligence agents wrote in a secret document, later released by the CIA.
A local newspaper at the time called Uebele a man of "respectable appearance, who enjoyed the greatest prestige and influence in social and commercial circles."
"Nobody," the paper wrote, "could imagine him a spy. The fact went off like a bomb, such was the surprise."