Stille Hilfe Die Stille Hilfe für Kriegsgefangene und Internierte ( German for " Silent assistance for prisoners of war and interned persons " ) abbreviated " Stille Hilfe " is a relief organization for arrested , condemned and fugitive SS members , similar to the veterans ' association , set up by Helene Elizabeth Princess von Isenburg ( 1900 – 1974 ) in 1951 . The organization has garnered a reputation for being shrouded in secrecy and thus remains a source of speculation . History . Operating covertly from 1946 , the organization that later became publicly active as " Stille Hilfe " , aided the escape of hunted Nazi fugitives , particularly to South America . Thus Adolf Eichmann , Johann von Leers , Walter Rauff and Josef Mengele could escape to Argentina . In 1949 Catholic Bishop Johannes Neuhäusler ( who himself had suffered from the Nazi regime in Dachau concentration camp ) and Evangelical Lutheran Bishop Theophil Worm founded " the Christian prisoner assistance " . Neuhäusler said he wanted to break the cycle of hatred and revenge by reconciling even with those who sided with his persecutors . Establishment . After the main exponents of the later association had already long formed an active network , it was decided a non - profit association should be formed primarily to facilitate a donations campaign . On 7 October 1951 the founders ' meeting was held in Munich and on 15 November 1951 the organization was entered in the register of associations in the Upper Bavarian city Wolfratshausen . The first president , Helene Elizabeth , Princess von Isenburg was chosen because of her good contacts in the aristocracy and conservative upper middle - class circles as well as the Catholic Church . Founding members of the committee included church representatives Theophil Worm and Johannes Neuhäusler , as well as high - ranking former functionaries of the Nazi state such as the former SS - Standartenführer and head of department in the Central Reich Security Office ( RSHA ) , Wilhelm Spengler , and SS - Obersturmbannführer Heinrich Malz , who was the personal adviser of Ernst Kaltenbrunner . Objectives and activity in the mid - 1950s . Helene Elizabeth , Princess von Isenburg explained its objectives in such a way : " From the start of its efforts ‚ the Stille Hilfe sought to take care of , above all , the serious needs of the prisoners of war and those interned completely without rights . Later their welfare service was active for those accused and arrested as a result of the war trials , whether in the prisons of the victors or in German penal institutions " . From the beginning of the Nuremberg Trials , the group sought to influence public opinion to prevent the execution of the death penalty . In press campaigns , personal and open letters and petitions , the war criminals were usually represented as innocent victims – pure command - receivers , irreproachable and often also having a blind faith in the Führer – who would have to suffer bitter injustice by victor ' s justice . Because Princess von Isenburg was particularly devoted to the war criminals condemned to death in Landsberg prison , she was affectionately known as " Mother of the Landsbergers " in order to let " Stille Hilfe " be seen primarily as a charitable organization . The legal assistance for arrested war criminals was first organized by the attorney Rudolf Aschenauer ( 1913 – 1983 ) , who also formulated and submitted requests for grace and revisions . The organization paid vacation , dismissal and Christmas benefit to the prisoners and also supported their families . They were not only limited to humanitarian activities but also pursued a past - ideological and revisionist objective . Princess Isenburg , a strict Catholic , tirelessly pleaded the criminals ' cause in conservative circles and with high - ranking church representatives ( even up to the Pope ) . Johannes Neuhäusler ( 1888 – 1973 ) in particular , who not only had suffered detention / imprisonment by the Gestapo , but also had been held by the Nazis in the Dachau concentration camp as a special prisoner , was most effective in public opinion , even among western Allied officials . The motives of the bishops lay probably less in a conscious ideological identification with the war criminals , but rather in the effort regarding reconciliation with the German past and the start of the new post - war society in West Germany . Neuhäusler explained that he wanted to repay " the bad with good " . The further connections of Princess Isenburg and Aschenauer led particularly to former SS organizations such as Gauleiterkreis under Werner Naumann , which was already partly formed in Allied prisoner - of - war camps . Princess Isenburg initiated a whole series of organizations as " The working group for the rescue of the Landsberger prisoners " , who were essentially financed by the churches . Activity up to today . The churches to a large extent withdrew support with the end of the main Nuremberg Trials and the release of the time - serving Nazi war criminals from Landsberg prison in 1958 . In the following decades Stille Hilfe worked somewhat in secret with revisionist organizations and prominent protagonists of the " Auschwitzlüge " ( Auschwitz lie ) like Thies Christophersen and Manfred Roeder and co - operated with relevant foreign organizations and personalities e . g . ( Florentine Rost van Tonningen , Leon Degrelle ) . By a not insignificant number of inheritances and by regular donations , the organization controls considerable funds . Since Stille Hilfe does not publish end - of - year figures , one can only estimate the influx of capital ; however , perhaps donations ( not including inheritances ) were annually circa €60000 to 80000 , at least to the end of the 1990s . Stille Hilfe supported the condemned in the Düsseldorfer Majdanek trials , the former concentration camp guard Hildegard Lächert ( " bloody Brygida " ) and later Klaus Barbie , Erich Priebke and Josef Schwammberger , who from 1942 to 1944 was commander of German labour camps in occupied Poland , involved in the massacres of Przemyśl and Rozwadów . Whether they were involved in the release of Herbert Kappler from a prison in Rome in 1977 is not clarified . Chairmen after Princess Isenburg ( until 1959 ) were to 1992 the former Bund Deutscher Mädel leaders Gertrude Herr and Adelheid Klug . They have been led since 1992 by Horst Janzen . The organisation today has approximately 40 members with decreasing numbers . At the same time however contacts were reinforced with " Hilfsorganisation für nationale politische Gefangene und deren Angehörige " ( relief organization for national political prisoners ) ( HNG ) , so continuity may be secured . Based until 1976 in Bremen Osterholz , since 1989 in Rotenburg ( Wümme ) , since 1992 in Wuppertal . In 1993 / 1994 it caused a political debate in the Bundestag over its non - profit status as a revisionistic right - wing extremist association and was submitted to an examination by the fiscal authorities . In the Bundesfinanzhof ( Federal Finance Court ) it was decided in November 1999 to deny Stille Hilfe non - profit , i . e . charitable , status . For years they have had a prominent symbol : Gudrun Burwitz , the daughter of Heinrich Himmler . Known to her father as " Püppi " , she is an idol to Stille Hilfe and their affiliates . At meetings such as Ulrichsbergtreffen in Austria she appeared at the same time as a star and an authority . Burwitz has campaigned intensively in the last few years for accused Nazis . This particularly showed up in the case of Anton Malloth , who had lived undisturbed for about 40 years in Meran . He was proven guilty for his acts as a supervisor in the Gestapo - prison " Kleine Festung Theresienstadt " , which was part of the larger Theresienstadt concentration camp . In 2001 Malloth was convicted by the district court of Munich for murder and attempted murder and sentenced to life imprisonment after the public prosecutor ' s office in Munich had taken over the procedure of the public prosecutor ' s office in Dortmund , which for many years had hijacked the procedure . From 1988 to 2000 , Malloth lived in Pullach near Munich . Gudrun Burwitz was instructed by Stille Hilfe to rent a comfortable room for him in a home for the aged , which was built on a lot formerly owned by Rudolf Hess . In common with the secretive nature of the organisation , Burwitz does not give press interviews . At the end of the 1990s it became public that the social welfare assistance administration ( and thus the German taxpayers ) had in large part taken over the considerable running costs of the home where Malloth was staying . This , along with the participation of Gudrun Burwitz , resulted in substantial public criticism . Although firmly rooted in the neo - Nazi fringe , it developed amicable relations with conservative West German politicians , such as CDU Bundestag Parliamentary leader Alfred Dregger , who praised the efforts of Stille Hilfe in 1989 . In 1991 , a Stille Hilfe representative attended the graveside ceremony in Kassel of Michael Kühnen , the prominent Neo - Nazi leader who died of HIV - related complications . Stille Hilfe laid a wreath that bore the SS motto " Michael Kühnen - his honor is loyalty . " The organisation has come under criticism for its encouragement and support of neo - Nazis . This has included legal aid for those facing prosecution . It also supports a Protestant old people ' s home in Pullach , near Munich .