I think that was mostly freelancer activity. The top Nazis were either killed in the Bunker, or captured while trying to escape and were killed, arrested, or (in the case of Himmler) killed themselves. Some of the mid-level Nazis managed to flee in vehicles (e.g., Mengele just got in his car and drove home from the death camp, then made his way I think to Switzerland, and left for S. America), others on foot, and still others turned themselves in to western forces (e.g. rocket genius Von Braun and most of his staff; about 150 of the rocket people wound up working for the Soviets).
Those who were POWs were interrogated, most cooperated with that, and some were placed under house arrest, others in internment camps, some both; others (e.g. “Sepp” Dietrich) were jailed, then tried and given prison terms (I think his was for the pre-war ‘execution’ of Ernst Rohm, for which he did ten years) or hanged, and in a few cases were acquitted.
British intelligence spent a few years after the war assassinating some who weren’t considered worthwhile to try, but had done something that stuck in the British craw. The Soviets indoctrinated the surviving German armed forces stranded in the east, or executed or gulag’ed them if they wouldn’t play ball.
Stalin also had every Red Army soldier photographed sharing cigarettes and the moment with the western allies at the end of the war, and those who could be identified and were still alive were sent to the gulag.
German officers (particularly SS and Gestapo) who fled Germany after the war typically wound up in S. America, but they got there under assumed names (or sometimes not even) via the ocean liners and such which were commonplace at the time. Hundreds fled with the help of “ratlines” which were nearly entirely run by ex-Nazis and wartime collaborators. A great many of the fugitives (and there were many, many who did this) returned to Germany from time to time, to visit relatives or in some cases to stay if everything was cool.
Some, like Klaus Barbie, really couldn’t take that chance. He wound up working for one of the Bolivian gov’ts I think, doing what he did best. Sez here that when the gov’t fell, he was extradited to France. One of his old Nazi proteges during that last gig in Bolivia would up getting in a fight over a woman, and the young rival killed him. So, scratch those two.
A distant cousin of mine on my grandmothers’s side was Kurt Student. Somehow there was communication between them even during the war leastwise I’m led to believe. Love to see those letters. When another cousin was shot down during a bombing run over the German border There was so far my understanding was a effort to contact him to see if he would get better treatment.
However it wasn’t needed he made his way back to France through the underground and back to England. He was awarded the DFC..He told of an episode while there which was later depicted in a movie. While sitting in an outdoor cafe was told to move. As the Partisans ambushed some Germans.
Student was tried in Hamburg for war crimes but was set free or received a light sentence. He was for a time Chief of the General Staff planned the invasion of Poland and was noted for the drop on a Belgian strong point. Both he and I were “troopers” so I guess that runs in the family.