Teenagers from a German-language school dressed up as Nazis and attacked Jewish students last week at an Argentinian ski resort famous for harbouring Third Reich war criminals.

The German students, from the Lanús Oeste German school in Buenos Aires, arrived at the Cerebro disco in Bariloche on Tuesday night sporting Adolf Hitler moustaches and swastikas, and giving Nazi salutes.

According to one of the Jewish students - who were on a field trip organised by their ORT school in Buenos Aires - "they called us 'filthy Jews' as they proudly showed off their symbols".

When bouncers at the club refused to eject the pupils in fancy dress, there was a "confrontation" which turned into a fight, according to the Jewish student.

Several Nazis settled in Bariloche after the end of the Second World War, having been welcomed into Argentina by the Peronist government. They included Dr Josef Mengele, Auschwitz's "Angel of Death".

The director of the Lanús school, Silvia Fazio, later apologised and announced that the offenders would be ordered to visit the Holocaust Museum in Buenos Aires.

"They will have to make some act of atonement for the damage caused," she said.

Adrián Moscovich, executive director of the ORT school, said the incident underlined the importance of continuing to teach children about the Holocaust.

Erich Priebke, one of the men responsible for the 1944 massacre of 335 Italian civilians in the Ardeatine caves in Rome, was another resident of Bariloche.

He lived in the resort for more than four decades, even becoming director of the German school there. He was extradited to Italy in 1995 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Some local companies offer tours of the hiding places used by Nazis after the war.