Image via Wikipedia Uki Goni, the Guardian's correspondent in Argentina, reveals in a new book the extraordinary truth behind the Nazi fugitive's capture
- The Guardian,
- Article history
For more than 40 years the world has believed that it was the Israeli secret service, Mossad, backed up by the Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, which orchestrated the dramatic capture of Adolf Eichmann in Argentina, which led to his trial and execution. But the truth is far stranger than that. The man who burst the protective bubble around Eichmann, the organiser of the deportation of millions of Jews to Hitler's concentration camps and the most notorious Nazi to gain refuge in Argentina, was not an Israeli super-sleuth but a blind refugee from Nazi persecution who had arrived in Argentina in 1938. Lothar Hermann, who was half Jewish, was imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp in 1935-36 for his socialist activities. After the events of Kristallnacht he decided it was time to leave Germany. Some years after his arrival in Buenos Aires he lost his sight as a delayed result of the severe beatings he had received from the Gestapo in Dachau. Hermann, his wife and their beautiful young daughter Sylvia lived in the Olivos area of Buenos Aires as non-Jewish Germans. Sylvia became friendly with the Eichmann sons, in particular the eldest, Klaus, whom she apparently dated. Klaus Eichmann visited Sylvia's home on various occasions, and made strongly anti-semitic remarks, including his regret that the Nazis could not complete the extermination of the Jews, and added that his father had served in the war. Sylvia was never invited to the young man's home and was unaware that his father lived under the alias Klement, as Eichmann had insisted on his sons continuing to bear the real family name. Lost contact Some time later the Hermanns moved to Coronel Suarez, a town 300 miles from Buenos Aires, and lost contact with the Eichmanns. But in 1957 the name of Adolf Eichmann cropped up in newspaper reports of a Nazi trial in Frankfurt. It did not take long for Hermann to figure out that the man being mentioned was in all probability Klaus Eichmann's father. Hermann dutifully sent a letter to the Frankfurt judicial authorities alerting them to Eichmann's presence in Argentina. His letter fell into the hands of Fritz Bauer a state attorney general who later led the groundbreaking Auschwitz trials in 1963. Bauer sent Hermann a description of Eichmann and asked him to find out more details. The blind man and his daughter did as they were asked, travelling to Buenos Aires to try to discover Eichmann's exact address. Sylvia found the house quite quickly. A knock at the door was answered by Klaus's mother. "Is this the Eichmann home?" Sylvia asked. Suddenly a middle-aged man appeared at the door. Sylvia asked if Klaus was home. The man said he was working late. "Are you Herr Eichmann?" Sylvia asked innocently. The man did not answer but finally conceded that he was Klaus's father. Sylvia explained that she was a friend who was looking for him, and then said goodbye. Hermann and his daughter promptly sent off a new letter to Frankfurt positively identifying, according to Bauer's description, the former chief of "Jewish affairs", and giving his address as 4261 Chacabuco Street in Olivos. Bauer knew enough about the Nazi-riddled judicial system of his own country to realise that Eichmann would at once be alerted to any action against him by Germany. So in September 1957 he secretly informed Israel that he had received confidential information stating that Eichmann was living in Argentina. Mossad took a mild interest in Bauer's lead, sending Yoel Goren to Buenos Aires in January 1958. After a quick inspection of the middle-class Olivos neighbourhood he reported that it was impossible for an important Nazi to be living there. Bauer was not ready to give up so easily, however. By revealing Hermann's identity to Mossad he was able to convince the Israelis to send a second mission. An agent called Efraim Hofstetter visited the Hermanns and their daughter in Coronel Suarez. Hermann complained loudly that the information he had provided was sufficient to proceed with Eichmann's arrest, but Hofstetter said he needed more proof, such as a copy of Eichmann's Argentinian ID picture. He left Hermann $130 to cover expenses and gave him a US address to write to from then on. So it was that a blind man living 10 hours by train from Buenos Aires was left with the task of proving Eichmann's identity. It did not intimidate Hermann. He obtained the information that the house on Chacabuco Street was owned by an Austrian called Francisco Schmidt, and for a time he became convinced that Schmidt was Eichmann's alias, and sent off more letters with this mistaken hypothesis to the new address he was given. In Israel, meanwhile, the Mossad chiefs had lost all interest in the lead and the order was given for communication with Hermann to be gradually discontinued. Reward But Hermann was determined. Excited by a $10,000 reward announced in the newspapers by Tuviah Friedman of the Haifa Documentation Centre in Israel, he started letting more people in on his secret. In a letter to Friedman dated October 17 1959 he claimed to possess the "name and exact details" of Eichmann's Argentinian ID papers. On December 29, growing ever more impatient, he met the leader of Argentina's main Jewish organisation. Suddenly the number of people who knew of Eichmann's whereabouts had expanded way beyond a small group of Israeli agents. Still, nothing seemed to be happening. Fearful that his role in Eichmann's eventual capture was being minimised to cut him out of the reward, in March 1960 Hermann wrote an angry letter to Friedman. "It seems that you attach little value to the speedy conclusion of the matter or that you have no interest at all to arrest Eichmann," Hermann fumed. The rest of the story is well known. A special Mossad team was assembled and sent to Buenos Aires to kidnap Eichmann, who had meanwhile moved from middle class Olivos to a small house he had built for himself and his family in the desolate outskirts of San Fernando. Seeking his extradition was ruled out from the very start, after Germany's failed attempt to extradite Josef Mengele. Eichmann was ignominiously snatched on an earth road on May 11 1960 as he returned from work, and taken to a secret hiding place outside Buenos Aires. For 10 days he was kept blindfolded and handcuffed to a bed while Mossad decided how to get him out of Argentina. Finally, on May 21, Eichmann was disguised in the uniform of an El Al flight attendant and was bundled on to a plane to Tel Aviv. On May 23 the Israeli prime minister, David Ben Gurian, announced his capture to the world: "Eichmann is already in this country under arrest and will shortly be brought to trial." What he did not add was that a blind man who lived on a meagre pension in the middle of the pampas had achieved what seemed impossible. Not only had he single-handedly located a notorious Nazi criminal, he had also managed to galvanise a lethargic Mossad, which had shown decidedly little interest in pursuing the case. Israel was practically shamed into capturing Eichmann. Eichmann was found guilty in Jerusalem and sentenced to death by hanging. The execution was carried out on May 31 1962. His last words were: "Long live Germany, long live Argentina, long live Austria. I shall not forget them." Hermann's part in Eichmann's capture remained a closely guarded secret until 1971 when the Mossad director Isser Harel revealed it to the Israeli press. From Argentina Hermann began to bombard Friedman with furious letters demanding his reward. Finally, in July 1972, the Israeli prime minister Golda Meier settled the debt. Acknowledgements: This is an edited extract from The Real Odessa: How Peron Brought the Nazi War Criminals to Argentina, by Uki Goni, published by Granta Books at £20 http"//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ODESSA
http://greyfalcon.us/The Real Odessa.htm
1 comment:
I have written a review about the film "The Specialist" about the Eichmann trial: http://andreasmoser.wordpress.com/2010/12/18/film-review-the-specialist-eichmann/
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