by Isser Harel
GEORG-AUGUST ZINN – Prime-Minister of the German federal state of Hessen, who authorised the official German co-operation with Israel in the Eichmann affair.
SHAUL DAROM – Special agent of the Israeli Security Services, sent by Isser Harel as liaison with Dr. Fritz Bauer in the Eichmann affair.
2 First Preliminary Investigation in Argentina, January 1958
YOEL GOREN – Experienced operations man sent to Argentina in January 1958 to investigate the address given by Dr. Bauer: 4261 Chacabuco Street, Olivos (suburb of Buenos Aires).
EFRAIM ILANI – An Israeli citizen working in Argentina at the time, who was asked to assist Yoel Goren. At a later stage he also assisted Efraim Hofstaetter, another investigator. Afterward he was a member of the task force.
3 Second Preliminary Investigation in Argentina, March 1958
LOTHAR HERMANN – Dr. Bauer’s ‘source.’
EFRAIM HOFSTAETTER – Police officer and crack investigator of the Israeli Police Force, ‘borrowed’ by Isser Harel at the beginning of 1958 to approach Lothar Hermann and check his reliability and credibility.
KARL HUPPERT – German nom de plume adopted by Efraim Hofstaetter for his contact with Lothar Hermann.
4 Third Preliminary Investigation in Argentina, beginning of 1960
RICARDO KLEMENT – The name under which Adolf Eich-mann was living in Argentina, according to Dr. Bauer.
YOSEF KENET – Senior investigator in the Israeli Secret Services, sent to Argentina at the end of February 1960 to locate Ricardo Klement and determine if he and Adolf Eichmann were one and the same.
HAGGAI – Yosef Kenet’s superior officer, himself a survivor of Auschwitz.
DAVID and HEDDA KORNFELD – Residents of a South American country (not Argentina). A young married couple, he a successful architect and she a graduate in psychology and languages. Both assisted Kenet.
LUBINSKY – Lawyer resident in South America. Assisted Kenet.
PRIMO – Student in the Faculty of Engineering, resident in South America. Assisted Kenet.
PEDRO – Hotel page, working at a large hotel in Buenos Aires; assisted Hedda Kornfeld, although unaware of the purpose of his errand.
5 Preliminary Investigation in Europe
EZRA ESHET – Director of an operations unit investigating the families of Eichmann and his wife (whose maiden name was Vera Liebl) in Europe. At a later stage he was attached to the task force.
GAD ARMON – Participated in the investigations in Europe, together with Ezra Eshet.
6 Organizational Team in Israel
MOSHE DRORI – Chief of special unit for collecting material on leading war criminals, and coordinator of the organizational team.
CHAIM YITZHAKI – Security officer of the Reparations Mission in Germany, served as liaison with Dr. Fritz Bauer.
MALKA BRAVERMAN – Administration, finance, and manpower expert, engaged in investigating ways of taking Eichmann out of Argentina and solving complicated organizational problems pertaining to the operation.
MOSHE VERED – Assistant to Moshe Drori.
DR. YAEL POZNER – Specialist in cover and documentation. In the early stages of the operation she located persons who had known Eichmann and could identify him. Later she arranged the personal documentation for the task force.
ZVI ZOHAR – The task force’s ‘travel agent.’
7 Identification of Eichmann
DR. BENNO COHEN – Chairman of the German Zionist Organization from 1936 to 1938, in which capacity he had met Eichmann personally.
DR. HANS FRIEDENTHAL – Co-chairman of the German Zionist Organization from 1936 to 1938, in which capacity he had met Eichmann personally.
ELI ILAN – Israeli Police Force’s expert in the comparison of photographs for identification purposes. He was given photographs of Eichmann from the SS period to compare with the operational shots taken by Kenet’s team.
MOSHE AGAMI – Knew Eichmann, having been the Jewish Agency representative in Vienna in 1938. He was called to identify Eichmann after the latter was brought to Israel.
EFRAIM HOFSTAETTER – Police officer who met with Lothar Hermann at the outset of the operation. In his official capacity he dealt with the identification of Eichmann after the latter was brought to Israel.
8 The Task Force
RAFI EITAN – Commander of the task force.
AVRUM SHALOM – Second-in-command to Rafi Eitan; leader of the advance party.
EFRAIM ILANI – Attached to the team because of his knowledge of local conditions. Participated in the preliminary investigations.
YOSEF KENET – Directed the investigation which concluded with the location of Ricardo Klement and his identification as Adolf Eichmann; attached to the advance party for positive identification and interrogation of Klement/Eichmann.
EZRA ESHET – Directed the preliminary investigations in Europe. Member of the advance party as coordinator of organizational matters.
ZEV KEREN-Member of the advance party, expert technician.
SHALOM DANI – Master of the art of documentation forgery.
ELI YUVAL – Versatile technician, expert in disguise by makeup, chosen to be the first to seize Eichmann because of his physical strength and fitness.
YITZHAK NESHER – Member of the advance party; attached to the task force because of his ability to assume varying cover identities.
DINA RON – Attached to the team to play the role of ‘girl friend’ in the house where Eichmann would be held in custody after his capture, the purpose being to give the place a normal-looking ‘front.’
THE DOCTOR – His part was to keep Eichmann drugged at various stages of the operation and to look after the general health of the team and the captive.
9 Fortuitous Assistants in Buenos Aires
MEIR BARHON – Happened to be in Argentina by pure chance; he was set up as the victim of an alleged road accident in order to make it possible, in case of need, to take Eichmann out of Argentina with his documents.
MEIR LAVI and HIS WIFE -Assisted Isser Harel in an attempt to locate (for the purpose of capturing) the war criminal Dr. Mengele.
HILEL and NEOMI POOCH -Assisted Isser Harel in an attempt to locate (for the purpose of capturing) the war criminal Dr. Mengele.
10 The Special El Al Flight on Which Eichmann Was Smuggled Out of Argentina
YEHUDA SHIMONI – Departmental director of the airline company, through whom Isser Harel made the first inquiries about the flight; he participated in all stages of the special flight.
MORDECHAI BEN-ARI – Deputy director of the airline; assisted in the organization of the special flight.
YOSEF KLEIN – Manager of one of the airline’s large overseas stations, who joined Shimoni in Buenos Aires. In his childhood he underwent all the horrors of the holocaust and was saved by a miracle.
ZVITOHAR – Captain of the special-flight aircraft.
SHMUEL VEDELES – Co-pilot of the special flight.
ADI PELEG – Senior member of the airline’s staff; during Shimoni’s absence in Argentina he handled the Israeli angle of all the problems involved in the special flight. Later he joined the crew aboard the special aircraft.
LUBA VOLK – Senior employee of the airline, resident in Buenos Aires, where her husband was working; assisted in the handling of the special flight, though not aware of its secret aspect.
KURT MAYER – Senior employee in the flight services department of the airline, attached to the flight at the special request of Captain Tohar.
LEO BARKAI – Veteran steward of the company, attached to the special flight.
ARYE FRIDMAN – The airline company’s hangar foreman. When asked to select a mechanic for the special flight, he offered his own services. He was unaware of the real purpose of the flight and was bowled over when he encountered Eichmann on board. He then recollected the horrors he had experienced as a child in the holocaust.
MORDECHAI AVIVI – Electrician in the company’s maintenance department, attached to
the special flight.
GILADI – Navigator on the special flight.
BRIGADIER ZOREA – Passenger on the special flight as a member of the Israeli delegation to the anniversary celebrations.
RABBI EFRATI – Chance passenger on the special flight to Argentina.
11 Operations Agents on the Special Flight
YEHUDA CARMEL- Chosen to act as Eichmann’s operational double. He wore flight-crew’s uniform and traveled on the flight to Argentina under the name of Zichroni.
YOEL GOREN – Operations agent who had participated in the preliminary investigation at 4261 Chacabuco Street in 1958. He was to act as guard and escort for Eichmann on the flight back to Israel.
URIHARAN – Operations agent who, with Goren, was to act as guard and escort for Eichmann during the flight to Israel.
12 People Who Knew the Secret Purpose of the Flight
GENERAL LASKOV – Close personal friend of Isser Harel.
YAACOV CAROZ – Isser Harel’s closest associate for many years.
YITZHAKNAVON-Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion’s political secretary.
YOSEF NAHMIAS – Inspector General of the Israeli Police. When Eichmann was brought to Israel he was handed over to Nahmias, who was responsible for the prisoner.
YAKI – Isser Harel’s loyal driver and confidant.
EFRAIM RONEL – Shalom Dani’s immediate superior. Dani was the documentation expert of the task force.
13 Police Officers Who Took Charge of Eichmann Immediately on His Arrival in Israel
MATITYAHU SELA – Head of the Investigations Department of the Israeli Police National Headquarters.
SHMUEL ROTH – Acting head of the Criminal Branch of the Israeli Police National Headquarters.
1
IT WAS LATE 1957 but it could have been yesterday, so clearly do I remember how the decision to capture Eichmann crystallized in my mind. Twelve and a half years had passed since the rout of the Nazi armies had ended the monstrous career of that mystery figure, the SS officer appointed to implement the total liquidation of the Jewish people.
The sharp ringing of the telephone on my desk heralded the start of it all: Walter Eytan, Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was calling from Jerusalem. He had something for me, he said, and must see me as soon as possible. Eytan was a calm, restrained person, and I had always admired his pleasant manner and quiet, cultured way of speaking. But that day he sounded agitated, and I suspected that something quite out of the ordinary was in the wind. I asked no questions, expressed no surprise at this unaccustomed excitement; I understood he didn’t want to discuss it on the telephone. He said he was on his way to Tel Aviv to attend a reception at one of the embassies, so we arranged to meet at a Ramat Gan café as soon as he arrived.
I could see at once that he was almost overcome with emotion. A message from Dr. Shinar, head of the Reparations Mission in West Germany, contained the astounding information that Adolf Eichmann was alive – and his address in Argentina was known.
We didn’t talk for long. I thanked him for the information and assured him it would be investigated thoroughly and without delay.
Anyone holding the sort of office entrusted to me at that time soon learns from experience not to build too many hopes on startling news of this kind. Throughout the years that had passed since Eichmann disappeared we kept getting tips about places where he was supposedly hiding, but in each case investigation ended in disappointment – and what’s more, we couldn’t even find definite proof that he was still alive. All trace of him had been lost since the beginning of May 1945, and we had never succeeded in verifying any of the so-called reliable evidence of people who claimed to have seen him thereafter.
I still don’t know why I gave more credence to this latest report than to any of its predecessors; perhaps instinct told me that this time it was no rumor plucked out of thin air, or perhaps I had caught some of Walter Eytan’s excitement. Anyway, I went straight back to my office and asked our archivist to bring me all the material available on Eichmann. I knew that he was one of the chief Nazi criminals, and I also knew that his principal function was the extermination of the Jews, but I had never gone very deeply into his place in the Nazi hierarchy or the decisive part he played in what the Nazis called ‘the Final Solution of the Jewish Problem.’ This somber chapter in the history of the Jewish people haunted me like a nightmare that had no place in the world of reality – something going so far beyond the known limits of dastardly crime, wanton cruelty, and mortal hatred that no human being could plumb the depths of its true significance.
That night I sat for hours reading the Eichmann dossier, and in my mind’s eye an image took shape, the image of an archfiend whose vicious crimes were unprecedented in the annals of humanity, a man on whose shoulders rested the direct responsibility for the butchery of millions.
I didn’t know then what sort of man Eichmann was. I didn’t know with what morbid zeal he pursued his murderous work nor how he went into the fray to destroy one miserable Jew with the same ardor he devoted to the annihilation of an entire community. I didn’t know that he was capable of ordering the slaughter of babies – and depicting himself as a disciplined soldier; of directing outrages on women – and priding himself on his loyalty to an oath; or of sending helpless old men to their deaths and classifying himself as an ‘idealist.’
But I knew when I rose from my desk at dawn that in everything pertaining to the Jews he was the paramount authority and his were the hands that pulled the strings controlling manhunt and massacre. I knew that at all the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals this man was pointed to as the head butcher. I knew that he was a past master in police methods, and that on the strength of his professional skill and in the light of his total lack of conscience, he would be an exceedingly dangerous quarry. I knew that when the war was over he had succeeded in blotting out all trace of himself with supreme expertise.
I knew that the blood-drenched earth which held the remains of his millions of victims was crying out for vengeance, but no agency in the entire world, no government, no police were looking for him to answer for his crimes. People were tired of atrocity stories; their one desire was to dismiss those unspeakable happenings from their minds; they maintained that, in any event, there was no punishment on earth to fit the perpetration of outrages of such magnitude; and they were reconciled to the violation of law and the perversion of justice.
That night I resolved that if Eichmann were alive, come hell or high water he’d be caught.
Shortly after my talk with Walter Eytan, Dr. Shinar came on a visit to Israel. He told me that the source of his information on Eichmann was Dr. Fritz Bauer, Public Prosecutor of the Province of Hesse in West Germany.
Bauer, a Jew who came from a family of jurists, held the position of a judge in Stuttgart till the Nazis came to power. Afterward he was imprisoned for about a year. In 1936 he emigrated to Denmark, but the Nazis caught up with him there as well, and in 1940 he was again arrested. This time he spent three years in prison before he managed to escape and find refuge in Sweden. After the war he returned to Germany, fully determined to devote himself to bringing Nazi war criminals to book.
Bauer was a long-standing member of the ruling Social Democratic Party in the Province of Hesse and a man of eminence in the government. During his years of service he had earned the reputation of being an eminent jurist and had won acclaim for the books he had written on criminal law and jurisprudence.
Dr. Shinar told me that on September 19, 1957, while on a visit to Frankfurt, Rabbi Lichtigfeld of the Province of Hesse had informed him that Bauer wanted to see him on an important issue. Rabbi Lichtigfeld did not know the nature of the matter. It was arranged that Bauer and Shinar should meet at the Metropol Hotel, but as soon as Bauer arrived he requested that they find more discreet surroundings. They drove to an inn situated by the Cologne-Frankfurt highway.
‘Eichmann has been traced,’ began Bauer without any preliminaries.
/> ‘Adolf Eichmann?’ exclaimed Shinar excitedly.
‘Yes, Adolf Eichmann. He is in Argentina.’
And what do you intend to do?’
‘I’ll be perfectly frank with you,’ said Bauer. ‘I don’t know if we can altogether rely on the German judiciary here, let alone on the German embassy staff in Buenos Aires. That is why I was so interested in talking to you. I see no other way but to turn to you. You are known to be efficient people, and nobody could be more interested than you in the capture of Eichmann. Obviously, I wish to maintain contact with you in connection with this matter, but only provided strict secrecy is kept.’
Thank you from the bottom of my heart,’ replied Shinar warmly, visibly moved, ‘for the great faith you have shown in us. Israel will never forget what you have done. Naturally, I am prepared to assume full personal responsibility for keeping our contact secret. It won’t be made public except with your express consent.’
Dr. Shinar promised to make all necessary arrangements for the information to reach the proper quarters as soon as possible. As soon as the meeting was over, he hurried to his office in Cologne to transmit a full telegraphic report to the Director General of the Foreign Office in Jerusalem.
What Dr. Shinar told me about Fritz Bauer’s personality impressed me a great deal. I promised Shinar that when he went back to Cologne I would send him a special representative to maintain contact with Bauer. The suitable man for this assignment was soon found: his name was Shaul Darom.
Shaul came of a traditionally observant family who emigrated from Germany to Israel (then Palestine, under British Mandate) in the early days of the Nazi regime. Unlike his brothers who chose academic careers, Shaul even as a young child showed a leaning toward art; he was always a bit of a dreamer and was the perfect example of the bourgeois’s image of a bohemian. He went to France in 1947, when he was 26, to study art; there, quite by chance, he was drawn into Hamossad La’aliya, the secret organization engaged in bringing Jews to Israel without the knowledge of the British authorities. From then on he pursued both interests with equal enthusiasm and even found a way of combining the two: he painted pictures of the Jews he helped on their way to Israel.
