by Isser Harel
At this juncture, Kenet was confident that a crucial stage in his investigations had come to an end.
He reported to Israel that the young German at the workshop had been identified as Dieter, Eichmann’s third son, that he was calling himself by his real name, and that he lived with his mother. Kenet said he would soon know the family’s exact address and that he already had the address of the eldest son, Nicolas, who was also using his real name. The family was apparently circulating the rumor, Kenet reported, that Vera Eichmann was remarried, to a man by the name of Ricardo Klement; at the moment, this man was said to be away on business, in Tucumán, a city nearly a thousand miles from Buenos Aires. And, on the strength of the information gleaned by Lubinsky through one of his investigating agencies, Kenet was able to add to his report that it was established once and for all that Francisco Schmidt was not Eichmann.
In light of Kenet’s report, I decided to call off the investigations into the Eichmann and Liebl families in Europe. Vera Eichmann and her children had been located, and any superfluous inquiries among her relatives in Europe were liable to arouse suspicions and lead them to warn her.
It was my opinion that before long the whereabouts of Klement himself would be uncovered, and then we would be able to determine definitively whether or not he was Eichmann. If our theory should turn out to be correct, we would have to be doubly careful in every step we took. But if it should be proved that Klement wasn’t Eichmann, then we would have good grounds for supposing that Adolf Eichmann was no longer alive – unless he was deliberately steering clear of his wife, in which case she and her sons could prove a sure source for finding him.
Relying on Pedro’s information, later that afternoon Kenet went to San Fernando, where he soon found the house in which the Klement family was said to live. It was an isolated one-story house without a fence; the door was fiberboard, the walls unplastered, and, as far as Kenet could make out, it was not connected to the local power lines. Indeed, the whole neighborhood looked neglected: nearby were a cottage and a kiosk, and apart from those no houses were to be seen within a radius of several hundred yards.
Driving along the highway some thirty yards from the front of the house, Kenet saw a stout woman of about fifty sitting on the porch, a boy of five or six playing beside her. He presumed they were Vera Eichmann and her youngest son.
He went back later that evening, and this time he walked along the path behind the house. He heard a dog barking in the distance, but saw no sign of a dog at the house itself. Next to the house was a small brick structure that looked like an outhouse or a storeroom. Inside both the house and the little brick structure dim lights were burning. As Kenet was nearing the house, a young man – Kenet assumed it as Dieter-came out of the little outhouse. Kenet hurried away as fast as he could.
On March 12 he returned to San Fernando with Primo. Primo drove and Kenet sat beside him with a Leica camera with a telephoto lens and also a ‘briefcase’ camera – a concealed camera easily operated by a button at the top of the case. As they drove past the house, he photographed it. On the way back they parked the car some thirty-five to fifty yards from the house. Primo got out, opened the hood, and bent over the engine as if examining it, while Kenet used his Leica to get a shot of the house with Dieter working in the garden.
The next day he went to the main post office on Avenida Santa Fe to look at the Tucumán telephone directory. In the 1959 edition he found a listing for ‘C.A.P.R.I. - Industrial Planning and Development Company.’
Kenet had strong grounds for believing he had located the Eichmann family, but he wasn’t satisfied with a belief. What he wanted was a certainty. He hoped to get final positive proof by examining the official records or by consulting the property register to find out in whose name the plot and house were registered. As for Klement himself, Kenet considered that the time was not yet ripe for a trip to Tucumán to look for him. He preferred to wait for additional information about the Fuldner company and its subsidiary C.A.P.R.I., but he could allow himself to believe that if Klement was Eichmann, and if he really was in Tucumán, it was virtually certain that he would come home for his silver wedding anniversary which – according to the Eichmann file – fell on March 21, just days away. In the meantime, he would carry on with his inspections in the neighborhood of the house.
On March 16, at six A.M., Lubinsky called for Kenet in his rented car, and an hour later they were at the offices of the San Fernando Local Council. After examining various maps to find the area number of the plot the Klement house stood on, they sent in a written request under a fictitious name for particulars about the owners of all the plots in that block. Kenet told the clerk who took their application that he represented a large company in North America interested in buying land in that area. The clerk promised to give them the required information the next morning.
At about ten o’clock they drove to the house and parked next to the cottage which stood twenty yards from the Klements’ house. A middle-aged woman came out of the cottage, and they asked her the name of the side street. They told her that they represented a North American company which wanted to put up a factory in the neighborhood and was interested in acquiring land. She said her cottage was for sale. Then they asked about the occupants of the house next door. She said they were Germans who had only recently arrived there and she didn’t know their name, but she’d willingly call the woman from the house. Meanwhile, Kenet was able to get a close-up of the house with his briefcase camera.
A few minutes later an attractive young woman with black hair came out of Klement’s house. They explained what they wanted and she said that the house wasn’t hers, it was her mother-in-law’s, but she knew it wasn’t for sale. Kenet took a close-up shot of her too.
Through the window they saw a fair-haired boy about six years old. They asked the young woman what the side street was called, explaining that they had land in the neighborhood but didn’t exactly know where. She said she didn’t know the name of the street, and when they asked her if they could ask her mother-in-law- in the hope that she’d come out and they’d be able to photograph her – she replied that her mother-in-law hardly spoke Spanish.
The young woman then started questioning them about what company they represented and what sort of factory they intended to put up in the area. When she heard them speak English, she also switched to English; Kenet was afraid that her knowledge of the language might be enough for her to realize that he wasn’t a North American. She explained that there was no electricity or water there, and in winter there were frequent floods in the district. But still, she said, they weren’t thinking of selling the house.
They said good-bye to her and left.
At about six o’clock in the afternoon Kenet went past the house twice. The shutters were up, but there was nobody outside.
In the evening Kenet gave Lubinsky another assignment: to obtain, through one of the investigation bureaus he was in contact with, everything they could get on Nicolas Eichmann from the address in Olivos that his brother Dieter had given.
The surveillances continued. On March 17 Kenet and Lubinsky approached the house at six-fifteen A.M. They hid in a clump of trees about a hundred and sixty yards away. At about seven-fifteen they saw the young man come out of the house and go toward the bus stop. They saw no further movement about the house, and at eight twenty-five, when a stranger wandered by, they had to leave their post.
They went back to the Local Council, but the reply awaiting them was disappointing – there were no official records on any of the houses in the area they were interested in. It was explained to them that practically every winter the entire neighborhood was flooded, and the area was in fact regarded as ownerless property. People built there without licenses and paid no taxes to the local authority. An inquiry at the Council’s legal department elicited the same answer.
They went into consultation about their next step. Lubinsky’s opinion was that their only prospect of getting any sort of record of
the owners was from the company that was developing the land and selling it to the builders. They decided that Lubinsky would try working along these lines, through a commercial inquiry agent, on the pretext that he represented a company interested in acquiring large stretches of land for building and for industrial development, so he had to know who had bought plots and houses in the neighborhood in case the company should need to buy the ground from them.
Lubinsky also undertook to find out if the cottage near the Klement house could be purchased at once. He estimated that they would need about a thousand dollars to buy the place and thought they could quite easily buy it under a false name. It was Kenet’s intention to acquire the house for use as an observation post, and also in order to get rid of the tenants who might be a problem if and when they decided to capture Klement.
On March 18 Kenet bought night binoculars for surveillance in the dark. In the morning he went by car on another reconnaissance trip around the house. He saw the boy close up and judged that he was four or five years old; every time Kenet had seen the child he was dressed only in underwear. This time he also got a close look at the lady of the house, though only from the back; she was about fifty, full-bodied, black-haired, medium height, wearing a cheap summer dress.
In the afternoon he had a rendezvous with Lubinsky at a café. Even before they started talking, Kenet gathered there was good news – Lubinsky was smiling. He explained that he had obtained access to the records of the company that sold the plots, and he gave Kenet written particulars about plot number 14: it was registered in the name of Veronica Catarina Liebl de Fichmann of 4261 Chacabuco Street, Olivos. The ‘Fichmann’ didn’t worry Kenet unduly: the clerk might have made a mistake in copying (because of the similarity between the letters ‘E’ and ‘F’), or it could be an intentional ‘mistake’ on the part of the family. In any event, it was obvious to him that this was the most important item of information they had obtained to date.
Vera’s maiden name was Liebl, but the fact that she was now going under the name of Liebl de Eichmann (or Fichmann, it didn’t matter which) certified that she wasn’t married to a different man; while the fact that the house was registered in her name and not her husband’s seemed to indicate that he had no desire to appear in any official records.
In the evening Kenet got further confirmation of this last assumption. With David Kornfeld’s assistance, he examined the voters’ roll for Olivos. The register was open to the public because elections were about to take place. To make doubly sure, they examined the register displayed at the municipality as well as the one at the offices of the largest party. No Klement, Eichmann, or Liebl appeared on any of the lists. The same day Kenet transmitted the following message to Israel:
The woman Eichmann has been positively identified. I have photographs of the house where the Klement family lives. About twenty yards from the Klement-Eichmann house is a small cottage. It may be for sale. Its estimated cost is one thousand dollars. If you authorize the purchase, I’ll carry it out without leaving any trail.
Their frequent trips to San Fernando were becoming dangerous. They had to change cars often so that no one vehicle would become familiar to the local residents. On March 19 Kenet asked the Kornfelds to rent an American-model passenger car. After no little effort, David managed to find one and leased it for a few days.
This time Kenet took Hedda with him, and together they reconnoitered the vicinity of Klement’s house. As they were passing the house a second time, at about two o’clock, they saw a man – medium height, a high forehead, balding – taking wash off the line in the yard. Kenet tried to snap him with his briefcase camera but wasn’t successful. The man went back inside, and they returned to Buenos Aires.
Kenet believed that the man in the yard was Eichmann. He saw a resemblance between the photos of Eichmann in the thirties and the man in the yard, and the particulars of his height and build, as recorded in his file, described the man he saw. Since he was taking down the wash, it could be assumed that he lived in the house and wasn’t just a chance visitor. Kenet supposed that Eichmann had returned from Tucumán for his wedding anniversary in two days.
That evening he sent another message to Israel:
In the Eichmann woman’s house a man was seen today who fits the description of Adolf Eichmann.
It was my hypothesis all along that if Ricardo Klement is Adolf Eichmann he would try to come back from Tucumán before his silver wedding anniversary, which is the day after tomorrow.
Since Klement did in fact turn up at the estimated time, there is no further doubt that he is Eichmann.
I assume that Klement will return to his work in the Tucumán area this coming Tuesday. I will follow him even though I presume that locating him there will involve difficulties.
I suggest that I be permitted to return to Israel soon for the purpose of reporting in full and considering further action.
This message removed any remaining doubts in my mind that it was essential to act quickly and decisively. With the few people Kenet had at his disposal he couldn’t carry on his investigations much longer without being found out, and the slightest hitch was liable to alert Klement to the danger threatening him. It was my opinion that, even if we were not completely certain that Klement was Eichmann, we must undertake the necessary preparations for the operation at once; it was always possible that the final identification of the man would be made only while the operation was being carried out. This was a calculated risk. But in view of the importance of the assignment, I considered it rational and essential.
I immediately summoned Yehuda Shimoni and explained that the airplane matter I had touched upon during our conversation in December 1959 might soon become an actuality. Shimoni was due to go overseas on behalf of his company in a day or so, to look into the purchase of new planes. The trip was important to him, but he was ready to forgo it if necessary. I told him I didn’t want to upset his plans and if I needed him I could find him through Adi Peleg, a senior employee of the company who, like his friend Shimoni, was always prepared to volunteer help when needed.
9
SUNDAY, MARCH 20, Kenet met with Lubinsky to hear the investigation bureau’s report on the tenants of 3030 Avenida General Paz, Nicolas Eichmann’s alleged address. The same morning Kenet went to San Fernando in a small broken-down old truck, the back covered with a tarpaulin; Primo was driving. They drove past the house twice, and Kenet, sitting in the back, photographed it from every possible angle. Then they parked the truck about a hundred and sixty yards from the house and fifty-five yards from the kiosk. Primo walked to the kiosk to have something to eat while Kenet used his binoculars to observe the house through a small opening in the tarpaulin. The boy was playing outside alone.
At about eleven forty-five the man Kenet had seen the day before came walking toward the house from the direction of the main road – the peephole in the tarpaulin was too small for Kenet to see exactly where the man had come from. He was fairly well-groomed, wearing light-brown trousers, gray overcoat, a plain green tie, and brown shoes. Kenet estimated his height at about five feet eight inches. Other details he noted were: ‘about three-quarters bald, fair hair on either side of his head, large nose, wide forehead, spectacles, maybe a mustache, walks slowly.’
The man entered the property from the other side, not through the front, bent down to pass under the wire marking off the boundary of the plot, and walked into the yard. He stopped for a moment next to the child, said something to him, and stroked his head and straightened his clothes – this time the child was fully dressed, perhaps because it was Sunday. With a slow tread the man climbed the steps to the porch, brushed away the flies with a newspaper he was carrying, and was about to open the door when the stout woman opened it from the inside. As he walked in, they both waved the flies away from the open doorway.
A minute later the man reappeared, walked to the road next to the house, and bought two small loaves of bread from a cart standing there. He returned to the h
ouse, but in five minutes came out wearing an undershirt and pajama bottoms and took a siphon bottle out of a small wooden storeroom. At that moment the fair-haired young man appeared from the direction of the cottage, where he had been standing talking to the scooter driver. The two men stood talking for a few minutes and then went inside.
That evening Kenet wrote his summing-up report, concluding:
In my opinion, the cottage must be purchased and a reliable watchman installed in it. From a man like that we can obtain information about the Eichmann family. In addition, we will be rid of potential witnesses to the operation. In my opinion, there is no point in running to Tucumán after him, for even if we locate him there – almost an impossibility without attracting his attention – I see no possibility of operating there. It is a twenty-four-hour train journey away, and it would be extremely difficult to transport him from there. It is necessary to have everything ready here and to sit and wait patiently until he comes.
I await instructions.
