by Isser Harel
Later that evening all the members of the task force were Dina’s guests at a dinner party. At the table I said again that if all went well with the operation it would be over in five days. This put everybody in great spirits – especially Eli, who was bubbling with humor and kept the others entertained all through the meal.
In a more serious vein, however, Rafi said a few things over dinner that made a profound impression on me. What troubled him was that in capturing Eichmann we were indirectly harming innocent people, since we had left his wife and children without a breadwinner. Rafi believed that the murderer had to be punished with the full severity of the law, but he felt it was incumbent on the Jewish people to show their generosity by providing for Eichmann’s family.
I told Rafi that if such a moral obligation existed it would apply to the family of every ordinary criminal, but I had never heard of any countries behaving in such a way toward the families of their own criminals. And in fact we didn’t know to what degree Vera Eichmann approved her husband’s crimes, as there was no doubt that throughout the war she knew all about his position in the upper ranks of the Nazi Party and his responsibility for carrying out the ‘Final Solution’. For all that, I said, we had never harmed her or her children and had no intention of doing so in the future. But it was a far cry from this to our subsidizing her or the others in the family. Had Eichmann and his associates displayed any concern about the material needs of their victims’ families?
Rafi didn’t give up easily, and the argument was lively and prolonged. Although I rejected his stand categorically, I was proud of him for holding it. To me it was wonderful that at the height of that period of tension and danger a person like Rafi should consider it necessary to examine his actions and put their humanity and morality to the test. What a contrast between the pitiless murderer and his merciful captors.
We sat there for hours, talking and arguing in that little house in Argentina, while the man who had managed the slaughter of millions of people lay in one of the rooms. The tensions that had been building up for days relaxed a little, and for a while it didn’t feel as though we were undergoing ‘emergency imprisonment’ in a foreign country but were sitting with friends at a social gathering somewhere in Israel.
Before leaving Tira I talked with Rafi alone to review the instructions about how the men were to act in an emergency. All necessary arrangements must be made to eliminate any possibility of escape or attempted suicide by the prisoner. His health must be assiduously guarded to keep him physically fit for the strain of embarkation and the subsequent flight to Israel; thus he must be under the doctor’s constant supervision. The household must be managed in such a way that the neighbors do not notice the large number of people living in the house; it must at all times appear as if the only occupants are the couple renting the house, with an occasional visitor or two. The men must talk in whispers and not leave the house except during the hours of darkness or on urgent business, and then only if they took special precautionary measures. Our reserve houses were always ready for use so that the prisoner and his guards could be taken there in an emergency. If the police or representatives of any other official body came along, the house must be evacuated by all who didn’t have emergency functions to perform, while Eichmann must be put into the ‘cache’ with one guard. If it should turn out to be not a routine inspection but a thorough search, then the searchers must be delayed on some pretext to allow time for Eichmann to be moved with the fewest possible guards through a side exit prepared in advance. The others must steal away one by one as best they could. All must act with the clear understanding that the paramount consideration was to get Eichmann out of the house, even if this spelled danger for those keeping the searchers at bay and putting them off the scent of the prisoner and his guards.
If they were taken by surprise by a large body of police and had no chance of getting Eichmann out of the house in time, the majority of the men must do their utmost to break through the cordon and escape in any way possible. Those remaining inside must hand themselves over to the police, disclose the identity of the prisoner, explain the grave responsibility that would rest on the shoulders of whoever let him get away, and demand to be brought before high-ranking civil or police officials.
However, now that Eichmann’s identity was no longer in doubt, and the significance of our action stood out in all its clarity, I felt we had to extend these security regulations. More had to be done to safeguard ourselves against losing Eichmann through lack of understanding or carelessness on the part of the authorities, or through interference by circles close to the Nazis. Consequently, I told Rafi that if the worst happened and a large force of police surrounded the house, and if he saw that he couldn’t possibly get the prisoner away from Tira, he must handcuff one of his wrists to one of Eichmann’s and get rid of the key so that the two could not immediately be separated. The rest of the men must scatter with only one or two of them remaining in the neighborhood to report on what had occurred and to assure themselves that Rafi was all right.
Once Rafi – still handcuffed to Eichmann – was under arrest, he would explain that he and a few friends of his had captured the war criminal Adolf Eichmann who had murdered millions of their people. Their plan, he would say, was to establish Eichmann’s identity and then take him to the authorities for trial. Rafi would then demand that they take him, and the war criminal handcuffed to him, to the most senior officer within reach, so that he could present further details and reveal the background of the affair.
I thought that in this way we could prevent Eichmann’s release by parties hostile to us and ensure both that his capture would be made public and that his fate would be decided at the highest level. I knew that, although it was clear that his captors would be brought to trial, there was no assurance that Eichmann would also. Still, I believed that at the trial of these kidnappers the story of the holocaust could be unfolded as the background to the kidnapping and thus bring the attention of the entire world to the Nazi crimes against the Jewish people.
I also thought, however, that I had no right to subject Rafi to the ordeal of interrogation and trial all alone, so I said to him, ‘When you’re caught with Eichmann and brought before a senior police officer or a high-ranking civilian government official, you will disclose that you are an Israeli and explain that you were acting under the instructions of another Israeli, the leader of a group of volunteers you belong to.’ Rafi listened quietly. This group, you will tell them, received information that a resident of Argentina known as Ricardo Klement was actually Adolf Eichmann, the man in charge of the extermination of the Jews in Europe during World War II. The group came to Buenos Aires to check the truth of the information. If they found that the man was really Eichmann they intended capturing him and handing him over to the Argentine authorities to be judged for his crimes against humanity and the Jewish people.’ Still Rafi was silent, taking in all I said. ‘You will tell them,’ I went on, ‘that the name of the leader of the volunteer group is Isser Harel.’ Now he became impatient but I motioned him to wait. ‘You will give them the address of the hotel I am staying at and the name under which I am registered there.’
Rafi could not contain himself. ‘You can’t do a thing like that,’ he interrupted.
‘Let me finish,’ I said. ‘When you’ve given them my name and the address of my hotel, you will tell them the following: Isser Harel ordered me to give his name and address to the Argentine authorities. He will explain to you himself the motives for the actions of the group he heads, and he will take upon himself full responsibility for their activities, in accordance with the laws of the state and the principles of justice and morality.’
‘Look here, Isser,’ said Rafi, ‘when you tell me I must handcuff myself to Eichmann and go to jail with him, that’s natural and understandable; but with all my heart and soul I beg you not to order me to hand you over to the authorities. A man in your position can’t allow himself to be arrested.’
I tried
to make him understand how I felt. ‘This operation, Rafi, has nothing in common with anything we have ever done before,’ I said. ‘As far as I am concerned, it is a humane and national mission that transcends all others, and its success is more important in my eyes than any other consideration. I am acting in this matter according to the dictates of my conscience, and the least I can do is free you of the necessity to struggle with yours.’ He still looked dubious, so I went on emphatically. ‘What I have told you is an order, and you must carry out both its letter and its spirit.’
Even though our argument raged over a contingency that appeared to us both to be extremely remote, it gave Rafi a severe shock. Clearly, he could not bring himself to agree with me. But I knew I could rely on him to carry out my orders.
The long interval between Eichmann’s capture and the plane’s arrival involved a certain amount of danger – it gave our hidden enemies time to see the connection between those two events and to take action to stop us from putting the prisoner on the plane. Though I had complete faith in our ability to overcome all obstacles, I nevertheless had to examine other ways of getting Eichmann out of Argentina. So I gave instructions to renew the exploration of the Buenos Aires waterfront for the possibilities of putting a man secretly on board a ship anchored in the harbor or offshore.
The harbor of Buenos Aires is divided into two principal sections: the south quay and the north quay. Between them ties Avenida Costanera, one of the favorite summer haunts of residents of Buenos Aires. Then the whole length of the boulevard is lined with carts selling hot delicacies. But this was winter.
The south quay is situated near Riachuelo, one of the tributaries of La Plata, which is used mainly for small ships sailing along the Uruguay and Paraná rivers. It serves large ships coming from overseas. The area is always teeming with life and activity. Enormous cranes rise far above the heads of the people swarming over the piers. This section of the harbor didn’t enter into our plans. Our men were interested mainly in the anchorages where the large cruise ships were docked. They also explored the possibility of hiring a boat that could sail out, to sea to meet one of our own ships.
Naturally the reconnaissance of the harbor constituted only a small part of our activities in connection with transporting Eichmann to Israel. The work at the airfield was divided between Adi Peleg and Yosef Klein. When Adi came to meet me the day after his arrival, I explained that he must devote his time solely to making friends with all the airport employees and accustoming the guards to his presence. I told him that first and foremost he must concentrate on learning the procedures used in police and customs inspection.
Before he was properly acclimatized to Buenos Aires, Adi had occasion to experience what rented cars in Argentina were like. He had to push his car along the main street of the city to get it started, and no sooner had he done so when one of the tires collapsed and he had to stop in the middle of the roaring traffic to change it. From then on he was all sympathy whenever the painful subject of rented cars in the capital of Argentina cropped up.
On the basis of the reports from the airfield, I outlined six plans for putting Eichmann on the plane. The choice of which plan to employ would depend on circumstances, naturally, but all were devised in such a way that we could change over instantaneously from one to another to suit changing conditions.
Of the six, three were simple and easy to carry out, and I hoped to be able to follow one of these. The remaining three were designed for use in the event of unforeseen complications.
The first three plans were based on the assumption that Eichmann’s family and friends wouldn’t make a public outcry to call in the police for a thorough investigation. If my hypothesis was correct, nobody would have any reason to be suspicious of a plane coming from Israel or even display special interest in it. What’s more, while the plane was parked at the airfield the security services and airport authorities would be preoccupied with urgent matters relating to the arrival of numerous delegations for the anniversary celebrations, and our plane would be handled in a perfectly routine manner.
We had already obtained permission to skip the usual towing and to be allowed to taxi the plane onto the tarmac ourselves. Thus we were sure that the team, or at least part of it, could board the plane while it was still standing in the Argentine national airline’s maintenance area. All six plans included this feature.
The first plan was that Eichmann, wearing an airline uniform, would be taken to the plane along with the crew needed for manning the aircraft in the maintenance area. He would therefore be inside the plane by the time it was taken onto the tarmac. If an inspection took place there, we would say that Eichmann was one of the relief crew who was lying down because he wasn’t feeling well. If there was any reason to anticipate a stricter check, we would hide him from the inspectors by stowing him away somewhere inside the plane.
Plan number two would be put into action if the crew was not permitted to board the plane at its parking place or if the inspection at the entrance to the national airline’s section was particularly rigorous. Then Eichmann would be taken openly to the plane as one of the crew – sick or injured in a road accident – and pass through all the usual formalities with a group of genuine crew members.
The third plan was identical with the first except in one detail: Eichmann would be an Israeli who had suddenly taken ill and had to return home immediately. Naturally, he would have to undergo the customary passenger inspections, but to make the story plausible he would be accompanied by a doctor who would be taking care of him on the journey. We would use this plan if the authorities appeared to be unduly interested in the crew.
Since it was impossible to foresee what would happen after the plane arrived in Buenos Aires and what the circumstances would be during the decisive moments before takeoff, I decided to work out all the plans down to the last detail and start concrete preparations for carrying them out, including the assembling of all the necessary equipment and documentation.
The period of waiting was worse for the doctor than for any of the others at Tira. Because his attendance on the prisoner didn’t consume much of his time, he read all the books in the house, listened to music, experimented with the tape recorder, and even tried his hand – without much success – at cooking. So he was very pleased when I invited him to meet me in the city.
He knew enough about the nature of our activities not to be surprised at any of our requests, so he took it quite calmly when I asked him to teach me the practice of medicine while standing on one foot, in a Buenos Aires café. I showered him with question after question about the possible types of injury in a road accident, about diseases of the heart, about brain concussion, loss of consciousness, and so on. He answered my questions patiently, even when I asked if a person could falsify symptoms and fool the doctors. I also wanted to know if a person who had suffered a heart attack or brain concussion would, from the medical point of view, be allowed to travel by plane, and at what stage of the illness he would ordinarily be released from the hospital.
He apparently knew what I was driving at, because he advised the hypothetical malingerer to feign symptoms of brain concussion, as a doctor would be unable to prove that the patient wasn’t really injured. So I took his advice -concussion of the brain as the result of an accident would answer all our requirements, especially since the patient would continue to need medical care and attention even after his release from the hospital. The best thing for a man suffering from concussion would be to recuperate in the comfort of his own home, even if this entailed a long plane journey. However, it would be important for the flight to be as comfortable as possible and not have too many intermediate stops.
And so Operation Road Accident came into being, to be followed by Operation Flying the Accident Victim Home.
Meir Barhon was born in one of the original kibbutzim in Israel and is still a member of its community. He served in Zahal and fought in the War of Independence. In fact, from the moment he first knew his own mind, he
had never failed to respond immediately to any appeal to help his country.
By pure chance he happened to be in Argentina in 1960. About a year earlier he had suffered a head injury in a tractor accident and was hospitalized for many months. He left the hospital with a souvenir in the form of a large scar from his forehead to the top of his head. When he recovered he decided to realize an old dream – a long overseas tour; all his associates agreed that he was entitled to it after his years of hard work, and the months of discomfort he had just undergone. Relatives in South America invited him to stay with them and saw to it that Barhon had an interesting and eventful trip. When he left his hosts he figured that, having come so far, he might as well take the opportunity to visit a few more Latin American countries, and that’s how he happened to be in Buenos Aires. One day he met an old acquaintance in the street – none other than Ilani.
With a lot of careful and evasive maneuvering, Ilani managed to avoid revealing what he was doing in Argentina and where he was staying, but he made a note of Barhon’s address and asked him how long he would be in the city. Ilani was on his way to an appointment with me, so he arranged to meet Barhon again later in the day at a neighborhood café.
Ilani didn’t want to lose contact with Barhon, because I had told him we were going to need more men – either Israelis or Jews from South American countries other than Argentina -who spoke Spanish and had a good knowledge of the people and customs of the continent. Meir was a likely candidate as one of the Israeli aides in our operation.
