The House on Garibaldi Street

by Isser Harel

  Ilani left after dinner and the next day, May 22, the rest of the party split up. Rafi, Avrum, and Eli set out in the afternoon on their long journey across South America, and in the evening Dina and Shalom left for Montevideo.

  When the three train ‘tourists’ reached Mendoza, the border station between Argentina and Chile, they felt twinges of apprehension about possible complications. For more than a day and night they had been cut off from all communication with the outside world. They hadn’t read a newspaper or listened to the radio. They had no idea of what had happened in the meantime, and for all they knew trouble might await them at the border station. But their fears were not realized, the border inspection was completely routine.

  They arrived in Santiago late at night. They remembered that they had an acquaintance there, an Israeli woman who was doing temporary work in Santiago. Despite the late hour, they telephoned her and arranged to meet her in the morning. They concocted a story for her: they were on a tour of South America and thought they couldn’t possibly leave the enchanting continent without going as far as the Pacific Coast. They spent the next day touring the city with her, intending to go to Valparaiso the day after. But they read in the morning papers that a severe earthquake had caused havoc in southern Chile, about three hundred fifty miles from the capital, and they were afraid that anyone at home who knew where they were would be worried about them. They wanted to send a cable that they were safe, but it wasn’t easy to get away from their charming escort even for a few minutes. At last Avrum found an excuse to slip out, and he sent a cable to a private address saying that there was no cause for worry and that if no flights were available they might have to stay in Chile until the end of the week. He signed it with a name known only to the members of the task force.

  Later, on a bus, Avrum happened to glance over the shoulder of the passenger on the seat in front of him and saw the name EICHMANN blazoned in enormous letters across the front page of a newspaper. As soon as the driver made a stop, Avrum got off the bus and bought all the papers he could find.

  He pointed to the headline and asked in a surprised voice, ‘What’s all this about Eichmann?’

  The young woman translated for them: ‘It says here that they’ve caught Eichmann.’

  ‘Who’s this Eichmann?’

  She explained the part Eichmann played in the extermination of the Jews in Europe and added, ‘Ben-Gurion announced in the Knesset that Eichmann was discovered by the Israeli Security Services and is now in custody in Israel. Maybe you had something to do with it?’ she said with a laugh.

  ‘We wish we had,’ they replied in a joking chorus.

  They were rather surprised that the news was published while they were still in South America. How could they go back to the Atlantic Coast now? The following morning they inquired about possible flights and they were able to get two seats on a plane to Montevideo and one to Rio; Avrum and Eli would take the first route and Rafi the second.

  Avrum and Eli’s plane landed at Buenos Aires for about three-quarters of an hour and they made themselves as inconspicuous as possible. They were particularly afraid that someone would recognize Avrum, who had spent so many hours at the airport prior to Eichmann’s departure. Fortunately, nothing happened.

  On the flight from Montevideo to Rio they were discussing in Hebrew the newspaper publicity on the Eichmann affair, when suddenly Avrum observed the name on a suitcase in the rack which apparently belonged to the passenger sitting in front of him: M. ZOREA. Their fellow passenger must be the Israeli Brigadier Zorea and he nudged Eli to keep quiet. The officer didn’t seem to have overheard their conversation – at any rate, he hadn’t turned to see who was speaking behind him.

  They were not the only members of the task force to come across Brigadier Zorea on their journey. At Sao Paulo, where they were about to embark on their flight to Europe, Dina and Shalom Dani saw him as they arrived from Montevideo. Shalom wanted to go up to him and tell him he was an Israeli, but Dina was against it. However, they still managed to find an opportunity to talk to him, and Dina remarked, ‘Your country is in the news lately.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I read in the newspaper that you caught a Nazi criminal by the name of Eichmann,’ she said.

  ‘Oh yes,’ Zorea replied, and he started telling them about the holocaust and what it meant for the Jewish people.

  ‘I was in Europe during the war and saw what the Nazis did,’ Dina said.

  Brigadier Zorea looked at her sympathetically. ‘If that’s the case, you certainly understand how it was for us.’

  ‘Yes, I understand perfectly,’ she said. ‘By the way, in one of the papers it says that Eichmann was taken to Israel on the same plane that brought your delegation to Argentina. Didn’t I hear that you were one of the delegates?’

  ‘I was,’ he said, ‘and it can’t be true. It’s impossible that I shouldn’t have known about it. But then not everything you read in the newspapers is true. I’ll make inquiries and if you’ll give me your address I’ll let you know the results,’ Brigadier Zorea said jocularly.

  The conversation ended at that point, because the passengers were being called to board the plane.

  30

  THE DAY EICHMANN was brought to Israel two officers from police headquarters were summoned to the Inspector-General’s office: Matityahu Sela, head of the Investigation Department, and Shmuel Roth, acting head of the Criminal Branch. Nahmias was noticeably excited. He told them that Eichmann had been captured and brought to Israel, and as soon as they heard this they understood their chief’s excitement and were caught up in it themselves.

  There was no need to explain to Shmuel Roth the significance of the murderer’s capture. Many of his family had been caught in the net Eichmann had spread all over Europe. The next morning, when he arrived at Eichmann’s temporary prison in company with Judge Yedid Halevi, he was astounded by the man’s colorless personality. Like so many others, he had imagined that Eichmann would look quite different.

  Roth translated into German the judge’s questions about the prisoner’s identity.

  He answered unhesitatingly, ‘I am Adolf Eichmann.’

  The judge then read out the warrant of detention.

  The police were particularly interested in having a second identification of Eichmann because there were no fingerprints on record from the period when he was an SS officer. Accordingly, Benno Cohen was requested to go and see the prisoner.

  Cohen drove to Camp Iyar – the prison where Eichmann was now installed – accompanied by Police Officer Efraim Hofstaetter, who had been appointed Deputy Chief of Bureau 06, the special office set up by the Inspector-General of Police to prepare the brief for the prosecution against Eichmann. Hofstaetter was happy to be involved at the end of the operation he had joined in March 1958. On the way, Benno Cohen told him that he saw Eichmann for the first time when he appeared at a meeting of Zionist workers in Berlin before the war. Hofstaetter asked him to talk to Eichmann about that meeting and to muddle up the names of the people he mentioned, with the object of getting Eichmann to point out his mistakes.

  As they walked into the cell Eichmann turned white with terror – he thought they were going to take him out to be executed. Hofstaetter asked Benno Cohen if he recognized the prisoner. He said he didn’t. Pointing to Cohen, Hofstaetter asked Eichmann in German if he knew him. Eichmann made the same complaint as on the previous occasion – they had taken away his glasses – and then he peered at Cohen from close up and said he didn’t know him.

  Hofstaetter then introduced Cohen to the prisoner: This is Mr. Benno Cohen.’

  ‘The name doesn’t mean anything to me,’ Eichmann replied.

  Hofstaetter went on to ask, ‘Do you remember the Palestine Office in Berlin?’

  ‘Of course, I remember it very well.’

  ‘And you still don’t remember Mr. Cohen?’

  ‘No.’

  As he heard Eichmann speak, it all came back. Now Benno Cohen
remembered the voice and accent. When Hofstaetter turned back to him and asked if he could identify the man facing him, Cohen was able to reply with confidence, ‘Yes, I know him. He is the Gestapo officer Adolf Eichmann.’

  Eichmann nodded, and Hofstaetter asked him, ‘Do you remember that in the spring of 1939 you called a meeting of representatives of Jewish organizations at Prinzalbrechtstrasse in Berlin?’

  ‘I don’t recall such a meeting because I only arrived in Berlin in October 1939.’ But a few seconds later he added, ‘But it’s possible that I happened to be in Berlin for meetings several times before then.’

  Benno Cohen broke into the conversation, saying, ‘At the meeting we’re referring to there were present Dr. Paul Epstein, head of the Jewish community, Dr. Lilienfeld, Heinrich Stahl, and Otto Hirsch.’

  ‘Otto Hirsch?’ Eichmann interrupted. ‘Yes, that’s the man who spoke Swabian and kept raising his voice.’

  Benno Cohen asked him what had happened to Paul Epstein.

  Eichmann turned red and replied, ‘Terrible … they shot him. But that was after I gave up my job there, when I was in Hungary.’

  Benno Cohen continued talking, listing the names of Zionist workers in Berlin, and Eichmann responded to his questions and remarks like an expert on me subject. Cohen mentioned the name of the Zionist Dr. Frieden.

  Eichmann corrected him. ‘The name isn’t Frieden but Prinz.’ Then he launched into details about a Zionist meeting that took place in Berlin in the thirties, on the occasion of Dr. Prinz’s leaving Germany. Eichmann was sent to supervise the meeting on behalf of the Gestapo.

  Cohen asked him if he remembered the name of the man who preceded him in the office of Gestapo supervisor of Jewish affairs, saying, ‘I think his name was Kuhlmann or Kotschmann …’

  Eichmann corrected him immediately. ‘Excuse me, sir, you’re apparently referring to Kochmann, fat like this, and short…’

  By the end of the conversation Benno Cohen could confirm that he no longer had any doubt that the man he was talking to was Adolf Eichmann, the Gestapo officer with whom he had dealings in Berlin during the thirties, before he emigrated to Israel. He identified him with absolute assurance, on the strength of his appearance, his voice, his way of speaking, and the details he remembered about events known to both of them.

  On May 23 I again went to Jerusalem. The Prime Minister was about to assemble the Cabinet ministers to inform them of the capture of Eichmann. Shortly afterward he would be making it public in an announcement to the Knesset. I arrived at the Prime Minister’s office at three o’clock. After a short discussion in the Cabinet, I went with Ben-Gurion to the Knesset building. The session was opened, as usual, at four o’clock in the afternoon. Half an hour earlier a rumor had started circulating through the capital to the effect that the Prime Minister was going to make an important statement in the Knesset, and there was an atmosphere of suspense in the House, from the benches of the Knesset members to the rows of spectators in the gallery.

  It was one of the rare times that I appeared in public. A couple of minutes before the Prime Minister requested the Speaker’s permission to take the floor, I walked in and took a seat in the section reserved for non-members, behind the Cabinet table.

  In a voice full of emotion with a note of solemnity Ben-Gurion read out his statement:

  I have to announce in the Knesset that a short time ago one of the greatest of Nazi criminals was found by the Israeli Security Services. Adolf Eichmann, who was responsible, together with the Nazi leaders, for what they called the ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Problem’ – that is, the extermination of six million Jews of Europe.

  Adolf Eichmann is already under arrest in Israel, and he will shortly be brought to trial in Israel under the Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law of 1950.

  The Prime Minister’s announcement came as a complete surprise to the Knesset members. It had appeared that the government was reacting apathetically to the recurrent reports that Eichmann was alive; no one in the Knesset had known that the Israeli intelligence services were in action, making their effort to bring him to judgment.

  The news flashed from the Knesset to the entire nation of Israel, to the tortured who had survived the murder factory, to the bereaved who had lost so many dear ones. This reconfirmation of the rule of law heartened them and renewed their faith in justice.

  And the news reached the far corners of the earth, imbuing all decent people with a feeling of respect; and it carried with it a clear warning to the murderers of the Jewish people, hiding in their holes, who thought that the years would whiten their sins and silence the cry of the blood they had shed, and that none would come any more to make them face judgment for the millions they had slain in their criminal frenzy.

  Adolf Eichmann was tried for Genocide and War Crimes against Humanity before a specially-convened court in Jerusalem. The trial, which opened on April 2, 1961, received unparalleled world media coverage. Eichmann was defended by a team of German lawyers, and the prosecution was led by the Israeli State attorney Gideon Hausner. The testimonies of many witnesses brought the horrors of the holocaust vividly to the court chamber and from there into houses all over the world. On December 2, 1961 Eichmann was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. After all appeals were rejected Eichmann was executed at the Ramla prison, at midnight on May 31, 1962. It was the only execution ever to be carried out in Israel’s history.

  Isser Harel did not attend the hanging. He was dealing with other urgent security issues. For him the case was closed when the plane carrying Eichmann landed in Tel Aviv.

  Many of the Mossad officers involved in the Eichmann kidnapping went on to have distinguished careers in Israel’s intelligence services. Avrum Shalom became the head of the Shabak, Israel’s internal security service. Rafi Eitan served as the head of LAKAM, an intelligence agency dealing with scientific issues. Many others continued to serve in the Mossad until their retirement. Isser Harel now lives in central Israel, where he dedicates his time to writing and history.

  Index

  Agami, Moshe, 273

  Anti-Semitism, outbreak of in 1959–60, 28–29

  Argentina, arrival of Eichmann in, 7, 193

  Argentina independence celebration, 85–88, 99, 207, 239

  Armon, Gad, 40

  Auerbach, Moshe, 274. See also Agami Moshe

  Auschwitz death camp, 109, 124, 265

  Avivi, Mordechai, 225, 232, 242

  Baeck, Rabbi Leo, 167

  Bancalari station, 56, 107, 117, 119, 134

  Barhon, Meir, 204–206, 234, 238, 243, 4, 277

  Barkai, Leo, 224, 268

  Barth, Adolf Karl (alias of Adolf Eichmann), 192

  Bauer, Dr. Fritz, 3–10, 12, 13, 14–18, 32, 33, 36, 37, 40

  Ben-Ari, Mordechai, 39, 86, 109, 221

  Ben-Gurion, David (Prime Minister), 36, 38, 78, 111, 170, 171, 271–275, 279, 283–284

  Bergen-Belsen death camp, 91

  Bernstein, Peretz, 29

  Borman, Martin, 260

  Braverman, Malka, 52, 84–85, 109–109–20

  Buenos Aires airfield. See Ezeiza airfield

  C.A.P.R.I., 32, 43, 57, 62, 72

  Capture of Eichmann, 162–169; arrangements for, 131, 141–143, 147–149, 160; getaway routes, 143, 147, 154, 160; operational team for, 82, 91–94; strategy planning for, 69, 77, 82, 98–101, 108, 135–136, 146–152, 159

  Carmel, Yehuda, 219–220, 232–233, 239, 266

  Caroz, Yaacov, 170–171

  Cars in Operation Eichmann, 99, 106, 117, 121–122, 141, 143, 149, 153–154, 157; capture cars, 143, 146–149–60, 165–166, 172, 181; Eichmann convoy to airfield, 233–257, 241, 247, 249, 250, 253

  Carupa bus terminal, surveillance of 129, 134

  Chacabuco Street house, 6, 10–12, 19, 25, 34, 44–53, 57–60, 65; Hermann reports on, 6, 19, 24–26; Pedro’s visits to, 45–49, 57–60

  Clement(s). See Klement

  Cohen, Benno, 79–80, 273, 274, 281–
283

  Cohen, Chaim, 37, 38

  ‘Crystal Night’, 80, 92, 223

  Dagoto, 24, 27, 33

  Dakar layover on Eichmann flight to Israel, 259, 267

  Dani, Shalom, 89–91, 106, 113, 136, 139, 142, 144, 152, 172–175, 187, 212, 213, 214, 234, 244, 246, 248, 277–278, 280

  Darom, Shaul, 4–9, 12

  ‘Dito’ See ‘Tito’

  Doctor for Operation Eichmann, 97–98, 142; in capture car, 160, 165; care of prisoner, 172, 183, 198, 203–204, 206, 239, 250, 252–253, 259, 266, 272

  Documentation for Operation Eichmann task force, 89–90, 94, 101, 136, 139, 186, 187, 220. See also Dani, Shalom

  Don Torcuato, investigative leads to, 48–50, 55, 56

  Doron safe house, 133, 136, 139, 140, 142, 144, 146–149, 173, 174, 241

  Dovrat, Aharon, 258, 259

  Drori, Moshe, 28, 36, 94, 98 109, 110, 111, 136, 155, 170, 219, 220, 270, 272, 274, 275

  Eckmann, Otto (alias of Adolf Eichmann), 190, 191, 192

  Efrati, Rabbi 222, 232, 233

  Eichmann, Adolf, description of, 66, 68, 104–105. See also Capture of Eichmann; Imprisonment of Eichmann; Interrogation of Eichmann; Klement, Ricardo

  Eichmann family, 8, 17–19, 27–28, 38–41, 177–181, 197, 208, 210; Dieter, 46–54, 57, 60, 62, 64, 179, 180; Horst Adolf, 72; Nicolas, 17–19, 23, 27, 33, 44–46, 52, 58–60, 64, 72, 179–180; Mrs. Nicolas, 63; Vera Liebl (Mrs. Adolf), 6, 20, 28, 34–41, 43, 51, 57, 61, 65, 69, 71, 78, 177–178, 180, 193; youngest child, 61, 63, 65, 68

  Eitan, Rafi, 83–84, 91–93, 98, 108, 123, 127, 135, 136, 139, 141, 143, 146, 148, 149, 152, 154, 155, 157, 159–166, 172, 181–186, 197–201, 232–234, 250, 254, 257, 277–279