The House on Garibaldi Street

Isser Harel, Shlomo J. Shpiro

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135218898
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

This is the true story of the kidnapping of Adolf Eichmann in Argentina by the Mossad, Israel's secret intelligence serviceunder the leadership of Isser Harel. This is his account, revised and updated, with the real names and details of all Mossad personnel.

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.

When the State of Israel came into being he continued to paint, at the same time working as a representative of Israel’s Security Services. He became renowned – not as a secret agent but as a painter – and some of his paintings still hang in countries hostile toward Israel.

He had a natural flair for intelligence work, so he was able to concentrate on his art, interrupting occasionally for his other assignments. His rich imagination and skill at improvisation, his command of several languages, and his knowledge of the culture and customs of many countries all helped to make him one of the most outstanding professionals in the Service.

At the time of my meeting with Dr. Shinar, Shaul was on a protracted mission in Europe. I wired him to come to Tel Aviv, and a few days later he was sitting in my office.

‘I want to entrust you with certain inquiries relating to Eichmann,’ I said.

Shaken and excited, he took a little while to reply. He looked at me searchingly to see if I was indeed serious. Finally he asked, ‘Is Eichmann alive?’

I told him about Dr. Bauer and the information he had given Shinar.

Shaul’s eyes lit up. He was doubly exhilarated – at the prospect of finding Eichmann and at the thought that he could play a part in the operation.

‘Bauer,’ I continued, ‘is known to be a man of balanced judgment, and he treats the report with great seriousness. Our assignment is to investigate his information with the utmost thoroughness.’

Shaul Darom arrived in Cologne on November 6, 1957, and immediately presented himself to Dr. Shinar. The next day they went to Bauer’s home, where Shinar introduced them and then left them to themselves.

Shaul scrutinized the other man, thinking that an appropriate background for a painting of him would be a book and a sword. Bauer appeared to be an energetic and excitable man. He returned Shaul’s gaze with a penetrating glance from his calm gray eyes.

‘Before we start our talk,’ Shaul began, ‘permit me to tell you that we’re grateful you came to us. I can assure you that we’ll do all within our power to bring Eichmann to trial before a properly constituted court of justice.’

‘I should really be thanking you for your quick response,’ Bauer said. ‘I was sure that you were the only ones who would be ready and willing to act. I really think that this time we’re on Eichmann’s trail. Our information seems to be dependable.’

Shaul said, ‘Actually, that was our first question: Can we rely on the source of your information?’

‘It’s a man who says he is half-Jewish, a German by birth, now living in Argentina. We won’t reveal his name for the time being. I must admit I don’t know him personally, only by letter. He initiated the correspondence when he wrote to the German authorities after reading in the newspapers that Adolf Eichmann’s name was mentioned at the trial of another war criminal and it was reported that Eichmann had disappeared.’ Bauer went on, ‘I suspect that he knows more than he is prepared to divulge at this stage. He sent us Eichmann’s address: 4261 Chacabuco Street, Olivos, Buenos Aires, but he hasn’t told us what name he uses.’

‘Do you know anything about your man?’ Shaul asked. ‘If you do, we may be able to find the key to his behavior.’

‘No, I know nothing beyond what he himself has offered. He may be afraid of reprisals, so perhaps he feels he is taking less of a risk by passing on only part of the information,’ Bauer replied. ‘In any event,’ he continued, ‘some of the items he sent correspond with known facts about Eichmann, such as certain particulars about the sons born before his disappearance, the alleged second marriage of his wife Vera, and so on. We have compared these details with the material available in Germany and found them to be correct.’

Shaul said, ‘If I’m not mistaken, this isn’t the first report of Eichmann’s flight to South America.’

‘That’s correct. Various sources of dubious reliability have stated that in 1947 or 1948 he arrived in Argentina and went to live somewhere in the south. The fact that this latest news tallies with previous reports is precisely what makes it seem encouraging. He probably managed to obtain Argentine papers and later decided to move to Buenos Aires.’

And what about his wife and sons?’ Shaul asked.

All we know about them is that they left Germany after he did. There was a rumor early on that Vera Eichmann met an American in Germany and married him, but since then nothing has been heard about her. Every effort to learn something from her family in Europe has failed, and my guess is that the so-called second husband is Adolf Eichmann himself. But,’ said Dr. Bauer, ‘this is pure conjecture with no verification whatsoever.’

‘Some other war criminal may have married Vera after her husband left her, and this may be the man living with her at the address you were given,’ Shaul mused aloud.

‘That’s also a possibility we can’t ignore,’ Bauer said. ‘But as far as I can see, the prospects are that we’ll find Eichmann himself filling the role of Vera’s second husband.’

As the conversation continued, Shaul gathered that Bauer’s plan was for us to take all necessary steps, using our own ways and means, to find out the name and true identity of the man living at the address he’d been given. If we succeeded, he would then send a man to Argentina who knew Eichmann and would be able to identify him. If this man confirmed the identification, Bauer would press West Germany to demand that the Argentine authorities extradite Eichmann. But he had few illusions about the prospects of extradition. It was his opinion that simultaneous pressure would have to be brought by Israel and West Germany, and public opinion would have to be mobilized -principally in the United States – to persuade Argentina to extradite the criminal.

The problem of extradition worried me as well, and I had instructed Shaul to attempt to probe into Bauer’s attitude – but very carefully.

‘It’s quite likely,’ he said to Bauer, ‘that if we manage to prove that the man really is Eichmann we may run into insurmountable difficulties in trying to get him extradited, and in the end, instead of putting Eichmann on trial we may be giving him the opportunity of vanishing again and covering his tracks even more efficiently than before.’

‘I too am worried about that,’ Bauer replied thoughtfully, ‘and I won’t reject the idea of your getting him to Israel in your own way.’

Darom was struck by the courage implicit in these words. Had he needed any further proof of Bauer’s integrity, here it was. To hide his own emotions, he spoke crisply. ‘Well then, to begin with,’ he said, ‘we’ll investigate the identity of the man in Argentina – not an easy matter. Only when that’s done can we tackle the clarification of the legal position and the possibility of extradition. If we run into problems, we’ll do all we can to make certain that Eichmann will be brought to trial. But the overriding consideration in everything we do is the sure knowledge that the minute he finds out he has been located -he’ll run away again.’

‘I agree with you absolutely,’ Bauer said.

Shaul asked for copies of documents that might help him in the location and identification of Eichmann, and Bauer promised to let him have the material within two hours. He gave Shaul photostats of documents containing information about Eichmann’s life; copies of rather blurred photographs of him and his wife taken in the late thirties or early forties; personal details about both of them, the date of their marriage and the dates of birth of the three sons born in Germany; a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Maps
• Introduction
• Dramatis Personae
• The House on Garibaldi Street
• Index