Meet Otto Adolf Eichmann a German Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer who was one of the major organizers of the Holocaust.
After Germany’s defeat in 1945, Eichmann fled to Austria. He lived there until 1950, when he moved to Argentina using false papers where he started living a low profile life in the name of Ricardo Clement. Meanwhile many Jews and other survivors of the Holocaust dedicated themselves to finding Eichmann and other Nazis.
In an ironic turn of events, the daughter of Lothar Hermann began dating a man called Klaus Eichmann who boasted of his fathers Nazi exploits. Soon the information was passed on to the Mossad and they sent an fact finding team who traced his whereabouts, positively identified the man and documented his routine movements.
But oh well Mossad being Mossad they didn’t just wanted to assassinate him, they were to set an example out of him for anyone who might think of harming the Jews ever again.
The mission was of such importance that the then Director of the Mossad himself went to Buenos Aires to oversee the operation. They planned and arranged the logistics which included vehicles, safe houses, escape plan, cover story. The importance and secrecy of the operation was so prime that very local support was taken.
It was the night of 11th May 1960, the bus ran late that night and at 8pm when Eichmann stepped into the street, he saw the car and men standing around. Walking over to ask if they needed help, the four men surrounded Eichmann.
Wrestling him into the car, they put him in the back floorboard and put goggles over his eyes. With the goggles lenses taped, Eichmann couldn’t see where he was going as the sedan sped off into the Argentine night. They took him to one of the safe houses and kept him there till 20th May.
Israel went to the extent of sending a Israeli small delegation to celebrate 150th anniversary of Argentina’s independence in an EL-Al Bristol Britannia aircraft (there was no regular El-Al service to Buenos Aires!)
He was sedated on 20th May and smuggled on the El-Al aircraft waiting for the special guest. He was dressed as crew of the aircraft and the cover story which the local security was made to believe was the crew had passed out from excessive alcohol.
After some approval trouble at the airport the flight took off and the entire flight celebrated.
The Israeli PM Ben-Gurion announced Eichmann’s capture to the Knesset—Israel’s parliament and it became global news. The Argentines protested and in June 1960, after unsuccessful negotiations with Israel, Argentina requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council to protest, as they regarded the capture as a violation of their sovereign rights. In the ensuing debate, the Israeli representative Golda Meir claimed that the abductors were not Israeli agents but private individuals and so the incident was only an “isolated violation of Argentine law”.
Adolf Eichmann was tried in the court of law, with 3500 pages of evidence against him and 112 witnesses(most were Holocaust survivors) he was sentenced to death by hanging on 15 Dec 1961.
Imagine if Hitler was alive? Mossad and Israel would probably have gone to the extent of invading a country to capture him!
After Germany’s defeat in 1945, Eichmann fled to Austria. He lived there until 1950, when he moved to Argentina using false papers where he started living a low profile life in the name of Ricardo Clement. Meanwhile many Jews and other survivors of the Holocaust dedicated themselves to finding Eichmann and other Nazis.
In an ironic turn of events, the daughter of Lothar Hermann began dating a man called Klaus Eichmann who boasted of his fathers Nazi exploits. Soon the information was passed on to the Mossad and they sent an fact finding team who traced his whereabouts, positively identified the man and documented his routine movements.
But oh well Mossad being Mossad they didn’t just wanted to assassinate him, they were to set an example out of him for anyone who might think of harming the Jews ever again.
The mission was of such importance that the then Director of the Mossad himself went to Buenos Aires to oversee the operation. They planned and arranged the logistics which included vehicles, safe houses, escape plan, cover story. The importance and secrecy of the operation was so prime that very local support was taken.
It was the night of 11th May 1960, the bus ran late that night and at 8pm when Eichmann stepped into the street, he saw the car and men standing around. Walking over to ask if they needed help, the four men surrounded Eichmann.
Wrestling him into the car, they put him in the back floorboard and put goggles over his eyes. With the goggles lenses taped, Eichmann couldn’t see where he was going as the sedan sped off into the Argentine night. They took him to one of the safe houses and kept him there till 20th May.
Israel went to the extent of sending a Israeli small delegation to celebrate 150th anniversary of Argentina’s independence in an EL-Al Bristol Britannia aircraft (there was no regular El-Al service to Buenos Aires!)
He was sedated on 20th May and smuggled on the El-Al aircraft waiting for the special guest. He was dressed as crew of the aircraft and the cover story which the local security was made to believe was the crew had passed out from excessive alcohol.
After some approval trouble at the airport the flight took off and the entire flight celebrated.
The Israeli PM Ben-Gurion announced Eichmann’s capture to the Knesset—Israel’s parliament and it became global news. The Argentines protested and in June 1960, after unsuccessful negotiations with Israel, Argentina requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council to protest, as they regarded the capture as a violation of their sovereign rights. In the ensuing debate, the Israeli representative Golda Meir claimed that the abductors were not Israeli agents but private individuals and so the incident was only an “isolated violation of Argentine law”.
Adolf Eichmann was tried in the court of law, with 3500 pages of evidence against him and 112 witnesses(most were Holocaust survivors) he was sentenced to death by hanging on 15 Dec 1961.
Imagine if Hitler was alive? Mossad and Israel would probably have gone to the extent of invading a country to capture him!
