The Nazi Hunters: Chapters 3–6

They ran a network of informants and spies, stole records, tapped phones, decoded messages, and built up weapons caches.

On the eve of May 14, 1948, as David Ben-Gurion prepared to announce the creation of an independent Jewish state, Harel personally carried a message to him from an informant: “Abdullah is going to war—that’s certain. The tanks are ready to go. The Arab Legion will attack tomorrow.”

Ben-Gurion sent several Israeli army units to establish a defense against the forces of King Abdullah I of Jordan, thwarting their surprise attack.

Now he sat in silence with the Eichmann dossier his secretary had brought him. He read transcripts from the Nuremberg trials of high-ranking Nazis, SS files, testimony from Eichmann’s staff members, and numerous reports of Eichmann’s whereabouts.

It was clear to him that Eichmann must be an expert in intelligence methods: He had managed to elude his pursuers for years.

If they were going to bring this man to the justice he deserved, Harel knew one thing: They would need much more than an extradition request to the proper authorities in Argentina.

The house was more suited to a single unskilled laborer than the family of a man who had once held a prominent position in the Third Reich.

Adolf Eichmann was supposed to have extorted the fortunes of Europe’s greatest Jewish families, not to mention the more limited wealth of many thousands of others.

Fluent in Spanish (as well as nine other languages), Ilani knew the country well and had a wide network of friends and contacts in Buenos Aires thanks to his easy humor and gregarious nature.

The following morning, they stepped onto the platform of a dilapidated station.

The Israeli policeman could not place what was wrong with Hermann or with the room, but something was amiss.

“His voice was unpleasant and strident, just as Dr. Bauer described it in one of his letters.”

“No,” she said bluntly. “I’m one hundred percent sure it was an unbiased impression.”

“No,” she said bluntly. “I’m one hundred percent sure it was an unbiased impression.”

Eichmann was Austrian, Lothar knew. “Schmidt” must be the alias under which he was living.

Harel trusted his intuition, and it told him that not only was Yoel Goren right in thinking that the former Nazi officer could not be living in the poverty he had witnessed, but also that the information Lothar Hermann had sent in his report was suspect at best and fantasy at worst.

Bauer’s bushy gray eyebrows flared as he spoke. He was incensed that the first investigation had dismissed the Hermanns’ reports.

Though Harel thought that Bauer was bluffing, he reassured him that this would not be necessary.

In the following days, anti-Semitic attacks and demonstrations broke out across West Germany, and police were stationed outside synagogues and Jewish cemeteries to prevent further desecrations.

These were more than the isolated actions of a few hooligans, and Jewish leaders in West Germany made it clear that the scene “evoked pictures that bring to mind the November days of 1938,” referring to Kristallnacht.

These were more than the isolated actions of a few hooligans, and Jewish leaders in West Germany made it clear that the scene “evoked pictures that bring to mind the November days of 1938,” referring to Kristallnacht.

Membership in militant and nationalistic organizations was increasing, as were the numbers of newsletters and daily papers, book clubs, and discussion groups whose followers despised the “Bonn democracy” (referring to the capital of West Germany) and wanted to “correct the accepted facts” about Hitler and German war guilt.

Schoolteachers were found to be teaching incorrect information about Hitler’s regime.

Bringing the fugitive to justice and airing his crimes in a public trial would remind the world of the Nazi atrocities, and the need to remain vigilant against any groups that aimed to repeat them.

Curtly, Dito said he had his facts straight.

Given this discrepancy, as well as the facts that the family had not left a forwarding address and Dito had refused to give his, Aharoni concluded that the Klements had something to hide—another sign that they might be the Eichmanns.

Aharoni was flummoxed as to why this would depress him: This was what they had been trying to find out.

A railway embankment crossed the road, but otherwise the area was level and almost completely featureless. It was a poor, sparsely populated section of San Fernando, without telephone or electrical lines.

The misspelled name had to be either a clerical error or a deliberate attempt to confuse searchers.

Israel would h
ave no end of international political problems, and the black mark against the Mossad would inhibit its activities in other countries.

For all these reasons, the mission could not be allowed to fail. It would comprise three parts: First, they needed capture Eichmann alive, without being seen. Second, they would have to keep him in a secure location, avoiding detection, for an indeterminate period of time, until, third, they could smuggle him out of Argentina.

Second, they would have to keep him in a secure location, avoiding detection, for an indeterminate period of time, until, third, they could smuggle him out of Argentina.

Zvi Aharoni lay on an old mattress in the back of a Ford pickup, peering out with his binoculars through a hole cut in the tarpaulin that covered it.

Aharoni got a long, clear look at him. He was dressed in brown slacks, an overcoat, and a green tie. He wore glasses, was mostly bald, and had a prominent nose and broad forehead. He walked slowly, with a deliberate gait.

Avi had not noticed that the road was raised, and he had backed straight into the ditch. Aharoni was livid, but his anger paled beside his fear that the Eichmann family, whose house was less than 150 yards away, might discover them.