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I first became conscious of Adolf Eichmann's role in the Holocaust when he was put on trial in Jerusalem in May 1961. I remember the trial well; it was big news and it was also when I really began to be aware of the Holocaust as a whole. It was no surprise, therefore, that some 50 years later, after I had written 13 historical novels, I sat down to write a documentary novel that dealt with this man's activities and how he was finally captured and brought to Israel to stand trial.
I was uneasily aware that, while writing this book, I would be having the iconic photograph of him sneering at me. I was also concerned that obtaining information on how the Mossad, Israel's secret service, finally located and brought him back to Israel would be problematical. This was not so. By reading books such as Isser Harel's The House on Garibaldi Street, Becoming Eichmann by David Cesarani and Hunting Eichmann by Neal Bascombe, as well as using various internet sites, I uncovered much necessary material. I was also helped by the anonymous ex-Mossad officer who was the curator of a special exhibition held at Bet Hatfutsot - the Museum of the Diaspora - in Tel Aviv.
Starting my research, I began to appreciate how incredibly complicated the whole operation had been. First of all, the Mossad agents had to find out whether Eichmann was still alive and, if so, where he was hiding. Reports via other agents and other Nazi-hunters such as Tuvia Friedman and Simon Wiesenthal stated that Eichmann could be living in a number of countries including Germany, Austria, South America, even Egypt and Kuwait.
Once it had been firmly established that he was hiding out in Buenos Aires, the Mossad had to send investigators there to confirm this. It should also be remembered that this was being done when the state of Israel was only 12 years old with a population of about two million. In addition, the country was still trying to settle the thousands of new immigrants who had arrived from Europe, North Africa, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
When investigators approached Isser Harel, the head of the Mossad, about a budget for this operation, he was not in favour. He believed his agency had more important tasks than catching ex-Nazis trying to escape justice. Fortunately, when Harel broached the subject to Prime Minister Ben-Gurion, the latter, to his everlasting credit, gave his security chief the green light and told him not to worry about the costs of the operation.
No one could believe Eichmann would live in such a shabby house
These costs included more than just flying Israeli agents abroad, catching Eichmann and bringing him back to Israel. They also included hiring cars, paying for hotel rooms and renting several safe-houses scattered around Buenos Aires for weeks at a time. Moreover, it meant flying out investigators to Argentina to confirm that the man alleged to be Eichmann really was Eichmann and not a carefully planted decoy or a case of mistaken identity. Fortunately, the Israeli agents were helped by several sayanim (assistants) - local Jews who were not informed of the whole story, but told just that the Israelis were looking for a certain antisemite.
Then, once the agents had finally located Eichmann's Garibaldi Street hide-out in a poor Buenos Aires suburb, they had to catch him and keep him hidden in one of the safe-houses, code-named Ma'oz, Tirah, Doron or Moledet.
The project did not go as smoothly as hoped. First, Eichmann was living under the assumed name of Ricardo Klement, and the address given to the Mossad was incorrect. It was only after much painstaking detective work by the Israeli agents that they finally located their quarry. At first, they could not believe it was actually Eichmann who was living in this shabby house with no electricity. They knew of Eichmann's reputation and that he had enjoyed the "good life" while living in Budapest organising the transfer of hundreds of thousands of Jews from Hungary to Auschwitz.
Then came the problem of snatching him off the street. This would have to be done at night and when he was alone. As a result, the agents had to learn his routine and decide when and where would be the best time and place to grab him. This meant that the agents had to trail him without arousing the suspicions of his neighbours.
Eventually, however, it all worked out. On the evening of May 11, 1960 Adolf Eichmann was pulled off a Buenos Aires street at dusk and pushed into a waiting Mossad car as he was walking home from his work as a clerk at the local Mercedes-Benz factory. Spirited away to a safe-house, he was interrogated, stripped and searched. Stripped to see if his body bore any SS tattoos, and searched to check if somehow he had managed to hide a cyanide tablet in his mouth. At first, he denied he was Eichmann but then admitted that, yes, he was their man. You can imagine the relief felt by the team when they heard this. Catching this man had become a personal quest as they and/or their families had personally suffered because of his actions.
Then an element of luck played into the Mossad's hands. Although, at that time, there were no official diplomatic relations between Israel and Argentina, Israeli representatives had been invited to witness the country's 150th anniversary celebrations. This meant that an El Al plane flew to Buenos Aires carrying Israeli diplomats, a plane which could be used to fly Eichmann and his captors back to Tell Aviv.
The return flight was a secret operation as it included smuggling the partly drugged Eichmann aboard. He was disguised as an El Al crew-member who had enjoyed himself too much the previous night. As the flight was secret, it could not follow the normal route to Israel as it had to steer clear of the radar of various countries.
Back in Israel, Eichmann was judicially processed and re-identified by two Israelis who had known him in Nazi Europe. Starting in April 1961, the trial took place one year later in Jerusalem's Bet Ha'am. I called my book Six Million Accusers, the title coming from the opening speech delivered by Gideon Hausner, the Israeli prosecutor:
"When I stand before you here, judges of Israel, to lead the prosecution of Adolf Eichmann, I am not standing alone. With me are six million accusers. But they cannot rise to their feet… For their ashes are piled up on the hills of Auschwitz and the fields of Treblinka."
After the trial, Eichmann was hanged on June 1 1962. His body was cremated and his ashes disposed of at sea.
Since then, many questions have been asked. Was catching this monster simply a question of justice and/or judicial revenge, or did Ben- Gurion have more in mind when he authorised Harel to carry out this mission whatever the cost? Was it a question of closure, or was BG also thinking of public education? The trial was closely followed by the international media who reminded the world of what had happened to the Jews only 20 years previously. It was also widely reported in Israel, and much of the material was used to educate the younger Israeli-born Sabra population about the true nature of the Holocaust. Until then, many of these Sabras had unfairly mocked the victims of the death camps as having gone to their deaths like "sheep to the slaughter". Now they learned that this was not so and were reminded that Israel's own Holocaust Day was officially called "Holocaust and Ghetto Revolt Remembrance Day". Listening and reading the reports of the trial, these young Israelis were able to learn at first hand from the mouths of the witnesses how Jews had indeed fought the Nazis, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising being just one of many instances of heroic resistance.
As for Adolf Eichmann, the evil mastermind who had said that he would laugh when he jumped into his grave knowing he had killed millions of Jews, what was this man like? Was he, as Hannah Arendt had described him, an example of the "banality of evil" - a passive cog in an industrially murderous machine, a petty and amoral bureaucrat merely fulfilling orders? Or was he, as Bettina Stangneth argued, a devious and unrepentant manipulator and instigator who wished his evil deeds to be praised and glorified?
There is something to be said for both points of view. Even before the war had started in 1939, Eichmann had actively carved himself out a niche in the Nazi hierarchy as the "expert" on the Jewish Question.
That is why he had been invited to attend the Wannsee Conference in January 1942 where he was appointed to oversee the future genocide of Europe's Jewish population. He also took the initiative in refusing to obey Himmler's orders in 1944 to slow down his murderous activities. He said he would do so only when he had received direct orders to do so from Hitler himself.
On the other hand, once he had fled to Buenos Aires, he appears to have been shunned by the other fugitive Nazis there. They did not wish to be associated with him as his record as one of the instigators of Hitler's extermination programme had made him "too hot to handle". He was therefore forced to eke out a living by managing a laundry and running a rabbit farm before joining Mercedes-Benz. Unrepentant to the end, he worked hard in Argentina to keep his past hidden and, as far as I can see, was not the bragging Nazi who had proudly claimed that, if he had killed over 10 million Jews, he would have been well satisfied.
It was the contrast between these two characters, the boastful Nazi mastermind of the Holocaust and the needy ex-pat German living in a Buenos Aires slum that makes the tracking, catching and judging of this personification of evil such a fascinating question.
Finally, as I ask in my book, was hanging Eichmann the most suitable punishment? Clearly, he could never have been punished in a way that fitted his crimes.
However, would it not have been better punishing him by letting him rot until the end of his days in an Israeli jail?
There, he would have witnessed the people he had worked so hard to kill building up their new, inspirational nation.
David Lawrence-Young, the author of 'Six Million Accusers: Catching Adolf Eichmann', was born in Britain, and has lived in Israel since 1968.
