S04E18-22 Israel: The Capture and Trial of Adolf Eichmann

Season 4, Episodes 18-22

Israel, 1948-1967: The Capture and Trial of Adolf Eichman

On May 11, 1960, an Israeli intelligence squad captured Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann outside Buenos Aires, Argentina. This five-episode mini-series covers Eichmann’s escape from the Allies, the 15-year hunt for him, the operation that captured him in Argentina, and his subsequent trial in Israel in 1961.

THE PLOT

Adolf Eichmann was one of the highest-ranking Nazis to have escaped capture after World War Two. He had held a variety of positions in the Nazi machinery, most infamously as the head of the Third Reich’s “Jewish section,” that was responsible for the transportation of Jews from their homes around Europe to the death camps. At the end of the war he went into hiding, using a variety of aliases to elude capture and justice. In 1950, with the help of a network of friends, associates, and the Catholic Church, he made his way to Argentina, settling in and around Buenos Aires under the name Ricardo Klement.

But people continued to look for him throughout the 1950s, and rumors of his location (and true identity) in Argentina circulated between South America, Europe, and Israel. In the late 1950s Israeli intelligence spied on Klement but concluded that it wasn’t really Eichmann. Although the former Nazi was careful about his identity, he was a fixture in the ex-Nazi community in Argentina, where many people knew, and celebrated, his real identity.

In 1960 an Israeli spy, Zvi Aharoni, finally identified Klement as Eichmann. A team of Israeli agents from the Mossad and Shin Bet, led by Isser Harel, was sent to capture Eichmann and bring him back to Israel to stand trial. It was a highly complex, secretive, and dangerous mission requiring weeks of undercover work.

On May 11, 1960, the Israeli team grabbed Klement/Eichmann and secreted him in a safe house. The Israelis wanted him to reveal the location of another infamous Nazi, Josef Mengele, who had also escaped to Argentina. Most importantly, they wanted Eichmann to sign a letter acknowledging his situation and willingness to go to Israel to stand trial. Eichmann initially refused but was later convinced by his captors to sign. Peter Malkin, the agent who had physically grabbed Eichmann, later claimed to have engaged in extensive conversations with Eichmann, which he recounted in detail in a book.

Meanwhile, the Israelis were developing a plan to sneak Eichmann out of Argentina via airplane. An El Al diplomatic flight landed in Argentina. The agents and Eichmann, disguised as crew, went aboard and took off. Eichmann arrived in Israel on May 22.

On April 11, 1961, Eichmann’s trial commenced in Jerusalem under heavy guard. For months Israelis remained riveted to their TVs and radios as Holocaust survivors testified before the court, with Eichmann famously scowling behind bulletproof glass. Eichmann himself was also permitted to testify at length. It was sensational and far-reaching, and had a deep impact on Israeli society.

In December, 1961, Eichmann was found guilty of 15 counts, including crimes against the Jewish People, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and membership in a hostile organization. He was sentenced to death and hung on June 1, 1962.

THE PEOPLE

Zvi Aharoni: top Israeli intelligence interrogator sent to Argentina to spy on Klement (Eichmann), identifying him conclusively for the capture operation.

Gabriel Bach: assistant prosecutor at the Eichmann trial.

Fritz Bauer: German-Jewish district attorney for the west German state of Hesse. Issued an arrest warrant for Eichmann in 1956, and shared information from and between Lothar Hermann and Israeli intelligence.

Moshe Beisky: Holocaust survivor and later member of the Israeli Supreme Court, who testified at Eichmann’s trial.

Yehiel De-Nur: Holocaust survivor and writer who testified at Eichmann’s trial.

Adolf Eichmann: high-ranking Nazi leader responsible for the Third Reich’s transportation of the Jews to the death camps during the Holocaust. Escaped justice after the war and made his way to Argentina. Captured by Israeli agents in 1960 and put on trial in Israel in 1961. Also known by a variety of aliases, included Ricardo Klement.

Vera Eichmann: Adolf’s wife, who stayed behind in Austria while he was in hiding after the war, and later joined her husband in Argentina.

Martin Foeldi: Holocaust survivor who testified at Eichmann’s trial. His daughter was the famous “girl in the red dress” from Steven Spielberg’s movie, Schindler’s List.

Isser Harel: powerful head of Israel’s two main intelligence agencies in the 1950s: the Shin Bet and the Mossad. Headed the operation to capture Eichmann.

Gideon Hausner: Israeli Attorney General, chief prosecutor of Eichmann.

Lothar Hermann: Blind German-Jewish Holocaust survivor who, through his daughter, Sylvia, uncovered Eichmann’s true identity in Argentina, and alerted German prosecutors and Israeli intelligence.

Sylvia Hermann: Argentinian-Jewish teenage girlfriend of Adolf Eichmann’s son, Klaus, who alerted her father, Lothar, to the family’s opaque origins.

Abba Kovner: Holocaust survivor and member of the Lithuanian resistance who testified at Eichmann’s trial.

Peter Malkin: Israeli agent who physically captured Eichmann.

Robert Servatius: hired by Israel to serve as Eichmann’s defense attorney at trial, who had also defended Nazis during the Nuremberg Trial.

Simon Wiesenthal: Jewish survivor of several concentration camps and the most famous postwar “Nazi hunter.” He painstakingly gathered tips and tidbits about Eichmann’s location, passing clues along to prominent Jewish organizations and, later, Israeli intelligence.

THE BIG IDES

The capture of Eichmann made famous Israel’s intelligence services and spies. Though they had mostly neglected the search for the escaped Nazis, the sensational capture of Eichmann vaulted Israel’s Mossad and Shin Bet agencies to a legendary status. Israel’s enemies lived in fear that they, too, would suffer Eichmann’s fate, and some of them did.

The Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt coined the term “banality of evil” to describe her observations of Eichmann during his trial. His motivation wasn’t cruel antisemitism or fanatical adherence to a sociopathic ideology, but instead the more ordinary ambitions of a mid-level manager: doing his job well, getting credit, bureaucratically covering his ass. His crimes were remarkable, but he himself was decidedly unremarkable. But while he wasn’t solely, or even primarily, responsible for the Holocaust, the alternative picture — of him as an antisemite taking delight in the annihilation of the Jews — emerges as the better way to describe him.

The weeks of witness testimony had a profound impact on Israeli identity. The story of the Holocaust, and the experiences of the survivors, was for the first time brought into every Israeli home, changing attitudes towards the survivors. Ben Gurion especially wanted the trial to speak to young Israelis, to imbue them with a sense of purposefulness as Israelis fighting to protect Jewish lives. The Holocaust became a matter of collective identity.

FUN FACTS

Eichmann had been captured and held by the Americans shortly after the war, but he used an alias and therefore the Americans didn’t realize who he really was. He managed to escape the low-security placed around him.

Israeli agent Peter Malkin said, “un momentito, senor” to distract Eichmann long enough to grab him just outside his house.

“The typewriter is okay,” was the code phrase sent to Ben Gurion and Golda Meir to inform them that Eichmann had been successfully captured.

Israel does not have capital punishment except for high-ranking former Nazis, and Eichmann’s execution was the one and only time it was ever used.