MOSSAD AND THE KIDNAP OF ADOLF EICHMANN (May 11, 1960) En Ingles

MOSSAD AND THE KIDNAP OF ADOLF EICHMANN                            
                                (May 11, 1960)
     One of the major organizers of Germany’s attempted destruction of the Jewish race in World War 2, Nazi Adolf Eichmann escaped to Argentina after the war. His capture was made one of the primary tasks of the Mossad, the new state of Israel’s official intelligence agency after its establishment in 1949. in 1954, Simon Wiesenthal a dedicated Nazi hunter, received a postcard from an associate living in Buenos Aires saying that Eichmann was in Argentina. In 1957, further information was provided by Lothar Hermann, a jew who had survived Dachau and emigrated to Argentina. In the 1950s, Hermann was living in Buenos Aires whit his family. His daughter Sylvia became romantically involved whit Eichmann’s son, Klaus, who boasted about his father’s Nazi background and major involvement in the Holocaust.
    In 1957, Hermann realized Eichmann’s identity after reading an account of the German war criminals, and soon after this sent his daughter to the Eichmann’s home to learn more. She became suspicious of Eichmann’s claim that he was only Klaus’s uncle. Hermann began a correspondence whit Fritz Bauer, chief prosecutor for the West German state of Hessen. Bauer contacted Israeli officials, who worked sporadically  whit Hermann over the next several years trying to discover if this was really Eichmann.
    In 1959, the Mossad established that Eichmann was definitely living in Buenos Aires under the name Ricardo Klement, and it sought to find his precise location. Surveillance finally persuaded the Mossad that Ricardo Klement really was Adolf Eichmann. The Israeli government then granted permission for a covert operation to capture Eichmann and bring him to Jerusalen for trial as a war criminal. It was to be a joint operation carried out by the Mossad and Shin Bet (Israel security agency). The Iaraeli services maintained their watch of Eichmann into the first months of 1960, completed their capture plans, and awaited the right moment.
    It was on May 11 that a combined Mossad and Shin Bet team, which had arrived in Argentina during the preceding month, seized Eichmann in a suburb of Buenos Aires. Knowing that he worked as a foreman at the Mercedes-Benz factory in the Argentine capital, the team decided to ambush Eichmann as he walked from the bus stop to his home after work and bundle him into a car whit forged  license plates. The Israeli team almost abandoned its plan after Eichmann did not board his usual bus home, and tensions in the Israeli team rose steadily as  passing pedestrians asked if they could aid the disguised Mossad agents who were pretending to repair their broken-down vehicle . Almost half an hour later Eichmann got off a bus. A Mossad agent accosted him, asking him in Spanish if he had a moment. A frightened Eichmann tried to flee but was blinded by the headlights of the team’s car, whereupon a pair of Mossad agents felled him and rushed him to the car.
    Once at the Mossad safe house, Eichmann was tied to a chair and interrogated. He was given a choice between death on the spot or tr . ial in Israel, and opted for the latter. The agents kept Eichmann in a safe house until they judged that he could be taken to Israel whitout Argentine detection. Drugged to make him drunk, and dressed  as a flight attendant, Eichmann was smuggled out of Argentina on board an EI AI fligt from Argentina to Dakar and thence to Israel  on May 21, 1960. Tried and convicted, Eichmann was hanged on May 31, 1962.