The Israeli secret service Mossad has this week opened up its archives surrounding the remarkable capture of the Adolf Eichamann, who was responsible for co-ordinating Hitler’s “Final Solution” which was designed to exterminate European Jews. Some six million Jews are believed to have died at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II.

The Red Cross Identity document Eichmann used to enter Argentina Source: Fundacion Memoria del Holocausto

The story behind the 1960 kidnapping of the top Nazi is revealed this week. An exhibit entitled ‘Operation Finale’ has been put on display at the Beit Hatfutsot museum of the Jewish people in Tel Aviv. It has been assembled by an anonymous Mossad officer, and shows hitherto secret items and documents that were integral to Eichmann’s capture in Argentina where he had been hiding.

Eichmann was code named ‘Dybbuk’ – which means ‘evil spirit that penetrates the soul’ in Hebrew.

James Bond style operation

‘This is the first time Mossad carried out a huge operation overseas, and it had to invent all this “James Bond” stuff in the process,’ said the curator, identified as Avner A.

‘This operation made Mossad. It proved to itself and to the entire world that it could pull off an operation at the end of the world with a variety of bodies, under all kinds of identities and with various technical and technological means.’

The exhibits were initially intended to remain classified, but ‘the Eichmann story is so strong that we just couldn’t keep this one to ourselves’ revealed the curator.

Some of the items on display include the briefcase with a concealed camera that took the first pictures of Eichmann in Buenos Aires as well as some of the upward looking photos. There is even on display the original sleeves from the photo shop in Buenos Aires that developed the pictures – “Optica Florida Argentina 1960”.

Also on exhibit are the gloves used in his kidnap, and the needle which was used to sedate him. The false vehicle licence plates used by the agents, and the false Israeli passport in the name of Zeev Zichroni, used to smuggle the Nazi out of Argentina are also on display.

Some of Eichmann’s personal effects are on display – his comb and a plastic cigarette holder.

In hiding in Buenos Aires

After the war ended, Eichmann fled to Argentina in 1950, and assumed the name Ricardo Klement. He kept a low profile for several years, but in 1957 his eldest son Nick became friendly with a girl named Silvia. Her father, a Holocaust survivor named Lothar Hermann became suspicious and wrote to a fellow survivor in Germany who informed the Israelis who started to investigate.

A Mossad agent Zvi Aharoni subsequently located the family home in Garibaldi Street in Buenos Aires. Photographs of Ricardo Klement were taken by the secret concealed camera in the briefcase with the photographer posing as being interested in investments in the area. Israeli forensic experts matched the details of the ears with pictures of Eichmann to confirm the identity. Ears after all don’t change that much.

Ambushed on the way home from work

Eichmann worked in a Mercedes Benz factory and returned home each evening via a bus station. On 11^th May 1960 the seven strong Mossad team was there to meet him. ‘Avner’ revealed that it was known that some former top Nazis hid a cyanide pill inside a tooth in case of capture, and to get round the possibility of Eichmann committing suicide, the Mossad agent Zvi Malkin immediately put a gloved hand into the Nazi’s mouth when he jumped on him after he had got off the bus. He was bundled into a getaway car.

According to the Mossad exhibit the agent waiting in the car, Aharoni, told Eichmann: “If you move, you will be shot in the head”.

He was then taken to a safe house for nine days, before being flown to Israel in an El Al Israel Airlines plane that had brought an official Israeli delegation to mark Argentina’s 150th anniversary. Drugged and dressed in an El Al uniform, Eichmann was presented as a sick crew member. He flew first class.

Avner said that his research showed that if the plane trip did not work, plan B was to smuggle Eichmann in a freighter ship transporting frozen meat. If that failed then Plan C involved a halfway house in Europe.

He found the Israeli optometrist who prepared a set of glasses for Eichmann, as his original pair were broken during his capture. The new set was made of plastic to prevent Eichmann from having material to slit his wrists with.

Eichmann was tried in a Jerusalem court in 1961 – the actual bullet proof glass booth and the wooden chair in which he sat is on display. The trial gripped the world. More than a hundred Jews who survived extreme torture and deprivation in concentration camps testified. The full extent of the unspeakable horrors of the so-called Nazi ‘final solution’ was laid bare for the world to see.

Six million prosecutors

The Attorney General, Gideon Hausner opened the trial with the famous words: “I do not stand alone. With me at this moment are six million prosecutors”

Eichmann was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was hanged in June 1962 – the only time Israel has carried out a death sentence.

The exhibition will run for three months.

Adolf Eichmann, Isreal, Mossad News, People