Jerusalem – Former Spy: We Let Mengele Slip to Nab Eichmann

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    Josef MengeleJerusalem – The Mossad scrapped a plan to seize the notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, who was located in Argentina in 1960, in order not to botch the capture of Adolf Eichmann, the former spymaster Minister for Pensioner Affairs Rafi Eitan said Monday.

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    Mengele, who was known as the “Angel of Death” for his cruel medical experiments on Auschwitz inmates, was discovered living in Buenos Aires by Mossad agents after Eichmann had already been nabbed by Israeli secret service agents and was being held in a safe house in the city.

    Eitan said he had opposed a plan to seize both Nazis at the same time due to “operational considerations” of the covert operation.

    “The question was should we do the two operations at the same time,” he told The Jerusalem Post. “I said thank you very much, but I have Eichmann in hand, and I don’t want to lose him.”

    With Eichmann held in the safe house, the plan to seize Mengele – who had been located in a city apartment but had subsequently left on a trip with his wife – was put off.

    “We decided to head back to Israel with Eichmann but without Mengele,” Eitan said.
    Josef Mengele

    News of Eichmann’s capture was quickly made public in Israel by then-prime minister David Ben-Gurion.

    “It was impossible to keep Eichmann a secret for long because too many people knew about it when we returned to Israel,” he said.

    Several weeks later, another Mossad team returned to Argentina to nab Mengele, but by then the trail had gone cold.

    “I cannot say whether there is a connection between news of Eichmann’s capture and Mengele’s disappearance,” Eitan said. “But the facts are that he disappeared after the news of Eichmann’s capture was made public.”

    A three-year search for Mengele in neighboring Brazil and Paraguay proved fruitless, he said.

    Half a century later, the 81-year-old-Eitan said he did not regret his decision.

    “I would have done the same thing again today,” Eitan said. “I think that had we gone for them both at the same time, we would have lost them both.”

    The chief Nazi hunter of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center said Monday that the decision made half a century ago was justified.

    “There was a logical basis for making such a decision since they could have blown the whole operation,” said Efraim Zuroff.

    He noted that the Argentinian government, more than any other, had made a “conscious and deliberate” effort to save Nazi mass-murderers in their country.

    “This was only one in a long list of missed opportunities to bring major Nazi war criminals to justice,” he said.

    In addition to the experiments he performed on camp inmates, especially on twins, Mengele was one of the notorious SS physicians who supervised the Nazi “selection” process for arriving transports of prisoners, determining who was to be killed and who was to become a forced laborer.

    Mengele drowned in Brazil in 1979, at age 68, after suffering a stroke.

    Eichmann was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity by an Israeli court in 1961. He was hanged the following year


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    15 Comments
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    aim and fire
    aim and fire
    15 years ago

    Yemach shemom vezichrom.

    machem
    machem
    15 years ago

    they didnt go after megele becouse ther wher bussy then with yossele shuchmacher it wes more impotend for them at thet time to go after yosele then to go after mengeleh

    political analyst
    political analyst
    15 years ago

    if you have good ears- you can hear them screaming from hell

    FinVeeNemtMenSeichel
    FinVeeNemtMenSeichel
    15 years ago

    machem you’re a cliche. zionists bad, chareidim good. we get it.

    JBC
    JBC
    15 years ago

    The Yossele Schumacher investigation was done by the Shin Bet, not the Mossad.

    That aside, it must have been a tough decision for those involved. If anyone on this board has read the House on Garibaldi Street, u will find that getting Eichman out of the country was no small feat. Getting them both out would have been near impossible and would have increased the likelihood of them getting caught.

    Good reading.

    yankel
    yankel
    15 years ago

    famous fact ! the zionists left mengele yms@h to saerch for yosselle !

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Do not kriticize those who have been dooing the work while you have been sipping cofe on Dizegof or on the Champs-Elysée …Kol Hakavod to the man who took the decision under those difficult conditions !!Tibor Burian

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    why didn/t they just assassinate mengele and then tell the world about it

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    I just went on Amazon to buy House on Garibaldi Street and they want $170??? What are they smokin??? I’m not paying that price unless I get to put my hands on Eichman himself… Guess I’ll have to search the libraries.

    Robroy560
    Robroy560
    15 years ago

    Look for Gideon’s Spies at Amazon.

    machem
    machem
    15 years ago

    ieser areily was the one by eichman and by yosseleh and he drupd mengeleh

    bigwheeel
    bigwheeel
    15 years ago

    FinVeenemtMen… 12:05PM. Machem 11:AM is not Clicheed, just misinformed! [Unfortunately], not by [Historical] Revisionists but by [Heimishe] Historical Falsifiers and propagandists. Chief among them was RS”D ZY”A, in his newspaper! The “Yossele” Parsha —which by the way, The Satmar Rebbi ZTZ”L was [adamantly] opposed to. It ALL emanated from some people in “Torah Veyirah, in Jerusalem, that is not affiliated with Satmar!!— which was in its early stages at the time of the pursuit of those nazis YMSH”V! There’s, unfortunately a long list of twisted, misleading facts and half-truths by those Heimishe Propagandists, and falsifiers of History! One example, is in recounting the history of rescue, in WWII, by Reb Michoel Dov Weissmandl ZTZ”L, they [deliberately] concealed the fact that –during negotiations with the nazis– he concealed his Jewish identity and appearance. What bothered this writer is, why the nazi/s, YMS”H, in particular wisliczeny, didn’t at any particular point “Grab” him and put him in concentration camp. It plainly strained credibility. Furthermore, Yoel Brand’s TRUE [Religious] beliefs and appearance were NEVER emphasized, giving one the the impression that he was an Ehrlicher Yid, while he was a true Zionist!!! All of the above has no bearing on the facts and the results! But why conceal important facts. Unless you have a motive !!!

    JBC
    JBC
    15 years ago

    Bigwheeel, I agree with u that we also have history revisionists in our circles. Mainly they try to stamp out any possible good that could have come out of any secular person, and ignoring the fact that even in the Torah, wicked people were given credit when credit was due. The Mossad did a great job in the apprehension of Eichman and anybody who read anything about it could understand why getting Menglele could have jeopardized the whole operation and created a diplomatic disaster for Israel, not to mention the lives of the agents involved.

    Having said that, I disagree with u on ur assessment of Rabbi Michoel Dov Weissmandl. He was truly a heroic person who dared to do what he did. There is documentation to prove that. That in no way minimizes the heroism of Joel Brand and others. There are many answers to ur question as to why they didn’t just grab him. That is a discussion for another forum.

    A none Amos without andy
    A none Amos without andy
    15 years ago

    Isser Harel’s two major Goals were to find Eichmann and Yossele. The dozens of frum Teimani children that were kidnapped from their parents who were told they died suddenly and were hastily buried in unmarked graves did not concern him so much.

    Yoel Brandt paid the price. Eichman did not allow his family to reboard Kastner’s train out of Bergen Belsen. Wisliczeny was very greedy. He was paid for every meeting and he actually delayed the mass deportations from 1942 until 1944. (There were some deportations in 1942) The general deportations did nto start until after the Slovakian uprising in 1944.

    -Heard from a Nitra talmid who was in the bunker with Reb Michoel Ber zt”l.

    bigwheeel
    bigwheeel
    15 years ago

    JBC 9:58PM. You misunderstood my point in reference to Rabbi Michoel Ber Weissmandl ZTZ”L! The context of the message was that, the Revisionists and demagogue/s (unfortunately) in our own circles disguised the fact that when Rabbi Weissmandl met with wisliczeny and other nazis YMSHV”Z, he was disguised as a [Gentile} Swiss Diplomat. Which, obviously, doesn’t take away from his honor and righteousness one Iota! Otherwise, it doesn’t make any sense why they wouldn’t ship him off to a concentration camp or worse! Furthermore, in reference to Joel Brand, it’s the same point. His personal views don’t matter one way or another! But in all the volumes of recounting the efforts of Joel Brand not once is it mentioned, even in passing, that he was a non-Religious person and an avid Zionist. Even though THAT is usually a First Identifier! Here, the motive is more obvious. So that he and his views don’t get credit!!!