February 19, 2007

The Beast in Chains

Who is Adolf Eichmann? A detailed article from Time Magazine, dated Monday, June 06, 1960, on the historic arrest of Nazi war criminal and Jew-exterminator, Adolf Eichmann, who was responsible together with the Nazi leaders for what was called the 'final solution' of the Jewish question— the extermination of 6,000,000 Jews of Europe. An excerpt:
The Israelis found Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. He arrived in this country in 1952 from Spain. He was traveling with an Italian Red Cross document obtained through the Vatican's D.P.-relief department, which qualified him as a displaced person. The document was in the name of Krumey, one of Eichmann's assistant exterminators who was rearrested in West Germany following Ben-Gurion's announcement [of the arrest of Adolf Eichmann].

Eichmann at first worked as a surveyor for a German-American engineering firm called Capri. For the next several years he turned up under various aliases in Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia. By 1956 he was back in Argentina with a job as mechanic in the capital's outskirts, worked later on as an overseer on a farm in the interior. In 1958 he returned to Buenos Aires, became an office employee in an automobile plant and lived near the airport with his German wife and four children (the last was born after his family joined him).Eichmann, now 54, bore no resemblance to the jaunty SS officer of the past. He had gone almost completely bald, hollow-cheeked, with big, flopping ears and a long, drooping nose. Yet early last month Israeli secret agents identified their quarry. From then on, they stalked him day and night. A five-man commando squad headed by one Yehudah Shimoni was sent from Israel to Buenos Aires. At the same time. El Al (Israeli Airlines) New York Station Manager Joseph Klein, who himself bears a tattooed number from one of Eichmann's concentration camps on his arm, flew down to make arrangements for a special El Al flight. It was to carry an Israeli delegation headed by Minister of State Abba Eban to attend the isoth anniversary of Argentine independence.

On May 13 Eichmann walked along General Paz Avenue on his way home from work. An automobile swerved out of the heavy traffic, screeched to a halt. Before the startled Eichmann could struggle or cry out, he was grabbed and flung into the car. That night a message was flashed to Ben-Gurion. Decoded, it read: "The beast is in chains." Eichmann's family spent the night telephoning friends and checking hospitals and morgues. Next morning, they disappeared into hiding.

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