Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The Israeli Mossad Almost Caught Mengele

Mossad operative Rafi Eitan tells German magazine Der Spiegel that when Israel's intelligence agency captured Holocaust bureaucrat Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires on May 11, 1960, they almost caught Josef Mengele. From der Spiegel:

"Rafi Eitan: In the spring of 1960, as we were planning the arrest of Adolf Eichmann, we learned that Mengele was also in Buenos Aires. Our people checked out the address and it proved to be correct.

"SPIEGEL: So why didn't you arrest him?

"Eitan: There were just 11 of us and we had our hands full dealing with Eichmann. After we had brought Eichmann to the house where we kept him until we flew him out, my boss at the Mossad, Isser Harel, called. He wanted us to arrest Mengele as well, but Mengele had left his home in the mean time. Harel said we should wait until he returned and then bring both he and Eichmann to Israel in the same plane. I refused because I didn't want to endanger the success of the Eichmann operation."


Mengele died in 1979 when he had a stroke while swimming. Interview here.

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