Ex-Agent: We Let Nazi Go To Nab Mastermind

Kidnapping Adolph Eichman Required Letting Josef Mengele Escape, Former Israeli Agent Says

(AP)  The Israeli agents who kidnapped Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann from Argentina in 1960 knowingly let the notorious death camp doctor Josef Mengele get away, one of the operatives said Tuesday.

Rafi Eitan, now an 81-year-old Israeli Cabinet minister, said he and the other Mossad men located Mengele - infamous for conducting horrific medical experiments on inmates - living in a Buenos Aires apartment with his wife. But they decided that trying to nab him would risk sabotaging the capture of Eichmann, whom they deemed more important.

It was known that Mengele was living in Buenos Aires around the time of the Eichmann capture. But Eitan's comments indicated that the Israelis were closer to him that has been thought - and shed light on why they decided to abandon an attempt to catch him.

"When you have one operation, you're taking a certain level of risk. If you're doing a second operation at the same time, you double the risk ... not only for the second operation but for the first one as well," Eitan told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Mengele was never caught and died in 1979. Eichmann, responsible for implementing Hitler's "final solution," the destruction of European Jewry that resulted in the killing of 6 million Jews, was spirited to Israel, tried and executed.

At the Auschwitz death camp, Mengele was one of those responsible for the selection of incoming prisoners, choosing who was fit for slave labor and who would be sent to their deaths in the gas chambers. He also carried out cruel medical experiments on children, twins and dwarves.

"He would tell little children to sit on his lap and tell them to call him 'uncle,' 'uncle Mengele' and sometimes give them a sweet - and in the same tone of voice that he said 'I'm uncle Mengele,' he would tell the officials to give them a lethal injection," Martha Weiss, a survivor of his experimental ward, told the AP in 2005.

After the war Mengele fled Germany under an assumed name and ended up in Argentina, a popular refuge for many senior Nazi officials.

Informers working with the Mossad had seen Mengele while the agents were in Buenos Aires, Eitan said. The Mossad men located Mengele's apartment, and on one specific day even knew he was at home, Eitan said. But the next day Mengele left with his wife for what the agents believed was to be a temporary absence.

At the time, the Israelis had already snatched Eichmann and were holding him in a safe house while they waited to whisk him out of the country.

Fearing that if they waited for Mengele to come back, the Eichmann operation would be discovered, Eitan decided it was not worth the risk.

"When I have a bird in my hand, I don't start looking for the bird in the bush. I'll take the bird in my hand, put it in a cage, and then deal with the one in the bush," Eitan said.

But by the time the Mossad sent a team back to Buenos Aires a few weeks later, it was too late. "After Eichmann's capture was made public, he disappeared entirely," Eitan said.

Historian Avner Shalev, chairman of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial authority, said the Mossad made the right decision under the circumstances, since Eichmann was more important than Mengele. But he said bringing Mengele to justice in Israel would have had great symbolic and educational value.

As a doctor, Mengele represented "the extent of the collapse of the human values built by Western society over the years," Shalev said. "There would have been a universal message that would have benefited the world if Mengele had been put on trial, especially in Israel."

After missing him in Argentina, the Mossad had another shot at catching him in Sao Paolo, Brazil, two years later, Eitan said, but the organization had other "operational priorities," and Mengele got away. He would not say what those priorities were.

Having eluded capture for 34 years, Mengele drowned in Brazil in early 1979. Experts identified the body as his six years later.

Eitan went on to a long career in intelligence that ended on a sour note. He took responsibility for the case of Jonathan Pollard, an American Jew who spied for Israel, was arrested in Washington in 1985 and was sentenced to life in prison, one of the most embarrassing and damaging episodes in Israel-American relations.

After Eichmann was caught, the Mossad considered expanding its activities targeting Nazis, said Efraim Zuroff, a Nazi hunter who heads the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Jerusalem office.

But the organization eventually shifted its resources elsewhere, he said, and Eichmann remained one of only two significant anti-Nazi successes the Israeli secret service had.

The other, Zuroff said, was the assassination of Herberts Cukurs, who headed a Latvian death squad known as the Arajs Kommando that killed 30,000 Jews in Latvia. Mossad agents lured him from Brazil to Uruguay and killed him in 1965, making it look as if he had been killed by survivors taking revenge.

"The Mengele story underscores the tremendous difficulties involved in bringing Nazi war criminals to justice, certainly those living in a country like Argentina, which opened its arms to grant them shelter and protection," Zuroff said.

[gatofeo]

I wish the world would forget the term, "6 million Jews." An estimated 12 million people of all kinds died in the camps, half of them Jews.
But to emphasize 6 million Jews is to ignore an equal number who died.
The Jews claim that they were the only group seen as non-redeemable, that even infants were sent to the camps for execution.
Not true. If you were Roma (Gypsy), all ages were sent. Poles of all ages were also sent.
Let''s remember ALL who died, not half.

Both my parents fought the Nazis. My father as an American G.I. My mother as a member of the Belgian Resistance.
Mom''s first husband, a Belgian Resistance leader, was captured and thrown into Breendonk torture camp, south of Brussels. Two weeks before D-Day he was executed by firing squad because the Germans knew the war was lost and were silencing witnesses.
Yet, he is not counted among those who died in the "death camps."
Stop saying, "6 million." Start saying, "12 million."
Honor ALL.

[nycsense]

"I think that it is time for the PEOPLE of the rest of the WORLD to tell the jew''''s, enough already. They have hunted this old man for the last 63 years. He has been running and or hiding for most of that time. If he is alive, just simply LET HIM ALONE....AS HE WILL NOT LIVE LONG ANYWAY.

My feelings about the jew''s is if they had not tried to dominate business in Germany before the WAR then maybe they would have not been dealt with so bad.

And they continue to do so right up to this very MOMENT..

It is not good to live with HATE in your mind all of the time. And that is what the jew''''s have done in the past and continue to do today......"

hbeavis, it''s so typical of people to oversimplify any situation, especially if it never affected them. But, let''s see how you would feel if this maniac tortured and mutilated your entire family just because he got his jollies doing it. I''m absolutely sure that your tune would change slightly, that you probably wouldn''t want to kiss and make up with him so easily anymore. The lesson here is: try walking a mile in someone else''s shoes before you type something as stupid as that statement.

[nycsense]

Actually hbevis, I do have a degree slightly higher than an MBA, I have a PhD. So, does that make me smarter than Bush? Absolutely. Then again, it''s not very hard to find someone smarter than Bush. You can''t swing a dead cat around without hitting someone smarter than Bush. As for Bush getting his degree from Harvard, any idiot with enough money and connections can get into Harvard. Do you really think that Bush got into Harvard by his own merrits? If you beleive that, then I have a bridge to sell you. By the way, his MBA served him well, seeing how he''s running the country into the ground. So, are ya still proud of your buddy there hbevis? Seeing that you''re so easily impressed. Try changing your screenname to something more appropriate, like hbutthead.

[hbevis]

nycsense,

I take it when you call GWB an idiot you have the equivalent of an MBA from Harvard or better?

Posted by ausus at 09:41 PM : Sep 02, 2008

I don''t think that nycsense has anything, he or she is just popping off just to have something to do........:-)

[hbevis]

Nazi''''s are people too. The US govt made all kinds of secret deals with them. They provided the brainpower for most of the US space program in the 60''''s. Inconvenient but true.

Posted by gce65 at 07:51 PM : Sep 02, 2008

I can go with this alright. I worked in the space program from 1963 until.....
We had some very bright people from over there, and still have some of them today.

[hbevis]

I think that it is time for the PEOPLE of the rest of the WORLD to tell the jew''s, enough already. They have hunted this old man for the last 63 years. He has been running and or hiding for most of that time. If he is alive, just simply LET HIM ALONE....AS HE WILL NOT LIVE LONG ANYWAY.

My feelings about the jew''s is if they had not tried to dominate business in Germany before the WAR then maybe they would have not been dealt with so bad.

And they continue to do so right up to this very MOMENT..

It is not good to live with HATE in your mind all of the time. And that is what the jew''s have done in the past and continue to do today......

[cfin5]

Posted by gce65 at 07:51 PM : Sep 02, 2008--- Yeah, nazis are people who walk on two legs,....but their hearts walk on four. They would have had to incarcerate me till my anger cooled off a bit if they made me let "Doctor Mengelstein" escape on purpose. Bet there were a few in the know who weren''t a little bit troubled on that......Those poor innocent twins,....AHRRRRR! My niece and nephew are twins. If someone were to do them like Mengele, and if I found them, they would rather a wild Comanche to have his way with them. I hate Nazis.

[gce65]

Nazi''s are people too. The US govt made all kinds of secret deals with them. They provided the brainpower for most of the US space program in the 60''s. Inconvenient but true.

[toolmangler-2009]

You sure they killed Eichmann? He look a lot like Joe Biden.
Posted by SistaTee at 05:40 PM : Sep 02, 2008


Yeah, I guess white people look alike to other races, don''t we?

[gogam]

You sure they killed Eichmann? He look a lot like Joe Biden.

Posted by SistaTee at 05:40 PM : Sep 02, 2008
---------------------------------------------

Hahahahahahaha!

[deacon20081]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1256448/posts

Saudi Government Daily Editorial:''Bush the Nazi''

Interesting Reading actually.

[nycsense]

It''s amazing how people get on this board with lots to type but nothing to say. Especially adt14. What is this person''s problem? He''s wrting in fragments. As for the other posts, you can''t really compare Bush to Hitler because Hitler was smart and a very good speaker. Bush doesn''t even have a grasp of the english language, and to me he looks borderline retarded. Hitler reorganized Germany and motivated its people from a beaten society of World War I, to a superpower nation. Bush did the exact opposite. Hitler was bat *** crazy, and Bush is bat *** stupid. So in conclusion, Hitler personified the word evil, while Bush personifies the word idiot.

[babooph]

I still recall the "news" that Eichman was responsible for chrystalnacht-what was he at that time,an army LT.?Makes the whole BS story,very suspect-followed by the phoney computer photo "update" of the falsely accused auto worker.

[caliengineer]

I have never liked this method. When I was a Marine, they showed us pictures of Abu Nidal and other terrorists. They would say. "If you see this man, kill him! Kill him at all costs. In a crowded subway, open fire to kill!"

In the army, my team located 2 Al-qaida operatives. We received word of their operations, we knew the neighborhood. I requested pics. My commander asked, "What for?" I was surprised and said, "If I see them, I will kill them." They wanted to try to follow them, find bigger fish... Those two men are still out there... Just shoot on site!

[jmurrieta1]

"Oh, don''''t forget to call Senator Lieberman "Jew Lieberman" as you roaches did when you ran that moveon.org Ga-ye Nazi Lamont against him"--Posted by obamaisaho2


While you call Barack Obama "Stepin Fetchit".

You cockroach. Somebody get the Raid.

[obamaisaho2]

That REAL Nazi is one Barry Hussein Obama, friend of fascist bigots of all stripes whether they be Bill Ayers, Farrakhan, KKK Byrd, Jimmy Carter or Uncle Jeremiah Wright. Also Osama Bin Laden, Ahmedinejedad, Hugo Chavez, Putin and a host of other reptiles whom Hitler would have dearly loved.

Sieg Heil Obama
Sieg Heil Biden
Sieg Heil Soros and the Puff ''Ho

Stepin'' Fetchit Uber Alles.

[godseyesore-2009]

We''re letting a bunch of Nazis go scot-free soon. Unfortunately, idiot voters in US could very well replace them with more of same.

[obamaisaho2]

Any Liberal who compares Bush to Hitler while ignoring the REAL Nazis who befriend Uncle Jeremiah Wright, Mikey G^ye boy Pflueger, KKK Byrd, and the Israel-haters Brezinzski, Power and Malley are Nazis themselves.

Oh, don''t forget to call Senator Lieberman "Jew Lieberman" as you roaches did when you ran that moveon.org Ga-ye Nazi Lamont against him.

[kommoncents-2009]

godseyesore:
I reiterate; you are exaggerating and are insulting all the people that suffered under Hitler.

[godseyesore-2009]

KOMMONCENTS, if you can''t see parallels in loss of personal freedoms and destruction of constitutional rights, destruction of separation of powers, maniacal
tendencies, arrogance to rest of world, etc. etc, then you are the TOTAL idiot. Dolt.