Three weeks before a television documentary on the life of Simon Wiesenthal is set to air, questions are being raised about whether the Nazi-hunter really located Adolf Eichmann, as he has long claimed.
Isser Harel, a former head of both Mossad and the Shin Bet internal security service in Israel and the man responsible for capturing Eichmann, said unequivocally last week that Wiesenthal had “absolutely nothing” to do with Eichmann’s capture.
Harel, whose account of the capture of Eichmann in 1960 in Buenos Aires is recorded in his “The House on Garibaldi Street,” said that Wiesenthal “had nothing to do with Eichmann neither with the capture, location or any information.”
In the 29 years since Eichmann’s capture, this is the first time Harel has gone on the record with the remark.
Harel’s statements about Wiesenthal were private, given to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and later to Reuters.
In its advance promotional material for “The Simon Wiesenthal Story: Murderers Among Us.” which airs nationally on April 23, Home Box Office credits Wiesenthal with locating Eichmann.
This information is also given on the cover jackets of at least two of Wiesenthal’s books, “Murderers Among Us” and “Every Day Remembrance Day.”
DEFENDS CLAIM
Wiesenthal, who was in New York for a screening of the film, defended his claim strongly in an interview Sunday.
“My book about the Eichmann affair was published in 1961, in Hebrew. Why has Mr. Harel kept silent?” he asked.
Wiesenthal did not provide specifics about finding Eichmann, but he did say that in 1947, “the most important thing that I had done” was to refute a woman who tried to declare Eichmann dead on the basis of false witnesses.
The woman said Eichmann had been shot in Prague, Wiesenthal said, “so I asked the judge to give me four weeks’ time and I found that the witness was the brother-in-law of Mrs. Eichmann: Karl Liebel. And the judge was about to declare him dead.
“In 1947, nobody had looked for him. Isser Harel should say who (did) this,” he said.
In addition, said Wiesenthal, when Eichmann’s father died in 1959, the newspaper printed the names of the mourning family, including Vera Eichmann, his widow.
“This was the sign that was it not true that she was married to another man. Then we (the Jewish Documentation Center in Linz) made a photo–with a telephoto lens — of all the members of the family during the funeral.
“People were coming from Harel’s office to take this photo, because when you look at the photo of Eichmann’s brothers, it was obviously the same family,” he said.
Wiesenthal’s critics say that whereas true Nazi-hunters jeopardize life and limb by going to the locale where a Nazi has been cited, including not-so-friendly South American countries, Wiesenthal has not set foot in these places.
Yet, they say, he takes credit. The cover jackets of his books, for instance, say that “Wiesenthal is best known for his discovery of Adolf Eichmann’s South American hideout.”
On Monday, Wiesenthal told JTA by phone, “I found him in Argentina in 1954 and told the Israelis, but they don’t believe me.”
Arnold Forster, general counsel of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, says in his most recent book, “Square One,” that right before the Israelis ferreted Eichmann out of Argentina, Wiesenthal was placing him in both Japan and Saudi Arabia.
Wiesenthal, writes Forster, “has not, as far as I know, released any list of Nazi criminals apprehended as a result of his work, although he has done well in keeping the public’s eye on the subject of prominent escaped Nazis.”
REQUESTED FUNDS
Forster said that Wiesenthal, in order to verify his suspicion that Eichmann was in Japan, requested funds from the Israeli government, which declined his request.
An Israeli government source told him that Wiesenthal “flew to Jerusalem to see Prime Minister (David) Ben-Gurion” and “Ben-Gurion checked with the Mossad and decided against financial assistance.
Wiesenthal then released a story in Israel saying in effect that the Israeli government was refusing to help capture Eichmann.”
Harel’s comments on Wiesenthal are provocative because they appear to chip away at the underpinnings of Wiesenthal’s career.
Harel’s account revolves around the contribution of Fritz Bauer, who, as a prosecutor in Frankfurt after the war, prosecuted a Nazi war criminal who kept referring to Eichmann.
These proceedings reportedly appeared in an Argentine paper, which was brought to the attention of another German in Argentina named Lothar Hermann, whose daughter was reportedly dating Eichmann’s son.
In this account, Hermann called Bauer and said, “I believe I know that Eichmann is living a few houses away from me.”
Bauer supposedly preferred to inform the Israelis rather than the Germans. Harel sent an agent to Argentina to speak with Hermann.
The Israelis confirmed that the daughter’s boyfriend was Eichmann’s son, who was using the name Eichmann all the while his father was using the name Ricardo Clement.
NO ONE PERSON RESPONSIBLE
Said Wiesenthal, “The Eichmann affair was a big mosaic. No one can say he alone was responsible.
“Look in Golda Meir’s book. It said volunteers abroad brought Eichmann to Israel. Later, Harel wrote a book and omitted my name.
“The French edition (of my book) was published in 1967 without any reaction from Harel … and in this book were published documents and a letter sent by the Israeli ambassador to Vienna in 1959, Yehezkel Sahar.
“He told me in this letter that the people in Israel are occupied with Eichmann and they are very, very grateful to me for the big help I gave them.”
In the letter sent from Sahar to Wiesenthal, dated Nov. 10, 1959, Sahar writes that while in Israel, “I had conversations concerning Eichmann, and our people there express how much they value your help in this issue.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
