Amazing story!
From Amazon
"Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World's Most Notorious Nazi", by Neal Bascomb, is a good read about the notorious Nazi - Adolph Eichmann, his escape from post-war Germany, and the fifteen year effort to find and bring him to justice. The book opens with the evil deeds of Eichmann, one of the masterminds behind the "final solution" - the attempt to exterminate the Jews. In the final days of the way, although he was temporarily captured by American forces, he managed to elude capture. Indeed, it took quite a while for Allied forces to determine who Eichmann was, and why he was so important to capture. Eichmann lived in Germany for a few years, but eventually made his way to Buenos Aires, Argentina through a secret effort to bring fugitive Nazis out of Europe. Argentina was one of the primary places these Nazis fled - largely due to the anti-Semitic sympathies throughout the country at the time. Juan Peron was very amenable to the Nazis before it became obvious Germany would lose the war. The remainder of the book is about the hunt for Eichmann, his capture by the Mossad, and return to Israel for trial. How he was found and captured is an amazing tale, one that made the Mossad famous around the globe for their abilities. Definitely a good read!
Fascinating Story of the Post-War Nazi Escapes
From Amazon
While many high-ranking Nazis were captured and tried at the end of the war, or they killed themselves, a couple escaped. Some like Mengele were never captured. Some like Kammler are unclear. Eichmann, once at the top of Nazi leadership, escaped to South America to live as a working man. It's interesting to learn how many potential war criminals escaped and started new lives, and how the Allies very quickly gave up prosecuting them. In fact, as the Cold War began, they began recruiting their scientists and spies, thus beginning decades of picking and choosing which Nazis to persue. All of these escaped people, both sanctioned and unsanctioned, is the basis of the conspiracy idea that the Nazis kept trying to influence the world after thier fall. But with their most public figures gone, and others like Eichmann living in a hovel, one has to wonder if such theories are as solid as their promoters claim. See also Dark Side of the Moon: Wernher von Braun, the Third Reich, and the Space Race, Hitler's Flying Saucers: A Guide to German Flying Discs of the Second World War, Reich Of The Black Sun: Nazi Secret Weapons & The Cold War Allied Legend and Hitler's Suppressed and Still-Secret Weapons, Science and Technology.
Thrilling history, suspenseful in its detail
From Amazon
One knows, from the beginning, how this story ends. But with Neal Bascomb's talented pen, the thrill of the chase never wavers. Exposed by his son's chance comment to a blind man's daughter, Adolf Eichmann's road to justice from his capture by the Mossad on Garibaldi Street outside of Buenos Aires to his trial 1960 and hanging in Israel in 1962 is more thrilling in real life than any mystery. Eichmann's ratline escape in 1950 from Europe, his life in Argentina, Mossad's planning, trial runs, checks and rechecks of Eichmann's identification, the El Al flight across the Atlantic to Dakar; all are packed with excitement and drama. Bascomb never overplays his hand or is biased; his portrait of the aged and captured Eichmann masked, lying on a bed ready for transshipment to Israel is sensitive. Eichmann's purposeful non defiant walk to his hanging - resigned to the noose - captures the condemned and at the same time the talent of this writer. Israel's commitment to bringing Eichmann to justice - in the face of international pusillanimity and outrage - is capped off by its hilarious understated riposte to the Argentine's foreign minister that the kidnapping was done by "a group of Jewish volunteers, including some Israelis." Bascombe's story draws from an outpouring of articles and books. His bibliography is detailed and informative. Not even the movie will capture this book's suspense.
Excellent, dramatic ovewrview of Eichmann's capture
From Amazon
Bascomb talked to about everybody, for this book, or at least tried to: Mossad agents in on the hunt, the special El Al crew, Holocaust survivors, neo-Nazis in Argentina and even members of Eichmann's family.
Bascomb's genius is in making the thrillingness, if you will (not to trivialize) of the stakeout come alive, after Mossad almost permanently dismissed the first clue it had that Eichmann was, indeed, in Buenos Aires.
Interestingly, Mossad tried to nab Mengele, too, but its timing was just a bit off.
Beyond that, Bascomb also does a good job, to riff on Hannah Arendt, of portraying Eichmann's banality of evil, too. This is a very good read.
A good read!
From Amazon
This is the second book that I have read on the hunting and capturing of Eichman by Israel's Mossad. I would recommend, also, the VHS video, The Man Who Captured Eichmann" in conjunction with this reading. Thoroughly enjoyed both.