Eichmann was just 'hours from capture' in 1949
Austrian police were just hours away from capturing Adolf Eichmann in 1949 until a loose lipped Israeli war veteran ruined their plans, according to a new biography of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal.
Tom Segev, author of the book, Simon Wiesenthal, The Life and Legends, claims Wiesenthal, along with the Austrian Secret Service, discovered Eichmann was planning to spend New Year's Eve with his family in the town of Altaussee. Together they planned to ambush the Nazi dubbed "the architect of the Holocaust".
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However, on New Year's Eve 1949, just hours before the planned ambush, Wiesenthal discovered the Israeli in a bar, telling locals how proud he was to be an Israeli and a veteran of the 1948 war of independence.
Austrian Police records from the time confirm that rumours had spread that "there was a whole group of Israelis in town", which led to Eichmann being tipped off and fleeing the country before he could be caught.
He was finally captured by Mossad agents 11 years later in Buenos Aires and set to Israel to face trial on charges including crimes against humanity. He was found guilty and executed by hanging in 1962.
The book states Wiesenthal later wrote: "I never bore a grudge against that young Israeli. If anyone needed to be scolded it was me because it was I who took him with me. For weeks I was dejected."
Segev also reveals the extent of the disputes Wiesenthal had with fellow Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel and the founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Rabbi Marvin Hier.
Wiesenthal always maintained that the Holocaust was not a uniquely Jewish experience, since Russians and Gypsies also died at the hands of the Nazis. The book reveals hoe Wiesel accused Wiesenthal of watering-down the true meaning of the Holocaust and dishonouring the 6 million Jews who died.
Wiesenthal also felt bitter about the way Hier ran the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in LA. He felt that Hier constantly overrode his wishes and failed to consult him on anything. Segev cites a letter from Wiesenthal to Hier in 1984, in which he says: "The relationship between the Centre and me is so as if I was dead and the Centre is only using my name...You have no use for me anymore, the only thing you need is my name."
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