Espionage Agency Mossad and Eichmann Drama

Introduction

Espionage has been an inexorable part of statecraft ever sincethe emergence of state as the supreme institution of governance of human societies. The term espionage, in general, applies to both internal intelligence of a state and intelligence pertainingto other countries. The ruler or ruling institutions of the statehave to be well informed of the internal situation of a country, its citizens, the internal rival groups or individual, the dissidents, the supporters of the ruling institution or ruler, the groups or individuals striving to destabilize the state machinery or cliquing against the government;, the various conflicting groups and the inner struggle among them, the designsand movements of criminals of various categories, problems and aspirations of the people belonging to various social categories and professions etc. The quality and efficiency of governance of a state unquestionably depends on the quantity and quality of intelligence on the above mentioned aspects. In fact, without a competent internal espionage network, it is well neigh impossiblefor the government of a country to rule properly. Quality of governance depends a good deal on the quality of internal intelligence. On the other hand the state ought to be well aware of the other countries -- friendly, neutral and enemy countries –interstate rivalry or coalition, the attitude of them towards thecountry concerning, their war efforts, and weaponry, internal situation of the countries and their citizens, their economic conditions etc. All these pertain to external intelligence whichhas two aspects, viz. espionage activities about other countries that include both gathering intelligence about them and destabilizing them in case of the enemy countries and to protect the country from espionage onslaughts of other countries.

Two most important external activities of a state, ever since its emergence, have been to protect itself from foreign invasion and imperialistic invasion of foreign countries and espionage plays a crucial role in facilitating successful external defense

and territorial expansion by captivating other countries. No war,either a defensive or an offensive, could be waged successfully without high quality external intelligence. The intentions of the states have remained almost unchanged even today notwithstanding the global efforts towards avoiding war and conflicts and emergence of world bodies like the UNO, the World Bank, the WTO etc. Imperialism has changed forms in course of time from open to clandestine, indirect economic imperialism instead of direct territorial occupation, and in many cases hot war has changed into cold war without direct use of destructive weapons. So, importance of external intelligence has remained thesame in statecraft in modern days. With the progress of theories pertaining to state and material progress, complexities of inter-state relations have increased in course of time and accordingly,external espionage have become more complex and sophisticated. Keeping pace with the evolution of communication technologies, especially cyber technology, espionage techniques have become more and more subtle and complicated and opportunities to utilizemodern technologies have added new dimensions to modern espionageand counter espionage theories. Spectacular development of arms and ammunition technologies and destructive power of weaponry have enhanced the importance of military intelligence and counterintelligence of each country. Now-a-days, an important aspect of external intelligence pertains to weaponry and war efforts of other countries. With spectacular advance of productive technologies and technological gap among technologically advancedand backward countries, industrial and economic espionage has emerged as a novel aspect of modern external espionage. This pertains to both purely economic and war related technologies. Cyber technology has added new dimensions to modern espionage andcyber espionage (through hacking, Phishing, Trojan horse and other similar devices) is something completely new in the arena of espionage.

In a series of booklets, we are going to have a glimpse at themajor powerful espionage agencies that emerged or have become active since the Second World War and are chiefly engaged in external espionage. This booklet, the first in the series, takes up the most efficient modern espionage agency Mossad of Israel.

The science of espionage has a long history of evolution and probably it originated ever since the emergence of state as the supreme form of governance in clan societies. The science, in course of emergence of larger states achieved high level of development in Egypt, Syria, Persia, China, Greece and India. Bythe 4th century B. C. the science of espionage in India achieved a spectacular level of development which was incorporated in the great ancient Indian text, the Arthsastra of Kautilya composed around 300 B. C. The basic theories of espionage as prescribed byKautilya have changed very little in course of the last two millennia and three hundred years notwithstanding the widespread use of technological devices developed in course of industrial advance, especially, the cyber technology developed in course of the last few decades. As regards effectiveness of espionage methods, the modern espionage agencies are yet to learn a lot from the theories and practice of espionage as prescribed in the Arthasastra.

We are going to discuss about the powerful modern espionage agencies that have been operative since the Second World War. TheGreat War itself made the warring countries dependent considerably on espionage and after the cold war regime beginningfrom the end of the War, espionage science became more and more complicated and sophisticated with the two most militarily powerful countries, viz. USA and USSR, struggling to dominate theworld with arrowheads of respectively the espionage agencies CIA and KGB. External espionage in recent times is more and more concerned with intelligence regarding strategic development, weaponry, industrial technologies and social and economic conditions of other countries. Most of the countries now-a- dayshave one or more agencies for external intelligence. Of these hundreds of agencies only a few are mention worthy in terms of size, coverage, efficiency and independence of activities. These large espionage agencies with global significance may be classified into three major categories: I. Very powerful, II. Medium and III. Others.

Category-I1. Mossad of Israel, 2. KGB of erstwhile USSR, 3. CIA of USA,

4. ISI of Pakistan, 5. MSS of China, 6. R & AW of India and 7. MI-6 of U. K.

Category-II1. Erstwhile SDECE of France, 2. DGSE of France, 3. FSB of

Russia, 4. BND of Germany, and 5. ASIS of AustraliaCategory-III1. KhAD of Afghanistan, 2. DGFI of Bangladesh, 3. Sigurimi of

AlbaniaIn terms of Kautilya’s efficiency standards, of the major

intelligence agencies, only Mossad may claim near perfection and the rest may be ranked as, 2. 3. ISI, 4. CIA, 5. MSS, 6. R&AW, 7.MI-6.

Now let us take up the most efficient espionage agency of the post Second World War era, viz. Mossad of Israel and go into its basic motto, modus operandi and level of efficiency in terms of successes and failures to achieve its cherished objectives.

Mossad

[Mossad actually means Institute and we would use for short Mossad to indicate, “Ha Mossad le Modi” meaning Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations; to be distinguished from Mossad Aliyah Bet, the agency for illegal immigration of Jews Palestine prior to the formation of the state of Israel.]

Of the largest intelligence agencies of the modern era, Mossadof Israel in Kautilya’s standards is unquestionably the most efficient one although in size and global coverage, CIA, ISI and KGB are much larger than Mossad. Since its inception in 1949, Mossad became the principal intelligence agency of Israel, especially as regards external espionage. The other two agencies of Israel are Shin Bet (internal Security) and AMAN (Military Intelligence).

The Mossad was created under the office of the Prime Minister of Israel on December 13, 1949 and its director reports directly to the Prime Minister.

The declared motto of the agency was originally, “be-tachbūlōttá asch lekhāmilchāmāh” (from TaNaKh, the Judaic Bible) which means “for by wise guidance you can wage your war”. Later on, themotto was changed to “be-éyn tachbūlōt yippol ‘ām; ū-teshū āh be-rov yō’ ets” (TaNaKh) which means “where there is no guidance, a nation falls, but in an abundance of councilors there is safety.”

Basic Objectives

The three basic objectives of Mossad are:i) to protect the interests of the Jewish Diaspora

ii) to protect the state of Israeliii) to take revenge against the still alive Nazis who had

been involved in the Jew-holocaust program of HitlerMossad has always strictly adhered to these three basic

objectives and all its espionage have been concerned with these basic objectives. In this regards, it is the sole agency among the Great Four (Mossad, KGB, ISI & CIA) which fulfils the ethicalnorms of Arthasastra espionage science.

To dwell on the question of protecting the Jewish Diaspora, weare to get back to the pre-historic era and episodes of the Jewish TaNaKh. Hatred against and persecution of the Jews have been one of the most shameful features of human history and it dates back to the episode of Moses in TaNaKh (popularly known as the Jewish Bible which is the source of both Old Testament of theChristians and Quran of the Muslims). Later on there are various scriptural and historical evidences of torture of the Jews.

History of Torture of the Jews1. In 586 B.C. The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II conquered

Judah and exiled most of the Jews to Babylon. Although, many Jewswere killed, the major motto of Nebuchadnezzar was driving out ofthe Jews from the two Jewish states, viz. Israel and Judah.

In 538 B.C. Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon and the Jews could resettle in the two Jewish states.

2. Widespread genocide of the Jews for the first time took place around 136 A. D. after the Roman Emperor Hadrian had crushed Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire. Many Jews of Israel and Judah were killed and the others fled from Canaan (modern Palestine) and spread all over the world.

3. The next major genocide of the Jews took place during the first Crusade since 1099. The Christian Crusaders advancing into the Arab countries undertook widespread killing of Jews residing in Arab countries until Ayyubid Sultan Saladin had repulsed the crusaders in 1187.

4. Widespread persecution and killing of the Jews in the European Christian countries followed this defeat of the Crusaders – it started in France in 1290 and in England in 1306 and after the re-conquest of Spain and Portugal by the Christians, during 1490s, all the Jews in these countries were killed or driven out. Those who could escape alive took shelter in Islamic countries of the Middle East and North Africa, and some of them to East European Slav countries.

5. In Italy, Jews were forced to live in ghettos with sub-human conditions.

6. Since then there had been occasional pogroms (persecution and killing of Jews) in Russia and other Slav countries in Eastern Europe and many Jews from these countries fled to USA andLatin American countries.

7. At the last stage of the War Communism of the Bolsheviks, CHEKA of Lenin undertook to kill the Jews along with Cossack and other minor tribes and more than hundred thousand Russian and Ukrainian Jews were killed by CHEKA around 1921-22.

8. Anti-Semitism and killing of Jews in Poland and Hungary resulted in widespread exodus of Jews from these countries between 1924 and 1929.

9. The anti-Jewish trend achieved the most horrible level during Nazi Germany when Adolf Hitler declared the Jews along with Slavs and some other races as sub-humans who ought to be completely eliminated from the face of the earth. This heinous task was entrusted to Himmler, the Nazi leader closest to Hitler.Himmler with the assistance of Heydrich and Eichmann could accomplish this task most successfully by killing around six million Jews by fire squads and in the gas chambers of the concentration camps of Auschwitz in Poland, prior to and during the World War-II. In 1941, after pro-Axis coup in Iraq, Nazis massacred the Jews residing there.

Very few Jews managed to escape Europe between 1939 and 1945. Those caught by the British were mostly sent to Mauritius.

The full account of the Holocaust of the Jews by the Nazis came to light only after the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, and it sent a shockwave all over the world. Most of the Nazi criminals committing this heinous crime against humanity could beapprehended and tried and executed by the allied power in

Nuremberg of Germany. Himmler, however, could commit suicide chewing Potassium Cyanide pill in custody before facing the trial. Hitler had disappeared mysteriously and rest of his life in shrouded in mystery. Eichmann could escape from US custody andmigrate to Argentina.

Thereafter, open anti-Jew attitude in the western countries subsided considerably but it still simmered secretly and the neo-Nazis, kept the hatred and genocidal desires alive.

The Jews who could survive in central Europe after the genocide, were displaced persons (refugees).An Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, formed to examine the Palestine issue, surveyed the ambitions of the refugee Jews and found that over 95% of them wanted to migrate to Palestine.

10. After the Second World War, under the Kielce Jew-HolocaustProgram of 1946, there were widespread killing of Nazi-holocaust survivors escaping Europe towards Palestine.

11. In 1967, after defeat of the combined Arab forces at the hands of Israel, Soviet anti-Semitism revived resulting in massacre of the Russian Jews and many Russian Jews attempted to escape to Israel.

A completely different picture is to be observed in the major Asian countries like China, the Hindustan sub-continent and Japan. The Jews have always received humanitarian treatment in these countries. During the Second World War, many Jews had takenshelter in Japan to escape torture, especially in USSR and many Christian and Islamic countries. The Japanese government gave them shelter in the Shanghai ghetto in the occupied China. The local Chinese people, although very poor, always expressed friendly and sympathetic attitude to the sheltered Jews. When Hitler requested Japan to send the Jews to Germany, the Japanese authorities could sense the intensions of Hitler and declined therequest although Japan was a war-ally of Germany.

In the Middle East, the hatred and Zehad of the Arab states and Secret Islamic organizations like the Fatah, PLO etc. is mainly against the state of Israel, not against the Jews or Judaism. In fact, till the end of the 19th century when Zionism started gaining acceptance among the Jewish population, Arab States were safe havens for the Jews escaping from torture in Western Christian countries. Even today the campaign of the

extremist Islamic organizations like Hezbollah or Hamas is in essence against the state of Israel which is like a thorn in the flesh of the Arabs, resulting in eviction and extreme sufferings of millions of Arabs.

Although most of the Jews scattered to countries in all the continents migrated to Israel after creation of the new state of the Jews, many have still remained in several countries and are confronted with tortures and social isolation in many countries. So, one of the major objectives of the Mossad is to enable these Jewish Diaspora to migrate to Israel by legal or illegal means ifpossible and otherwise, Mossad undertakes to help them in variousways (like the Mossad Aliyah Bet that undertook this task since the end of the First World to the creation of the state of Israel).

The second major objective of Mossad is to protect the State of Israel.

The creation of the sovereign Jewish state of Israel on May 14, 1948, right after the expiry of the British Mandate over Palestine has been like a thorn in the flesh of the Arab states and Arab population in and around Palestine. Since the upsurge ofAliyah (literally means ascent) or widespread immigration of Jewsinto Palestine till the creation of Israel, around a million Arabs of Palestine and the adjacent regions have been displaced from their homelands and living as refugees in sub-human conditions in surrounding Arab countries.

This has led to continuous conflict between Israel and surrounding Arab states like Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and also other Islamic countries like Iran.

The enmity increased during the late 1950s and early 1960s as a consequence of Israel’s active participation in Anglo-French war to occupy Suez Canal. The enmity culminated in the six day Arab-Israel War of 1967 in which Israel single-handedly thrashed all the invading Arab states like Egypt, Syria and Jordan and extended the her geographical area by occupying the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, the formerly Jordanian-controlled West Bank of the Jordan River and East Jerusalem.

Thereafter the Arab states have eschewed the desire to annihilate the state of Israel, but conflicts and minor wars have

continued notwithstanding various international agreements. The KGB of the erstwhile USSR played an active role in keeping alive the Arab-Israel hot conflict as it enormously benefited her arms and weapons industries which were selling arms and weapons to thefighting Arab countries at prices far above the international market rates. The conflict also gave an opportunity for the KGB to have its grip over the oil rich Arab countries in the name of providing military advice and assistance.

The Arab states have given up the hope of destroying the stateof Israel but secret terrorist organization like the PLO, Fatah, Hamas and Hezbollah still have the sole motto to destroy Israel.

Considering all these hazards, one of the major activities of Mossad is to prevent all open and covert threats to Israel from the surrounding Arab states, Islamic terrorist organizations, theextremist communist groups, the neo-Nazis collaborating with the Islamic terrorists and the communists.

Many erstwhile Nazis associated with Hitler’s Jew Holocaust Campaign, could escape the Nuremberg trial and Mossad undertook to detect them and punish them by legal or illegal means. Many such criminals, although very old, are still alive and Mossad is still engaged in activities pertaining to revenge against them. The most sensational operation of Mossad in this regard was the thriller like abduction of Eichmann from Argentina for trial in Israel. The episode would be described in detail below.

As Israel is to depend a good deal for its economic development, military buildup and international support in its anti-Arab campaign on USA, Britain and other Western countries, Mossad endeavors to assist the espionage agencies of these countries, especially in connection with anti-terrorist campaign.

Now, let us give some detailed account of activities of Mossadin connection with fulfilling the three major objectives.

Protecting the Interests of the Jewish Diaspora1. Mossad had tried to help the Jews in USSR during waves of

anti-Semitism sponsored by the Soviet government during the post-Stalinist era, especially the large number of Refuseniks, i.e. the Jews who were refused permission to emigrate to Israel because of tortures or other reason.

2. Mossad facilitated illegal immigration of Moroccan Jews to Israel in 1956.

3. In 1984 Mossad facilitated evacuation of Jews from famine-ridden regions of Sudan to Israel.

4. Mossad facilitated evacuation of Zimbabwean Jews to Israel.5. Mossad facilitated air and overland evacuations of Bosnian

Jews from war-torn Sarajevo to Israel in 1992 and 1993.Protecting the State of IsraelThis task necessitates stepping up of Israel’s war

capabilities, intelligence on military preparations of the Arab countries and directly or indirectly destroying their war capabilities, and weakening the anti-Israel terrorist organizations by assassinating their leaders.

Mossad has carried on relentless attacks on anti-Israeli Muslim terrorist organizations through arrests and assassinationsof activists of these organizations by secret agents spread across the world, moles penetrating foreign agencies and government and non-government foreign institutions, and with the help of local recruits from among Druze, Christian, and Sunni Muslim communities.

The most publicized of these activities has been the reprisal against PLO activists responsible for massacre of Israeli athletes at 1972 Munich Olympic Games. This includes assassination by Mossad agents of Dr. Mahmoud Hamshari, in his Paris in 1972 and Hussein Al Bashir in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 1973.

Other terrorists killed by Mossad agents include:Ghassan Kanafani of PFLP by a car bomb, in 1972; Mohammad

Boudia, member of the PFLP in Paris in 1973; Zaiad Muchasi of Fatah in Athens in 1973. Wael Zwaiter of Black September in Rome;

Dr Wadie Haddad, of the PFLP in 1978; Zuheir Mohsen, of the PLO in 1979; Ali Hassan Salameh of Black September in1979 in Beirut by a car bomb;

Khalil al-Wazir of Fatah in Tunisia in1988; Salah Khalaf of the PLO in 1991; Atef Bseiso, of the PLO in Paris in 1992; Abbas al-Musawi, secretary general of Hezbollah, in Beirut in 1992; Fathi Shiqaqi. Shiqaq of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Malta in 1995;

Jihad Ahmed Jibril of the PFLP-GC, in Beirut in 2002; Ghaleb Awwali of Hezbollah in Beirut in 2004; Mahmoud al-Majzoub of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Sidon in 2006;

Imad Mughniyah of Hezbollah in Damascus in 2008; Mahmoud al-Mabhouh of Hamas in 2010 at Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and manyothers.

To strengthen Israel’s defense, several illegal operations andpiracies have been undertaken by the Mossad. Most noteworthy among them are stealing of a Russian MIG-21 war aircraft and planof French Mirage aircraft prior to Arab-Israel war of 1967 and abduction of the German freighter "Scheersberg A" carrying huge amount of nuclear materials under the “Operation Plumbat” of the Mossad.

Moreover Mossad has been involved in widespread industrial espionage, especially pertaining to war-industries, in Germany, USA and other technologically advanced countries. During the computer age Mossad along with the Chinese espionage agency MSS, has posed serious menace of cyber-espionage to the industrially advanced countries. Widespread use of moles have also been a method of espionage of Mossad to steal classified defense relatedintelligence. The case of Jonathan Pollard in this regard has been described in detail in my e-book “Stories of Spies”.

Destruction of war machinery of Arab countries is a part of activities of Mossad pertaining to defense of Israel. This is accomplished by means of bombing defense installations and war-industries in Arab and other Islamic enemy countries like Iran and assassination or intimidation of scientists and engineers involved in defense projects, especially nuclear buildups in enemy countries. The successes achieved by Mossad in this task include:

1. Assassination of Yehia El-Mashad, the head of the Iraq nuclear weapons program, in 1980

2. An explosion engineered by Mossad agents destroyed 60 percent of components being built in Toulouse for an Iraqi reactor in 1979, and the reactor itself was subsequently destroyed by an Israeli air strike in 1981

3. Killing of Gerald Bull, the Canadian engineer involved in Iraq’s weapons industries in 1990

4. Killing and intimidation of German rocket scientists involved in Missile industries of Egypt (Operation Democles)

5. In 2004, Syrian and Iranian nuclear scientists in a joint nuclear project were assassinated by Mossad agents

6. Killing of Muhammad Suleiman, head of Syria's nuclear program, in 2008

7. Killing of General Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ missile program and 17 other scientists and engineers involved in Iran’s long-range missile program by a blast at the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's Imam Ali military base in 2010

8. Killing of Iranian nuclear scientists like Masoud Alimohammadi, Ardeshir Hosseinpour, Majid Shahriari, Darioush Rezaeinejad, Fereydoon Abbasi and Meir Dagan

9. Iranian agents visiting South Africa to procure advanced weapons were intimidated out of the country by Mossad agents

Intelligence provided by Mossad assisted Israel immensely in all the wars against the Arab countries:

1. Intelligence for Cutting of communications between Port Said and Cairo during Suez War in 1956

2. Intelligence on the Egyptian Air Force for Operation Focus,the opening air strike of Egypt during the Six-Day War of 1967

3. Intelligence assistance in the Commando Assault on Green Island, Egypt during the Six-Day War of 1967 (Operation Bulmus 6)

4. Mossad obtained highly sensitive information about Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor through an Iraqi nuclear scientist operating as a Mossad mole between 1978 and 1981 (Operation Sphinx)

5. Most spectacular success was achieved by the Mossad agent Eli Cohen who could infiltrate the highest echelons of the Syriangovernment, was a close friend of the Syrian President, and was considered for the post of Minister of Defense of Syria. Israel could defeat Syria and capture the Golan Heights very easily onlybecause of the enormous intelligence provided by Cohen (for detail, see my book “Stories of Spies)

Reprisal against the NazisMossad played an active role in killing and arresting neo-

Nazis and foiling their anti-Israel plots. It also could successfully exterminate many ex-Nazis who could escape Nurembergtrial:

1. Mossad assassinated Herberts Cukurs, the Latvian Nazi collaborator of Hitler’s Holocaust Jew Mission, in 1965

2. Many ex-Nazis, still alive, like Alan Brunner, were killed by letter-bombs sent by Mossad (Operation Wrath of God Campaign)

3. EichmannThe most dramatic was the abduction of Eichmann from Argentina

to Israel for his trial for crime against humanity in Israeli court of Law during 1961 and execution in 1962 Eichmann’s crime against the Jews and for that matter, against humanity is associated with Jew Holocaust Mission of Adolf Hitler. So before going into the detail of Mossad-Eichmann story let us have a glance at the Holocaust Mission of Hitler and his Nazi Party.

Nazi Holocaust

The genocide of the Jews in Nazi Germany and all German occupied territories of Europe during the Second World War is known as Holocaust (destruction) or Shoa which was a state sponsored systematic and well planned extermination of the Jews by various methods of which the most notorious were the Gas-Chambers where thousands of Jews could be killed at a time. The hatred against Jews in Germany was not an invention of Adolf Hitler. The anti-human horrible movement had its origin during the second half of the 19th century.

Racial Hatred against the Jews in Nazi GermanyThe concept of the genocide of the Jews as a race may be

traced back to the Völkisch movement in Germany (and also in German speaking Austria) since the middle of the 19th century. Bythis time, anti-Semitism in most of the European Christian countries had subsided considerably and Jews were being increasingly accepted in the mainstream of the society. In Germany and Austria, however, the malady was reborn in a new formof hatred of Jews as a race rather than a religion unlike the hitherto existing Christian anti-Semitism.

Houston S. Chamberlain and Paul de Lagarde in Germany put forward a pseudo-scientific theory that the Jews as a race is striving to subjugate the Aryan Race, i.e. the Nordic or Germanicrace. The theory called for a relentless war of attrition againstthe Jewish race. The Völkisch concept was widely accepted in Germany and Austria-Hungary. In fact, the root of this movement lies in the jealousy of the Germans for the supremacy of the Jews

in these countries in all intellectual spheres, finance, banking and business. The movement got a further momentum after the formation of the Nazi party of Hitler in 1920. In his book ‘Mein Kampf’ Hitler placed the sole responsibility of the post-war miseries of the Germans on the Jews. Along with the Jews Hitler branded the Slavs, Romanis and other non-Aryan races as despicable ‘sub-humans’ to be driven out of the Germany and all other Aryan states.

As soon as the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, persecution of the Jews became a state sponsored scheme – state-sponsored attack on the Jews increased considerably, there was a call for boycott by Germans of all Jewish business, inter-marriage between Jews and Germans was prohibited, Jews were stripped of German citizenship, and they were deprived of all civil rights. The Great Jewish intellectuals, scientists and professionals started fleeing from Germany and taking shelter in USA, U.K., France and other European countries. Among the intellectuals were Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, the philosopher Walter Benjamin, Novelist Leon Feuchtwanger, and the musicians Bruno Walter and Otto Klemperer.

Prior to the Second World War the Nazi government decided to deport and resettle the Jews to various colonies and diplomatic efforts were made with U. K. and France to get the expelled Jews resettled in French and British colonies in Abyssinia, Rhodesia, Australia and Madagascar. Britain and France, however, declined the proposal. With the onset of the war the view completely changed and the final Nazi solution of the Jewish question was toexterminate the Jews from the face of the earth by mass killing. The SS undertook the task under the commands of Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich.

Jews had to be concentrated in ghettos in Germany and countries occupied by Germany, sent to labor camps and to be killed through inhuman labor in armament industries. Those who would remain still alive but incapable of working or those who were too weak to work to start with, should be shot.

Initially massacre of Jews was through shooting squads and finally gas chambers were invented for mass killing of Jews by poison gases.

Widespread killing of Jews by shooting squads took place in all German occupied countries of Europe before invention of gas chambers. However, of the six million Jews exterminated by the SS, more than fifty percent were through gas chambers in occupiedPoland. Killing of largest number of Jews (about one million) by the shooting squads took place in German occupied territories of USSR.

Nazi Germany invaded USSR in 1941 and by 1942 Germany occupiedSoviet territories of Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Moldova and most Russian territories west of the line Leningrad-Moscow-Rostov. In these areas there were about three million Jews. The task groups (einsatzgruppen) of the SS (Schutzstaffel, the paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party) under the command of Heydrich undertook to kill these Jews through the shooting squads. The killings started as soon as Germany occupied Ukraine in 1941.

The SS could successfully raise anti-Jew sentiment of local population of the occupied Soviet territories and they actively assisted the German SS shooters as though participating in festivals.

The German Army undertook to assemble all the Jews of a locality to be killed by SS and local people. The festive massacres in most of the places were like this.

A large number of Jews were forced by army assemble at a placeand they were told to wait for being carried to some place of work. They were assured by the SS men that no harm would be done to them and good jobs were waiting for them. At first, it was notpossible for them to guess about their fate. Soon all of them in groups of ten were forced to move through a corridor of soldiers to a place where they had to get completely undressed and leave their luggage. They were told that their bodies would be disinfected before transporting them to the work place. To raise confidence in them, they were told to keep each one’s belongings to a specific place so that he could recover them after returningfrom delousing.

Thereafter they were led in groups of ten into a large pit or ravine (the standard size was 150x30 meters and 15 meters deep inKiev). As soon as the group reached the bottom of the pit they were seized and forced to lie down, and then shot by marksmen.

Layers after layers of dead bodies were accumulated over one another.

Himmler himself came to observe one such shooting game. Karl Wolff describes the incident in his diary as "Himmler's face was green. He took out his handkerchief and wiped his cheek where a piece of brain had squirted up onto it. Then he vomited." After recovering his composure, he lectured the SS men on the need to follow the "highest moral law of the Party" in carrying out theirnoble tasks of annihilating the Jews.

In fact, in human history there is no parallel of torture and mass killing of Jews by the Nazis in cool brain and well planned way.

Relentless research and experiments were carried on by Nazi scientists and physicians to torture and kill the Jews in more novel and horrible manner. Nazi doctors started conducting experiments with Jews (adults and children alike) treating them as animals – reaction to the administration of various poisons and germs of fatal diseases and cutting off of limbs. They rejoiced observing deformed Jews after surgical operations. Scientists endeavored to discover genetic devices to mute genes of the Jews so as to produce horrible animals.

Before invention of the final method of killing in gas chambers, many Jews died of hard labor, starvation, physical torture, untreated disease and medical experiments.

Researches were conducted to discover poisons to kill larger number of Jews at a short span of time. Before the final method of gas chambers were invented, the method devised was to pack up100 Jews in tight gas vans and kill them by administering poison gases released from gas cylinders attached to the vans. A furtherimprovement to kill larger numbers at a time was the invention ofthe gas chambers. More than 15,000 gas chambers were constructed to this end. Most of these gas chambers were located at three extermination camps known as Auschwitz I, II and III in occupied Poland.

Gas Chambers

Most of mass killing in the gas chambers of Auschwitz were done during 1940-44. Jews from Germany and all occupied German

territories were transported to the camps by trains and German Railway gave priority to transporting Jews.

While trainloads of Jews were carried to the camps many died on the way. In the extermination camps doctors isolated the Jews still capable of hard work (only a small percentage) and the restwere sent to the gas chambers. The majority of the Jews who were transported by train were taken directly from the railway platforms to a reception area and they were told that that they would have to bathe to be cleaned and after bath they would be served hot coffee and sumptuous meal. They had to undress and their garments and all belongings were seized by the SS men to beused for funding the war. To make them assured of good intentionsof the Nazis each of them was offered a small piece of soap and told to remember their belongings so that they could get back theright ones after bath. Then they were forced into gas chambers inbatches ranging from 200 to 800 depending on the capacity of the chambers. When a chamber was full, it was closed and through the vents pellets of Zyklon-B (discovered by Nazi chemists) were dropped into the chamber. The chemical soon released Hydrogen Cyanide and all inmates of the chamber were killed in 20 minutes.Various loud sounds were made outside to suppress screaming of the dying Jews but still the sounds could be heard by waiting Jews and make them realize their inescapable fate.

Dead bodies were removed from each chamber and the teeth of each victim was closely examined for gold fillings which were removed (if found) along with their hair. Thereafter the chambers were cleaned and walls whitewashed to make them ready for the next killing.

The dead bodies were first buried in deep pits but later on apprehending detection by the advancing Soviet Red Army and the allied forces corpses were dug up and burned.

The transport to gas chambers and mass killings continued evenduring set back of the German forces in the war. With continued air strikes by allied forces devastating German war industries and military installations and advancement of the Soviet Red Army, Himmler ultimately ordered dismantling of the gas chambers to hide the evidence of the grave crime from the notice of the allied forces.

After dismantling of the chambers, the Jews still alive were forced to march endlessly in snow without foods, shelter and restand most of them (around 250,000) died in course of the long marches out of exhaustion or being shot by SS men before the Red Army could advance into East Europe and discover the horrible genocide camps.

The total number of Jews killed in concentration camps and by shooting squads estimated to be around six million. This is two thirds of the pre-war European Jewish population of about 9 million. However, the rest of the Jews (about 2 million) in non-European countries could escape the Nazi genocide program.

Besides the Jews others killed in gas chambers or by shooting squad were:

Soviet prisoners of war –3 million; Ethnic Poles - 2 million; Romani – 1.5 million; Disabled – 250 thousand; Freemasons – 250 thousand; Slovenes –25 thousand; Homosexuals –15 thousand Jehovah's Witnesses –5,000; Total (including the Jews) = 14 million 25 thousand. According to the USSR this is an under estimate and including the local Soviet citizens killed by the invading German /army, the total killings may be around 25 or 26 million. The Soviet figures may as well be an exaggeration, but there is no doubt that total killing by the Nazis of innocent people was no less than 20 million. This surpasses all past of future (up to the present) of mass killings.

Allied Powers and the Gas Chambers

The news of gas chambers reached to the allied powers as earlyas 1940. Witold Pilecki, the Polish Army Captain who had volunteered (with the purpose of espionage) himself to the death camps could continuously smuggle out reports of gas chambers since 1940. His reports along with those leaked through underground media of the prisoners reached the Allies, and after his escape in April 27, 1943, Pilecki himself reported to the Nazis of the gas chamber massacres. But all these were dismissed as exaggerated stories. They however, came to senses only when reports of Rudolf Verba and Alfred Witzler came to light after their escape from death camps on April 7, 1944. The BBC immediately broadcast the report and the New York Times published

the full report of the horror of the death camps. The Allied powers prompted to forbid the Hungarian government to stop transporting Jews to Poland. But effective stoppage of mass murders was possible only after the advance of the Red Army into Poland.

Eichmann

Otto Adolf Eichmann was born on 19th March, 1906. He had deep hatred against the Jews and this ultimately qualified him for theposition of a Nazi SS Lieutenant Colonel in the specific positionof “Transportation Officer Administrator” in German occupied eastern Europe for extermination of Jews in the concentration camps. He was in charge of all the trains carrying Jews to the concentration camps of Auschwitz. Even after Himmler, apprehending Red Army’s advance, called a halt in November, 1944 to extermination of Jews in gas chambers, Eichmann went on sending Hungarian Jews to the death camps disregarding Himmler’s orders, so deep was his hatred for the Jews. The next month when the Red Army laid seize on Budapest, Eichmann escaped from Budapest and was captured by the U. S. Army. However, he could conceal his true identity under the false name of Otto Eckmann, alow level SS activist. In 1946, he managed to escape from U. S. custody and remained in hiding in rural areas for a few years.

In 1950, he came out of hiding and went to Italy posing himself as a refugee named ‘Ricardo Klement’ and could ultimatelymanage to procure probably with the help of ODESSA, (Organisationder Ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen), i.e. the Organization of Former Members of the SS") a Red Cross Humanitarian passport and Argentine visa in the name of Ricardo Klement, technician (In May, 2007, a researcher on Eichmann had discovered the passport).

With the passport and visa Eichmann escaped to Argentina in 1950, and brought his family there two years later. For the next few years till his capture by the Mossad, he worked as mechanic in various companies. Just before his capture he was working in the Mercedes-Benz factory at San Fernando, the industrial complexin the northern part of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina and residing at Garibaldi Street.

Although the U. S. government and the CIA had given up huntingEichmann, Israel and Mossad went on making frantic efforts to trace out the third criminal of Jew carnage after Hitler and Himmler. As early as 1954, Mossad got tips from Simon Wiesenthal,an escaped victim of Nazi death camp, that Eichmann was in hidingin Argentina under a false name, but until 1959 when a miraculouscoincidence came as a gift from heaven to them, they failed to make any progress in tracing out Eichmann.

Sylvia’s Boyfriend

Sylvia Hermann was the daughter of Lothar Hermann, a German half-Jew who had been arrested by the Nazis for involvement in underground communist activities, but could escape from Nazi custody and flee to Argentina in 1938. Sylvia fell in love with an Argentine German boy named Klaus Eichmann. The surname was notpalatable to her and she asked her lover why he had assumed a surname different from his father. Klaus was much infatuated in his beautiful lover and trusted her. So he did not hesitate to disclose to her that his father’s true name was Adolf Eichmann who had assumed a false name because of his involvement in Nazi exploits during the Second World War. (Eichmann made the grave mistake of keeping the surnames of his wife and son unchanged).

In a moment, overwhelming shock and frustration took possession of Sylvia and love turned into hatred. She knew from her very childhood of the unpardonable crime of Eichmann against the Jews. With utmost efforts she kept her calm and her patriotism got the better of her emotion and frustration. She informed the matter to her father who passed it on to Fritz Bauer, an attorney and Mossad informer and he did not lose a moment to intimate the matter to the Mossad agent in Buenos Aires, S. C. Abarbanel.

Soon Mossad sent a surveillance team to Buenos Aires and afterthorough investigations they confirmed Mossad high command that Ricardo Klement was truly Eichmann and gave them the details of his whereabouts.

Abduction of Eichmann from Argentina would call for violation of Sovereignty of another country and international law. The government of Israel, however, gave Mossad green signal about

undertaking the risky operation and in collaboration with Shin Bet, a joint operation program was chalked out. The Mossad agent Yitzhak Elron was entrusted with the task of shadowing Eichmann and gather detailed about his daily routine and movements.

Mossad-Eichmann Drama – Operation Garibaldi

The Action Squad of Mossad arrived at Buenos Aires in April, 1960. According to Elron’s report, on every weekday, Eichmann used to return from office in bus at a specific time and walked home through a field which was to some distance from habitations.This place was considered ideal for Mossad for abduction of Eichmann. After a few days query about the locality and movementsof local people, they selected 11th May, 1960 as the safe date for the operation.

Unfortunately on that day, Eichmann was not in the bus at the expected time. Considering delay for some reason, the Mossad men waited and to avoid suspicion they pretended to fix a broken downvehicle. The matter became a bit complicated as sympathetic passersby volunteered to assist them. Mossad agents thanked them for the offer and told them that it was a simple matter that theycould manage on their own and the passersby left.

Almost after an hour Eichmann was found to get down from the bus. Thereafter it was simply a thriller episode. It is not unlikely that post-sixties thriller styles have been influenced by this and other real life operations by Mossad.

Alighting from bus Eichmann started strolling leisurely towards residence. He was a bit unmindful and as soon as he reached the desolate field someone whispered in Spanish to his year, “un momento senor’ (just a moment Mr.). He looked up and discovered the hefty man who had addressed him. In panic he started running, but his sight was blinded by powerful search lights and strong hands pushed him down on the ground, and one ofthem, pushing a pistol barrel to his ear, said in harsh voice in German ‘make any noise and you are dead’. Eichmann realized thathe had been at the hands of the Mossad men. He was carried into avehicle and pushed down on the floor so that no one could see himfrom outside, and pistol barrels remained pressed on his neck andears.

The Mossad men used various tricks to escape detection in the police check posts on the way.

The vehicle carried Eichmann to Tira, a safe Mossad undercoveroffice in Buenos Aires. Thereafter his identity was thoroughly checked up for over a week and being confirmed that they had not abducted the wrong person, Mossad went on to the next step of theoperation. They had already arranged a chartered flight of El AL Airlines of Israel for transporting Eichmann to Israel. The planehad brought an Israeli delegate to attend the ceremony for 150th Anniversary of Argentina’s Independence from Spanish Rule. With prior deal with the air company, Mossad could replace the original crew by its own agents and Eichmann too was dressed as an air crew after being heavily drugged by the doctor of the Mossad Squad. Thereafter, Mossad could successfully negotiate with the Buenos Aires airport authorities for permission of the desired chartered flight. Mossad had several back up plans in case they were detected by Argentine police or secret agencies.

But nothing happened and the plane took off without any hazard, flew first to Dakar, the capital of Senegal and thereafter left Dakar and reached Israel on May 21, 1960.

The incident of abduction came to light very soon and Tacuara Nationalist Organization went into violence against the Jews withwidespread tortures and killings of Jews and setting fire to and bombing Jewish dwellings and business establishments in Buenos Aires and other cities of Argentina. When Argentine President Arturo Frondizi complained of violation of Argentina’s sovereignty to the Israeli Prime Minister Ben Gurion, the later flatly denied any official involvement of Israeli government and Mossad in the incident and explained that abduction of Eichmann was undertaken by some voluntary Zionist organization who had handed over Eichmann to Israeli authorities. But while the Israeli Knesset approved of the operation with standing ovation, the Israeli government did not hesitate to disclose the fact.

Eichmann was tried in Jerusalem District Court from April 11 to August 14, 1961. On December 15, 1961, the court gave its verdict punishing Eichmann with death sentence.

As soon as the trial began, the West German government was overwhelmingly embarrassed. Many Nazi associates of Eichmann who could evade Nuremberg trial were then holding various positions

in West German government. It was apprehended that their names would come to the open in course of the trial of Eichmann. But noother name except Eichmann’s came up in course of the trial as through secret deals between governments of West Germany and Israel, the matter was settled for a Military Aid amounting to 240 million D M (Deutsch Mark) to Israel from West Germany.

Eichmann was hanged at a Israeli prison at Ramby just before midnight on May 31, 1962.

The trial and execution of Eichmann raised some controversies all over the world on legal and technical grounds. The first question was whether Israel had any legal right to try Eichmann for the crime he had committed long before the formation of the state of Israel. From conventional legal standpoint the state ofIsrael had no locus standi to try and punish Eichmann. But laws of humanity and morality or in religious terms ‘laws of god’ stand above the man made laws with too many limitations and loopholes to bring about real justice. So the apparently controversial execution of Eichmann got worldwide approbation andmoral support from almost all quarters.

The second question was related to the violation of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Argentina. This was a really serious charge against Israel. But because of the sensitivity of the issue, and gravity of Eichmann’s crimes, the UN General Assembly mildly admonished Israel cautioning her not to repeat the mischief in future and requesting her to settle thematter through direct negotiations with the Argentine government.The Argentine government, however, did not make much uproar over the matter, and withdrew the complaint through financial deals with Israel.

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The Author

The author of this booklet is a Ph.D. in economics and professionally an economist but his passion for knowledge compelshim at times to eschew the arena of economics and venture into other fields of knowledge; philosophy, current politics, espionage and religion are important among them. Dr. Basu may be contacted at rlbasu@rediffmail.com.