He young spy agency chased down the worlds most notorious nazi. Good evening everybody. Welcome to the National World war two museum. Im the associate for the media and Education Center here at the museum. First and keeping with the tradition i would like to recognize any were front veterans, holocaust survivors, if your president please stand and wave. Its always a pleasure to honor you. This is your museum. Even if there is no one here we should still clap. And also, to take this moment to recognize any veterans or active duty personnel, also stand or wave to be recognized, thanks so much for carrying on the great legacy with the world war ii generation. I would like to welcome all of you to the special evening. Acclaimed, author, neil is here to describe his works on icommon. He also did a webinar with almost 3000 students earlier today as part of our twoweek family Holocaust Education program which has been very well received so far. A fantastic program. Tonights program is part of our most recent special exhibit which i hope many of you were able to see in the last hour or so while you were here. Operation now. This is currently on display here at the hall of democracies, junior exhibition hall. This is presented here, a wonderful coproduction with several of our esteemed partners. The museum of the jewish people in israel. The secret intelligence service, so for those of you if you havent been able to see the exhibit yet its open until january 5th. And we encourage all of you to come and tenth if you havent seen it yet. This exhibit tells the story of the daring capture of one of world war iis most notorious war criminals. He was the head of the two after the war he vanishes, and nobody knows where he is. We will tell us more on how it seem of asian from israel entail Insurance Agency captured him and brought him back to israel where he stood trial for his crimes. In his, work neil bascomb has presented this true story as gripping as it was a spy thriller or any spy novel that you might read. So many of our Staff Members have been raving about it. Students really enjoyed the webinar review, we are really sad to have you. Neil is a award whening New York Times bestselling author. Im focused on true stories of adventure and achievement. The story he tells about ive been captures both. And its one that i think fits very squarely with the museums. Mission its our goal to present lesser known stories like this one from the war, and its particularly meaningful to see that social connections that our visitors are making to the story. Im happy to introduce writer has brought the store to. Life he has one honoring so many minimum and the criminals that didnt get away with atrocities committed during the war. Without further ado, i would like to bring on to the stage author, neil bascomb. Good evening everyone, one of the staff asked if i get nervous speaking. With a audience like this. The truth is theres probably a small part of me that gets nervous, but after those 3000 middle schoolers i think i can handle this crew here tonight. I have written a lot of different books about vast different kinds of subjects. Mutiny in the black sea. Roger breaking the four minute mile. Ive written about the sabotage of the nazi bond program. My most recent book is about the david and goliath kind of story, and people often ask me, how did choose these subjects . I dont quite understand. My wife rather ungenerously says that i picked them based on where i want to travel next. I dont think thats necessarily true. I look for stories about people doing things that we think are impossible. Stories of ordinary people being put in extraordinary situations and coming through. It i ask myself to questions, before i start a. Book the first question is do i have something you to say but the story . The story about adolf ike men and his capture. The story was largely missed. Mid. It was largely involved by people involved in the operation. If you took his word, for it he heard that i commend was in argentina. Everything went swimmingly. Nothing went wrong. It was a perfect operation from start to finish. And that couldnt be further from the case. So gathering together all the various agents, and everyone involved in the operation, collecting our cavil information i was able hopefully to tell the story in a faithful way to whats actually happened. The second question i ask is does the story have some importance . I think of all the books that i have written, this has the most important things to say. Mainly about memory and the importance of justice. Now i came to the story in college actually. I was living in luxembourg. And studying history, there and economics in my junior year, and didnt have much money as most juniors and college to. Not so i walked. Dogs very glamorous job. I walked dogs for extra cash. One of the people who was my client turned out to be a holocaust survivor. She had a little yuppie but who is terrible. But she was a lovely person. She would bring me home for tea and after we got to know each other she told me she was a survivor. She told me she never really spoken but what happened to her during the war. She never felt able to tell her story, until i mint was captured. Until the story came out about the holocaust after. For her give her a sense of permission to tell the story. So i thought leader as it turned to be a fulltime writer this incredible spy story actually has a remarkable impact on history. Thats why i told the story of Adolf Eichmann. ,,,. In order to emigrate, them push them out of germany. By the time 1938 comes, the idea of immigration is forced deportation. He has been charged as soon as germany annexes austria, he sent to austria, he sends a note to a friend. Quote unquote, they are finally in my hands. Theyre finally in my hands. So we have this idea of Adolf Eichmann, i dont know if there are any hanna rink fans over here, who wrote about the trial, sort of argue that Adolf Eichmann was essentially just a cobb in the wheel of this nazi machine, and he didnt necessarily have any demonic vent towards jews or otherwise. That can be further from the case. He was committed to his job absolutely. By 1944, he had become, as he titled himself the master of the jews. The operational master of the execution of the holocaust. Whenever germany invaded a country, he would go in. He would target the jewish population. He would generally start with the other regions, need, cities and then work his way into urban centers. Move the jews into camps and then send the jews to extermination camps. His masterwork he called it was hungry, in 1970, for living in hungry by the time, six months later when he was finished with his work, 450,000 of them have been sent to their deaths of the camps. Thats Adolf Eichmann was. When the war was up and his superiors were saying we need to stop killing the jews. We need to use them as bargaining chips now that the war has gone sour, Adolf Eichmann continued his work. You continued his work to such a level that he had been called by kinder and ordered to be stopped. That was Adolf Eichmann. Remember this. Look. The power of that face, and the determination on it because it will look later in the presentation. When the war was over, Adolf Eichmann escaped. He ran. He went to northern germany and worked their, his name was largely unknown by the allies and in fact during the trials, when the name Adolf Eichmann was presented wrote on the side, Adolf Eichmann. Despite the massive amount of power that he had over the jews, and a relatively low ranking colonel, people didnt know who he was outside of germany largely. It wasnt until the trials of it wasnt entirely clear that his name became something important. So he skips to northern germany. Remains there. And then by 1950, he begins to make his way down through, germany and to austria, into italy, thanks to the help of many members of the Catholic Church heading out in monasteries along the way. Gets himself on any boat to argentina. This is actually the fast port that he used to escape europe, and actually found this in the Argentinian Court system. Almost 50 years after he used it. You notice here the name ricardo. Thats the elites he took on. People often ask me why argentina . Why did he go there . The country was a haven for escaped nazis. Largely because one prone wanted to use them bolster and help his state. One, prone just to give you the idea of who won prone is, he said that the nuremburg trials would force the atrocity of justice thats who he was. He was provided i. D. S, passports, job, money, a whole life when he arrived in argentina. Eventually brought his wife, via, and his three sons to argentina with him and was living free. So lets move on to the people who were actually involved in bringing him to justice. The first person i would like to mention, one of the important ones is this individual here. Simon. Now we all have this idea or many of you may have simon as this important, famous, historic nazi hunter. But imagine someone whos in the in 1945. He was the former architect. He had no police experience. He stumbled out of a concentration camp with less than 100 pounds, he was a big, guy more than ten feet all six feet tall. You had a very keen member of all the guards names, all the various details of the camp, but he was determined to go after these war criminals. One of the chief people on the list was Adolf Eichmann, and he did three important things of the course of 1945 through 48. Those three things were, when he determined that Adolf Eichmann was still alive. Or that he wasnt, more accurately doug. Adolf eichmann and the eichmann family petitioned the government that eichmann had died on the Eastern Front. He proved that that was not the case. The second thing that he did was he collected documents and evidence about what eichmann it did to the jewish people during the war. Evidence that was disappearing in many respects. And the third thing that he did was he discovered a photograph of eichmann. It, off despite only being Lieutenant Colonel believed in his heart that he would be sought after after the war. And so he made it his mission to never be photographed. So that there was no evidence of what he looked like when he was on the run. He made a mistake of having an affair and taking a picture of with one of the vigil seems having an affair with. Simon, and in romeo agent found this woman and found a photograph. But it all comes to not really. 1940, 1950, they were the only two people going after these war criminals, trying to find them, both of them largely gave up by 1950, collected their documents, put it away their proverbial garages, me eichmann was free and nobody was looking for him. 1957. Eichmann is in argentina. Hes working from the dam and then he over the course of time, he drinks a, lot smokes a lot, hes at the german club determining i would happily die in my grief knowing that in the air. He was upright even within the German Community. He works as a rabbit firmer. Starts a laundromat. His sons are there. They are living in a small little house on the outskirts of minus iris. It turns out that sylvia herman, this young lady here on the left. She finds herself dating a young man named Nicholas Eichmann and 90 57. Now again, this eichmann name, though to and friedman, is a need to be sought after the world doesnt know that nearly. So nothing sought a bit. Sylvia is dating eichmann, she invites them over to her house with her mother or father. He was blinded while and person. Escape germany before the war began. Left and began a new life in argentina. Nicholas is having dinner and he doesnt know that soviet is half jewish, and declares a dinner, but he believes its plate that our conversation its too bad that the germans can finish off the jews during the war. My father and my son, and sylvia of course, you can imagine how long that relationship lasted, after, that although nothing was said during dinner. It was quietly taken in that the relationship was over. A year passes. And your passes and sylvia is reading the paper to her father as she did. The german newspaper to her father. They come across this story about this west german prosecutor from the state of has. Doctor brits bower. For its bower is the only individual within the German Justice system thinking about pursuing war criminals so he decides in order to gather momentum in that effort his which published a list of top ten more criminals he was to go after. And on that list is Adolf Eichmann. So sylvia is reading this newspaper report to her father and comes across the name eichmann, and theres a hesitation. Theres a stop. And they began to have this conversation about whether or not it is possible that Nicholas Eichmann is the son of Adolf Eichmann. There are few things that soviet knows. One is that nicholas never invited soviet to his house. Second, nicholas had said that his father is a high ranking officers during the war. Actually just to. Thats what they talked about. So they have a suspicion. So they decide whether they want to do . Theyre going to write a letter to doctor fritz bauer. The letter is this marvelous and you have here. And in that letter, they centrally say, we read your newspaper article. And we believe that Adolf Eichmann maybe living here in when us iris. You can imagine what sylvia and thought after that. That spies would come leaping out of the woodwork and sees him and capture him at the end of the day. But this letter goes all the way to west germany, and he and fritz bauer receives, it and the question is what is he going to do with it. He cant go to anyone in his government. Half of the west German Government largely was made of foreign nazi officials. Heat sides i can choose interpol, but intervals not interested. He can go to the americans with this information and does at one point. The american cia in the archives in d. C. Sent back a letter saying we are not in the business of apprehending war criminals. So fritz bauer says ok no one is going to help me. So he writes a letter back to sylvia and her father. And in that letter he includes the photograph of Adolf Eichmann, he includes details about what he looks like, what he sounds like, describe by many people as you saw in the photograph. This large, wonderful presence. And he says sylvia in the letter, basically, go find him. Go see if you can determine with extra percent accuracy that that is Adolf Eichmann. You will find one of the worst war criminals in history. You this young 18yearold, and her blind father. Whats incredible in the stories that they actually do it. They are now living outside of when its a race, they take a train into the city. And eventually determine where nicholas is living. Sylvia goes as was written, and a pretty little dress, to the door in this neighborhood to this two bedroom, small, rather ramshackle house and knocks on the door. And who answers but ricardo clementa . Adolf eichmann. And you can imagine, so he invites her in. Nicholas isnt there, and theyre having a conversation. He cant determine one way or another this person, youll see in this presentation wet Adolf Eichmann looked like by the time he was captured. They almost look like two different people. So he couldnt she couldnt quite tell one way or another if it was him. She asked him who he was and he said im necklaces uncle, im living here. Thats where the conversation and and then suddenly Nicholas Eichmann comes in. You can imagine your exgirlfriend showing up at your house. Thats bad enough. Even worse is that you know your father is a four criminal, and is living under a alias. But Nicholas Eichmann not being terribly bright grabs sylvia and pushes her around the house and says i will be right back father. I can always tell if the audience is paying attention. Whether they get that were not. Sylvia determines well this is very likely Adolf Eichmann. Again, another letter finds its way across the sea to dr. Power. He determines no have enough information. Im going to do something about. This american wont help me, my country wont help me. No Current Organization will help me. Ill go to the people who should care about these were criminals. I will go to the israelis. So he doesnt actually fly there. You can base this information through back channels, and it reaches this individual here. Its a hero. Visceral was a very powerful individual within the israeli government. He was essentially the same thing as being the head of the cia and fbi simultaneously. Again, a very powerful individual but his job was to protect the state of israel from its neighbors. His job wasnt to pursue more criminals. Look into the past, find justice. So he feels like i cant just soup this under the rug like most of the world has, the world, holocaust i will send a police investigator. In normal police investigator. To argentina to determine if this information is accurate. A from, was very will meeting, he had no experience working overseas and most importantly, didnt speak a lick of spanish. So he sends mr. Huffman under all the way to argentina. Is there for a few weeks. He goes to his house. Does it really spent much time in surveillance. He just goes and looks at the house. He sends a report back to isser harel, quote unquote, theres no way that Adolf Eichmann could live in such a wretched little house. And the investigation is over. Its tabled, shelves, put in a drawer. Isser harel is done, hes done his job, lets move on from it. Well over the course of researching a book, anyone who has researched history, were you cant find a fact. And this fact is, doctor fritz bauer was delivered a second source in 8 59. Just a few months after this. The second source that determined some exact information that sylvia