The West German predecessor agency to the BND, the present-day
German intelligence service, knew the postwar whereabouts
of Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann, one of the main architects
of the Holocaust, eight years before the Israelis found
him in Argentina. A report today by the German daily Bild
refers to documents which a German court has ordered the
BND to make public. The Associated Press reports that the
Simon Wiesenthal Center is now asking for the release of
all of the German intelligence services' archival information
about the Nazis.
After the war, Eichmann was believed to have fled to either Egypt or Syria. By
1952, the German secret service knew he was in hiding in
South America. Bild reports an index card in the archival
materials released by the BND states the following: "Standartenführer Eichmann is not in Egypt, but is living under the false name
of Clemens in Argentina. E.'s address is known to the chief
editor of the German-language newspaper Der Weg in Argentina."
At the time the West German secret
service took no action against Eichmann, even though he was
one of the main wartime organizers of the "Final Solution" through which the Nazis murdered six million Jews. Bild reports the service
did not deliver information about him to US agents until
1958. It was later confirmed that Eichmann had been hiding
out in Buenos Aires since 1950 under the name of Ricardo
Klement. He had also secretly transported his family there
from Austria.
"This index card is a real
sensation. Until now it was not known that the West German
secret services knew of Eichmann's hiding place eight years
before he was arrested," said Bettina Stangneth, an historian who is writing a new book on Eichmann.
The daily Die Welt, however, is refuting
the implication that the West German authorities covered
up Eichmann's whereabouts and has reported that no one, not
even Israel, was interested in his capture at the start of
the 1950s. The paper refers to statements made at the time
by Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal: "The Israelis have no interest in Eichmann, they must concentrate on their fight
for survival against the Arabs. Even the Americans have no
interest in Eichmann any more, they must concentrate on the
Cold War against the Soviet Union." The daily claims Wiesenthal had information about Eichmann's stay in Argentina
as early as 1953. The Israelis later tracked Eichmann down
there, abducted him and brought him to Israel; two years
later, after standing trial, he was executed.
Today the Simon Wiesenthal Center
called on the BND to release all of its files on Nazi war
criminals. "The intelligence service could make a significant contribution to the historical
research into that time," AP reports Efraim Zuroff, a representative of the Center, as saying. In Zuroff's
view, Germany is really doing its best to bring Nazi criminals
to trial today, but these latest findings about Eichmann
are proof of the "total indifference of the German authorities of that time" (the 1950s) toward the issue.
Bild acquired the secret documents
from the BND on the basis of a complaint filed with the Federal
Administrative Court in Leipzig. The German intelligence
services had previously refused to release them, claiming
it might endanger the work of their informers and complicate
relations with another foreign intelligence service which
provided some of the information. Argentinian journalist
Gabriele Weber also filed a complaint regarding the materials
with the German courts. Last April the Leipzig court found
in favor of the plaintiffs and ordered the government to
release the files. Bild reports the files include several
thousand pages of documents about Eichmann which were preserved
on microfilm prior to the destruction of most of the originals.
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