The House on Garibaldi Street

by Isser Harel

  Our aircraft was parked, as planned, in the Argentine national airline’s maintenance area, which we were able to approach without going through the fenced-in section of the airfield. We intentionally created a constant traffic of people passing through the checkpoint at the Argentine company’s maintenance area. The two aircraft mechanics were ordered to get busy without delay on preparations for take-off, so that the plane would be in flight condition should circumstances compel its departure before the appointed hour.

  Arye was now certain that all the strange happenings since they took off from Lydda were part of a pattern, but he didn’t talk to anyone about it. When he finished servicing the plane, he again asked Adi for permission to visit his relatives in the city. Adi said yes and even gave him money and a car with a driver. However, his relatives were not at home, so Arye left a note asking them to come and see him at the airport hotel. Avivi took advantage of Arye’s early return to treat himself to a tour of the city.

  At Tira, the tension was again rising. In the oppressive atmosphere of the safe house, impatience, disgust, and boredom were all mixed up together. Everyone had read all the books in the languages he understood; each knew all the popular Argentine tunes broadcast over the radio; there had been endless games of chess; and newspapers were read from beginning to end. All were waiting, on edge, in suspense, for the arrival of the liberating plane.

  Shortly before the aircraft was due, Rafi increased the guard and stiffened the security regulations. Any departure from the house for any reason whatsoever was absolutely forbidden, and severe limitations were placed on traffic even inside the house, in case the neighbors should notice too much activity in a house which as far as they knew was occupied by only two persons.

  Several nights Rafi thought there were strangers moving around outside the house. He was no longer apprehensive of a visit from the police, but he had fears about the Nazis and their sympathizers who were probably combing the entire city for Eichmann.

  When the plane arrived, Rafi and Avrum were at the airport. They stood to one side among the waiting crowd, their sharp eyes registering every person who came down the gangway. Three of the new arrivals they knew very well, and they would be meeting them shortly in the city, at a prearranged rendezvous.

  The disembarkation was a little embarrassing for Carmel. Rabbi Efrati was an acquaintance of his. When they met at Lydda, the Rabbi asked Carmel if he was also one of the delegation. Carmel said yes – what else could he say? Now, descending the steps dressed in the uniform of the crew, he met the Rabbi again, despite all his efforts to avoid him. Rabbi Efrati didn’t ask any questions this time; he just looked at him with a meaningful smile, and for a moment Carmel thought he saw the highly respected man of the cloth wink at him. Later, after consulting with his two companions, he decided he needn’t ask the Rabbi to keep quiet: all three were sure the Rabbi would realize that he mustn’t mention the transformation from ‘delegate’ to ‘crew’.

  Carmel, tired from the journey, lay down to sleep as soon as he arrived at his hotel. But he had barely dozed off when Avrum came and woke him. He had come for the uniform and documentation to be used by Eichmann.

  Late that evening I held a long series of discussions with the men of the task force. All the plans for the next day were re-examined and various modifications made. The timetable for each stage of the operation was compiled, with each man’s function clearly defined and meeting places fixed for the various groups.

  During those last hours before the decisive day I made up my mind that it was still worthwhile detaching a couple of men for one last try at the Mengele plan. The object was to check the identity of all the tenants of the house where, until a month ago, Mengele had lived. As part of my final plans, I took into consideration the contingency that we might have to make a last-minute attempt to capture Mengele and put him on the plane.

  I settled all the operational arrangements with Rafi and Avrum: the dismantling of the installations in the safe house, the concealing of the equipment, the returning of the cars, and the procedure for the departure of our men from Argentina on completion of the operation.

  The plan we had finally settled on was that Eichmann be taken from Tira to the plane dressed in airline uniform. He would have with him the documents in the name of Zichroni which had been taken from Carmel. Eichmann would pass, we hoped, as an airplane crew member whose head had been injured in an auto accident. The doctor would make all the necessary preparations to drug him during the transfer. From morning on, reconnaissance of the roads leading from the safe house to the airfield would be organized. The last reconnaissance would be made by Yitzhak, whose arrival at the airport would be the signal for the car to leave the airport to collect Eichmann from Tira. It would proceed to the safe house, pick him up, and then return to the airport carrying Eichmann and his escorts. Kenet would drive this car, and Eichmann would be placed on the back seat between the doctor and one of the escorts. The other escort would sit next to Kenet. If, after the car arrived at the airport, it was for some reason impossible for Eichmann to embark with the crew at the plane’s parking spot, we would try to put him on board when the plane was standing on the runway. In that case, the ‘injured’ man would pass through all the conventional border controls.

  We decided further that the security cleanup of the safe house would be done by Rafi, Avrum, Eli, Shalom, and Dina. They would set to work immediately after the departure of the plane and then they would leave Argentina immediately, as soon as they were sure they had left behind them no sign of what had gone on at Tira.

  Avrum was given the task of delivering all the instructions to the persons concerned, as Rafi had in the meantime returned to the safe house and couldn’t participate in the summing up. Ilani was ordered to make sure that the car taking Eichmann to the airport was in perfect condition. He would also be the one to take it to the airport and hand it over to Kenet. Ilani was put at the disposal of the group which was to inspect Mengele’s former home, and he was also asked to help Barhon obtain a quick release from the hospital. Ilani would deliver Barhon’s papers to Shalom Dani, who would quickly adapt them to suit Eichmann’s personal description. These papers would be used in case Eichmann could not be embarked with the crew and proof of his injury would be needed. Ilani was requested to make himself available to me at the airfield, with another rented car, from early afternoon on.

  The last one I spoke to that night was Shalom Dani. I stressed that his most urgent task was to complete the documentation for crew member Zichroni. We also made sure that the documentation for all the men of the task force was in order. And finally we discussed the disposition of his equipment and the manner of his leaving the country. We decided that after he finished his work in the laboratory he would come to me at the airport. I told him he should put together a set of essential tools so that he could still do any indispensable last-minute work that might crop up. I warned him that such work would have to be carried out under difficult operational conditions -sitting at a table in one of the airport lounges, for instance, or in a car in the parking lot.

  It was late when we parted. Shalom didn’t go to bed that night – he went straight to work.

  It was a sleepless night for most of the people at Tira, too. Until the early hours of the morning there was feverish activity in the house. Each of the temporary tenants was studying his assignment for the next day and going over Rafi’s instructions for ‘liquidation of personal matter,’ concentration of belongings in one spot, security inspection of personal luggage, and a thorough check of documentation.

  A great deal of work also went into restoring the house to its former condition. Everything that was in it when we rented it was put back in its place, and everything that was added during our tenancy was destroyed or put aside to be taken away. Another inspection would be held the next day, and then a final check while Eichmann was on the way to the airfield. The inspectors worked with exact lists in their hands to make sure they wouldn’t forget even
the most minute detail.

  Similar arrangements were made for the other safe houses and operational apartments. Rafi was put in charge of both the removal of all traces of our activities in the Argentine capital and the disposal of the entire inventory of items we had bought or rented.

  25

  IT FINALLY came, the twentieth of May – the last day and, for me, the longest and most dramatic day of Operation Eichmann. Early in the morning, after snatching a few hours of sleep, I got up, packed my things, paid my hotel bill, and took a taxi to the railway station. I deposited my luggage at the station and went to my first rendezvous of the day. I intended picking up my luggage sometime during the day so that I would have it with me when I decided how I was going to leave Buenos Aires.

  The first to meet me that day were Hilel Pooch and Meir Lavi. I knew that there was only a very remote chance that Mengele was still at the house in Vicente López, but I wanted the facts checked thoroughly. If he was there, my plan was to mount a surveillance near the house throughout the day, and if nothing important or unusual happened we would try to get into the house in the evening and take Mengele forcibly to the car waiting nearby. To be sure the police were not called in, I would leave two men watching his family until the plane left. I had also devised a plan for putting Mengele on board the aircraft. It was a plan which involved a certain amount of risk, but I estimated that it wouldn’t endanger our main operation. What I had in mind was to bring Mengele to the plane just before take-off, once our first ‘client’ was already safely inside. I was working on the assumption that there would otherwise be no special reason for the police to make a search at the airfield – and even if they did catch our men, it could be taken for granted that they would reveal nothing about Eichmann.

  But all this depended, naturally, on what Hilel and Meir found at the house. I told Meir he should gain entry to the house on the pretext of delivering a parcel; Hilel was to claim that he had been summoned a few weeks before to inspect and repair the water heater. I fixed a timetable for each of their visits to the house – Meir was to go there first, in the morning, and Hilel would go late in the afternoon.

  Shortly after Meir and Hilel left, Tohar and Shimoni came along. They requested permission to tell the senior members of the crew about the operation, so that they could act with full understanding of the situation. I agreed, and it was decided that Tohar would tell the copilot Vedeles, the two navigators, two flight engineers, two stewards, and the air hostess. We also arranged the schedule for the crew. The captain and those members of the crew required for starting the aircraft would leave their hotel in Buenos Aires at eight-thirty in the evening and arrive at the plane at nine-thirty. The rest of the crew members, apart from those staying at the airport hotel, would leave the city at nine-thirty and arrive at the airfield at ten-thirty, where they would immediately join their colleagues at the airport hotel.

  The car with Eichmann would arrive at eleven o’clock. After a final check of the situation the car would proceed to where the plane was parked, accompanied by a minibus containing the crew that was not already at the aircraft. The car should be at the plane by eleven-ten. As soon as Eichmann was embarked, the plane’s engines would be started and it would taxi onto the apron – the time would then be about eleven-fifteen. After that, every effort would be made to take off at the earliest possible moment.

  That morning Tohar assembled all the members of the crew who were to be let in on the secret. He told them that their plane would be taking a passenger who would be introduced as a member of the crew and would be wearing company uniform. Though the man would look ill, the illness would be due to a drug injected into him a little earlier. Without mentioning the name of the mysterious passenger, Tohar said that the operation was of paramount national importance. His listeners – except Vedeles – were flabbergasted. Now all the strange incidents and obscure activities they had witnessed began to make sense. Tohar told them what they had to do and explained the assignments they would be carrying out under his orders.

  Tohar sat with Vedeles and the navigator Giladi and plotted a direct flight from Buenos Aires to Dakar. The flight would put the Britannia to a severe test, as it was slightly beyond the aircraft’s range and there might be a shortage of fuel. Weather conditions, however, were favorable, and they decided that the flight could be undertaken if these conditions remained stable.

  Back at the hospital, Barhon’s condition improved steadily. Every day his friend Ilani came to visit him and pass on our doctor’s latest instructions. Barhon saw to it that the course of his recovery followed the doctor’s instructions to the letter. He was a model patient, and despite his ignorance of Spanish he won over all the hospital workers with his pleasant behavior. The doctors regarded the fact that he wasn’t vomiting as a good sign, and when he heard them say there was an improvement in his condition Barhon started showing an interest in the date of his release from hospital. He explained that he had come to Buenos Aires in order to fly home on the plane that had brought the delegation. All the lines to Europe, he said, were fully booked and it was almost impossible to get a seat on a plane, and his best prospect of getting home without too many transfers on the way was by the special plane. Since tickets for the flight were not offered for sale, he said, he hoped he could save a considerable sum of money since the airline might take into account his state of health and accept him as a nonpaying passenger. His friend had already spoken to the airline about this and had assured him that the airline would approve, as long as the doctors gave him permission for the flight.

  The hospital staff sympathized with Barhon’s problem, but the doctors said that it would of course depend on his condition. They couldn’t take the responsibility of releasing him too soon, especially as he intended taking such a long journey. They assured him, however, that he was making steady progress, and that his prospects were good.

  Ilani visited Barhon on the evening of May 19 with a large box of candy and gave him the doctor’s instructions for his symptoms that evening and the following morning. Ilani told him to tell the doctors that because of his illness, the airline was prepared to take him but the airline officials wanted written confirmation from the doctors that he was in a fit state to travel. The doctors said that if there was no deterioration in his condition, and if the results of further tests in the morning were satisfactory, then they would give him the confirmation.

  The next morning Ilani brought me a report on the patient’s condition. He had a quiet night, it said, and woke up fresh and full of energy. Now everything depended on the results of the tests – if they were favorable the patient would be released in time.

  Yehuda Carmel also came to see me that morning. I told him that if everything went well Eichmann would be using CarmePs documentation to leave Argentina as a member of the crew; but as the details of the plan had not yet been finally settled, I suggested that he have a look around the city and meet me again in the afternoon.

  The report from Tira was encouraging. The night had passed quietly and no suspicious movement was noticed near the house. The people imprisoned there were in cheerful spirits. Eichmann had slept well, and his meals were planned – under doctor’s instructions – to suit the various quantities of anesthetic he would be given during the course of the day. The doctor gave him another thorough examination and stated that he was in fine health and would be able to withstand the long flight.

  The information from the airfield was also satisfactory. The plane was in excellent condition. No special interest in our Britannia had been displayed by the authorities or by anyone else during the night.

  Ilani reported that, according to the newspapers, the anniversary celebrations were in full swing, and the authorities were apprehensive about demonstrations or outbreaks on the part of groups hostile to the regime. All the security establishments were therefore on the alert, and police and army units were patrolling the roads. As for Klement – still no word about him in the press.

  In the afte
rnoon I moved my mobile headquarters nearer to the scene of the critical stage of the operation, the airport itself

  The place was teeming with planes and swarming with people. Soldiers and police awaited the arrival of the important guests gathering to convey the good wishes of their governments to the people of Argentina. Senior members of the government went out to welcome the VIPs, and a large concentration of security forces guarded the guests and their reception committees.

  My first idea was to settle myself in one of the passenger lounges, but I was certain that among the huge crowd there were bound to be quite a few security men on the alert to anything out of the ordinary and even though it was not unusual for people to spend a few hours in the passenger lounge at an airport, I still considered it inadvisable to risk attracting attention, especially since the security men would be under unaccustomed strain. I toured the airfield installations, looking for a suitable place to hold my meetings – a reasonable place from the point of view of security. In all the lounges set aside for passengers it was the same: throngs of passengers and other people coming to meet or see them off. Eventually, in one of the side wings of the complex of buildings, I found a large hall which served as a kind of canteen for airfield employees. It was more plainly constructed and furnished than the reception halls for passengers, and the food served there was simple and cheap.

  The canteen was filled to capacity with civilians, soldiers, and police, most of them taking a breather between tours of duty, having something to eat or drink, and sheltering from the cold, rainy weather outside. The air in the hall was heavy and full of smoke, and the din was deafening. I looked in vain for an empty table – all were occupied, and numbers of people were standing around waiting for chairs to become vacant. There was a constant stream of people moving between the tables and the exit.