Oddball
03-03-2005, 09:25 AM
Israeli spy who captured Eichmann dies
Peter Malchin, the Israeli spy who captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann has died in New York, aged 77.
Friends said Mr Malchin, who was considered one of the Mossad intelligence agency's top agents, died earlier this week of complications from an infection. He will be buried in Tel Aviv.
"He was an extraordinary secret warrior," said Israeli journalist Uri Dan, a close friend.
Most of Mr Malchin's missions remain state secrets but he earned renown in 1960 when he tracked down Eichmann, the German SS officer responsible for deporting millions of Jews to concentration camps during the Holocaust, living in Argentina.
He approached him on a Buenos Aires street, tapping him on the back with the words "one moment, sir" before wrestling him to the ground and bundling him into a getaway car.
Eichmann, who had been living in Argentina under a false identity since fleeing Germany after World War Two, was interrogated at a safe house in Buenos Aires before being smuggled to Israel, where he was executed in 1962.
Malchin, who was born Tzvi Milchman, escaped the Holocaust, but dozens of his relatives were among the six million Jews killed by the Nazis during World War Two.
In his book "Eichmann in My Hands", Malchin described how he told Eichmann during the 10 days the Mossad team held him before smuggling him to Israel on an El Al plane that he was responsible for the death of his nephew in the Holocaust.
"Genuinely perplexed by the observation, he actually waited a moment to see if I would clarify it," Malchin recounted in his book. "Yes", he said finally, "but he was Jewish, wasn't he," Malchin wrote.
Malchin joined the Jewish underground in British-ruled Palestine at the age of 12 and became an explosives expert as well as a talented safe cracker before being recruited by the Mossad where he served for 27 years.
He was also an acclaimed artist, an author of five books and was involved in private consulting on counter-terrorism methods.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=IKYZN45YZ2V4DQFIQMGSM54AVCBQWJVC?xml=/news/2005/03/03/ueichmann.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/03/03/ixportaltop.html
Peter Malchin, the Israeli spy who captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann has died in New York, aged 77.
Friends said Mr Malchin, who was considered one of the Mossad intelligence agency's top agents, died earlier this week of complications from an infection. He will be buried in Tel Aviv.
"He was an extraordinary secret warrior," said Israeli journalist Uri Dan, a close friend.
Most of Mr Malchin's missions remain state secrets but he earned renown in 1960 when he tracked down Eichmann, the German SS officer responsible for deporting millions of Jews to concentration camps during the Holocaust, living in Argentina.
He approached him on a Buenos Aires street, tapping him on the back with the words "one moment, sir" before wrestling him to the ground and bundling him into a getaway car.
Eichmann, who had been living in Argentina under a false identity since fleeing Germany after World War Two, was interrogated at a safe house in Buenos Aires before being smuggled to Israel, where he was executed in 1962.
Malchin, who was born Tzvi Milchman, escaped the Holocaust, but dozens of his relatives were among the six million Jews killed by the Nazis during World War Two.
In his book "Eichmann in My Hands", Malchin described how he told Eichmann during the 10 days the Mossad team held him before smuggling him to Israel on an El Al plane that he was responsible for the death of his nephew in the Holocaust.
"Genuinely perplexed by the observation, he actually waited a moment to see if I would clarify it," Malchin recounted in his book. "Yes", he said finally, "but he was Jewish, wasn't he," Malchin wrote.
Malchin joined the Jewish underground in British-ruled Palestine at the age of 12 and became an explosives expert as well as a talented safe cracker before being recruited by the Mossad where he served for 27 years.
He was also an acclaimed artist, an author of five books and was involved in private consulting on counter-terrorism methods.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=IKYZN45YZ2V4DQFIQMGSM54AVCBQWJVC?xml=/news/2005/03/03/ueichmann.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/03/03/ixportaltop.html