It is hard to believe the Israelis would let Mengele go if he was so easy to catch. This article says they knew where he was, he was identified and verified, but they just dropped it. I think there is more to it, given the role Mengele played in the holocaust. I can't believe the Mossad, as excellent and well-trained as Israeli intelligence is, would just let him go.
2
Every Jewish baby born was the greatest revenge on Hitler. That's what we were taught. Jews avenge death with life. God will do his part when the time comes. Not to say there isn't a place for justice, but life always takes priority.
PS you'll never really know the calculations that go on in the Mossad. Maybe other Nazi's were communicating with him. Maybe Israel really couldn't afford the resources for a trial. Eichman's trial was very traumatic for many. There were many survivors who needed to focus on the future in order to rebuild. Maybe he didn't drown, but was drowned. Maybe they didn't want to risk a mess up on foreign soil. Maybe many things. We'll never really know.
PPS An article that portrays Israel as uncaring and elicits strong critique and even disgust is not an accident. This was calculated and foreseen. Especially the crafty angle of criticizing one of the bases of Israel's justification as a strong response to the Holocaust by portraying them as uncaring. The author might be innocent - not so much those who used him - with just enough passive-aggressive deniability - for the endless anti-Israel agenda.
PS you'll never really know the calculations that go on in the Mossad. Maybe other Nazi's were communicating with him. Maybe Israel really couldn't afford the resources for a trial. Eichman's trial was very traumatic for many. There were many survivors who needed to focus on the future in order to rebuild. Maybe he didn't drown, but was drowned. Maybe they didn't want to risk a mess up on foreign soil. Maybe many things. We'll never really know.
PPS An article that portrays Israel as uncaring and elicits strong critique and even disgust is not an accident. This was calculated and foreseen. Especially the crafty angle of criticizing one of the bases of Israel's justification as a strong response to the Holocaust by portraying them as uncaring. The author might be innocent - not so much those who used him - with just enough passive-aggressive deniability - for the endless anti-Israel agenda.
3
The bigger problem is that with population replacement in Europe anti Jewish sentiment is rapidly increasing. It is interesting that these criminals were welcome in heavily Catholic South America. In 20 years given current population trends Jews are not going to want to stay in Europe.
3
"Nazis no longer posed a threat." Really? Mr. Bergman could do with a refresher course on the history of the KKK, not to mention that we have American Nazis marching today in American streets. Failure to pursue one generation's monsters gives license to the next.
2
This does not make sense, for about the same time Mengel was tracked down here in Brazil, Mossad agents managed to find Herbert Cukurs, a high level Latvian fascist, member of the notorious Arajs commano and responsible for the deaths of thousands of Jews during WWII. Mossad agents. lured him to Montevideo and killed him there. it happened in the mid 60s, in the same Sao Paulo where the monster Mengele was known to be living, so it is impossible to argue that Mossad was lacking human or finantial resources; the coulf have used the same team and the same infrastructur already in place and could have finished Mengele, thus bringing justice and closure for the entire Jewish people. That this abomination of Nature managed to evade human Justice and to die vacationing at a beach - and that, living in the very same city where I live, i could have passed him by on the streer, unknowingly- is a undelible stain in the history of Justice and also for us Jews, not only in Israel but also in the Diaspora.
1
I can't help "St. Urbains's Horseman" by Mordecai Richler, in which the protagonist, as always with Richler an Anglophone Jew in Montreal, is haunted by nightmares of the Monster Mengele.
1
I think Mr. Bergman arrived at a wrong conclusion. The article wasn't about Eichmann, was about Mengele. In that sense, the failure to bring this monster to justice only renders one conclussion: "As long as Israel has something more important to do and they make an example out someone else, you can get a way with spilling jewish blood..."
Just as Operation Paperclip, it's terrible to see how relative evil is, and justice can only be served when it's convenient.
Just as Operation Paperclip, it's terrible to see how relative evil is, and justice can only be served when it's convenient.
1
How could Mengele have escaped from Germany to South America? Was he able to assume a new identity, phony passport, and disguise? In the chaos of postwar Europe it would be relatively easy to assume a new identity, especially if money and connections eased the way. I wonder if the Red Cross or the RC Church were unwitting partners by providing some transport for refugees. If anyone willingly conspired to help Mengele vanish into South America and safety, then they are truly culpable of aiding and abetting an enemy. What did agencies know, and when did they know it? Lesser figures than Mengele paid the ultimate price for their crimes, judged at Nuremberg. Mengele was the one that got away. What a crime.
1
The claims made, about limited resources and intervening events sound like half baked rationalization to me.
The man who captured Eichmann had a bead on Mengele, and was ordered to stand down, instead of just taking him? It is impossible to put lipstick on THAT trayf.
This revisionism insults every Holocaust survivor, and every descendant of every survivor.
If Eichmann represented "the banality of evil," then Mengele represented every outrage that evil could commit on the practice of medecine, and the irredeemable evil of a sociopath with a god complex.
The man who captured Eichmann had a bead on Mengele, and was ordered to stand down, instead of just taking him? It is impossible to put lipstick on THAT trayf.
This revisionism insults every Holocaust survivor, and every descendant of every survivor.
If Eichmann represented "the banality of evil," then Mengele represented every outrage that evil could commit on the practice of medecine, and the irredeemable evil of a sociopath with a god complex.
4
I disagree with the author's conclusion. While pragmatism was important in a fledgling country with limited resources, and it wouldn't have made sense to use too many of those resources hunting Nazi's, once they HAD Mengele in their sights, it was stupid not to complete the mission. Then the Israeli government went to the other extreme, considering moral reprehensible means to get to Mengele. Not the best thinking in either situation, in my opinion.
Was Eichmann's capture, trial and execution enough to teach the world about Nazism? I'm not so sure, given the recent resurgence of neo-Nazis in America, way too close to where I live in SC.
And there are the Holocaust deniers who speak out frequently from a number of Middle Eastern countries and others.
But in the end, the Mossad made the best decision it could on how to use its resources. I don't see how we can second-guess it.
And there are the Holocaust deniers who speak out frequently from a number of Middle Eastern countries and others.
But in the end, the Mossad made the best decision it could on how to use its resources. I don't see how we can second-guess it.
2
The decades-long unwillingness of the Germans to put their backs into atoning for their mighty sins needs a thorough and unflinching analysis. The Germans should have captured and tried not only Mengele but many thousands more. Instead, "the German government had not requested his extradition, and even supplied him with documents clearing him of a criminal record." This was emblematic, for decades, of a very deeply motivated disinterestedness. This story needs a good airing. Timothy Snyder?
And for Mossad, the political dimension behind their halfhearted and botched efforts needs to be made clear, not hidden behind claims about resource management.
Bergman's conclusion is benighted and morally feeble:
"The capture and trial of Eichmann — and his execution — were enough to teach the world about the Holocaust and to convey the message that Jewish blood cannot be spilled with impunity. From that point on, it would have been better if the Mossad had let the past go."
"Letting the past go" in a situation of such enormity is stupid pseudo-moralizing. The monstrous past that is "let go" will happen again, and again. Clarity and justice -- and, where possible, atonement and redemption -- need to be integral to any meaningful letting go. The Mengele lesson very clearly is that Jewish blood can be spilled with impunity.
And for Mossad, the political dimension behind their halfhearted and botched efforts needs to be made clear, not hidden behind claims about resource management.
Bergman's conclusion is benighted and morally feeble:
"The capture and trial of Eichmann — and his execution — were enough to teach the world about the Holocaust and to convey the message that Jewish blood cannot be spilled with impunity. From that point on, it would have been better if the Mossad had let the past go."
"Letting the past go" in a situation of such enormity is stupid pseudo-moralizing. The monstrous past that is "let go" will happen again, and again. Clarity and justice -- and, where possible, atonement and redemption -- need to be integral to any meaningful letting go. The Mengele lesson very clearly is that Jewish blood can be spilled with impunity.
18
I think there are some things that we should never let go, and the Holocaust is one of those things.
.
The reason for this is simple and self evident: when action rises to a level that is an offense to humanity, so that it is called an atrocity, those responsible must be brought to justice by humanity. If we do not do that we invite more atrocity.
.
We see this happening again and again.
.
Crimes against humanity, as atrocities that are offensive to humanity, must be met with greater determination to find, try, and punish those responsible until the offense has been answered completely.
.
Because we do not do this, the atrocities continue and we wring our hands, knowing the right response but incapable of responding so. That Israel was largely going it alone in their efforts to track down and bring to justice Nazis is an irreparable stain on humanity and the nation's of the world who should have assisted but did not. That we have allowed others to get away with their atrocities proves that we consider ourselves unworthy of being free of the barbarism that causes atrocity in the first place.
.
In short, we as humans deserve atrocity, even as individuals and groups do not. It reminds us of what a terrible species we really are, unable and unwilling to reject our worst nature.
.
The reason for this is simple and self evident: when action rises to a level that is an offense to humanity, so that it is called an atrocity, those responsible must be brought to justice by humanity. If we do not do that we invite more atrocity.
.
We see this happening again and again.
.
Crimes against humanity, as atrocities that are offensive to humanity, must be met with greater determination to find, try, and punish those responsible until the offense has been answered completely.
.
Because we do not do this, the atrocities continue and we wring our hands, knowing the right response but incapable of responding so. That Israel was largely going it alone in their efforts to track down and bring to justice Nazis is an irreparable stain on humanity and the nation's of the world who should have assisted but did not. That we have allowed others to get away with their atrocities proves that we consider ourselves unworthy of being free of the barbarism that causes atrocity in the first place.
.
In short, we as humans deserve atrocity, even as individuals and groups do not. It reminds us of what a terrible species we really are, unable and unwilling to reject our worst nature.
1
The past is never past; justice was not done when the opportunity presented itself.
2
I agree entirely with Mr Bergman's conclusions. to many of the commentators, i must say, the view from inside is very different . I do not know the intricacies Israel would have had to face, at a time so precarious, as a state so young and in so much immediate peril. the consequences of operating in a foreign - not entirely friendly country. the price that would have been paid . i do not know and neither do any of you. I do know the existential anxieties that we Israelis share in 2017. Their intensity and immediacy 50 years ago must have been deafening .
The mere existence of the state of Israel and our security-intelligently operatus is the mechanism by which we achieve ''never again''. Not by symbolic killings, not even of the most vile of monsters. Our politicians might pander to emotions, but not our protectors. That our burgeoning Mossad had the clarity of vision to prioritize the present over the past, and not be swayed by anything but pragmatic , cautious and everlasting will to survive and thrive is why we are still here today.
The mere existence of the state of Israel and our security-intelligently operatus is the mechanism by which we achieve ''never again''. Not by symbolic killings, not even of the most vile of monsters. Our politicians might pander to emotions, but not our protectors. That our burgeoning Mossad had the clarity of vision to prioritize the present over the past, and not be swayed by anything but pragmatic , cautious and everlasting will to survive and thrive is why we are still here today.
7
Your article has been on my mind
and it is fascinating to read the
comments. Merav's comment
resonates strongly. Certainly Mengele
was one of the most horrible of the
monsters, a perpetrator who had no
equal. Eichmann became the one
who "closed the book" for Israel
as a Nation seeking justice for the murdered.
Ultimately there was
no "justice" and certainly
no "closure". The pain will stay forever
and it is our duty to teach about the extermination
of our fellow Jews. We cannot change history but
we must remember and communicate the history
to younger generations.
Each German Nazi who murdered because
of their antisemitism also deserved to be
"judged" but there weren't enough courts of law,
we do not even know how many murderers existed,
How was Israel to protect itself from the dangers
of the moment, with their limited financial resources,
while simultaneously looking back to the big Nazis
who got away? The thoughts haunt me. The Red Cross
and the Church helping...the fact that Germany itself
did not pursue the perpetrators of mass murder.
We have a duty to remember.
and it is fascinating to read the
comments. Merav's comment
resonates strongly. Certainly Mengele
was one of the most horrible of the
monsters, a perpetrator who had no
equal. Eichmann became the one
who "closed the book" for Israel
as a Nation seeking justice for the murdered.
Ultimately there was
no "justice" and certainly
no "closure". The pain will stay forever
and it is our duty to teach about the extermination
of our fellow Jews. We cannot change history but
we must remember and communicate the history
to younger generations.
Each German Nazi who murdered because
of their antisemitism also deserved to be
"judged" but there weren't enough courts of law,
we do not even know how many murderers existed,
How was Israel to protect itself from the dangers
of the moment, with their limited financial resources,
while simultaneously looking back to the big Nazis
who got away? The thoughts haunt me. The Red Cross
and the Church helping...the fact that Germany itself
did not pursue the perpetrators of mass murder.
We have a duty to remember.
2
I disagree. Your argument makes rational sense, but we are emotional creatures, and sometimes justifiable revenge makes sense... and can heal us in other ways. "Never forget."
If Israel prioritized other matters over finding Mengele and seeing justice was served, I'm sure they had their reasons. Unlike the author, I certainly wouldn't speculate. I also wouldn't be so brazen, and obviously incorrect, to say Nazis are no longer a threat.
2
Killing Mengele, which was clearly a choice if they could find him but were unable to capture and remove him, though it may have gratified P.M. Begin, would not have been benefitted Israel. The threat of death, in other words scaring the hell out of him over a period of years, which seems to have been accomplished, may have been the best retribution.
Passing on Mengele seems like big screw up. Let's hope the Mossad stay vigilant. I'm with Begin, it can happen again. The number of Nazis in the US is proof of that. We should all be alarmed.
7
The presence of Nazis and their sympathizers in the USA is beyond sad. The majority of Americans had family members fight and some die to eliminate these monsters. Are our history books that bad that our young people don't know about Nazi Germany and its evil attempt to rule Europe?
The Holocaust must be remembered!
The Holocaust must be remembered!
11
Perhaps I am one of the few commenters here who still strongly believes in the concepts of heaven and hell. And if there is a hell, Mr. Me glee is surely enconsed there for eternity, alongside his great Leader and all the others who built on industrial empire devoted to torture, murder and evil itself . To paraphrase Bob Dylan:
"If there's a God in heaven
Overlooking his preserve
I know the men who did these deeds
Will get what they deserve."
Amen, brother.
"If there's a God in heaven
Overlooking his preserve
I know the men who did these deeds
Will get what they deserve."
Amen, brother.
4
Poor judgement . What a calculated and self conscious mistake to let such a nazi criminal go free and unpunished .
5
How do we know that Mossad didn't kill him?
5
there have always been Israeli mercenaries in SA. why didn't they dispatch him to the next world?
I am suspicious, now, of the author's motives for publishing this op-ed. who are his masters or was it just to generate publicity for his forthcoming book?
I am suspicious, now, of the author's motives for publishing this op-ed. who are his masters or was it just to generate publicity for his forthcoming book?
1
Something missing here is how Israel and the Mossad seemed to not consider the public value in capturing or killing the man. This would have raised Israel's profile and Mossad's reputation. Both of these would have served the long term interests.
Not only was this justice left u served, but missed opportunity as well.
Not only was this justice left u served, but missed opportunity as well.
4
they could have picked him up and brought him to Israel to stand trial. No question about that. They had the means. They did not have the will and this is the saddest part of the article for this reader. PIcking up this scum would have been easy, since they had such a good lead on him and it would not have taken away from the need to focus on then current threats. The article leaves me scratching my head and wondering why such an easy target was allowed to go free. Believe me, he could have rotted in prison while Mossad focused on the present dangers. Then, when there was time, he could and should have been tried. I stood on the site of the children's barracks at Auschwitz, thinking of the children he tortured, and it broke me until I was on the ground weeping in pain. In the name of those he selected for death or torture, they could have done it!
10
Why was nobody else, besides Israel, however fleetingly, interested in capturing Mengele?
10
why didn't the Allies bomb the railroad tracks leading to Auschwitz-birkeneau?
9
Indeed!
1
So, in a way, Mengele has the Palestinians to thank for him having died a free man. Life is full of surprises, indeed!
The Mossad made the right decision.
Mengele lived in fear and trembling after 1945, terrified that he would be assassinated by the Israelis at any time. To terrorize Mengele psychologically for decades was fitting punishment.
Israel today uses the same "psyops" strategy to petrify Hassan Nasrallah, the portly terrorist head of Hizbollah, the "party of God." This vicious murderer is forced to move each night, sometimes more than once, from one safe house to another in Lebanon in order to avoid a drone attack by Israel.
Let the fat little Nasrallah squirm in fear for the rest of his life.
Mengele lived in fear and trembling after 1945, terrified that he would be assassinated by the Israelis at any time. To terrorize Mengele psychologically for decades was fitting punishment.
Israel today uses the same "psyops" strategy to petrify Hassan Nasrallah, the portly terrorist head of Hizbollah, the "party of God." This vicious murderer is forced to move each night, sometimes more than once, from one safe house to another in Lebanon in order to avoid a drone attack by Israel.
Let the fat little Nasrallah squirm in fear for the rest of his life.
5
Mengele should have been taken, put on trial, found guilty, and executed, if not by Israel, then by one of the Allied powers.
Failing that, I think he should have been assassinated.
He should not have been allowed - yes, allowed - to live out his life to a ripe old age.
In Mengele's case, justice was not done.
Failing that, I think he should have been assassinated.
He should not have been allowed - yes, allowed - to live out his life to a ripe old age.
In Mengele's case, justice was not done.
10
NOT to pursue one, if not, the worst Nazis is a crime in its self ...
This has not only to do about the past but also about the present, as well as the future...
Why should the leaders of Syria, Iran, and North Korea worry about their atrocities ...?
Killers of the past who get away with Murder.... in the past
This has not only to do about the past but also about the present, as well as the future...
Why should the leaders of Syria, Iran, and North Korea worry about their atrocities ...?
Killers of the past who get away with Murder.... in the past
2
Something doesn't sound right here. They could have just hired a kill. I remember specifically that Simon Wiesenthal refused to believe that Mengele was even in South America. Then of course he was. There is more to this story.
3
They should have simply killed him.
1
Jews worldwide considered Israel as the lawful and proper agency for extracting justice from Nazi murderers that no one else would pursue. Nazi's always pose a threat to Jews. The successful, executive Nazi in West Germany, feted for his wartime service, as well the exile valued by oppressive autocrats, keep the dream of a Jew-free planet alive. Even an Israeli intelligence agent can mistake a victimish avoidance for hard-headed pragmatism
What I read in the article surely is not sufficient explanation for how this monster, Josef Mengele, escaped retribution. There must be more to it.
8
It is unfathomable that Israel would allow Mengele to live in freedom except as an accommodation to the United States missile program.
1
"... the leaders of the government and the agency were simply not all that interested."
That's it in a nutshell.
And I'll tell you why that bothers me all these decades later.
Because that sounds like Donald Trump, the "leader" of my government.
Don sounds like he would have fit right in, done the same.
He speaks well of the underbelly of THIS nation: The KKK, the Neo-Nazis, the White Supremacists and White Nationalists, and the hodge-podge of bikers, skin-heads, Russian oligarchs, and strong arm dictators, not to mention his racist Attorney-General.
What does he call them...?
"Nice guys"?
"Good guys"?
"Friends"?
So, thank you, Leaders of Israel, for nothing.
Your collusion was/is ethically bankrupt.
It makes your toleration of your present Prime Minister and his crimes that the Times has covered in the last week, perfectly understandable.
I'm sure that Trump and Pence will use "indifference" as a blueprint, just as soon as they can.
For Israelis, "Nazis may no longer pose a threat", but for my nation that scummy underbelly grows more vocal every day and I've got "leaders" who think they are "nice guys".
Shame.
That's it in a nutshell.
And I'll tell you why that bothers me all these decades later.
Because that sounds like Donald Trump, the "leader" of my government.
Don sounds like he would have fit right in, done the same.
He speaks well of the underbelly of THIS nation: The KKK, the Neo-Nazis, the White Supremacists and White Nationalists, and the hodge-podge of bikers, skin-heads, Russian oligarchs, and strong arm dictators, not to mention his racist Attorney-General.
What does he call them...?
"Nice guys"?
"Good guys"?
"Friends"?
So, thank you, Leaders of Israel, for nothing.
Your collusion was/is ethically bankrupt.
It makes your toleration of your present Prime Minister and his crimes that the Times has covered in the last week, perfectly understandable.
I'm sure that Trump and Pence will use "indifference" as a blueprint, just as soon as they can.
For Israelis, "Nazis may no longer pose a threat", but for my nation that scummy underbelly grows more vocal every day and I've got "leaders" who think they are "nice guys".
Shame.
3
Never forget & never forgive! Your article notwithstanding the Mossad could have & should have killed Mengele!
2
Coming from India, a country of very emotional people, I'm still amazed at how Israel could think in practical terms about Nazis.
3
Mengele was so cruel, so vile, in what he did to people, he really would have been worth pursuing and making an example of. I can understand how, with limited resources and support, the Mossad couldn't go after everyone. But Mengele was in a terrible class by himself and deserved to face justice. Well, now he's facing the ultimate justice for eternity.
1
The article answers the question. Given the limitations of Mossad, its work had to be prioritized. Which is more dangerous to Israel, an elderly Nazi stuck in South America or a scientist building weapons for Egypt?
1
Maybe if they had hunted every Nazi, tried and put them to death, we wouldn't have so many Nazi sympathizers now. I'm sure, Mengele and others who got away, poisoned many minds, as long as they were alive. That should have been a priority.
1
I wonder how many Mengele or Eichmann are there in the world today living their lives almost undisturbed. Unfortunately many times politics prevails over justice.
It was an utter disgrace to not even try when he was in their grasp. For crying out loud, how much money does it cost to send a team to at least kill him, if you don't want to be bring him to trial? Why did Israel have money to hunt down every Palestinian terrorist from Munich, but couldn't pay someone to at least kill the man who sent a million Jews to their deaths with the flick of his wrist. European Jewish lives do not deserve the vengeance that Israeli murder victims deserve? This will forever be a stain on Israel's record.
1
Therefore, choose life.
By choosing the present over the past, building and protecting a vibrant society over enlisting state mechanisms to inflict death, Israel chose well.
Not because Mengele was not a monster; not because he wasn't guilty; not because the heart doesn't want vengeance. No trial or hanging could ever have "balanced out" the pain and suffering inflicted by such a craven, depraved and wanton criminal.
That Jews in Israel and elsewhere continue to thrive despite their detractors, past and present, is the only true revenge.
May it be a sweet and happy, healthy new year for us all.
By choosing the present over the past, building and protecting a vibrant society over enlisting state mechanisms to inflict death, Israel chose well.
Not because Mengele was not a monster; not because he wasn't guilty; not because the heart doesn't want vengeance. No trial or hanging could ever have "balanced out" the pain and suffering inflicted by such a craven, depraved and wanton criminal.
That Jews in Israel and elsewhere continue to thrive despite their detractors, past and present, is the only true revenge.
May it be a sweet and happy, healthy new year for us all.
7
Extremism with respects to Jews didn't grow in Europe. Extremism was always there, always in the fabric of everyday existence. No child could ever forget the slights he would receive with a certain regularity when least expected - before the Nazis, during the time of the Nazis or after the Nazis. Mengele didn't grow like a cancerous tumor in Germany, he was as ordinary as any other German, and killing him would have offered no satisfaction to anyone. Had he been held to justice by his fellow Germans and shamed by his people to the end of time - then yes, that would have offered some vague satisfaction to the memory of those he participated in destroying.
The Germans avoided dispensing justice to Mengele - how should he be punished when most everyone else was not? Most each other country in Europe - and some outside of it - could produce its own platoons of Mengeles. This disease didn't start with the Nazis, and it will not end with the Palestinians. Mossad was right. The arc of history is bigger even than the monstrosity of people like Mengele.
The virus continues its course unabated, and no one in Charlottesville will replace the Jews.
The Germans avoided dispensing justice to Mengele - how should he be punished when most everyone else was not? Most each other country in Europe - and some outside of it - could produce its own platoons of Mengeles. This disease didn't start with the Nazis, and it will not end with the Palestinians. Mossad was right. The arc of history is bigger even than the monstrosity of people like Mengele.
The virus continues its course unabated, and no one in Charlottesville will replace the Jews.
1
It is understandable that with limited resources, Israel needed to focus all of them on the threats to its security.
But why didn't the US go after Mengele? That's an easy one: After the military junta overthrew President Isabel Perón in 1976, Henry Kissinger, as Secretary of State, told Argentina's new foreign minister, Adm. Cesar Guzzetti, "If there are things to be done, you should do them quickly." That was Kissinger's warning that the US Congress might cut off aid to Argentina if it thought the new government was engaging in human rights abuses, so Argentina should use the immediate post-junta period to crush the leftists, political dissidents, and socialists. That's what Argentina then did, brutally. The "Dirty War" then lasted until 1983, with Mengele dying in 1979, against that backdrop.
During his years as US Secretary of State (September 1973 – January 1977), Kissinger actually congratulated Argentina's military junta for combating the left, stating that in his opinion "the government of Argentina had done an outstanding job in wiping out terrorist forces." That was Kissinger's -- and, by implication, the US's -- only priority in Argentina at that time, not to be diluted by Nazi-hunting.
But why didn't the US go after Mengele? That's an easy one: After the military junta overthrew President Isabel Perón in 1976, Henry Kissinger, as Secretary of State, told Argentina's new foreign minister, Adm. Cesar Guzzetti, "If there are things to be done, you should do them quickly." That was Kissinger's warning that the US Congress might cut off aid to Argentina if it thought the new government was engaging in human rights abuses, so Argentina should use the immediate post-junta period to crush the leftists, political dissidents, and socialists. That's what Argentina then did, brutally. The "Dirty War" then lasted until 1983, with Mengele dying in 1979, against that backdrop.
During his years as US Secretary of State (September 1973 – January 1977), Kissinger actually congratulated Argentina's military junta for combating the left, stating that in his opinion "the government of Argentina had done an outstanding job in wiping out terrorist forces." That was Kissinger's -- and, by implication, the US's -- only priority in Argentina at that time, not to be diluted by Nazi-hunting.
3
Somehow the excuses described for not having Mengele answer for his crimes ring hollow...and I just have the feeling other exigencies simply hide the real, and as yet unknown, reasons for failure to hunt down and try this evil monster....
2
Many countries fought in or were directly affected by World War 2, but many of these commenters seem to feel it's only Israel's responsibility to bring Nazi war criminals to justice. So if one Nazi escapes justice, it's Israel's fault? No other country had any responsibility to track down Nazis?
If everyone can blame Israel for everything, then they don't have to look at their own actions.
If everyone can blame Israel for everything, then they don't have to look at their own actions.
2
Per capita, Norway tried the largest number of persons who collaborated with the Nazis...and even brought back the death penalty for about a dozen conspirators, including Vidkun Quisling...Norway then retired the death penalty - again...Israel's justice system did try some collaborators: Eichmann was hung but Rudolf Kastner was exonerated after he was assassinated by Hungarian Jews incensed by his action to save an elite few from the Nazi death camps...
1
MENGELE Did indeed escape Israel's efforts over many years to bring him to justice. In retrospect, since hindsight is 100% accurate, it's easy to see that when the leaders of the Mossad had other priorities based on current existential threats, the idea of diverting valuable resources to someone who did not represent a current threat was illlogical. It would have resulted in weaker defense of the Israeli State. Like it or not, Mengele was never reported to have perpetrated any violence after his flight to South America. Meaning that he had been effectively neutralized, another fact that supports Israel focusing on current existential threats. If we study 9/11, the terrorists took commercial jet flight training classes, learned to fly but not to land. The suspicious owner called the FBI and was told that they could not get involved because no crime had been committed. Sometimes very dangerous people slip through the cracks. What we must do today is to realize that Trump's focus on people who are safe rather than those who threaten US security means that he himself poses a great existential threat to our nation. Now there's actionable intelligence; but where are law enforcement agencies? We know that Mueller, former chief of the FBI, is working hard to bring Trump and others to Justice. Still, we must be ever vigilant of the existential threat posed by North Korea due to its atomic weapons.
This is obscene.
Mengele should have been brought to trial, his crimes laid out, then executed. Failing that possibility, he should have been given summary justice by any means available.
If someone proposed deterring future Mengeles by slowly torturing this incarnation to death by means as excruciating and long-lasting as possible, I don't think I could summon an argument.
Mengele should have been brought to trial, his crimes laid out, then executed. Failing that possibility, he should have been given summary justice by any means available.
If someone proposed deterring future Mengeles by slowly torturing this incarnation to death by means as excruciating and long-lasting as possible, I don't think I could summon an argument.
I am not sure what to make of this article.
Recently, the Germans prosecuted a near demented 90+ year old concentration camp guard. All this guard did was to log in the belongings of inmates coming into the camp. He did not engage in beatings, torture, and killing. He was at best an accountant.
Mengele's guilt is without doubt as he openly published his results. Having located him, I can not but wonder how much harder it would have been to either nab or kill him. I can't help but think the political heat Israel got for nabbing Eichmann was too much.
Recently, the Germans prosecuted a near demented 90+ year old concentration camp guard. All this guard did was to log in the belongings of inmates coming into the camp. He did not engage in beatings, torture, and killing. He was at best an accountant.
Mengele's guilt is without doubt as he openly published his results. Having located him, I can not but wonder how much harder it would have been to either nab or kill him. I can't help but think the political heat Israel got for nabbing Eichmann was too much.
4
"On the one hand..." -- "On the other hand..." Prevarication is a celebrated part of Jewish national character. But another argument for going after Mengele would have been that he was the poster child for Nazi atrocities; hardly anyone had heard of Eichmann, a faceless bureaucrat, before his trial squeezed out bit by bit the enormity of "banal" human resources management Nazi style, whereas most people with a passing interest in recent history had heard of the evil Dr. Mengele. His capture would have been a major propaganda coup for Israel at a critical time, and solidified liberal world opinion in support of the embattled state. But... Mention of the threat looming in 1961 from potentiaI Nazi rocket scientists (wow -- I thought the US had already snapped them up for "our side"!) -- reminds me that I happened to be hitch-hiking along North Africa to Cairo in summer 1962, and at some point in the Western Desert I came across an Egyptian army camp where a friendly sergeant sat me down for a cup of tea. Already on my guard (I knew that many of the older generation were not fond of the British after the Suez affair of a decade before), I told him I was a German, not a British, student. Whereupon he regaled me with praise for Rommel and his troops, unfairly beaten by "English -- Australians -- everybody!" at nearly Alamein, and told me how Egypt already had rockets with which to drive the Jews into the sea. Perhaps Mossad had its priorities right after all.
3
Respectfully disagree with the author. Although he lived on the run....he lived. And had he been caught and received the same end of the rope that Eichmann did, many more who had suffered directly at his hand would have slept with a smile on their faces.
3
Very unconvincing account. Aharoni had located Mengele. Germany would have issued a warrant at Israel's request. Reason for Mengele's impunity?
4
Nazis no longer posed a threat?
Wow! What naivete.
I hope those chants of 'Jews Will Not Replace Us' did not fall on deaf ears.
Let's also hope, that people actually find the 'underling reason' for why people cling to extremist views like Nazism. What do they get from Nazism? Why does it appeal to them? Why do they need to feel 'superior' to other people? Why do they want to be so exclusive?
It seems that Nazism and Judaism have some talking to do. Might as well start now.
Wow! What naivete.
I hope those chants of 'Jews Will Not Replace Us' did not fall on deaf ears.
Let's also hope, that people actually find the 'underling reason' for why people cling to extremist views like Nazism. What do they get from Nazism? Why does it appeal to them? Why do they need to feel 'superior' to other people? Why do they want to be so exclusive?
It seems that Nazism and Judaism have some talking to do. Might as well start now.
I understand the decision by some to focus on more immediate threats, but it is so unfortunate that monsters like Mengele went unpunished. If anyone in the sad history of humanity deserved retribution and punishment, he was one of them. I hope there is an afterlife where he is made to suffer for his crimes.
I strongly, strongly disagree. What short sightedness. It would have cost such a relative pittance to bring one of the most vicious murderers of Jews to justice. There was no downside. "Chasing ghosts?" Mengele was no ghost. He was barely even hiding!
2
i don't see one comment condemning post-was Germany for its failure to bring Nazi butchers to justice. Whatever happened to the moral position of "You broke it, you fix it?"
4
In the early 50's when the continued existence of the State of Israel was still in question, the decision of Israel's secret service was made to prioritize espionage
against foreign governments particularly russia and arab governments. the other priority was bringing in Jews from the Arab countries. going after nazis was a bottom priority. mailing explosive packages to nazi scientists in Egypt was an exception.
by the seventies the situation had changed drastically favorable for Israel. it imossad will never reveal the real reason it didn't go after mengele.
it is beyond me why a rich bounty was never put on mengele's head and on others surely somebody or people would have taken up a reward offer.
against foreign governments particularly russia and arab governments. the other priority was bringing in Jews from the Arab countries. going after nazis was a bottom priority. mailing explosive packages to nazi scientists in Egypt was an exception.
by the seventies the situation had changed drastically favorable for Israel. it imossad will never reveal the real reason it didn't go after mengele.
it is beyond me why a rich bounty was never put on mengele's head and on others surely somebody or people would have taken up a reward offer.
1
Re: "The capture and trial of Eichmann — and his execution — were enough..."
They were not.
Surely the world's Jews could have supported Megele's capture and trial.
Never forget. Never forgive. But then, I am not a Jew.
They were not.
Surely the world's Jews could have supported Megele's capture and trial.
Never forget. Never forgive. But then, I am not a Jew.
1
Do you really think that Josef Mengele is the worst problem of the contemporary world?
Have you heard about the International Criminal Court in Hague? Have you ever heard of Biljana Plavsic?
As a member of the collective Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina she was directly responsible for plunging the country into the terrible civil war, for the colossal ethnic cleansing, for more than 100,000 people losing their lives, for several hundred thousand refugees fleeing their homes...
She (a Serb by nationality) is famous for saying in an interview given during the war to a media outlet from Belgrade that she was willing to sacrifice 6 million Serbs in order to permanently separate them from their neighbors because that would be just a half of the total number of the Serbs…
Do you wonder what her prison sentence was?
She got 11 years, but served only 6 years in a very comfortable prison in Sweden and was released early due to the good behavior.
After the release from prison she is very proud of everything she did and said during the war…
Have you heard about the International Criminal Court in Hague? Have you ever heard of Biljana Plavsic?
As a member of the collective Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina she was directly responsible for plunging the country into the terrible civil war, for the colossal ethnic cleansing, for more than 100,000 people losing their lives, for several hundred thousand refugees fleeing their homes...
She (a Serb by nationality) is famous for saying in an interview given during the war to a media outlet from Belgrade that she was willing to sacrifice 6 million Serbs in order to permanently separate them from their neighbors because that would be just a half of the total number of the Serbs…
Do you wonder what her prison sentence was?
She got 11 years, but served only 6 years in a very comfortable prison in Sweden and was released early due to the good behavior.
After the release from prison she is very proud of everything she did and said during the war…
1
Just so he could stand and his deeds be enumerated, one after the other, while the world watched and listened. It would not be about vengeance. Who cares if Mengele was punished adequately or not? Who cares if he suffered? We needed him to show us to what depths a human can sink. We needed to look at him forever and endlessly call out his evil. He should have been captured.
3
"Nazis no longer posed a threat."
I would die laughing if this statement and its author weren't so utterly divorced from sad, dangerous reality.
This story should be a moral test for Israel's loyalists; how spectacularly the "Jewish state" has failed or abandoned the Jewish people.
I would die laughing if this statement and its author weren't so utterly divorced from sad, dangerous reality.
This story should be a moral test for Israel's loyalists; how spectacularly the "Jewish state" has failed or abandoned the Jewish people.
1
Seriously? They couldn't afford one guy and a sniper rifle or a bomb to put an end to the poster boy for genocide? Israel has certainly not hesitated to whack other bad guys with far less impressive credentials. I don't believe it.
3
By asking "Why Did Israel Let Mengele Go?" the headline overstates Israel's reach and grasp. The headline and the article make it sound like Israel had Mengele in its possession but let him slip away, and that is simply not the case.
In addition to Mossad, there were private citizens like Simon Wiesenthal, Serge & Beate Klarsfeld and others hunting down Mengele and other Nazi war criminals.
They were smart, persistent and tenacious.
Despite their best efforts, however, Nazi hunting was not easy. There were some success stories, like the capture of Klaus Barbie or the recapture of Kurt Lischka, but they involved years (decades!) of dogged sleuthing and intrigue.
In addition to Mossad, there were private citizens like Simon Wiesenthal, Serge & Beate Klarsfeld and others hunting down Mengele and other Nazi war criminals.
They were smart, persistent and tenacious.
Despite their best efforts, however, Nazi hunting was not easy. There were some success stories, like the capture of Klaus Barbie or the recapture of Kurt Lischka, but they involved years (decades!) of dogged sleuthing and intrigue.
2
This story doesn't quite add up. Mossad had a positive ID and an agent within reach of Mengele and let him go? Mengele wasn't just A Nazi, he was THE Nazi: the Nazi whose crimes I heard most about in Hebrew school and from my survivor grandparents, the Nazi who embodied cruelty and inhumanity, the Nazi who best illustrated how evil walks among us.
Mengele was the ne plus ultra Nazi operative. It is incomprehensible that Israeli national pride would have allowed this man to live out his days in freedom if there was an alternative. Some crimes demand justice regardless the cost.
A modern parallel would be if the USA had decided to give up pursuit of Bin Laden because it needed to focus on the war in Afghanistan and couldn't spare the resources. How would that sit with the United States citizenry? Bergman's explanation seems a bit too thin given the significance of Mengele's crimes against the Jewish people. In the absence of compelling primary source evidence, I find it hard to swallow this thesis on Bergman's word.
Mengele was the ne plus ultra Nazi operative. It is incomprehensible that Israeli national pride would have allowed this man to live out his days in freedom if there was an alternative. Some crimes demand justice regardless the cost.
A modern parallel would be if the USA had decided to give up pursuit of Bin Laden because it needed to focus on the war in Afghanistan and couldn't spare the resources. How would that sit with the United States citizenry? Bergman's explanation seems a bit too thin given the significance of Mengele's crimes against the Jewish people. In the absence of compelling primary source evidence, I find it hard to swallow this thesis on Bergman's word.
6
Lack of resources my foot. I'm sure there were countless highly trained and capable people in the Israeli army, and others peoples around the world, who would have taken Mengele out for free and have been grateful for the honor.
4
So Meir Amit wanted the Mossad to “...stop chasing after ghosts from the past and devote all our manpower and resources to threats against the security of the state.”
What a difficult decision, considering that ghosts can still affect the security of one or many minds. May we never forget the Holocaust and other genocides.
www.thewaryouknow.com
What a difficult decision, considering that ghosts can still affect the security of one or many minds. May we never forget the Holocaust and other genocides.
www.thewaryouknow.com
Why didn't the US hunt down that monster? Or England? It's shameful that it was left to the Israelis.
2
I was raised by good men that survived the camps. Each was clear. At least half the people we will know in life would do as the Germans did given the same circumstances. Personally, I think it's closer to 75%.
Antisemitism is a permanent feature of the landscape. Sadly, I have crossed paths with Jews that seem to suffer. So many have assimilated and lost their identities.
My father would have walked from his orthodox Jewish heritage - but his Christian wife would have none of it. She urged him to assume command of The New York Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, not UJA. She married three Jews. Dad was her third. Her mom was prejudiced. Dad did not care until she urged him. At which point he rose... to lead New York's Jews and others ... and I became aware of my lineage. She was Church of England on her father's side, Lutheran on her mother's.
We are Jews, we are Yazidis... we are threatened by oppressors. When any minority is threatened, all are threatened.
The sick elements that live within groups, the fanatics and emotionally disturbed that rise to leadership positions, these people cannot be allowed to rule.
We must recommit ourselves daily and throughout life. Prejudice of any kind is dangerous to all.
Josef Mengele is alive and well in ISIS.
Thousands of Yazidi children are raped. They are raped by boys that have themselves experienced the worst. We will learn this.
Man's inhumanity threatens all.
Ronan Bergman is right. It's far bigger than Mengele.
Antisemitism is a permanent feature of the landscape. Sadly, I have crossed paths with Jews that seem to suffer. So many have assimilated and lost their identities.
My father would have walked from his orthodox Jewish heritage - but his Christian wife would have none of it. She urged him to assume command of The New York Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, not UJA. She married three Jews. Dad was her third. Her mom was prejudiced. Dad did not care until she urged him. At which point he rose... to lead New York's Jews and others ... and I became aware of my lineage. She was Church of England on her father's side, Lutheran on her mother's.
We are Jews, we are Yazidis... we are threatened by oppressors. When any minority is threatened, all are threatened.
The sick elements that live within groups, the fanatics and emotionally disturbed that rise to leadership positions, these people cannot be allowed to rule.
We must recommit ourselves daily and throughout life. Prejudice of any kind is dangerous to all.
Josef Mengele is alive and well in ISIS.
Thousands of Yazidi children are raped. They are raped by boys that have themselves experienced the worst. We will learn this.
Man's inhumanity threatens all.
Ronan Bergman is right. It's far bigger than Mengele.
3
but now we see a resurgence of the Nazi ideology, and important lessons are important to be repeated. Retrospect always easy-but maybe it would have been better to go after Mengele and remind folks about the horrors of the Nazis and provide a warning for the future.
People outside of Israel have little understanding about the continual daily security war that the Israelis have lived with since 1948. Especially in those early years security resources had to be allocated to the most immediate threats. Yes, the thought of Mengele dying a free man is offensive. But the thought that vital intelligence might have been missed because Mossad was too busy chasing Mengele to protect the country is horrifying. Israel is a haven and must be kept safe. The correct choice was made.
4
I don't think they just let him go. There is more to the story than lack of effort and time. Israel sure went after smaller fish and got them.
2
Justice required Mengele to be punished, not revenge. Being tied and hanged is not revenge, it is justice. Foregoing justice in pursuit of other goals, politics, or simply for convenience, may sometime be the "right" decision- but its not justice. Those who wants justice were rightly outraged.
1
Remembrance is much more powerful (and instructive) than revenge; with revenge it's difficult to know when to stop. Are all Germans responsible or just those that joined the Nazi Party? I doubt that Mengele's death in the 50's or 60's would have discouraged suicide bombers in the 90's...or now.
The German people are still healing in fits and starts, and the moral high ground belongs to those who struggle, admit their wrongs, and forgive others.
The German people are still healing in fits and starts, and the moral high ground belongs to those who struggle, admit their wrongs, and forgive others.
This doesn't really add up. To essentially have Mengele and let him go because there were these other macro issues that somehow needed to be prioritized? As if there was a contradiction between picking Mengele up and tending to larger questions of national security. This article makes you you think there was something else going on here.
Why did the Red Cross knowingly provide assistance for Mengele to flee Germany? As for Mr. Bergman's statement that "Nazis are no longer a threat", I'd say there's ample recent evidence that conclusion is incorrect (to say the very least).
1
Most successful intelligence agencies practice "pragmatism" and adapt to changing threats, but I must say, I find this particular case a bit strange. It seems that it would not have required any extraordinary investment of time or other resources to capture Mengele--they knew exactly where he was and had their agent in place. (Reminds me of the CIA operative who had Osama Bin Laden in his gun sights but was ordered to desist.) I don't know, but I can't help feeling, as some other commentators have suggested, that there is something fishy here and that perhaps, just perhaps, Mengele was protected in some larger way. Was he a double agent? It seems unthinkable, but then, you know, "pragmatism." Still, Mengele was guilty of horrific, sadistic crimes against humanity. The world, not Israel alone, should have brought him to justice.
3
If the capture, trial and execution of Eichmann were enough to teach the world about the consequences of harming innocents we would not be where we are today with atrocities occurring worldwide. It was not even enough to teach the Jews 40 years later, based on the willingness of Mossad to consider torturing a 12 year old boy for information that could lead to the capture of Mengele.
The victims becoming the monsters is an all too common theme. There can never be enough reminders of the capacity of humanity to commit acts of unspeakable violence to demonstrate intention or dominance, or just for the sheer pleasure of it, however obscene that may seem to mild mannered people. That lesson must be constantly and actively reinforced. When we choose to acknowledge and respond to the existence of the dark side of humanity only when the risk is personal, we have become the enablers of that we purport to abhor.
The victims becoming the monsters is an all too common theme. There can never be enough reminders of the capacity of humanity to commit acts of unspeakable violence to demonstrate intention or dominance, or just for the sheer pleasure of it, however obscene that may seem to mild mannered people. That lesson must be constantly and actively reinforced. When we choose to acknowledge and respond to the existence of the dark side of humanity only when the risk is personal, we have become the enablers of that we purport to abhor.
2
Perhaps this pragmatic concern for "today" and "tomorrow" as opposed to taking symbolic vengeance for what occurred 3/4's of century ago (well - except when guilt tripping Americans who had nothing to do with the Holocaust in order to gain advantage in American society) is why Jewish leaders choose to "forget" the Second Holocaust of 6 million killed by Russian & East European Marxists who were just as fascistic and murderous as the Nazis. After all the Marxists who killed many 10's of millions more than Hitler, the Marxists were and still are in charge of much of the world and embarrassing and bringing them to justice after WWII would 1. interfere with doing profit making "business" in Eastern Europe and Russia, and 2. disprove the "narrative" of a separate & superior Jewish racial identity by dredging up the truth that millions of Jewish victims of Marxism were betrayed and murdered by people racially and ethnically identical to themselves. So, as a result of this convenient 'forgetting' the world definitely has not learned the lesson that the 'make everyone equal' dogma of Marxism allows the killing of a large fraction of a nation's population using any available excuse, be it religion, class or ethnicity, in order to reach this twin of Nazi ideology's Marxist Utopia. An Israeli colleague who grew up in Romania during the German and Soviet occupations told me about all this when she was horrified to learn that US intellectuals often idolize Marxist movements and leaders.
2
It is very likely that the Mossad was not the only Intelligence service able to locate Mengele. It is also very likely that those with the manpower decided to let it go for obscure political reasons, known in French as " la raison d'Etat", where you do not look at morality or vengeance but at the then-perceived good of your own country.
Many examples in History books or even TV series : look at narcos Season 3 to get a not so glorious example of a trade off between drug trafficking and political aims.
And to be complete, no country is free of that disease : we in France have a huge stain with collaborators during WW2 that were allowed to continue living and working for the rest of their lives... protected even today as archives are sill not made available.
Many examples in History books or even TV series : look at narcos Season 3 to get a not so glorious example of a trade off between drug trafficking and political aims.
And to be complete, no country is free of that disease : we in France have a huge stain with collaborators during WW2 that were allowed to continue living and working for the rest of their lives... protected even today as archives are sill not made available.
4
I am not Jewish and not alive during WW2. I cannot say I thoroughly understand all of the issues which were part and parcel to the horror of the Holocaust. I am of color and can understand the need for retribution and making the world understand that the folks who perpetrated the Holocaust will never be permitted to breathe fresh air.
This story didn't mention the Nuremberg Trials and the number of Nazis who were executed or jailed for their part in the Nazis' crimes of genocide against humanity. Its easy for someone who is separated from this Holocaust horror by time to say well, there were the Nuremberg Trials and Eichmann. However, one must ask assuming when is enough, sufficient? The truth is assuming one were to get every single Nazi involved in WW2 that will never restore the life of one's grandmother, mother, sister, brother or friend. Does tracking down and capturing Nazis cause the world to remember, pause and never allow it to happen again. I truly do not know, but I wish it did. All I can say, is that murder or hobbling people, whether the actions are prettied up as necessary for ethnic, religious, racial, or even economic rationales, has no place in this world. All people must rise up and demand that it never happen again or exist in any form, whatsoever. Can we move forward absent retribution, I hope so. but I don't know.
This story didn't mention the Nuremberg Trials and the number of Nazis who were executed or jailed for their part in the Nazis' crimes of genocide against humanity. Its easy for someone who is separated from this Holocaust horror by time to say well, there were the Nuremberg Trials and Eichmann. However, one must ask assuming when is enough, sufficient? The truth is assuming one were to get every single Nazi involved in WW2 that will never restore the life of one's grandmother, mother, sister, brother or friend. Does tracking down and capturing Nazis cause the world to remember, pause and never allow it to happen again. I truly do not know, but I wish it did. All I can say, is that murder or hobbling people, whether the actions are prettied up as necessary for ethnic, religious, racial, or even economic rationales, has no place in this world. All people must rise up and demand that it never happen again or exist in any form, whatsoever. Can we move forward absent retribution, I hope so. but I don't know.
3
Most comments here are self-righteous and moralizing. Israel and Mossad exist in the real world - which is gritty and far from ideal or perfect (remember, that according to the article, Mossad itself considered kidnapping an innocent child to blackmail his father into betraying Mengele). The article and comments illustrate the vast gulf between the spoiled people in America and the small countries in the real world that try to eke out a living and maintain some level of independence and security for their people.
smoke!
for all priorities and limited rescources, (after all the effort and expense) there he was, face to face with mossad on a country road, protected by an order to let him be...because there were other fish to fry in eygpt!? because bringing nazis to justice was, what?
no longer consequent to the crimes they committed?
"My new research sheds light on a time when realism and maturity shaped the agency’s priorities, rather than an understandable desire to spill Nazi blood..." says mr bergman, glossing the legal obligation and the symbolic value of closing the book on mengle (rather than highlighting the dereliction, as it appears, of leaving it open by choice).
Eichmann, says he, was "enough to teach the world about the holocaust and convey the message that jewish blood cannot be spilled with impunity," (how has that worked so far?)
the only thing certain when this, (remember, the long standing effort was at a point of capture) is considered "maturity" is that it guarantees repeat, today or tomorrow...as theodore herzel found out when he finally woke up to the renewal of antisemitism in vienna, and began to work toward the establishment of a jewish state (the one too busy to knock on mengle's door in pursuit of the evil that motivated its very existence).
so, smoke on, but pardon anyone who persists in trying to pierce the obfuscation of whatever truths still hide behind the masks of this betrayal.
for all priorities and limited rescources, (after all the effort and expense) there he was, face to face with mossad on a country road, protected by an order to let him be...because there were other fish to fry in eygpt!? because bringing nazis to justice was, what?
no longer consequent to the crimes they committed?
"My new research sheds light on a time when realism and maturity shaped the agency’s priorities, rather than an understandable desire to spill Nazi blood..." says mr bergman, glossing the legal obligation and the symbolic value of closing the book on mengle (rather than highlighting the dereliction, as it appears, of leaving it open by choice).
Eichmann, says he, was "enough to teach the world about the holocaust and convey the message that jewish blood cannot be spilled with impunity," (how has that worked so far?)
the only thing certain when this, (remember, the long standing effort was at a point of capture) is considered "maturity" is that it guarantees repeat, today or tomorrow...as theodore herzel found out when he finally woke up to the renewal of antisemitism in vienna, and began to work toward the establishment of a jewish state (the one too busy to knock on mengle's door in pursuit of the evil that motivated its very existence).
so, smoke on, but pardon anyone who persists in trying to pierce the obfuscation of whatever truths still hide behind the masks of this betrayal.
With all due respect to Dr. Bergman's standing as a student of Israeli intelligence history, I am sure that he will be the first to admit that even after all his research, he is drawing conclusions based on maybe 40% of the deck, as it were.
We will probably never really know what Mossad thought or why they really decided what they decided.
We will probably never really know what Mossad thought or why they really decided what they decided.
5
Today (=Friday), in Hebrew ha-Aretz (it does not yet apparently appear in the English version), Ofer Aderet comes to the exact opposite conclusion of Ronen Bergman: the Mossad just blew it in Aderet's view.
Both Aderet and Bergman are using the same documents and the same internal Mossad report (released of course by Mossad).
So what is the truth?
As I wrote in the comment, we shall most likely never know
Both Aderet and Bergman are using the same documents and the same internal Mossad report (released of course by Mossad).
So what is the truth?
As I wrote in the comment, we shall most likely never know
3
Mengele was one of the most sadistic torture-murderers of whom there is any historical record, in addition to being a lead player in the most methodical genocide in history. The thought that Mossad had the information they needed to capture and try him and failed to do so because of a historical coincidence is deeply shocking. The story about Israel's security needs amounts to the claim that they could not afford a few more operatives to bring this monster to justice. That is not credible. Nor could the crimes of Mengele be put aside as "past" when so many relatives of his victims were still alive and in pain. This absurd decision is on a par with the Cambodian government's apparent decision not to prosecute any more of the heinous criminals responsible for the torture and/or murder of millions of Cambodian citizens. These are disturbing comments on the inability of governments to make correct moral choices. Shocking, but not all that surprising when even today we have a President who equates a murderous rampage by neo-Nazis with peaceful protests against racism. As Plato long ago observed, governments are simply not fit for making moral decisions, and even see those who are as fools. Here is one more testament to his wisdom.
3
If Mossad knew where he was, how much of a cost would it have been to dispatch a team stage an operation and deal with him. I don't get it.
2
The Mossad faced a crisis. Should the agency direct its assets in defending Israel from the existential threat posed by Israel's Middle Eastern enemies or seek justice for the victims of the Holocaust? Sometimes intelligence agencies are more calculating than many assume. The search for Joseff Menagle demonstrated that assumption. The Israeli intelligence service put the justice for Holocaust survivors lower on the totem pole than the assassination of German scientists working for the Egyptians. Cold and calculating? Absolutely. Was it the correct course to follow? Most definitely. An excellent article and deserves a wide readership.
2
Why was it only Israel's responsibility to bring this man to justice?
5
This is part of a larger question, about why so many Nazi war criminals were able to escape to friendly countries in South America, and why few of them were brought to justice. My wife and I had this discussion (we were watching "Hunting for Hitler", that postulates Hitler may have escaped as well) and asking if Hitler in fact made it to South America, why he was able to stay and live there. My answer was like with this article, that the powers that be wanted to put that in the past. The US, in the middle of the cold war, didn't want to embarrass the anti communist military dictatorships sheltering the Nazis and thus didn't really make much of an effort. Add to that who were sympathetic to the Nazis (and yes, folks, there were plenty of them in the US), and it tells the story. What isn't said is if the US after Eichman told Israel to cool it, with the threat of witholding funding, I would bet that played a part in this, too. Put it this way, US and German intelligence knew where Eichman was, knew the name he was living under, where he was working, and the only way the Mossad found him was a disgusted Germasn intelligence officer tipped them off, and the embarassment of Eichman being in Argentina, a state the US helped prop up, didn't go over well in the US.
I think people need to get over the idea of guys in white hats out to wipe out war criminals, in the end political expediency rules all.
I think people need to get over the idea of guys in white hats out to wipe out war criminals, in the end political expediency rules all.
1
As a year 7 or year 8 student in 1960 or 1961 I can remember being asked in an English class at school to write an essay on whether I thought Adolf Eichmann, who was already in custody at that time, should be executed or not. I wrote that "Yes, he should be executed. There are 6 million reasons why this should happen." I have not changed my mind one iota since that then.
I also believe that it would have been highly desirable for the Israeli's, or indeed for the security forces of any country to have apprehended the mass murder, Mengele and that he also should have also faced execution for his wartime crimes against humanity.
People of the caliber of Adolf Eichmann or Josef Mengele have no place among the living here in Earth.
I also believe that it would have been highly desirable for the Israeli's, or indeed for the security forces of any country to have apprehended the mass murder, Mengele and that he also should have also faced execution for his wartime crimes against humanity.
People of the caliber of Adolf Eichmann or Josef Mengele have no place among the living here in Earth.
2
Regarding my earlier comment about Kissinger's sole priority in Argentina (crushing the left, after the military junta), which was not to be diluted by Nazi-hunting: that's the same Kissinger who, in 1973, did not feel that it was in the interest of the US to press the USSR concerning the plight of Jews being persecuted there.
In a conversation Kissinger had with Richard Nixon (after Henry had met with Golda Meir on March 1, 1973), Kissinger stated, "The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not an objective of American foreign policy, and if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern."
That perverse, distinct separation, between what Kissinger considered "an American concern," versus "a humanitarian concern," is exactly the kind of sick thinking that kept the US from taking on the Nazis, and trying to stop their genocide, until Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese. It's also the kind of sick thinking that led to our abandonment of South Vietnam's "boat people" after we lost that war. If humanitarian concerns aren't virtually synonymous with American concerns, in areas of the world where we've condoned or conducted destructive acts, we diminish the sacrifices of men and women in the military (past and present), whose "America" makes no such Kissinger-esque distinction.
In a conversation Kissinger had with Richard Nixon (after Henry had met with Golda Meir on March 1, 1973), Kissinger stated, "The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not an objective of American foreign policy, and if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern."
That perverse, distinct separation, between what Kissinger considered "an American concern," versus "a humanitarian concern," is exactly the kind of sick thinking that kept the US from taking on the Nazis, and trying to stop their genocide, until Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese. It's also the kind of sick thinking that led to our abandonment of South Vietnam's "boat people" after we lost that war. If humanitarian concerns aren't virtually synonymous with American concerns, in areas of the world where we've condoned or conducted destructive acts, we diminish the sacrifices of men and women in the military (past and present), whose "America" makes no such Kissinger-esque distinction.
5
This is a very emotionally charged discussion.
The idea of prioritizing meager resources during trying times can be a heated discussion, particularly when argued in retrospect. This is a similar discussion as to why President Roosevelt, who was made aware of the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazi's, did not bomb the railroad tracks leading to the concentration camps towards the War's end, possibly saving hundreds of thousands of Jews lives. At that particular time, the impression in the military was that the USAF was stretched way too thin, and the risks to US pilots way to high, to take on that mission while they were desperately needed in at the front in Europe and in the far East.
If Roosevelt would have taken on that humanitarian tactic, many of my relatives may have survived the war, so to me personally, prioritizing meager resources is not a good enough reason. Sometimes you just have to do the right thing, particularly during difficult times. Same here.
But I do appreciate that there is another valid opinion to this discussion, same here.
The idea of prioritizing meager resources during trying times can be a heated discussion, particularly when argued in retrospect. This is a similar discussion as to why President Roosevelt, who was made aware of the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazi's, did not bomb the railroad tracks leading to the concentration camps towards the War's end, possibly saving hundreds of thousands of Jews lives. At that particular time, the impression in the military was that the USAF was stretched way too thin, and the risks to US pilots way to high, to take on that mission while they were desperately needed in at the front in Europe and in the far East.
If Roosevelt would have taken on that humanitarian tactic, many of my relatives may have survived the war, so to me personally, prioritizing meager resources is not a good enough reason. Sometimes you just have to do the right thing, particularly during difficult times. Same here.
But I do appreciate that there is another valid opinion to this discussion, same here.
18
And that Roosevelt's Secretary of State was notably anti-Semitic was also in the mix.
2
I have heard the silly argument many times that Roosevelt or Churchill should have bombed the railroad tracks going into the concentration camps. Their failure was due to anti-Semitism etc. Anyone who was a pilot knows it is not easy to bomb something as small and flat as railroad tracks. The tracks were deep in Germany, not on the coast. Any bombed tracks would have quickly been replaced, likely with Jewish labor. Bombing a hangar full of fighter plains or a munition plant is easier and far more effective, but bombing quickly replaced railroad tracks was rightly determined to be be low yield risking a pilot and plane.
For example the Lutwaffe bombed a large and visible Buckingham Palace 16 times with minimal damage. St. Pauls survived the blitz, as large as it was. Only in Hollywood movies does bombing look nearly so easy and effective.
For example the Lutwaffe bombed a large and visible Buckingham Palace 16 times with minimal damage. St. Pauls survived the blitz, as large as it was. Only in Hollywood movies does bombing look nearly so easy and effective.
4
I, too, think there's more to the story. Wondering if and how the Catholic church was complicit.
2
This is an informative article but I disagree with the author's conclusion. Although priorities for the Mossad did have to change with the Middle East issue they HAD this sick excuse for a human being and should have acted to bring him to justice. Dr. Mengele was living in the open like he had nothing to hide. The operatives were right there. Having this man live the rest of his life like he never engaged in the horrific activities he was guilty of is a disgrace.
My father, an airborne infantry soldier in WWII was present at one of the liberated concentration camps and shared what he witnessed with my mother after the war. She made him promise never to tell my sister or I in an effort to protect us from the terrible events the Germans had engaged in at those camps. As I grew into an adult obviously I had access to what took place and I can't wrap my mind around why the Mossad simply just didn't end Mengele's life.
As I'm not a religious man I doubt any justice will be dispensed by whatever God many people believe in and think it was an error in judgment not to have acted when the Mossad located him. Mengele was a doctor and the first rule is to "do no harm" which apparently meant nothing to him. I'm certain his victims didn't consider that no harm would come to them having been placed in the hands of a monster.
My father, an airborne infantry soldier in WWII was present at one of the liberated concentration camps and shared what he witnessed with my mother after the war. She made him promise never to tell my sister or I in an effort to protect us from the terrible events the Germans had engaged in at those camps. As I grew into an adult obviously I had access to what took place and I can't wrap my mind around why the Mossad simply just didn't end Mengele's life.
As I'm not a religious man I doubt any justice will be dispensed by whatever God many people believe in and think it was an error in judgment not to have acted when the Mossad located him. Mengele was a doctor and the first rule is to "do no harm" which apparently meant nothing to him. I'm certain his victims didn't consider that no harm would come to them having been placed in the hands of a monster.
39
I understand why the Israeli govt. decided to focus limited resources elsewhere. What's bizarre is that Germany, France, America, etc. didn't make an effort with far greater resources.
1
They already knew where he was. Bringing him to justice would have been very possible. It's one thing to start a search from scratch but when you have a fix on his location the rest should be achievable. The man committed horrible acts and somewhere in all of those years they could have found the time to do something about it.
It is not plausible that "other priorities" led to ignoring a known fugitive in a known location. Maybe that last swim was not an accident.
1
Actually, it's entirely plausible. And, an execution "sub rosa" would have lacked the exemplarity that dealing with a major Nazi war criminal required. Don't look for conspiracies under every bush.
This all sounds very fishy. The Israelis knew where he was, but the small amount of resources and manpower that were required to apprehend him were diverted to bigger issues? Those resources were not critical to the efforts to solve the big, important issues mentioned here. There's more to the story than the author is telling us. Whether he knows what that "more" is, I couldn't say, but the story he's telling here is absurd.
4
I could not disagree more with Mr. Bergman. Like Eichman, Mengele was a symbol of the evil that was the Nazis. He should have been found and brought to trial with expedience. His prosecution would have furthered the message that those who harm Jews will be punished. That is too easy for the world to forget.
41
Couldn't disagree more with Bergman. His says his parents were survivors, but I'm a child survivor, and I suspect that others like me would liked to have seen Mengele assassinated, with the pictures of his corpse shown on every major newspaper and TV station in the world. The message: Jewish blood doesn't come cheap. I don't buy that Israelis were too preoccupied with current and future issues to go after him. I suspect that what really happened is that the people in charge were mostly native born Israelis, who tended all to often to be dismissive of the preoccupation of survivors and non-Israelis with the Holocaust. (They don't appreciate how fortunate they were that the Brits defeated Rommel at El Alamein; if the Germans had won, they had portable gas chambers ready to roll into Israel to exterminate the Jews there) Of course, survivors in the government and Begin didn't appreciate the dismissive attitude of their native born counterparts. And it wouldn't have taken very much or cost very much to kill Mengele. Shame on them!
3
Why was Israel so alone in making these decisions? It makes sense that a small nation had to prioritize for the sake of immediate term national security. It makes not sense that the rest of the world did not help or did not care. Mengele should have lived his last many years in a sparse jail cell, not on a beach.
6
I do not understand this article at all. If it weren't important to hound Mengele to justice, then why hound two comparative Nazi small-fry? Two former concentration camp guards have been extradited in the last two decades and put through ordeal trials -- both quite elderly men -- but Mengele was given a pass? Excuse me, but I just don't get the logic. Something else must have been going on. And whatever that might have been I cannot fathom.
7
Twice identified in person in South America and close enough to put a bullet in this monster's head and the Mosad did not act? It does not make sense.
8
A misleading - Israel bashing - headline implying that Israel had captured Mengele and then let him go, whereas the article makes clear that he had never been captured.
Furthermore, one might well ask why no other country is mentioned as having failed to bring Mengele to justice. Where was the USA? Where was Germany?
Both these countries (once the later had recovered economically from the war) had far greater resources. And Germany had a moral responsibility.
Furthermore, one might well ask why no other country is mentioned as having failed to bring Mengele to justice. Where was the USA? Where was Germany?
Both these countries (once the later had recovered economically from the war) had far greater resources. And Germany had a moral responsibility.
3
Excellent point.
And the headline & article try to pull off a sly 1-2 combination, disingenuously making Israel look somewhat incompetent & unconcerned with justice for Jews---
---while at the same time the author states that he, personally approves of Israel's turning the other cheek
And the headline & article try to pull off a sly 1-2 combination, disingenuously making Israel look somewhat incompetent & unconcerned with justice for Jews---
---while at the same time the author states that he, personally approves of Israel's turning the other cheek
1
The Mossad had to choose its fights, and they made the right decision from a practical if not emotional point of view. The villains in this story, apart from arch-villain Mengele himself - are the Red Cross and the German government. The latter in too many cases failed to prosecute egregious war criminals or even pay back the huge amounts of money stolen by the Nazis.
3
Add that to one of the reasons I never donate to the Red Cross. Salvation Army is money well donated...
1
You're confusing the International Red Cross with the American Red Cross. The former is supposed to help civilians and political prisoners, POWs. The American Red Cross is primarily engaged in disaster relief, I.e. In Houston right now.
1
The Mossad couldn't have quietly asked for a little help from its friends, the French, British, Americans? A joint operation with one or more WW-II Allied Power to "extract" Mengele was never, ever, even remotely possible?
Never?
Ever?
Or aked help from Poland? Hungary? Yugoslavia? Even East Germany? All were behind the Iron Curtain back then, Communist governments. But, when it came to punishing ex-Nazi SS death camp functionaries and guards the Poles, Czechs and Hungarians weren't exactly wall-flowers the East German regime famously implacable and for a reason. Ernst Thälmann (Erich Honecker's mentor) led the KPD (Communist Party of Germany) during the Weimar Republic. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1933, he was held in solitary confinement for a decade before being murdered on Hitler's expressed orders.
Apprehending a war criminal as notorious as "the Angel of Death" money was a problem?
No. I don't believe it. None of the above. Those ring false.
It was a case of missing willpower.
Hitler often waxed eloquent about his triumph of the will, how in the final analysis will-power was paramount in all struggles for supremacy. National Socialism was a cult that worshipped triumphant will. By Hitler's lights only the strongest-willed survived; or deserved to.
They didn't pursue Mengele because they didn't have the guts. Ironically, many high-echelon Nazis predicted that it would be so. Many actually boasted that it would be so.
I find it inexcusable.
Never?
Ever?
Or aked help from Poland? Hungary? Yugoslavia? Even East Germany? All were behind the Iron Curtain back then, Communist governments. But, when it came to punishing ex-Nazi SS death camp functionaries and guards the Poles, Czechs and Hungarians weren't exactly wall-flowers the East German regime famously implacable and for a reason. Ernst Thälmann (Erich Honecker's mentor) led the KPD (Communist Party of Germany) during the Weimar Republic. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1933, he was held in solitary confinement for a decade before being murdered on Hitler's expressed orders.
Apprehending a war criminal as notorious as "the Angel of Death" money was a problem?
No. I don't believe it. None of the above. Those ring false.
It was a case of missing willpower.
Hitler often waxed eloquent about his triumph of the will, how in the final analysis will-power was paramount in all struggles for supremacy. National Socialism was a cult that worshipped triumphant will. By Hitler's lights only the strongest-willed survived; or deserved to.
They didn't pursue Mengele because they didn't have the guts. Ironically, many high-echelon Nazis predicted that it would be so. Many actually boasted that it would be so.
I find it inexcusable.
7
Many commenters are saying that Israel should have done more to bring Dr. Mengele to justice. I wonder, though, how Israel would have been perceived if they had kidnapped (and perhaps killed) a 12 year old child in order to extract information about Mengele from the boy's father - especially when it turns out Mengele had already been dead for three years.
As satisfying as it would have been to bring this evil man to justice, I think Israel made the correct judgement in the end. Torturing acquaintances, kidnapping and threatening to kill innocent children - what sort of justice is this?
The US pursued maximum vengeance following 9/11. What did it get us?
As satisfying as it would have been to bring this evil man to justice, I think Israel made the correct judgement in the end. Torturing acquaintances, kidnapping and threatening to kill innocent children - what sort of justice is this?
The US pursued maximum vengeance following 9/11. What did it get us?
3
A great many wartime Nazis didn't need to go into hiding. They were offered jobs under new identities in the United States of America. One of them was Werner von Braun, der vater of the country's intercontinental ballistic missile and space program.
2
Absolutely do not agree with Bergman. I find it hard to believe that the Mossad or the government could not have spared a few people and some money to capture and bring to justice one of the most infamous monsters in recent history. Eichmann was not enough to teach the world anything. Look at what is happening right now in America with the resurgence of the Nazi.
1
The better question is why didn't the allies feel it necessary to hold these men accountable for the atrocities committed towards the Jewish people and other minorities and outsiders during WWII. Israel was a fledgling country for people who had endured unspeakable horrors. The allies had the resources and could have done more but unfortunately many secretly sympathized with the former Nazis and assisted with their escape.
I find it disgusting that the Red Cross and the Pope assisted with their escape. The knowledge that they supported fascists escape justice causes me to lose a lot of respect for these organizations. I know that they were a product of their times but that's cold comfort.
But these men were forced to live out their days looking over their shoulders wondering if the mossad were going to snatch them off the street and drag them back to Israel for a trial and execution. They never saw their families or their homeland again. Not the punishment they deserved but better than nothing.
The decision not to track these people down was a collective failure. I seriously doubt that the US didn't know that Nazis were living full lives in South America. We let the victims of WWII down by failing to persue them not Israel.
I find it disgusting that the Red Cross and the Pope assisted with their escape. The knowledge that they supported fascists escape justice causes me to lose a lot of respect for these organizations. I know that they were a product of their times but that's cold comfort.
But these men were forced to live out their days looking over their shoulders wondering if the mossad were going to snatch them off the street and drag them back to Israel for a trial and execution. They never saw their families or their homeland again. Not the punishment they deserved but better than nothing.
The decision not to track these people down was a collective failure. I seriously doubt that the US didn't know that Nazis were living full lives in South America. We let the victims of WWII down by failing to persue them not Israel.
5
"From what I have read, the Red Cross has publicly apologized for unknowingly giving Mengele and other Nazis papers that allowed their escape."
1. how do know it was unknowingly?
2. what kind of apology was give? was it a sincere or a perfunctory apology? apologies are too freely give. without follow up action apologies are useless.
1. how do know it was unknowingly?
2. what kind of apology was give? was it a sincere or a perfunctory apology? apologies are too freely give. without follow up action apologies are useless.
2
I don’t have anything against your current system of values. I agree with it. I just want to rearrange it a little bit, to tune it up and tweak.
I just want the peace to be our number one priority together with the love for our neighbors.
The very moment we believe we are better than them and want to expel them from their homes we become worse than anybody else.
We are entitled to self-defense. However, we cannot attack our neighbors or anybody else in the world just because we are afraid they might do exactly the same to us…
Such a behavior is not a sane foreign policy but the paranoia…
The very moment we want to prevent somebody else from having what we already have is the symptom of the worst racist behavior.
We should not be afraid of real Josef Mengele but of the little mengeles hiding in each of us…
I just want the peace to be our number one priority together with the love for our neighbors.
The very moment we believe we are better than them and want to expel them from their homes we become worse than anybody else.
We are entitled to self-defense. However, we cannot attack our neighbors or anybody else in the world just because we are afraid they might do exactly the same to us…
Such a behavior is not a sane foreign policy but the paranoia…
The very moment we want to prevent somebody else from having what we already have is the symptom of the worst racist behavior.
We should not be afraid of real Josef Mengele but of the little mengeles hiding in each of us…
“Why Did Israel Let Mengele Go?” asks the shocking headline to this story. The short answer is it didn’t; the headline’s sensational allegation is false.
To the extent that anything in the article can be taken as supporting this, it is the story that a Mossad agent had spotted Mengele walking on a road near a farm where he was believed to be hiding, but that Isser Harel – the Mossad chief who oversaw the capture of Adolph Eichmann – ordered the matter dropped because of other priorities.
Josef Chen, the Mossad agent charged with writing a history of the agency’s efforts to capture Mengele, has a more prosaic explanation: uncertainty as to the correctness of the identification.
“Somebody thought it was him and in the end of the day it was seemingly not him,” Chen is quoted as telling the Jerusalem Post. . . . “[I]t was not entirely clear if it was him.”
Beyond this, the article suggests that neither the Mossad nor Israel’s leaders – other than the “emotional” Menachem Begin – cared all that much about capturing Mengele. That relative indifference, the author writes with evident approval, reflected agency priorities shaped by “realism and maturity,” rather than a “desire to spill Nazi blood.”
Once again, Josef Chen tells it differently. “There is no path [the Mossad] didn’t try,” he says. But though the agency’s efforts did not succeed, at least Mengele “lived like a dog being hunted – he was hiding for dozens of years in fear that he would be found.”
To the extent that anything in the article can be taken as supporting this, it is the story that a Mossad agent had spotted Mengele walking on a road near a farm where he was believed to be hiding, but that Isser Harel – the Mossad chief who oversaw the capture of Adolph Eichmann – ordered the matter dropped because of other priorities.
Josef Chen, the Mossad agent charged with writing a history of the agency’s efforts to capture Mengele, has a more prosaic explanation: uncertainty as to the correctness of the identification.
“Somebody thought it was him and in the end of the day it was seemingly not him,” Chen is quoted as telling the Jerusalem Post. . . . “[I]t was not entirely clear if it was him.”
Beyond this, the article suggests that neither the Mossad nor Israel’s leaders – other than the “emotional” Menachem Begin – cared all that much about capturing Mengele. That relative indifference, the author writes with evident approval, reflected agency priorities shaped by “realism and maturity,” rather than a “desire to spill Nazi blood.”
Once again, Josef Chen tells it differently. “There is no path [the Mossad] didn’t try,” he says. But though the agency’s efforts did not succeed, at least Mengele “lived like a dog being hunted – he was hiding for dozens of years in fear that he would be found.”
3
For every spectacular success there are also failures. It is always possible that an organized attempt was made, and that it failed. If this was the case, it is also feasible that a completely false narrative was created by the Mossad. Namely that no attempt was made and that this "history" has been passed down by each successive head of the Mossad. Or perhaps the authors story is true. As we now know, Mengele is dead and dead is dead. Good riddance.
"The trial of Eichmann was enough." Well said, Mr. Bergman.
That sure ended the Nazis.
There are no Nazis today, not anywhere.
And by the way, about those "Sao Paulo beaches" Mengele drowned off? There are no beaches in Sao Paulo. It's an inland city.
But of course, you know that, right?
That sure ended the Nazis.
There are no Nazis today, not anywhere.
And by the way, about those "Sao Paulo beaches" Mengele drowned off? There are no beaches in Sao Paulo. It's an inland city.
But of course, you know that, right?
3
There are many beaches in the state of São Paulo whose capital is also called São Paulo (no beaches).
Most SS were never prosecuted for their crimes against humanity. They were allowed to go back into life as German citizens. This number is in the 10's of thousands. Few were prosecuted and fewer still went to the gallows. Not hunting Mengele was a mistake. He was a psychopathic murderer and symbolic of the depths of Nazi depravity. So...Mossad missed one. Now the ones surving all in their mid to late 90's and dying every day. Soon there will be no more.
2
Very upsetting to learn Mengele wasn't a priority. I bet the international community or maybe just Germany would have helped once his uniquely evil humsn experiments became known. The US wanted German engineers and scientists, bad enough. But what kind of payoff could get anyone to shelter Dr. Mengele?
I'm a gentile but can't agree with your conclusion. Every old Nazi found and dragged before a court is good news and reminds the world why Germany doesn't abide swastikas or monuments to Nazi soldiers. If Israel couldn't do it then I wish it had reached out.
I'm a gentile but can't agree with your conclusion. Every old Nazi found and dragged before a court is good news and reminds the world why Germany doesn't abide swastikas or monuments to Nazi soldiers. If Israel couldn't do it then I wish it had reached out.
4
The execution of Eichmann by Israel is presented here as having served "to convey the message that Jewish blood cannot be spilled with impunity". The Holocaust was about a powerful army taking territory and they exterminated just about every Jew that lived under their control.
And even the leaders of the SS units who directed the operations in the death camps, went back home to Germany where they all lived happily ever after.
So the actual message of the Holocaust is that 6 million Jews were killed with total impunity. And so the idea that the execution of Eichmann changed that fact is ludicrous.
The whole point of Eichmann's execution at the hands of Israel was, in the eyes of the Israelis, a message that with the existence of Israel the Jews are no longer the same people who were defenseless during the Holocaust because they had no army and even no state.
In fact the belief that Israel could have defended itself against the Nazis is what the Israelis claim as the reason why Israel must exist and is taught in all their schools.
However the fact is that for the Nazis defeating the Israeli army would have been child's play. The Soviets lost over 5 million soldiers lives to hold off the Nazis. This is in addition to the fact that Israel's army is paid for in large part by the US, which means Israel does not have the financial means to defend itself even today.
So the bedrock upon which Israel claims as the purpose and reason it must exist has in fact no basis in reality.
And even the leaders of the SS units who directed the operations in the death camps, went back home to Germany where they all lived happily ever after.
So the actual message of the Holocaust is that 6 million Jews were killed with total impunity. And so the idea that the execution of Eichmann changed that fact is ludicrous.
The whole point of Eichmann's execution at the hands of Israel was, in the eyes of the Israelis, a message that with the existence of Israel the Jews are no longer the same people who were defenseless during the Holocaust because they had no army and even no state.
In fact the belief that Israel could have defended itself against the Nazis is what the Israelis claim as the reason why Israel must exist and is taught in all their schools.
However the fact is that for the Nazis defeating the Israeli army would have been child's play. The Soviets lost over 5 million soldiers lives to hold off the Nazis. This is in addition to the fact that Israel's army is paid for in large part by the US, which means Israel does not have the financial means to defend itself even today.
So the bedrock upon which Israel claims as the purpose and reason it must exist has in fact no basis in reality.
2
The U.S. contributes about 10% of Israel's defense budget. Mostly in the form of military credits that are spent here.
This is a small fraction of what the US spends defending Korea (or Germany during the cold war ). No US troops are deployed defending Israel; it does it's own fighting. And no army has found that it's "child's play " to defeat it. That would have gone for the Nazis, too, had Israel been what it is today.
This is a small fraction of what the US spends defending Korea (or Germany during the cold war ). No US troops are deployed defending Israel; it does it's own fighting. And no army has found that it's "child's play " to defeat it. That would have gone for the Nazis, too, had Israel been what it is today.
I assume Mengele slept nervous not knowing when his time would come.plus his soul wanders in eternity with bad karma.
4
Hope you are right but doubt he had a soul.
Interesting in light of the paucity of Nazis we go after. We're reduced to prosecuting low level prison guards that no one cares about, and which really serve no purpose other than vengeance. When will other countries come after US servicemen accused of torture?
Remember, much of what happened to Nazi victims happened to Former Yugoslavians as little as twenty years ago. I see little world interest in prosecuting them, especially from those who, below, say it should not happen again. But, I guess it only applies to certain groups, not to humanity as a whole.
Remember, much of what happened to Nazi victims happened to Former Yugoslavians as little as twenty years ago. I see little world interest in prosecuting them, especially from those who, below, say it should not happen again. But, I guess it only applies to certain groups, not to humanity as a whole.
9
What a crime it is that Mr. Mengele was able to live out the remainder of his life in relative peace and comfort. I can think of no one who deserved it less.
10
Kissinger?
1
Good point.
Those most closely involved must know best, but it seems a shame that a Nazi who was apparently within such easy reach of Mossad operatives wasn't swept up and dealt with.
5
My late father saw his mother, baby brother and baby sister selected by Mengele for death the day of their arrival in Auschwitz in October, 1944. Mengele's "female" experiments sterilized my fathers other sister, and she is still alive today to speak about it. It is the greatest travesty that Mengele was never brought to justice for his heinous crimes against humanity. Israel should have received assistance from the world in hunting down this animal, but alas, Israel was alone in its efforts. Not too much has changed since then.
30
It is hard to believe that Mossad refrained from killing Mengele no matter what the constrains. They hunted down and brought to justice every Hans, Heinrich and Joseph who was remotely associated with Nazis and/or Holocaust. There must be more to the story. They must have needed something that Mengele had that was more valuable to them than his wretched life.
9
Oh please, give me a break. How about discussing the tens of Nazis (Werner von Braun to name one) brought to the U.S. immediately after WW II so we could further our U-2 and military ambitions?
For that matter might we discuss how Wall-Street-2008 has been held accountable for its actions in the devastation of millions of American lives? And who has been held accountable for the lies told to bring about the Iraq War? And Congress still hasn't been held accountable for the poor treatment even now of our wounded veterans. A shameful and horrible disgrace.
Accountability? Who ever heard of such a thing? Why the sudden hand-wringing over what the Mossad did or didn't do? At least they made some attempt at holding some Nazis accountable!
For that matter might we discuss how Wall-Street-2008 has been held accountable for its actions in the devastation of millions of American lives? And who has been held accountable for the lies told to bring about the Iraq War? And Congress still hasn't been held accountable for the poor treatment even now of our wounded veterans. A shameful and horrible disgrace.
Accountability? Who ever heard of such a thing? Why the sudden hand-wringing over what the Mossad did or didn't do? At least they made some attempt at holding some Nazis accountable!
12
This account doesn't add up. There is more to the story. Maybe be was another Klaus Barbie used by the West Germans and the CIA as an operative.
5
I don't understand why they went after Eichmann and not Mengele. If you could only get one of them, why not get the worst one? As bad as Eichmann was, he was nothing compared to Mengele.
4
Absolutely yes! Mengele should have been captured and brought to Justice.
However, as America, and perhaps some other countries were also doing some horrible "medical" experiments, such as described in David Feldshuh's play, Miss Evers' Boys, when the U.S. Federal Government did secret medical experiments on poor African Americans in the years 1932-1972, designed to study the effects of untreated syphilis, perhaps they too preferred to turn a blind eye at the risk of being exposed.
However, as America, and perhaps some other countries were also doing some horrible "medical" experiments, such as described in David Feldshuh's play, Miss Evers' Boys, when the U.S. Federal Government did secret medical experiments on poor African Americans in the years 1932-1972, designed to study the effects of untreated syphilis, perhaps they too preferred to turn a blind eye at the risk of being exposed.
10
From what I have read, the Red Cross has publicly apologized for unknowingly giving Mengele and other Nazis papers that allowed their escape. The Red Cross believed these men were refugees escaping Germany after WWII. The RC issued many travel documents to refugees.
4
If Mossad head Isser Harel had pursued Mengele instead of the German scientists aiding the Egyptians, and this decision had cost the Israeli defense forces much higher casualties, would anybody today defend the wisdom of that choice? The top priority of any country's intelligence service surely centers on the protection of national security, not the quest for an elusive revenge that would save no lives.
Mengele richly deserved punishment at the hands of the state of Israel. But after the war he had been forced to flee his homeland into humiliating exile, stripped of the status and prestige conferred on him by the Nazi regime. Whatever support he enjoyed from his fellow exiles could not compensate for his sense of irrelevance. This blow to his ego hardly amounted to justice for his unspeakable acts of evil, but it does suggest that he did not entirely escape retribution.
Mengele richly deserved punishment at the hands of the state of Israel. But after the war he had been forced to flee his homeland into humiliating exile, stripped of the status and prestige conferred on him by the Nazi regime. Whatever support he enjoyed from his fellow exiles could not compensate for his sense of irrelevance. This blow to his ego hardly amounted to justice for his unspeakable acts of evil, but it does suggest that he did not entirely escape retribution.
6
In 1959 Mengele obtained Paraguayan citizenship using his real name. At the time, Paraguay was governed by Alfredo Stroessner, the son of a Bavarian immigrant. Stroessner's political enemies insisted that the Nazi fugitive was living in Paraguay under his protection. This hypothesis had the support of the world press, and famous Nazi hunters such as Simon Wiensenthal. Unbeknown to them, during all this time Mengele was living in a slum of Sao Paulo, Brazil far away from the glamour portrayed in The Boys from Brazil. -- No one was looking for him outside Paraguay, until finally in 1985 the German police searching the home of a manager of the Mengele family farm-equipment business, found evidence that he was in Brazil. The nazi-fugitive's son even visited him in Sao Paulo, and all the family, including his son's in-laws from his two marriages, knew his real refuge all these years. By then, it was too late, Joseph Mengele had been dead since 1979.
2
Yes. He was not "let go" by Israel. He likely would have been shot or transported for trial if they knew exactly where he was. But there was an easing up on the search.
1
By coincidence, the flags of Israel and Nazi Germany both feature an ancient geometric Indian symbol in their centers.
1
I am still left wondering: why did Israel let Mengele go? Why did the Red Cross let him go? Why did anyone let him go? Why conclude that the lessons of the past have been learned? We are seeing a world-wide rise in extremism, Nazis and fascists marching in US cities with their hate-filled chants. Justice was denied to those souls that Mengele killed and maimed, and many of us fear that history may be repeating.
5
Our actions are not singular. The things we choose to do have a direct effect on who we are and who we are becoming. By allowing Mengele to live Isrial was in effect condoning what he did. And so Isrial slid down the same slope that Germany had except Isrial's "enemy" was ( is) the Palestinians.
1
Forget Joseph Mengele! He did not kill anybody since 1945…
What about us? How many millions people have we killed during the same period?
How come that we don’t have the right to interfere into the lives of the racial, ethnic, and religious minorities here at home but are somehow entitled to do it all over the world, from Asia and the Middle East to Africa and the Latin America?
Who gave us such a right that created the millions refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Libya?
Should not we talk about our own sins instead of Joseph Mengele?
I don’t care about him. I am dreadful how the next generations will judge our actions.
Will we be construed during the next centuries in the same way we see the slave owners from the 19th century today?
Those fools believed too they had the inherent right to control the lives of the other human beings…
What about us? How many millions people have we killed during the same period?
How come that we don’t have the right to interfere into the lives of the racial, ethnic, and religious minorities here at home but are somehow entitled to do it all over the world, from Asia and the Middle East to Africa and the Latin America?
Who gave us such a right that created the millions refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Libya?
Should not we talk about our own sins instead of Joseph Mengele?
I don’t care about him. I am dreadful how the next generations will judge our actions.
Will we be construed during the next centuries in the same way we see the slave owners from the 19th century today?
Those fools believed too they had the inherent right to control the lives of the other human beings…
6
Unsubstantiated claims dominate Mossad's position, though I would accept it. Yet, without any indication of the resources required to apprehend a man whose identity and location were known, no one can weigh its claims that apprehension was a diversion of significant resources from more important security efforts.
His family should have been held accountable since they were in contact with him. They never were. Appalling
17
Held accountable in what way? Guilt by association is not a supportable legal doctrine.
4
Holding families accountable was a Nazi attitude...holding families guilty for the crimes of one of their members - even loved ones - is simply not right...
1
so easy to armchair quarterback and disagree with decisions made by others; in this case others who served justice so well in other ways protecting the world against terrorism.
2
While allowing Mengele to escape justice may not sit well with the Holocaust survivors and their descendants, indeed this is pragmatism in motion if the report is correct.
Perhaps people like to fight the battle the past war but neglect the battles ahead
Perhaps people like to fight the battle the past war but neglect the battles ahead
1
But does not failing to apply justice encourage future battles?
Perhaps. IMHO, it is case by case. Certainly, there are evil people who don't deserve to walk this earth. They got away because there aren't enough resources. There are also situations amnesty is the best path forward. It takes a lot for Mandela to walk the Gandhi and MLK path considering what he had been through. But the Truth Commission is the way forward. In Mengele case, there is no telling what else the Mossad knew and why, other than resources.
To quantify it further, there are good compromises and immoral compromises. The latter is a dark place where rubicon shall not pass
To quantify it further, there are good compromises and immoral compromises. The latter is a dark place where rubicon shall not pass
And this is why there need to be some sections of Antifa that are willing to defend those sections who take a more Gandhian approach.
2
Here's an excerpt from an article that I found in The Guardian when I googled Red Cross and Rat Lines:
The Red Cross, overwhelmed by millions of refugees, relied substantially on Vatican references and the often cursory Allied military checks in issuing travel papers, known as 10.100s.
It believed it was primarily helping innocent refugees although correspondence between Red Cross delegations in Genoa, Rome and Geneva shows it was aware Nazis were getting through.
"Although the ICRC has publicly apologised, its action went well beyond helping a few people," said Steinacher.
Steinacher says the documents indicate that the Red Cross, mostly in Rome or Genoa, issued at least 120,000 of the 10.100s, and that 90% of ex-Nazis fled via Italy, mostly to Spain, and North and South America – notably Argentina.
The Red Cross, overwhelmed by millions of refugees, relied substantially on Vatican references and the often cursory Allied military checks in issuing travel papers, known as 10.100s.
It believed it was primarily helping innocent refugees although correspondence between Red Cross delegations in Genoa, Rome and Geneva shows it was aware Nazis were getting through.
"Although the ICRC has publicly apologised, its action went well beyond helping a few people," said Steinacher.
Steinacher says the documents indicate that the Red Cross, mostly in Rome or Genoa, issued at least 120,000 of the 10.100s, and that 90% of ex-Nazis fled via Italy, mostly to Spain, and North and South America – notably Argentina.
11
Let the past go? That's a good way to repeat the past's mistakes.
Obama did a similar thing: not pursuing our war criminals of the phony Iraq war.
Obama did a similar thing: not pursuing our war criminals of the phony Iraq war.
13
agree. however, most dems supported Obamas refusal to prosecute. why? were they by then embarrassed for their foolish pseudo patriotism? or were they complicit in some way with said war crimes?
Or on Wall Street.
This article touches upon several nuanced and multidimensional issues including the differences between the Jewish people and the State of Israel and the Holocaust and the history of the Jews in Palestine. Even the capture of Eichmann was not a straightforward path but required the efforts of several key people outside of Israel such as German prosecutor Fritz Bauer. Life is complex with few easy answers and pure outcomes.
6
How easily we forgive the heinous crimes of those who do not deserve life.
9
What is wonderful about this article is the perspective on Israel's history that it offers, a perspective from which both the admirers and critics of today's Israel can learn. We all probably need to read more Israeli history.
2
But then we would read too much about how israel has treated the Palestinians, would we not?
Limited resources and other urgencies I can understand. Unwillingness to punish a horrible criminal I can't.
10
Actually, it was Germany's responsibility to bring the Nazi butchers to trial and execution. They did very little so, Israel had to do it.
Some crimes and criminals can't just be set aside for action when time and resources make it more auspicious. It's easy for me to say, here and now, but I just don't think anything should have stopped them from taking bloody and prolonged retribution ... and to heck with "justice".
6
Maybe he was a double agent or working for Western governments after the war. That's the feeling I get reading this.
2
Could it be that Mendele had some compromising information on some high ranking politicians?
A public trial could be bring it to light.
A public trial could be bring it to light.
3
Or high up officials who had pre war dealings.
I must add my voice. I am over 65, and broadly familiar with the history. As it happens, I was raised Catholic, and as a young adult, I lived nearly 9 years in West Berlin. So it is as a non-Jew and one who loves *modern* Germany that I say I cannot understand how Mossad or anyone would allow Mengele any peace. I am not a vengeful person. I consider this a matter of basic Justice.
12
I fully understand the reasoning of Mossad. Tasked with defending a beleaguered state surrounded by enemies and very much without the vast support that Nixon ordered delivered in 1973, dealing with the threats emanating from Egypt and Syria was indeed much more important. Then again, what was needed to erase Mengele was a single shot or a domestic accident or a car crash or some such. It could have been done. But it wasn't...
2
It is the job or maybe the fate of national intelligence agencies to deal with
enemies in an "enemy then the friend" kind of manner. The bigger picture can always invade the specific situation and take precedence. Priorities and alliances are fluid and constantly changing and so plans change. The American CIA supported the repressive regime of the Shah of Iran at one time because of his opposition to the Soviet Union. More recently the CIA even supported the terrorist Bin Laden because of his opposition to the Soviets. The bigger picture can make cut and dry decisions very difficult to make. The real situation in international relations and particularly spycraft is never as simple as it might appear. One thing may seem the right thing to do but may not be the most advantageous at the time. To say that something is right or wrong all the time is very difficult and almost impossible to do.
enemies in an "enemy then the friend" kind of manner. The bigger picture can always invade the specific situation and take precedence. Priorities and alliances are fluid and constantly changing and so plans change. The American CIA supported the repressive regime of the Shah of Iran at one time because of his opposition to the Soviet Union. More recently the CIA even supported the terrorist Bin Laden because of his opposition to the Soviets. The bigger picture can make cut and dry decisions very difficult to make. The real situation in international relations and particularly spycraft is never as simple as it might appear. One thing may seem the right thing to do but may not be the most advantageous at the time. To say that something is right or wrong all the time is very difficult and almost impossible to do.
5
I find the explanation for why Mossad stopped hunting him poorly reasoned and ultimately mystifying: that "realism and maturity shaped the agency’s priorities". This lack of reason is provided support through the rhetorical gesture at the close of the text stating: "I’m the son of two Holocaust survivors." We do not only prosecute criminals because victims ask us to do so: e.g. whether or not Roman Polanski's rape victim seeks his being brought to justice is not relevant for the state that seeks to impose the sentence.
Mengele and all other perpetrators were subject to prosecution and there is no statute of limitations in these cases.
Finally, it seems to me that the author is making a case for a perspective that speaks more to what may be necessary for the psychological well-being of victims and their descendants.
But this is not a perspective that speaks to the obligations of international law and the means necessary to uphold it. That is a separate, and I would argue, still vital issue. We are speaking in this case about a perpetrator who had not only significant means but also a powerful network and the assistance of international organisations. Is this not always the case when it comes to genocide? Those who are in power belong ultimately to the "1%" in terms of power, influence and means and thus are seldom brought to justice since they can relatively easily elude it. One has to wonder why it ever happens that they do not.
Mengele and all other perpetrators were subject to prosecution and there is no statute of limitations in these cases.
Finally, it seems to me that the author is making a case for a perspective that speaks more to what may be necessary for the psychological well-being of victims and their descendants.
But this is not a perspective that speaks to the obligations of international law and the means necessary to uphold it. That is a separate, and I would argue, still vital issue. We are speaking in this case about a perpetrator who had not only significant means but also a powerful network and the assistance of international organisations. Is this not always the case when it comes to genocide? Those who are in power belong ultimately to the "1%" in terms of power, influence and means and thus are seldom brought to justice since they can relatively easily elude it. One has to wonder why it ever happens that they do not.
8
I'm sure that Israel's relationships with the rest of the world with few exceptions are colored by the idea that secret Israeli operatives might be in their country hunting down and kidnapping their citizens for trials in Israel.
2
It is appalling to see that Josef Mengele could escape justice despite his well-known whereabouts. Josef Mengele paid even a visit to his family in Günzburg in 1956. Fritz Bauer, district attorney of Hessen, who later initiated the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials and who cooperated also with Mossad tried to arrest him but without success. The German film drama ‘Labyrinth of Lies’, presented in 2014 at the Toronto International Film Festival, covers these events.
5
They didn't remember. They got caught up with the present and it was so long ago. They owed those who suffered to find that man. But they didn't. They forgot the one thing they were supposed to never forget. They failed to remember the one thing they were supposed to always remember.
4
I guess I am too young to understand but how could a civilized society let men like this escape or let alone live amongst society? What is money, favors or just plan ignorance. I guess we will never know for sure. Anyway, as several commenters mention hopefully we will do better next time, unfortunately "next-time" is already here and we've done nothing so far to these criminals. History continues to repeat itself....
3
He should have been hunted down and put down. Allowing that dog to live is an affront to his victims. The world has not learned the moral lessons it should have!
7
Forget revenge. What about justice?
8
Real justice wouldn't have been to put him on trial and then to hang him. He wouldn't suffer during a trial because he thought what he did was absolutely correct. There would have been no remorse and no guilt. And hanging him would have taken a few moments and then he would have felt nothing.
No. Real justice would have been for the local authorities to find his broken body on some table in a hut somewhere, having been left there weeks since he expired. It would have been to see the obvious evidence of all his "experiments" recreated upon his person before he died. And then it would have been to release the tapes of his screams for mercy - lasting days - to the media so that everyone could hear him beg and plead for mercy. All without Israel ever commenting, confirming, or denying that it had any part to play in the matter.
That would have been justice. And better still, it would have been a warning to everyone who would ever think of doing such things again that this, too, shall happen to them someday.
No. Real justice would have been for the local authorities to find his broken body on some table in a hut somewhere, having been left there weeks since he expired. It would have been to see the obvious evidence of all his "experiments" recreated upon his person before he died. And then it would have been to release the tapes of his screams for mercy - lasting days - to the media so that everyone could hear him beg and plead for mercy. All without Israel ever commenting, confirming, or denying that it had any part to play in the matter.
That would have been justice. And better still, it would have been a warning to everyone who would ever think of doing such things again that this, too, shall happen to them someday.
9
And to think, we're in an uproar over statues of long dead confederates?
Mind boggling.
Mind boggling.
6
Even putting aside the overwhelming principle that this monster should have been punished for his crimes, the Israeli leaders' reasoning fails for pragmatic reasons. Punishment of serious criminals, not to mention mass murderers, has a deterrent value in terms of dissuading others from committing such acts. It Israel had captured or simply killed Mengele, and publicized the fact, it might have shown others contemplating terror against the country that it would stop at nothing to track them down. Sometimes, contrary to the rationalizations of those Israeli leaders, looking to the past can in fact benefit the future.
The argument put forth in the article also doesn't square with the fact that Israel did put resources into tracking down lower level Nazis as well as post-
1948 terrorists who'd acted against Israelis. I do wonder whether, despite the author's best efforts, we really have the whole story here.
The argument put forth in the article also doesn't square with the fact that Israel did put resources into tracking down lower level Nazis as well as post-
1948 terrorists who'd acted against Israelis. I do wonder whether, despite the author's best efforts, we really have the whole story here.
4
I not only strongly disagree with the conclusion, I disagree with the whole tone of the piece, which at its essence is "the past is the past, so let's live and let live." Mr. Miller is on the right track. There were any number of opportunities to capture Mengele in South America. It is well known that he stayed in touch with his prominent family in Hanover. The trial of Eichmann was a key lesson, but not a unique lesson. West Germany let literally thousands of members of the SS who were complicit in the Holocaust live their lives with their families and die in peace. The failure to bring Mengele to justice was a crime itself.
87
A bit hypocritical considering that the US government sought, found and brought many former German scientists into the US after the war, a number that were former SS members. The country in a number of cases celebrated their achievements. They were 'our German scientists', in contrast to the Soviets that had 'their German scientists'.
And what of the Red Cross's collusion with the Nazi's? Shouldn't there be some recompense?
This story is almost unreal. It is beyond comprehension that Mossad had the ability to capture Mengle but did not. It's a slap on the face of the Jewish survivors who lost their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters on account of Mengle. I almost wish this story should never have been published, it is that sickening.
65
Deut. 32:35: Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord.
Israel didn't have the money then. On the other hand Jews were very unpopular in Southern America. Better knowledge of the circumstances would be helpful.
As a German (and son of a SS-member) I'm deeply ashamed that the German democratic goverment protected Mengele after the war. Far too many of the war criminals lived in impunity, were never brought to Justice and died in their beds. Many of them rose to high positions in German politics, economy or academy. I agree with Mr Bergman that Mossad was right in letting Mengele go, because he was no threat to the security of the state of Israel and there were more pressing issues to cope with. But we in the new Germany would have had the obligation to pursue these people to strenghten our fledling Democracy. That we missed this opportunity was a heavy burden on our society. Our student's uprising in the sixties was in part a reaction on the missing "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" (coping with the past).
77
I don't buy this "limited resources" argument for one minute. I'm a lawyer, not given to conspiracy theories. But I really think this article is a Mossad attempt to revise history. It has always bothered me a great deal that Mengele was not brought to justice. How hard was it -- how many resources would have had to be invested -- to capture Mengele when for a substantial amount of time he could be found in Brazil by consulting the phone book, where his real name and address appeared?!! I think the real reason was that Israel paid a significant price in international standing for kidnapping Eichmann. This was a price which, in my opinion and in the opinion of millions of Jews everywhere was well worth paying. But it seems that the power structure in Israel didn't agree. It had met its goals, both political and moral, with its spectacular success in capturing and trying Eichmann, and decided after that to leave well enough alone -- a deliberate decision not to repeat what it went through to get Eichmann, both internationally in terms of being condemned for extra-legal activity and domestically in terms of the trauma of stirring up the past. On the one hand, I suppose this sort of "real politik" is the price we Jews must pay for having a living, breathing, real-world Jewish state with real-world priorities. But on the other hand, we Jews know, better than most, that, as Faulkner wrote: "The past is never dead. It's not even past."
89
However, why not just assassinate him? I wondered that, but now I ask, maybe he was killed. Do we know the details of his death? Did he drown? If so, how and why? Was it a heart attack? Was it poisoning? I'd like the facts -- in detail.
2
The best review I've read yet. Israel's inaction on Mengele is an affront to civilized people around the world.
2
Response to Barry:
WELL SAID !!!!!!!
WELL SAID !!!!!!!
2
Contrary to popular belief, most former Nazis didn't go into hiding after the war, and they didn't even change their name. Joseph Mengele, Auschwitz's "Angel of Death" slipped away amid the post-war chaos and lived in many places. But the majority of low-ranking Nazis simply took off their uniforms, went home, and got a job.
There were less and less efforts to track down Nazi war criminals in the 1950s, due to a lack of political will. In Europe the height of the Cold War set in. In Israel, Mossad was underfunded, and the hostile neighbourhood posed a security threat to the fledgling nation. The West needed a strong a West Germany and many of the former Nazi officers were part of the society and even the government.
In the 1970s there was a shift in Holocaust consciousness, a demand from the public to know more about it, and the second generation began to question what their parents did in the war. That might have urged Menachem Begin to resume the hunt of Nazi war criminals.
There were less and less efforts to track down Nazi war criminals in the 1950s, due to a lack of political will. In Europe the height of the Cold War set in. In Israel, Mossad was underfunded, and the hostile neighbourhood posed a security threat to the fledgling nation. The West needed a strong a West Germany and many of the former Nazi officers were part of the society and even the government.
In the 1970s there was a shift in Holocaust consciousness, a demand from the public to know more about it, and the second generation began to question what their parents did in the war. That might have urged Menachem Begin to resume the hunt of Nazi war criminals.
14
it is also important to expose those who helped him escape and hide.
28
He should have been captured. They already had operatives there so they were obviously spending resources.
There is nothing that humans could have done to him that would equate to what he did the scale is unimaginable. He should have been captured humiliated and put to death.
There is nothing that humans could have done to him that would equate to what he did the scale is unimaginable. He should have been captured humiliated and put to death.
3
I strongly disagree with the conclusion. Justice demands that mass murderers and war criminals be brought to the bench and tried. It is utterly offensive that Mengele was allowed to live out his days a free man. Maybe we'll do a better job next time (and there will be a next time).
181
Sometimes justice over the past has to bow down to matters of immediate survival, such as Egypt's missile program. So yes, it's offensive that Mengele died a free man. But having Egypt with a German-made missle program would have had more severe consequences.
11
You wrote my comment for me. Mengele needed to be brought to justice. Especially as a doctor, what he did was beyond human comprehension.
1
I disagree that we should stop hunting them down. Imagine your grandmother naked, next to her, your mother, naked, trying to hide her shame, your infant sister screaming as they are led to a pit to be shot and stacked nearly in a row to make room for the next terrified family. Do you still want the person who shot them to live out his life, sipping cool drinks in a beach in Brazil?
223
Do you want to let people invade your new country and surprise you with missiles because you spent all your time and resources hunting down those criminals? Germany absolutely should have done something. So should Brazil and Argentina. But for Israel to take extra-judicial action with its extremely limited resources could have cost many more lives. It wasn't a good trade.
2
Do you want a twelve year old boy to be kidnapped and threatened with death to accomplish this?
I do not understand why, close as they were to Mengele, Mossad let him go. Even if they didn't have the resources or want to go to the trouble of capturing him and bringing him to Israel for trial they could have executed him. Mengele deserved to die by any means.
102
Unfortunately, for crimes as horrendous as those that Mengele and other Holocaust perpetrators committed, merely executing the guilty parties is almost meaningless.
Only an exemplary fate -- a well publicized trial for example -- can serve to awaken people to the necessity of staying vigilant in the presence of evil.
Only an exemplary fate -- a well publicized trial for example -- can serve to awaken people to the necessity of staying vigilant in the presence of evil.
1
He should have been assassinated. It would have brought some small measure of justice.
69
What of Von Braun? One 'our' German scientists, a former SS officer who was basically the father of the US space program, chief architect of the Saturn rocket, key developer of the V2 rocket He was perhaps the most notable of many WWII German scientists that we brought back to the US and put to work. It seems that utility matters as much as anything else when considering justice.
4
I disagree. He should have been arrested and tried at the Hague, in New York, in Berlin, in Argentina and in Brazil.
Mengele committed crimes against humanity.
And all of us who are human should have prosecuted him.
It saddens me, as a Jew, that when Jews are abused in the most horrible and ghastly and almost unimaginable ways, when millions of us are killed in "advanced" and "civilized" countries - millions - millions - tortured and abused and murdered - the task of finding and trying and condemning the monsters still falls only to Jews.
Why?
Why was Mengele nurtured and protected in South America? Why were Nazis helped to escape justice by the Red Cross and by the Church? Why did so many live out their lives in modern Germany or even G*d knows in America?
Mengele committed crimes against humanity.
And all of us who are human should have prosecuted him.
It saddens me, as a Jew, that when Jews are abused in the most horrible and ghastly and almost unimaginable ways, when millions of us are killed in "advanced" and "civilized" countries - millions - millions - tortured and abused and murdered - the task of finding and trying and condemning the monsters still falls only to Jews.
Why?
Why was Mengele nurtured and protected in South America? Why were Nazis helped to escape justice by the Red Cross and by the Church? Why did so many live out their lives in modern Germany or even G*d knows in America?
1
Every time justice is delivered the message is sent: "you will be caught- you will not get away with evil".
For those who do not fear GOD, we must remind them that good is more powerful than bad, and good will stand up and never forget.
Mengele deserved justice, those that helped him deserved to be shamed and his victims deserved to be remembered.
For those who do not fear GOD, we must remind them that good is more powerful than bad, and good will stand up and never forget.
Mengele deserved justice, those that helped him deserved to be shamed and his victims deserved to be remembered.
63
How unfortunate that people do good because they fear God. The use of fear as a force for good eventually provokes guilt and anger. Better to know there is nothing to fear at all and therefore no reason not to do good.
There is no god. If we were fair, we would be able to make certain that EVERYBODY FEARED JUSTICE EQUALLY...but since we do such a bad job with justice, there's so much chaos and corruption in the world.
We are the only ones around to blame.
We are the only ones around to blame.
1
Never mind the sentimental got excuse. It is HUMAN responsibility to punish those humans that are cruel killers and torturers. Away with them!
2
On one can understand the reasoning that budgetary constraints and existential threats to Israel's survival claimed attention after World War II, but a miscarriage of justice has taken place by allowing this wicked, demonic man the freedom to breathe, laugh, travel, and enjoy his long life while the blood of his victims cries out for justice. Like Hitler in his bunker, he cheated the justice system, and, like Hitler, has become something of a satanic celebrity. The Holocaust remains a uniquely evil event, although, of course genocides, mass murders, and ethnic cleansing are as old as human history. Jews were targeted simply for being Jews- not because they presented a military, economic, cultural, or religious antagonism. Other horrors can be traced to motivations of greed, power, fear, desire for territory, clan vendettas, tribal rivalries. We experience these today. Mengele was an architect and beneficiary of the most diabolical crime in modern history, and he should never have escaped justice.
86
On a lighter note, the war crimes of the Bush/Cheney Administration have not and will not ever be prosecuted either.
Rich powerful white men do not punish other rich powerful white men. We live in a world where Josef Mengele can live out his days in freedom but Sandra Bland dies in prison.
Rich powerful white men do not punish other rich powerful white men. We live in a world where Josef Mengele can live out his days in freedom but Sandra Bland dies in prison.
1
The decision to ignore Josef Mengele made no sense. Israel periodically arrested, extradited and tried a number of former low-ranking prison guards who were former citizens of German-occupied territories and participated in concentration camp atrocities on order of their Nazi overseers. That activity by the Israeli government continued long after the SS Angel of Death died a free man.
62
Makes one wonder if there's more to the story. What about those low-ranking guards pursued?
Fascinating. I would think the U.S. or Russia would have taken care of this as a favor to the Israelis, if asked. Once identified, I'm sure any number of Israeli army personnel would have volunteered to pull the trigger. I wonder if there is more to the story; perhaps Mengele was assisting in the location of other Nazis as an informant.
26
The US or Russia would do this as a favor?? Why would they?
I wouldn't imagine they would care one way or the other,
If they had been interested in stopping the genocide in Europe, they could have bombed the rail lines leading to the camps.. did they?
No they did not.
I wouldn't imagine they would care one way or the other,
If they had been interested in stopping the genocide in Europe, they could have bombed the rail lines leading to the camps.. did they?
No they did not.
5
The US and Soviet Union were more interested in capturing German rocket scientists than helping Jews seek revenge. Each side also wanted to turn the Nazi spy system, internal and external to their advantage. Menachim Begin had it right.
"Fascinating. I would think the U.S. or Russia would have taken care of this as a favor to the Israelis, if asked."
If there is any justice in this world, David, the victims of ethnic extremists & their sympathetic politicians illegally seizing land and building illegal Settlements in the Occupied Territories will be hunted down with the same zealousness and determination as were the despicable Nazis- after all, both groups used their power to abuse a Stateless people for their own cruel ends.
If there is any justice in this world, David, the victims of ethnic extremists & their sympathetic politicians illegally seizing land and building illegal Settlements in the Occupied Territories will be hunted down with the same zealousness and determination as were the despicable Nazis- after all, both groups used their power to abuse a Stateless people for their own cruel ends.
There is something to be said about bringing someone to justice, regardless of the threat that they may or may not represent currently.
If not Israel then someone else.
Mengele should have spent considerable time behind bars.
Justice matters.
If not Israel then someone else.
Mengele should have spent considerable time behind bars.
Justice matters.
53
Disagree. Pursue them until the end of days. Let the state-sanctioned killers flee justice in their wheelchairs even at age 100. Catch them and hang them.
54
It is shameful that the hunt for Mengele was left up to Israel alone.
226
So true and a grave disgrace to humanity and civilization. I've always felt his violations were the most egregious because of his cruel perversion of the medical profession. The West has always with pride and admiration acknowledged its debt to the ancient Greeks but in this case Hippocrates' dictum to physicians to "First do no harm" was totally overlooked. I wonder why.
3
You are absolutely right. Israel was also criticized by the world for kidnapping Eichman.
Great comment. Did, in fact, any other government in the world, any other agency, any other organization, other than Israel, actively pursue the search for Justice? What did Operation Paperclip do to thwart the search for former Nazi war-criminals? This active and focused recruitment of some fifty-thousand former Nazis by the U.S. Government in its anti-Communist, post-WWII frenzy probably gave U.S. Citizenship to thousands of these Nazis.
The U.S. knew, right from the get-go, that De-Nazification of former Nazi party members was a hollow exercise, a cruel joke. It was a bureaucratic formality, a whitewash.
And, now, new Nazis march and recruit on the streets of America.
The U.S. knew, right from the get-go, that De-Nazification of former Nazi party members was a hollow exercise, a cruel joke. It was a bureaucratic formality, a whitewash.
And, now, new Nazis march and recruit on the streets of America.
3
Let's not forget, the Nazis in South America helped assemble and instruct the death squads that reigned terror and provoked "disappearances" in many countries. I don't know if Mengele was directly involved but there are consequences for letting genocide perpetrators go free and set up shop on another side of the world. The Red Cross and the Vatican were both complicit in facilitating Nazi travel to South America. For shame!
125
The American military's "School of the Americas" and the CIA were just as complicit as Nazis in assembling death squads and provoking disappearances--except they did it for right wing governments that were supposedly serving America's "national interests."
1
This is a very upsetting article. The Red Cross participated in letting Mengele escape from Germany? And Israel decided that its resources should not be used in pursuing him? We hear all the time, it seems, about some elderly man who had been a guard at this or that camp being extradited or not extradited. But Mengele! That's like letting Hitler go. The man was a monster. I am not a Jew, but I know and care enough about the Holocaust to be shocked.
210
The Us actively recruited and greased the skids for Hitler's rocket designers to come free to the US, without whom we would not have developed the technology to go into space.
It's just as "unsettling" that the Mossad considered kidnapping and threatening with death an innocent twelve-year-old boy. The indignation on these threads is highly selective.
1
You are right, St. Paulite. There is something very suspect about this story.
Menachem Begin was a flawed man and an absolutist, but he was right about the dangerous symbolism of allowing a flamboyantly cruel Nazi like Josef Mengele to live in defiance of decent people.
Whether one is a Jew, descended from people who perished in the Holocaust, or a Gentile, horrified that moral laxity or Western anti-Semitism allowed Hitler and his deranged thugs to rise to power and to terrorize Europe, the notion of permitting Mengele to live to a ripe old age in relative comfort is disgusting.
A majority of Israeli citizens probably feels exactly the same way. Ronen Bergman – perhaps unintentionally – is participating in a revisionist history. We are not being told the full story.
Menachem Begin was a flawed man and an absolutist, but he was right about the dangerous symbolism of allowing a flamboyantly cruel Nazi like Josef Mengele to live in defiance of decent people.
Whether one is a Jew, descended from people who perished in the Holocaust, or a Gentile, horrified that moral laxity or Western anti-Semitism allowed Hitler and his deranged thugs to rise to power and to terrorize Europe, the notion of permitting Mengele to live to a ripe old age in relative comfort is disgusting.
A majority of Israeli citizens probably feels exactly the same way. Ronen Bergman – perhaps unintentionally – is participating in a revisionist history. We are not being told the full story.
I have a hard time accepting the decisions not to prioritize Mengele. Eichmann was not enough. In today's world, racist menaces are at the forefront and Neo-Nazi groups seem to be thriving with impunity. The Palestinians only want the freedom to live in peace on their land. Give it to them and stop the violence.
41
Give what to them? "Their land"? Do you realize that the Palestinians consider all of Israel "their land"? Why are you bringing the dispute over land into a valid comment about racist menaces?
Huh?
Why couldn't Israel put pressure on German to issue a warrant of extradition for Mengele if they knew where he was?
29
Mengele had research notes; clemency in exchange for research notes?
6
No worthwhile medical "research " occurred during Mengele's "experiments. "
The German medical establishment of the time opined that the "experiments would not be expected from a medical student in the second year. No controls were made for nutrition, previous illness, medications, etc."
They were shocked. Shocked at such sloppy research.
The German medical establishment of the time opined that the "experiments would not be expected from a medical student in the second year. No controls were made for nutrition, previous illness, medications, etc."
They were shocked. Shocked at such sloppy research.
3
Research notes? Like what? "Blood pressure reaction of gypsy children under unfathomable pain from torture"?
2
His "research" was garbage. Worthless.
2
I understand that with meager resources, the threats of the present took priority over the ghosts of the past.
That being said, I really wish Mengele had been captured.
That being said, I really wish Mengele had been captured.
20
Strange to think that Mengele could have watched 'The Boys from Brazil' and 'Marathon Man' while he was still alive.
30
For all it's worth, I'm sure Mengele knew he was wanted by Israel and probably spent the post-war years living in fear (especially after Eichman's capture).
10
sipping drinks on the beach - there, fixed it
3
As a Reform Jew I am appalled that this man wrote a article that excuses the capture and execution of Mengele as really no big deal.
Readers might want to watch the movie "The Music Box".
Readers might want to watch the movie "The Music Box".
Why did the Red Cross help Mengele?
115
Possibly because the strongly conservative Red Cross looks so much like the foundational image of the "Crooked Cross". I personally witnessed the behavior of the Red Cross during Hurricane Rita. They "took charge" by smothering attempts by other organizations and news agencies to do their own work.
The Red Cross is, and always has been, a semi-official arm of the U.S. government.
The Red Cross is, and always has been, a semi-official arm of the U.S. government.
There is a long history of anti-Semitism in the Red Cross, about who ran it and who was hired for a position there. This seems to be not known now. Someone should research it. It was known in times before this and it was covered up, seemingly.
4
Inexcusable.
2
They got "The Bureaucrat" in Eichmann.
It would have been nice to also get one of the most notorious, thoroughly-willing participants in Mengele.
It would have been nice to also get one of the most notorious, thoroughly-willing participants in Mengele.
22
As another poster said, it is truly very disturbing the rationale used for so long to allow this monster to roam free. Millions of people around the world would have found closure, knowing that Mengele was brought to justice. Instead we get rationalizations, priorities and budget restraints. And the Mossad recalled one young operative because he was too eager or emotional? Well, yeah, that might be the rational reaction of someone risking his own life to bring Mengele to justice. Mengele and his friends would certainly have eliminated anyone threatening their freedom. This truly is a disturbing piece.
1
Would be interested in more information about the alleged roles of the Red Cross and the West German government in protecting Nazi war criminals like Mengele.
82
The Red Cross is also the symbol used by Switzerland. A 'neutral' country, that made millions off of Nazi War Crimes.
The people that profited from the war are still among us, and they are still Nazis.
Nazis continue to profit from the war, and the continue to benefit from the proceeds.
As far as I'm concerned, the world has been subtly taken over by Nazis, we just don't see it, yet.
The people that profited from the war are still among us, and they are still Nazis.
Nazis continue to profit from the war, and the continue to benefit from the proceeds.
As far as I'm concerned, the world has been subtly taken over by Nazis, we just don't see it, yet.
I disagree with Mr. Bergman. I believe one well-chosen, smart, determined agent - of which I am sure Mossad had plenty - could have been spared, even in the 1960s, to pursue and execute justice upon Mengele. Somewhere in this abides a lack of will. Had Mengele been pursued and dealt with, then I greatly suspect that Israel would still exist and all of the other history of that era would have transpired pretty much as it did, and the score with Mengele would have been settled. And his victims somewhat compensated. As with Munich, the score should have been settled.
50
That score could never be settled. What could anyone do to an old man who did so much harm to so many people that would equal the pain he caused?
The frustrating truth is that, in this sense, the world is full of Mengeles and full of injustices that can never be righted. I would still have gone after him, but perhaps that's why I haven't yet been invited to lead a spy organization.
The frustrating truth is that, in this sense, the world is full of Mengeles and full of injustices that can never be righted. I would still have gone after him, but perhaps that's why I haven't yet been invited to lead a spy organization.
1
Bringing Mengele to justice should have been the responsibility not only of Mossad, but of the United Nations. The fact that he was allowed to go free and given papers by the Red Cross outrages me, and I am not even Jewish.
Allowing such monstrous crimes to go unpunished guaranteed that further crimes would be committed, whether against Jews or against other groups, and they have and continue to be. Rohinga, Tutsi, Bosnians, Yazidis, the list is horrendously long and continues to grow. We humans are a strange and frightening species.
Allowing such monstrous crimes to go unpunished guaranteed that further crimes would be committed, whether against Jews or against other groups, and they have and continue to be. Rohinga, Tutsi, Bosnians, Yazidis, the list is horrendously long and continues to grow. We humans are a strange and frightening species.
72
Other than the so-called practical reasons, how could Israel let a man live, much less be free, who had killed and tortured so many of its fellow brothers and sisters as well as inflicting horrendous memories on survivors and relatives of all of these wounded people? Didn't the victims of Mengele and the Holocaust deserve the pursuit of justice for the Doctor of Death's cruelties? What kind of tribute and message did that send to the victims of Mengele and the Nazis?
37
I wouldn't care if they captured a nazi 100 years old. If it was proved he did inhumane acts, the penalty still applies.
42
We are talking here about one Nazi criminal, the most notorious of all, who lived almost in the open and was exceptionally easy to find. Even for a struggling, poor nation with pressing security needs such as Israel in its early years, it would not have overly stressed the national resources to capture or kill him. It's incomprehensible to me why Israel did not do so. As in so many other ways, Menachem Begin in this instance had a much better pulse on the soul of his nation than have Israel's leaders before or since.
33
The capture of Eichmann was NOT enough.
The world, having forgotten if not forgiven the worst monster-nazis
was not in 1970 off the hook.
The world, having forgotten if not forgiven the worst monster-nazis
was not in 1970 off the hook.
17
As one who has recently returned from a visit to Israel, I find it easy to agree with Mossad's conclusion that the state sadly faces innumerable existential threats which take priority over revenge.
While the aura of military invincibility is critical to maintain Israel's safety it is satisfying to learn that when the opportunity arose to dispatch a despicable pervert such as Mengele, those in charge remained focussed on their mission.
While the aura of military invincibility is critical to maintain Israel's safety it is satisfying to learn that when the opportunity arose to dispatch a despicable pervert such as Mengele, those in charge remained focussed on their mission.
4
this is a very illuminating article. of course, all sides are right. but in my opinion, the country could have,should have done both dealing with present AND historical threats. begin understood that the past is the present. i think , for myself, at least, getting mengele would have taught the future haters and anti Semites that you can run, but you can never hide. and they should always be afraid.
15
The collaboration of the Red Cross and reportedly, the church in helping Nazi criminals escape to the Middle East and South America (aka the rat lines) is truly shameful and deserves more attention and study.
The same goes for the governments that harbored the monsters. How could they.
Regardless the point about the Nazi missiles in Egypt is well-taken. This too is a little understood aspect of the war against Israel and the Jewish people.
And alas the Nazi threat never really died.
The same goes for the governments that harbored the monsters. How could they.
Regardless the point about the Nazi missiles in Egypt is well-taken. This too is a little understood aspect of the war against Israel and the Jewish people.
And alas the Nazi threat never really died.
30
I always held the Red Cross in high esteem until I read this article--" Mengele fled Germany to Argentina in 1948, using false documents given to him by the Red Cross. (According to the Mossad’s file, the organization was aware that it was helping a Nazi criminal escape justice.)"
37
I tend to agree with the logic, but question the conclusion. One thing that is often forgotten is that Nazis have repeatedly formed allegiances with Arab terrorists. From Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, to the Munich Olympics, to Entebbe. They seem to seek each other out. I think in the 60's a reasonable argument could be made that Middle Eastern Nazism had not been defeated. Just as it hadn't been defeated in Argentina. It's a fascinating bit of history.
15
"Vengeance is Mine, and recompense,
Against the time when their foot shall slip;
For the day of their calamity is at hand,
And the things that are to come upon them shall make haste."
Deuteronomy 32:35 (JPS TANAKAH, 1917)
I tend to agree with Mr. Bergman. What was more egregious, and unforgivable, were the actions of the Red Cross and German government.
The trial of Eichmann made a point. The summary execution of Mengele would not have.
The Torah says, “Justice, justice shall you pursue.” Vengeance is another matter...
Against the time when their foot shall slip;
For the day of their calamity is at hand,
And the things that are to come upon them shall make haste."
Deuteronomy 32:35 (JPS TANAKAH, 1917)
I tend to agree with Mr. Bergman. What was more egregious, and unforgivable, were the actions of the Red Cross and German government.
The trial of Eichmann made a point. The summary execution of Mengele would not have.
The Torah says, “Justice, justice shall you pursue.” Vengeance is another matter...
11
Jews, Native Americans, Muslims, LGBTQ, Africans (both in and out of America), Indians, Orientals- the common denominator is that they are not straight Europeans/white Americans. Every one of these groups have been victims both in their native lands and in the United States by Europeans and their US descendants.
We need to recognize the reality of human behavior now and for the last thousand plus years. We cannot turn the clock back nor avenge centuries of wrong on those living today. However, everyone living today needs to face the reality of the past, not some fake sugar coated story of the glory of European/American history. Freeing slaves in the American Civil War does not indemnify the US government for the extermination of Native Americans. Creating Israel after WW2 doesn't clear Europe of two thousand years of vilifying the Jews that made the Holocaust possible. The list of atrocities is almost endless.
Until we are all able to accept and proclaim the total equality and value of every human being on earth, there will be only vengeance, hatred and war.
We need to recognize the reality of human behavior now and for the last thousand plus years. We cannot turn the clock back nor avenge centuries of wrong on those living today. However, everyone living today needs to face the reality of the past, not some fake sugar coated story of the glory of European/American history. Freeing slaves in the American Civil War does not indemnify the US government for the extermination of Native Americans. Creating Israel after WW2 doesn't clear Europe of two thousand years of vilifying the Jews that made the Holocaust possible. The list of atrocities is almost endless.
Until we are all able to accept and proclaim the total equality and value of every human being on earth, there will be only vengeance, hatred and war.
18
Maybe it's time to question how much good religion has done for mankind? History shows that the leading cause of preventable human death is religion, the embodiment of fear.
I recommend George Steiner's "The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H."(1979) in which the hunt and capture of A.H. is undertaken by a private group of Israelis.
4
Priorities, priorities. Mossad at the time DID THE ONLY THING it could do for the security of their state.
3
Forget about Mengele's role in helping with the selections on the 'Judenrampe'. He was far from unique in that.
No, what needed to be remembered was that here was a man who sewed infant twins together. And did not intervene in the two plus days that they howled before they died. Here was a man who injected dye into the eyes of children (do I need to mention that he made no effort to render the procedure painless?).
Mengele's crimes, by themselves, and independent of the Holocaust and separate from the horror of genocide, justified an ongoing, relentless search for him.
No, what needed to be remembered was that here was a man who sewed infant twins together. And did not intervene in the two plus days that they howled before they died. Here was a man who injected dye into the eyes of children (do I need to mention that he made no effort to render the procedure painless?).
Mengele's crimes, by themselves, and independent of the Holocaust and separate from the horror of genocide, justified an ongoing, relentless search for him.
137
I agree with all who claim that Mengele was a monster and that he should absolutely have been prosecuted, brought to justice, his evil documented and made public for the world to see and never, ever forget.
But why was this Israel's task at all? It should have been the duty of the entire world. The entire world!
But why was this Israel's task at all? It should have been the duty of the entire world. The entire world!
2
Golda Meir ordered Mossad to hunt down & kill the people who ordered the Munich massacre in 1972 and they succeeded. They chose to go after the present threat.
I wonder if the discussion of that action included any thoughts about going after Nazi's instead.
Interesting to see how a country that lives under constant threat of imminent destruction makes destruction - especially compared to our country, where over-reaction to relatively minimal threats has led to long conflicts that we are unable to leave when we tire of them.
I wonder if the discussion of that action included any thoughts about going after Nazi's instead.
Interesting to see how a country that lives under constant threat of imminent destruction makes destruction - especially compared to our country, where over-reaction to relatively minimal threats has led to long conflicts that we are unable to leave when we tire of them.
9
Mr. Begin was right. The Israelis should have been able to come up with enough men and resources to find him and kill him without diverting attention away from present day dangers. I myself would have been happy to contribute to a fund set up to accomplish this.
One million Jewish children were destroyed by this man and his kind. Getting rid of men like this has nothing to do with seeking justice or revenge, which are obviously impossible to obtain, or even dissauding others who are intent on following in their footsteps. Ridding the world of him would have amounted to nothing more than the small, simple, necessary act of cleaning out one stall in the stable.
One million Jewish children were destroyed by this man and his kind. Getting rid of men like this has nothing to do with seeking justice or revenge, which are obviously impossible to obtain, or even dissauding others who are intent on following in their footsteps. Ridding the world of him would have amounted to nothing more than the small, simple, necessary act of cleaning out one stall in the stable.
34
... dissuading ....
1
the way this reads it sounds like there was more deliberateness to their decision prior to begin to not pursue mengele with vigor than just "other priorities". it was as if their agents and self-appointed hunters basically had him and were told by mossad to stand down. bergman obviously buys the sincerity of those who told him the other priorities justified this, but when i first read it, it sounded like they decided not to go after him.
still excellent work on bergman's part, i'd just like to know what convinced him this was just a matter of priorities.
still excellent work on bergman's part, i'd just like to know what convinced him this was just a matter of priorities.
17
Greater Priority for Mossad in 1962: "Instead, Harel surprised Aharoni by pulling him and the rest of the Mengele team to Operation Tiger, an effort to find a 10-year-old boy who had been kidnapped by his Orthodox grandparents because they didn’t think his parents were giving him a strict enough religious upbringing. For two years, Israel had been transfixed by the case of missing Yoselle Schumacher. The Mossad had been recruited into the hunt. And Harel used all his resources to infiltrate the almost Mafia-like secrecy of the most secret Orthodox sects to run the boy to ground in New York in July 1962."
I agree, the story doesn't quite add up. Mengele wasn't just another Nazi guard at Auschwitz, he was the ne plus ultra Nazi, public enemy number one of the Jewish people, the embodiment of evil. To have a ready and willing agent in position called back to Israel makes me wonder whether Mengele had "protection". Was Israel presured to give up this chase in exchange for arms or intelligence? This is akin to the US letting Bin Ladin live out his days on a farm in New Zealand.
The continuing existence of Nazi-sympathizers today is proof that not enough was done, and that more should have been done to hunt down Nazis. The evil ideology of Naziism was not stamped out, and anti Semitism continues alive to this day.
It is also striking that at the Nuremberg trials Nazi POWs including Nazi leadership were treated with dignity and subject to a trial and a defense. Compare that with the casual indignity with which Saddam Hussain and his family were treated, for far lesser offenses. They were summarily killed, and their bodies displayed on TV.
There is a dark side to all this that has yet to be fully explored.
It is also striking that at the Nuremberg trials Nazi POWs including Nazi leadership were treated with dignity and subject to a trial and a defense. Compare that with the casual indignity with which Saddam Hussain and his family were treated, for far lesser offenses. They were summarily killed, and their bodies displayed on TV.
There is a dark side to all this that has yet to be fully explored.
23
The capture of Eichmann was a very expensive and complicated mission. The Argentine government was not amused by the violation of its sovereignty and international law. Yes, the Mossad could have gotten their man by capturing Mengele, but what would have been the true cost in light of the current threats to the Jewish state?
8
I also think this may have been a factor and frankly this article reflects really bad reporting in the writer not digging deeper to look into issues like that.
1
Holocaust survivor's son here.
My father's family died because extremism works it's way into the fabric of a society. Into people's consciousness in subtle, imperceptible ways.
In little ways people veer from normal behavior and beliefs.
Small slights and insults against acceptable behavior slowly erode the veneer of civility, which, truth be told, can be very thin.
Extremists push a little more.
People accept and tolerate a little more.
Why make waves?
Then, more.
Soon, the shift has momentum.
Especially in a culture without the traditions and strong bonds of community and an established constitutional framework.
Then, only the most courageous are willing to risk going against the downward spiral, the march of a monolithic majority.
Too late.
It's the initial slights and dangerous attitudes and the silence of neighbors that killed my father's family.
My father's family died because extremism works it's way into the fabric of a society. Into people's consciousness in subtle, imperceptible ways.
In little ways people veer from normal behavior and beliefs.
Small slights and insults against acceptable behavior slowly erode the veneer of civility, which, truth be told, can be very thin.
Extremists push a little more.
People accept and tolerate a little more.
Why make waves?
Then, more.
Soon, the shift has momentum.
Especially in a culture without the traditions and strong bonds of community and an established constitutional framework.
Then, only the most courageous are willing to risk going against the downward spiral, the march of a monolithic majority.
Too late.
It's the initial slights and dangerous attitudes and the silence of neighbors that killed my father's family.
340
We've been party to this in the U.S. with the gin up and conduct of the Iraq War, and in other wars. The United States' own mass murders have held the highest offices and military appointments in the land. Those who waged war on Iraq, sent other people's sons and daughters to war, wrote the torture memos, and cruelly tortured people in secret prisons, in Guantanamo, . We know their names, we know who they are. These people who sullied our nation and the sacrifices made by others to uphold our highest ideals. These killers who still walk free. I hope they will yet receive their day in in court and justice will be served.
9
Paul - Your comments are heartbreaking - and true.
3
Correct! And I am afraid, this downward spiral toward the horrors of fascism is what we are facing in our own good old USA today.
6
For a people who have made the phrase "Never again," a statement of outrage and resolve recognized worldwide, the decision to not bring a known perpetrator of genocide to trial because it was inconvenient is unforgiveable.
The purpose of trial and punishment is not "revenge" (though that emotion may understandably be felt by many victims), but the simple, universally revered and understood value of "justice."
My mother was one of those who stood in Mengele's live-or-die line, and my paternal grandfather was murdered by doctors at Auschwitz. To learn that Mengele was located but deemed not-worth-the-effort is jaw dropping. One mark of a civilized society is its willingness to do the hard work of holding criminals accountable for their actions. When we abdicate that responsibility, we debase our culture, our values and our souls.
The purpose of trial and punishment is not "revenge" (though that emotion may understandably be felt by many victims), but the simple, universally revered and understood value of "justice."
My mother was one of those who stood in Mengele's live-or-die line, and my paternal grandfather was murdered by doctors at Auschwitz. To learn that Mengele was located but deemed not-worth-the-effort is jaw dropping. One mark of a civilized society is its willingness to do the hard work of holding criminals accountable for their actions. When we abdicate that responsibility, we debase our culture, our values and our souls.
107
One of the most important and consequential messages that a government can send, and should send, is that those who harm their people guarantee their own destruction, no matter how long it takes or how far they run. Only relentless and uncompromising adherence to this doctrine can help protect people.
18
What a wrenching decision Mossad had to make. I believe they chose correctly to protect Israel from perilous contemporary threats by Egypt and others. I believe It was a sickening but more prudent choice to protect Israel's existence.
That does not however mean ignoring Mengele's vile murderous record.
I've been a member of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum for some years. It's something I can do now to support their outstanding work. I've bought a collection of documentaries on the Holocaust and am specifying in my will that my children and succeeding generations watch all of them at appropriate ages. It's an effort to inform my family what happened and help assure we remember always. PBS has some excellent videos.
As it happens I met an Auschwitz survivor decades ago who worked in a local store. Noting the numbers on her arm, I was speechless. By chance our conversation turned to family photos, whereupon she noted there were precious few in her family, and why.
That started a sharing of her memories. My familiarity with places and history from my reading and research made a deep impression, and I thought she was going to jump over the counter and hug me. Her response was unbelievably moving. I shall never forget it.
So, let's learn, share and remember. The Holocaust Museum has outstanding programs that are live streamed. See ushmm.org/watch for a listing. Also, try to gather interfaith groups for the late April Holocaust Remembrance Day each year. It matters.
That does not however mean ignoring Mengele's vile murderous record.
I've been a member of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum for some years. It's something I can do now to support their outstanding work. I've bought a collection of documentaries on the Holocaust and am specifying in my will that my children and succeeding generations watch all of them at appropriate ages. It's an effort to inform my family what happened and help assure we remember always. PBS has some excellent videos.
As it happens I met an Auschwitz survivor decades ago who worked in a local store. Noting the numbers on her arm, I was speechless. By chance our conversation turned to family photos, whereupon she noted there were precious few in her family, and why.
That started a sharing of her memories. My familiarity with places and history from my reading and research made a deep impression, and I thought she was going to jump over the counter and hug me. Her response was unbelievably moving. I shall never forget it.
So, let's learn, share and remember. The Holocaust Museum has outstanding programs that are live streamed. See ushmm.org/watch for a listing. Also, try to gather interfaith groups for the late April Holocaust Remembrance Day each year. It matters.
17
Holocaust museums must revise their curricula now to include the refusal of Israel to arrest and try Mengele. This is an enormous and terrible twist in the story.
1
We will not be judged in accordance to the crimes committed against us. We will be judged per the crimes we committed against the other people. That should be our national and human focus - to be sin free...
5
Bergman certainly offers a different perspective- it will be interesting to know how many friends he has by the end of the week.
8
I know Socrates will not appreciate this but I believe in divine justice; if I didn't believe that then there is only the story of the ones that got away.
2
What, then, does divine justice have to say about all those millions who perished?
8
You bring to mind Napoleon's observation that "religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."
17
Divine justice cannot explain murder it can only deal with the murderers; remember, the acts of man are not the acts of God.
1
By allowing Mengele to escape trial and punishment, the Israeli government, while proclaiming "never forget," participated it allowing the world to forget. Since that time world powers have conveniently "forgotten" genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, and Bosnia. It was a serious mistake.
72
I agree. But there is another factor to consider. By denying Jews the world over the knowledge that a monster like Mengle was finally brought to justice, the sheer injustice of him getting away with it was allowed to fester in the hearts of the Jewish people.
That festering was toxic. Just look at what it did to the Mossad itself. Back in the 1950s, they could have caught him fairly easily if they had been ready to do so. But by the 1960s, they were willing to torture people or even murder an innocent child to get him, and men like Begin were seeing Nazis in their sleep. And for all that the Mossad was willing to sell its soul for the sake of too-long delayed justice, it didn't even managge to get him.
That festering was toxic. Just look at what it did to the Mossad itself. Back in the 1950s, they could have caught him fairly easily if they had been ready to do so. But by the 1960s, they were willing to torture people or even murder an innocent child to get him, and men like Begin were seeing Nazis in their sleep. And for all that the Mossad was willing to sell its soul for the sake of too-long delayed justice, it didn't even managge to get him.
8
Agreed. Former President Clinton has stated that his biggest single regret was not intervening to stop the genocide in Rwanda.
1
I couldn't disagree more with Bergman's opinion. Nazis were uniquely evil. Israel, as the Jewish State born of the ashes of the holocaust, had a moral obligation to deliver justice.
93
I would like to add that my family is extremely proud of and thankful for a Danish cousin who was active in the Resistance and was sent to a concentration camp. He never talked about his work, but we learned of his heroism as documented by credible and truthful witnesses. After the war he continued his work for intelligence services in Western Europe, struggling against Soviet communism during the Cold War. The thought of Mengele and other Nazis reveling in their relatively comfortable and self-indulgent postwar existences while so many died, lost their families and homes, or lived damaged by ptsd fills me with revulsion. This was the man who helped send Anne Frank and millions of other beautiful souls to their graves. Why should he receive a son's birthday call when they never had a birthday?
19
I agree with most of your comment, but the Nazis were not uniquely evil. This evil is present among all civilizations. When will or nation recognize the relentless and premeditated genocide of the native peoples of America? There annihilation was not an accident of history but a willful act. Where are there holocaust memorials? The victors write the history books.
I suggest that you read Dr. Leo Alexander's (chief medical officer of the Nurmeberg Trials) article in the New England Journal of Medicine titled "Medical Science Under Dictatorship" https://www.mcgill.ca/prpp/files/prpp/leo_alexander_1949_---_medical_sci...
This Jewish refugee who escaped the Holocaust knows that what the Nazis did, any people can do. In fact, this nation was built by genocide and slavery. Don't fool yourself.
I suggest that you read Dr. Leo Alexander's (chief medical officer of the Nurmeberg Trials) article in the New England Journal of Medicine titled "Medical Science Under Dictatorship" https://www.mcgill.ca/prpp/files/prpp/leo_alexander_1949_---_medical_sci...
This Jewish refugee who escaped the Holocaust knows that what the Nazis did, any people can do. In fact, this nation was built by genocide and slavery. Don't fool yourself.
29
The Nazis were only uniquely positioned in history, they were by no means more evil than dozens of other homicidal military forces or for instance the Inquisitors of the Catholic Church, or Comanche Indians in Texas in the second half of the 19th Century. They seem so, but that's the massive press they've received. The Japanese in China were even more irrationally murderous.
5
It was a great tragedy he was never brought to justice. The article doesn't mention the sadistic experiments performed. We as the reader are to have a vague knowledge of those. However a brief reread of what he did, particularly to children, was inexcusable. Sad that his capture fell in priority and he never faced trial in Israel.
72
Agreed. This man was not just your run-of-the-mill Nazi. The evil experiments he perpetrated are the stuff of horror stories. One that has never left me is where he bound the breasts of women who just gave birth and forced them to tend their newborn babies as he documented how long it took for them to die.
2
I doubt that had Mengele been brought to justice it would have had any effect on neo Nazis, anti-Semites or any hate group. Their malevolence is irrational and they learn nothing from history or justice.
68
Nazis no longer posed a threat?
Wow! What naivete.
I hope those chants of 'Jews Will Not Replace Us' did not fall on deaf ears.
Let's also hope, that people actually find the 'underling reason' for why people cling to extremist views like Nazism. What do they get from Nazism? Why does it appeal to them? Why do they need to feel 'superior' to other people? Why do they want to be so exclusive?
It seems that Nazism and Judaism have some talking to do. Might as well start now. .
Wow! What naivete.
I hope those chants of 'Jews Will Not Replace Us' did not fall on deaf ears.
Let's also hope, that people actually find the 'underling reason' for why people cling to extremist views like Nazism. What do they get from Nazism? Why does it appeal to them? Why do they need to feel 'superior' to other people? Why do they want to be so exclusive?
It seems that Nazism and Judaism have some talking to do. Might as well start now. .
The fact that Mengel lived his life and died a free man having never been tried and as a result escaping justice and/or retribution is offensive. Those who suffered horribly and/or died by his hand deserved much better. We let them down.
124
As a survivor hiding in Belgium and with my father dying in Birkenau I feel Mengele should have been brought to justice. He had a special role in the Holocaust, repulsive and cruel experiments on inmates. You can not erase history.
183
If Israel was too poor at that time to fund a capture/kill operation then Jews from the Diaspora should have done the job. a friend of my father was a nazi hunter but never spoke about it. Nazis listed their names without fear in Canadian phone directories. it is beyond my comprehension why these people were never arrested.
95
Ultimately the security of the state and people of Israel was the paramount concern for Mossad, so the decision to focus on immediate threats was clearly the right one. This pains me to say so, because I am Jewish and would like to have seen every Nazi of Mengele's stature caught and brought to Israel for trial and if found guilty - executed. But in this world decisions must be made rationally and not emotionally. Mossad was correct.
23
This is a thoughtful, sobering article. Thank you.
31
Sobering? I feel like getting blind drunk. If I'd known Israel was aiding and abetting Mengele's freedom, my relationship to my faith and the "Jewish state" would have been very different.
1
Sadly, Nazis pose a serious threat today, despite the author's conclusions. And, Menglele's crimes were well-documented, understood and abhorred in the historical period mentioned. Today, the fact that this war criminal of the Second World War went unpunished may stand as a beacon of hope--even justification--in the wide-spread resurgence of fascism and Nazism.
Today, compromise is the equal of acceptance--whether we like this reality or not. And, the "laissez-faire" attitude that is the focus of this article therefore makes for troubling reading.
I am not a Jew, but my son's ancestors perished in the Holocaust and my niece and nephew also carry the blood of survivors. Although a gentile, I cannot and will not accept this writer's conclusion, that "Nazis no longer posed a threat" once Eichmann was captured and executed.
Charlottesville might not have happened were this true.
Today, compromise is the equal of acceptance--whether we like this reality or not. And, the "laissez-faire" attitude that is the focus of this article therefore makes for troubling reading.
I am not a Jew, but my son's ancestors perished in the Holocaust and my niece and nephew also carry the blood of survivors. Although a gentile, I cannot and will not accept this writer's conclusion, that "Nazis no longer posed a threat" once Eichmann was captured and executed.
Charlottesville might not have happened were this true.
150
Yes Mary Ann, Patrick Asahiyama is one of them.
Mary Ann Saurino, your outrage that Josef Mengele was never punished is shared by many of us who are not Jews. Whether or not the author of this op-ed column, Ronen Bergman, actually shares the views of those leaders of Israel and Mossad who decided to look the other way regarding Mengele and who now engage in a ridiculous rationalization for giving the Auschwitz criminal a free pass is unclear.
2
You're conflating actual Nazis with nerds in Nazi suits. I hope you understand there's a difference between the two. The actual Nazis are all about dead now. They had actual power (ran a government, controlled a society and its military) & did actual destruction (holocaust, concentration camps, Mengele's experiments). Nerds in Nazi suits don't & won't ever have power here or likely anywhere in our lifetimes. They are most likely marginalized members of our society.
I don't see the author's "laissez-faire" attitude. He sought answers to why Mossad didn't pursue arguably the most notorious Nazi war criminal more vehemently and ultimately accepted the Mossad historians' responses that there were were more pressing strategic priorities for the State of Israel. I think you're implying that his acceptance of Mossad's rationale of the need to address present and future concerns over completing the Nazi hunt is somehow accepting Nazism - today or then? - it's not. It seems more like the author is communicating that he has a sense of closure from learning why Mossad never got him & is sharing that with us here.
I don't appreciate you subverting his intent by directing the discussion to your agenda on an unrelated matter.
I don't see the author's "laissez-faire" attitude. He sought answers to why Mossad didn't pursue arguably the most notorious Nazi war criminal more vehemently and ultimately accepted the Mossad historians' responses that there were were more pressing strategic priorities for the State of Israel. I think you're implying that his acceptance of Mossad's rationale of the need to address present and future concerns over completing the Nazi hunt is somehow accepting Nazism - today or then? - it's not. It seems more like the author is communicating that he has a sense of closure from learning why Mossad never got him & is sharing that with us here.
I don't appreciate you subverting his intent by directing the discussion to your agenda on an unrelated matter.
I remember my grandmother telling me about a cousin who was blond and exceptionally beautiful. The Germans thought she was one of them. Eventually she was captured and put on a transport. She was sent to Auschwitz, and the selections began. She was initially marked for the group headed towards the gas chambers. Mengele was nearby and noticed. He walked over to her. "Frau," he said, "come, you don't belong with them."
She straightened her back and looked him right in the eye "I do belong with them," she said, "I belong with my people." And she turned and marched along with the group.
As reported from survivors.
She straightened her back and looked him right in the eye "I do belong with them," she said, "I belong with my people." And she turned and marched along with the group.
As reported from survivors.
198
A superb accounting, Jack M.
25
Leaving an ogre to live unseen under the bridge gives a freedom to those who have encountered it the license to make it out as horrible and evil as they wish in order to justify any shock and trauma they feel for themselves because of having to endure that encounter and the ensuing self-pity that goes with it. Letting the world see it for themselves puts that liberty at risk.
11
Self-pity? Is that how you are describing the response of Holocaust survivors to Mengele?
3
"The capture and trial of Eichmann — and his execution — were enough to teach the world about the Holocaust and to convey the message that Jewish blood cannot be spilled with impunity."
As the granddaughter of Jewish refugees who almost didn't make it to this country, I want to agree, but with feel much ambivalence.
So many actively participated in carrying out the Holocaust, gorging on revenge, indeed, would have been the wrong path to take. But Mengele, like Eichmann, had a special role and for that, he should have been captured. It would have been more just for Mengele to be brought to justice than what Israel went through, bringing John Demjanjuk to justice.
On the other side of that, watching the resurgence of Nazi ideas and sentiments, not only in this country, but Europe, as well, and thinking back to the Nuremberg trials, I wonder what more captures and trials would have done to change the course we are currently on.
Public trials like Eichmann's don't just serve the purpose of revenge, and Menachem Begin's view on this was not the prevalent view, especially as far as teaching the PLO and others a lesson. Mengele represented a special kind of evil, of a type mankind can never learn enough, especially in the areas of science and medical ethics.
Nazis, the new or old kind, will always pose a threat, especially as we forget history only to repeat it. Trials help us remember.
---
www.rimaregas.com
As the granddaughter of Jewish refugees who almost didn't make it to this country, I want to agree, but with feel much ambivalence.
So many actively participated in carrying out the Holocaust, gorging on revenge, indeed, would have been the wrong path to take. But Mengele, like Eichmann, had a special role and for that, he should have been captured. It would have been more just for Mengele to be brought to justice than what Israel went through, bringing John Demjanjuk to justice.
On the other side of that, watching the resurgence of Nazi ideas and sentiments, not only in this country, but Europe, as well, and thinking back to the Nuremberg trials, I wonder what more captures and trials would have done to change the course we are currently on.
Public trials like Eichmann's don't just serve the purpose of revenge, and Menachem Begin's view on this was not the prevalent view, especially as far as teaching the PLO and others a lesson. Mengele represented a special kind of evil, of a type mankind can never learn enough, especially in the areas of science and medical ethics.
Nazis, the new or old kind, will always pose a threat, especially as we forget history only to repeat it. Trials help us remember.
---
www.rimaregas.com
202
The rational reflect on trials to remember. Those with a fiery hate have no need for rational thought. They don't remember the Nuremberg trials but rather the Nuremberg rallies are fondly remembered. So perhaps nothing would have come of it like Mr. Bergman states.
2
Rima, as usual your comment is apt and I agree.
5
Ron,
That is why I mentioned John Demjanjuk. Mengele's would have been a trial to remember.
That is why I mentioned John Demjanjuk. Mengele's would have been a trial to remember.
10
"The capture and trial of Eichmann — and his execution — were enough to teach the world about the Holocaust and to convey the message that Jewish blood cannot be spilled with impunity."
Perhaps Eichmann. But most of the Nazi war criminals and top brass tried at Nuremberg were set free shortly thereafter. The United States, in an arms race with the Soviet Union, wanted German scientists, and didn't want to antagonize Germany. As far as the Holocaust went, there was collective amnesia for most Americans.
Given the foul oven jokes that are in circulation, particularly from far-right shock jocks, it's not a sure thing that people really know, even today, about the Holocaust. If they do know, they don't care.
And say what you will about bias attacks against Muslims, gays, and blacks, it's Jews who still are top-rated in that category. (That is, if you don't count women, who are routinely attacked and/or murdered with some regularity by their ex-boyfriends.)
Perhaps Eichmann. But most of the Nazi war criminals and top brass tried at Nuremberg were set free shortly thereafter. The United States, in an arms race with the Soviet Union, wanted German scientists, and didn't want to antagonize Germany. As far as the Holocaust went, there was collective amnesia for most Americans.
Given the foul oven jokes that are in circulation, particularly from far-right shock jocks, it's not a sure thing that people really know, even today, about the Holocaust. If they do know, they don't care.
And say what you will about bias attacks against Muslims, gays, and blacks, it's Jews who still are top-rated in that category. (That is, if you don't count women, who are routinely attacked and/or murdered with some regularity by their ex-boyfriends.)
155
I wish you were not so right.
25
Jewish blood continues to be shed with impunity.
Anyone who thinks that Jews are now safe, even in the United States, because of what happened to Eichmann are delusional.
Nazis are on the rise, as evidenced by Charlottesville and Trump's indifference. Apparently Trump is not been able to connect the dots, and doesn't realize that his actions put his daughter Ivanka and her children in danger just as much as any other Jew.
He should read about how the Nazis determined if you were Jewish enough to go to the camps. Conversions to Christianity, even long standing or generational conversions, and intermarriage did not matter. Ivanka's children are 1/2 Jewish by blood and 100% Jewish because of Ivanka's Orthodox conversion.
Like others commented here, also not Jewish, but married to someone whose entire extended family of his grandparents died in the Holocaust. My father's best friend was married to someone who lost her entire family in the camps. My child is half Jewish. Trump's rise and his support by the deplorables is personal to me, because I believe it could happen here and my immediate family is now in danger.
Anyone who thinks that Jews are now safe, even in the United States, because of what happened to Eichmann are delusional.
Nazis are on the rise, as evidenced by Charlottesville and Trump's indifference. Apparently Trump is not been able to connect the dots, and doesn't realize that his actions put his daughter Ivanka and her children in danger just as much as any other Jew.
He should read about how the Nazis determined if you were Jewish enough to go to the camps. Conversions to Christianity, even long standing or generational conversions, and intermarriage did not matter. Ivanka's children are 1/2 Jewish by blood and 100% Jewish because of Ivanka's Orthodox conversion.
Like others commented here, also not Jewish, but married to someone whose entire extended family of his grandparents died in the Holocaust. My father's best friend was married to someone who lost her entire family in the camps. My child is half Jewish. Trump's rise and his support by the deplorables is personal to me, because I believe it could happen here and my immediate family is now in danger.
24
Numerically the top rated groups experiencing varieties of present and historical bias (including violence)have to be women, blacks world wide, and Jews--in that order.
1
No.
Do not agree.
Holocaust survivors and victims in my family.
Do not agree.
Holocaust survivors and victims in my family.
59
I find the author's use of words quite misleading when he describes Mossad's possible wish for finding Mengele as an "desire to spill Nazi blood". Since latest 1973 Mengele had been one of the most wanted international war criminals. Bringing a criminal to face justice is hardly to describe with "spilling Nazi blood".
What kind of logic does the author apply when he finishes the article with approving Mossad's priorities not capturing Mengele, stating that "he no longer posed a threat"? When a war crime was committed, all legal forces should be engaged to bring the criminal to justice, no matter what. This was the victims right for justice.