Berlin: The basics of Adolf Eichmann's story are well documented: Commonly known as the "architect of the Holocaust" for his role in coordinating the Nazi genocide policy, he fled Germany, was captured in Argentina by Israel's Mossad, and hanged after trial in [occupied] Jerusalem.
But Germany's intelligence service, the BND, is sitting on 4,500 pages of files on Eichmann a reporter thinks could fill in gaps about his postwar life: Who helped him escape? How much did Germany know about where he was? Is there more to the story of his capture?
The files could also help shed light on claims that the Vatican helped war criminals hide or escape after Second World War — allegations church officials have always strenuously denied.
The BND claims that the files need to remain secret, so freelance reporter Gabriele Weber sued to have them released. They are now being reviewed in secret by three judges at the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig. Weber said she anticipates a ruling in the next month or two, and expects to obtain at least some degree of access.
"I think it's impossible that in Germany we are hiding documents about a convicted Nazi mass murderer today," she said in a telephone interview from her home in Buenos Aires, where she splits her time with Berlin.
"I can't imagine they will be able to maintain secrecy 100 per cent."
The American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants group has weighed in, urging the release of the files. "For Holocaust survivors, the withholding of files on Eichmann, the ‘architect of the Final Solution', more than a half century after the war is unconscionable and indecent," said vice-president Elan Steinberg in a statement. "For Germany to be acting thusly, is doubly so."
The BND said on Thursday it could not comment because of the ongoing legal action.
But according to court files, the agency maintains that releasing the files would jeopardize the work of an informant, and has also argued that since much of the information came from a "foreign intelligence service", giving them to the public would harm future cooperation with that unidentified country, said Weber's attorney, Remo Klinger.
The BND has clarified that the intelligence did not come from the Americans, so it is widely assumed many of the files came from Israel, Klinger said. Rafi Eitan, an Israeli politician and former officer with the Mossad intelligence agency, who helped capture Eichmann, has never heard of the documents and knows nothing about what they may contain, his office said.
