ISRAEL: The Beast in Chains

The Israeli Parliament assembled last week for a humdrum budget debate. Then Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion rose and, in a voice breaking with emotion, said: "I have to inform the Knesset that one of the greatest Nazi war criminals, Adolf Eichmann, who was responsible together with the Nazi leaders for what they called the 'final solution' of the Jewish question—that is, the extermination of 6,000.000 of the Jews of Europe—is under arrest in Israel and will shortly be placed on trial in Israel.''

Drooping Nose. Israel and the world buzzed with excited questions. How had the most notorious of all Jew-exterminators, a man thought dead these 15 years, fallen into Jewish hands? Had he been living contemptuously close to Israel in one of the neighboring and hostile Arab states? Was he really Eichmann, the butcher? The Israeli government, obviously fearful of international embarrassment, clamped down a curtain of total secrecy, refused to release any pictures of Eichmann or the smallest detail of how he had been caught.

From Buenos Aires, TIME Correspondent Piero Saporiti last week supplied the answer: "The Israelis found Adolf Eich mann in Argentina. He arrived in this country in 1952 from Spain. He was traveling with an Italian Red Cross document obtained through the Vatican's D.P.-relief department, which qualified him as a displaced person. The document was in the name of Krumey. one of Eichmann's assistant exterminators who was rearrested in West Germany following Ben-Gurion's announcement."

Eichmann at first worked as a surveyor for a German-American engineering firm called Capri. For the next several years he turned up under various aliases in Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia. By 1956 he was back in Argentina with a job as mechanic in the capital's outskirts, worked later on as an overseer on a farm in the interior. In 1958 he returned to Buenos Aires, became an office employee in an automobile plant and lived near the airport with his German wife and four children (the last was born after his family joined him).

Eichmann, now 54, bore no resemblance to the jaunty SS officer of the past. He had gone almost completely bald, hollow-cheeked, with big, flopping ears and a long, drooping nose. Yet early last month Israeli secret agents identified their quarry. From then on, they stalked him day and night. A five-man commando squad headed by one Yehudah Shimoni was sent from Israel to Buenos Aires. At the same time. El Al (Israeli Airlines) New York Station Manager Joseph Klein, who himself bears a tattooed number from one of Eichmann's concentration camps on his arm, flew down to make arrangements for a special El Al flight. It was to carry an Israeli delegation headed by Minister of State Abba Eban to attend the isoth anniversary of Argentine independence.

Quick Grab. On May 13 Eichmann walked along General Paz Avenue on his way home from work. An automobile swerved out of the heavy traffic, screeched to a halt. Before the startled Eichmann could struggle or cry out, he was grabbed and flung into the car. That night a message was flashed to Ben-Gurion. Decoded, it read: "The beast is in chains." Eichmann's family spent the night telephoning friends and checking hospitals and morgues. Next morning, they disappeared into hiding.