Germany's Fight To Keep Their Eichmann File Closed

Der Spiegel reports:

Fifty years after Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann's arrest by the Israeli Mossad in Argentina, basic details about his 15 years as a fugitive remain a government secret. The files kept by Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the BND, remain classified today -- allegedly for reasons of national security. A German journalist is now suing in a federal court for the release of the files.

The national security angle is that by releasing the name of the foreign agency, other countries would become reluctant to share information. Many doubt the truth of this excuse--and assume that the foreign agency in question is Mossad.

But that ignores the more likely reason for the stonewalling:

Uki Goñi, a prominent Argentine journalist and expert on the post-war Nazi fugitives, has taken a special interest in the BND files and thinks that references to a foreign intelligence service are a smokescreen. "They could easily redact the name of the intelligence service and the name of the informants," he told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "The files would not be embarrassing to any other secret service but to Germany itself." Goñi believes the files would reveal hitherto unknown levels of collusion between the German government and Nazis who fled overseas to escape prosecution.

In his book, "The Real Odessa," which describes how the Peron regime systematically aided Nazi war criminals, Goñi documents how Nazi war criminals lived free and easy in Buenos Aires. German Foreign Service members and Nazis visited the same establishments and drank in the same beer hall. The Nazis didn't hide their allegiances either: "The Nazis would come in, click their heels and throw up their traditional salute," Goñi told SPIEGEL ONLINE. Eichmann didn't feel the need to keep a low profile in that community. The German embassy in Buenos Aires gave his wife and children passports in their own name, just as they had given infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele a passport.

Attorney Reiner Geulen thinks that the most explosive information enclosed in the files pertains to Eichmann's flight from Germany. "He was very chatty in Jerusalem -- he knew he was going to die anyway," Geulen said. According to Geulen, Eichmann explained in great detail who helped him flee Germany and then Europe -- information the Israelis were very interested in. "There is good reason to believe that he received help from German, Italian and Vatican officials," he said.

'The Time Has Come To Open Them Up'

West Germany's reluctance to hunt Nazi war criminals is well documented. "Why do you think the Auschwitz prosecutor, and Frankfurt public prosecutor, Fritz Bauer, traveled to Israel to the tell them about Eichmann's whereabouts instead of telling his own government?" asks Wilhelm Dietl, a former BND agent and author of a book about Eichmann's abduction from Argentina. "He didn't trust the Germans to want to find Eichmann."

Bauer's biographer, Irmtrud Wojak, agrees. She believes Bauer was reluctant to report Eichmann's whereabouts to his own government because of the number of former Nazis in office. "Last but not least, Werner Junkers, an ex-Nazi was the ambassador to Argentina," she wrote. Bauer feared someone in the government might tip Eichmann off.

A decision is expected soon on whether the records will be released, albeit in a redacted form. No matter what the form, it is likely to be a far bigger embarrassment to Germany than to any other country.

Technorati Tag: Eichmann and Germany.