How Mossad Used A Holocaust Survivor's Daughter To Hunt Down Nazi Mastermind Eichmann

Last Updated:November 19, 2025, 19:28 IST

Operation Finale remains one of Mossad's most celebrated missions, remembered as a turning point in the post-war reckoning with Nazi atrocities

The daughter of Lothar Hermann, an Argentine-Jewish resident, had unknowingly befriended Adolf Eichmann's son.

In an operation that later became a defining chapter in the history of modern intelligence, Israel’s Mossad tracked down and captured Adolf Eichmann, the chief architect of the Holocaust, after a years-long global pursuit marked by secrecy, patience and remarkable coordination.

Eichmann, a former SS lieutenant colonel, played a central role in orchestrating the genocide of 60 lakh Jews during World War II. Once Germany surrendered, he slipped through the cracks of post-war justice. Despite being detained multiple times, he managed to escape on each occasion, eventually fleeing Europe through the clandestine “ratline", a network that helped several high-ranking Nazis evade Allied forces.

By 1950, Eichmann had resurfaced in Argentina under the assumed identity of ‘Ricardo Clement’, blending into a quiet suburban life. But Israel’s intelligence community had no intention of allowing one of the principal executioners of the Holocaust to remain beyond the reach of justice. Mossad launched Operation Finale, a mission that spanned continents and relied on fragments of information provided by individuals determined to expose Eichmann’s whereabouts.

Among the most crucial leads were those provided by Fritz Bauer, a German-Jewish prosecutor, and Lothar Hermann, an Argentine-Jewish resident whose daughter had unknowingly befriended Eichmann’s son. Their information offered Mossad the breakthrough it needed. A special team soon landed in Buenos Aires, operated under deep cover, and rented a safe house as they prepared for the abduction.

On the evening of May 11, 1960, the agents lay in wait near Eichmann’s modest home in San Fernando. As he stepped off a bus, he was swiftly overpowered and bundled into a waiting car, the dramatic end to a chase that had spanned 15 years.

Israel dispatched a special aircraft to Argentina under the pretext of participating in the nation’s 150th independence celebrations. Eichmann, sedated and disguised in an airline uniform, was flown to Israel on forged documents. His subsequent trial in Jerusalem in 1961 was unprecedented in its scope, bringing survivors’ testimonies to a global audience and revealing the sheer scale of the atrocities committed under the Nazi regime.

Eichmann faced 15 charges, including crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes against the Jewish people. In December 1961, he was convicted on all counts. The sentence was carried out on May 31, 1962, when he was hanged shortly after midnight, the only execution ever conducted by the State of Israel.

Operation Finale remains one of Mossad’s most celebrated missions, remembered as a turning point in the post-war reckoning with Nazi atrocities and a reminder of how far a nation would go to bring a war criminal to justice.

News world How Mossad Used A Holocaust Survivor's Daughter To Hunt Down Nazi Mastermind Eichmann

Read More