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Eichmann in My Hands: A Compelling First-Person Account by the Israela Agent Who Captured Hitler's Chief Executioner

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When I said "stranter than fiction" this story, indeed the story of WWII and the Holocaust are stranger than fiction. Who would have believed that the most advanced nation in Europe - culturally, artistically, technologically - would adapt such an insane ideology or descend into a hell on Earth? Then who could have predicted that, like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, the very people marked for destruction would in the end, emerge triumphant?

I salute the writer for his effort even if he did get in trouble with the authorities. It is both informative and entertaining, especially the inside details of the spy world. ("The Boats of Cherbourg", a tale of a Mossad vessel-snatching from France after she turned pro-Arab, is another such tale.) What is horrifying about Eichmann is his everyday normalcy, his seemingly pleasant demeanor, a gentleman who casually chats about murdering millions of people. He is so ordinary as to invite fear. He even mentions he had Jewish friends before the war but what could he do? After all, the Jews controlled everything. That eerily sounds like some places in Europe in 2004

The trial, the political machinantions in Israel (they revived the death penalty for this one case), the evidence - superbly told. One detects an amateur writer, not a professional, but in a sense that makes the story much more genuine.

This is a true account of the hunting down and capture of the infamous Nazi. More thrilling and readable than any fictional work, Malkin does a wonderful job recalling this adventure in South America which occured over 40 years ago.

Filled with humor, pathos, history, and adventure, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Nazi-hunting, the Holocaust, Israel, espionage, or undercover operations in general.

This book was the basis for a TNT movie, starring Robert Duvall as Eichmann. I had the pleasure of seeing this movie, reading the book, and hearing Malkin speak in person within a short period of time. It is only a shame that, due to the Mossad gag order, we had to wait 30 years to hear this tale.

This is a first-person account by one of the Israeli secret agents who captured Eichmann, the notorious Nazi murderer, and brought him back to Israel for trial. While they were holed up with Eichmann in a safe house in Argentina, the author found himself drawn to have conversations with this person, to try and understand why he did what he did. Reading these conversations affected me so strongly, I can only imagine what the author himself went through. At one point, reading Eichman's reply to a question, I threw the book across the room. I couldn't even read it in one sitting, despite the fact that it's extremely well-written. At the end of the book I still didn't understand Eichman -- or the Holocaust -- but I gained something from reading it. I recommend it highly.

In 1960 , a small group of elite Israeli agents secretly went into Argentina to capture the world's most wanted war criminal Adolf Eichmann , and bring him to justice. Their task was to to lead a team to Argentina to capture Eichmann alive, and to take him back to Israel for trial, so that the truth could be exposed to the world and so that the world would know why a Jewish homeland must exist!
The man who actually snatched Eichmann off the streets was Peter Malkin , a young Israeli who lost his sister and nephew in the holocaust, thanks to the work of Eichmann.

What follows is fascinating account beginning with the story of two men : Malkin , and the monster who he captured , Eichmann.
I enjoyed reading about Malkin's childhood and youth-he came to Israel, from Poland , when he was four years old.
Particularly interesting is the brutality of the British , in the 'Palestine' colony , towards the Jews.
This information makes it particularly sickening to see much of the British establishment, including the British media (epitomized by the hate speech of the likes of Robert Fisk, and the BBC), politicians like George Galloway Ken Livingstone and Tom Dalyell, academics like Tom Paulin and others, leading the international campaign to vilify and harm Israel, while glorifying the terrorists that cruelly murder Jewish men , women and children.
They are showing the same callousness in regard to Jewish men, women and children being murdered today, as they did during the British Mandate.

The book outlines the exploits of the Israeli agents in Argentina, the capture of Eichmann , and the conversations between Malkin and Eichmann , which reveal the chlling mind of a killer.

The book concludes with a short chapter , asking the question if a holocaust could happen again.
There are troubling parallels between the systematic vilification of Jews before the Holocaust and the current vilification of the Jewish people and Israel. Suffice it to note the annual flood of anti-Israel resolutions at the UN; or the public opinion polls taken in Europe, which single out Israel as a danger to world peace; or the divestment campaigns being waged in the US against Israel; or the attempts to delegitimize Israel's very existence. The complicity of the Allies in WW II is mirrored by the support the PLO has been receiving from Europe, China and Russia to this very day.

If remembering Auschwitz should teach us anything, it is that we must all support Israel and the Jewish people against the vilification and the complicity we are witnessing, knowing where it inevitably leads.

As with the holocaust, the same kind of Jew-haters will again attempt to appease Arab rage with Jewish blood and land. We must stand up against it. Jews are still dying for only one reason; being a Jew.

Like a Phoenix out of the ashes of the Shoah (as the holocaust is known in Hebrew) the reborn Jewish State of Israel arose. The great hope of the Jewish Nation - the national anthem of Israel is Hatikvah - the Hope.

Malkin's book is nothing short of a masterpiece. His early life's story in and of itself is compelling beyond his accomplishments later on. I really enjoyed his telling of fighting in the hagannah and later in the '48 war against the Arab invasions.

But the capture of Eichmann is the watershed moment in 20th century Jewish history that all should hold up as the defining characteristic of the Jewish people as a whole. We will not be the whipping boys of Europe or the world anymore. We will seek out our enemies wherever they are, regardless of the circumstances, and take them to be held up before justice.

The courage Malkin and his compatriots is the story of us all.

"It is hardly a secret that innumerable German scientists, formerly engaged in research for the Third Reich, played a decisive role in the rocket programs of the United States and the Soviet Union. What remains largely unknown even today is that others, including more than a few rabid and unrepentant Nazi's, were brought into the employ of the Arab states, most notably Nasser's Egypt, to fight Israel. But we knew..."-Peter Malkin's chapter "Spy"

Peter Malkin is the Israeli spy who tackled Adolph Eichmann on a street in Buenos Aires and brought him to Jerusalem to stand trial for masterminding the holocaust, the shoah, along with a handful of other Mossad agents. The term "the final solution" was his. The ideas for the trains, the camps, the ovens were Eichmann's. He is the only person who was executed in Israel by the government. Somehow, he managed to escape detection for 10 years following the Nuremberg trials. This story is about his capture but it is not about his trial; those details are lacking in this book. Peter Malkin like so many other jews and Israelis lost many family members in those war years. A sister stayed behind in Poland with her husband and little children. His family immigrated to palestine when he was a little boy.

Malkin, a real life Gabriel Allon, was a master of disguise. He played pranks on close friends and family members, pretending to be someone else totally fooling them. Thus, his mother's comment after one succesful ruse. I had not expected such humor in this tale. One learns also about life in palestine before 1948 during the British mandate when Malkin joined the outlawed Haganah. One learns about the personalities of both Malkin and Eichmann. As I read this, I couldn't help but feel such sadness for Eichmann; he really is to be pitied. How could anyone imagine such cruel treatments to so many millions of people and then carry them out and have no remorse for it? It is to the Israelis' credit that they did not torture him, harass him, play psychological tricks on him as he had done to others. The Israelis came to bring him to justice and that they simply did. To me it is sad that Eichmann came from an evangelical family; how can a christian do such things? This I, as a professed christian myself, cannot understand. He went to the same high school as Hitler, a catholic. So many details of the shoah, Eichmann's many crimes, are left out, but enough are told to understand why Eichmann was a war criminal and that he did not get away with it. How can people still say that these genocides did not happen? Talk about denial. One might succeed in killing millions of people, but you cannot succeed in removing all the evidence and witnesses to such crimes wherever in the world they occur. And it is impossible to do so in this day and age given the technology we have now. Hallelujah.

I highly recommend that at least the several movies on the Nuremberg trials be seen too. Surely such trials as these are going on right now in the world today under different circumstances of course; these trials were unprecedented and important and are models of how the international community should respond to crimes such as these.

The reader gets an overview, which is sometimes superficial, of the unfolding Holocaust, and Eichmann's central role in it. Mass ghettoization gave way to mass shootings, which in turn gave way to mass gassings. Eichmann was partficularly involved in the destruction of Hungary's Jews just as the Red Army was on the outskirts of Budapest. Hungarian Jew Kastner (Kasztner), who made a deal with Eichmann, is mentioned as a "notorious name in Israel." (p. 227).

For four years after the war, Eichmann remained in Germany. Then he fled to Argentina and lived as Ricardo Klement. The Allied search for Nazi war criminals effectively ended about 1947. There was no hint of Eichmann's existence for 15 years. Many thought that he was dead. Eichmann's invisibility was facilitated by his careful avoidance of being photographed during the entire Nazi era. When in group photographs, Eichmann would hide his face behind another person.

The rigidity of Eichmann's habits made him easy to kidnap once he had been located in Argentina. The agents said: "Un Momentato Senor" and grabbed him. They examined him, cross-matching such things as his scar, to verify his identity. They then flew him to Israel to stand trial.

The author was a member of Haganah. By the mid-1940's, it had united in effort with the Irgun and the Stern. The author took part in the capture of Eichmann, along with Uzi Gal (best known for his machine gun). The latter was also present, as a witness, at Eichmann's execution in 1962.

I found this book hard to put down. Malkin gives very good personal & historical background of what it was like to grow up in Israel after most of his family moved there while he was young. I say "most" since some were exterminated in the Holocaust. That background information leads you into how he ended up in the "profession" that eventually put him face to face with the coldest mass murder that mankind has ever known. I look forward to reading other books about Eichmann and about Josef Mengele, and about their final fates.

Eichmann in My Hands is a powerful book.

The irony of the courage of Mr. Malkin is a direct opposite of the cowardice and evil of Eichmann.

Required reading.

A compelling account by the Israeli agent who captured Hitler's chief executioner, Eichmann in my hands by Peter Z. Malkin and Harry Stein is a great book.