US 'knew where Eichmann was hiding for years'

DOCUMENTS released this week from a Munich archive show that the intelligence services in both America and Germany knew where Adolf Eichmann was hiding almost a decade before he was kidnapped and brought to trial.

Critics believe the decision not to arrest the man acknowledged as the supreme logistical mastermind of the Nazi Holocaust of six million Jews was taken to protect both German officials and pro-Nazi clergy in the Vatican who had helped him to escape.

The German national newspaper Bild reported yesterday that journalists had gained access to files held by the government intelligence service the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) showing officials knew where Eichmann was hiding under the alias of Ricardo Klement in Argentina as early as 1952.

It was not until 1960 that an Israeli commando squad kidnapped and flew him to Israel to stand trial for war crimes. The ultimate "desk murderer," Eichmann was hanged in the Jewish state in 1962.

"SS colonel EICHMANN is not to be found in Egypt but is residing in Argentina under the fake name CLEMENS. E's address is known to the editor of the German newspaper Der Weg in Argentina," says information on an index card dated 1952 and reproduced in Bild.

The BND also told America about Eichmann's whereabouts in 1958. The BND did not want to surrender the documents: Bild claimed it forced their release using legal pressure following a recent court case in which the BND was ordered to release some other information. But the paper also reports that much of what was in the files had already been destroyed.

Campaigners challenging the rule say the full disclosure of the Eichmann material may prove German and Vatican officials colluded in his escape and freedom.

The BND has been fighting to keep all files sealed that detail Eichmann's life on the run. They cite that intelligence agencies in other countries will be "frightened off" in data-sharing if they are revealed.

Critics believe this is a smokescreen designed to avoid official embarrassment both in Berlin and the Vatican.

It is well documented that German bishop Alois Hudal in Rome operated post-war "ratlines," securing passports for wanted Nazis to allow them to escape justice.

Franz Stangl, commandant of the Treblinka extermination camp, admitted to British Nazi expert Gitta Sereny that Hudal helped him get away after the defeat of Germany in 1945.

Uki Goi, an Argentine expert on the Nazis, said: "The files contain details of collusion between the German government and Nazis who fled abroad, that is the real reason to keep them secret."

Reiner Geulen, a lawyer for a journalist who has been pressuring the BND over the files, said; "There is good reason to believe that he received help from German, Italian and Vatican officials."

Even Eichmann's son Ricardo Eichmann, an archaeologist in Berlin, says they must be made public. "Whatever it says in those files, the time has come to open them up for academic research," he said.