This section needs expansion. You can help by
adding to it. (August 2010)
23 May 1960: Israeli Premier Ben Gurion announces capture of Nazi war criminal
Adolf Eichmann by the
Mossad
31 January –
Operation Tawfiq (פעולת תאופיק): The first Israeli retribution operation initiated after the
Suez Crisis. The operation is carried out by
Golani forces on the Syrian village of
Tawfiq, in response to attacks on Israelis in
Tel Katzir. Tawfiq was designated by the
IDF as the center of many Syrian attacks and as a result it was decided that the destruction of the village was vital. During the operation, the village is conquered and destroyed while being attacked by Syrian artillery. Six Syrian and three Israeli soldiers are killed during the operation and seven Israeli soldiers are wounded.
15 February – War threatened to break out between
Israel and the
Egypt (at that time partners with
Syria in the
United Arab Republic), after the UAR's President Nasser received inaccurate information that Israeli troops were massing at Israel's border with Syria. Nasser then sent a major portion of the Egyptian army to Israel's border with Egypt, and Israel then began
Operation Rottem. The two sides halted war preparations after discovering the misunderstanding, and both sides stood down on 1 March.[1]
14 March – West German Chancellor
Konrad Adenauer met with Israeli Prime Minister
David Ben-Gurion at the
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in
New York City, the first time a German leader had conferred with a leader of the Jewish state. Two weeks earlier, the two countries had secretly negotiated German financial and military aid to Israel.[2]
21 March – In
Buenos Aires, Ricardo Klement brought a bouquet of flowers to his wife at their home at 16 Garibaldi Street, confirming to
Mossad agents that the Argentine businessman was, as they suspected, Nazi war criminal
Adolf Eichmann. The Israeli intelligence service was aware that Eichmann had married on 21 March 1935, while Eichmann was unaware that he had been found after 15 years on the run. The architect of Germany's "Final Solution" genocide, Eichmann eluded capture after the end of World War II.[3]
22 May –
Adolf Eichmann arrived in Israel at 7:35 a.m., roughly 24 hours after he had been spirited out of
Argentina.[5]
23 May – Prime Minister
David Ben-Gurion of
Israel surprised the
Knesset at 4:00 p.m., with the announcement that, "Israeli Security Services captured one of the greatest Nazi criminals,
Adolf Eichmann... Eichmann is already in detention in Israel, and will soon be put on trial here."[6]
3 June –
Argentina demanded that
Israel return
Adolf Eichmann, and then asked for reparations for Eichmann's seizure by Mossad agents in Buenos Aires. On 2 August, the dispute was resolved by Israel keeping Eichmann, but acknowledging that Argentina's fundamental rights had been infringed upon.[7]
^Hemda Ben-Yehuda and Shmuel Sandler, The Arab-Israeli Conflict Transformed: Fifty Years of Interstate and Ethnic Crises (State University of New York Press, 2002), p185
^Michael Wolffsohn, Eternal Guilt?: Forty Years of German-Jewish-Israeli Relations (Columbia University Press, 1993), p23
^Ephraim Kahana, Historical Dictionary of Israeli Intelligence (Scarecrow Press 2006),3
^David Cesarani, Becoming Eichmann: Rethinking the Life, Crimes, and Trial of a "Desk Murderer" (Da Capo Press, 2007), p234
^Tim Cole, Selling the Holocaust: From Auschwitz to Schindler (Routledge, 2000), p49; "Israelis Capture Top Nazi", Pacific Stars and Stripes, 24 May 1960, p1
^"Chronology June 1960", The World Almanac and book of facts, 1961 (New York World-Telegram, 1960), pp172–175
This section needs expansion. You can help by
adding to it. (August 2010)
23 May 1960: Israeli Premier Ben Gurion announces capture of Nazi war criminal
Adolf Eichmann by the
Mossad
31 January –
Operation Tawfiq (פעולת תאופיק): The first Israeli retribution operation initiated after the
Suez Crisis. The operation is carried out by
Golani forces on the Syrian village of
Tawfiq, in response to attacks on Israelis in
Tel Katzir. Tawfiq was designated by the
IDF as the center of many Syrian attacks and as a result it was decided that the destruction of the village was vital. During the operation, the village is conquered and destroyed while being attacked by Syrian artillery. Six Syrian and three Israeli soldiers are killed during the operation and seven Israeli soldiers are wounded.
15 February – War threatened to break out between
Israel and the
Egypt (at that time partners with
Syria in the
United Arab Republic), after the UAR's President Nasser received inaccurate information that Israeli troops were massing at Israel's border with Syria. Nasser then sent a major portion of the Egyptian army to Israel's border with Egypt, and Israel then began
Operation Rottem. The two sides halted war preparations after discovering the misunderstanding, and both sides stood down on 1 March.[1]
14 March – West German Chancellor
Konrad Adenauer met with Israeli Prime Minister
David Ben-Gurion at the
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in
New York City, the first time a German leader had conferred with a leader of the Jewish state. Two weeks earlier, the two countries had secretly negotiated German financial and military aid to Israel.[2]
21 March – In
Buenos Aires, Ricardo Klement brought a bouquet of flowers to his wife at their home at 16 Garibaldi Street, confirming to
Mossad agents that the Argentine businessman was, as they suspected, Nazi war criminal
Adolf Eichmann. The Israeli intelligence service was aware that Eichmann had married on 21 March 1935, while Eichmann was unaware that he had been found after 15 years on the run. The architect of Germany's "Final Solution" genocide, Eichmann eluded capture after the end of World War II.[3]
22 May –
Adolf Eichmann arrived in Israel at 7:35 a.m., roughly 24 hours after he had been spirited out of
Argentina.[5]
23 May – Prime Minister
David Ben-Gurion of
Israel surprised the
Knesset at 4:00 p.m., with the announcement that, "Israeli Security Services captured one of the greatest Nazi criminals,
Adolf Eichmann... Eichmann is already in detention in Israel, and will soon be put on trial here."[6]
3 June –
Argentina demanded that
Israel return
Adolf Eichmann, and then asked for reparations for Eichmann's seizure by Mossad agents in Buenos Aires. On 2 August, the dispute was resolved by Israel keeping Eichmann, but acknowledging that Argentina's fundamental rights had been infringed upon.[7]
^Hemda Ben-Yehuda and Shmuel Sandler, The Arab-Israeli Conflict Transformed: Fifty Years of Interstate and Ethnic Crises (State University of New York Press, 2002), p185
^Michael Wolffsohn, Eternal Guilt?: Forty Years of German-Jewish-Israeli Relations (Columbia University Press, 1993), p23
^Ephraim Kahana, Historical Dictionary of Israeli Intelligence (Scarecrow Press 2006),3
^David Cesarani, Becoming Eichmann: Rethinking the Life, Crimes, and Trial of a "Desk Murderer" (Da Capo Press, 2007), p234
^Tim Cole, Selling the Holocaust: From Auschwitz to Schindler (Routledge, 2000), p49; "Israelis Capture Top Nazi", Pacific Stars and Stripes, 24 May 1960, p1
^"Chronology June 1960", The World Almanac and book of facts, 1961 (New York World-Telegram, 1960), pp172–175