Mengele by David G. Marwell

Author:David G. Marwell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2019-11-10T16:00:00+00:00

Meeting in May

Our May meeting in Frankfurt came three months after the attorney general had ordered the investigation. Much had happened in that time: two Senate hearings in the United States, and the mobilization of intelligence and executive resources. The Germans, with their renewed focus on the Mengele case, had been open and accommodating, sharing the status of their investigation with us and even allowing us to copy much of their file during a late February visit to Frankfurt with representatives of the USMS. The Israelis, likewise, had ratcheted up their efforts, appointing an interagency committee to coordinate their Justice and Foreign ministries and the Mossad. It was time for the representatives of the three nations to come together.

The meeting was hosted by Hans-Eberhard Klein, a senior state prosecutor in Frankfurt in charge of the German investigation. I liked and respected Klein very much and knew him to be a kind and committed professional who did his best to make his way through the minefield that the case laid before him. Klein not only understood the particular legal and investigative challenges that faced him, but he had a keen sense of the case’s political dimensions. He was joined at the table by his colleagues, Jürgen Hess, a journeyman prosecutor, and the laconic and no-nonsense Eberhard Galm, who had little patience for the nods to politics and diplomacy that Klein knew were needed. The German police were represented by Horst Gemmer, a particularly talented officer in the Hessian State Police and the brother of the police president of Frankfurt. The German Federal Police (Bundeskriminalamt, or BKA), equivalent to our FBI, were represented in the person of Johannes Horn, a senior official.

The Israeli delegation was led by Dennis Gouldman, an English-born lawyer who had spent some time in the United States. Gouldman, chair of the Israeli interagency committee, was a precise, careful, and dedicated professional who devoted himself fully to the case, representing his country faithfully and with tact and diplomacy. He was joined by Menachem Russek, who headed the unit responsible for investigating Nazi war crimes. Menachem’s duties generally involved aiding other countries in their pursuit of Nazi war criminals. As a part of my responsibilities at OSI, I supervised a contractor, Efraim Zuroff, who represented our interests in Israel, and I visited Israel and met with Menachem and got to know this intense and experienced police officer. A survivor who carried with him an unmatched motivation and commitment, Menachem, a native of Łódź, Poland, had been interned by the Nazis from the beginning of the war, and among the places on his path of persecution had been Auschwitz, where he told me he had come face to face with Mengele.

The U.S. delegation was headed by Mark Richard, who enjoyed a well-deserved reputation for his sober and selfless commitment serving both Republican and Democratic administrations. Neal Sher, who had headed OSI since 1983, had the polish of an articulate, well-educated, and passionate advocate, as well as the resourcefulness and attitude of a street kid from Queens; it was a winning combination.

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