The author provided an excellent synopsis of why
Eichmann was on top of the list for Nazi criminals.
I wanted to know how he escaped after the war and
where he went to live. Also, how the Israeli
secret service found him and got him to Israel.
Further I know now how he spent his last days
before he was hung by the Israel government.

This book is disappointing. I bought it on the strength of Bascomb's book "The Perfect Mile", which was well-written and compelling, shedding much informative light on the characters involved in the race to break the four-minute mile barrier, on their motivation and techniques, and on the significance and context of the target. It brought alive the people, the quest, and the times.

The Eichmann book is the opposite on almost every count. It is a fascinating story, but Bascomb has succeeded in making it dull. There is remarkably little on Eichmann's background, so we are offered little explanation of the scale of his crimes or of why capturing and trying him was so important. Without the necessary context, the rest of the book limps along with not much to sustain it. It focuses on the minute details (many of them unimportant) of every step in the process of setting up the capture, the personalities of the major characters are painted only thinly, and the story is complicated by (a) the strange hopping back and forth in the sequence of events that took Eichmann to Argentina, and (b) the unnecessary amount of attention paid to multiple marginal characters, making it hard to keep everyone straight.

Occasionally you get some flashes of insight into the people involved and into the times in which the events took place, but generally the book does a poor job of bringing the topic alive, or of conveying the significance of finding Eichmann. It would have benefitted a lot from the eye and mind of a good editor. I could read no more than a dozen pages at a time before becoming bored, and I found myself skipping large parts of the middle of the book in the search for the core narrative and for something I could get my teeth into.

In 1961 I was working, temporarily, in Israel. Almost half a century later, I remember vividly the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem. It was broadcast daily in its entirety. For the first time in my life, I witnessed a complete nonentity who had the power of life, and horrible death, over millions of people. So dedicated was Eichmann to his job, that he commandeered trains that were essential to the German armies in their hour of defeat, to deport Hungarian Jewry to their death.

Neal Bascom's book about chasing down Eichmann was not written as a fictional plot based on facts, but as a dramatic account of events that happened. That is, locating Eichmann in Argentina, identifying and kidnapping him, and transporting him to stand trial in Israel. Skillfully, the author deals with the facts of the 1960s: Argentina would not have tried Eichmann, Germany (in the unlikely event that he would have been extradited) would consider Eichmann as a major embarrassment; too many of his former associates occupied position of power there. From a strict juridical point of view, Israel had no legal right to try Eichmann. Because of this, Eichmann's capture and flight to Israel had to be clandestine leaving no telltale evidence. The government of Israel later claimed that Jewish volunteers had orchestrated the operation in Argentina and kidnapped Eichmann to stand trial in their country. Actually, it was the Mossad, Israel's fledgling spy agency, that brought him to an El Al (Israel's national airline) plane visiting Buenos Aires.

From a literary point of view, the most challenging part of writing this book, is describing moment by moment the feelings and thoughts of Eichmann and his kidnappers. Over the years, there were diaries and books by the participants, as well as Eichmann's own testimony at the trial, but, still, how would the author know Eichmann's unuttered thoughts and feelings while in captivity?

The book reads like a first-class thriller but is thoroughly documented.

A few questions that remained unanswered: First, the difficulty in locating Eichmann in Buenos Aires was due to his impoverished living conditions in a house without electricity or running water. Certainly Eichmann was in position to amass a vast fortune from his former victims. Many other Nazis in high positions did that. Why not Eichmann? Second, Eichmann achieved only the rank of a lieutenant colonel in the Nazi S.S. Given his responsibilities, he should have risen in the ranks of the S.S. His relatively low rank, not corresponding to his position, is not mentioned in Bascomb's work. I wish the author had discussed this point. Third, Israel had to change its laws to allow a foreign German lawyer to represent Eichmann at his trial. While the name of his lawyer, Robert Servatius, is mentioned in the book, the changes in the law to make Eichmann's defense more credible, are not.

On the whole, the author richly deserves the five stars I am awarding his work.

Short and simple, an excellent book. Bascomb has done an superb job building the characters and weaving a page turning read. He is a master at collecting new source material to retell significant historic events (I'm also a huge fan of The Perfect Mile and Red Mutiny).

This book deserves to be a movie. Eichmann's character needs to be brought to the big screen. This part, in the hands of a strong director and actor, should be Oscar worthy.

Bascomb is definitely turning into an author to watch. Much like Stephen Ambrose, you can be assured when you pick up a Bascomb book, you will not be able to put it down.

Neal Bascomb's "Hunting Eichmann" is the spellbinding account of the capture of Adolf Eichmann who, from 1939 to 1945, was "the operational manager of the Nazi genocide." During the years following the end of World War II, a variety of rumors circulated concerning Eichmann's whereabouts. Some claimed that he was killed in action or executed by Jewish avengers. Others insisted that he had escaped and was living in the United States, Kuwait, or England. No proof existed to confirm or debunk any of these assertions. Eichmann had, in fact, succeeded in slipping out of Europe with the help of various sympathizers, including members of the Catholic Church, and he subsequently lived a low-key existence in Argentina with his wife and children. Eventually, various tips led the Israelis to a nondescript individual who lived on Garibaldi Street in northern Buenos Aires. There was evidence that he might be the man they were seeking. Subsequently, the Israelis formulated a plan to conduct "a dangerous operation on foreign soil involving more than ten agents, including the head of the Israeli secret service himself." They decided to seize Eichmann and bring him to justice in Jerusalem.

Bascomb's impressive research is matched by a writing style that makes this narrative read more like a novel than a work of non-fiction. Although we already know the basic details about Eichmann's kidnapping, we are still on the edge of our seats as the author skillfully and suspensefully describes the false starts, glitches, close calls, political complications, subterfuge, and intricate logistics that made this operation so perilous. If any members of the Israeli team were to be captured on Argentinean soil, not only might Eichmann escape, but their failed effort would undoubtedly cause an embarrassing international incident, and the image of the Israeli government would suffer irreparable damage. There was a huge amount at stake, and failure simply was not an option.

There is so much to praise in this book: the effortless, precise, and understated prose; the striking photos showing Eichmann in his youth and shortly before his execution; the ways in which Bascomb places this monumental event in historical and cultural context; and the impressive footnotes, bibliography, and index. Eichmann's trial, with its extensive testimony and documentation about the Final Solution, educated Israeli youth about the tragedy of the Jewish annihilation at the hands of the Nazis. Furthermore, it "rooted the Holocaust in the collective cultural consciousness." The trial "stirred a debate" that led to an "outpouring of survivor memoirs, scholarly works, plays, novels, [and] documentaries" that continues to this day.

Also noteworthy is Bascomb's depiction of Eichmann's twisted personality and delusional thinking. In addition, the author takes the time to explore the backgrounds, traumatic memories, and ultimately, the pride mixed with terror of each Israeli who took part in the abduction and its aftermath. As Isser Harel, the head of the Mossad, tells his men: "You were chosen by destiny to guarantee that one of the worst criminals of all time, who for years has succeeded in evading justice, would be made to stand trial." At last, the Jews had the opportunity to judge their killers. "Hunting Eichmann" is an eye-opening and detailed look at an important chapter in the history of genocide.

Every chapter is exciting. We kept saying, "This book should be made into a movie." My husband and I read it aloud- great activity for couples!

In this absolutely thrilling narrative, the author does a superb job in recounting, play by play, the hunt and eventual capture of former Nazi SS officer Adolf Eichmann - a man wanted for war crimes. As background information, he recounts Eichmann's wartime activities, particularly the role that he played in the Holocaust. His hiding in Europe after the end of the war and his remarkable escape to Argentina (where he lived until his capture in 1960) make for breathless reading. As an aside, I found that some of his sources of assistance in this escape to be particularly eye-opening. The author is meticulous is detailing every step followed by the team of Israelis in capturing him and bringing him to Israel to stand trial. One of the items that comes out particularly well in this remarkable book is Eichmann's mindset with regards to his wartime activities, that is, how he felt about, and justified, his participation in the extermination of so many innocent people. The author's research in putting this book together is clearly astronomical. The writing style is clear, friendly, accessible to a very wide readership and extremely engaging. Not only can this book be appreciated by anyone interested in important events in twentieth century history, it can also be relished by those who simply love a good cloak-and-dagger story.

The 1960 Israeli Mossad mission to capture the notorious Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann is marvelously recounted in this 2009 book. Although it is exceptionally well documented, researched and written, I found little new information in this version that has not been recounted in previous accounts of this story, including:

The House on Garibaldi Street (by Mossad Chief and mission leader Isser Harel The House on Garibaldi Street]]b[[ASIN:0446360953

Eichman in My Hands (by Peter Z. Malkin), the agent to physically make contact and capture Eichman. [[ASIN:0714643157

Operation Eichmann (by team member Zvi Ahroni and Wilhem Dietel).

All of the previous books were written by actual participants in the capture of Eichmann. This is not meant in any way to disparage Bascob's research and new account of this audacious mission. On the contrary, I considered this book to be especially well written and a classic "page turner." Although seemingly minor, there is an especially helpful map of the capture scene in the beginning of the book.

To my knowledge, this is the first history of this mission that was written by a third party historian, as opposed to an actual participant in the operation. In a way, this can be considered a positive, since it is based on interviews with various witnesses, participants, translators, etc. from four continents.

If you as are fascinated by this story as I am, this is a definite must for your collection.