Zvi Aharoni

Zvi Aharoni was a German Jew and Mossad operative who led a special unit pursuing Josef Mengele in South America. Instrumental in the kidnapping of Adolf Eichmann, he brought experience from that operation to a second, unfinished hunt: he identified Mengele’s protectors, followed the trail from Paraguay to Brazil, and observed a man he believed was the fugitive at an isolated farm. The account gives Aharoni a near-confirmation, not an arrest; an urgent new assignment interrupted the operation before his identification could be verified.

Identity and Mission

Aharoni headed Mossad’s special unit in Paris and was determined to bring Mengele before an Israeli court. The target was difficult to locate amid the rumors surrounding the fugitive, but Aharoni had reliable information and identified two important South American contacts: Alban Krug and Uli Rudel. The Mengele family and its Günzburg entourage remained inaccessible, while Krug’s family was suspicious. An agent sent to charm one of Krug’s daughters failed to overcome her resistance, illustrating how social access could prove as important—and as uncertain—as intelligence gathering.

The pursuit unfolded against a wider postwar network of former Nazis and collaborators in South America. In Buenos Aires, Willem Sassen moved among influential members of this milieu, and Mengele’s possible whereabouts were obscured by aliases and outdated reports. Isser Harel, Mossad’s director, had previously planned to use the narrow interval after Eichmann’s scheduled capture to seize Mengele as well. By the time Aharoni’s unit intensified its work, however, the search required a separate investigation across borders and through Mengele’s personal connections.

Following the South American Trail

Aharoni deployed additional agents in Paraguay after learning that Mengele had obtained citizenship there. He had Rudel followed across South America, intercepted Martha Mengele’s mail, and tried to penetrate German-community institutions in Asunción. These efforts narrowed the field but did not immediately produce a location. Mengele stayed ahead of the pursuit, and the investigation depended on piecing together fragments from contacts who could conceal or redirect his movements.

In the spring of 1962, Sassen approached Mossad in Uruguay and gave information about his former friend. His cooperation was driven chiefly by his need for money to maintain an expensive lifestyle. Although he had lost track of Mengele, Sassen identified Wolfgang Gerhard as the fugitive’s new protector and only contact with the outside world. Mossad kept Gerhard under surveillance. One morning, Gerhard drove his Ford Anglia across the savannah toward an isolated farm, giving the agents a chance to follow the trail to its apparent destination.

The Farm and the Interrupted Hunt

Aharoni went on a picnic near the farm with two Brazilian Jewish agents. Three men came out to meet them. One, of medium build, wore a hat low over his eyes and kept apart while his two companions spoke Portuguese with the visitors. Aharoni watched him and concluded that this was Mengele, but the encounter did not yield the confirmation the operation required. The man returned to the farm, and Aharoni went back to Mossad’s Paris headquarters. He began planning a more difficult operation than the kidnapping of Eichmann, while recognizing that further surveillance and photographs were needed to establish the suspect’s identity without alerting him.

That plan was abruptly suspended. Isser Harel ordered Aharoni to stop the Mengele hunt and join the search for Yossele, an eight-year-old boy whose disappearance had become a source of acute conflict between religious and secular communities in Israel. With the child believed to be abroad, the search was made a prime-ministerial priority, and Aharoni was assigned to Operation Tiger. His close observation of the suspected Mengele therefore remained a lead rather than a completed identification or capture.

Narrative Role

Aharoni’s pursuit shows how an international manhunt depended on patient surveillance, informants, and access to protective networks—not simply a reliable description of its target. He could identify the route through Krug, Rudel, Sassen, and Gerhard, yet the farm encounter left verification unfinished. His reassignment also reveals the competing demands on intelligence work: even a consequential pursuit could be set aside when another crisis acquired immediate political urgency. In the account, Aharoni comes close enough to see the man he believes is Mengele, but the last step—from recognition to proof and arrest—remains out of reach.