May 21, 2021 • 53 mins
Judgment Day had arrived: February 23, 1965. Herbert Cukurs carried his gun in a leather holster as he boarded the plane to Uruguay and headed off into what he must have imagined was his new life. The men of the Mossad kill team were spread out in various hotels across Montevideo. They woke up early on that February morning and began to get ready for the Butcher’s arrival.
The spy later wrote, “We planned a very brief court-martial in which we intended to read the charges to [Cukurs], in the name of the 30,000 Jews from Riga and Latvia – children, women, the elderly, and men – who had been murdered by him... We wanted him to know that this entire long affair with Anton Kuenzle had been designed only to set the stage for the moment of revenge in the name of his innocent victims. And then we were going to put a bullet in his head.”
Germany's planned amnesty for Nazis was getting more and more international attention. In the US, the NAACP had added its name to Simon Wiesenthal’s letter. Pressure was building, both for the amnesty and against it.
The full debate in the German parliament was scheduled for March 10th, two and a half weeks away. The Mossad team was cutting things close. Maybe they thought the fresher Cukurs’ crimes were in the minds of German legislators, the better it was for their cause. Maybe it just took this long to get the Butcher into position. But they knew they didn’t have a lot of time to mount another mission if things went wrong.
By now, thousands of people around the world had marched against Germany’s amnesty. In Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, Washington, Tel Aviv, and Paris, there were protests. A journalist interviewed one of the marchers in Toronto. She told him, “I am the only survivor of Bergen-Belsen of my entire family. I am so lonely without my relatives.”
At the Casa, the kill team undressed down to their underwear. If the reports had been correct, the encounter would be bloody, and they didn’t want the evidence of a struggle on their clothes. They waited in the hot, humid room, listening to the workers’ banter next door and the noise of their tools. They checked their watches.
This episode contains interviews with Fernando Butazzoni, award-winning journalist and author of the 2020 book on Mossad's Cukurs mission, Los Que Nunca Olvidarán (Those Who Will Never Forget)
“Good Assassins: Hunting the Butcher" came out of Stephan Talty's work on a related book, The Good Assassin. Explore other parts of this story in the book: Buy The Good Assassin
• Written and Hosted by STEPHAN TALTY
• Produced and Directed by SCOTT WAXMAN and JACOB BRONSTEIN
• Executive Producers: SCOTT WAXMAN and MARK FRANCIS
• Story Editor: JACOB BRONSTEIN
• Editorial direction: SCOTT WAXMAN and MANGESH HATTIKUDUR
• Editing, mixing, and sound design: MARK FRANCIS
• With the voices of: NICK AFKA THOMAS, OMRI ANGHEL, ANDREW POLK, MINDY ESCOBAR-LEANSE, STEVE ROUTMAN, STEFAN RUDNICKI
• Theme Music by TYLER CASH
• Archival Researcher: ADAM SHAPIRO
• Thanks to OREN ROSENBAUM
Learn more about “Good Assassins: Hunting the Butcher” at DiversionPodcasts.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Diversion podcasts. A note this episode contains descriptions of graphic
violence listener's discretion as advised judgment. Day had arrived February
(00:36):
in sal Paolo. Herbert Sukers was getting ready to board
his flight, which left around seven am. The trip to
Mount of the Dao would take about two and a
half hours. He put on a dress shirt, a light
colored suit and a tie. I could just picture it.
Although Zookers was rarely photographed wearing a suit, it was
as if he was going to his first day on
(00:56):
a job, dressing for success. He said goodbye to his family.
His flight was Air France Flight three. He got to
the airport early and sat in the departure lounge. He
must have been excited worried too. It was a big
deal for him, this whole thing. He wanted a different
(01:17):
sort of life. He knew that at sixty four he
wouldn't get many more chances, so he was taking a risk,
a big risk that Anton Kunzla was on the level.
But even in taking a risk, he needed a little insurance.
So underneath the suit was his nine millimeter Baretta. You
could still carry a gun on a commercial flight. It
(01:39):
wasn't until the late sixties, when there was a rash
of hijackings in the US, mostly by radicals who wanted
to go to Cuba, that the policy changed. Sukers carried
his gun in a leather holster as he boarded the
plane and headed off into what he must have imagined
was his new life. Yeah, I'm Stephen Talty and this
(02:12):
is good. Assassin's hunting the butcher. So it's the first
file was to find and not been looking forward, while
the second part was the minor Nazi and killing. We
must thwart this shameful forces, the end of a trayal
(02:33):
and blood and horror, the end of a man whose
name will be written in inform episode nine Judgment Day.
(02:59):
The men in them Sod Kill Team were spread out
in various hotels across Montevideo, Uruguay. They woke up early
on that February morning and began to get ready for
the Butcher's arrival. Neo had the first assignment. He had
to go to the airport and pick up Suckers. He
had to check Sukers into the hotel and confirmed their
(03:19):
seats on their flights to Chile. He had to convince
the butcher. They had a busy day ahead, which would
include driving around the city looking at properties. They also
was stopped by Cassa Kubertini for a look at the
company's temporary headquarters, who was a full schedule. Neo didn't
want to give suckers much time to think. The agent
(03:40):
got up, showered and took librium. Mio had a condition.
He sweat a lot, and because he was concerned the
paranoid sukers might take his sweating as a sign of nervousness,
Mio had planned ahead. He'd gone to a drug store
back in Paris and asked the pharmacist to recommend something.
Demand prescribed an anti anxiety drug called librium, and when
(04:03):
Mio had tested it, he found it cured his problem.
So Mio took his librium. Then he dressed and took
the elevator down to the lobby. As he passed by
the news stand, the headline on one of the papers
they I read Bond Government will discuss tomorrow the investigation
of Nazi crimes. The story covered a meeting about the
(04:24):
amnesty debate coming up in the German parliament. The amnesty
was getting more and more international attention. In the U S.
The c P had added its name to Simon Enthal's letter,
pressure was building both for the amnesty and against it.
At one point, politicians in Germany tried to avoid a crisis.
(04:47):
Pro amnesty legislators made an offer to the anti amnesty forces.
They would change the statute if ordinary s s men
would kill during the war were given an amnesty. To some,
it wasn't such a crazy idea. Many countries gave soldiers
a free pass for crimes that were committed on the
battlefield and sometimes off the battlefield. It had been done before.
(05:11):
The amnesty opponents agreed to consider the offer, but when
they read the actual text of the proposed statute, they
were shocked. It wasn't just ordinary soldiers that would go free.
It was quote all perpetrators within the Nationalist Socialist administrative
machinery unquote. Who that included wasn't spelled out exactly, but
(05:34):
it sounded like every Nazi, every camp commander, every criminal,
every killer, like the butcher free forever. They rejected the deal.
There were other stories coming out of Germany too, Some
of them were kind of strange. One journalist had written
(05:54):
to the Justice Minister. Something had occurred to this journalist.
Adolph Hitler had never been indict did for ordering the
killing of six million Jews. What if he'd survived the
bunker where he'd supposedly committed suicide. What if his death
was a fake? Some people believed that he was alive
and well and living out his life and hiding. So
(06:16):
the journalists asked the Justice minister a question, if the
amnesty goes into effect, could Hitler walk down at Berlin
Street without being arrested. The Justice Ministry, well, they kind
of freaked out. They didn't know the answer to that question.
They found some war crimes experts and asked them, could
Hitler face any jail time. The answer was yes and no.
(06:39):
The former Nazi leader could be charged with political crimes,
with abusing the power of the state, that was true,
but he couldn't be charged with his main crime, murder.
That was disturbing. So the German courts did something about it.
Twenty years after the fur had supposedly died, they opened
proceeding against him. They even requested an arrest warrant in
(07:03):
his name. It made newspapers all over the world. The
Atlanta Journal Constitution reported, if Adolf Hitler returns from the dead,
you will have to answer for his crimes. It was
kind of a novelty story. Hitler was dead, who really
cared what he was charged with. But the incident did
make a point. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of killers
(07:27):
out there who didn't have an arrest warrant in their name.
If the amnesty passed, Hitler could still be thrown in
prison with the men who killed in his name, they
would be untouchable by now. Thousands of people around the
world that marched against Germany's planned amnesty in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago,
New Orleans, Washington, Tel Aviv, in Paris, they were protests.
(07:51):
A journalist interviewed one of the marchers in Toronto. She
told him, I am the only survivor of Bergen Belson,
of my entire family. I am so lonely without my relatives.
The full debate in the German Parliament was scheduled from
March tenth, two and a half weeks away. The MISSAD
(08:13):
team was cutting things close. Maybe they thought the fresher
Zuker's crimes were the minds of German legislators, the better
it was for their cause. Maybe it just took this
long to get the butcher into position, but they knew
they didn't have a lot of time to mount another
mission if things went wrong. Neia was composed with tense.
(08:34):
He wrote later, an exciting chapter in my life was
about to come to an end. Six months of a
constant war of wits, tension and uncertainty, and the tireless
efforts invested in order to bring us to this moment.
He thought about his parents, but he was focused on
(08:57):
the mission. Your Reeve was all up early that morning.
He wanted to get a look at Suker's to see
what he was wearing. That way, he could identify him
on site so there'd be no mistakes. Later in the day,
as Mio got into his rented VW Beetle, your Reef
was already driving to the airport. He would stand in
the visitors gallery with the families and friends of passengers
(09:20):
arriving on different flights. Your Reef would hang out with
them and hope to get a look at the butcher.
When he finally showed up, sudep a meat at Kafir,
had their breakfast, then headed to Kassa Kupertini. They had
perhaps the most difficult job waiting. The plan was for
Meo to lead the butcher into the house. The killed.
(09:41):
Team would rush and immobilize him. Then the verdict would
be read out. We planned a very brief court martial
and victory intended to read the charges to him. Is
the name of the Selti thousand Jews from Riga and Latvia, children, women,
(10:02):
the elderly, and men who had been mounted by him
over twenty years ago. We wanted him to know it's
this entire long affair with Anton Kunzl had been designed
only to set the stage for the moment of revenge.
It's the name of his innocent victims. And then we
(10:27):
were going to put a bullet in his head. After
Dukers was dead, they would put him in the leather
trunk and they would leave a printed version of the
verdict with the body to explain why the assassination had
been carried out. The world would know the truth about
Herbert Sukers and men like him. There was one line
(10:48):
in the verdict that I thought was especially interesting. The
entire long affair had been designed only to set the
stage for the moment of revenge. It was clear that
the team wanted Zukers to know that he'd been tricked
and betrayed by Anton kunz La, a man who didn't
really exist. I wondered why. Maybe it was because Zukers
(11:11):
himself had betrayed many of his Jewish friends and acquaintances
in Riga. He drank with them before the war and
made them believe he was their friend, and then he
had murdered them. Many survivors talked about how this double
cross made the war years even more painful for them. Now,
the Massad team wanted to re enact that betrayal with
(11:33):
the butcher himself. He wouldn't just be executed, he would
be executed in the same way that the Jews of
Latvia had gone to their deaths. Mio got to the
airport early and went to the visitors gallery. He looked
at the arrival's board. Suckers flight was listed on time.
(11:54):
He inspected the people around him. He spotted your Reeve.
His face turned away from me. They didn't want anyone
to see that they knew each other. They didn't even
exchange a glance. At around nine thirty am, Air France
flight eighty three touchdown. The airplane stairs were pushed to
(12:16):
the door and passengers began coming out. Neo could see
them clearly. Finally, Zookers emerged. He spotted Mio held up
one hand making a V for victory sign. He was
smiling from ear to ear. Mio smiled back. The butcher
seemed to be in a good mood. As Zukers waved
(12:37):
to him. Neo could see the handgun that he was
carrying in the shoulder holster. Mio knew he usually liked
to travel with a gun, but now it was confirmed.
This meant that if the team failed to bring Zukers down,
he might be able to wound or kill several of
its members. Neo felt his anxiety creep up your reeve.
(13:01):
Standing among the families, spotted Zukers too. He recognized him
from the photographs he studied in Paris. He memorized what
the pitcher was wearing, then turned and slipped away from
the crowd. He headed back to the parking lot. We
jumped in his car and drove over to Cassa Kuppertini. Meanwhile,
(13:22):
Suckers found me a waiting for him. The two shook hands.
Suckers was smiling. He passed on greetings from his wife
and children, and he asked me to catch him up
on our plans. They told him, believe me only the best,
I told him. We have great plans and you're part
(13:42):
of The two walked to the VW and headed towards
the city. Neo drove as naturally as possible, chatting with
Sukers watching his pedometer, he made sure to stay below
the speed limit. When Meo parked in front of the
Victoria Plaza hotel, Suckers took his suit case and went
to check in. He had room seventeen nineteen. When he
(14:05):
came back down from dropping off his luggage, he was happy.
He remarked to Meo, what a beautiful room. They went
to the airline office. Nea wanted to confirm their flight
from Uruguay to Chile. Knowing that they had tikes out
of Uruguay would help convince Sukers that nothing out of
the ordinary was going to happen. Why wouldn't assassins spend
(14:27):
money on plane tickets they weren't going to use. The
two went to the office. As Mio confirmed the tickets,
he spoke loud enough for Zukers to hear. Later on,
during the investigation of the whole matter, the clerk said
that he thought that two men were friends. He was
acting was pretty good. After they had the tickets, Neo
and Sukers went to meet with a real estate agent.
(14:49):
They toured a few houses looking for deals for Kunzla's company.
Every time they visited a house, Meal made sure to
enter first. Then the butcher followed him in one last
bit of conditioning before they headed to Cassa Kubertini. Hey,
(15:19):
this is Stephen Talty, the host of this podcast, Good
Assassin's Hunting the Butcher. This podcast project came out of
my work on a related book called The Good Assassin.
If you want to explore other parts of this story,
check it out. It's not just a book version of
the podcast. I spend time on different aspects of the mission.
There are chapters diving into World War two history that
(15:41):
we didn't cover in the podcast, and the book works
as a kind of a companion to the listening experience.
You can purchase a copy of The Good Assassin on Amazon,
Apple Books, and on bookshop dot org. Thanks After they'd
(16:03):
visited a few properties, Neio looked down at the fuel
gage was getting low. He pointed this out to Suckers
and they pulled into a nearby gas station. Meo had
let the fuel run down on purpose. Across the street
from the gas station, a red car was Parked inside
the car was the local Jewish man from the Foreign
Service that your Reeve had found to act as a lookout.
(16:25):
He watches Meo filled the tank, then took off. He
would report back to the kill team that the two
men were on schedule. Neo and Sukers looked at a
few more houses. Then Mio told the real estate agent
that they think about it. He'd call them tomorrow let
them know about their decision. There's another psychological cue to zookers.
(16:47):
We have plans for tomorrow. We have a flight to Chile.
Nothing bad is going to happen. It was about noon
at this point. After they left the real estate agent,
Neo and Sukers got back in the car. Neo had
a sudden idea. The house he'd runted as the headquarters
was close by. Why didn't they go and have a look.
(17:10):
It wasn't up to his usual standards, but he wanted
Sukers to see it. The butcher agreed. They headed toward
the ocean, drove through the Crossco neighborhood, and, as Fernando
but Zoni tells us, into Shangri Law. It was an
ordinary tuesday, not too much traffic, pedestrians strolling by, people
(17:33):
going to lunch at the casa. The kill team had
undressed down to their underwear. If MEO's reports had been correct,
the encounter would be bloody, and they didn't want the
evidence of a struggle on their clothes. They waited in
the hot, humid room, listening to the workers banter next
door and the noise of their tools. They checked their watches.
(17:58):
Neo and Sukers reached the Cassa Kupertini. As Mio pulled
into the driveway, he saw the four or five men
working on the house next door. They might hear what
was about to happen, but there was no turning back.
Now the killed team was inside. The target was here.
Now all Meo had to do was get him into
(18:21):
the house. Here we are, this is the house. Meo
stopped the car, put it in park, cut the engine.
Before Zukers could say anything, me was out of the
car and walking towards the front door. This is it,
I thought, this is the moment of truth. He must
(18:43):
follow me. Now. From the corner of my eye, I
could see Tukers get out of the car, still walking.
I had already pulled the house keys out of my pocket.
Tuckers was about ten or twelve feet behind me. Meal
put the key in the lock, turned it, grabbed a handle,
(19:04):
and pushed the door in. It was kind of dark inside,
no lights on. The four Massad members were lined up
on either side of the door. Neil gave them a
quick glance, then positioned himself behind the open door. The
men listened. They could hear Sucre's footsteps as he approached
(19:25):
the house. Then suddenly the butcher was coming through the door.
The change from bright sunshine to semi darkness blinded him
for split second. That's when Neo slammed the door shut
behind him and they killed team pounced. Three of the
men grabbed at Sucre's arms to immobilize him. The last one,
(19:47):
We're not sure who it was, dashed behind him, preparing
to execute the Cropmaga maneuver a single downward blow that
would drop the butcher to his knees, but immediately all
hell broke loose. Saucers pushed the men away and started shouting.
The agent behind him couldn't give the knockout blow. Saucers
was too quick. He was already turning to run back
(20:10):
out of the house. He shook off the Massad agents,
thrashing at them with his arms. Sucres worst nightmare had
come true. He realized immediately he had walked into a trap.
But me, it was a nightmare, the thing he'd fear
the most, it was also coming true. The butcher was
attacking the Massad agents and he was winning. He fought
(20:32):
like a violent and wounded animal. He freed one hand,
grabbed the door handle and tried to pull it open.
We leaned against the door, trying to push him into
the center of the room. The fear of death gave
him incredible strength. Sucers was screaming, bellowing. He pulled back
(20:52):
on the door handle that came ripping out of the wood.
He seemed to have this superhuman strength. The others grabbed
of his arms, his throat. They tried to beat him
to the ground, but nothing worked. In the chaos, knew
heard a voice. The butcher was shouting. Something was in German.
Let me speak, let me speak. Zukers must have known
(21:14):
why he was being ambushed. Clearly these were Jewish agents
and he wanted to talk to them. This I found fascinating.
What was the butcher going to say? Did he think
he had an explanation for thirty murders. What could he
possibly have said? They would have calmed these avengers and
caused them to stop the mission. It didn't matter. Massad
(21:35):
agents didn't want to listen, and the fight went on.
The men wrestled with each other in a fury. In
the melee, Zuker's glasses dropped to the floor, and then
something really bad. Sucres was, of course armed. Epistol wasn't
the leather holster. It was the baretta that he'd shown
me a month before when he visited Suker's home. Now,
(21:55):
Zukers shoved one of the Massad men away and reached
for the gun. The men rushed at Sukers. Mio had
joined in by now The team was getting desperate. You
reef grabbed at the butcher's face. He was trying to
get his hand over Zuker's mouth to stop him from
screaming and alerting the workers next door, but his index
finger slipped into Suker's mouth. The putcher immediately clamped down
(22:18):
and bit off the tip of his finger. The reef
snatched his hand away, screaming and pain. They were all
gasping now, trying to bring the butcher down. But then
one of the team members we don't know who spotted
something lying on the floor. It was a hammer that
had been left behind after some recent worked on the house.
He snatched it up, turned towards Suker's and brought the
(22:40):
hammer down on his head. Blood went everywhere, some even
spurted up on the ceiling. Investigators would later find it there.
Zuker's was badly wounded, his skull was fractured, blood pouring
down his face, and yet he still kept fighting. It
was almost hard to believe how tough he was. Finally,
(23:00):
one of them assad men grabbed his gun from the
pile of clothes. He came up to Zookers, whose face
was partially hidden by the blood flowing over it, and
fired two bullets into his head. Zookers collapsed to the
floor and lay still. The only sound in the room
(23:22):
was from your reeve. He was moaning in pain, holding
his wounded hand. They needed to get it taken care of,
but first they had some business to attend to. The
men stood there listening for a moment. They didn't hear
any police sirens, and they could hear the voices of
the workers next door. The workers didn't seem to be anxious.
(23:42):
They were talking normally, so it seemed that nobody had
heard the shots. Sude went to the backyard and turned
on the hose. One by one, the men went out
to wash the blood off. Then they put their clothes
on and went back to Zookers. His shirt was so
with blood. They went through his pockets and found his passport.
(24:04):
They took the bretta, then dragged the leather trunk out
of another room lifted Sucker's body into it. When the
body was inside, Massadman placed two pieces of paper inside
a folder on top of the body. The first was
a verdict considering the gravity of the crimes of which
(24:25):
Herbert Suckers is accused, notably his personal responsibility and the
murder of thirty thousand men, women and children, And considering
the terrible cruelty shown by Herbert Suckers and carrying out
his crimes, we condemned, they said, Suckers to death. Give
(24:47):
us executed on February twenty third. It was signed those
who will never forget. They late a second document inside
the folder. Bio never mentioned it. He talked about the verdict,
but not this other piece of paper. I was able
(25:09):
to find out what it was through police and newspaper reports.
It was from the Nuremberg trials, where the leaders of
the Nazi machine were put on trial by the Allies
right after the war. The page was part of the
testimony of a man who saw a large group of
Jews being murdered in the Ukraine. The British Chief Prosecutor,
(25:32):
Sir Hartley Shawcross read this testimony in front of Nazi
war criminals sitting in the defendant's box, and it's haunting
to hear even today without screaming, all weeping. These people, undressed,
stowed around in family a groups, gifted each other, said farewells,
(25:58):
and waited put a side from another ss man who
stood near the pit, also with a whip in his hand.
During the fifteen minutes that I stood near, I heard
no complaint or flee for mercy. I watched a family
of about eight persons, a man and a woman, both
(26:20):
about fifty, with their children of about one, eight ten
and two grown up daughters for about twenty or twenty four.
An old woman with snow white hair was holding the
one year old child in her arms and singing to
it and tickling it. The child was toying with delight.
(26:44):
The couple were looking on with tears in their eyes.
The father was holding the hand of a boy about
ten years old and speaking to him something. The boy
was fighting his tears. The are the pointed to the sky,
stroked his head, and the same to explain something to
(27:05):
the board. A few moments later, the family was dead.
Why did me on the others include this account, He
never said, but I think it was placed there because
it was about the victims. They were the real reason
that me on the other agents were inside Cassa Kopertini
(27:29):
on February when the news about Suckers went out into
the world. Massad didn't want the mission to be just
about the butcher. They wanted the murder Jews to be
remembered too, at least that's my guess. With the verdict
(27:52):
red and the trunk closed, the men were almost done.
You reeve told the team, we lean and we've finish.
So they wiped down the walls and tried to make
sure they hadn't left any clues behind. Then they left.
Neo dropped off his car on the street near the hotel,
(28:12):
and the others did the same with their rentals. They
took care of some other small details and then they
met at a cafe in downtown Montepdeo. There they had
a drink. Weaver at one with ourselves, and thou did
if we felt proud of having the privilege taking part
(28:34):
is this opimasion. After they finished their drinks, the men
got up and left the cafe. One by one. They
took two separate flights to Buenos Aires, sitting apart from
each other. By the end of the day they were
all out of Uruguay. Neo had one thing left to
do in South America. He wrote a letter to the
(28:56):
butcher's family to throw them off the trail. He addressed
the letter to Zucres himself as if he didn't know
the man was dead. In it, he said that he'd
found out they've been followed in Uruguay by two strangers.
Mia wrote that he fled to Chile in order to
get away from these mysterious people. He implied that he
(29:17):
was a Nazi war criminal himself, that he and Suckers
had escaped some kind of kidnapping attempt. He sent the
letter in a large envelope to a friend in Chile,
who put stamps on it and mailed it to Suckers
family in sal Paulo. It would buy the team some
time to get back to Europe to get rid of
their cover identities. The family would think that Sucres was
(29:40):
still in Uruguay and that there was no need to
call the police In Buenos Aires. Famisade agents boarded their
flights back to France. When he arrived in Paris, Nio
went to a branch of the bank he'd opened in
the count at under the name of Anton Kunsla. He
withdrew the money and closed the account. He got rid
(30:02):
of the passport and anything that connected him with the
Austrian businessman. The others did the same with their documents.
It was over. The mission had been a success. Now
they waited for the story to hit the headlines. By
(30:31):
now it was early March, the debate about the Statute
of Limitations was a week away. Massad was hoping that
the body would be discovered and that stories about the
butcher and his terrible crimes would run in newspapers and
on TV channels all over the world. Soon, Meo and
(30:53):
the others were now living ordinary lives in Paris. They
went to breakfast, went to the movies, socialized with their friends.
But every morning they bought newspapers and scanned them for
the news. A couple of days passed, then another. There
was nothing on the TV or in the papers. Neo
and the others started to get nervous. It turned out
(31:17):
that the team had made a crucial mistake. It was
a mistake that revealed a blind spot in their training
and in their view of the world. As massad agents,
the five men were trained to hide from the press.
They avoided journalists at all costs. Publicity was poisoned for
us by agency, and so for years they've been taught
(31:41):
how to conceal facts to avoid attention. That was great,
except when you needed attention. Their training had made them
ignorant about how reporters actually worked. They thought the body
would just be discovered, like by accident. They never really
thought about how that would have up. They'd hidden their
(32:01):
tracks too well. No one was looking for Herbert Sukers,
and no one knew about the body and the trunk.
The whole point of the mission was slipping away finally
from Sode. Agents started calling newspapers in Germany to report
the assassination. No response. The reporters they spoke to thought
(32:23):
they were cranks. Something about a body and a trunk
and Nazis and never forgetting what was that even about.
Journalists are busy and Uruguay was on the other side
of the world. Me and the others had no idea
how to get a reporter interested in a body in
some random house in Montevideo. So they wrote letters describing
(32:45):
the mission and why it was done, and they sent
them to a bunch of news agencies. One of them
reached a reporter. We don't know his name, but he
read the letter and thought it was interesting. He decided
to call the police in Montevideo. When he reached them,
he asked about a murder of a Nazi named Herbert Suckers.
(33:06):
Did they know anything about it? They didn't, but murders
get attention. The file landed on the desk of the
head of the Uruguayan Intelligence Service, a man named Alejandro Otero,
and according to Uruguayan writer Fernando Budizoni, this wasn't the
type of thing he typically handled. Look intelligence service in
(33:29):
uy was a joke and the data was the chief
was this joke. In fact, prior to this, Potero's main
qualification didn't exactly have much to do with intelligence or
law enforcement. He was the chief of the keeny Euruuayan
Intelligence Service. A young man, very competent, who are so,
(33:53):
was a soccer referee in the sixties and in uy
your soccer is very popular, wash, very very But despite
his inexperience, Otero assembled some officers and got in a
patrol car to try to crack the case. He wandered
(34:14):
around few days and they see that in the end
they smell of the car. He guided him to the house.
Jesus true. The officers knocked on the front door, no answer,
but they smelled the stench coming from inside, and it
was horrible. They went around the side and broke a
(34:37):
window with the butts of their guns. They broke into
the house. As they entered, they noticed dark splotches almost black,
on some of the walls. They saw the leather trunk.
Next to it were two shell casings, two caliber. There
were also parts of a gun on the floor. It
had been broken apart. The office broke the lock on
(35:00):
the trunk and pulled up the top. When they looked inside,
they saw a bright red folder laying on what appeared
to be a body. They had found Herbert suckers Hi.
This is Stephen Talty, host of good assassins Hunting the Butcher.
(35:24):
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(35:46):
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on Apple Podcasts, I hired radio app or wherever listened
to your podcasts. Back at the station, O Tero began
(36:07):
to develop a basic theory of the case. I think
that he understood several things from the beginning. First that
it was the work of this release and second that
it was an international action done by professionals. And at
(36:29):
the same time, news of the assassination started to break
in Uruguay and it left quite an impression on young
Fernando good Zoni in I was eleven years old. I remember,
of course, the Suckers assassination was a shock. This was
(36:51):
a incredibleous situation. International criminal killer in in my country,
no way. Of course, at eleven years old, I could
already hear the adult conversation and see the front page
of the new newspapers and the magazine, and I remember
(37:12):
the pictures on the frontage Google's body in the trunk
or that was very terrifying to me. Really, oh, Tero
would eventually drop his investigation. He didn't want to ignite
an international crisis. But before he did, he traveled to
Brazil to meet with Sucre's family and it left a
(37:36):
lingering impression. I interviewed him many years ago and he
told me that Sucos family was unreliable, especially the widow.
He thinks that the family was a dark family. I
(37:56):
don't know why. At this point, the news of the
assassination was starting to break around the world. The Massad
team still in Paris caught it as the lead story
of the French evening news, and it ran in Germany, Israel,
(38:29):
the US and other countries. Journalists blocked to Montevideo to
look into the mysterious killing of a Nazi war criminal.
Conspiracy theories started sprouting everywhere. One rumor was the air
holes had been found punched into the leather trunk that
would indicate that someone had been trying to kidnap Suckers
(38:50):
but had to kill him instead. Others believed that Suckers
had been part of a Massad plot to catch Joseph Mengela,
the butcher of Auschwitz, was supposed to lee hiding out
in South America too. The story went that Massad had
made a deal if Zuker's lured Mangola out of hiding,
he himself would be allowed to go free. Through all
(39:12):
this public speculation, Massad states silent as usual. They didn't
confirm or deny being involved, but everyone knew it was
the Israelis. In Germany, as articles about Herbert Sukers appeared
(39:34):
in the press, one of the major networks announced they
were going to televise the debate on the Statute of Limitations.
It would air live. It was rare to do that
in Germany at the time, but the issue was getting
unprecedented attention from the media. Tickets for the visitors gallery
at the Boonstag became hot commodities. There were dozens of
(39:54):
requests for every seat all the Colonel. Finally, March tenth arrived,
the debate in the German Parliament began. The Conservative government
still backed the amnesty. They wanted to put an end
(40:15):
to Nazi trials, to draw a line under the Holocaust
and move on. The Liberals, for the most part, I
believed that was wrong. A full accounting of the Holocaust
had never been made. There were still killers out there
living happy and free. They had to face justice. Deliss
(40:39):
shot to the Scotia. There was one Liberal who went
against his party. He supported the statute. His name was
Adolph Aren't, the son of a law professor. The sixty
year old Aren't was a tall, schoolmasterish guy with a
serious legal mind. Aren't had refused on principle to join
(41:01):
the Nazi Party before World War Two began, and he
was fired from the position as a judge because of it. Instead,
he used his skills as a lawyer to help jose
escape to the US, England and Switzerland. After being categorized
as half Jewish himself, he was interned in a work
camp in and forced to do hard labor. The following year,
(41:24):
was arrested and sent to prison. And yet Aren't felt
that changing the statute would only make things worse. Other
regimes in the future might change laws retroactively to accuse
their enemies of crimes. The law should be sacred. That
was Adolph Aren't's position that afternoon, as millions of people
(41:47):
tuned in on television, Germans were literally debating the meaning
of the Holocaust. How long should his killers be hunted down?
How many people shared in the guilt. Speaker after speaker
got up to argue their side of the issue. It
went on for hours. Finally Adolph Aren't rose to speak.
(42:08):
He supported the statute for months. The fact that he
was half Jewish gave credibility to the pro statute side.
If one of Hitler's victims said to keep it, who
could argue with that? But his Arn't began to speak,
His fellow legislators went silent. Something was happening. It became
clear as the minutes went by that Aren't had changed
(42:29):
his mind. He was coming out against the statute. In
his speech, Aren't talked about a representative Nazi killer, the
kind of perpetrator who would receive an amnesty if the
law went ahead. A man who takes an infant by
zavit in front of his mother and shutters his head
(42:49):
on the nearest iron post. A man who has twenty
thousand or thousands of people shocked or killed. A man
trains his dog so that he tears apart and prisoners
gentles before the prisoner is put to death in the
most cruel way. A man who forces prisoners to kneel
(43:12):
in the pios they have dubbed themselves, then gives them
the next shot, and then the next victim comes in.
So that's for days. A fountain of blood splashes out
of this masskrive. One cannot say of this man, why
is he still dealing with his act today? That number
(43:49):
Aren't mentioned jumped out at me. People. It was the
same number that thirty thou that was included in the
verdict that the Massad team had left on Suker's body.
It was in many of the stories that ran after
the news of the assassination was made public. Was it
(44:09):
just a coincidence that Aren't as he changed his mind
seemingly at the eleventh hour, mentioned the exact number of
victims that Herbert Sucres had been accused of killing. I'm
not sure, but it seems unlikely. Chances are Aren't had
read about Suckers and what he'd done during the war,
and it had affected him. Here's get Chamron again. The
(44:34):
excesad agent. There's no doubt in my heart that the
operation was successful. And the fact that in the waves
brought up after the Aischman kidnapped, being war already going down,
and the what talks in Europe, especially in West Germany,
(44:56):
at the time of maybe time to to make a line,
you know, and forget what happened twenty years ago. We
look for the future. Let's let's decide normal Nazi huntings,
no more Natzi trials. What they college stretch line college
in Germany strich linear, that's right, German world. And this
(45:20):
was the reason for the operation. And uh once the
body of suppose found in Motividel and the vote in
the Bundesta a few days later rejected the proposal of
making Nazi crimes okay finished twenty years So, you know,
(45:41):
it's something you cannot quantify, but I do believe it
had the repercussions, and it had the right repercussions desired
by those who decided to go for this proachet. If
it hadn't been for eight of Ourn't speech and is
mentioning of the thirty thous and victims, I wouldn't be
(46:01):
so sure. There were big questions being debated guilt for
the death of millions, Germany's future, and Germany's guilt. It's
hard to imagine that one assassination in a distant country
could have turned the tide against the amnesty in this
German politician's mind. But Suakers gave a face to the Holocaust.
(46:21):
The stories about his atrocities were so terrible, and the
news of the assassination was so fresh it might have
lingered in the minds of some legislators. A sketch Smron said,
it's impossible to say for sure, but it's clear that
the mission made it known that there were still many
more butchers out there. When the votes were counted, it
(46:43):
was votes in favor of the statute, three hundred and
sixty one against and four abstentions. In the end, the
time period for prosecuting Nazi criminals was extended for five years.
The killers would not get an amnesty. In the months
(47:13):
and years following the Zuker's mission, hundreds of Nazi mass
killers were discovered and prosecuted, and, perhaps more importantly, the
idea that was only Hitler and a few of his
lieutenants that caused the Holocaust began to change. The prosecutions
brought to light the role that thousands of Germans and
(47:33):
their collaborators played in the genocide. A much fuller picture
of how the Holocaust worked and who carried it out emerged.
There were other factors, of course, including the rise of
a new generation of Germans who hadn't been born when
the Third Dreich was in power, But the vote on
(47:54):
the amnesty was a turning point to be a freedman.
The Polish Nazi hunter who had fought so hard against
the amnesty was overjoyed by the result, as with Simon
of Vicenthal. Five years later, the deadline for prosecutions was
extended again for another five years, and then in the
(48:17):
statute came up for a third and final vote. The
count was much closer, this time two to eliminate any
time limit. Two two against freedman, and the others had one.
There would be no amnesty for Nazi war criminals. Ever,
(48:37):
Friedman wrote today, these murderers have been silenced until the
end of their lives. Massad never took responsibility for the
Zuker's mission. That was just its policy, but many survivors
(49:00):
in Israel knew who had carried it out. People would
come up to me on the street and thank him.
He received letters from the families of those murdered in Latvia,
and every year the five men who carried out the
mission gathered to remember. They would have a drink or
two and talk about Montevideo and Cassa, Kubertini and the
(49:23):
rest of it. After the operation, Joseph your Reeve did
well at MASSAD, who was promoted to the head of
the agency in Europe, and he retired. Mio's career was
less successful. He was frustrated the Suker's mission had been
(49:46):
a huge success, but there were no promotions for him.
The fact that he was an introvert and not really
a commander of men it worked against him, and maybe
something else. Most of them SAD agents who rose to
the top where sabras men born in Israel. Mia was
a bit of an outsider. He'd been born in Germany
(50:07):
and spoke with a strong German accent. It set him apart.
Mio retired from the Massad and settled in a leafy
neighborhood in Tel Aviv. Once in a while, when MASSA
needed a certain kind of operative for a mission, it
would call him up and he would come out of
(50:28):
retirement for a week or two, but mostly he spent
his time spoiling his grandchildren. As the years went by,
he would often look back on his career and talk
about the missions that meant the most to him. When
I spoke with me a son in Tel Aviv, he
told me it was always the Zuker's operation that Mia
(50:49):
was proudest of. For him, it was the pinnacle of
his career and really of his life. Ye Meo had
led a mission that helped change history, but for me
serious questions remained. The main one was why Zookers had
(51:11):
done what he'd done. Even Meo, as good as spy
as he was, never cracked that mystery. In the next episode,
I'll tell you about the surprising answers I found and
the brilliant Jewish woman who went through hell to reveal
the truth about the Butcher of Latvia. Good Assassins. Hunting
(51:45):
the Butcher is a production of Diversion Podcasts in association
with I Heart Radio. This season is written and hosted
by Stephen Talti, produced and directed by Scott Waxman and
Jacob Bronstein. Executive producers Scott Waxman and Mark Francis. Story
Editing by Jacob Bronstein, with editorial direction from Scott Waxman
(52:06):
and Mangesh had Ticketour. Editing, mixing and sound design by
Mark Francis with the voices of Nick Afka, Thomas Armory, Angele,
Andrew Polkue, Mindy Escobar, Leants, Steve Rautman and Stefan Rudnitsky.
Theme music by Tyler Cash. Archival research by Adam Shapiro,
(52:27):
thanks to Oran Rosenbaum at ut A Diversion Podcasts.
Diversion podcasts. A note this episode contains descriptions of graphic
violence listener's discretion as advised judgment. Day had arrived February
(00:36):
in sal Paolo. Herbert Sukers was getting ready to board
his flight, which left around seven am. The trip to
Mount of the Dao would take about two and a
half hours. He put on a dress shirt, a light
colored suit and a tie. I could just picture it.
Although Zookers was rarely photographed wearing a suit, it was
as if he was going to his first day on
(00:56):
a job, dressing for success. He said goodbye to his family.
His flight was Air France Flight three. He got to
the airport early and sat in the departure lounge. He
must have been excited worried too. It was a big
deal for him, this whole thing. He wanted a different
(01:17):
sort of life. He knew that at sixty four he
wouldn't get many more chances, so he was taking a risk,
a big risk that Anton Kunzla was on the level.
But even in taking a risk, he needed a little insurance.
So underneath the suit was his nine millimeter Baretta. You
could still carry a gun on a commercial flight. It
(01:39):
wasn't until the late sixties, when there was a rash
of hijackings in the US, mostly by radicals who wanted
to go to Cuba, that the policy changed. Sukers carried
his gun in a leather holster as he boarded the
plane and headed off into what he must have imagined
was his new life. Yeah, I'm Stephen Talty and this
(02:12):
is good. Assassin's hunting the butcher. So it's the first
file was to find and not been looking forward, while
the second part was the minor Nazi and killing. We
must thwart this shameful forces, the end of a trayal
(02:33):
and blood and horror, the end of a man whose
name will be written in inform episode nine Judgment Day.
(02:59):
The men in them Sod Kill Team were spread out
in various hotels across Montevideo, Uruguay. They woke up early
on that February morning and began to get ready for
the Butcher's arrival. Neo had the first assignment. He had
to go to the airport and pick up Suckers. He
had to check Sukers into the hotel and confirmed their
(03:19):
seats on their flights to Chile. He had to convince
the butcher. They had a busy day ahead, which would
include driving around the city looking at properties. They also
was stopped by Cassa Kubertini for a look at the
company's temporary headquarters, who was a full schedule. Neo didn't
want to give suckers much time to think. The agent
(03:40):
got up, showered and took librium. Mio had a condition.
He sweat a lot, and because he was concerned the
paranoid sukers might take his sweating as a sign of nervousness,
Mio had planned ahead. He'd gone to a drug store
back in Paris and asked the pharmacist to recommend something.
Demand prescribed an anti anxiety drug called librium, and when
(04:03):
Mio had tested it, he found it cured his problem.
So Mio took his librium. Then he dressed and took
the elevator down to the lobby. As he passed by
the news stand, the headline on one of the papers
they I read Bond Government will discuss tomorrow the investigation
of Nazi crimes. The story covered a meeting about the
(04:24):
amnesty debate coming up in the German parliament. The amnesty
was getting more and more international attention. In the U S.
The c P had added its name to Simon Enthal's letter,
pressure was building both for the amnesty and against it.
At one point, politicians in Germany tried to avoid a crisis.
(04:47):
Pro amnesty legislators made an offer to the anti amnesty forces.
They would change the statute if ordinary s s men
would kill during the war were given an amnesty. To some,
it wasn't such a crazy idea. Many countries gave soldiers
a free pass for crimes that were committed on the
battlefield and sometimes off the battlefield. It had been done before.
(05:11):
The amnesty opponents agreed to consider the offer, but when
they read the actual text of the proposed statute, they
were shocked. It wasn't just ordinary soldiers that would go free.
It was quote all perpetrators within the Nationalist Socialist administrative
machinery unquote. Who that included wasn't spelled out exactly, but
(05:34):
it sounded like every Nazi, every camp commander, every criminal,
every killer, like the butcher free forever. They rejected the deal.
There were other stories coming out of Germany too, Some
of them were kind of strange. One journalist had written
(05:54):
to the Justice Minister. Something had occurred to this journalist.
Adolph Hitler had never been indict did for ordering the
killing of six million Jews. What if he'd survived the
bunker where he'd supposedly committed suicide. What if his death
was a fake? Some people believed that he was alive
and well and living out his life and hiding. So
(06:16):
the journalists asked the Justice minister a question, if the
amnesty goes into effect, could Hitler walk down at Berlin
Street without being arrested. The Justice Ministry, well, they kind
of freaked out. They didn't know the answer to that question.
They found some war crimes experts and asked them, could
Hitler face any jail time. The answer was yes and no.
(06:39):
The former Nazi leader could be charged with political crimes,
with abusing the power of the state, that was true,
but he couldn't be charged with his main crime, murder.
That was disturbing. So the German courts did something about it.
Twenty years after the fur had supposedly died, they opened
proceeding against him. They even requested an arrest warrant in
(07:03):
his name. It made newspapers all over the world. The
Atlanta Journal Constitution reported, if Adolf Hitler returns from the dead,
you will have to answer for his crimes. It was
kind of a novelty story. Hitler was dead, who really
cared what he was charged with. But the incident did
make a point. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of killers
(07:27):
out there who didn't have an arrest warrant in their name.
If the amnesty passed, Hitler could still be thrown in
prison with the men who killed in his name, they
would be untouchable by now. Thousands of people around the
world that marched against Germany's planned amnesty in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago,
New Orleans, Washington, Tel Aviv, in Paris, they were protests.
(07:51):
A journalist interviewed one of the marchers in Toronto. She
told him, I am the only survivor of Bergen Belson,
of my entire family. I am so lonely without my relatives.
The full debate in the German Parliament was scheduled from
March tenth, two and a half weeks away. The MISSAD
(08:13):
team was cutting things close. Maybe they thought the fresher
Zuker's crimes were the minds of German legislators, the better
it was for their cause. Maybe it just took this
long to get the butcher into position, but they knew
they didn't have a lot of time to mount another
mission if things went wrong. Neia was composed with tense.
(08:34):
He wrote later, an exciting chapter in my life was
about to come to an end. Six months of a
constant war of wits, tension and uncertainty, and the tireless
efforts invested in order to bring us to this moment.
He thought about his parents, but he was focused on
(08:57):
the mission. Your Reeve was all up early that morning.
He wanted to get a look at Suker's to see
what he was wearing. That way, he could identify him
on site so there'd be no mistakes. Later in the day,
as Mio got into his rented VW Beetle, your Reef
was already driving to the airport. He would stand in
the visitors gallery with the families and friends of passengers
(09:20):
arriving on different flights. Your Reef would hang out with
them and hope to get a look at the butcher.
When he finally showed up, sudep a meat at Kafir,
had their breakfast, then headed to Kassa Kupertini. They had
perhaps the most difficult job waiting. The plan was for
Meo to lead the butcher into the house. The killed.
(09:41):
Team would rush and immobilize him. Then the verdict would
be read out. We planned a very brief court martial
and victory intended to read the charges to him. Is
the name of the Selti thousand Jews from Riga and Latvia, children, women,
(10:02):
the elderly, and men who had been mounted by him
over twenty years ago. We wanted him to know it's
this entire long affair with Anton Kunzl had been designed
only to set the stage for the moment of revenge.
It's the name of his innocent victims. And then we
(10:27):
were going to put a bullet in his head. After
Dukers was dead, they would put him in the leather
trunk and they would leave a printed version of the
verdict with the body to explain why the assassination had
been carried out. The world would know the truth about
Herbert Sukers and men like him. There was one line
(10:48):
in the verdict that I thought was especially interesting. The
entire long affair had been designed only to set the
stage for the moment of revenge. It was clear that
the team wanted Zukers to know that he'd been tricked
and betrayed by Anton kunz La, a man who didn't
really exist. I wondered why. Maybe it was because Zukers
(11:11):
himself had betrayed many of his Jewish friends and acquaintances
in Riga. He drank with them before the war and
made them believe he was their friend, and then he
had murdered them. Many survivors talked about how this double
cross made the war years even more painful for them. Now,
the Massad team wanted to re enact that betrayal with
(11:33):
the butcher himself. He wouldn't just be executed, he would
be executed in the same way that the Jews of
Latvia had gone to their deaths. Mio got to the
airport early and went to the visitors gallery. He looked
at the arrival's board. Suckers flight was listed on time.
(11:54):
He inspected the people around him. He spotted your Reeve.
His face turned away from me. They didn't want anyone
to see that they knew each other. They didn't even
exchange a glance. At around nine thirty am, Air France
flight eighty three touchdown. The airplane stairs were pushed to
(12:16):
the door and passengers began coming out. Neo could see
them clearly. Finally, Zookers emerged. He spotted Mio held up
one hand making a V for victory sign. He was
smiling from ear to ear. Mio smiled back. The butcher
seemed to be in a good mood. As Zukers waved
(12:37):
to him. Neo could see the handgun that he was
carrying in the shoulder holster. Mio knew he usually liked
to travel with a gun, but now it was confirmed.
This meant that if the team failed to bring Zukers down,
he might be able to wound or kill several of
its members. Neo felt his anxiety creep up your reeve.
(13:01):
Standing among the families, spotted Zukers too. He recognized him
from the photographs he studied in Paris. He memorized what
the pitcher was wearing, then turned and slipped away from
the crowd. He headed back to the parking lot. We
jumped in his car and drove over to Cassa Kuppertini. Meanwhile,
(13:22):
Suckers found me a waiting for him. The two shook hands.
Suckers was smiling. He passed on greetings from his wife
and children, and he asked me to catch him up
on our plans. They told him, believe me only the best,
I told him. We have great plans and you're part
(13:42):
of The two walked to the VW and headed towards
the city. Neo drove as naturally as possible, chatting with
Sukers watching his pedometer, he made sure to stay below
the speed limit. When Meo parked in front of the
Victoria Plaza hotel, Suckers took his suit case and went
to check in. He had room seventeen nineteen. When he
(14:05):
came back down from dropping off his luggage, he was happy.
He remarked to Meo, what a beautiful room. They went
to the airline office. Nea wanted to confirm their flight
from Uruguay to Chile. Knowing that they had tikes out
of Uruguay would help convince Sukers that nothing out of
the ordinary was going to happen. Why wouldn't assassins spend
(14:27):
money on plane tickets they weren't going to use. The
two went to the office. As Mio confirmed the tickets,
he spoke loud enough for Zukers to hear. Later on,
during the investigation of the whole matter, the clerk said
that he thought that two men were friends. He was
acting was pretty good. After they had the tickets, Neo
and Sukers went to meet with a real estate agent.
(14:49):
They toured a few houses looking for deals for Kunzla's company.
Every time they visited a house, Meal made sure to
enter first. Then the butcher followed him in one last
bit of conditioning before they headed to Cassa Kubertini. Hey,
(15:19):
this is Stephen Talty, the host of this podcast, Good
Assassin's Hunting the Butcher. This podcast project came out of
my work on a related book called The Good Assassin.
If you want to explore other parts of this story,
check it out. It's not just a book version of
the podcast. I spend time on different aspects of the mission.
There are chapters diving into World War two history that
(15:41):
we didn't cover in the podcast, and the book works
as a kind of a companion to the listening experience.
You can purchase a copy of The Good Assassin on Amazon,
Apple Books, and on bookshop dot org. Thanks After they'd
(16:03):
visited a few properties, Neio looked down at the fuel
gage was getting low. He pointed this out to Suckers
and they pulled into a nearby gas station. Meo had
let the fuel run down on purpose. Across the street
from the gas station, a red car was Parked inside
the car was the local Jewish man from the Foreign
Service that your Reeve had found to act as a lookout.
(16:25):
He watches Meo filled the tank, then took off. He
would report back to the kill team that the two
men were on schedule. Neo and Sukers looked at a
few more houses. Then Mio told the real estate agent
that they think about it. He'd call them tomorrow let
them know about their decision. There's another psychological cue to zookers.
(16:47):
We have plans for tomorrow. We have a flight to Chile.
Nothing bad is going to happen. It was about noon
at this point. After they left the real estate agent,
Neo and Sukers got back in the car. Neo had
a sudden idea. The house he'd runted as the headquarters
was close by. Why didn't they go and have a look.
(17:10):
It wasn't up to his usual standards, but he wanted
Sukers to see it. The butcher agreed. They headed toward
the ocean, drove through the Crossco neighborhood, and, as Fernando
but Zoni tells us, into Shangri Law. It was an
ordinary tuesday, not too much traffic, pedestrians strolling by, people
(17:33):
going to lunch at the casa. The kill team had
undressed down to their underwear. If MEO's reports had been correct,
the encounter would be bloody, and they didn't want the
evidence of a struggle on their clothes. They waited in
the hot, humid room, listening to the workers banter next
door and the noise of their tools. They checked their watches.
(17:58):
Neo and Sukers reached the Cassa Kupertini. As Mio pulled
into the driveway, he saw the four or five men
working on the house next door. They might hear what
was about to happen, but there was no turning back.
Now the killed team was inside. The target was here.
Now all Meo had to do was get him into
(18:21):
the house. Here we are, this is the house. Meo
stopped the car, put it in park, cut the engine.
Before Zukers could say anything, me was out of the
car and walking towards the front door. This is it,
I thought, this is the moment of truth. He must
(18:43):
follow me. Now. From the corner of my eye, I
could see Tukers get out of the car, still walking.
I had already pulled the house keys out of my pocket.
Tuckers was about ten or twelve feet behind me. Meal
put the key in the lock, turned it, grabbed a handle,
(19:04):
and pushed the door in. It was kind of dark inside,
no lights on. The four Massad members were lined up
on either side of the door. Neil gave them a
quick glance, then positioned himself behind the open door. The
men listened. They could hear Sucre's footsteps as he approached
(19:25):
the house. Then suddenly the butcher was coming through the door.
The change from bright sunshine to semi darkness blinded him
for split second. That's when Neo slammed the door shut
behind him and they killed team pounced. Three of the
men grabbed at Sucre's arms to immobilize him. The last one,
(19:47):
We're not sure who it was, dashed behind him, preparing
to execute the Cropmaga maneuver a single downward blow that
would drop the butcher to his knees, but immediately all
hell broke loose. Saucers pushed the men away and started shouting.
The agent behind him couldn't give the knockout blow. Saucers
was too quick. He was already turning to run back
(20:10):
out of the house. He shook off the Massad agents,
thrashing at them with his arms. Sucres worst nightmare had
come true. He realized immediately he had walked into a trap.
But me, it was a nightmare, the thing he'd fear
the most, it was also coming true. The butcher was
attacking the Massad agents and he was winning. He fought
(20:32):
like a violent and wounded animal. He freed one hand,
grabbed the door handle and tried to pull it open.
We leaned against the door, trying to push him into
the center of the room. The fear of death gave
him incredible strength. Sucers was screaming, bellowing. He pulled back
(20:52):
on the door handle that came ripping out of the wood.
He seemed to have this superhuman strength. The others grabbed
of his arms, his throat. They tried to beat him
to the ground, but nothing worked. In the chaos, knew
heard a voice. The butcher was shouting. Something was in German.
Let me speak, let me speak. Zukers must have known
(21:14):
why he was being ambushed. Clearly these were Jewish agents
and he wanted to talk to them. This I found fascinating.
What was the butcher going to say? Did he think
he had an explanation for thirty murders. What could he
possibly have said? They would have calmed these avengers and
caused them to stop the mission. It didn't matter. Massad
(21:35):
agents didn't want to listen, and the fight went on.
The men wrestled with each other in a fury. In
the melee, Zuker's glasses dropped to the floor, and then
something really bad. Sucres was, of course armed. Epistol wasn't
the leather holster. It was the baretta that he'd shown
me a month before when he visited Suker's home. Now,
(21:55):
Zukers shoved one of the Massad men away and reached
for the gun. The men rushed at Sukers. Mio had
joined in by now The team was getting desperate. You
reef grabbed at the butcher's face. He was trying to
get his hand over Zuker's mouth to stop him from
screaming and alerting the workers next door, but his index
finger slipped into Suker's mouth. The putcher immediately clamped down
(22:18):
and bit off the tip of his finger. The reef
snatched his hand away, screaming and pain. They were all
gasping now, trying to bring the butcher down. But then
one of the team members we don't know who spotted
something lying on the floor. It was a hammer that
had been left behind after some recent worked on the house.
He snatched it up, turned towards Suker's and brought the
(22:40):
hammer down on his head. Blood went everywhere, some even
spurted up on the ceiling. Investigators would later find it there.
Zuker's was badly wounded, his skull was fractured, blood pouring
down his face, and yet he still kept fighting. It
was almost hard to believe how tough he was. Finally,
(23:00):
one of them assad men grabbed his gun from the
pile of clothes. He came up to Zookers, whose face
was partially hidden by the blood flowing over it, and
fired two bullets into his head. Zookers collapsed to the
floor and lay still. The only sound in the room
(23:22):
was from your reeve. He was moaning in pain, holding
his wounded hand. They needed to get it taken care of,
but first they had some business to attend to. The
men stood there listening for a moment. They didn't hear
any police sirens, and they could hear the voices of
the workers next door. The workers didn't seem to be anxious.
(23:42):
They were talking normally, so it seemed that nobody had
heard the shots. Sude went to the backyard and turned
on the hose. One by one, the men went out
to wash the blood off. Then they put their clothes
on and went back to Zookers. His shirt was so
with blood. They went through his pockets and found his passport.
(24:04):
They took the bretta, then dragged the leather trunk out
of another room lifted Sucker's body into it. When the
body was inside, Massadman placed two pieces of paper inside
a folder on top of the body. The first was
a verdict considering the gravity of the crimes of which
(24:25):
Herbert Suckers is accused, notably his personal responsibility and the
murder of thirty thousand men, women and children, And considering
the terrible cruelty shown by Herbert Suckers and carrying out
his crimes, we condemned, they said, Suckers to death. Give
(24:47):
us executed on February twenty third. It was signed those
who will never forget. They late a second document inside
the folder. Bio never mentioned it. He talked about the verdict,
but not this other piece of paper. I was able
(25:09):
to find out what it was through police and newspaper reports.
It was from the Nuremberg trials, where the leaders of
the Nazi machine were put on trial by the Allies
right after the war. The page was part of the
testimony of a man who saw a large group of
Jews being murdered in the Ukraine. The British Chief Prosecutor,
(25:32):
Sir Hartley Shawcross read this testimony in front of Nazi
war criminals sitting in the defendant's box, and it's haunting
to hear even today without screaming, all weeping. These people, undressed,
stowed around in family a groups, gifted each other, said farewells,
(25:58):
and waited put a side from another ss man who
stood near the pit, also with a whip in his hand.
During the fifteen minutes that I stood near, I heard
no complaint or flee for mercy. I watched a family
of about eight persons, a man and a woman, both
(26:20):
about fifty, with their children of about one, eight ten
and two grown up daughters for about twenty or twenty four.
An old woman with snow white hair was holding the
one year old child in her arms and singing to
it and tickling it. The child was toying with delight.
(26:44):
The couple were looking on with tears in their eyes.
The father was holding the hand of a boy about
ten years old and speaking to him something. The boy
was fighting his tears. The are the pointed to the sky,
stroked his head, and the same to explain something to
(27:05):
the board. A few moments later, the family was dead.
Why did me on the others include this account, He
never said, but I think it was placed there because
it was about the victims. They were the real reason
that me on the other agents were inside Cassa Kopertini
(27:29):
on February when the news about Suckers went out into
the world. Massad didn't want the mission to be just
about the butcher. They wanted the murder Jews to be
remembered too, at least that's my guess. With the verdict
(27:52):
red and the trunk closed, the men were almost done.
You reeve told the team, we lean and we've finish.
So they wiped down the walls and tried to make
sure they hadn't left any clues behind. Then they left.
Neo dropped off his car on the street near the hotel,
(28:12):
and the others did the same with their rentals. They
took care of some other small details and then they
met at a cafe in downtown Montepdeo. There they had
a drink. Weaver at one with ourselves, and thou did
if we felt proud of having the privilege taking part
(28:34):
is this opimasion. After they finished their drinks, the men
got up and left the cafe. One by one. They
took two separate flights to Buenos Aires, sitting apart from
each other. By the end of the day they were
all out of Uruguay. Neo had one thing left to
do in South America. He wrote a letter to the
(28:56):
butcher's family to throw them off the trail. He addressed
the letter to Zucres himself as if he didn't know
the man was dead. In it, he said that he'd
found out they've been followed in Uruguay by two strangers.
Mia wrote that he fled to Chile in order to
get away from these mysterious people. He implied that he
(29:17):
was a Nazi war criminal himself, that he and Suckers
had escaped some kind of kidnapping attempt. He sent the
letter in a large envelope to a friend in Chile,
who put stamps on it and mailed it to Suckers
family in sal Paulo. It would buy the team some
time to get back to Europe to get rid of
their cover identities. The family would think that Sucres was
(29:40):
still in Uruguay and that there was no need to
call the police In Buenos Aires. Famisade agents boarded their
flights back to France. When he arrived in Paris, Nio
went to a branch of the bank he'd opened in
the count at under the name of Anton Kunsla. He
withdrew the money and closed the account. He got rid
(30:02):
of the passport and anything that connected him with the
Austrian businessman. The others did the same with their documents.
It was over. The mission had been a success. Now
they waited for the story to hit the headlines. By
(30:31):
now it was early March, the debate about the Statute
of Limitations was a week away. Massad was hoping that
the body would be discovered and that stories about the
butcher and his terrible crimes would run in newspapers and
on TV channels all over the world. Soon, Meo and
(30:53):
the others were now living ordinary lives in Paris. They
went to breakfast, went to the movies, socialized with their friends.
But every morning they bought newspapers and scanned them for
the news. A couple of days passed, then another. There
was nothing on the TV or in the papers. Neo
and the others started to get nervous. It turned out
(31:17):
that the team had made a crucial mistake. It was
a mistake that revealed a blind spot in their training
and in their view of the world. As massad agents,
the five men were trained to hide from the press.
They avoided journalists at all costs. Publicity was poisoned for
us by agency, and so for years they've been taught
(31:41):
how to conceal facts to avoid attention. That was great,
except when you needed attention. Their training had made them
ignorant about how reporters actually worked. They thought the body
would just be discovered, like by accident. They never really
thought about how that would have up. They'd hidden their
(32:01):
tracks too well. No one was looking for Herbert Sukers,
and no one knew about the body and the trunk.
The whole point of the mission was slipping away finally
from Sode. Agents started calling newspapers in Germany to report
the assassination. No response. The reporters they spoke to thought
(32:23):
they were cranks. Something about a body and a trunk
and Nazis and never forgetting what was that even about.
Journalists are busy and Uruguay was on the other side
of the world. Me and the others had no idea
how to get a reporter interested in a body in
some random house in Montevideo. So they wrote letters describing
(32:45):
the mission and why it was done, and they sent
them to a bunch of news agencies. One of them
reached a reporter. We don't know his name, but he
read the letter and thought it was interesting. He decided
to call the police in Montevideo. When he reached them,
he asked about a murder of a Nazi named Herbert Suckers.
(33:06):
Did they know anything about it? They didn't, but murders
get attention. The file landed on the desk of the
head of the Uruguayan Intelligence Service, a man named Alejandro Otero,
and according to Uruguayan writer Fernando Budizoni, this wasn't the
type of thing he typically handled. Look intelligence service in
(33:29):
uy was a joke and the data was the chief
was this joke. In fact, prior to this, Potero's main
qualification didn't exactly have much to do with intelligence or
law enforcement. He was the chief of the keeny Euruuayan
Intelligence Service. A young man, very competent, who are so,
(33:53):
was a soccer referee in the sixties and in uy
your soccer is very popular, wash, very very But despite
his inexperience, Otero assembled some officers and got in a
patrol car to try to crack the case. He wandered
(34:14):
around few days and they see that in the end
they smell of the car. He guided him to the house.
Jesus true. The officers knocked on the front door, no answer,
but they smelled the stench coming from inside, and it
was horrible. They went around the side and broke a
(34:37):
window with the butts of their guns. They broke into
the house. As they entered, they noticed dark splotches almost black,
on some of the walls. They saw the leather trunk.
Next to it were two shell casings, two caliber. There
were also parts of a gun on the floor. It
had been broken apart. The office broke the lock on
(35:00):
the trunk and pulled up the top. When they looked inside,
they saw a bright red folder laying on what appeared
to be a body. They had found Herbert suckers Hi.
This is Stephen Talty, host of good assassins Hunting the Butcher.
(35:24):
The folks that helped me bring you this show, Diversion Podcasts,
have just launched another podcast that I think you'll like.
It's called Backstaged The Devil in Metal, a deep dive
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(35:46):
many others. It's outrageous, raw and surprising at times. Backstage
The Devil in Metal is out now. Follow the show
on Apple Podcasts, I hired radio app or wherever listened
to your podcasts. Back at the station, O Tero began
(36:07):
to develop a basic theory of the case. I think
that he understood several things from the beginning. First that
it was the work of this release and second that
it was an international action done by professionals. And at
(36:29):
the same time, news of the assassination started to break
in Uruguay and it left quite an impression on young
Fernando good Zoni in I was eleven years old. I remember,
of course, the Suckers assassination was a shock. This was
(36:51):
a incredibleous situation. International criminal killer in in my country,
no way. Of course, at eleven years old, I could
already hear the adult conversation and see the front page
of the new newspapers and the magazine, and I remember
(37:12):
the pictures on the frontage Google's body in the trunk
or that was very terrifying to me. Really, oh, Tero
would eventually drop his investigation. He didn't want to ignite
an international crisis. But before he did, he traveled to
Brazil to meet with Sucre's family and it left a
(37:36):
lingering impression. I interviewed him many years ago and he
told me that Sucos family was unreliable, especially the widow.
He thinks that the family was a dark family. I
(37:56):
don't know why. At this point, the news of the
assassination was starting to break around the world. The Massad
team still in Paris caught it as the lead story
of the French evening news, and it ran in Germany, Israel,
(38:29):
the US and other countries. Journalists blocked to Montevideo to
look into the mysterious killing of a Nazi war criminal.
Conspiracy theories started sprouting everywhere. One rumor was the air
holes had been found punched into the leather trunk that
would indicate that someone had been trying to kidnap Suckers
(38:50):
but had to kill him instead. Others believed that Suckers
had been part of a Massad plot to catch Joseph Mengela,
the butcher of Auschwitz, was supposed to lee hiding out
in South America too. The story went that Massad had
made a deal if Zuker's lured Mangola out of hiding,
he himself would be allowed to go free. Through all
(39:12):
this public speculation, Massad states silent as usual. They didn't
confirm or deny being involved, but everyone knew it was
the Israelis. In Germany, as articles about Herbert Sukers appeared
(39:34):
in the press, one of the major networks announced they
were going to televise the debate on the Statute of Limitations.
It would air live. It was rare to do that
in Germany at the time, but the issue was getting
unprecedented attention from the media. Tickets for the visitors gallery
at the Boonstag became hot commodities. There were dozens of
(39:54):
requests for every seat all the Colonel. Finally, March tenth arrived,
the debate in the German Parliament began. The Conservative government
still backed the amnesty. They wanted to put an end
(40:15):
to Nazi trials, to draw a line under the Holocaust
and move on. The Liberals, for the most part, I
believed that was wrong. A full accounting of the Holocaust
had never been made. There were still killers out there
living happy and free. They had to face justice. Deliss
(40:39):
shot to the Scotia. There was one Liberal who went
against his party. He supported the statute. His name was
Adolph Aren't, the son of a law professor. The sixty
year old Aren't was a tall, schoolmasterish guy with a
serious legal mind. Aren't had refused on principle to join
(41:01):
the Nazi Party before World War Two began, and he
was fired from the position as a judge because of it. Instead,
he used his skills as a lawyer to help jose
escape to the US, England and Switzerland. After being categorized
as half Jewish himself, he was interned in a work
camp in and forced to do hard labor. The following year,
(41:24):
was arrested and sent to prison. And yet Aren't felt
that changing the statute would only make things worse. Other
regimes in the future might change laws retroactively to accuse
their enemies of crimes. The law should be sacred. That
was Adolph Aren't's position that afternoon, as millions of people
(41:47):
tuned in on television, Germans were literally debating the meaning
of the Holocaust. How long should his killers be hunted down?
How many people shared in the guilt. Speaker after speaker
got up to argue their side of the issue. It
went on for hours. Finally Adolph Aren't rose to speak.
(42:08):
He supported the statute for months. The fact that he
was half Jewish gave credibility to the pro statute side.
If one of Hitler's victims said to keep it, who
could argue with that? But his Arn't began to speak,
His fellow legislators went silent. Something was happening. It became
clear as the minutes went by that Aren't had changed
(42:29):
his mind. He was coming out against the statute. In
his speech, Aren't talked about a representative Nazi killer, the
kind of perpetrator who would receive an amnesty if the
law went ahead. A man who takes an infant by
zavit in front of his mother and shutters his head
(42:49):
on the nearest iron post. A man who has twenty
thousand or thousands of people shocked or killed. A man
trains his dog so that he tears apart and prisoners
gentles before the prisoner is put to death in the
most cruel way. A man who forces prisoners to kneel
(43:12):
in the pios they have dubbed themselves, then gives them
the next shot, and then the next victim comes in.
So that's for days. A fountain of blood splashes out
of this masskrive. One cannot say of this man, why
is he still dealing with his act today? That number
(43:49):
Aren't mentioned jumped out at me. People. It was the
same number that thirty thou that was included in the
verdict that the Massad team had left on Suker's body.
It was in many of the stories that ran after
the news of the assassination was made public. Was it
(44:09):
just a coincidence that Aren't as he changed his mind
seemingly at the eleventh hour, mentioned the exact number of
victims that Herbert Sucres had been accused of killing. I'm
not sure, but it seems unlikely. Chances are Aren't had
read about Suckers and what he'd done during the war,
and it had affected him. Here's get Chamron again. The
(44:34):
excesad agent. There's no doubt in my heart that the
operation was successful. And the fact that in the waves
brought up after the Aischman kidnapped, being war already going down,
and the what talks in Europe, especially in West Germany,
(44:56):
at the time of maybe time to to make a line,
you know, and forget what happened twenty years ago. We
look for the future. Let's let's decide normal Nazi huntings,
no more Natzi trials. What they college stretch line college
in Germany strich linear, that's right, German world. And this
(45:20):
was the reason for the operation. And uh once the
body of suppose found in Motividel and the vote in
the Bundesta a few days later rejected the proposal of
making Nazi crimes okay finished twenty years So, you know,
(45:41):
it's something you cannot quantify, but I do believe it
had the repercussions, and it had the right repercussions desired
by those who decided to go for this proachet. If
it hadn't been for eight of Ourn't speech and is
mentioning of the thirty thous and victims, I wouldn't be
(46:01):
so sure. There were big questions being debated guilt for
the death of millions, Germany's future, and Germany's guilt. It's
hard to imagine that one assassination in a distant country
could have turned the tide against the amnesty in this
German politician's mind. But Suakers gave a face to the Holocaust.
(46:21):
The stories about his atrocities were so terrible, and the
news of the assassination was so fresh it might have
lingered in the minds of some legislators. A sketch Smron said,
it's impossible to say for sure, but it's clear that
the mission made it known that there were still many
more butchers out there. When the votes were counted, it
(46:43):
was votes in favor of the statute, three hundred and
sixty one against and four abstentions. In the end, the
time period for prosecuting Nazi criminals was extended for five years.
The killers would not get an amnesty. In the months
(47:13):
and years following the Zuker's mission, hundreds of Nazi mass
killers were discovered and prosecuted, and, perhaps more importantly, the
idea that was only Hitler and a few of his
lieutenants that caused the Holocaust began to change. The prosecutions
brought to light the role that thousands of Germans and
(47:33):
their collaborators played in the genocide. A much fuller picture
of how the Holocaust worked and who carried it out emerged.
There were other factors, of course, including the rise of
a new generation of Germans who hadn't been born when
the Third Dreich was in power, But the vote on
(47:54):
the amnesty was a turning point to be a freedman.
The Polish Nazi hunter who had fought so hard against
the amnesty was overjoyed by the result, as with Simon
of Vicenthal. Five years later, the deadline for prosecutions was
extended again for another five years, and then in the
(48:17):
statute came up for a third and final vote. The
count was much closer, this time two to eliminate any
time limit. Two two against freedman, and the others had one.
There would be no amnesty for Nazi war criminals. Ever,
(48:37):
Friedman wrote today, these murderers have been silenced until the
end of their lives. Massad never took responsibility for the
Zuker's mission. That was just its policy, but many survivors
(49:00):
in Israel knew who had carried it out. People would
come up to me on the street and thank him.
He received letters from the families of those murdered in Latvia,
and every year the five men who carried out the
mission gathered to remember. They would have a drink or
two and talk about Montevideo and Cassa, Kubertini and the
(49:23):
rest of it. After the operation, Joseph your Reeve did
well at MASSAD, who was promoted to the head of
the agency in Europe, and he retired. Mio's career was
less successful. He was frustrated the Suker's mission had been
(49:46):
a huge success, but there were no promotions for him.
The fact that he was an introvert and not really
a commander of men it worked against him, and maybe
something else. Most of them SAD agents who rose to
the top where sabras men born in Israel. Mia was
a bit of an outsider. He'd been born in Germany
(50:07):
and spoke with a strong German accent. It set him apart.
Mio retired from the Massad and settled in a leafy
neighborhood in Tel Aviv. Once in a while, when MASSA
needed a certain kind of operative for a mission, it
would call him up and he would come out of
(50:28):
retirement for a week or two, but mostly he spent
his time spoiling his grandchildren. As the years went by,
he would often look back on his career and talk
about the missions that meant the most to him. When
I spoke with me a son in Tel Aviv, he
told me it was always the Zuker's operation that Mia
(50:49):
was proudest of. For him, it was the pinnacle of
his career and really of his life. Ye Meo had
led a mission that helped change history, but for me
serious questions remained. The main one was why Zookers had
(51:11):
done what he'd done. Even Meo, as good as spy
as he was, never cracked that mystery. In the next episode,
I'll tell you about the surprising answers I found and
the brilliant Jewish woman who went through hell to reveal
the truth about the Butcher of Latvia. Good Assassins. Hunting
(51:45):
the Butcher is a production of Diversion Podcasts in association
with I Heart Radio. This season is written and hosted
by Stephen Talti, produced and directed by Scott Waxman and
Jacob Bronstein. Executive producers Scott Waxman and Mark Francis. Story
Editing by Jacob Bronstein, with editorial direction from Scott Waxman
(52:06):
and Mangesh had Ticketour. Editing, mixing and sound design by
Mark Francis with the voices of Nick Afka, Thomas Armory, Angele,
Andrew Polkue, Mindy Escobar, Leants, Steve Rautman and Stefan Rudnitsky.
Theme music by Tyler Cash. Archival research by Adam Shapiro,
(52:27):
thanks to Oran Rosenbaum at ut A Diversion Podcasts.
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