S1-E09: Judgment Day

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 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 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

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 and blood and horror, the end of a man whose name will be written in inform episode nine Judgment Day. 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 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

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 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 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. 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.

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 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 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 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. 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

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 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. 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 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. 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 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 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.

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, 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

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 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 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 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. 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 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 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. 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, 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 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 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 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.

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, 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 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 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. 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. 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. 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 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. 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

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 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, 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 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, 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 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

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 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 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 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, 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 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 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, 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 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. 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.

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 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 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 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, 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, 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 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. 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 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 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 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,

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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. 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 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, 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 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 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 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. 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 into the history of metal music, filled with never before heard interviews and stories from some of the biggest names of music, including Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Ben Helen, and

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 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 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 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 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

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 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,

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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. 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

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 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 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 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 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 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, 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

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, 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

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. 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 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 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 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 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

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, 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

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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

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, thanks to Oran Rosenbaum at ut A Diversion Podcasts.