Priebke pleaded not guilty, and refused to take moral responsibility for his actions. The very next day, both Italy and Germany asked for Priebke’s extradition, kicking off a long legal battle.Īfter 17 months of back-andforth, during which Priebke remained in Bariloche, he was sent to Italy to appear in court. The explosive footage was aired on 20/20, the ABC news programme. Donaldson went on to speak with Priebke, and – 50 years on from the atrocities – Priebke confessed to his role in the massacre. Kopps would flee soon after the interview, but Eaton and his team had what they needed. He says, ‘Why are you talking to me? You want the big fish in town. “He pulls Donaldson aside, away from the camera, and he forgot he had a lapel mike on. “Kopps got a little bit nervous,” says Eaton. Kopps denied working on the ratlines, but Donaldson played Eaton’s recording to him on camera, implicating him. “He said to him, ‘Are you Reinhard Kopps?’ And Kopps responded, ‘No, my name in Juan Maler. “One day, Sam Donaldson from ABC News shows up on the streets of Bariloche and starts talking to Kopps,” Eaton recalls. Kopps, an ex-SS officer who was then living under the pseudonym Juan Maler, was not too difficult to pin down. A good place to keep a very low profile, certainly.”Īccording to Godneau, Kopps had worked on one of the ratlines – a monastery route – that channelled Nazis through the Vatican and out to Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay. “It would be very comfortable for Germans. “When I got to Bariloche, I said, ‘This is like little Bavaria,’” said Eaton.
He actually told them he was Australian!” “And he is a very obvious Israeli – accent and the whole thing. “You have to understand, Yaron is an Israeli,” says Eaton. Svoray turned to the Wiesenthal Center for support. When the men took Svoray to a snuff film, giving him his first real look into the rising neo-Nazi movement in Germany, the detective quickly abandoned his line of investigation and decided instead to explore the rise of white nationalism in the country.
As he pursued a lead, Svoray was approached by several Germans who offered to help him. Neo-Nazism had returned with a vengeance, and extremism was on the rise.Įaton was introduced to Nazi-hunting by Israeli investigator Yaron Svoray, who at the time was following the story of several GIs who had reportedly buried diamonds in a foxhole during the war. Germany was reeling after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union. Eaton’s chapter of the story begins nearly half a century after the crime was committed, in 1992.
0 kommentar(er)
