Amazement in the Klagenfurt family: decades ago, the cousin gave the tip to capture Adolf Eichmann. Only his widow told of the secret on his deathbed.
You think you know your relatives, and suddenly a truth you never suspected opens up. That’s what happened to Gerfried Horand people. “Sigrid Wobst-Pohl, the daughter of my cousin Giselher Pohl, brought me the sensational news,” reports the botanist, musical instrument collector and author.
Klagenfurt roots
The Protestant pastor Giselher Pohl, who has Klagenfurt roots, played a decisive role in the unmasking of Adolf Eichmann and thus enabled the organizer of the extermination of the Jews to be apprehended. The 92-year-old Rosemarie Pohl, widow of the pastor who last worked in the German Welver, revealed the secret only on her deathbed.
Authors looked for evidence
The authors Bettina Stangneth and Willi Winkler then rummaged through archives, diaries and letters for four years.
Submerged in Argentina
Giselher Pohl and Gerhard Klammer got to know each other during their studies. During his work in Argentina, the geologist Klammer came into contact with a certain Ricardo Klement – that’s what the former Nazi great Eichmann called himself. In the fall of 1959, Klammer confided to his friend Pohl “under the seal of the strictest secrecy,” as Rosemarie mentions, that he knew where Eichmann was.
Great scope
Klammer had to fear for his future because of this knowledge. So Pohl informed Military Bishop Hermann Kunst, who in turn informed Attorney General Fritz Bauer. In May 1960, the Israeli secret service brought Mossad Eichmann to Israel, where he was executed two years later. “We were not aware of the great implications,” says Rosemarie.