WEBVTT - S1-E01: The Spy & The Murderer 0:00:06.320 --> 0:00:20.959 Diversion podcasts. This is a story about a spy and 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:25.840 a murderer. I first heard about it a few years 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:28.640 ago when I was reading a book about Massad, the 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:32.720 Israeli spy agency. I do a lot of that reading 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:37.320 about espionage. I've always loved spies. At one point, I'd 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:40.600 even wanted to be one. When I graduated from college, 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:43.320 I thought about applying to the c I A. Some 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:46.479 of my classmates were doing it, and I thought, why not. 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:50.920 Maybe I could live in a foreign city, Berlin or Cairo. 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:55.120 It would be an adventure. But then I realized I'd 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:58.000 make a pretty terrible spy. First of all, I'm not 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:01.920 really good at keeping secrets. I'm not especially good under 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:04.920 pressure either, And some of the questionable things that the 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:08.560 CIA had done around the world, Yeah, that played a 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:13.400 role too. So instead, I joined the Miami Herald newspaper 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:17.640 and became a journalist. Years later, I ended up writing 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:21.680 about spies, even a couple of books. I loved their world. 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:25.080 The idea of one man or one woman playing this 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:28.440 invisible role in history and doing it with a kind 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:34.200 of flare. Espionage is important, but it's also just cool. 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:38.880 So in this book, I was reading about Massad a 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:42.400 few years ago. The author mentioned in operation I'd never 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:44.680 heard about. It was unlike any of the missions I 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:48.320 had studied in a few important ways. My first thought was, 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:52.840 this is weird. I was immediately hooked. I think it's 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:56.320 fair to say that in the history of espionage, this 0:01:56.400 --> 0:01:59.720 case of the undercover agent and the man known as 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:03.840 the book Ture of Latvia is unique. It still has 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:07.560 all the things that fascinate me about spies, the tradecraft, 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:11.680 letters in invisible ink, intrigue in places around the world, 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:17.680 in this case Paris, Tel Aviv, Berlin, Montevideo, Uruguay, and 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:25.040 Rio de Janeiro. There were recondissions, disguises, fake passports, shooting contests, 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:29.320 a kill team training in a specially martial arts called 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:32.720 krav magaw. There was a body and a leather trunk, 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:36.040 and a drug that one agent takes so he doesn't 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:40.959 sweat and appear nervous. There's a psychiatrist who tries to 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:46.359 psychoanalyze Nazis Hitler even makes an appearance. But there are 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:49.880 even otter things too. What makes this story so different, 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:53.280 first of all, is that it's about an assassination plot, 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:58.520 which are usually bad things. When I think of assassinations. 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:01.760 I think of some awful moments history. I think about 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:05.440 Lee Harvey Oswald and Deely Plaza in Dallas, President of 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:07.800 the United States, and as he turned left, two or 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.000 three shots rang up Sir Han, Sir Hand and Robert 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:18.040 Kennedy lying in a pool of blood. Martin Good. I 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:21.880 think about Jeans Ray and Martin Luther King Jr. On 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:25.440 the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, Memphis. I have some 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:29.320 very sad news for all of you, and that is 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:32.720 that Martin Luther King and was shot and was killed 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:37.320 tonight and the start of World War One when an 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:46.240 assassin killed the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. But this was something different. 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:49.640 This was the story of the spy was going to 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:53.520 try and kill someone for a very good reason, to 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:56.720 prevent crimes against humanity, and to close the chapter on 0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:03.360 something that happened in the spy's own life. This mission 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:07.440 was personal, at least the agent who was the lead operative. 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:14.480 His name was Mio. Again, this is unique. Spy missions 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:18.040 are never personal. They're not supposed to be. They're supposed 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:22.760 to be clinical, unemotional. This operation was like that for 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:25.600 some of its architects. But it wasn't like that at 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:29.320 all for MEO. It also had a target who had 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:35.360 first read seems completely evil. His name was Herbert Suckers, 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:38.960 and he betrayed people who had once spend his friends 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:43.560 and neighbors. He led them to their desks at gunpoint 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:49.120 and sometimes killed them point blank. The machine gun he 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:51.919 had on his hands the blood of literally thousands of 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:56.800 innocent victims. These were people, some of whom had really 0:04:56.839 --> 0:05:02.080 admired Herbert Suckers, thought of him as a hero, which, 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:07.560 oddly enough, he'd once been. All of this is wrapped 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:11.240 up in World War Two and the Holocaust and genocide law. 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:15.000 The effects of the mission are still with us today. 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:18.840 It's had this secret impact on our lives that nobody 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:22.880 really knows about. I couldn't get this story out of 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:26.200 my head, so I wrote a book about it. It's 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:29.760 called The Good Assassin. After the book was published in 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:33.200 two thousand nine, honestly, I thought I was done with 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:36.760 the whole thing. It's spent two years looking into the mission, 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:41.640 traveling to Israel, interviewing MASSAD agents, pouring through archives in 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:46.680 Latvia and Brazil and Israel, totally immersing myself. I was 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:51.120 done with it. What else was there to say. Apparently 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:55.800 something Because I kept thinking about the main characters. I 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:58.800 had questions about them, puzzles I hadn't been able to 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:00.960 solve in the book. But I just couldn't get out 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:03.600 of my head. And my book had brought people out 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:07.280 of the woodwork were contacting me, giving me new information, 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:11.200 things I'd never heard before. But we're slowly helping me 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:14.240 to peel away the layers and get closer to the 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:18.240 core of this story. At first, I thought, forget it. 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:21.039 No way am I going back to all that. The 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:25.800 Nazis crimes were so horrible. I didn't want to revisit them. 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:28.119 I didn't want to wait through all that violence again. 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:32.160 But after a few months I changed my mind. Maybe 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:35.000 I could solve those puzzles that were still bothering me, 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:39.400 put them to rest. I realized I had to try, 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:45.000 So that's why I'm here doing this podcast. I'm glad actually, 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:48.120 because the story of the Hunt for the Butcher of 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:52.119 Latvia wasn't what I thought it was. It was even 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:57.039 stranger than I had first imagined. What I found surprised me. 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:05.599 So let me tell you about the spy. His real 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:10.080 name was Yakov, my dad, but everyone called him Mio. 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:12.600 And there are a few things you should know about 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:16.520 Mio right off the bat. First of all, he was Jewish. 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:19.800 He'd grown up in Germany in the thirties as Hitler 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:23.000 was just beginning to gain power. As a young boy, 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:26.640 Mio so Nazis marching in the streets. He listened as 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:30.120 his teachers began repeating Hitler's lies. It seemed to him 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:33.880 that violence was in the air. The mission in Brazil 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:38.840 and later Puruguay was so personal for me, or because 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:43.880 of his childhood, because of his background. That's Gad Shimron. 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:46.840 He's a former Massad agent who knew me. Oh well. 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:49.160 I met him in Tel Aviv when I went to 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:52.000 research this story. No, I mean he was born in 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:56.160 so that's called What's up time. It was a German 0:07:56.280 --> 0:08:00.560 town to a very German Jewish family. I mean, his 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:05.080 father was a very famous doctor, wearing the iron cross 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:08.679 of the Germany Burial Army and for his gallant service 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:11.640 in the First World War as a medical officer on 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:17.760 the front Light and his parents regarden themselves as pure Germans, 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:21.040 Jewish Germans, but Germans. And when the Nazis came to 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:23.680 Barrow in thirty three, and the father said, nothing he's 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:26.160 going to happen to me, because I'm what they call 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:31.800 it German front kempt further, which means frontline soldier, and 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:34.480 he felt, you know that in the it's a wave 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:37.600 of anti Semitism, but it will it will die away, 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:40.760 and nothing will happen me. On the other hand, as 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:44.040 a teenager he went to school, he was exposed to 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:48.800 the terrible expressions of anti Semitism and investigations of Jews, 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:51.000 and he came to his parses said I'm not going 0:08:51.040 --> 0:09:05.640 to stay here, I'm going away. So Mea was worried. 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:08.640 He didn't want to be in Germany anymore. He saw 0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:12.000 bad things coming. He asked his parents if he could leave, 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:15.760 and finally, when he become a teenager, they let him 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:20.600 go to Palestine, which would later become Israel. Then they 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:23.840 managed to arrange for him a scholarship in a very 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:28.400 good and famous high school in Haifa, and Mio went 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:31.480 away at the age of what he was fourteen maybe fifteen, 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:34.960 went away from his family alone to a new country 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:39.679 with a new language, with a new atmosphere and friends, etcetera. 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:43.400 And he grew up in this and h then the 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:47.480 Second World broke out, so Mio spent the years before 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:50.840 World War Two safe and sound. When the war came, 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:53.920 he volunteered for the British Army and saw some action, 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:58.120 but he never made it back to Germany. His parents 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:00.880 sent me a postcards letting in know they were okay. 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:05.120 They were still in Germany, hoping for the best. But 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:08.959 then the postcard stopped and Meal knew that something had 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:15.040 gone terribly wrong. And all his correspondence and the vacation 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:21.240 this family was cut off, but totally, and only later 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:24.160 after the war he learned that his parents were both 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:28.280 of them were burned in Nazi concentration camps. And it's 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:30.840 true that you know the Nazist game his father the 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:36.280 honor of because it was iron cross the front. Kemper 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:39.840 the game in the honor of being on the last 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:43.760 transports being sent from breast Law to the concentration camps. 0:10:43.800 --> 0:11:01.720 I think in night Meal always regretted not being able 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:04.559 to help his mother and father escape. He had nightmares 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:07.680 about them. He was a private guy, so it's not 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:10.160 like he would tell you about it, but that feeling 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:12.520 of not being there when his parents needed him most, 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:18.360 it never left him. After his military career was over. 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:22.959 Mea was recruited by Massad, these really spy agency. He 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:40.520 was a patriot, so he agreed to join. I'm Steven 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:49.640 Talty and this is good assassin's hunting the butcher. So 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:53.120 he's the first months to find and not being put 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:56.520 forward trial, the second thought, most to find, and lastly 0:11:56.840 --> 0:12:02.160 and healing. We must swoll was this shameful causes the 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:04.840 end of a trail of blood and horror, the end 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:06.880 of a man whose name will be written in it 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:26.200 for me Episode one, The Spy and the Murderer. The 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:28.280 second thing you should know about Meo was that he 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:31.120 didn't look like a spy. I mean he really didn't. 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:34.800 At the time our story takes place the mid sixties, 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:38.280 he was in his forties. He was overweight, he was 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:41.920 balden ing. He looked maybe like an accountant or a 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:45.040 vice president of a bank. And when he spoke, his 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:47.760 voice was a little high. He was shy, and he 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:50.199 found it hard to talk to people. If you got 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:53.520 to look at him, you wouldn't be impressed. Even Mio's 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:55.640 son told me that when I met him in Israel, 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:59.240 he'd walk right past my father. He said, I never 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:03.319 think twice about at it. In the early sixties, MASSAD 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:06.000 was just beginning to gain a reputation around the world. 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:11.000 Its operatives were tough, physically fit, methodical. Some of their 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:15.600 missions were controversial, and they remained controversial today, but very 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:18.320 few people doubted that their agents were among the best 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:22.080 in the world lethal when they had to be. That 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:25.320 wasn't meo, It just wasn't a skill set. His skill 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:28.720 set was looking boring anonymous. When he assumed a false 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:33.040 identity for a mission, that became his real identity. Mia 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:35.840 was known for diving into his cover stories with conviction. 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:38.840 That was a little scary. His son told me that 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:41.800 when Mio left on a mission, he wasn't their father anymore. 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:46.480 He become this different person. That Meal was a legend. 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:51.719 Here's get him wrong again, Gad. He looks like a spy. 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:55.360 He's tall, lean, handsome. If he played a secret agent 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:58.760 in a movie, you'd believe it. In our conversation, Gad 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:01.679 stressed one thing about me, how he could disappear into 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:07.280 a character. He had this special characteristic of being able 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:11.720 to dive into the person he was supposed to be 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:14.760 for this mission, which is not that easy. You know, 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:19.480 people don't understand how difficult it is to really ignurse 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:24.680 in yourself all the necessary characteristics for playing the new 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:29.080 person you are using for the operation and neo. First 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:31.160 of all, he was, of course it was very intelligent. 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:34.360 He knew how to improvise what was a good actor. 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:40.040 But also he had a very good cosmopolitan European background, 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:45.520 which man. He spoke German fluently, of course, very well English, 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:50.000 very well French. And they say that he for many 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:54.320 years he held the Mossade record for a false stolen 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:59.920 acquired identities. That he had more than a hundred sixty 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:04.200 different identities during this time. That she's quite a number. 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:08.520 Some agents hate going undercover. Pretending to be someone else 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:12.080 can get stressful, especially when one slip could lead to disaster, 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:15.800 even death. But Meal actually seemed to look forward to 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:20.040 these kinds of missions. He liked becoming other people. This 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:21.920 is what Meal had to say about playing a role. 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:24.920 We've had an actor read me as parts, but these 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:30.280 are direct quotes in his own words. In my daily life, 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:37.040 I was quiet, introverted man, not particularly bushy or demanding. 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:39.920 It's a minute I on the two K a mission 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:46.920 I would become different person. I felt confident, even assertive, 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:51.560 and had the capacity to strike up conversations and gain 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:55.680 the trust of people that I met. So Meo didn't 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:57.880 look like a spy, but he was really good at 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:01.360 the work. By the sixties, Mio had made himself into 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:03.920 one of the best undercover ages in the world, but 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:05.880 he still had a lot of guilt about what happened 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:08.320 to his mother and father. He left them at the 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:13.080 key moment, the pain lingered, and that's what makes the 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:21.760 next part so hard to believe. Imagine your Meo and 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:24.640 one day Massad calls you into a meeting. You don't 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:26.680 know what it's about, but it turns out they have 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:29.760 a mission for you, a chance to get justice for 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:32.320 your mother and father and for the other six million 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:36.680 Jews murdered during the war. The mission is simple, to 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:40.480 arrange the death of one man, a Nazi killer named 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:44.880 Herbert Zuckers. Zukers had been an aviation hero before the war. 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:49.080 People called him the Latvian Lindburgh. In his own way, 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:53.560 he was just as unusual as Mio was. There's a catch, 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:56.520 of course. The mission isn't going to be easy. The 0:16:56.560 --> 0:17:00.720 man you're going after is suspicious, like really suspicious. He 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:04.600 sees assassins around every corner. It's going to be dangerous. 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:07.359 It's possible that you might not come back. But it 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:10.240 really is a once in a lifetime chance, something that 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:14.000 many of us perhaps dream of writing the wrongs of 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:22.040 the past, a chance in a way, at redemption. So 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:26.920 bo I was pretty confident. I understood him. Who doesn't 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:29.679 want a second chance to make things right with your 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:33.800 loved ones, not to mention the larger picture getting justice 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:37.680 for the six million. But even after spending all those 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:41.119 months doing the research for my book, I still didn't 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:45.760 get the other main character, Herbert Sukers. Yes, he had 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:49.679 colluded with the Nazis and committed horrible war crimes. But 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:53.159 why had he changed from this respected pilot would traveled 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:56.760 to Palestine and even praise what he observed there to 0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:02.040 this monster? What had driven him to transform, to betray 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:06.640 so many of his countrymen? And importantly, why did Sukers 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:10.439 have supporters around the world even today? Why did some 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:13.560 people believe he was innocent? They were certainly critics of 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:17.240 Assad that said they were wrong to have gone after him. 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:21.919 Sucers was a puzzle, a dark, twisted puzzle, and I 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:27.879 had to figure him out. So let me tell you 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:31.280 about that meeting where Mio learned about the operation, the 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:35.479 meeting that changed Meal's life. Of course, spy missions are secret, 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:38.119 that's kind of the point. But in looking into this 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:42.880 operation I found something odd. Years afterwards, Mio talked publicly 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:46.280 about it. Massad must have given their permission. How he 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:49.360 convinced them to do that, I have no idea. It's 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:53.399 very rare for any spy agency, let alone Massad, to 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:56.840 sign off on an agent telling their secrets. But you'll 0:18:56.880 --> 0:18:59.199 hear his words and that of the other agents, and 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:01.879 even the target. We've got an actress to read some 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:06.120 of their words where recordings aren't available for once, you'll 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:08.399 get to hear the inside story of a spy mission 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:17.440 from beginning to end. So it's September one, nineteen sixty four, Paris, 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:22.440 where Mio lives. The meeting is set for that morning. 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:27.160 September is a great time to be in France. It's 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:29.880 cool and everyone has just returned from their August holiday, 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:34.760 so everyone has a little color. He refreshed. Meo walked 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:36.720 the streets on his way to the meeting. He was 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:40.840 enjoying the day. He was also looking for tales during 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:43.920 the Cold War Paris wasn't the favorite city for spies. 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:47.719 That was probably Berlin. The city was still populated by 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:51.120 operatives from many different agencies, and Mio had to make 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:55.960 sure none of them was following him. Neo stopped in 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:59.000 front of the Radio France building checked out the pedestrians 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:02.320 people lingering on steps. When he was satisfied that he 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:05.879 wasn't being tailed, he started walking again. He found the 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:08.479 building he was looking for. He was on the Avenue 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:12.560 day Verside, a beautiful boulevard, one of the city's richest neighborhoods. 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:16.119 He ducked into the lobby, waved at the concierge, and 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:18.399 went up to the apartment where his boss was waiting. 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:23.679 Joseph your Ree met him at the door. Uri was 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:27.560 the head of Massad's Special operations unit code named Cesarea. 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:32.320 Caesaria still exists today. It's an elite undercover unit that 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:35.800 plants agents in foreign countries. It sends its men on 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:40.040 sabotage missions, and it plans and carries out targeted killings 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:43.440 of those that Israel considers to be its enemies. It's 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:48.119 secret and what it does is highly classified. Youri was 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:51.400 a charming guy, very loyal. He had lots of friends. 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:55.760 He was popular inside Massad. He knew how to work 0:20:55.760 --> 0:20:59.360 a room. Nea was the opposite. He was an outsider 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:03.000 at the agency and it bothered him. When he opened 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:07.480 the door, he read said something strange. From this moment onwards. 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:11.399 Your name is Anton Kunzla with a battle style to 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:16.040 getting used to it. Neo didn't say anything. As I 0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:19.080 mentioned before, he was a quiet guy. He walked into 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:22.200 the room and saw another agent, Michael not his real name, 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:26.040 sitting at a small table. He nodded to Michael sat 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:30.119 down towards some coffee. You, Reid followed. The three sipped 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:32.879 the coffee before getting down to business. You reeve got 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:37.960 it started. You must be wondering why I summoned you 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:41.760 him and in such a heavy we have received final 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:45.760 confirmation about the Nazi woe criminal who lives in one 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:50.080 of the South American countries. Israel had decided to hunt 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:54.159 down one of the Holocaust's most savage killers. The target 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:57.400 was Herbert Suckers. He was a Latvian in the small 0:21:57.440 --> 0:22:00.560 country that sits between Russia and Germany. I'll tell you 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:03.320 more about Sukers in the next episode. But even though 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:06.280 he became a war criminal, He'd led a fascinating life 0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:10.240 before World War Two. He'd been a world class aviator, 0:22:10.600 --> 0:22:14.920 the Latvian Lindbergh. He'd flown aircraft he'd built himself through 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:17.240 sand and snowstorms all the way to the East coast 0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:22.400 of Africa, Japan, the Middle East. He was brave, adventurous. 0:22:23.840 --> 0:22:27.120 But that was before the war. When the Germans invaded, 0:22:27.280 --> 0:22:30.879 Zukers had changed. According to Massad, he'd become a beast, 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:35.280 a mass murderer. He helped Hitler's forces killed thirty thousand 0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:38.680 Jewish men, women and children, and actions that wiped out 0:22:38.680 --> 0:22:43.040 over of Latvia's Jews. The survivors gave him a name 0:22:43.040 --> 0:22:47.840 after the war, the Butcher of Latvia, and Massad had 0:22:47.880 --> 0:22:51.359 decided to hunt him down. There was another reason for 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:54.240 the mission, which I'll get into a little later. It's 0:22:54.280 --> 0:22:57.159 something that I found almost unbelievable, a part of history 0:22:57.160 --> 0:22:59.560 that seems so bizarre to me that it couldn't have 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:03.720 been ill. But in nineteen sixty four, the Israelis decided 0:23:03.880 --> 0:23:09.160 that Herbert Sukers had to die. Your Reef gave MEO 0:23:09.280 --> 0:23:11.919 a little background on the butcher. He fled to Brazil 0:23:12.040 --> 0:23:15.600 ninety six after the war ended, with his wife and children, 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:19.200 and one unexpected guest I'll tell you about later. Your 0:23:19.240 --> 0:23:21.480 reef told the two agents that the butcher was living 0:23:21.480 --> 0:23:24.440 in a house sal Paulo. You know, a small boat 0:23:24.440 --> 0:23:27.480 rental business. The cater to the locals and to tourists. 0:23:29.680 --> 0:23:32.440 Meal listened to your reef talk. He looked calm. You 0:23:32.520 --> 0:23:35.920 always looked calm. But he wasn't calm. He was thinking 0:23:35.960 --> 0:23:40.480 about the past. I felt my health race and my 0:23:40.640 --> 0:23:46.280 adrenaline level skyrocket. Suddenly, so many different thoughts ran through 0:23:46.359 --> 0:23:52.200 my mind. I released a deep breath. Having been born 0:23:52.240 --> 0:23:55.639 in Germany and having lost both parents in the Holocaust, 0:23:55.920 --> 0:24:00.400 I needed no lengthy, detailed explanations of that terrible time. 0:24:01.240 --> 0:24:05.159 My father, a well known doctor in our hometown, served 0:24:05.240 --> 0:24:08.000 during the First World War as a medical officer in 0:24:08.040 --> 0:24:11.760 the Prussian Army, and for his service in the cruel 0:24:11.880 --> 0:24:16.320 battles of Balato on the Western Front, he was awarded 0:24:16.359 --> 0:24:20.920 the Iron Cross. This fact did not stop the Nazis 0:24:21.520 --> 0:24:26.760 from sending him to his death entat concentration camp. My 0:24:26.760 --> 0:24:31.840 mother was deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered as 0:24:31.920 --> 0:24:35.879 part of what the Nazis and their battles turned the 0:24:36.000 --> 0:24:43.560 final solution to the Jewish problem. For me, Oh, this 0:24:43.600 --> 0:24:45.720 would be a mission unlike any of the others had 0:24:45.720 --> 0:24:51.080 gone on. This was personal. He knew that MISSAD didn't 0:24:51.080 --> 0:24:54.840 carry out many operations against escape war criminals. Israel was 0:24:54.920 --> 0:24:57.159 only sixteen years old at the time, and there are 0:24:57.240 --> 0:25:00.520 other things to worry about, mainly its own survival. The 0:25:00.600 --> 0:25:04.040 agency didn't have time to settle old scores. In fact, 0:25:04.200 --> 0:25:06.240 this would be the first time we know about that. 0:25:06.320 --> 0:25:08.280 His spies were going to set out to kill a 0:25:08.400 --> 0:25:11.879 Nazi war criminal at a Fike men they kidnapped, but 0:25:11.960 --> 0:25:15.800 Sucers they were determined to kill you. Reeve added some 0:25:15.840 --> 0:25:18.960 more details. Sucers was six or four years old, but 0:25:19.080 --> 0:25:21.440 he was still a powerful guy, built like a tank. 0:25:21.760 --> 0:25:25.160 You reve described him to the two men. You will 0:25:25.240 --> 0:25:29.879 face a criminal who is, according to our boats, miss dustful, 0:25:30.400 --> 0:25:34.800 ruthless and dangerous, and he's always prepelled for the worst. 0:25:35.520 --> 0:25:38.360 That was true, as Mio would later find out, Sucers 0:25:38.359 --> 0:25:42.439 imagine Jewish agents around every corner. To carry out the mission, 0:25:42.480 --> 0:25:44.640 Neo had to get close to this guy to form 0:25:44.680 --> 0:25:48.600 a real relationship, maybe even a friendship. This was deeply 0:25:48.640 --> 0:25:51.520 painful for him. The butcher was exactly the kind of 0:25:51.560 --> 0:25:55.440 man who forced his parents to the concentration camps. But 0:25:55.600 --> 0:25:58.919 why didn't sad mates man dead? There were thousands of 0:25:58.920 --> 0:26:03.119 ex Nazis walking around Europe South America. Why zookers and 0:26:03.200 --> 0:26:08.440 why now you read got to that you wanted Meo 0:26:08.480 --> 0:26:10.440 and Michael to know the reason that the butcher had 0:26:10.480 --> 0:26:13.800 to die. At that particular time, he started talking about 0:26:13.800 --> 0:26:18.520 an anniversary that was approaching in about eight months. On 0:26:18.720 --> 0:26:25.040 May eight, the world will mount the twenty years since 0:26:25.080 --> 0:26:29.600 the victory of the Nazi Germany, and there are already 0:26:29.680 --> 0:26:34.320 voices and not in Germany alone, would say that it 0:26:34.440 --> 0:26:38.359 is time to look forward, to do a line under 0:26:38.440 --> 0:26:43.159 the events of the past, to forget the Nazis and 0:26:43.200 --> 0:26:49.320 to apply the statute of limitations to the crimes. That 0:26:49.560 --> 0:26:52.440 was the real reason for the mission. It turns out 0:26:52.480 --> 0:26:56.280 that in the German government had decided that all cases 0:26:56.280 --> 0:26:59.320 of murder would be given a twenty year statute of limitations. 0:27:00.080 --> 0:27:02.399 If you killed someone, state would have twenty years to 0:27:02.400 --> 0:27:05.200 open a case against you. If they didn't, you were 0:27:05.240 --> 0:27:10.800 free forever. You couldn't be indicted, you couldn't be prosecuted, 0:27:11.119 --> 0:27:18.560 and you couldn't go to jail. Of course, in the 0:27:18.600 --> 0:27:21.159 government had no idea that someone named Hitler would be 0:27:21.200 --> 0:27:24.600 born in Austria and that the Holocaust would happen, and 0:27:24.640 --> 0:27:27.840