Malkin, Peter Zvi

(1927-2005)

   Long-time Mossad agent involved in the capture of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. Born Zvi Malchin, either in Poland (according to his son Omer) or in British Palestine (according to his own website), he spent his childhood in Poland, but with growing anti-Semitism there, he settled with his family in Palestine in 1933.

   After serving in the Hagana, he was recruited by the Mossad after independence in 1948. In the spring of 1960, Malkin was part of a team of Mossad agents sent to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to kidnap Eichmann, who was living in a suburb under the alias Ricardo Kle-ment. On 11 May 1960, Eichmann alighted from the bus and walked toward his house on Garibaldi Street. Malkin approached him and uttered the only words of Spanish he knew, "Un momentito, Senor." He grabbed Eichmann's arm and with his colleagues wrestled Eichmann into a waiting car and drove him to a "safe house," where he was interrogated for 10 days. Standing guard over Eichmann during this time, Malkin began to draw him, using the sketch pencils, acrylic paints, and makeup he carried in his disguise kit.

   Malkin served a total of 27 years in the Mossad, eventually becoming its chief of operations. He retired in 1976 and authored a memoir, Eichmann in My Hands. He adopted the name Peter and modified his last name. Malkin died on 1 March 2005 in New York.