Man who was official 'Nazi Hunter' caught over 250 SS guards
Topics: World War 2, World News
Ben Thompson
Featured Image Credit: AP/Shutterstock
Topics: World War 2, World News
It's well known that after the Second World War, many surviving Nazis went into hiding to escape prosecution for their heinous crimes.
While there were those who evaded capture, just as many were brought to justice by 'Nazi Hunters' who made it their mission to hold them accountable.
One man who would comfortably fit under this job description is Tuviah Friedman, who is credited with capturing over 250 SS Guards linked to war crimes.
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Friedman was born in 1922 in Radom, Poland, and would later end up in a nearby Nazi concentration camp.
Escaping in 1944, Friedman headed home where the Soviet army had taken control.
Radom's new occupiers were looking to reorganise the local police force, and the young Friedman, seeing an opportunity, enlisted under a false identity.
His primary role in this job? To expose, arrest and bring Nazi criminals to justice.
Ultimately though, Friedman decided to part ways with Poland and head to Palestine. After escaping Soviet Poland, he made his way to Vienna, Austria.
It was upon meeting some fellow Jewish survivors that somebody suggested Friedman start his own team to track down Nazi war criminals - an idea to which Friedman was evidently agreeable to.
Settling in Vienna, Friedman began collecting information with the help of the Vienna police.
Through his digging, he was able to obtain information about those who worked for the paramilitary unit responsible for the Holocaust.
This was no small task as Friedman would have to obtain evidence to prove that the individual in question played a part in the activities of the Nazi Party.
Compiling files on each suspect with photos and news articles, Friedman was able to gather enough information that secured the arrest of 250 Nazi war criminals.
Among those caught by Friedman were Theodor Eicke, commandant of the Dachau concentration camp, Hans Bothmann, commandant of the Chelmno extermination camp and Bruno Streckenbach, a senior officer in the Reich Security Ministry.
In 1952, Friedman moved to Israel, where he would go on to set up an organisation called the Institute for the Documentation of Nazi War Crimes.
Although he didn't have the same resources he had in Austria, Friedman was still able to compile a lot of information on Nazis of varying ranks.
Friedman's greatest achievement came when he helped secure the capture of Adolf Eichmann.
Eichmann was the Nazi officer responsible for implementing the Final Solution, which saw six million Jews perish in a ruthless genocide.
Having received a tip that Eichmann was hiding out in Argentina, Friedman convinced Israel's secret services to track him down.
Upon his arrest, Friedman produced his documents on the war criminal to help build the case against him, which ultimately saw him found guilty and had him executed in 1962.
Friedman remained in Israel until his death in 2011 at the age of 88.