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How the Mossad Hunted the "Butcher of Riga" Who Murdered 30,000 Jews
(Times of Israel) Robert Philpot - In 1965, Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol approved a plan by Israel's intelligence chiefs to hunt down Herberts Cukurs - the "Butcher of Riga" - who was accused of being personally responsible for the deaths of at least 30,000 Latvian Jews. The story is told in Stephan Talty's new book, The Good Assassin: Mossad's Hunt for the Butcher of Latvia. With the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Latvia came under Nazi rule. Cukurs became second-in-command of the notorious Arajs Kommando, a 300-strong Latvian paramilitary group which enthusiastically participated in the murder of the country's Jews. One eyewitness remembered Cukurs in the Riga ghetto, "laughing devilishly...shooting the people like a hunter in the forest." At a villa at 19 Waldemars Street, the Arajs Kommando held wild drunken parties as they tortured and murdered Jews. Max Tukacier saw Cukurs "beat to death 10 to 15 people" at the house. Cukurs was recorded giving orders to his commandos at "Aktions" on November 30 and December 8, 1941, when 25,000 Jews were murdered in or near the Rumbula forest. After the war, the Latvian escaped to Brazil, where he portrayed himself as a man who had rescued Jews during the Holocaust. The undercover agent dispatched by the Mossad to ensnare Cukurs was Yaakov "Mio" Meidad, a German-born Jew whose parents had perished in the death camps. He had helped abduct Adolf Eichmann and bring him to Israel for trial. Under the guise of an Austrian businessman, Meidad befriended Cukurs and lured him to his death in Montevideo, where a small Mossad team awaited.