Tuviah Friedman
Tuviah Friedman (1922–2011) made an important contribution to the prosecution of Nazi perpetrators. He was instrumental in tracking the whereabouts of Adolf Eichmann and bringing him to trial.
Friedman lost almost his entire family during the Holocaust. He survived by escaping from a Labour Camp of the Radom Ghetto in occupied Poland. Upon the liberation of Poland in mid-January of 1945, Friedman joined the Polish Police Force under an assumed identity and began his life’s work: hunting those who participated in the German crimes.
In 1946 in Vienna, Friedman was active with the organizations Aliyah Bet and Haganah which – partly with the use of violence against the British Mandate Authorities – promoted emigration to Palestine. He joined forces with Simon Wiesenthal and started tracing the whereabouts of German perpetrators of which a total of 250 were captured due in part to their work.
In 1952, Friedman settled in Haifa, Israel, where he led the local branch of Yad Vashem. Following his interest in the legal prosecution, he founded and administrated the Institute of Documentation for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes. Friedman campaigned against the statute of limitations in Germany which protected many perpetrators of the Holocaust from prosecution. He also contributed to Adolf Eichmann’s capture and chronicled the intricate story of the pursuit in his autobiography, The Hunter (1961). Until his death, he published more than 140 volumes which contain documents on Nazi criminals.
