The blind Holocaust survivor who caught a fugitive Nazi

Lives Less Ordinary

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.6 • 814 Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Lothar Hermann found out his neighbour was ‘architect of the Holocaust’ Adolf Eichmann.

Lothar Hermann’s German-Jewish family perished in the Holocaust, but when he escaped to Argentina, little did he know that within a few years a Nazi fugitive would wind up living at the end of his street.

Lilianna Hermann spent two decades uncovering the story of a hidden family hero - her great uncle Lothar - only to find a shocking truth: it was Lothar who had played a vital role in capturing the notorious SS officer and Nazi fugitive, Adolf Eichmann, the man responsible with carrying out Hitler’s Final Solution. But Lothar was not celebrated in Eichmann’s capture and eventual trial and back home Lothar faced threats and indifference from Nazi sympathisers.

This is the unbelievable true story of how a blind survivor, living off his pension, brought down one of the architects of the Holocaust.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producer: Edgar Maddicott and Zoe Gelber

Get in touch: [email protected] or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, Russell Kane here.
0:03.0	I'm back for another season of character assassinating the nice guy
0:06.4	and binging up the baddies in evil genius.
0:09.2	Yep, even the biggest legends have their skeletons.
0:12.0	So join me and a panel of brilliant comedians to weigh in
0:15.1	on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or more genius.
0:19.0	I just think every celebrity, said with respect, Russell,
0:22.2	is out of their minds.
0:26.5	Evil genius with Russell Kane.
0:28.6	Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:32.9	1954 in a suburb of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
0:37.3	A girl named Sylvia from a Christian family
0:39.8	is coming back home from a night out at the local cinema.
0:43.6	She's telling her dad about her evening and a boy she just met.
0:48.6	And she tells them about Klaus.
0:51.5	And her dad asked was like, they were German? Yes, they were German. What was their last name? He asked about the last name. Sylvia tells them. Eichmann. Eichmann, the name makes the man shiver. That name is so scary because it belongs to an infamous Nazi officer.
1:12.5	One responsible for transporting 6 million Jews to their deaths.
1:16.9	To his daughter, it means nothing.
1:19.1	But that's about to change.
1:20.8	Her father is going to tell her an entire secret history.
1:24.7	He's Jewish.
1:25.9	He's been in Dachau, a concentration camp in his native Germany
	...

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