Nazi Hunters

The Jewish Avengers

Season 1, Episode 8 of 13

After the war, a Jewish group called the Avengers were horrified by the number of known Nazis with blood on their hands who were simply allowed to resume their normal lives. They decided to hunt these Nazis down. In the spring of 1945, as World War II was drawing to its end, a Passover gathering was addressed by Abba Kovner, a survivor of the Jewish uprising in the Vilna ghetto. He spoke passionately, invoking Psalm 94, in which God promises that he shall deal with the enemies of the people of Israel: "He will repay them for their iniquity and wipe them out for their wickedness." Among those who heard him were Joseph Harmatz and Leipe Distel. Together they would become the Avengers. Drunk on their power, and believing they were above the law, the Avengers went for one monstrous act of revenge. It was planned by Abba Kovner. He decided that the Germans must suffer as the Jews had suffered. An eye for an eye. Six million for six million. He wanted to poison the water supplies of Munich, Berlin, Nuremburg, Hamburg and Weimar. But Someone high in the Zionist hierarchy betrayed him and he was arrested by British Military Police.

Previously Aired

Day
Time
Channel
5/15/2012
8 p.m.
5/16/2012
1 a.m.
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