Avner W. Less

Avner Werner Less (18 December 1916 – 7 January 1987) was a German-born Israeli police officer, best known for interrogating former German SS officer Adolf Eichmann after he was captured by Mossad agents in Argentina and brought to Israel to stand trial.

Life and career

Less was born in Berlin, Germany in 1916. He attended the in Charlottenburg. In 1933, after the Nazis assumed power, he emigrated to France, where he started an agricultural studies.

In 1938, he emigrated to Mandatory Palestine, and during his first years there, worked on orange plantations. From 1941 to 1948, he was a police officer in Haifa and price checker for the local district. After Israeli independence in 1948, he became head of the Import-Export Section of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and was Deputy-Director of the Legal Department for price control in the Haifa district. In 1951, he joined the Israel Police, and worked in the Department of Economic Crimes. From 1954 to 1968, while still an officer in the Israel Police, he was loaned to the Foreign Service. He initially served as an attaché in New York City, and as permanent representative of Israel to the annual conference of the UN Drug Commission in Geneva, and as a representative of Israel at Interpol.

In 1960, Less, now a Chief Inspector in the Israel Police, was tasked with interrogating former German SS officer Adolf Eichmann, who was captured by Mossad agents in Argentina in May 1960 and brought to Israel to stand trial. For nine months, Less served as Eichmann's interrogator, questioning him daily for a total of 275 hours. He was the only investigator allowed to speak to Eichmann. The transcripts of the interrogation were forwarded to prosecutors. In 1961, Less testified and was cross-examined at Eichmann's trial. Extracts from the interrogation of Eichmann by Less have been published in the 1983 book Eichmann Interrogated. Less died in Zürich in 1987, at age 71.

In popular culture Less was portrayed by American actor Troy Garity in the 2007 film, Eichmann, which dramatizes Eichmann's interrogation.