BEN-NATAN, ASHER

BEN-NATAN, ASHER (1921– ), Israeli diplomat. Ben-Natan was born in Vienna and immigrated to Ereẓ Israel as an "illegal" immigrant in 1938. He was one of the founders of the group which established kibbutz dobrath (Dovrat). In 1944 Ben-Natan joined the Aliyah Department of the Jewish Agency and was delegated to the British Department, which, in liaison with the Allied Forces, specialized in the interrogation of Nazi war criminals and in compiling lists of them and their crimes. In October of that year he was transferred to Vienna, where he was in charge of the Beriḥah movement in Austria, holding the position until 1947. During this period he established a special group to search for war criminals. In 1947 Ben-Natan was a special assistant to David Ben-Gurion and in 1948 was appointed chief of special operations in the Political Department of the Israel Ministry for Foreign Affairs. From 1951 to 1953 he studied at the Institute of Higher International Studies in Geneva, and in 1956 was appointed special delegate of the Ministry of Defense for Europe, taking up the post in Paris in 1957. From 1960 to 1965 he served as director general of the Ministry of Defense and from 1965 to 1969 was first Israel ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1970 he was appointed Israel ambassador to France. Ben-Natan was a candidate for mayor of Tel Aviv in Nov. 1978 but was not elected.