Fifty years ago today, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion announced that Israel had captured Nazi leader Adolph Eichmann who had been hiding in Argentina.
Eichmann, often referred to as “the architect of the Holocaust”, facilitated and managed the logistics of the deportation of Jews to ghettos and extermination camps in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe.
Following the military defeat of Nazi Germany and end of World War II, Eichmann fled Germany to Argentina on a fraudulent travel document issued by the International Red Cross.
In 1959, the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad received information that Eichmann was living in Buenos Aires under the name Ricardo Klement. Soon after receiving the information, Mossad agents began to survey him and confirmed the intelligence. The Israeli government subsequently approved an operation to capture Eichmann and extradite him to Jerusalem as a war criminal.
On May 11, 1960, Israeli Mossad and Shin Bet agents captured Eichmann in a suburb of Buenos Aires. After observing Eichmann’s activities, a team of Mossad agents waited for Eichmann as he headed home from work at a Mercedes-Benz factory. One agent looked out as his bus arrived, while two other agents pretended to fix a broken car. A fourth agent was on Eichmann’s buss to ensure his presence.
Once Eichmann left the bus and began walking toward his home, one of the agents working on the car asked him for a cigarette. When he reached in his pocket, one agent struck him on the back of the neck as two others pushed him into a car and drove him to a safe house.
Following extensive interrogations, his identity was undoubtedly confirmed. He was later smuggled out of the country on an El Al Bristol Britannia flight from Argentina to Senegal and then to Israel on May 21. Sedated and disguised in an El Al crew uniform, Argentinean authorities were unaware of the Israeli plan.
Two days later, on May 23, 1960, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion announced the capture to the Israeli Knesset. His announcement was met by a standing ovation.
On April 11, 1961, an Israeli court in Jerusalem began Eichmann's trial. He was indicted on fifteen criminal charges that included crimes against humanity, membership in an illegal organization and crimes against the Jewish people.
Following fourteen weeks of testimony that included over 1,500 documents, 100 prosecution witnesses and dozens of defense depositions given by members of sixteen different countries, Eichmann’s trial came to an end. He was convicted on all counts and sentenced to death.
On May 31, 1962, Eichmann was ganged at an Israeli prison in Ramla. To this day, his execution remains the only civil execution ever carried out in Israel.
