Adolf Eichmann (German: Otto Adolf Eichmann, March 19, 1906, Solingen, Germany – June 1, 1962, Ramla, Israel) – Nazi officer, Gestapo officer, head of the special department of the Gestapo IV-B-4 that was responsible for the “final solution of the Jewish question”. SS-Obersturmbannf?hrer Eichmann carried out central management of all operations to deport European Jews to death camps, played an important role in the preparation of the Wannsee Conference (1942) and the implementation of its decisions on the total genocide of Jews. He personally visited death camps several times, including Auschwitz-Birkenau, and knew the entire process of extermination in details.
At the end of the war, Eichmann was arrested by the US military, however he was not identified. In 1948, he obtained a false Argentinean passport in the name of Ricardo Klement. In 1950, he arrived in Buenos Aires, and later moved his family there. On May 13, 1960, he was captured by a group of the Mossad Israeli political intelligence agents. Eichmann was secretly delivered to Israel and handed over to the police. On April 11, 1961, a trial began in Jerusalem, which lasted more than six months. The accusation consisted of 15 points – Eichmann was charged with crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity, membership of Nazi organizations. Crimes against the Jewish people included all types of persecution, including the arrest of millions of Jews, their concentration in certain places, sending to death camps, murders and confiscation of property. He was also charged in crimes against other nations: the eviction of millions of Poles, the arrest and sending of tens of thousands of Roma to death camps, etc. On December 15, 1961, Eichmann was found guilty and sentenced to death. On June 1, 1962, Adolf Eichmann was executed.
Information about the Wannsee Conference (1942) and its consequences for European Jews on our website here.
In the permanent Museum’s exhibition “The Establishment of the State of Israel”, detailed information on the preparation and conduct of the Eichmann abduction operation is presented in in the section on the Mossad activities.
The Museum’s library also offers to get acquainted with such publications about this lawsuit:
1. “6 000 000 Blame: Speech by the Israeli Attorney General at the Eichmann Process”.
2. Jochen von Lang “The Eichmann Protocols: Records of Interrogations in Israel”.
3. Hannah Arendt “The Banality of Evil: The Eichmann Trial in Jerusalem”.
Dilfuza Hlushchenko