The hunt for a Nazi: the capture and trial of Adolf Eichmann
On 11th May 1960, in the city of San Fernando, north of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Mossad (the Israeli Intelligence Agency) agents captured Adolf Eichmann, a former Nazi Party and SS member who was responsible for the deportation and deaths of hundreds of thousands of Jews during the Second World War. Eichmann had fled Europe after the war and had been living in Argentina for a decade at the time of his capture.
One of the highest profile escaped Nazis, Eichmann had been sought after for years by prosecutors and Nazi Hunters such as Simon Wiesenthal. In 1960 Mossad agents arrived in Argentina and tracked him down. The story of Eichmann’s capture and trial is an incredible tale, but first let us go back a bit, who was Adolf Eichmann?
Adolf Eichmann
Eichmann was born 19th March 1906 in the city of Solingen in western Germany, which was in the Kingdom of Prussia when he was born. When Eichmann was around eight years old his family moved to Linz in Austria, with his mother passing away just two years later.
Eichmann was educated at the same state school Adolf Hitler had been educated at and held a variety of jobs before beginning his entry into politics. On 1st April 1932 he joined the Nazi Party and seven months later became a member of the Schutzstaffel (SS).
After the Nazi Party seized power in Germany in January 1933, Austria banned the party and Eichmann lost his job, with both factors prompting him to return to Germany. Eichmann worked to help members of the Nazi Party flee Austria throughout 1933 and smuggled propaganda into the country at the same time.
Over the next few years Eichmann worked his way up the ranks of the party and soon after the Second World War broke out, he was assigned to organise Jewish deportations in Occupied Poland. By the end of 1939, Reinhard Heydrich, one of the most evil and senior members of the Nazi regime, put Eichmann in charge of arranging deportations into Poland. Heydrich, who was assassinated in 1942 in Prague, called Eichmann his “special expert” in arranging deportations.
Throughout the course of the war Eichmann oversaw the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Jews from across Europe to ghettos and concentration camps. With the invasion of Hungary in early 1944, Eichmann personally oversaw the deportation of over 400,000 Hungarian Jews, many of whom ended up in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, which Eichmann had visited in May of 1944 to assess.
Eichmann fled Hungary in December 1944 as the Soviet army approached, returning to Berlin where he arranged for incriminating documents to be destroyed. When the Nazi regime fell in 1945 and the war in Europe ended, Eichmann and his family had fled to Austria, living in relative safety.
He ended up being captured by US forces and moved around several camps, but remained undetected as he used forged identity papers which identified him as “Otto Eckmann.” Eichmann escaped from a work detail when he believed his identity had been discovered and obtained new papers, going into hiding in southern Germany until 1950.
Escape to Argentina
In 1948, Eichmann received a landing permit for Argentina and false identification from Austrian Bishop Alois Hudal, a Nazi sympathiser who helped dozens of Nazi’s escape after the war. With his permit and false documents, Eichmann was able to receive a humanitarian passport from the Red Cross which would allow him to enter Argentina.
Travelling across Europe, staying in several safe houses, Eichmann arrived in Genoa and departed for Argentina on 17th June 1950, arriving in Buenos Aires on 14th July. One of the most evil members of the Nazi Party, responsible for the deportation and deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people, had escaped.
Tracking Eichmann Down
For the next decade, Eichmann and his family lived in Argentina, settling just north of Buenos Aires. Throughout the 1950s, the net closed around Eichmann as Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal received information about his whereabouts and a Jewish immigrant to Argentina, Lothar Hermann, was instrumental in identifying Eichmann. Hermann’s daughter dated Eichmann’s son, who reportedly boasted of his father’s crimes, and brought Eichmann to the attention of Hermann.
With multiple pieces of evidence, including Eichmann’s address and a current photograph, Mossad agent Zvi Aharoni was sent to Buenos Aires on 1st March 1960. After several weeks of investigations, the identity of Adolf Eichmann was confirmed.
The Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, opted to order the capture of Eichmann by Mossad agents, due to Argentina’s record of denying extradition requests. An 8-man Mossad team arrived in Argentina in April 1960 and planned the capture of Eichmann.
The team observed Eichmann’s routine over many days and noted that he would arrive home from work by bus at around the same time every evening. With enough evidence, a confirmation that the man they sought was Eichmann and an idea of his routine, Mossad were ready to strike.
The Capture
On 11th May 1960, the Mossad agents planned to capture Eichmann as he crossed a field to get to his house from the bus stop. The plan was nearly abandoned when Eichmann didn’t show at his usual time, but he got off another bus half an hour later.
As Eichmann crossed the field, he was approached by Peter Malkin, one of the Mossad agents, and was asked if he had a moment. Frightened, Eichmann attempted to leave but was brought to the ground by Malkin and two other Mossad agents. Malkin later said that he wore gloves so he didn’t have to touch Eichmann. After being wrested to the ground, Eichmann was bundled into a car and taken to a Mossad safe house that had been established. The Mossad team double-checked and confirmed his identity to ensure they had the right man.
On 20th May, Eichmann was sedated and dressed as a flight attendant, then smuggled out of Argentina. The plane left Argentina on 21st May with Eichmann and the Mossad team on-board, stopping in Senegal to refuel before arriving in Israel on 22nd May. The following afternoon, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion announced to the Israeli legislature that Eichmann has been captured.
The capture of Eichmann led to a wave of anti-Semitic and far-right protests in Argentina, and Argentina called for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council in June 1960. Argentina said that the capture of Eichmann was a violation of their sovereign rights, whilst Israeli representative Golda Meir claimed the captors acted as private individuals, not Israeli agents. The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 138 on 23rd June 1960 which agreed that Argentine sovereignty had been violated in the capture of Eichmann. Israel and Argentina later issued a joint statement where Israel admitted violating Argentina’s sovereign rights and agreed to end the dispute.
Eichmann on trial in Israel
Eichmann was taken to a police station in Yagur, Northern Israel. He spent nine months there, subjected to daily interrogations to gather as much information and evidence possible for his upcoming trial. Eichmann would often lie and evade questioning, and when forced to admit his crimes in questioning he claimed he was only following orders.
The trial of Adolf Eichmann began on 11th April 1961 at Beit Ha’am, now known as the Gerard Behar Center, an auditorium in Jerusalem. He was indicted on fifteen charges, including war crimes, crimes against the Jewish people and crimes against humanity. Eichmann was represented by German lawyer Robert Servatius, who had served as a defence lawyer at the Nuremburg Trials for several former Nazi Party members. Servatius had never been a member of the Nazi Party and was not connected with any of its crimes.
The trial itself was filmed and televised globally, which led to an increase in discussions around the Holocaust and the crimes of the Nazi Party, educating many people on the issues being discussed during the trial. Major newspapers from across the world sent reporters to cover the trial. Eichmann was sat in a booth made of bulletproof glass throughout to protect him from any assassination attempts that might be made.
The prosecution presented their case over 56 days, with hundreds of documents and 112 witnesses, many of whom were survivors of the Holocaust, however only fourteen of the witnesses had seen Eichmann during the war. Chief Prosecutor Gideon Hausner, the Attorney General of Israel, said that his intention was to demonstrate Eichmann’s guilt whilst also presenting material the Holocaust as a whole and produce a comprehensive record of events. Eichmann’s defense attorney often objected to the presentation of material which was not related to Eichmann and was mostly successful.
Throughout the trial, Eichmann’s defense was that he had no choice but to follow orders he was given as he had sworn an oath of loyalty to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The same defence of “following orders” was used by many Nazi defendants in the Nuremburg trials after the Second World War. The prosecution proved that Eichmann had visited concentration camps and witnessed mass killings of Jews, however Eichmann stated he merely arranged transports and did not feel guilty for the consequences.
During his trial Eichmann refused to admit he was personally guilty, but he admitted that he did not like Jews, although saying he did not think their destruction was justified. When prosecutor Hausner showed evidence of Eichmann saying in 1945 “I will leap into my grave laughing because the feeling that I have five million human beings on my conscience is for me a source of extraordinary satisfaction”, Eichmann claimed he had meant enemies of the Nazi Reich such as the Soviets. During further examination, Eichmann admitted he had meant the Jewish people, saying the remark reflected his opinion at the time.
After 125 days, the trial was adjourned on 14th August. The final verdict was delivered on 12th December, Adolf Eichmann was found guilty on fifteen counts of crimes against humanity, war crimes, crimes against the Jewish people and membership of a criminal organisation, Eichmann was however cleared of personally killing anyone. The judges concluded that Eichmann had not been just following orders and instead believed in the Nazi ideals and was a key perpetrator of the Holocaust. Eichmann was sentenced to death by hanging on 15th December 1961.
Eichmann’s appeals and execution
Eichmann and his defence team appealed the verdict in the Israeli Supreme Court, with the case being heard in March 1962. On 29th May, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected Eichmann’s appeal and upheld the original judgement. Immediately afterwards Eichmann directly petitioned Israeli President Yitzhak Ben-Yvi for a pardon, with his wife and brothers also writing to Ben-Yvi. Prime Minister Ben-Gurion called a special cabinet meeting to decide on what should be the outcome of Eichmann’s direct appeal, recommending to Ben-Yvi that Eichmann be refused a pardon.
At 8pm on 31st May 1962, Eichmann was informed that his final attempt at a pardon had been denied. A few hours later, just after midnight on 1st June 1962, Adolf Eichmann was executed by hanging at Ramla Prison. His last words were “Long live Germany. Long live Argentina. Long live Austria. These are the three countries with which I have been most connected and which I will not forget. I greet my wife, my family and my friends. I am ready. We’ll meet again soon, as is the fate of all men. I die believing in God.” Within hours of his execution, Eichmann’s body was cremated, and his ashes scattered in the Mediterranean Sea, outside of Israeli territorial waters.
After the trial
With the trial of Adolf Eichmann being broadcast worldwide, it prompted a lot of discussions about the Holocaust and other Nazi atrocities. In Israel itself, many people learned for the first time the brutal and inhuman methods the Nazi’s used in their persecution of so called “undesirables.” Having several witnesses at Eichmann’s trial describe their first-hand experience of the Holocaust and the brutality they faced was something which resonated with people in Israel.
In Germany, a lot of discussion was had around the complicity of people in Nazi crimes, such as Eichmann, who did not directly murder anyone. Many trials subsequently held in Germany can be traced back to the Eichmann trial and the effect it had not just in Germany but across the world.
