Adolf Eichmann was a Nazi officer, Gestapo employee, head of the Gestapo special department IV-B-4, which was responsible for the “final solution of the Jewish question.”
SS Obersturmbannführer Eichmann exercised central control over all operations to deport European Jews to death camps, played a key role in the preparation of the Wannsee Conference (1942) and the implementation of its decisions on the genocide of the Jews. He personally visited the death camps several times, particularly Auschwitz-Birkenau, knew the entire extermination process in detail, and supervised the activities of the Theresienstadt ghetto.
At the end of the war, Eichmann was arrested by the American military but was not identified. However, his crimes were revealed during the Nuremberg Trials. Eichmann became “the most wanted Nazi in the world.”
Having obtained a fake Argentine passport in the name of Ricardo Clemente, Eichmann arrived in Argentina in 1950. He later moved his family there.
On May 13, 1960, Eichmann was captured in Buenos Aires by a group of agents of the Israeli political intelligence agency Mossad and taken to Israel. On April 11, 1961, the trial began, which lasted more than six months. The prosecution presented more than 100 witnesses at the trial, and more than 1,600 documents were submitted, most of which were signed by Eichmann. The indictment consisted of 15 counts - Eichmann was accused of crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity, and membership in Nazi organizations. Crimes against the Jewish people included various forms of persecution, including the arrest of millions of Jews, their concentration in designated places, deportation to death camps, murder, and confiscation of property. Eichmann was also accused of crimes against other peoples: the deportation 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.
In the Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine”, in the permanent exhibition “The Creation of the State of Israel”, in the section dedicated to the activities of the Mossad, detailed information is presented on the preparation and conduct of the operation to kidnap Eichmann.
The Museum Library also offers the following publications about this trial of the Nazi criminal:
1. «6 000 000 обвиняют: Речь израильского генерального прокурора на процессе Эйхмана»
2. Ланг Й. фон. «Протоколы Эйхмана: Записи допросов в Израиле»
3. Арендт Х. «Банальність зла: Суд над Айхманом в Єрусалимі»
Iryna Piskareva