Adolf Eichmann, a key party in
implementing of Hitler's "final solution," was captured by agents of the
Israeli "Mossad" in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Eichmann was in charge of
all transportation required for the shipment of Jews to the
extermination camps. The height of his career was reached in Hungary in
1944, when he managed to transport 400,000 Jews to the gas chambers in
less than five weeks.
After the war, Eichmann fled to
Argentina and lived under the assumed name of Ricardo Klement for ten
years until Israeli Mossad agents abducted him on May 11, 1960 and
smuggled him out of the country to stand trial in Jerusalem for his
crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity and war
crimes.
During the four months of the
trial over one hundred witnesses testified against him. Eichmann took
the stand and used the defense that he was just obeying orders. "Why
me," he asked. "Why not the local policemen, thousands of them? They
would have been shot if they had refused to round up the Jews for the
death camps. Everybody killed the Jews."
Eichmann was found guilty on all counts, sentenced to death and hanged at Ramleh Prison on May 31, 1962.
(Chabad)
