On May 11, 1960 Adolph Eichmann, in a bold move by Israel’s Mossad, was apprehended in San Fernando, Argentina. Having escaped to Argentina in 1950. His route to Argentina began in 1946, following the war, his capture and imprisonment by the United States military, and his subsequent escape from prison before the Nuremberg Trials began. Thanks to his network, he made his way across Europe to the Middle East and from there to Argentina, where many Nazi leaders had escaped to as well.
Eichmann had risen in the ranks of the Nazi SS after joining them in 1932. The SS “had broad responsibilities in Nazi Germany, including policing, intelligence, and the enforcement of Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic policies.” After efficiently running his operation of dealing with Jews in Austria, he was assigned in 1939 to Prague, and later that year was assigned to Berlin where he received an appointment to the Jewish Section of the SS Security Office.
He joined the Nazi leaders in January 1942 at the notorious Wannsee Conference outside of Berlin, where the men gathered dealt with the Final Solution to the Jewish question. Eichmann received the assignment to “coordinate the identification, assembly, and transportation of millions of Jews across occupied Europe to the Nazi death camps, where the Jews would be either gassed or worked to death.” His efficiency led to the death of nearly six million Jewish men, women, and children.
In 1957, a German prosecutor secretly contacted Israel informing them of Eichmann’s whereabouts. On May 11, 1960, Mossad operatives captured Eichmann, living under the pseudonym Ricard Klement, and nine days later whisked him to Israel. On April 11, 1961, Eichmann’s trial began. On May 31, 1962, after being found guilty of fifteen counts ranging from crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people, and war crimes, “he was hanged near Tel Aviv, his body cremated, and his ashes thrown into the sea.”
One of the most evil and despicable men found out that he could not escape God’s justice, and Adolph Eichmann finally paid for his crimes.
(Source: History.com)
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