On 11 May 1960, a small team of Israeli Mossad agents captured senior Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann in Argentina.
During World War II, Eichmann rose through the SS ranks to become lieutenant colonel and one of Hitler's top deputies. While he held several bureaucratic positions during his tenure in Nazi leadership, he is most known for organizing the logistics of deporting mass numbers of Jews throughout Europe to the Nazi death camps, and planning and executing the Final Solution to the Jewish Question.
While the manhunt for Eichmann was launched in 1945, the first major breakthrough came in 1957 when the prosecutor of the German state of Hesse, Fritz Bauer, reported to the Israeli secret service that Eichmann was in hiding in Argentina, under the false name of Ricardo Klement. In March 1960, the Mossad confirmed that Eichmann was in fact in Argentina and developed a plan to capture him and bring him back to Israel to stand trial for his war crimes.
The operation was carried out under the command of Mossad chief Isser Harel with the backing of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. The team of Mossad agents waited for Eichmann who near Eichmann’s house, who was returning from work. When he walked by an apparently broken-down Buick limousine, the agents grabbed him, pushed him into the back seat of the car, and drove him to a safe house.
Eichmann’s interrogation began as soon as he arrived at the safe house, where he was asked about distinguishing features such as his shoe size, hat size, date of birth, and SS number. While Eichmann’s response suggested he was the Nazi senior leader, it wasn’t until days later that he confirmed his true identity. Eichmann proceeded to sign a document giving his consent to stand trial in Israel, and thereafter was secretly flown to Israel.
On 23 May 1960, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion announced Eichmann’s capture to the world, noting that he would stand trial in Israel.
"I should inform the Israeli parliament that Israel's security services tracked Adolf Eichmann, one of the biggest Nazi criminals, who was in charge, with other Nazi senior officials, of 'the Final Solution to the Jewish Question' – the extermination of 6 million European Jews,” Ben-Gurion said. “Adolf Eichmann is already in Israel's custody and will soon be tried in Israel according to the 'Nazi and Nazi collaborators (Punishment) Law.'"
While many organizations and countries were outraged by Israel's operation, Ben-Gurion defended the decision, describing the trial as "our historical duty toward the six million of our brethren who were murdered."
Unlike the Nuremberg Trials and the subsequent Nuremberg proceedings, which relied heavily on written documents, the Eichmann Trial featured the testimony of survivors and afforded them the opportunity to discuss the horrors they had seen and experienced firsthand for the whole world to see and hear. While prior to the trial Nazi crimes were well known, few who had experienced the Holocaust firsthand were comfortable publicly speaking about it. Historians often credit the trial with removing some of the shame and stigma survivors felt and inspiring thousands to share their stories openly.
Eichmann’s death sentence came several days after he was formally convicted on 12 December. He remains the only person ever to be sentenced to death by an Israeli court.
Eichmann’s capture and the subsequent trial proved to be a watershed moment, as it helped raise global awareness of the Holocaust, demonstrated Israel's willingness to assert itself on the global stage, and put the subject of pursuing justice for Nazi atrocities on the world agenda.
