Historical Context
Toward the end of World War II, SS officer Adolf Eichmann said "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 was one of the primary organizers of the Holocaust. Tasked by Reinhard Heydrich with managing the logistics of the Final Solution, Eichmann was a participant in the infamous Wannsee Conference where the decision exterminate the Jews was made; Eichmann and his staff were responsible for organizing the deportations to death camps.
After Germany's defeat Eichmann fled to Argentina. One of the most wanted Nazis, the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad located him in 1960. After extensive surveillance, on 11 May 1960 a team of Mossad agents launched a successful and audacious operation to abduct him and fly him to Israel to stand trial.
During his trial, reporter Hannah Arendt coined the phrase "the banality of evil" to describe Eichmann, who appeared stiff and lackluster in comparison to the enormity of his crimes. Sentenced to death, Eichmann was executed by hanging on 1 June 1962.
Photo Info
Photographer: Israel Government Press Office
Date taken: June 22, 1961
Location taken: Jerusalem, Israel
Source: The Times of Israel
Related Events
- 1942-03-26 First "Eichmann transport" to Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps
- 1942-06-20 Adolf Eichmann proclaims deportation of Dutch Jews
- 1960-05-11 Israeli soldiers capture Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires
- 1960-05-23 Israel announces capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina
- 1960-06-08 Argentine government demands release of Adolf Eichmann
- 1960-06-15 Argentina complains to UN about Israeli illicit transfer of Adolf Eichmann
- 1961-04-11 Trial of Adolf Eichmann for war crimes in World War II begins in Jerusalem, Israel
- 1961-12-12 Nazi German army officer Adolf Eichmann is found guilty of war crimes in Israel
- 1961-12-13 Gideon Hausner in Jerusalem demands death penalty for Adolf Eichmann
- 1961-12-15 Court in Israel sentences Nazi party official Adolf Eichmann to death for war crimes for his participation in organizing the Holocaust
- 1962-06-01 SS officer Adolf Eichmann is executed in Israel after being found guilty of war crimes
- 1963-02-16 Philosopher Hannah Arendt's controversial account of the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann is first published in "The New Yorker"
Related Articles and Photos
Nuremberg War Trials Bring Nazis to Justice
The Trial of Major War Criminals began on this day, the first of a five-year series of hearings at Nuremberg where WW2 Nazis were held to account.
November 20, 1945
Nuremberg Trials
Hermann Goering on trial at the Nuremberg Trials. He would later be sentenced to death, but committed suicide the night before his sentence was to be carried out.
September 30, 1946
Related Famous People
Nazi SS Officer and War Criminal
Adolf Eichmann
Political Theorist, Historian and Philosopher
Hannah Arendt
