Eichmann, who was responsible for carrying out the "Final Solution" plan for the extermination of the Jews during the Holocaust, said before his hanging: "Long live Germany, long live Argentina, long live Austria, I will never forget you"
Eichmann in the glass cell during his trial
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Gettyimages
Today, 60 years ago, on April 11, the trial of the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann, who was one of the main people responsible for the actual implementation of the "Final Solution" program for the extermination of Jews during World War II and during the Holocaust, began in Jerusalem, .
In May 1960, Eichmann was captured by the Mossad in Argentina and brought to trial.
Immediately after the end of World War II, Eichmann fled to Argentina, living there for a decade and a half under a false identity.
After three years of uncertainty as to the exact identity and location of the Nazi criminal, on the evening of May 11, 1960, Eichmann - who changed his name to Ricardo Clement - was abducted from his home on Garibaldi Street in Buenos Aires by a number of Israeli agents.
In laconic and thin language, David Ben-Gurion described in his diary the historic moment of the capture of Eichmann.
"I must inform the Knesset that some time ago the Israeli security services discovered one of the greatest Nazi criminals, Adolf Eichmann, who is responsible together with the Nazi leaders for what they called the 'final solution to the Jewish problem,' that is, the extermination of six million European Jews. He is already in detention in Israel, and will soon stand trial in Israel in accordance with the law for prosecuting the Nazis and their aides. "
At the beginning of the trial and the review of his crimes by the prosecution, prosecutor Gideon Hausner, Attorney General, delivered an opening speech remembered for the days when he said: "Where I stand before you ... I do not stand alone. I stand here, at this time, six million categories "But they will not be able to stand on their feet, send a convicting finger towards the glass cell and shout at the person sitting there." I accuse.
For about nine months Eichmann was closely examined by a doctor, three times a day, to make sure he would not be harmed.
Eichmann's jailer, Amram Lusky, later said: "One comment was not given to him."
In addition, during the trial, Eichmann was sitting in a special glass cell, which was built with the aim of preventing a possible assassination and allowing a trial of justice.
During the trial, the testimonies of the survivors, who made up about a quarter of the young state's population, were heard in public for the first time in the history of the State of Israel.
It is difficult to describe the range of feelings that were complex, and to a large extent, ranged from the nightmarish pole to the optimistic pole in Israel of those days.
On the one hand, the survivors felt satisfaction at his very perception and sense of historical justice and closing a circle.
At the same time, the memories of the horror from the inferno again flooded the survivors, who turned their energies in those years to the construction and restoration of their sovereignty.
In any case, among the implications of the law, it should be noted that the consciousness of the Holocaust in the emerging country - through the personal story of the survivors - began to crumble the concept of "sheep for slaughter" prevalent at that point in time.
Eichmann was convicted in December 1961, when the verdict proved his central role in the extermination, in addition to his active activity to encourage the extermination of Jews while adhering to the Hitler doctrine.
After President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi refused to pardon him, Eichmann was executed on May 31, 1962. Before he was hanged, the Nazi criminal exclaimed: "Long live Germany, long live Argentina, long live Austria. I will never forget you."
His body was cremated in Ramla Prison and Afro was scattered in the sea outside Israel.
This was the only time in the history of the State of Israel that a death sentence was carried out.