EICHMANN, ADOLF

Eichmann, Adolf: translation

(1906-62)

   Born in Solingen, Germany, Eich-mann was a German SS officer who presided over the implementation of Adolf Hitler's "final solution," the extermination of European Jews in the Holocaust. Captured by the Americans at the end of the war, Eichmann escaped to Argentina, where he was recaptured by Israeli Mossad agents in 1960. He was tried in public on charges of crimes against the Jewish people and war crimes against humanity. In his memoirs, published only in 1999, Eichmann writes: "Obeying an order was the most important thing to me." This is how he sought to explain his role in killing 6 million Jews. The trial began in Jerusalem on 11 April 1961, and on 11 December 1961, the court found Eichmann guilty and sentenced him to death. After appeals, he was executed on 31 May 1962. The trial focused world attention on the tragedy of European Jewry and the systematic efforts of Nazi Germany to exterminate the Jewish communities of Europe in the Holocaust.