MAY 11, 1960. THE CAPTURE OF ADOLF EICHMANN
Ricardo Klement worked as a welder at the Mercedes-Benz factory in Buenos Aires. On the evening of May 11, 1960, after finishing his work, he got on the bus to go home to a suburb of Buenos Aires. But what Klement didn’t know was that people had been watching him closely for days to learn his routine. That night, in a quick move, he was kidnapped and forced into a car. After being given strong drugs to make him sleep, he was put on a special plane. The plane looked like it belonged to the Israeli airline El Al, and it flew him to Israel. This was the end of the long hunt for Adolf Eichmann, one of the most wanted Nazi leaders. Eichmann was one of the main people responsible for the killing of millions of Jews during World War II. He had escaped the Nuremberg trials and first hid in a small town in northern Germany. Later, he moved across the ocean and lived in Buenos Aires with his family, using a fake name. The quick kidnapping was done by Mossad agents, the Israeli secret service, because they knew it would be very hard to get him back through legal ways.
His trial started in Jerusalem on April 11, 1961, with more than 500 journalists from all over the world watching. After 150 hearings and four months of court, the judges stopped to think about their decision. On December 15, 1961, Adolf Eichmann was found guilty and given the death penalty. His lawyers asked for a new trial, and three months later, the Supreme Court heard the case again. The judges took two months and then confirmed the death sentence on May 29, 1962. Eichmann’s final request to avoid the death penalty was refused on May 31, 1962. On that same day, he was executed by hanging at the age of 56. Following the court’s order, his body was burned, and his ashes were scattered in the Mediterranean Sea by a boat outside Israel’s waters.

Comments
Post a Comment