The Capture of Adolf Eichmann

One consequence of the Holocaust was the determination of many Jews to bring to justice those Nazi war criminals who had escaped after the war and were now in hiding throughout the world. Simon Wiesenthal, an Austrian survivor who had been forced to work in slave labor camps, dedicated his life to hunting down former Nazis and became famous for it. But the most celebrated accomplishment in this continuing campaign for retribution was the capture, trial, and execution of Adolf Eichmann in 1960—1962. As the Nazi officer overseeing the logistics of the Final Solution, Eichmann had been responsible for sending millions of Jews to their extermination in the death camps of Europe. Since the close of the war he had been living under an assumed name in Argentina when the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, learned of his possible whereabouts. Here is the behind-the-scenes story of Eichmann’s capture.