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N0KFQ > TODAY 31.05.11 17:39l 78 Lines 3866 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 8411_KB0WSA
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Subj: Today in History - May 31
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<JE7YGF<F6CDD<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 110531/1519Z 8411@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.0.4
May 31, 1962:
Architect of the Holocaust hanged in Israel
Near Tel Aviv, Israel, Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi SS officer who
organized Adolf Hitler's "final solution of the Jewish question,"
was executed for his crimes against humanity.
Eichmann was born in Solingen, Germany, in 1906. In November
1932, he joined the Nazi's elite SS (Schutzstaffel) organization,
whose members came to have broad responsibilities in Nazi
Germany, including policing, intelligence, and the enforcement of
Adolf Hitler's anti-Semitic policies. Eichmann steadily rose in
the SS hierarchy, and with the German annexation of Austria in
1938 he was sent to Vienna with the mission of ridding the city
of Jews. He set up an efficient Jewish deportment center and in
1939 was sent to Prague on a similar mission. That year, Eichmann
was appointed to the Jewish section of the SS central security
office in Berlin.
In January 1942, Eichmann met with top Nazi officials at the
Wansee Conference near Berlin for the purpose of planning a
"final solution of the Jewish question," as Nazi leader Hermann
Goering put it. The Nazis decided to exterminate Europe's Jewish
population. Eichmann was appointed to coordinate the
identification, assembly, and transportation of millions of Jews
from occupied Europe to the Nazi death camps, where Jews were
gassed or worked to death. He carried this duty out with
horrifying efficiency, and between three to four million Jews
perished in the extermination camps before the end of World War
II. Close to two million were executed elsewhere.
Following the war, Eichmann was captured by U.S. troops, but he
escaped a prison camp in 1946 before having to face the Nuremberg
International War Crimes Tribunal. Eichmann traveled under an
assumed identity between Europe and the Middle East, and in 1950
he arrived in Argentina, which maintained lax immigration
policies and was a safe haven for many Nazi war criminals. In
1957, a German prosecutor secretly informed Israel that Eichmann
was living in Argentina. Agents from Israel's intelligence
service, the Mossad, were deployed to Argentina, and in early
1960 they finally located Eichmann; he was living in the San
Fernando section of Buenos Aires under the name of Ricardo
Klement.
In May 1960, Argentina was celebrating the 150th anniversary of
its revolution against Spain, and many tourists were traveling to
Argentina from abroad to attend the festivities. The Mossad used
the opportunity to smuggle more agents into the country. Israel,
knowing that Argentina might never extradite Eichmann for trial,
had decided to abduct him and take him to Israel illegally. On
May 11, Mossad operatives descended on Garibaldi Street in San
Fernando and snatched Eichmann away as he was walking from the
bus to his home. His family called local hospitals but not the
police, and Argentina knew nothing of the operation. On May 20, a
drugged Eichmann was flown out of Argentina disguised as an
Israeli airline worker who had suffered head trauma in an
accident. Three days later, Israeli Prime Minister David
Ben-Gurion announced that Eichmann was in Israeli custody.
Argentina demanded Eichmann's return, but Israel argued that his
status as an international war criminal gave them the right to
proceed with a trial. On April 11, 1961, Eichmann's trial began
in Jerusalem. It was the first televised trial in history.
Eichmann faced 15 charges, including crimes against humanity,
crimes against the Jewish people, and war crimes. He claimed he
was just following orders, but the judges disagreed, finding him
guilty on all counts on December 15 and sentencing him to die. On
May 31, 1962, he was hanged near Tel Aviv. His body was cremated
and his ashes thrown into the sea.
73, K.O. n0kfq
Another old retired guy
N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: n0kfq@centurytel.net
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