On this day in 1960, Adolf Eichmann was captured by the Mossad in Argentina. Adolf Eichmann was a Nazi bureaucrat and a chief architect of the Holocaust. Born in Germany, his family moved to Austria where he would spend most of his life. He joined the Austrian Nazi Party in 1932, but upon it being banned in Austria, he fled to Germany. There, he was trained as part of the Austrian Legion and joined the SS where he quickly rose through the ranks. After the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria in 1938, Eichmann helped found the Central Office for Jewish Emigration, which would take a leading role in the forced emigration of Austrian Jews. At the time, Eichmann believed emigration was the best means to achieve a Germany without Jews; he even went to British Mandatory Palestine in 1937 for an inspection, as a plan to promote Zionist emigration ‘by all means’. The Central Office would force upwards of 110,000 Austrian Jews to emigrate at their own expense in its initial year of operation, however, by 1939, the strategy soon turned to deportation. Eichmann’s superiors were satisfied with his work and moved him to the Gestapo, where he was placed as director of Section IV: Jewish Affairs. Gestapo Chief, Reinhard Heydrich, requested that Eichmann draft a presentation for the “Final Solution,” which would be given at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942. Nazi officials, impressed by Eichmann’s record, also placed him in charge of identifying and transporting Jews from across Nazi-occupied and aligned Europe to death camps. Eichmann was efficient in his new position, playing a central role in the deportation process. In 1944, he directly oversaw the deportation of over 440,000 Hungarian Jews. Eichmann was captured by the United States forces at the end of World War II but managed to escape. With the help of Catholic church officials that held Nazi sympathies, he was smuggled to Argentina where he assumed the identity of Ricardo Klement. His family would soon join him, yet they continued to use the name ‘Eichmann’. Eichmann’s oldest son, Klaus, would go on to date Sylvia Hermann, the daughter of Holocaust survivor Lothar Hermann. Klaus did not know of Lothar’s Jewish heritage, and upon visiting the Hermann home would make antisemitic comments and brag about his father’s military service. Sylvia would eventually play a key role in identifying Adolf Eichmann, sending the information to German-Jewish prosecutor Fritz Bauer, who would then leak the information to the Mossad.Under the guise of Argentina’s 150th anniversary of its revolution against the Spanish, many Mossad agents were smuggled into Argentina. Israel knew the fragile government, under President Arturo Frondizi, would never extradite Eichmann; therefore the only option was abduction. On May 11, 1960, Eichmann was snatched by four Mossad agents. He proceeded to be interrogated in a safe house and eventually admitted to being Adolf Eichmann. Nine days later, he was heavily sedated and dressed in an El-Al uniform in order to be passed off as a sick employee. Upon the team's return to Israel, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion would announce Eichmann’s apprehension – much to the Argentinians' rebuke. The trial began in April 1961 in Jerusalem. Eichmann was charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the Jewish people, among others. This became a turning point in Israeli society: many Holocaust survivors had never addressed their trauma, choosing to stay silent instead of opening up about their experiences, most not even telling their children. Being the first trial to ever be televised, the testimonies of nearly 100 survivors were broadcast and recorded for everyone to witness. This sparked an admiration for survivors and showed that Israel and the broader Jewish world was ready to start processing the grief of the Holocaust.Eichmann’s defense was that he was simply following orders. In December 1961, the Jerusalem court found him guilty and sentenced him to death. It was the only time in Israeli history the death penalty had been enacted. Eichmann was hanged on May 31, 1961.