Adolf Eichmann

Adolf Eichmann (March 19, 1906 -- May 31, 1962)

A high ranking official in Nazi Germany, and SS member, Eichmann was largely responsible for the logistics of the "final solution" - a part of the Holocaust. He organised the identification and transportation of Jews in Poland to Auschwitz and other extermination camps. Therefore, he is often referred to as the 'Chief Executioner' of the Third Reich.

As a child, he was rather dark-complexioned, and other children taunted him for looking like "a Jew."

In 1934 he served as an SS corporal at Dachau concentration camp where he attracted the attention of Reinhard Heydrich.

In 1935 he visited Palestine to assess the possibility of exiling the Jews en masse to Palestine, however the occupying British authorities came to learn of his negotiations with local Arab leaders and forced him to depart.

Eichmann attended the Wannsee conference in 1942, which was responsible for the determination of issues relating to 'the final solution of the Jewish question'.

After World War II, Eichmann was captured by US troops. However, in 1946 he managed to escape from a prison camp. After many travels (mainly in the Middle East) he settled in Argentina in 1958, under the name of Ricardo Klement. Kidnapped by the Mossad, (Israeli secret service agents), in 1960 and flown to Israel as part of a covert operation, he faced trial in front of an Israeli jury in 1961. He was sentenced to death (the only death penalty ever imposed by an Israeli court) and hanged on May 31 1962.