Shalom Nagar, executioner of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, passes away at 86

Eichmann was a key figure in managing and enabling the logistics and transportation of deporting Jews to the extermination camps.

Israeli police flank Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi SS colonel who headed the Gestapo's Jewish Section and was responsible for millions of Jews' deaths in Nazi concentration camps, as he stands trial inside a bulletproof booth in a Jerusalem court (photo credit: REUTERS)
Israeli police flank Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi SS colonel who headed the Gestapo's Jewish Section and was responsible for millions of Jews' deaths in Nazi concentration camps, as he stands trial inside a bulletproof booth in a Jerusalem court
(photo credit: REUTERS)

Shalom Nagar, the executioner of notorious Nazi official Adolf Eichmann, passed away at the age of 86, Israeli media reported on Wednesday. 

Adolf Eichmann was one of the key figures responsible for the Holocaust. He was a principal actor in managing and enabling the logistics and transportation of deporting Jews to the extermination camps.

In 1960, he was captured by the Mossad in Argentina, where he was living under a false identity known as Ricardo Clement.

Following his trial, the court sentenced Eichmann to death, and Nagar performed Eichmann's execution. He was hanged in the Ramle prison in 1962. His ashes were subsequently dispersed at sea. His execution was the only time in history that an Israeli court had ruled on a death sentence. 

Eichmann's trial in 1961

"When I stand before you here, Judges of Israel, to lead the Prosecution of Adolf Eichmann, I am not standing alone. With me are six million accusers," Attorney General Gideon Hausner said at the beginning of Eichmann's trial held in 1961 in Jerusalem. 

"But they cannot rise to their feet and point an accusing finger towards him who sits in the dock and cry: 'I accuse,' Hausner added.

Adolf Eichmann on trial in Jerusalem 521 (credit: JOHN MILLI / GPO)
Adolf Eichmann on trial in Jerusalem 521 (credit: JOHN MILLI / GPO)

"For their ashes are piled up on the hills of Auschwitz and the fields of Treblinka and are strewn in the forests of Poland. Their graves are scattered throughout the length and breadth of Europe. Their blood cries out, but their voice is not heard," Hausner further stated.