By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worhy News
JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Shalom Nagar, the executioner of notorious Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann, passed away at the age of 86, Israeli sources confirmed Wednesday.
Adolf Eichmann was one of the key figures responsible for the Holocaust, in which some six million Jews were murdered.
He was a key figure in managing and enabling the logistics and transportation of deporting Jews to the Nazi extermination camps.
In 1960, he was captured by the Mossad, Israel’s famed intelligence service.
Eichmann, who had been living under the name Ricardo Clemen, was then taken to Israel in a secret operation.
“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.
“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.
DEATH SENTENCE
Following his trial, which began in 1961 in Jerusalem, the court sentenced Eichmann to death, and Nagar performed Eichmann’s execution. It was the only time in modern-day Israel’s history that a court ordered a death sentence.
Eichmann was hanged in the Ramle prison on June 1, 1962. His ashes were subsequently dispersed at sea outside territorial waters as Israel “did not want to contaminate” Jewish land with his ashes.
Nagar kept a low profile amid concerns vengeful Nazis may want him killed.
Forty-two years later, in May 2004, Shalom Nagar finally broke his silence. He told German television about the “22 Eigmann Guards”, including himself, who had carefully been selected.
“After all, it was only 16 years after the Holocaust, and many prison employees had either gone through the camps or had lost family. They were disqualified,” recalled Nagar, a Yemenite Jew.
Not only did Nagar and the other guards have to be vigilant that Eichmann didn’t take his own life, but Nagar had the task of tasting the food before it was given to Eichmann, in case it was poisoned.
“If I didn’t drop dead after two minutes, the duty officer allowed the plate into Eichmann’s cell.”
TRANSPORTING BODY
After Nagar hanged Eichmann, he helped transport the body into the oven, where it was cremated. The Israeli Coast Guard threw his ashes outside Israel’s territorial waters “so they would not defile the Holy Land.”
At the end of the interview, the German journalist asked Nagar why he demanded that the conversation occur in a noisy Jewish study hall.
Nagar looked at the camera’s eye and said, “Ah! Because I knew that millions of Germans would watch an interview with the person who executed Eichmann.”
He added: “I don’t want you only to think that our people survived. I don’t want you only to know that our people thrived.”
And, “I want to show you those books, those texts, that language, that tradition, those values, that faith which [Adolf] Hitler and Eichmann, yimach shemam [may their names be erased], wanted to decimate. I want to show you we’re not only surviving as broken people.”
Looking at the Jewish books, he noticed:
“Rather, we’re here with those books that They [the German Nazis] burned by the hundreds of thousands; we’re here with those traditions! I want you to see the Talmud Bavli, Talmud Yerushalmi, Midrash Rabba, Rambam, the Rif, the Taz … they’re alive. We are alive!”
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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