The verdict was unsurprising. The unassuming man sitting behind the window of bullet proof glass had been found guilty three days earlier, concluding a trial that had lasted almost exactly eight months. And now, on 15th December 1961, he was sentenced to death, to the delight of the watching crowds. He was 54 years old, underweight, balding, with thick glasses that made him look almost comical. Scarcely has a human being looked less threatening.
He almost got away with it. For fifteen years, he had lived a quiet life in Argentina. He told people his name was Ricardo Klement. He lived in a modest house with his wife and their nephews. He took the bus to work every morning, at his inconspicuous government job. His neighbours rarely saw him, but he didn’t cause any trouble. And it probably would have continued that way, were it not for his loudmouth son. In 1956, a young woman in Argentina who was of Jewish German descent began dating a man named Klaus Eichmann. Klaus boasted that his uncle Ricardo wasn’t actually his uncle, but his father. His name also wasn’t Ricardo. It was Adolf Eichmann, and he was the highest ranking Nazi war criminal still unaccounted for at that time.
Sophia told her father, who passed on the information to Mossad, Israel’s secret service. Mossad agents arrived in Argentina and confirmed that the diminutive man was indeed the same man who had organised the Holocaust in Eastern Europe. The problem was that Argentina would not extradite people to Israel, not even Nazis. So, in 1960, Mossad agents kidnapped Eichmann as he returned home one day, and managed to smuggle him out of the country before anybody realised what happened.
Odd as it may sound, the true horrors of the Holocaust were not widely known at that time. Much of it had been forgotten already, lost in the chaos of a world recovering from a ruinous war. Eichmann’s trial lifted the lid on exactly what had happened, and revealed the unimaginable cruelty that had been inflicted on so many innocent people. By the end of the trial, the world had become transfixed with morbid fascination, and knowledge of the Nazis’ crimes was much more widespread. Eichmann’s underwhelming presence led to the phrase ‘the banality of evil’, describing the odd juxtaposition between the horrors of genocide and the boring bureaucrats who organise it.
Eichmann was hanged on 1st June, 1962, a little over 17 years after Nazi Germany surrendered. His trial rejuvenated public interest in punishing Nazis who had escaped justice, and several lower ranking Nazis have subsequently been convicted, continuing to this day. In 2015, a 96 year old man was imprisoned for working in Auschwitz, the most recent conviction. Just a few months ago, the trial of a 93 year old man began, which will most likely be the last of these prosecutions.
Wound Bed Preparation and Lavage + Factors in Delayed Wound Healing
Tue 17th December 2019, 8:00 pm
by Lisa Telford
This webinar is designed to enable candidates to have a deeper understanding of the importance of effective wound bed preparation and how this can have an impact on wound healing rates.
Medical Emergencies: Immune Mediated Haemolytic Anaemia
Thu 19th December 2019, 8:30 pm
by James McMurroughBVSc CertAVP(SAM) CertAVP(VC) MRCVS
This webinar is an update on the latest and greatest information on the diagnosis and treatment of canine IMHA.
December Monthly Meditation 2019
by Mike ScanlanPRD
Sun 22nd December 2019, 7:00 pm
Settle in for a relaxing eveing with our own Mike Scanlan.
