On this day, May 11, in 1960, the man known as the architect of the Holocaust was captured by Israeli Mossad agents in Argentina.
Adolph Eichmann was executed two years later following a war crimes trial.
After rising through the ranks of the Nazi SS, Eichmann was promoted to transportation administrator, putting him charge of the trains that carried Jews to death camps.
When the Nazi regime fell, Eichmann was captured by the U.S. Army, but later escaped and eventually made his way to Argentina, where he assumed an alias.
In the late 1950s, Israeli agents assigned to tracking down Nazi war criminals learned of Eichmann’s presence in the South American country. On May 11, 1960, after confirming his identity and following Eichmann for several weeks, four Mossad agents secretly took Eichmann into custody. They later drugged him and snuck him out of Argentina.
