Adolf Eichmann's capture

Operation Finale (Hebrew: מבצע פינאלה) was conducted by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad to capture and secretly transport Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann from Argentina to Israel in May 1960.

There are several accounts about how Israeli intelligence located Eichmann in Argentina. However, a pivotal role was played by information provided by Lothar Hermann, a German Jew living in Argentina, who suspected that his daughter's new acquaintance was Eichmann's son. After Hermann's information reached Israeli intelligence services, the head of the Mossad, Isser Harel, personally led the operation in Buenos Aires.

Mossad agents identified Eichmann's residence and placed him under surveillance. On 11 May 1960, agents abducted Eichmann on the street near his home. For nine days, he was secretly held at a villa rented by the agents in a Buenos Aires suburb, and on 20 May, he was transported to Israel on an El Al flight. In 1961, Eichmann was tried and sentenced to death for his crimes against the Jewish people.

The operation was conducted unofficially. Argentina accused Israel of grossly violating its sovereignty. Israel justified the operation's illegality by citing the unprecedented nature of Eichmann's crimes, as he bore direct responsibility for organizing the genocide of European Jewry during World War II. Forty years later, Argentina issued an official apology to Holocaust victims for providing refuge to Nazis.

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