31 May—After Nazi Germany’s defeat in 1945, former traveling salesman, SS officer, and major Holocaust organizer Adolf Eichmann was captured by the American forces. But he was prepared and used forged identity papers as Otto Eckmann to evade the fate of other major Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg. So after serving time in several prison camps for run-of-the-mill SS officers, Eichmann escaped, first within Germany, later, in 1950—like too many of his fellow Nazi war criminals—to Argentina, where he became Ricardo Klement and associated with other Nazis on the lam. His family joined him there. A Catholic bishop back in the fatherland was a big help to all the Nazis.

Ten years later, in 1960, Israeli intelligence and security agents posing as Argentine police captured Eichmann in Buenos Aires and sneaked him out of Argentina for trial in Israel. Suffice to say, the Argentine government, which like other Latin American countries was known as a refuge for Nazi war criminals, wasn’t at all happy about it. Not that it mattered, of course.

Eichmann’s 1961 trial was held in a Jerusalem theatre that had been converted to a courtroom. He faced 15 criminal charges, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the Jewish people. He didn’t even try to deny the Holocaust or his role in organizing it. But, falling back on the old excuse, he insisted that he was simply following orders.

Gideon Hausner was the chief prosecutor and made precedent-setting mincemeat of the “only following orders” defense when the orders are criminal and illegal. As expected, the three judges who tried Eichmann found him guilty on all charges and sentenced him to death. (Hausner later wrote a lengthy best-seller about the trial—and the Holocaust before it—called “Justice in Jerusalem.” Well worth reading.)

The sentence and Eichmann were executed a few minutes before midnight on 31 May 1962—63 years ago tonight—at Ramla (or Ramle) Prison (now Ayalon Prison). For the record, the fatal date is sometimes noticed as 1 June.

Eichmann’s last words before he was hanged—in German, of course, as he spoke only German and Spanish—are generally reported as: “Long live Germany. Long live Argentina. Long live Austria. These are the three countries with which I have been most connected and which I will not forget. I greet my wife, my family and my friends. I am ready. We’ll meet again soon, as is the fate of all men. I die believing in God.”

But Rafi Eitan, who had commanded Eichmann’s capture in Argentina and was standing behind him on the gallows, corrects that. According to Eitan, all Eichmann said—in German, of course—was: “I hope that all of you will follow me.”

Pity that Adolf Eichmann and his Nazi comrades couldn’t have been drawn and quartered . . .