Adolf Eichmann was an Austrian-born SS officer principally responsible for coordinating the Nazi German implementation of the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.”
As head of the Jewish affairs section of the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, often abbreviated to RSHA), he was involved in the planning of the annihilation of European Jewry from the outset, with particular responsibility for transporting Jews from across Europe to the killing centers in Nazi-occupied Poland.
Notably, he authored the minutes of the 1942 Wannsee Conference, which set in motion the Final Solution. From April to July of 1944, he personally directed the deportation of some 440,000 Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz.
After Germany’s defeat, Eichmann escaped Europe and lived in Argentina under a false identity. In 1960, he was captured and brought to Israel where he was tried the following year. He was executed at midnight between May 31 and June 1, 1962.
