Shalom Nagar was picked by lottery to kill Adolf Eichmann
The Israeli prison officer turned ritual slaughterer died on November 26th, aged 88
At midnight on May 31st 1962, Shalom Nagar looked his prisoner in the eye. They stood perhaps a metre apart, in a room on the second floor of Ramla prison in central Israel. Adolf Eichmann was tied at the wrists, knees and ankles and stood on a trapdoor, as instructed. He still wore his brown plaid slippers. A thick rope was knotted round his neck. He had refused a blindfold. Just before, he had smoked a cigarette and drunk half a cup of white wine. The smell of both was on his breath.
This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline “Shalom Nagar”
Obituary December 14th 2024
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