The Israeli prison guard who executed the Nazi mass murderer Adolf Eichmann has died aged 86.
Shalom Nagar oversaw the hanging of the war criminal after he was convicted over his role in organising the Holocaust, in which around six million Jews were murdered.
For months after the execution, Nagar was haunted by Eichmann’s swollen face and the sound that trapped air had made when it escaped from his body as he was removed from the noose.
Eichmann had fled to Argentina after Germany‘s defeat in the Second World War but was captured by Mossad, the feared Israeli secret service, in 1960.
After being secretly taken to Israel in an operation that involved him being sedated and smuggled onto a commercial flight while dressed in a pilot’s uniform, he was put on trial in Jerusalem and then hanged on June 1, 1962, after an appeal bid failed.
Nagar was among 22 carefully chosen prison staff who watched over the Nazi for six months during his trial and became known as ‘Eichmann guards’ as a result.
The Israeli prison guard who executed the Nazi mass murderer Adolf Eichmann has died aged 86. Above: Adolf Eichmann in his SS uniform and at his trial in Jerusalem in 1961
Shalom Nagar oversaw the hanging of the war criminal after he was convicted over his role in organising the Holocaust, in which around six million Jews were murdered
The guards were selected to ensure that none of them had a personal motive to kill Eichmann. He was executed at Ayalon Prison in Ramla, central Israel.
Nagar did not want to be the man to hang Eichmann but was convinced to do so after being shown photos of atrocities committed against children in the Holocaust, according to the Times of Israel.
Speaking in a 2005 interview with Jewish magazine Mishpacha, he said: ‘It so appalled me that I agreed to do what needed to be done.’
It was reported at the time that Eichmann’s final words were: ‘Long live Germany, long live Argentina, long live Austria… I had to bey the laws of the war and my flag.
‘I am ready. Remember me to my wife, family and friends.’
He is said to have then added after a pause: ‘After a short while, gentlemen, we shall meet again – so is the fate of all men. I have been believing in God all my life and I die a believer in God.’
After Eichmann’s body was left hanging for an hour, it fell to Nagar to cut him down. He later described the war criminal’s ‘nightmarish’ appearance, with his eyes bulging and his tongue sticking out.
As he was lifted down, a ‘terrible noise came from his mouth’ when the air inside his body was allowed to escape, Nagar said.
Nagar was then tasked with loading Eichmann’s body into an oven to be cremated – the same method that was used to dispose of the corpses of murdered Holocaust victims.
He described in an interview how he struggled to walk as a result of the shock from the ordeal immediately afterwards.
The guard had nightmares about the experience for months. Eichmann’s ashes were then scattered at sea.
Nagar was among 22 carefully chosen prison staff who watched over the Nazi for six months during his trial
Adolf Eichmann seen standing in his bullet proof glass cage to hear Israel’s supreme court unanimously reject his appeal against his death sentence
Adolf Eichmann listens in the prisoner’s dock at the left, as presiding Judge Moishe Landau, (center on judge rostrum at right), gives the verdict, at the conclusion of his trial
Nagar was born in Yemen in 1936 and came to Israel at the age of 12 as an orphan, shortly after the founding of the Jewish state.
He served as a paratrooper in the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and then joined the Israel Prison Service.
After retiring from the prison service, he returned to the faith of his youth and became a kosher ritual slaughterer.
For decades he swore to keep his silence about his role in Eichmann’s killing, over fears that neo-Nazis may seek revenge.
But the former guard then changed his mind. He later said: ‘What did I have to be afraid of?’
Under Adolf Hitler, Eichmann, an officer in the murderous SS, was in charge of deporting millions of Jews to their deaths in the Nazis’ network of camps in occupied Poland.
At the end of the Second World War, Eichmann was captured and interned in prisoner of war camps.
The Daily Mail’s coverage when Eichmann was hanged in May 1962
But, with guards unaware of his real identity, he escaped while on a work detail and obtained new identity papers under the name of Otto Heninger.
He then fled to Argentina in 1948 and obtained work in a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Buenos Aires.
Celebrated Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal had a key role in confirming that he had fled to Argentina.
Eichmann’s capture was depicted in 2018 film Operation Finale, in which he was portrayed by British star Ben Kingsley.