The Israeli prison guard who carried out the execution of Adolf Eichmann, one of the principal architects of the Holocaust, died Wednesday at age 86. Shalom Nagar, who served as Eichmann's executioner following the Nazi war criminal's conviction in a landmark Jerusalem trial, performed the hanging after a lengthy legal process that captivated the world's attention.
Eichmann, who was captured in a covert operation in Argentina, had orchestrated the mass deportation and extermination of European Jews during World War II before his arrest, trial, and eventual execution in Israel. As head of the Jewish Affairs Department in the Gestapo, he played a pivotal role in implementing Nazi Germany's "Final Solution."
Left an orphan at age 8, Nagar made his way to Israel four years later among a group of Yemenite immigrants, first residing in temporary transit camps before establishing roots in the town of Rosh HaAyin.
At 18, he joined the elite IDF Paratroopers Brigade, where he distanced himself from his traditional religious upbringing. Following his military service, Nagar began his career as a corrections officer with the Israel Prison Service. In this capacity, he was selected to serve as Eichmann's personal guard throughout his incarceration. His responsibilities included constant surveillance and food security to prevent any attempt at poisoning.
In June 1962, after his plea for clemency was rejected, Eichmann's death sentence was carried out by hanging. Nagar, tasked with this solemn duty, performed the execution. Subsequently, Eichmann's remains were cremated and his ashes were dispersed beyond Israel's territorial waters.
In subsequent years, Nagar spoke of experiencing severe nightmares resulting from his role. He later embraced religious observance with his family and became a kosher ritual slaughterer.
At a ceremony held a decade ago honoring the prison guards who monitored Eichmann and participated in his execution, Nagar, who had placed the body in the cremation chamber, revealed that "there were those who, in the final seconds, still tried to pull hair from his head."
