New details have been disclosed about the Israel Prison Service unit which guarded Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann during his trial, executed him and discarded his remains • Former member: We did what we did for the Jewish people.
Itzik Saban
Members of the unit that hanged Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichman receive awards for their service on Monday
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Photo credit: Yossi Zeliger |
The identities of the Israeli prison guards who kept watch over and ultimately carried out the execution of Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann were finally revealed on Monday, 52 years after the trial.
Unit Aleph-1, a special Israel Prison Service unit, was charged with guarding the Nazi architect of the Final Solution during his trial, with his execution by hanging, and with the cremation of his corpse.
At a conference for commanders of the Israel Prison Service, Prison Service Director Aharon Franco screened a short film about the establishment of the special unit and its management. The film re-enacted the measures taken by the unit to guard Eichmann during his six months of imprisonment, to hang him on June 1, 1962, to cremate his body and to have his ashes scattered at sea.
Retired guards invited to take part in the conference offered eye-witness accounts. According to their statements, the unit contained 22 guards and four officers, carefully selected to ensure that none was a Holocaust survivor. Avraham Merhavi commanded the unit, which was charged with guarding Eichmann and ensuring that he neither escaped nor committed suicide. Three men were on duty with every shift: One guard sat inside Eichmann's cell, another was positioned outside his cell and the third was armed with an Uzi machine gun at the entrance to the prison wing.
Ya'ala Zeevi, daughter of the late Aryeh Levy, the Prison Service director at the time, offered rare documents recording new details of the case, including the heavy deliberations surrounding the decision to move Eichmann from Israel Police unit "Office 06," as it was known, to the care of the Prison Service.
Ovadia Zakuto, who served as a guard in the special unit, spoke at the conference.
"We did what we did out of loyalty to the State of Israel and to the Jewish people," Zakuto said.
At the end of the conference, Franco said: "This is just one example of many in which the Prison Service was involved in events and processes that helped shape the State of Israel."
