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| Adolf Eichmann led from his jail cell to the court, 1961 |
Throughout the period, the police documented Eichmann, and in the photos taken, the archvillain is seen cleaning the toilets in his cell, hanging laundry, brushing his teeth, being examined by a doctor or sitting on the iron bed in the cell, wearing slippers.
The documentation also appears in a new book slated to be released in a few weeks. Operation Iyar – The Activities of the Israel Police in the Eichmann Affair is, in fact, a second in-depth study by the police, after the first study into the work of Bureau 06, was published last year.
Both studies were written by Inspector Yossi Hemi, a historian and head of the Israel Police Heritage Center. For many months, Hemi searched the police archives and state archives and retrieved documents, correspondences, drawings and photographs documenting the behind-the-scenes of the trial, including the tight security arrangements, along with Eichmann's daily routine and interaction with his investigators.
"The current study presents the story of the Israel Police in the Eichmann case in all its aspects," says Hemi. "From the Iyar Unit, to carrying out the sentencing, together with the Prison Service. The role of the police went far beyond its area of responsibility, but few people know and appreciate what it did. I hope the two studies will reveal one of the most significant stories in the country's history and the history of the police in particular."
On May 23, 1960, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion took to the Knesset podium in one of the most historic speeches in Israel. He announced that Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the Final Solution – the Nazi plan for the Jewish genocide – had been captured in Argentina and brought to Israel two days earlier in a Mossad operation. Upon landing in Israel, Eichmann was taken into custody at the Israel Security Agency base in Jaffa. Ben-Gurion then tasked the Israel Police with his interrogation and security.
One of the first decisions of the then-Police Commissioner Yosef Nachmias was to turn the Jalama camp near Haifa (now the Kishon Prison) into a detention center intended for Eichmann alone. The place was named "Iyar Base", after the Hebrew month in which he was captured, and Commander Shaul Rosolio (later Israel's fifth police commissioner) was appointed commander of the base. He had only 48 hours to prepare for the transfer of Eichmann from the GSS, on May 26.
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