by Mick the Ram

The man who became known as the “reluctant executioner” after being tasked with hanging notorious Nazi Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann, has died in Israel at the age of 86.

Shalom Nagar, whose identity was kept secret for 30 years after the event in 1962 for fear of reprisals, suffered from PTSD and nightmares all his life after carrying out the deed.

Nagar was a prison guard at the facility where Eichmann was kept and had been selected by a ballot to end the life of the man who was on the run for years.

Eichmann was a principal player in the systematic extermination of six million Jewish people after being appointed to coordinate the identification, assembly, and transportation of millions of Jews from occupied Europe.

The innocent millions were herded to the Nazi death camps, where men, women and children were either gassed or worked to death in what the Nazis deemed as the “Final Solution”.

He had managed to escape at the end of the war and had been assisted in making his way to South America to carve out a new secret life for himself in Argentina, but had been tracked down and captured by a crack team of Mossad operatives.

After seizing the evil Nazi official in a daring raid, he was spirited back to Israel and sentenced to death by hanging in a landmark public trial, with Nagar the man to carry out the only judicial execution ever held in the state.

Journalists revealed his story

Nagar was actually born in Yeman before moving to Israel as an orphan at 14-years-old. He kept his story to himself for many years and had never intended to go public, but it was revealed by Israeli journalists in 1992.

He had initially been in the military serving as a paratrooper, before joining the prison service and working at Ramle prison, which was where he was stationed when Eichmann was captured.

Hand-picked to guard monster

Because most of the Prison Service guards were either concentration camp survivors or had lost family in the Holocaust, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion specifically ordered that Eichmann be guarded by Sephardic Jews – who trace their ancestry to the Middle East, North Africa and Spain.

Nagar was hand-picked, along with 20 others, to personally guard the man hated by all Jews for his leading role in the death of millions at the Nazi extermination camps.

They watched over him for six months in shifts to prevent him from committing suicide and tasted his food in case it was poisoned.

Lottery selection process

After the death sentence was given, Nagar was selected by lottery to push the button that opened the trapdoor below Eichmann’s gallows, on 30 May 1962.

Once his story was public, Nagar opened up in a series of interviews, providing sometimes graphic details of the hanging and its aftermath.

He explained that after the deed was done, he was told to load the corpse into an oven for cremation, but his hands were shaking and he was unable to walk unaided.

Nagar also admitted that he suffered badly with anxiety often stating that “I had a feeling that the angel of death was coming to take me too”.

Documentary made charting his story

After retiring from the Prison Service, Nagar worked as a butcher and later was one of the founding families of Kiryat Arba, next to Hebron and became deeply religious.

A documentary called The Hangman was made about him in 2010.

SS member rising through ranks

The evil Eichmann – who was widely seen as the logistical mastermind of “The Final Solution” – was born in Solingen, Germany, in 1906 and at the age of 26 joined the Nazi’s elite SS (Schutzstaffel) organization; whose members came to have broad responsibilities in Nazi Germany, including policing, intelligence, and the enforcement of Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic policies.

He was able to rise through the ranks and his first major task occurred in 1938 after Austria had been annexed and he was sent to Vienna with the mission of ridding the city of Jews.

Escape from prison

His standing in the Nazi Party grew and in 1942 he was deeply involved in the planning of the mass extermination of Europe’s Jewish population.

He undertook his job with alarming efficiency and it was seen as astonishing that after capture by US troops at the end of the war, he was somehow allowed to escape from a prison camp before going before the Nuremberg International War Crimes Tribunal.

New identity but eventually tracked down

After making his way to Argentina he found a new identity under the name Ricardo Klement and probably thought he would see out his days in the South American country unknown to the rest of the world; but Mossad had other ideas.

Agents discovered his location in 1960, living in the San Fernando section of the capital, Buenos Aires, and as the country celebrated the 150th anniversary of its revolution against Spain, the secret service agency spotted an opportunity.

Remarkable abduction

They knew Argentina would never agree to an extradition order, so decided to proceed with a daring illegal abduction.

In a carefully constructed raid they snatched Eichmann off the street near his home, drugged him, disguised him as an Israeli airline worker who they pretended had suffered an head trauma injury, and were able to fly him back to Israel.

PM informed nation of prize capture

Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion announced to the world that they had him and that he would stand trial. Argentina were furious and demanded his release, but that was never going to happen.

Eichmann faced 15 charges, including crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people, and war crimes. He claimed he was just following orders, but the judges disagreed, finding him guilty on all counts on December 15 and sentencing him to die.

Responsibility fell on Nagar

On May 31, 1962, Shalom Nagar was the man given the responsibility of bringing the life of the murderous Nazi to an end.

After his cremation a Coast Guard boat scattered Eichmann’s ashes in the sea several kilometres off the coast of Jaffa.

Nagar is survived by his children, 12 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.