Revealed: Eichmann asked former president Ben-Zvi for clemency

As part of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, President Reuven Rivlin will host an event in which some of the key players in the Mossad operation will participate.

Israeli police flank Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi SS colonel who headed the Gestapo's Jewish Section and was responsible for millions of Jews' deaths in Nazi concentration camps, as he stands trial inside a bulletproof booth in a Jerusalem court (photo credit: REUTERS)
Israeli police flank Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi SS colonel who headed the Gestapo's Jewish Section and was responsible for millions of Jews' deaths in Nazi concentration camps, as he stands trial inside a bulletproof booth in a Jerusalem court
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, who was kidnapped by the Mossad in Argentina, brought to Israel, tried in April 1961, and sentenced to death in May 1962, wrote to former president Yitzhak Ben Zvi asking for clemency, but his request was denied.
The letters of appeal and refusal will be displayed on Wednesday at the President’s Residence in an exhibition related to the Eichmann trial.
As part of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, President Reuven Rivlin will host an event in which some of the key players in the Mossad operation and the trial as well as their descendants will participate.
Eichmann’s letter was written in German and translated into Hebrew. In his appeal Eichmann denied that he was a high ranking Nazi and also argued that allowance should be made for the difference in conditions during time of war.
He claimed that he had not given any orders at his own initiative, but had followed the orders of his superiors.