Adolph Eichmann’s Hangman Passes Away At Age 83

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Former Prison Services officer Shalom Nagar, the executioner tasked with hanging Nazi Adolf Eichmann, has died at the age of 83.

Nagar served as Eichmann’s prison guard and was later chosen to execute him.For six months, Nagar stayed in the same cell, even tasting Eichmann’s food to make sure he would not be poisoned. At Eichmann’s execution, he was the only guard who didn’t want to pull the lever. Ordered to do so, he said that he suffered from nightmares after the execution and eventually became religious and was one of the founders of Kiryat Arba, serving as a shochet and then studying in Kollel for many years.

Adolph Eichmann at his trial in 1961

In a past interview with Arutz Sheva, Nagar said that for years he was prohibited from revealing the fact that he was Eichmann’s executioner and that for the first year after the hanging, he had trouble falling asleep.

“I used to dream about it and I always felt that Eichmann was chasing after me. That went on for a whole year, and thank God it suddenly passed. I kept this secret for thirty years, only my wife and my commanders knew about it.”

Nagar once related that “There were guards who had numbers on their arms, but they weren’t allowed onto the second floor[where Eichman was]. However, before we were clear about this rule, one guard from downstairs, Blumenfeld, who had survived the camps, asked if he could switch with me one night. I assumed he just wanted to get a look at the man who destroyed his family. Anyway, we were all in the same unit, so I figured – why not? Blumenfeld approached the door of the cell and rolled up his sleeve. ‘Once I was in your hands, and now the tables have turned. Look who has the last laugh.’ It was the middle of the night, and Eichmann jumped up from his bed and started ranting in German. I, of course, couldn’t follow the conversation, but from then on we had clear instructions: No switching or we’d get court-martialed.”

Years ago Nagar commented on his process of becoming religious: “As a deeply rooted Yemenite Jew, I felt I wanted to go back to my roots. My life was hard, my father died when I was six. And when I immigrated to Israel, I came by foot from Yemen to Aden. G-d had mercy on me, I should have died a long time ago. I thank G-d that today I am 75 years old, healthy and able, and my wife Ora, with whom I have been living together for fifty years, should be healthy forever. My message to everyone is that whoever trusts in G-d, then whatever happens to him, he will be saved.”