Eichmann’s wife visited him in Israel

The State Archive reveals that Vera Eichmann, wife of the only Nazi executed following a trial in Israel, visited him in his prison cell days before he was put to death.

Additionally, the archive declassifies notes from a government discussion on whether to ask the president to pardon the Nazi officer, after an appeal of his death sentence was rejected by a court.

The visit by Eichmann’s wife was a highly guarded secret, and until recently no confirmation that she had indeed seen her convicted husband in prison has come to light.

Eichmann was kidnapped by Mossad agents in Argentina in 1960 and brought to Israel. He was hanged on the night between May 31 and June 1, 1962, exactly 53 years ago.

Two months before Eichmann was executed, his wife made a request through his lawyer to then justice minister Dov Yosef to meet her husband before the execution. Yosef raised the issue with the government and said it would be hard for Israel to withstand international criticism if it denied the request.

Then foreign minister Golda Meir said at the time, “this can be done under one explicit condition: She will come, she’ll be allowed to see him, and she will exit the country. This might be up to 24 hours but not more.”

MK Yaacov Hazan insisted at the time that the government make the visit short and without opportunity for any intimacy – Vera was accompanied by Israel Prison Service officers throughout – in order to “prevent him from passing more humanely to the next world.” Meir answered dryly: “Also, nobody is interested in her passing to the next world while she’s in the country.”