Eichmann's Executioner

July 1, 2017

In 1960, agents of Mossad, the Israeli secret service, abducted Adolf Eichmann from Argentina and brought him to Israel to stand trial for his part in the extermination of Jews during World War II. The Nazi official had been charged with arranging the transport of Jews from European cities to the death camps in Poland. Dehe, a journalist and translator, and Engstler, a university lecturer, both from Varel, Germany, present here a fictional recounting of Eichmann's final days in prison and the part played by, among others, Shalom Nagar, a prison guard who spent countless hours watching the prisoner and to whose lot it fell to execute him. The tale moves back and forth between the trial and execution and Shalom's life years later on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. Shalom tells his story to anyone who will listen, especially his good friends Moshe and Ben, describing Eichmann's words and actions in minute detail. But with all this retelling, he comes to doubt what actually happened. The weaving of past with present, fact with fiction brings Eichmann alive and even humanizes him, a feat that impressively expands our understanding of the Holocaust. VERDICT An admirably translated work, highly recommended for students of that tragedy and readers of historical and literary fiction in general.--Edward B. Cone, New York

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