JANUARY 30 • 2020 | 29

Arts&Life

exhibit

Capturing Eichmann

“Operation Finale” exhibit reveals 
history of the secret Mossad mission.
T

he Holocaust Memorial 
Center in Farmington 
Hills is featuring a 
special exhibit, “Operation 
Finale: The Capture & Trial of 
Adolf Eichmann,” which runs 
through mid-June.
The exhibit reveals the 
secret history behind the 
capture and trial of one of 
the world’
s most notori-
ous escaped war criminals. 
Eichmann, head of the 
Nazis’
 homicidal “Jewish 
Department,
” who managed 
the transport of millions of 
people to death camps, van-
ished after World War II. 
Photographs, film and 
recently declassified spy arti-
facts reveal the history behind 
the daring abduction and 
globally broadcast trial of a 
principal perpetrator of Nazi 
Germany’
s Final Solution. 
Eichmann 
escaped to 
Argentina after 
World War II 
and changed his 
name to Ricardo 
Klement. He was 
located through 
the work of a 
Holocaust survivor 
and Israel’
s national intelli-
gence agency, Mossad.
“Operation Finale” was 
the code name of Mossad’
s 
effort to capture and abduct 
Eichmann. He was smuggled 
back to Israel and stood trial 
in Jerusalem for crimes against 
the Jewish people, where he 
was found guilty and execut-
ed in 1962. According to the 
William Davidson Archive 
of Jewish Detroit History, 
JN founding editor Philip 
Slomovitz was one of few 

American Jewish journalists 
to cover Eichmann’
s trial in 
person. 
The multimedia exhibit 
includes 70 photographs, short 
films and 60 original artifacts, 
including maps, hand-forged 
documents and a replica of the 
bulletproof glass booth used 
during the trial. 
“The HMC is 
proud to provide 
our visitors with 
unprecedented 
access to artifacts 
and documents on 
a critical juncture 
in history,
” said 
HMC CEO Rabbi 
Eli Mayerfeld. “The 
unwavering commitment to 
bring this war criminal to jus-
tice was not only inspiring, it 
also created global awareness 
of the destruction of European 
Jewry during World War II.
”
The exhibit is a coproduc-
tion of Mossad: Israeli Secret 
Intelligence Service; Beit 
Hatfutsot, the Museum of the 
Jewish People, Tel Aviv; and 
the Maltz Museum of Jewish 
Heritage in Cleveland. 

Item from the Holocaust Memorial 

Center. 

details 
The exhibit is open 
Sunday-Friday through 
mid-June; free with 
membership or 
museum admission. 

COURTESY HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTER

This exhibit photo shows Adolf 
Eichmann on trial in 1961.

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