Today in history:

On April 11th, 1961, the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann began in Isra
el.
As one of the highest ranking officials in the Nazi regime, Adolf Eichmann was r
esponsible for the logistics and execution of the Final Solution. After the Holo
caust, he was found in Buenos Aires by the Mossad and was brought to Israel to s
tand trial in 1960. At the end of a dramatic and lengthy trial, Eichmann was sen
tenced to death. It was the first and last death penalty to be carried out in Is
rael.
The Eichmann Trial changed the fabric of Israeli society and forced the young st
ate to face, for the very first time, the ruins on which it was built and the tr
auma that still haunted so many of its citizens.
When the State of Israel was founded on the heels of the war, no one dared to sp
eak and nobody dared to ask about the Holocaust. The survivors had no words to d
escribe their pain, and even if they did, it was so inconceivable; the young cou
ntry, fresh from the fields and farms of the kibbutz, could not absorb it. Their
image of strength and vitality rejected any notion of helplessness and they cou
ld not see the bravery in the weak and malnourished survivors who made it to Isr
ael.
Then came the Eichmann Trial.
At once, the trauma had a name and a face and survivors had a platform to tell t
heir story. The nation was stunned by the unimaginable horror and the bravery it
took to survive. The young state, then only 13 years old, matured and found the
sense of solidarity that could embrace the stories and people that were so much
of their making. A process of healing had finally begun.