October 17, 2019, to January 5, 2020
Hall of Democracy Special Exhibition Hall
Operation Finale: The Capture & Trial of Adolf Eichmann uncovers the secret history of one of the 20th century’s most sensational events, the capture and trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. As head of the Nazis’ homicidal “Jewish Department,” Eichmann zealously managed the transport of millions of innocent people to death camps and vanished after World War II. Operation Finale—the code name of Israel’s effort to find Eichmann—reveals how agents of Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency, located him in hiding in South America years after the war, then abducted and smuggled him out of the country to stand trial in Israel. The exhibition features recently declassified materials including 1960s-era artifacts, photographs, film, audio, contemporary design elements, and interactive displays.
As told in Operation Finale, Eichmann’s story is one of the most fascinating and somber stories of World War II. Visitors will be transported to the courtroom of Eichmann’s trial in Jerusalem through an immersive video, complete with a replica of the iconic glass booth in which the accused sat as his courtroom drama was broadcast around the globe as a principal perpetrator of the Final Solution. Eichmann’s conviction and sentence to death by hanging, Israel’s only judicial execution, began a new chapter for Holocaust survivors to speak out about the atrocities they endured. The exhibition concludes with the legacy of the trial and how the mantra “Never Again” must ring out around the world.
Operation Finale: The Capture & Trial of Adolf Eichmann is a coproduction of The Mossad: Israeli Secret Intelligence Service; Beit Hatfutsot, The Museum of the Jewish People, Tel Aviv, Israel; and the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in Cleveland, Ohio.
Sponsorship for Operation Finale, on view from October 17, 2019, to January 5, 2020, is generously provided by Perry and Marty Granoff. The exhibition’s themes will be explored further in free public programming and educational initiatives during its run at the Museum.
