“Operation Finale” exhibit at the Holocaust Memorial Center illustrates the story behind capturing Adolf Eichmann.

Featured image courtesy Holocaust Memorial Center

The 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 notorious escaped war criminals. Eichmann, head of the Nazis’ homicidal “Jewish Department,” who managed the transport of millions of people to death camps, vanished after World War II.

Photographs, film and recently declassified spy artifacts 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 intelligence 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 executed 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 justice was not only inspiring, it also created global awareness of the destruction of European Jewry during World War II.”

The exhibit is a coproduction 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.

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