Moshe Landau, chief judge in 1961 Adolf Eichmann trial, dies at 99
Moshe Landau, chief judge in the 1961 trial of Nazi arch-criminal Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem, died Sunday in Jerusalem on the eve of the annual memorial day for the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, the government said. He was 99.
Landau was an Israeli Supreme Court justice when he was picked to head the three-judge panel for the Eichmann trial. Eichmann, who was in charge of the Final Solution, the Nazi plan to kill the Jews of Europe, was kidnapped from Argentina in 1960 by Israel's Mossad spy agency. He was convicted and hanged.
Landau was an accomplished jurist by the time of the Eichmann trial. Born in Danzig, Germany, in 1912, he studied law at the University of London and moved to Palestine in 1933, 15 years before the state of Israel was created.
He was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1953. In 1980, he was named chief justice, retiring in 1982. He was given the Israel Prize, the nation's highest civilian honor, in 1991.
More later at latimes.com/obituaries.
-- Associated Press
Thank you for printing this. Hopefully this will be a reminder to many to remember, and an inspiration to others to search out and acquaint themselves with the Holocaust, an event of not so long ago.
The Nazis managed to kill almost half of the Jews on this planet. To put that in perspective that would be the equivalent to 150 million Americans perishing, or 500 million Chinese or 750 million Africans.
Posted by: Mike Dudnikov | 05/01/2011 at 06:43 PM
i remember this storie from when i was very young. trying to figure out how all those nazis made it to argentina and skipped out of germany to avotd the Nurenberg trials.
that was a good move by the israeli mosad, he must have helped murder many jews with hitler.
at least he made it to Jerusalem.
Posted by: JOHN R. ARENAS | 05/02/2011 at 06:14 PM