Reply #21: I can't imagine this would have happened. . .

[Journeyman]

\as the State of Israel went to great lengths to maintain all the trappings of legality and Western jurisprudence throughout the trial. Because of the conditions under which Eichmann was kidnapped and brought to Israel, it was imperative -- in David Ben-Gurion's mind -- that his trial be a "show trial" of both Nazi crimes and Israeli justice.

In Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt writes that Adolf Eichmann went to the gallows with great dignity. The Israelis provided him his final meal, a bottle of red wine, which he half drunk. He refused the help of a minister, since, as a Nazi, he asserted he was no Christian and didn't believe in life after death. He walked the fifty yards from his cell to the gallows "calm and erect, with his hands bound behind him." When the guards tied his ankles and knees, he asked that they loosen the bonds so he could stand straight. He refused use of a hood.

Arendt makes no mention of Eichmann's final moments, but I imagine -- given the care that went in to his trial and the preparation for his execution -- that he was treated as humanely as possible.