‘Operation Finale’ references the code name given to the Mossad’s effort to capture and abduct Adolf Eichmann. With more than 100 original artifacts and photographs, the exhibition details exactly how agents located a perpetrator of “The Final Solution” hiding in South America and smuggled him to Israel to stand trial for crimes against the Jewish people. Short films within Operation Finale allows exhibition-goers to hear directly from the abduction team that caught the SS lieutenant colonel and the legal team that prosecuted him. An immersive video installation complete with a replica of the iconic bulletproof glass booth from which a dispassionate Eichmann testified drops visitors right into the historic 1961 trial.
Operation Finale illustrates the enormity of the crimes committed during the Nazi regime and explores issues of justice and accountability. The message powerfully reinforced by the trial was encapsulated in the phrase “Never Again” – the determination to stamp out murderous tyrannies wherever they arose, no matter the target. The message is as important today as ever, and the Eichmann trial serves as a reminder of what can happen if the world is not vigilant.
Operation Finale is a co-production 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, Cleveland, Ohio.
The exhibition is made possible by a generous grant from the Maltz Family Foundation.
