TEL AVIV: Former Nazi SS Colonel Adolf Eichmann was hanged yesterday in Ramieh Prison near here. Eichmann was officially pronounced dead at two minutes before midnight local time. The body was examined by an Israeli government physician who pronounced life to be extinct at 11.58pm.

The 56-year-old former head of the Gestapo’s Department for Jewish Affairs was the first man to be hanged in Israel. A few hours earlier, Eichmann’s plea for a reprieve was rejected by President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi of Israel.

Eichmann was sentenced to death last December 15 for playing “central and decisive part” in the planning and implementation of the Nazi programme to exterminate millions of European Jews.

It was at 8pm that the prison director had told Eichmann that his appeal had been rejected. Eichmann replied in German: “Jawohl” (Yes, Sir). He died tense but clam. His last words — addressed to witnesses of the execution — were: “Gentlemen, we will all meet again soon. I lived believing in God and I die believing in God.”— Agencies