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Eichmann trial marked in Berlin fifty years on

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The 50th anniversary of the trial of one of the Nazi regime's most notorious figures is being marked with ceremonies around the world.

The eight-month-long trial of Adolf Eichmann, mastermind of the Nazis' Final Solution to eliminate the Jewish population, opened on April 11 1961. The trial was conducted with Eichmann sitting behind bullet-proof glass and in the glare of the worldwide media.

Eichmann, the Nazi official charged with organising the deportations of Jews to the concentration camps, was sentenced to death and hanged on May 31 the following year.

His capture and subsequent trial were the culmination of a lengthy and daring mission, as Eichmann was tracked down by the Mossad to his hiding place in Argentina, then brought to Israel to face justice.

Ceremonies are being held at the Wannsee villa near Berlin where the Final Solution was co-ordinated, in New York and in Jerusalem at the court where the trial took place.

At a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's Prime Minister, spoke of the trial as "a turning point in which the State of Israel and the Jewish people began to mete out justice to their persecutors and said: Enough! No more."

He added: "Regrettably, our enemies and those who seek Jewish lives have not gone from the world, but the State of Israel exists and it knows how to defend itself."

To commemorate the date, full footage of the trial was uploaded on to YouTube by Israel's Holocaust Memorial museum, Yad Vashem.

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