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Thursday, March 3, 2005

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  Israel, created in 1948, three years after the end of the war, pledged to hunt down Nazi leaders. The Mossad security agency tracked Eichmann to Argentina, and Malkin stopped him in the street. According to his memoirs, "Eichmann in My Hands," Malkin said to him simply, "Un momentito, senor" (just a moment, sir), before kidnapping him.

Those were the only words he knew in Spanish, according to a Web site of the World Zionist Organization. He grabbed Eichmann's arm and wrestled him to the ground as another agent grabbed his legs, stuffing him into a car. Eichmann was interrogated for 10 days in a safe house before being spirited to Israel on a plane that carried an unwitting diplomat, Abba Eban, later Israel's foreign minister, for a meeting with Argentine officials as a cover.

Eichmann was in charge of implementing the "final solution," the Nazi design to kill all the Jews of Europe. Six million perished in the World War II Nazi Holocaust, most put to death in concentration camps.

He was put on trial in Jerusalem. He was executed in 1962. The trial provided a catharsis for many Israelis, traumatized by the Holocaust.

Malkin was born Zvi Milchman and lived in Poland until the age of four, the WZO site said. He served in the Mossad for 27 years and was a master of martial arts and disguises, the Web site said.

The cause of death was not reported. Information about survivors and funeral arrangements were not immediately available.

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