On Wednesday, May 4 the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage hosted AIGA Cleveland for an exclusive tour of their new exhibit Operation Finale: The Capture & Trial of Adolf Eichmann.

Lindsay Miller, Registrar & Exhibits Coordinator, explained how the Maltz Museum worked with Gallagher & Associates to translate what was mostly a collection of paper documents into an engaging interactive exhibit. Tour participants learned specifics behind the construction and transport of the exhibit components and discussed the intricacies of bringing the story of Eichmann’s capture and trial to life.

‘Operation Finale’ references the code name given to the Mossad’s effort to capture and abduct Eichmann. With 60 original artifacts and 70 photographs, the 4,000-square-foot 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 allow 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 housing the iconic bulletproof glass booth from which a dispassionate Eichmann testified drops visitors right into the historic 1961 trial.

Operation Finale is currently scheduled to run until June 12. Visit the Maltz Museum website for more info: http://www.maltzmuseum.org/