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Bourdeau Patrick (b. 1947-01-26 / d. 1982-07-16) alias Patrick Dewaere
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81
Born 1924-09-11. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Cancer
He was a professor of pharmacology at the University of British Columbia and Holocaust survivor. Originally from Slovakia, he is known for his escape, at the age of 19, from the Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland during the Second World War, and for having provided some of the earliest and most detailed information about the mass murder that was taking place there. Vrba and a fellow prisoner, Alfréd Wetzler (1918–1988), managed to flee Auschwitz on 10 April 1944, three weeks after German forces had invaded Hungary (a German ally), and after SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann had arrived in Budapest, the Hungarian capital, to begin the deportation to Auschwitz of the country's Jewish population. The 40 pages of information the men passed to Jewish officials when they arrived in Slovakia on 24 April – which included information about the use of gas chambers and crematoria – became known as the Vrba-Wetzler report.
56
Born 1906-03-19. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Murder
Eichmann was hanged a few minutes after midnight on June 1, 1962, at Ramla prison. This remains the only civil execution ever carried out in Israel, which has a general policy of not using the death penalty. Eichmann allegedly refused a last meal, preferring instead a bottle of Carmel, a dry red Israeli wine. He consumed about half of the bottle. He also refused to don the traditional black hood for his execution.
According to an official account, there were supposedly two people who would pull the lever simultaneously, so neither would know for sure by whose hand Eichmann died.
Eichmann's last words were, reportedly, "Long live Germany. Long live Austria. Long live Argentina. These are the countries with which I have been most closely associated and I shall not forget them. I had to obey the rules of war and my flag. I am ready."
Shortly after the execution Eichmann's body was cremated. The next morning his ashes were scattered at sea over the Mediterranean, in international waters. This was to ensure that there could be no future memorial and that no nation would serve as Adolf Eichmann's final resting place.