First page of Eichmann diary on display in Israel for first time

After singing this "Song for Peace" in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin folded this lyrics page and placed it in his jacket pocket. Minutes later a Jewish assassin's bullet murdered the war hero and peace maker. Photo: Israel Museum (Source)

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 (Source)

Jerusalem - An Israeli exhibition is for the first time displaying to the broader public a series of unique original documents, including the prison memoirs of Nazi kingpin Adolf Eichmann. The documents on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem also include a blood-stained copy of a song sung by former premier Yitzhak Rabin on the night of his assassination, and two pages recovered from the diary of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, who died in the February 2003 Columbia Space Shuttle disaster.
The exhibition, Blue and White Pages - Documenting the History of Israel, which opens on Tuesday, shows dozens of other documents that played a crucial role in Israel's tumultuous history, including the country's original Declaration of Independence and its peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan.
The blood-spattered piece of paper found in Rabin's pocket after his assassination at a peace rally in in Tel Aviv on November 4, 1995, has the lyrics of the classic Israeli "Song for Peace," which Rabin famously sang just minutes before he was shot dead by a radical religious Jew opposed to his peace moves with the Palestinians.
The handwritten manuscript which Eichmann kept while jailed and on trial in Israel is included in the exhibition.
The Israeli government first released a typed transcript of the 1,300-page document in March 2000, after keeping the manuscript locked up for 40 years.
The original has since been accessible at the State Archives.
Fragmented pieces of Ramon's diary were found in a field in Texas two months after the Columbia Space Shuttle crash. They underwent several years of painstaking reconstruction and restoration at the request of his widow. The recovered pages describe his experience in space and include also a copy of a Jewish prayer.
A telegram received by then Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, informing her of the hostage-taking of Israel athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich can also be seen, a spokeswoman for the museum added.
The exhibition is part of the many events marking the 60th anniversary of Israel's founding in 1948.