A handwritten letter penned by Adolf Eichmann dubbed the architect of the Holocaust has been revealed showing how he begged not to be executed as he was only following orders.

Eichmann was one of the main organisers of the murder of Jews and oversaw their rounding up and deportation to death camps such as Auschwitz.

He fled to Argentina after escaping a prison camp after the Second World War but was captured in Buenos Aires in May 1960 and smuggled back to Israel.

After a trial two years later for war crimes he was executed by the Israelis for his role in the Holocaust.

Now a letter to then President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi has been found, where he describes himself as a 'mere instrument' of leaders responsible for the deaths of six million Jews.

He then pleads for his death sentence to be overturned in the letter, wrote in ballpoint pen, which is dated two days before his hanging.

It reads: 'There is a need to draw a line between the leaders responsible and the people like me forced to serve as mere instruments in the hands of the leaders.

'I was not a responsible leader, and as such do not feel myself guilty.

'I am not able to recognise the court’s ruling as just, and I ask, Your Honour Mr President, to exercise your right to grant pardons, and order that the death penalty not be carried out.'

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