IN 1961, Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a study on the psychology of genocide. The experiment was made three months after the start of the trial of German Nazi war criminal Otto Adolf Eichmann, who was accused and tried for his role in the Holocaust or the genocide of millions of Jews during World War 2.

Despite Eichmann's defense that he was 'simply following orders' in a 'totalitarian regime,' he was found guilty of all 15 criminal charges, mainly war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against the Jewish people. He was executed by hanging in 1962.