Adolf Eichmann

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Adolf Eichmann, Germany 1940 Photo from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives.

Otto Adolf Eichmann (March 19, 1906 – June 1, 1962), known as Adolf, was a high-ranking official in Nazi Germany and served as an Obersturmbannführer in the S.S. He was largely responsible for the logistics of the extermination of millions of people during the Holocaust, in particular Jews, which was called the "final solution" (Endlösung). He organized the identification and transportation of people to the various concentration camps. Therefore, he is often referred to as the 'Chief Executioner' of the Third Reich.

Early life

Born in Solingen, Germany, Adolf Eichmann was the son of a moderately successful businessman and industrialist Adolf Karl Eichmann. In 1914, his family moved to Linz, Austria, and during the First World War, Eichmann's father served in the Austro-Hungarian Army. At the war's conclusion, Eichmann's father returned to the family business in Linz. In 1920, Eichmann's family moved to Germany.

Nazi Party and the SS

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SS-Scharführer Adolf Eichmann in 1933

On the advice of old family friend Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Eichmann joined the Austrian branch of the NSDAP (member number 899 895) and of the SS, enlisting on April 1 1932, as an SS-Anwärter. He was accepted as a full SS member that November, appointed an SS-Mann, and assigned the SS number 45326.

For the next year, Eichmann was a member of the part time Allgemeine-SS and served in a mustering formation operating from Salzburg.

In 1933 when the Nazis came to power in Germany, Eichmann returned to that country and submitted an application to join the full time SS. This was accepted, and in November of 1933, Eichmann was promoted to Scharführer and assigned to the administrative staff of the Dachau concentration camp.

By 1934, Eichmann had chosen to make the SS a career and requested transfer into the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police) which had, by that time, become a very powerful and feared organization. Eichmann's transfer was granted in November of 1934, as he was promoted to the rank of Oberscharführer and assigned to the headquarters of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) in Berlin. Eichmann became a model administrator in the SD and quickly became noticed by his superiors. He was promoted to Hauptscharführer in 1935 and, in 1937, commissioned as an SS-Untersturmführer.

Adolf Eichmann's application for commission as an SS officer

In 1937 Eichmann was sent to Palestine with his superior Herbert Hagen to assess the possibilities of massive Jewish emigration from Germany to Palestine. They landed in Haifa but could only obtain a transit visa so they went on to Cairo. In Cairo they met Feival Polkes, an agent of the Haganah, who discussed with them the plans of the Zionists and tried to enlist their assistance in facilitating Jewish emigration from Europe. According to an answer Eichmann gave at his trial, he had also planned to meet Arab leaders in Palestine; this never happened because entry to Palestine was refused by the British authorities. Afterwards Eichmann and Hagen wrote a report recommending against large-scale emigration to Palestine for economic reasons and because it contradicted the German policy of preventing the establishment of a Jewish state there. This episode is sometimes seen as an important step towards the Nazi abandonment of emigration as the preferred "solution to the Jewish problem".

In 1938, Eichmann was assigned to Austria to help organize SS Security Forces in Vienna after the Anschluss of Austria into Germany. Through this effort, Eichmann was promoted to SS-Obersturmführer, and by the end of 1938, Adolf Eichmann had been selected by the SS leadership to form the Central Office for Jewish Emigration, which was in charge of forcibly deporting and expelling Jews from Austria. Through this work, Eichmann became a student of Judaism, finding the religion fascinating while also developing deep Anti-Semitic values and a hatred of the Jewish faith.

World War II

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SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann in 1942

At the start of the Second World War, Eichmann had been promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer and had made a name for himself with his Office for Jewish Emigration. Through this work Eichmann made several contacts in the Zionist movement which he worked with to speed up Jewish Emigration from the Reich.

Eichmann returned to Berlin in 1939 after the formation of the Reich Central Security Office (RSHA). In December 1939, he was assigned to head RSHA Referat IV D4, the RSHA department that dealt with Jewish affairs and evacuation. In August 1940, he released his Reichssicherheitshauptamt: Madagaskar Projekt (Reich Central Security Office: Madagascar Project), a plan for forced Jewish deportation that never materialized. He was promoted to the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer in late 1940, and less than a year later to Obersturmbannführer.

In 1942, Reinhard Heydrich invited Eichmann to attend the Wannsee Conference where Germany's anti-Jewish measures were set down into an official policy of genocide. To this "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" Eichmann was tasked as "Transportation Administrator", which put him in charge of all the trains which would carry Jews to the Death Camps in the territory of occupied Poland. For the next two years, Eichmann performed his duties with incredible zeal, often bragging that he had personally sent over five million Jews to their deaths by way of his trains.

Eichmann's work had been noticed, and in 1944, he was sent to Hungary after Germany had occupied that country in fear of a Soviet invasion. Eichmann at once went to work deporting Jews and was able to send four hundred thousand Hungarians to their deaths in the Nazi gas chambers.

By 1945, Eichmann's world was collapsing, as Reich Leader Heinrich Himmler had ordered that Jewish extermination be halted and evidence of the Final Solution be destroyed. Eichmann blatantly turned against Himmler and continued his work in Hungary against official orders. Eichmann was also working to avoid being called up in the last ditch German military effort, since a year before he had been commissioned as a Reserve Untersturmführer in the Waffen-SS and was now being ordered to active combat duty.

Eichmann fled Hungary in 1945 as the Russians invaded, and he returned to Austria where he met up with his old friend Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Kaltenbrunner, however, refused to associate with Eichmann since Eichmann's duties as an extermination administrator had left him a marked man by the Allies.

Post World War II

At the end of World War II, Eichmann was captured by the US Army, who did not know that this man who presented himself as "Otto Eckmann" was in fact a much bigger fish. Early in 1946, he escaped from US custody and hid in various parts of Germany for a few years. In 1948 he obtained a landing permit for Argentina, but did not seek to use it immediately. At the beginning of 1950, Eichmann went to Italy, where he posed as a refugee named Ricardo Klement. With the help of a Franciscan friar who had connections with archbishop Alois Hudal, Eichmann obtained an International Committee of the Red Cross humanitarian passport and an Argentinian visa. He arrived by ship in Argentina on July 14, 1950. For the next ten years, he worked in several odd jobs in the Buenos Aires area (from factory foreman, to junior water engineer and professional rabbit farmer). Eichmann also brought his family to Argentina. Argentina at the time was a haven for many Nazis.

Capture

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Adolf Eichmann during his 1961 trial in Jerusalem.

Throughout the 1950s many Jews and other victims of the Holocaust dedicated themselves to finding Eichmann and other Nazi war criminals. Among them was Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. In 1954, Wiesenthal's suspicions that Eichmann was in Argentina were sparked upon receiving a postcard from an associate who had moved to Buenos Aires. "I saw that dirty pig Eichmann," the letter read in part, "He lives near Buenos Aires and works for a water company". With this (and other) information collected by Wiesenthal, the Israelis had solid leads regarding Eichmann's whereabouts. Isser Harel, the then-head of Mossad (Israeli intelligence agency), later claimed in an unpublished manuscript that Wiesenthal "'had no role whatsoever' in Eichmann's apprehension but in fact had endangered the entire Eichmann operation and aborted the planned capture of Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele." (Schachter, Jonathan "Isser Harel Takes On Nazi-Hunter. Wiesenthal 'Had No Role' In Eichmann Kidnapping." The Jerusalem Post 7 May 1991)

Also instrumental in exposing Eichmann's identity was Lothar Hermann, a worker of Jewish descent who fled to Argentina from Germany following his incarceration in the Dachau concentration camp, where Eichmann had served as an administrator. By the 1950s, Hermann had settled into life in Buenos Aires with his family; daughter Sylvia became acquainted with the Eichmann family and romantically involved with Klaus, the oldest Eichmann son. Due to Klaus's boastful remarks about his father's life as a Nazi and direct responsibility for the Holocaust, Hermann knew he had struck gold in 1957 after reading a newspaper report about German war criminals - of which Eichmann was one. Soon after, he sent Sylvia to the Eichmanns' home on a fact-finding mission. She was met at the door by Eichmann himself, and after unsuccessfully asking for Klaus, she inquired as to whether she was speaking to his father. Eichmann confirmed this fact. Excited, Hermann soon began a correspondence with Fritz Bauer, chief prosecutor for the West German state of Hesse, and provided details about Eichmann's person and life. He contacted Israeli officials, who worked closely with Hermann over the next several years to learn about Eichmann and to formulate a plan to capture him.

In 1960, the Mossad discovered that Eichmann was in Argentina and began an effort to locate his exact whereabouts when, through relentless surveillance, it was confirmed that Ricardo Klement was, in fact, Adolf Eichmann. The Israeli government then approved an operation to kidnapp Eichmann and bring him to Jerusalem for trial as a war criminal. He was kidnapped by a team of Mossad agents on May 11, 1960, as part of a covert operation. He was flown aboard an El Al airliner from Argentina to Israel on May 21, 1960.

For some time the Israeli government denied involvement in Eichmann's capture, claiming that he had been taken by Jewish volunteers. Eventually, however, the pretense was dropped, and then prime minister David Ben Gurion announced Eichmann's capture to the Knesset (Israel's national legislature) on May 23 1960, receiving a standing ovation in return. Isser Harel, head of the Mossad at the time of the operation, wrote a book about Eichmann's capture entitled The House on Garibaldi Street; some years later a member of the kidnapping team, Peter Malkin, authored Eichmann in my Hands, a book that contains fascinating insights into Eichmann's character and motivations, but whose veracity has been attacked.

Trial

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Eichmann and a bulletproof glass booth during the open trial.

Eichmann's trial in front of an Israeli court in Jerusalem started on April 11, 1961. He was indicted on 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and membership of an outlawed organization. As in Israeli criminal procedure, his trial was presided over by three judges. Gideon Hausner, the Israeli attorney general, personally acted as chief prosecutor.

The trial caused huge international controversy as well as an international sensation. The Israeli government allowed news programs all over the world to broadcast the trial live with few restrictions. Television viewers saw a nondescript man sitting in a bulletproof glass booth while witnesses, including many Holocaust survivors, testified against him and his role in transporting victims to the extermination camps. During the whole trial, Eichmann insisted that he was only "following orders" - the same defense used by the Nazi war criminals during the 1945-1946 Nuremberg Trials. He explicitly declared that he had abdicated his consciousness in order to follow the Führerprinzip. This defense in turn stimulated the Milgram experiment.

After 14 weeks of testimony with more than 1,500 documents, 100 prosecution witnesses (90 of whom were Nazi concentration camp survivors) and dozens of defense depositions delivered by diplomatic couriers from 16 different countries, the Eichmann trial ended on August 14, 1961 where the judges were then left to deliberate. On December 11 the three judges announced their verdict where Eichmann was convicted on all counts. He was then sentenced to death on December 15, 1961. Eichmann appealed the verdict, mostly relying on legal arguments about Israel's jurisdiction and the legality of the laws under which he was charged. He also claimed that he was protected by the principle of "Acts of State" and repeated his "superior orders" defence. On May 29, 1962 Israel's Supreme Court, sitting as a Court of Criminal Appeal, rejected the appeal and upheld the District Court's judgment on all counts. On May 31, Israeli president Itzhak Ben-Zvi turned down Eichmann's petition for mercy. Eichmann was hanged a few minutes after midnight on June 1, 1962, at Ramla prison, officially the only civil execution ever carried out in Israel. Eichmann allegedly refused a last meal, preferring instead a bottle of Carmel, a dry red Israeli wine of which he consumed about half of the bottle. He also refused to don the traditional black hood for his execution.

His 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."^[1]

His body was cremated and ashes scattered at sea the very next morning, so that no nation would serve as Adolf Eichmann's final resting place.

Eichmann analysis

In the 40 years since Eichmann's death, historians have speculated on certain facts regarding his life. The most important question is how responsible Eichmann was for the implementation of the Holocaust. Most agree that Eichmann knew exactly what he was doing; however, some "Eichmann Defenders" (his son included) state that he was unfairly judged and that he was only doing his duty as a German soldier.

A third - and highly controversial - analysis came from political theorist Hannah Arendt, a Jew who fled Germany before Hitler's rise, and who reported on Eichmann's trial for The New Yorker magazine. In Eichmann in Jerusalem, a book formed by this reporting, Arendt concluded that, aside from a desire for improving his career, Eichmann showed no trace of anti-Semitism or psychological damage. She called him the embodiment of the "banality of evil," as he appeared at his trial to have an ordinary and common personality, displaying neither guilt nor hatred. She suggested that this most strikingly discredits the idea that the Nazi criminals were manifestly psychopathic and different from ordinary people. (Many concluded from this and similar observations that even the most ordinary of people can commit horrendous crimes if placed in the right situation, and given the correct incentives, but Arendt disagreed with this interpretation.)

Eichmann's involvement with the SS Underground Group ODESSA is also a mystery, as there is evidence that Eichmann had contact with the group but did not actively participate in ODESSA activities. Rumours also abound as to whether or not Eichmann personally knew Josef Mengele and whether or not the two war criminals ever worked together in South America. Mossad was convinced that Eichmann was a contact for Mengele and had planned to conduct a dual-capture operation in 1961 had Eichmann revealed Mengele's whereabouts.

A footnote to Eichmann's SS career focuses on the point as to why he was never promoted to the rank of full SS-Colonel, known as Standartenführer. With Eichmann's record and responsibilities, he would have been a prime candidate for advancement, yet after 1941, his SS record contains no evidence that he was ever even recommended for another promotion. Many have speculated that Ernst Kaltenbrunner may have seen Eichmann as a dangerous man, rising through the SS ranks, and had curbed his SS career to prevent Eichmann from becoming too powerful.

Books

• Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963) ISBN 0140187650
• David Cesarani, Eichmann: His Life and Times (2004) ISBN 0434010561
• Harry Mulisch, Case 40/61; report on the Eichmann trial (1963) ISBN 0812238613
• Moshe Pearlman: The Capture of Adolf Eichmann, 1961. (cited in Hannah Arendt: Eichmann in Jerusalem, Penguin, 1994, p.235) LCC DD247E5P39
• Pierre de Villemarest, Untouchable—Who protected Bormann & Gestapo Müller after 1945..., Aquilion, 2005, ISBN 1904997023 (Gestapo Müller was one of the chiefs of Adolf Eichmann)

External links

• BBC: Adolf Eichmann: The Mind of a War Criminal
• The Capture of Adolf Eichmann from the Jewish Virtual Library
• Declassified CIA names file on Adolf Eichmann - Provided by the National Security Archive
• Eichmann trial: The complete transcripts - Provided by the Nizkor Project
• Biography and Pictures
• Eichmann and Aktion Reinhard