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[[Reinhard Heydrich]] disclosed to Eichmann in autumn 1941 that all the Jews in German-controlled Europe were to be murdered.<ref>Browning, Christopher R. (2004), ''The Origins of the Final Solution'', p. 362</ref> In 1942, Heydrich ordered Eichmann to attend the [[Wannsee Conference]] as recording secretary, where Germany's [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] measures were set down into an official policy of [[genocide]]. Eichmann was given the position of Transportation Administrator of the "[[Final Solution|Final Solution to the Jewish Question]]", which put him in charge of all the trains that would carry Jews to the [[Extermination camp|death camps]] in the territory of [[General Government|occupied Poland]].
[[Reinhard Heydrich]] disclosed to Eichmann in autumn 1941 that all the Jews in German-controlled Europe were to be murdered.<ref>Browning, Christopher R. (2004), ''The Origins of the Final Solution'', p. 362</ref> In 1942, Heydrich ordered Eichmann to attend the [[Wannsee Conference]] as recording secretary, where Germany's [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] measures were set down into an official policy of [[genocide]]. Eichmann was given the position of Transportation Administrator of the "[[Final Solution|Final Solution to the Jewish Question]]", which put him in charge of all the trains that would carry Jews to the [[Extermination camp|death camps]] in the territory of [[General Government|occupied Poland]].


In 1944, he was sent to [[Hungary]] after Germany had occupied that country prior to a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] invasion. Eichmann at first made an offer through [[Joel Brand]] (who was to act as an intermediary) to trade captive European Jews to the [[Western Allies]] for trucks and other goods (see [[Blood for goods]]). When there was no positive response to this offer, Eichmann started deporting Jews, sending 430,000 [[Hungarian Jews]] to their deaths in the [[gas chamber]]s.
HELLO!!!In 1944, he was sent to [[Hungary]] after Germany had occupied that country prior to a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] invasion. Eichmann at first made an offer through [[Joel Brand]] (who was to act as an intermediary) to trade captive European Jews to the [[Western Allies]] for trucks and other goods (see [[Blood for goods]]). When there was no positive response to this offer, Eichmann started deporting Jews, sending 430,000 [[Hungarian Jews]] to their deaths in the [[gas chamber]]s.


In November 1944, ''[[Reichsführer-SS]]'' [[Heinrich Himmler]] ordered Jewish extermination to be halted and evidence of the Final Solution to be destroyed. Eichmann was appalled by Himmler's turnabout, 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.
In November 1944, ''[[Reichsführer-SS]]'' [[Heinrich Himmler]] ordered Jewish extermination to be halted and evidence of the Final Solution to be destroyed. Eichmann was appalled by Himmler's turnabout, 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.

Revision as of 11:42, 30 May 2013

"Eichmann" redirects here. For other uses, see Eichmann (disambiguation).
Adolf Eichmann
File:Eichmann, Adolf.jpg
Adolf Eichmann in 1942
Birth nameOtto Adolf Eichmann
Born(1906-03-19)March 19, 1906
Solingen, German Empire
DiedMay 31, 1962(1962-05-31) (aged 56)
Ramla, Israel
Allegiance Nazi Germany
Service / branch Schutzstaffel
Rank SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lt. Colonel)
Service number
UnitRSHA
Battles / warsWorld War II
Awards
  • War Merit Cross 1st Class with swords
  • War Merit Cross 2nd Class with swords
Spouse(s)Vera Liebl
Children
  • Klaus Eichmann
  • Horst Adolf Eichmann
  • Dieter Helmut Eichmann
  • Ricardo Francisco Eichmann
Signature

Otto Adolf Eichmann[1][2] (19 March 1906 – 31 May 1962)[3] was a German Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust. Because of his organizational talents and ideological reliability, Eichmann was charged by SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich with the task of facilitating and managing the logistics of mass deportation of Jews to ghettos and extermination camps in German-occupied Eastern Europe.

After World War II, he fled to Argentina using a fraudulently obtained laissez-passer issued by the International Red Cross.[4][5] He lived in Argentina under a false identity, working a succession of different jobs until 1960. He was captured by Mossad operatives in Argentina and taken to Israel to face trial in an Israeli court on 15 criminal charges, including crimes against humanity and war crimes. He was found guilty and executed by hanging in 1962. He is the only person to have been executed in Israel on conviction by a civilian court.

Biography

Otto Adolf Eichmann was born to a Lutheran family in Solingen, Germany. His parents were businessman and industrialist Adolf Karl Eichmann and Maria née Schefferling.[a] After his mother died in 1914, his family moved to Linz, Austria. During the First World War, Eichmann's father served in the Austro-Hungarian Army. At the war's conclusion, Eichmann's father moved the family back to Linz, where he operated a business. Eichmann left high school—Realschule—without having graduated and began training to become a mechanic, which he also discontinued.[9][b] In 1923, he started working in the mining company of his father. From 1925 to 1927 he worked as a sales clerk for the Oberösterreichische Elektrobau AG and until spring 1933 Eichmann worked as district agent for the Vacuum Oil Company AG, a subsidiary of Standard Oil.[9] During this time he was a member of the Jungfrontkämpfervereinigung, the youth section of Hermann Hiltl's right-wing veterans movement.[11] In late 1933 he moved back to Germany.[12]

Eichmann married Veronika Liebl (1909–1997) on March 21, 1935.[13] The couple had four sons: Klaus Eichmann (b. 1936 in Berlin), Horst Adolf Eichmann (b. 1940 in Vienna), Dieter Helmut Eichmann (b. 1942 in Prague) and Ricardo Francisco Eichmann (b. 1955 in Buenos Aires).

Nazi Party and SS

Adolf Eichmann's Lebenslauf (i.e., curriculum vitae) for his application for promotion from SS-Hauptscharführer to SS-Untersturmführer in 1937

On the advice of family friend Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Eichmann joined the Austrian branch of the NSDAP, member number 889,895—and the Schutzstaffel (SS)—membership number 45,326.[14] He enlisted on April 1, 1932, as an SS-Anwärter (candidate). He was accepted as a full SS member that November, appointed an SS-Mann (man).[15]

For the next year, Eichmann was a member of the Allgemeine SS (General SS) and served in a mustering formation operating from Salzburg while continuing in his position at Vacuum Oil. In 1933, when the Nazis came to power, Eichmann returned to Germany and submitted an application to join an active duty SS regiment. He was accepted, and in November 1933, promoted to SS-Scharführer (Squad Leader, equivalent to corporal). Eichmann was assigned to the administrative staff of Dachau concentration camp.[16]

By 1934, Eichmann requested transfer to the Sicherheitsdienst (SD: Security Service) of the SS, to escape the "monotony" of military training in SS-Standarte Deutschland at Dachau. Eichmann was accepted into the SD and assigned to the sub-office on Freemasons, organizing seized ritual objects for a proposed museum. After about six months, Eichmann had a meeting with Leopold von Mildenstein, a fellow Austrian, and was invited to join Mildenstein's Jewish Department, or Section II/112, of the SD at its Berlin headquarters.[17][18][19] He later came to see this as his "big break".[20] Eichmann's transfer was granted in November 1934. In 1935, he was promoted to SS-Hauptscharführer (Head Squad Leader) and later commissioned as an SS-Untersturmführer (second lieutenant) in 1937.

In 1937, Eichmann travelled to the British Mandate of Palestine with his superior Herbert Hagen to assess the possibilities of massive Jewish emigration from Germany to Palestine. They landed in Haifa using forged press credentials, and spent two days there. They next visited Cairo, where they met Feival Polkes, an agent of the Haganah, with whom they were unable to strike a deal of any kind. Eichmann and Hagen were unable to re-enter Palestine when the British authorities refused to give them the appropriate visas.[21]

In 1938, Eichmann was assigned to Austria to help organise SS security forces in Vienna after the Anschluss of Austria with Germany. Through this effort, Eichmann was promoted to SS-Obersturmführer (first lieutenant) and by the end of 1938, was selected by the SS leadership to form the Central Office for Jewish Emigration. He served as an "expert on Jewish matters" for the Third Reich, overseeing the concentration camps, the expropriation of Jewish property, and the deportation of Jews to ghettos and death camps. He played a major role in implementing the Final Solution.[22]

World War II

Hungarian woman and children on the way to the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau (May/June 1944). Photo from the Auschwitz Album.

At the start of World War II, Eichmann had been promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer (captain) 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 Third Reich.[23]

Eichmann returned to Berlin in 1939 after the formation of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Main Security Office: RSHA).[24] In December 1939, he was assigned to head RSHA Referat IV B4 (RSHA Sub-Department IV-B4), which dealt with Jewish affairs and evacuation, where he reported to Heinrich Müller.[25] In August 1940, he released his Reichssicherheitshauptamt: Madagaskar Projekt (Reich Main Security Office: Madagascar Project), a plan for forced Jewish deportation that never materialized.[26] He was promoted to the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer (major) in late 1940, and less than a year later to SS-Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel).

Reinhard Heydrich disclosed to Eichmann in autumn 1941 that all the Jews in German-controlled Europe were to be murdered.[27] In 1942, Heydrich ordered Eichmann to attend the Wannsee Conference as recording secretary, where Germany's antisemitic measures were set down into an official policy of genocide. Eichmann was given the position of Transportation Administrator of the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question", which put him in charge of all the trains that would carry Jews to the death camps in the territory of occupied Poland.

HELLO!!!In 1944, he was sent to Hungary after Germany had occupied that country prior to a Soviet invasion. Eichmann at first made an offer through Joel Brand (who was to act as an intermediary) to trade captive European Jews to the Western Allies for trucks and other goods (see Blood for goods). When there was no positive response to this offer, Eichmann started deporting Jews, sending 430,000 Hungarian Jews to their deaths in the gas chambers.

In November 1944, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler ordered Jewish extermination to be halted and evidence of the Final Solution to be destroyed. Eichmann was appalled by Himmler's turnabout, 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.

Early on 24 December 1944, Eichmann fled Budapest just before the Soviets completed their encirclement of the capital. Eichmann returned to Berlin and then 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.

After World War II

File:Eichman passport.jpg
Adolf Eichmann's Red Cross–issued passport

At the end of World War II, Eichmann was captured by the U.S. Army, which was not aware of Eichmann's true identity as he presented himself as "Otto Eckmann." Early in 1946, he escaped from U.S. custody and hid in Altensalzkoth, an obscure hamlet on the Lüneburg Heath, for a few years. In 1948 he obtained a landing permit for Argentina, but did not use it immediately.[28]

At the beginning of 1950, Eichmann went to Italy, where he posed as a refugee named Riccardo Klement. With the help of Bishop Alois Hudal, an Austrian cleric who organized one of the first postwar escape routes for Axis personnel, Eichmann obtained an International Committee of the Red Cross humanitarian passport, issued in Genoa, and an Argentine visa. Both of these issued to "Ricardo Klement, technician." However, Hannah Arendt claims that Eichmann was assisted in his escape by ODESSA, "a clandestine organization of SS veterans".[28] In May 2007, this passport was discovered in court archives in Argentina by a student doing research on Eichmann's capture.[29] Eichmann boarded a ship heading for Argentina on July 14, 1950. For the next 10 years, he worked a succession of jobs including metal factory worker, junior water engineer, rabbit farmer and finally welder and mechanic at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Buenos Aires.[30][31] Eichmann brought his family to Argentina in 1952.[31]

BND and CIA inaction

In June 2006, old CIA documents about Nazis and stay-behind networks dedicated to anti-communism were released. Among the 27,000 documents was a March 1958 memo from the German BND agency to the CIA, which stated that Eichmann was reported to have lived in Argentina since 1952 using the alias "Clemens". The CIA took no action on this information, because Eichmann's arrest could embarrass the US and Germany by turning public attention to the former Nazis they had recruited after World War II.[32] For example, the West German government, headed by Konrad Adenauer, was worried about what Eichmann might say, especially about the past of Hans Globke, Adenauer's national security adviser, who had worked with Eichmann in the Jewish Affairs department and helped draft the 1935 Nuremberg Laws.[32][33][34]

At the request of the West German government the CIA persuaded Life magazine to delete any reference to Globke from Eichmann's memoirs, which it had bought from his family.[35] By the time the CIA and the BND had this information, Israel had temporarily given up looking for Eichmann in Argentina because they could not discover his alias.[35] In the 1950s, neither the CIA nor the US government as a whole had a policy of pursuing Nazi war criminals.[32] In addition to protecting Eichmann's and Globke's past, the CIA also protected Reinhard Gehlen,[36] who recruited hundreds of former German spies for the CIA.

Capture in Argentina

Israeli teleprinter
Telegram that was sent to Israel's diplomatic missions around the world with instructions relating to the capture operation.

Israel's official intelligence agency, Mossad, had as one of its principal assigned tasks the pursuit and capture of accused Nazi war criminals. Throughout the 1950s, many Jews and other victims of the Holocaust also dedicated themselves to finding Eichmann and other notorious Nazis. Among them was the Jewish Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. In 1954, Wiesenthal saw a letter received by an Austrian Baron from an associate living in Buenos Aires, saying Eichmann was in Argentina. The message read in part:

Ich sah jenes schmutzige Schwein Eichmann. ("I saw that filthy pig Eichmann.") Er wohnt in der Nähe von Buenos Aires und arbeitet für ein Wassergeschäft. ("He lives near Buenos Aires and works for a water company.")

With this and other information collected by Wiesenthal, Israel had solid leads about Eichmann's whereabouts. However, Isser Harel, the head of Mossad, later claimed that Wiesenthal played no role in Eichmann's apprehension.[37]

Eichmann changed his name but not those of his wife and sons. It was this that led to his capture.[38]

Also instrumental in exposing Eichmann's identity was Lothar Hermann, a German half-Jew who had emigrated to Argentina in 1938 after spending time in a concentration camp for underground socialist activity.[39][40] When Hermann's daughter Sylvia began dating a man named Klaus Eichmann who boasted about his father's Nazi exploits, Hermann alerted Fritz Bauer, the Hessen district attorney, who passed on the information to a Mossad operative, Shlomo Cohen Abarbanel.[22] In her book about the Eichmann Trial, historian Deborah Lipstadt describes how Sylvia, sent on a fact-finding mission, was met at the door by Eichmann himself who said he was Klaus' uncle. Informed that Klaus was not home, she sat down to wait and made small talk with the man. When Klaus returned, he addressed Eichmann as 'Father.'[41]

In 1959, the Mossad was informed that Eichmann was in Buenos Aires under the name Ricardo Klement (Clement) and then began an effort to locate his exact whereabouts.[42] When surveillance affirmed that Ricardo Klement was Eichmann, the Israeli government approved a covert operation to bring him to Jerusalem for trial as a war criminal. It was to be a joint operation, carried out by the Mossad and Shin Bet, the Israel Security Agency. The Israelis continued their surveillance of Eichmann in 1960 until it was judged safe to take him. A key figure was Yitzhak Elron, the IDF attache in Argentina, who trailed Eichmann with his wife, Sarah, before the abduction.[22]

Eichmann was captured by a team of Mossad and Shin Bet agents in San Fernando, Buenos Aires, an industrial community 20 km north of the center of Buenos Aires on May 11, 1960.[43] The Mossad agents had arrived in Buenos Aires in April 1960 after Eichmann's identity was confirmed. After observing the suspect's routine for many days, they determined that he usually arrived home by bus from his work as foreman at a Mercedes-Benz factory around the same time every evening and planned to seize him when he was walking beside an open field from the bus stop to his house at 14 Garibaldi St (now 4261 Garibaldi Street). The plan was almost abandoned when Eichmann on the designated day was not present on the bus he usually took home. Tension rose when a passerby offered to assist the agents who pretended to be fixing the broken-down Mossad vehicle; the agents declined the offer. Finally, almost a half hour later, Eichmann got off a bus. A Mossad agent engaged him, asking him in Spanish ("un momentito, señor") if he had a moment. Eichmann was frightened and attempted to leave, but while blinded by Mossad headlights two Mossad men seized him and wrestled him to the ground. After a struggle, he was brought to the car and hidden down on the floor. Eichmann told his captors later that as soon as they told him to keep quiet or they would shoot him, he knew he had been captured by Israelis.[44] The Mossad agents ran into a police checkpoint, but managed to pass a license-plate check.

Eichmann was brought to a Mossad safe house, Tira, where he was kept for nine days, during which time his identity was double checked and confirmed.[22]

Eichmann was drugged to appear drunk by an Israeli doctor included in the Mossad team and dressed as a flight attendant. He was smuggled out of Argentina on board an El Al Bristol Britannia plane which a few days before had transported an Israeli delegation to the 150th anniversary celebration of Argentina's independence from Spain. After some tense delay at the airport over getting its flight plan approved, the plane took off from Buenos Aires to Dakar, Senegal and then to Israel on May 21, 1960. He arrived heavily sedated, and like the agents, disguised in the uniform of the El Al crew.[45]

There had been a backup plan in case the apprehension did not go as planned. If the police happened to intervene, one of the agents was to handcuff himself to Eichmann and make full explanations and disclosure.

For some time the Israeli government denied involvement in Eichmann's capture, claiming that he had been taken by Jewish volunteers who eagerly turned him over to Israeli authorities. Negotiations followed between Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and Argentine president Arturo Frondizi, while the abduction was met from radical right sectors in Argentina with a violent wave of antisemitism, carried out on the streets by the Tacuara Nationalist Movement—including assaults, torture and bombings.[46]

Ben-Gurion announced Eichmann's capture to the Knesset—Israel's parliament—on May 23, receiving a standing ovation in return. Isser Harel, head of the Mossad at the time of the operation, wrote the book The House on Garibaldi Street about Eichmann's capture, which was made into the 1979 American television movie of the same name.[47]

When Eichmann was brought to Israel for trial, the Israeli police officer Avner Less was Eichmann's interrogator. Extracts from Less's interrogation of Eichmann have been published in the 1983 book Eichmann Interrogated.[48]

Heavily edited parts of the interrogation, now available freely and in full from the Israeli archives, were incorporated in the 2007 film Eichmann, dramatizing Eichmann's interrogation. According to historian Deborah Lipstadt, the movie downplays his role in the Holocaust, including his admission of planning the task and his determination to complete it.[49][50]

Some years later, Peter Malkin, the member of the kidnapping team actually assigned to seize the suspect, wrote Eichmann in My Hands, which describes the preparation for and details of the capture, while exploring Eichmann's character and motivations.

International dispute over capture

In June 1960, after unsuccessful secret negotiations with Israel, Argentina requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council, to protest what Argentina regarded as the "violation of the sovereign rights of the Argentine Republic".[51] In the ensuing debate, Israeli representative Golda Meir claimed that the abductors were not Israeli agents but private individuals, so that the incident was only an "isolated violation of Argentine law".[51] Eventually the Council passed Resolution 138, which requested Israel "to make appropriate reparation", while stating that "Eichmann should be brought to appropriate justice for the crimes of which he is accused" and that "this resolution should in no way be interpreted as condoning the odious crimes of which Eichmann is accused."[52]

After further negotiations, on August 3, Israel and Argentina agreed to end their dispute with a joint statement that "the Governments of Israel and the Republic of the Argentine, imbued with the wish to give effect to the resolution of the Security Council of June 23, 1960, in which the hope was expressed that the traditionally friendly relations between the two countries will be advanced, have decided to regard as closed the incident that arose out of the action taken by Israel nationals which infringed fundamental rights of the State of Argentina."[53]

In the subsequent trial and appeal, the Israeli courts avoided the issue of the legality of Eichmann's capture, relying instead on Israeli legal precedents that the circumstances of his capture had no bearing on the legality of his trial. The Israeli Court also determined that because "Argentina has condoned the violation of her sovereignty and has waived her claims, including that for the return of the Appellant, any violation of international law that may have been involved in this incident has thus been remedied."[54]

Trial

Eichmann in Jerusalem court, 1961. See video
Adolf Eichmann's trial judges
Adolf Eichmann on trial in 1961

Eichmann's trial in Jerusalem before the Jerusalem District Court began on April 11, 1961. He was indicted on 15 criminal charges, including crimes against humanity, war crimes, crimes against the Jewish people, and membership in an outlawed organization. In accordance with Israeli criminal procedure, the trial was presided over by three judges: Moshe Landau, Benjamin Halevy and Yitzhak Raveh. The chief prosecutor was Gideon Hausner, the Israeli Attorney General.[55] The three judges sat high atop a plain dais. The trial was held at the Beit Ha'am—today known as the Gerard Behar Center—an auditorium in downtown Jerusalem. Eichmann sat inside a bulletproof glass booth to protect him from victims' families. This image inspired the novel, stage play, and film The Man in the Glass Booth, although the plot of the drama has nothing to do with the actual events of the Eichmann trial.

The legal basis of the charges against Eichmann was the 1950 "Nazi and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law".[56] However, Israel's claim to jurisdiction is controversial, as Eichmann's acts did not occur on Israeli soil, and indeed had happened before Israel came into existence. In addition, Ian Shapiro has observed that the process of Eichmann's trial contained many instances of reversible error and procedural irregularities, which would not have held up to appeal in a standard legal trial. For instance, Eichmann's defense team was not permitted access to all of the evidence to be used.[57]

The trial caused huge international controversy, as well as an international sensation. The Israeli government allowed news programmes all over the world to broadcast the trial live with few restrictions. The trial began with various witnesses, including many Holocaust survivors, who testified against Eichmann and his role in transporting victims to the extermination camps. One key witness for the prosecution was an American judge named Michael A. Musmanno, who was a U.S. naval officer in 1945. Musmanno had questioned the Nuremberg defendants and would later go on to become a Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He testified that the late Hermann Göring "made it very clear that Eichmann was the man to determine, in what order, in what countries, the Jews were to die."

When the prosecution rested, Eichmann's defense lawyers, Robert Servatius and Dieter Wechtenbruch, opened up the defense by explaining why they did not cross-examine any of the prosecution witnesses. Eichmann, speaking in his own defense, said that he did not dispute the facts of what happened during the Holocaust. During the whole trial, Eichmann insisted that he was only "following orders"—the same Nuremberg Defense used by some of the Nazi war criminals during the 1945–1946 Nuremberg Trials. He explicitly declared that he had abdicated his conscience in order to follow the Führerprinzip. Eichmann claimed that he was merely a "transmitter" with very little power. He testified that: "I never did anything, great or small, without obtaining in advance express instructions from Adolf Hitler or any of my superiors."

During cross-examination, prosecutor Hausner asked Eichmann if he considered himself guilty of the murder of millions of Jews. Eichmann replied: "Legally not, but in the human sense ... yes, for I am guilty of having deported them". When Hausner produced as evidence a quote by Eichmann in 1945 stating: "I will leap into my grave laughing because the feeling that I have five million human beings on my conscience is for me a source of extraordinary satisfaction." Eichmann countered the claim saying that he was referring only to "enemies of the Reich".[58]

Witnesses for the defense, all of them former high-ranking Nazis, were promised immunity and safe conduct from their German and Austrian homes to testify in Jerusalem on Eichmann's behalf. All of them refused to travel to Israel, but they sent the court depositions. However, almost none of the depositions supported Eichmann's "following orders" defense. One deposition was from de [Otto Winkelmann], a former senior SS police leader in Budapest in 1944. His memo stated that "(Eichmann) had the nature of a subaltern, which means a fellow who uses his power recklessly, without moral restraints. He would certainly overstep his authority if he thought he was acting in the spirit of his commander [Adolf Hitler]". Franz Six, a former SS brigadier general in the German security service, who was assigned the supervision of the occupation of the United Kingdom had Operation Sea Lion been successful, said in his deposition that Eichmann was an absolute believer in National Socialism and would act to the most extreme of the party doctrine, and that Eichmann had greater power than other department chiefs.[citation needed]

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.[59] At that point, the judges began deliberations in seclusion. On December 11, the three judges announced their verdict: Eichmann was convicted on all counts. Eichmann had said to the court that he expected the death penalty.[60] On December 15, the court imposed a death sentence.

In 1999, 128 minutes of the original video recordings made during court sessions of the Eichmann trial were released to cinemas and later to home video under the title Un spécialiste (The Specialist in the US).[61] The title is related to Eichmann's wartime reputation as a "specialist" in logistics regarding the expatriation, expropriation, and deportation of Jewish people.

West German government attempts to influence the trial

Secret German documents made available in 2011 to the German periodical Der Spiegel indicate that the Adenauer government was in a panic after the arrest of Eichmann. There was fear that a trial would highlight a number of high level government officials who had served the Nazis, particularly Hans Globke, who was the Chancellery Chief of Staff and a close advisor to Chancellor Adenauer.

An agent from the German Intelligence Service, Rolf Vogel, was sent to the trial in the guise of a reporter for the German newspaper Deutsche Zeitung. Vogel communicated with the Israeli prosecutors, providing them with exonerative material on Globke and trying to influence them to keep the trial focussed on Eichmann. Vogel even arranged a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, with whom he expressed the German concern. Vogel came away with the impression that the names of people like Globke would not be raised at the trial. At the same time, negotiations for a large arms purchase by Israel from the Federal Republic of Germany were taking place.

In the end, no mention was made by the prosecution during the trial of former Nazis in the present German government. In 1962, military aid worth some 240 million DM was approved by the German government.[62]

Appeal and requests for clemency

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 "following orders" defense ("Befehl ist Befehl").

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. In rejecting his appeal again claiming that he was only "following orders", the court stated that, "Eichmann received no superior orders at all. He was his own superior and he gave all orders in matters that concerned Jewish affairs ... the so-called Final Solution would never have assumed the infernal forms of the flayed skin and tortured flesh of millions of Jews without the fanatical zeal and the unquenchable blood thirst of the appellant and his associates."[63]

On that day, Eichmann petitioned Israeli President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi for clemency (maintaining that he was "a mere tool"). Prominent persons also sent letters on his behalf. These included Martin Buber, Gershom Scholem, Hugo Bergmann, Akiva Ernst Simon and Leah Goldberg, who wrote: "We do not want the enemy to lead us to bring forth from among us a hangman, and if we do so, this will constitute a victory for the enemy and we do not want this victory of his."[64]

The request for clemency was forwarded to the Justice Ministry, which called a special meeting of government to resolve the issue. (The transcript of this meeting was declassified in 2007 due to an inadvertent disclosure.) At this meeting, David Ben-Gurion relayed a conversation in which Martin Buber had warned: "that executing Eichmann will engender a new 'legend' of an anti-Christ for generations [...] and there will be troubles for the Jewish people." He also read a letter from Walter Kaufmann acknowledging that Eichmann deserved the most severe punishment, but urging clemency because "we are not bloodthirsty". The assembled group discussed the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, as well as capital punishment for ordinary criminals.[64][65]

The only two officials present to argue against immediate execution—Levi Eshkol and Yosef Burg—supposed that other punishments might indeed be greater. Said Eshkol, "If it were possible that after the trial he would go around with a mark of Cain on his forehead and people related to him like they would to Cain—I thought that this would be much more than the five minutes of the carrying out of the ruling." Burg said that Israel "can allow itself to let the murderer die every day anew. [...] if there is a possibility of 'pending,' so that the sentence would be hanging in front of his eyes every day." All others opposed Eshkol and Burg in a straw poll. In its final vote, the council voted unanimously to uphold the death sentence.[64][65]

On May 31, Ben Zvi turned down Eichmann's petition for mercy.[66] On the telegram that Eichmann's wife, Vera, sent in support of the clemency, Ben-Zvi added in his handwriting a passage from the First Book of Samuel: "As your sword bereaved women, so will your mother be bereaved among women." (1 Samuel 15:33, Samuel's words to Agag, king of the Amalekites).[67][68]

Execution

Eichmann was hanged shortly before midnight on May 31, 1962, at a prison in Ramla, Israel. His executioner was Shalom Nagar.[69] Eichmann allegedly refused a last meal, preferring instead a bottle of dry red Israeli wine produced by Carmel Winery, consuming about half the bottle. He also refused to don the traditional black hood for his execution.

There is some dispute over Eichmann's last words. One account states that these were:

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.[70]

According to David Cesarani, a leading Holocaust historian and Research Professor in History of the Royal Holloway, University of London, Eichmann is quoted thus:

Long live Germany. Long live Argentina. Long live Austria. These are the three countries with which I have been most connected and which I will not forget. I greet my wife, my family, and my friends. I am ready. We'll meet again soon, as is the fate of all men. I die believing in God.[71]

Shortly after the execution, Eichmann's body was cremated in a specially designed furnace, and a stretcher on tracks was used to place the body into it. The next morning, June 1, his ashes were scattered at sea over the Mediterranean, beyond the territorial waters of Israel by an Israeli Navy patrol boat. This was to ensure that there could be no future memorial and that no country would serve as his final resting place.[64]

Analysis

Political theorist Hannah Arendt, a Jew who fled Germany after Hitler's rise to power, reported on Eichmann's trial for The New Yorker. In Eichmann in Jerusalem, a book formed by this reporting, Arendt details the conclusion of several Israeli psychiatrists that Eichmann was "normal." 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. Eichmann himself said he joined the SS not because he agreed with its ethos, but to build a career.[72]

Stanley Milgram interpreted Arendt's work as stating that even the most ordinary of people can commit horrendous crimes if placed in certain situations and given certain incentives. He wrote: "I must conclude that Arendt's conception of the banality of evil comes closer to the truth than one might dare imagine."[73] However, Arendt did not suggest that Eichmann was normal or that any person placed in his situation would have done as he did. According to her account, Eichmann had abdicated his will to make moral choices, and thus his autonomy.[74] Eichmann claimed he was just following orders, and that he was therefore respecting the duties of a "bureaucrat". Arendt thus argued that he had essentially forsaken the conditions of morality, autonomy and the ability to question orders (see Führerprinzip).

In Becoming Eichmann, David Cesarani claimed that Eichmann was in fact extremely anti-Semitic, and that these feelings were important motivators of his genocidal actions.[75]

In tapes recorded in the 1950s that have recently been made available by the German Federal Archive in Koblenz, Eichmann was recorded as stating he "was no ordinary recipient of orders" and that he "was part of the thinking process; an idealist". The tapes are reported to contradict Eichmann's defence during his 1961 Jerusalem trial for crimes against humanity that he was only "following orders".[76]

Eichmann's son, Ricardo, who was born after World War II, says he harbours no resentment toward Israel for executing his father. He explained that his father's lack of remorse caused "difficult emotions" for the Eichmann family, and that he was unable to grasp his father's "following orders" argument to excuse his actions.[77] Ricardo is now a professor of archaeology at the German Archaeological Institute.[78]

Summary of SS career

  • SS number: 45,326[79]
  • Nazi Party number: 899,895
  • Primary positions: Sub-Department IV-B4 (Gestapo), RSHA
  • Waffen-SS service: SS-Untersturmführer der Reserve (November 9, 1944)

Dates of rank

Nazi awards and decorations

See also

References

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ His father's name is given as Karl Adolf in many sources. The name Adolf Karl was testified by Eichmann himself[6] and accepted by the Israeli court.[7][8]
  2. ^ The Linz Realschule was the same high school which Adolf Hitler had attended some 17 years before.[10]

Citations

  1. ^ "Eichmann trial transcript".
  2. ^ "Translation from the Hebrew in the District Court of Jerusalem". Retrieved 21 August 2010. His name is sometimes incorrectly given as Karl.
  3. ^ His execution was scheduled for midnight on May 31, and many sources give May 31 as the date, for example Weitz, Yechiam (2007-07-26). "We have to carry out the sentence – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 2012-05-14.. However, the eyewitness William Hull who gives a minute by minute account in his book The Struggle for a Soul (1963) p. 160, says there was a slight delay and the execution took place two minutes after midnight.
  4. ^ Nazi abuse of ICRC humanitarian service ICRC travel document. 31-05-2007
  5. ^ Nazi Eichmann's passport found in Argentina ABC News. May 30, 2007
  6. ^ "Tonbandtranscription". Retrieved 7 December 2012.
  7. ^ "Translation from the Hebrew in the District Court of Jerusalem". Retrieved 20 August 2010.
  8. ^ "Transcripts/Judgement". The Nizkor Project. Retrieved 20 August 2010.
  9. ^ a b Levy 2006, p. 98.
  10. ^ Lipstadt 2011, p. 45.
  11. ^ Cesarani, David (2005), Eichmann: His Life and Crimes, Vintage Books, p. 28
  12. ^ Levy 2006, p. 101.
  13. ^ Levy 2006, p. 150.
  14. ^ Ailsby 1997, p. 40.
  15. ^ "Adolf Eichman was born in Austria in Solingen in 1906 and died in Israel". Retrieved 2009-05-13.
  16. ^ Levy 2006, pp. 99–101.
  17. ^ Padfield 2001, p. 198.
  18. ^ In September 1939, this department was renamed Section IV B4, of the SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA; Reich Main Security Office)
  19. ^ Levy 2006, pp. 103–104.
  20. ^ Porter, Anna (2007). Kasztner's Train: The True Story of an Unknown Hero of the Holocaust. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre. p. 106. ISBN 978-1-55365-222-9.
  21. ^ Levy 2006, pp. 105–106.
  22. ^ a b c d Aderet, Ofer (2012-04-15). "An inside look at Israel's operation to capture Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
  23. ^ "Adolf Eichmann". Archived from the original on 30 April 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-14. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  24. ^ McNab, Chris (2009), The SS: 1923–1945, p. 41
  25. ^ Lumsden, Robin (2002), A Collector's Guide To: The Allgemeine – SS, p. 84
  26. ^ Browning, Christopher R. (2004), The Origins of the Final Solution, p. 81
  27. ^ Browning, Christopher R. (2004), The Origins of the Final Solution, p. 362
  28. ^ a b Hannah Arendt (1963). Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. New York: Viking. p. 218
  29. ^ "Argentina uncovers Eichmann pass". BBC. 29 May 2007. Archived from the original on 6 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-07. A student has found the passport used by Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann to enter Argentina in 1950. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help) The passport has since been handed over to the Argentina Holocaust Museum in Buenos Aires.
  30. ^ "A Nazi War Criminal's Life in Argentina" Spiegel Online International. April 1, 2011. Retrieved 2012-12-14.
  31. ^ a b Geller, Doron. "The Capture of Adolf Eichmann" jewishvirtuallibrary.org, Retrieved 2012-12-14.
  32. ^ a b c Shane, Scott (2006-06-07). "C.I.A. Knew Where Eichmann Was Hiding, Documents Show". nytimes.com. Retrieved 2007-02-28.
  33. ^ "Rapport: CIA beskyttede topnazist". Pol.dk. 2006-06-07. Retrieved 2006-06-07.[dead link‍] Template:Da icon
  34. ^ "Documents show post-war CIA covered up Nazi war crimes". Haaretz.com. 2006-06-07. Archived from the original on 21 June 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-11. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  35. ^ a b CIA Ties With Ex-Nazis Shown, The Washington Post, June 7, 2006
  36. ^ The Guardian, June 8, 2006,"Why Israel's capture of Eichmann caused panic at the CIA"
  37. ^ Schachter, Jonathan, "Isser Harel Takes On Nazi-Hunter. Wiesenthal 'Had No Role' In Eichmann Kidnapping", The Jerusalem Post 7 May 1991.
  38. ^ "Life style: Adolf Eichmann is a historical figure to me. Ricardo Eichmann speaks to Suzanne Glass about growing up the fatherless son of the Nazi war criminal hanged in Israel". The Independent. London. August 7, 1995.
  39. ^ David Cesarani (2006). Becoming Eichmann: Rethinking the Life, Crimes and Trial of a ‘Desk Murderer’. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. pp. 221–222.
  40. ^ Lipstadt 2011, p. 11.
  41. ^ Lipstadt 2011, p. 12.
  42. ^ The Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann is captured in a joint operation by the Mossad and the ISA May 1960 (Shin Bet Web Site)
  43. ^ Haggai Hitron, "The monster is in handcuffs", Haaretz, January 16, 2007.
  44. ^ Hunting Eichmann (By Neal Bascomb) pg. 233
  45. ^ Bascomb, Neil (2009). Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World's Most Notorious Nazi. Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 0-618-85867-9.
  46. ^ Tacuara salió a la calle, Página/12, May 15, 2005 Template:Es icon
  47. ^ IMDB.com
  48. ^ von Lang, Jochen (1983). Eichmann Interrogated. Canada: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0-88619-017-7.
  49. ^ Lipstadt 2011, p. 178.
  50. ^ See also Eichmann goes Digital by Alex Joffe, of the IJCR.
  51. ^ a b Lippmann, M. (1982). "The trial of Adolf Eichmann and the protection of universal human rights under international law". Houston Journal of International Law. 5: 1–34.
  52. ^ "Security Council resolution 138, June 23, 1960 (Symbol S/4349)". Un.org. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
  53. ^ Green, L. C. (1962). "Legal issues of the Eichmann trial". Tulane Law Review. 37: 641–683.
  54. ^ Eichmann trial transcript "?". Archived from the original on 2007-06-11. and appeal transcript "?". Archived from the original on 2007-06-11.
  55. ^ "Eichmann trial: Opening speech of Attorney General Gideon Hausner". Youtube.com. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
  56. ^ This law had previously been used to prosecute about 30 people, all but one of them Jewish Holocaust survivors, who were alleged to have been "Nazi Collaborators". See: Ben-Naftali, Orna; Tuval, Yogev (2006). "Punishing International Crimes Committed by the Persecuted: The Kapo Trials in Israel (1950s–1960s)". J Int Criminal Justice. 4 (1): 128–178. doi:10.1093/jicj/mqi022.
  57. ^ "plsc 118: The Moral Foundations of Politics". Retrieved 2013-03-12.
  58. ^ Great World Trials: The Adolph Eichmann Trial, 1961. pp. 332–337; 1997.
  59. ^ "Verdict of Eichmann trial". Youtube.com. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
  60. ^ "1969 In Review: Eichmann". Upi.com. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
  61. ^ Un spécialiste, portrait d'un criminel moderne on IMDB
  62. ^ "The Holocaust in the Dock: West Germany's Efforts to Influence the Eichmann Trial – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International". Archived from the original on 26 April 2011. Retrieved 26 April 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  63. ^ Israeli letters favored sparing of Eichmann, New York Times, June 4, 1962. Article available on-line for pay only.. Retrieved 2009-07-31.
  64. ^ a b c d Weitz, Yechiam (2007-07-26). "We have to carry out the sentence – Haaretz – Israel News". Haaretz. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
  65. ^ a b Transcript reproduced in: Avraham Burg, The Holocaust Is Over And We Must Rise From Its Ashes (2008), pp. 153–155
  66. ^ New York Times, June 1, 1962.
  67. ^ Carmel, Yoseph, Itzchak Ben Zvi from his Diary in the President's office, Mesada, Ramat Gan, 1967, p. 179
  68. ^ "Trial and History, Menahem Moutner Editor, The Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, 1999, pages 395–421". Amalnet.k12.il. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
  69. ^ Kotes-Bar, Chen (11 February 2012). "על השחיטה: האיש שתלה את אייכמן משחזר". Nrg Maariv (in Hebrew). Retrieved 12 February 2012. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  70. ^ "Eichmann memoirs published". London: Guardian Unlimited. 1999-08-12. Retrieved 2010-12-27.
  71. ^ David Cesarani, Eichmann: His Life and Crimes, (London: Vintage, 2005), p.321.
  72. ^ "Resignation on moral principle | Opinion". The First Post. Retrieved 2012-05-14.[dead link‍]
  73. ^ Milgram, Stanley. "The Perils of Obedience". Harper's Magazine (1974)
  74. ^ The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "?". Archived from the original on 21 November 2007. Retrieved 26 November 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  75. ^ Cesarani, David (2006), Becoming Eichmann: Rethinking the Life, Crimes and Trial of a ‘Desk Murderer’, Da Capo Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 197, 347
  76. ^ Day, Matthew (4 April 2011). "Adolf Eichmann regretted not killing all Europe's Jews". The Daily Telegraph.
  77. ^ "J. – ''Eichmann's son: 'There is no way I can explain'". Jewishsf.com. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
  78. ^ "Ynetnews.com". Ynetnews.com. 1995-06-20. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
  79. ^ SS service record of Adolf Eichmann, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland
  80. ^ Due to the Night of the Long Knives, the SS revamped its rank structure and adopted new titles. Eichmann's actual rank did not change, but the title of his rank was renamed from Oberscharführer to Scharführer in July 1934.

Sources

Further reading

  • Aharoni, Zvi; Dietl, Wilhelm (1997). Operation Eichmann: The Truth About the Pursuit, Capture and Trial. London: Arms and Armour. ISBN 978-1-85409-410-0.
  • Arendt, Hannah (1994). Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. New York: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-018765-0.
  • Bascomb, Neil (2009). Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World's Most Notorious Nazi. Boston; New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 0-618-85867-9.
  • Cesarani, David (2004). Eichmann: His Life and Crimes. London: W. Heinemann. ISBN 0-434-01056-1.
  • Friedman, Tuviah (1990). My Role in Operation Eichmann: A Documentary Collection. Haifa. OCLC 233910342.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Harel, Isser (1975). The House on Garibaldi Street: The First Full Account of the Capture of Adolf Eichmann. New York: Viking Press. ISBN 0-670-38028-8.
  • Lang, Jochen von (1983). Eichmann Interrogated. Toronto: Lester & Orpen Dennys. ISBN 0-88619-017-7.
  • Mulisch, Harry (2005). Criminal Case 40/61, The Trial of Adolf Eichmann: An Eyewitness Account. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-3861-3.
  • Pearlman, Moshe (1961). The Capture of Adolf Eichmann. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. OCLC 1070563.
  • Steinacher, Gerald (2011). Nazis on the run. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199642458.
  • Rassinier, Paul (1962). Le Véritable Procès Eichmann ou les Vainqueurs incorrigibles (in French). Paris: Les Sept Couleurs. OCLC 6238952.
  • Rassinier, Paul (1976). The Real Eichmann Trial or The Incorrigible Victors. Torrance: Institute for Historical Review. ISBN 0-911038-48-5.
  • Stein, Harry; Malkin, Peter Z (1990). Eichmann in My Hands. New York: Warner. ISBN 0-446-51418-7.
  • Villemarest, Pierre de (2005). Untouchable: Who Protected Bormann and Gestapo Müller after 1945 ... Slough: Aquilion. ISBN 1-904997-02-3.
  • Yablonka, Hanna (2004). The State of Israel vs. Adolf Eichmann. New York: Schocken. ISBN 0-8052-4187-6.
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