[192] The defence team mostly relied on legal arguments about Israel's jurisdiction and the legality of the laws under which Eichmann was charged. Once Eichmann finally was behind bars in Jerusalem in 1960, Israel prepared for the trial. [7] His parents were Adolf Karl Eichmann, a bookkeeper, and Maria (née Schefferling), a housewife. Adolf Eichmann was in charge of the identification, assembly, and transportation of Jews in all parts of Europe that were occupied by Nazi Germany to extermination camps in German-occupied Poland, including Auschwitz, a task that he carried out with zeal and resourcefulness. "I was not a responsible leader, and as such do not feel myself guilty. I am ready. Thereupon he organized the identification, assembly, and transportation of Jews from all over occupied Europe to their final destinations at Auschwitz and other extermination camps in German-occupied Poland. Adolf Eichmann or Otto Adolf Eichmann was a SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer or a lieutenant colonel in the German Army who played an important role in organizing the Holocaust in which almost six million Jews from different countries were exterminated. [13] From 1925 to 1927 he worked as a sales clerk for the Oberösterreichische Elektrobau AG radio company. [152] In addition, Servatius submitted a request for clemency to Ben-Zvi and petitioned for a stay of execution pending his planned appeals for extradition to the West German government. The déclassé son of a solid middle-class Protestant family which had moved to Linz, Austria, where Eichmann spent his youth, he failed to … This 1961 file photo shows Adolf Eichmann standing in his glass cage in the Jerusalem courtroom where he was tried and convicted of war crimes committed during World War II. While Eichmann’s trial was itself controversial, an even greater controversy followed the trial. [102], At the end of the war, Eichmann was captured by US forces and spent time in several camps for SS officers using forged papers that identified him as Otto Eckmann. He worked as a travelling oil salesman beginning in 1927, and joined both the Nazi Party and the SS in 1932. During the trial, he did not deny the Holocaust or his role in organising it, but claimed that he was simply following orders in a totalitarian Führerprinzip system. He escaped from a work detail at Cham, Germany, when he realised that his identity had been discovered. Omissions? As Britain still controlled the Atlantic and her merchant fleet would not be at Germany's disposal for use in evacuations, planning for the Madagascar proposal stalled. His wife, who disliked Berlin, resided in Prague with the children. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. After an unremarkable school career, Eichmann briefly worked for his father's mining company in Austria, where the family had moved in 1914. [134] Eitan told the Haaretz newspaper in 2008 that they decided not to pursue Mengele as it might have jeopardised the Eichmann operation. Adolf Eichmann, in full Karl Adolf Eichmann, (born March 19, 1906, Solingen, Germany—died May 31, 1962, Tel Aviv, Israel), German high official who was hanged by the State of Israel for his part in the Holocaust, the Nazi extermination of Jews during World War II. We know that one doesn't need to be fanatical, sadistic, or mentally ill to murder millions; that it is enough to be a loyal follower eager to do one's duty. [147] The Israelis were unwilling to take him to trial based solely on the evidence in documents and witness testimony, so he was subject to daily interrogations, the transcripts of which totalled over 3,500 pages. What I saw and heard was enough. From January to October 1934 he was attached to an SS unit at Dachau and then was appointed to the SS Sicherheitsdienst (“Security Service”) central office in Berlin, where he worked in the section that dealt with Jewish affairs. [59], Jews were concentrated into ghettos in major cities with the expectation that at some point they would be transported farther east or even overseas. He was arrested by Israeli secret service agents near Buenos Aires, Argentina, on May 11, 1960; nine days later they smuggled him out of the country and took him to Israel. [5] The execution was attended by a small group of officials, four journalists and the Canadian clergyman William Lovell Hull, who had been Eichmann's spiritual counselor while in prison. The Nazis began the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, and their Jewish policy changed from emigration to extermination. [160], The Israeli government arranged for the trial to have prominent media coverage. Later published as Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, her articles’ portrayal of Eichmann as banal rather than demonic provoked a storm of debate that lasted for almost a decade. [157] The defence team consisted of German lawyer Robert Servatius, legal assistant Dieter Wechtenbruch, and Eichmann himself. He returned to Berlin, where he arranged for the incriminating records of Department IV-B4 to be burned. He held a series of low-paying jobs until finding employment at Mercedes-Benz, where he rose to department head. Juni 1962 in Ramla bei Tel Aviv, Israel) war ein deutscher SS-Obersturmbannführer. [33][216] He does not agree that his father's "following orders" argument excuses his actions and notes how his father's lack of remorse caused "difficult emotions" for the Eichmann family. [117] Hermann then sent his daughter on a fact-finding mission; she was met at the door by Eichmann himself, who said that he was Klaus's uncle. [17] They promised a strong central government, increased Lebensraum (living space) for Germanic peoples, formation of a national community based on race, and racial cleansing via the active suppression of Jews, who would be stripped of their citizenship and civil rights. [104], In 1948, Eichmann obtained a landing permit for Argentina and false identification under the name Ricardo Klement through an organisation directed by Bishop Alois Hudal, an Austrian cleric then residing in Italy with known Nazi sympathies. Eichmann was an expert on management and logistics. [50], After a posting in Prague to assist in setting up an emigration office there, Eichmann was transferred to Berlin in October 1939 to command the Reichszentrale für Jüdische Auswanderung ("Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration") for the entire Reich under Heinrich Müller, head of the Gestapo. [123][124] Harel arrived in May 1960 to oversee the capture. These events were factors in Eichmann's decision to return to Germany. [150] Inspector Less noted that Eichmann did not seem to realise the enormity of his crimes and showed no remorse. "[212] The term "little Eichmanns" became a pejorative term for bureaucrats charged with indirectly and systematically harming others. [180] On the last day of the examination, he stated that he was guilty of arranging the transports, but he did not feel guilty for the consequences. If Himmler was the architect of the Final Solution and Hoess was an enthusiastic acolyte, then Adolf Eichmann was the ‘office boy’. Most of the victims were sent to Auschwitz concentration camp, where about 75 per cent were murdered upon arrival. [c] The trial was widely followed in the media and was later the subject of several books, including Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem, in which Arendt coined the phrase "the banality of evil" to describe Eichmann. Adolf Eichmann listening to the verdict in his trial in December 1961. And on May 23, 1960, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion announced that Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann had been captured and would stand trial in Israel. [171], Some of the evidence submitted by the prosecution took the form of depositions made by leading Nazis. [44] Funding came from money seized from other Jewish people and organisations, as well as donations from overseas, which were placed under SD control. [12] His poor school performance resulted in his father's withdrawing him from the Realschule and enrolling him in the Höhere Bundeslehranstalt für Elektrotechnik, Maschinenbau und Hochbau vocational college. [39] Polkes suggested that more Jews should be allowed to leave under the terms of the Haavara Agreement, but Hagen refused, surmising that a strong Jewish presence in Palestine might lead to their founding an independent state, which would run contrary to Reich policy. [76] Under Eichmann's supervision, large-scale deportations began almost immediately to extermination camps at Bełżec, Sobibor, Treblinka and elsewhere. But Hausner, in his role as Attorney General, declared that he would be obliged to have any war criminals who entered Israel arrested. His birth certificate as well as official Nazi-era documents confirm that 'Otto Adolf' is correct. ... After World War II, Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was arrested by American authorities and held in detention camps for SS … [13] He left without attaining a degree and joined his father's new enterprise, the Untersberg Mining Company, where he worked for several months. Although accurate figures may never be known, it is estimated that some 6 million Jewish individuals died – men, women, and children from all over Europe. After the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Eichmann and his staff arranged for Jews to be concentrated in ghettos in major cities with the expectation that they would be transported either farther east or overseas. [183] When Hausner produced evidence that Eichmann had stated in 1945 that "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 said he meant "enemies of the Reich" such as the Soviets. His pre-Nazi life was rather ordinary. I can’t listen to such things—such things, without their affecting me." [68] The Generalplan Ost (General Plan for the East) called for deporting the population of occupied Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to Siberia, for use as slave labour or to be murdered. [119] The government of Israel paid a reward to Hermann in 1971, twelve years after he had provided the information. Eichmann initially visited them weekly, but as time went on, his visits tapered off to once a month. To co-ordinate planning for the genocide, Heydrich, who was Eichmann's superior, hosted the regime's administrative leaders at the Wannsee Conference on 20 January 1942. Germany invaded Hungary in March 1944, and Eichmann oversaw the deportation of much of the Jewish population. Exactly 60 years ago at “Beit Ha’am” in Jerusalem began the trial of Adolf Eichmann – the Nazi war criminal who was one of the main perpetrators of the "Final Solution" for the extermination of the Jews during World War II. [205], The trial and the surrounding media coverage sparked renewed interest in wartime events, and the resulting increase in publication of memoirs and scholarly works helped raise public awareness of the Holocaust. [215], Eichmann's youngest son Ricardo Eichmann says he is not resentful toward Israel for executing his father. As a clear decision to exterminate had been made by his superiors, the matter was out of his hands; he felt absolved of any guilt. [63] When Germany failed to defeat the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain, the invasion of Britain was postponed indefinitely. [135], Near midnight on 20 May, Eichmann was sedated by an Israeli doctor on the Mossad team and dressed as a flight attendant. The appeal was heard by a five-judge Supreme Court panel consisting of Supreme Court President Yitzhak Olshan and judges Shimon Agranat, Moshe Zilberg, Yoel Zussman, and Alfred Witkon. He provided these photographs to Mossad agents on 18 February. [167] In the case of the Sassen interviews, only Eichmann's hand-written notes were admitted into evidence. [83] Eichmann held regular meetings in his Berlin offices with his department members working in the field and travelled extensively to visit concentration camps and ghettos. [181], Throughout his cross-examination, prosecutor Hausner attempted to get Eichmann to admit he was personally guilty, but no such confession was forthcoming. [210] Arendt, a political theorist who reported on Eichmann's trial for The New Yorker, described Eichmann in her book Eichmann in Jerusalem as the embodiment of the "banality of evil", as she thought he appeared to have an ordinary personality, displaying neither guilt nor hatred. [64] Hitler continued to mention the Plan until February 1942, when the idea was permanently shelved. He was hoping to bring Mengele back to Israel on the same flight. He even learned a smattering of Hebrew and Yiddish, gaining a reputation as a specialist in Zionist and Jewish matters. One year later, with a similar mission, he was sent to Prague. [148] The interrogator was Chief Inspector Avner Less of the national police. [66] Eichmann was one of the officials who received regular detailed reports of their activities. These two events represent a microcosm of modern Jewish history. [199] Ben-Gurion called a special cabinet meeting to resolve the issue. As for the charges against him, Eichmann maintained that he had not violated any law and that he was “the kind of man who cannot tell a lie.” Denying responsibility for the mass killings, he said, “I couldn’t help myself; I had orders, but I had nothing to do with that business.” He was evasive in describing his role in the extermination unit and claimed that he was responsible only for transport. U.S. troops captured Adolf Eichmann when World War II ended, but he escaped in 1946 and settled in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1958. [131], Eichmann was taken to one of several Mossad safe houses that had been set up by the team. He was found guilty on all of the charges, and was executed by hanging on 1 June 1962. He stated that he disagreed with the vulgar anti-Semitism of Julius Streicher and others who contributed to the periodical Der Stürmer. [82] His department was in constant contact with the Foreign Office, as Jews of conquered nations such as France could not as easily be stripped of their possessions and deported to their deaths. SS Lieutenant-Colonel who was Chief of the Jewish Office of the Gestapo during World War II and implemented the Final Solution which aimed at the total extermination of European Jewry, Adolf Eichmann was born in Solingen, Germany, on March 19, 1906.. [131] He was held there for nine days, during which time his identity was double-checked and confirmed. Until then, many people in the West had not been fully aware of the attempted annihilation of an entire people by the Nazi regime between 1939 and 1945. [115], Lothar Hermann, a half-Jewish German who had emigrated to Argentina in 1938, was also instrumental in exposing Eichmann's identity. [54] Heydrich announced Eichmann to be his "special expert", in charge of arranging for all deportations into occupied Poland. Adolf Eichmann is labeled as the man who masterminded the actual organisation of the Holocaust. [178] Servatius also proposed that decisions of the Nazi government were acts of state and therefore not subject to normal judicial proceedings. The cabinet decided to recommend to President Ben-Zvi that Eichmann not be granted clemency,[200] and Ben-Zvi rejected the clemency petition. "[169] Defence attorney Servatius repeatedly tried to curb the presentation of material not directly related to Eichmann, and was mostly successful. Adolf Eichmann was born in Solingen March 19, 1906 ,Germany, to a businessman and industrialist, Adolf Karl Eichmann, and Maria née Schefferling. The content of his letter and other trial documents were made public on 27 January 2016. The trial—before Jewish judges by a Jewish state that did not exist until three years after the Holocaust—gave rise to accusations of ex post facto justice. He worked as a traveling salesman in Oberösterreich (Upper Austria) for an oil company but lost his job during the Great Depression. [85][86] Hitler's appointment of a Hungarian government more amenable to the Nazis meant that the Hungarian Jews, who had remained essentially unharmed until that point, would now be deported to Auschwitz concentration camp to serve as forced labour or be gassed. [73] In preparation for the conference, Eichmann drafted for Heydrich a list of the numbers of Jews in various European countries and prepared statistics on emigration. [167] Hausner ignored police recommendations to call only 30 witnesses; only 14 of the witnesses called had seen Eichmann during the war. [156] The chief prosecutor was Israeli Attorney General Gideon Hausner, assisted by Deputy Attorney General Gabriel Bach and Tel Aviv District Attorney Yaakov Bar-Or. Ricardo is now a professor of archaeology at the German Archaeological Institute. After the death of Maria in 1916, Eichmann's father married Maria Zawrzel, a devout Protestant with two sons. Questions and answers about Adolf Eichmann. [48] After discussions with Hitler in the preceding weeks, on 21 September SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, head of the SD, advised his staff that Jews were to be collected into cities in Poland with good rail links to facilitate their expulsion from territories controlled by Germany, starting with areas that had been incorporated into the Reich. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Otto Adolf Eichmann[a] (/ˈaɪxmən/ EYEKH-mən,[1] German: [ˈɔto ˈʔaːdɔlf ˈʔaɪçman]; 19 March 1906 – 1 June 1962) was a German-Austrian[2] SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust—the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" in Nazi terminology. [213], In her 2011 book Eichmann Before Jerusalem, based largely on the Sassen interviews and Eichmann's notes made while in exile, Bettina Stangneth argues instead that Eichmann was an ideologically motivated antisemite and lifelong committed Nazi who intentionally built a persona as a faceless bureaucrat for presentation at the trial. Home Breaking News 60 years ago - desk perpetrator or mass murderer? In the last week of October 1939, 4,700 Jews were sent to the area by train and were essentially left to fend for themselves in an open meadow with no water and little food.

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