Adolf Eichmann (1906

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Biography

Otto Adolf Eichmann was a German-Austrian official of the Nazi Party, an officer of the Schutzstaffel (SS), a convicted war criminal, and one of the major organisers of the Holocaust. He participated in the January 1942 Wannsee Conference, at which the implementation of the genocidal Final Solution to the Jewish Question was planned. Following this, he was tasked by SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich with facilitating and managing the logistics involved in the mass deportation of millions of Jews to Nazi ghettos and Nazi extermination camps across German-occupied Europe. He was captured and detained by the Allies in 1945, but escaped and eventually settled in Argentina. In May 1960, he was tracked down and apprehended by Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, and put on trial before the Supreme Court of Israel. The highly publicised Eichmann trial resulted in his conviction in Jerusalem, following which he was executed by hanging in 1962.

In Their Own Words (5)

To sum it all up, I must say that I regret nothing.

While awaiting trial in Israel, as quoted in LIFE magazine (5 December 1960). , 1960

It was actually an achievement that was never matched before or since.

About the deportation of more than 400,000 Jews from Hungary in several weeks as quoted in Eichmann Before Jerusalem by Bettina Stangneth (1815). , 1815

I will simply not do penance.

A text handwritten by Eichmann in 1956, as quoted in Eichmann Before Jerusalem by Bettina Stangneth (2015). , 2015

The language becomes entirely perverted where Eichmann turns metaphors on their heads, talking about expulsion and murder using gentle images of life. An institution for forced emigration was his "first child," where he was able to "be creative in my work." All the individual acts of robbery and expulsion that took place in Austria were committed to "provide [the country] with injections of Jewish solutions." Even exterminations and deportations were "born". This was why he felt so superfluous in Budapest, when he was forced to stop deporting people to Auschwitz: "As far as I know, I couldn't have done anything fruitful anymore" ... In Eichmann's language, he didn't send people to the death camps; the camps were "fed with material".

Eichmann Before Jerusalem by Bettina Stangneth (2015). , 2015

My political sentiments inclined toward the left and emphasized the socialist aspects every bit as much as the nationalist ones.

Eichmann's memoir False Gods, quoted in Gotz Aly, Hitler's Beneficiaries. How the Nazis Bought the German People (London: Verso, 2007), pp. 16-17. , 2007

Timeline

The story of Adolf Eichmann, told in moments.

1942 Event

Attended the Wannsee Conference, where 15 Nazi officials planned the logistics of the Final Solution in 90 minutes over cognac and lunch. Eichmann took the minutes.

What was it like taking minutes while fifteen men planned the murder of millions? Did anyone at Wannsee hesitate, even briefly?

1960 Event

Captured by Mossad agents in Buenos Aires, where he'd been living under the name Ricardo Klement. They grabbed him at a bus stop near his home and smuggled him to Israel on an El Al flight.

Did you think you were safe as Ricardo Klement? What went through your mind when Mossad grabbed you at the bus stop?

1962 Death

Hanged at Ramla prison. His last words: "Long live Germany. Long live Argentina. Long live Austria." His body was cremated and the ashes scattered in the Mediterranean beyond Israeli waters.

Were your last words a genuine tribute or just habit? Does it matter that your ashes were scattered beyond Israeli waters?