Adolf Eichmann - SS Obersturmbannführer
Adolf Eichmann was born in Solingen, Germany in 1906. In 1932 Eichmann joined the Nazi party and the SS. His first five years of service in the ranks of the Nazi party and the SS contained nothing that could point to his future overwhelmingly crucial role in the practical execution of a plan which aimed to murder Jews wherever they could be found - the crime that went down in history as "the Final Solution of the Jewish Question."
Operation Eichmann
Eichmann's role in determining the fate of European Jews became apparent in 1938. Following the annexation of Austria (the "Anschluss"), he became the commander of the "Centre for Jewish Emigration" ("Zentralstelle für juedische Auswanderung"), initially in Vienna, and subsequently in Prague and Berlin. At no stage in his career in the Nazi administration did he occupy a place in the ranks of prime decision makers. Right up to the end of the war he retained his subordinate rank and status, although, from 1941 and onwards, he masterminded the apparatus for concentrating, expropriating, and deporting millions of Jews to the ghettoes of Eastern Europe and the extermination camps. He adapted to fluctuating anti-Jewish policies, and endeavored to act with dedication, being motivated by unbridled careerism, concern for his status and rank, and feelings of frustration over his failure to achieve promotion, and over the disdain exhibited towards him and his inferior education.
For as long as Nazi Germany pursued a policy of getting rid of the Jews and forcing them to emigrate, Eichmann was involved in large scale emigration programs, such as the "Nisko Plan" (1939-1940), or the "Madagascar Plan" (1940-1942). When that trend changed in favor of a policy of de facto murder, likewise changed the direction of his actions - becoming prime administrator and organizer of the large scale logistics called for by the "Final Solution." Eichmann’s de facto involvement in the murder process initiated with an order out of his office to execute Serbian Jewish males. In a later stage, he participated in the Wannsee Conference (January 1942), the protocol of which, written in his own handwriting, was couched in camouflaged and misleading Nazi terms. His role in the implementation was dominant and tangible, characterized by a quest for perfection, steely determination and above all, a total refusal to compromise.
Even when high-ranking colleagues appealed to him in person to release a single Jew or several from deportation to the camps, or even when SS commander Himmler ordered him outright to halt the shipments to Auschwitz, Eichmann vehemently refused. Not content with remaining seated at his desk in the Berlin IV B4 (a department of the Central Office for Security of the Reich (RSHA)) Eichmann conducted frequent personal inspections of the various murder sites, including Auschwitz, where he was in close contact with camp commander Rudolf Höss, and became involved in all the details of the industrialized murder process.
The spring and early summer of 1944 found Eichmann determined, come what may and whatever the cost, to ship the Jews of Hungary, including those of the capital Budapest, to the Auschwitz crematorium, even as the Reich tottered on the verge of collapse.
Eichmann Escapes to Argentina
In December 1944, before Eichmann could complete the deportation of the Jews of Budapest, and a few days before the Hungarian capital fell to the Red Army, he hastily decamped back to Germany. Eichmann was ,soon after apprehended by the Americans, caught masquerading under the false name Otto Eckmann. After fleeing the American detention camp in January 1946, he hid out on a farm for a few months going on to live in the British occupation zone under the borrowed identity of Otto Henninger. Along with many Nazi criminals, in 1950 he was granted a Catholic Church "certificate of indulgence," which enabled him to sail clandestinely from Italy to Argentina under the false identity of "Ricardo Klement." At this time, Argentina had become a safe haven for thousands of Nazi criminals who arrived by what was known as "the rat route." Going under his false name, Eichmann was employed at the Mercedes-Benz workshop. In 1952 his wife and children joined him.
Locating Eichmann in Argentina
Eichmann's significant role as one of the architects of the "Final Solution" of Europe's Jews, began to emerge in the late forties. From the early fifties, rumors proliferated claiming that he was in South America, as the intelligence services of Western Germany and the United States had already learned with certainty. But it was thanks to the determination and persistence of a number of individuals resolved to expose the true identity of "Ricardo Klement," that agents of Israel's Mossad launched a hunt ending with Eichmann's capture on May 11 1960. Fritz Bauer, the (Jewish) prosecutor-general of the West German state of Hessen, acting outside his formal role for fear that official action might foil the success of the operation, conveyed to the Israeli government solid information about Eichmann's whereabouts. Lothar Hermann, a German born Holocaust survivor who had emigrated to Argentina, prompted Mossad to take action on the basis of particularly credible information received from his daughter Sylvia, who had romantic ties to one of Eichmann's sons, Klaus. In addition, there was the vigorous activity of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, and of Mossad agent Manus Diamant, who came up with a portrait photograph of Eichmann from the war years. Each one in his own way prepared the path for Mossad to plan and execute the abduction operation.
Capturing Eichmann
The snatch team included: Rafi Eitan, Peter Malkin, Zvi Aharoni, and Moshe Tabor. The operation was carried out under the command of Mossad chief Isser Harel with the backing of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. After seizing Eichmann close to his Garibaldi street home in a suburb of Buenos Aires, his captors rushed him to a place of concealment. Under interrogation, Eichmann admitted his true identity and signed a document giving his consent to stand trial in Israel. Eleven days later he was clandestinely flown to Israel on an El Al airliner.
Public Opinion in Israel and the World
Two days after Eichmann's arrival in Israel, on May 23, 1960, the Prime Minister took to the Knesset podium to proclaim that Eichmann had been captured and was in Israel. The news stunned and amazed public opinion in Israel and worldwide.
The months following the abduction were marked by a severe diplomatic row between Israel and Argentina, the latter complaining to the international community and the UN Security Council about infringement of its sovereignty. Feverish diplomatic efforts by Israel's foreign ministry and the Jewish intellectuals who rallied worldwide, restored bilateral relations to normalcy. In the course of the trial, particularly towards its conclusion, a majority of nations and world public opinion recognized the justice of the Israeli action, and Israel's right to bring the villain to justice.
Eichmann's Trial in Jerusalem - Preparing for Trial
The first session of the District Court on criminal case 40/61 was held on April 11, 1961, at Jerusalem's "Bet Ha'am." The trial terminated on December 15, 1961 with the reading of the verdict, whereby Eichmann found guilty on most of the articles of the indictment, was sentenced to death. The commencement of the trial was preceded by long months of punctilious preparation. The Israeli police set up a special unit, "Bureau 06," for the purpose of assembling the relevant documents; selecting witnesses and preparing them for their testimony; setting out the prosecution line; and discussing various legal issues. 1,600 documents were selected, most of them bearing Eichmann's signature. Likewise, a list of 108 survivor witnesses was prepared, as well as another of expert witnesses - historians and other scholars.
Witnesses
The witnesses were summoned to set out the full and complex story of the Holocaust, not necessarily from a viewpoint associated directly with the accused. Predictably, however, an account of Eichmann's crimes was woven into their stories arising out of his various posts in the SS, as coordinator, organizer, and director of the deportation of Jews to the ghettoes and annihilation camps.
Proof of Guilt
The indictment charged Eichmann on fifteen counts including crimes against the Jewish people, and crimes against humanity. The prosecution team included Gideon Hausner, officiating as legal advisor to the government, and his assistants, Gavriel Bach and Yakov Bar-Or. The defense team comprised of Dr. Robert Servatius and his assistant, Dieter Wachtenbruch. The defense did not contest the facts included in the indictment, opting instead to play down the responsibility of the accused for the crimes of the Nazi regime against the Jews. The defense depicted the accused as "a small cog in the state apparatus," lacking influence upon the planning and operation of the murder machine. This line of defense stressed Eichmann's hierarchical inability to defy the instructions of his superiors, and the fact that it was the heads of the Nazi regime, rather than Eichmann, who adopted the decisive criminal decisions. However, the prosecution contrived, by means of documents and testimonies, to prove that the accused, his relatively low rank notwithstanding, was a personage of influence, initiative, and vigorous and resolute motivation to deport the Jews from the “Old Reich” territory to the ghettoes in the East, where a majority were condemned to their deaths. Furthermore, his personal responsibility was established for the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Jews to the annihilation camps, Auschwitz in particular. The judges noted the determination of the accused to continue at all costs the deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz especially towards the end of 1944, on the verge of the collapse of the Third Reich, even in opposition to the views of his superiors.
Verdict
The panel of District Court judges who considered the Eichmann case as court of first resort comprised: Moshe Landau (presiding), Dr. Benjamin Halevy and Yitzhak Raveh. On December 13, 1961 the court found Eichmann guilty on most articles of the indictment, and on the 15th of that same month, sentenced him to death. The defense appealed to the Supreme Court which on May 29, 1962, ratified the verdict of the lower court. In a final effort, Eichmann addressed a plea for clemency to then state President Yitzhak Ben Zvi, but the President rejected the request.
Execution of the Verdict
At the Ramla prison during the night between May 31, and June 1, 1962, Eichmann was executed by hanging. In his final moments, Eichmann expressed his unwavering love and loyalty to Germany and Argentina. After his body was incinerated, his ashes were scattered at sea outside Israeli territorial waters. At the conclusion of the process, jurists from all over the world, including some who had initially questioned Israel's right to judge Eichmann, noted the fairness shown by the judges and their strict adherence to the principle of a fair trial.
Throughout the trial, the proceedings were broadcast live by “Kol Yisrael” radio. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis, wherever they happened to be, either at home, in the street, at work, or school, listened attentively to the broadcasts, particularly to the testimonies of survivors. Hundreds of journalists came to Israel from every part of the world to cover the trial, which attracted the attention of the public worldwide.
Shaping an Awareness of the Holocaust in Israeli and World Public Opinion
In the annals of public awareness of the Holocaust period, nothing rivals the Eichmann trial as a milestone and turning point, whose impact is evident to this day. The trial introduced the Holocaust into the historical, educational, legal and cultural discourse, not merely in Israel and the Jewish world, but on the consciousness of all peoples of the world. Sixteen years after the end of the Holocaust, it focused attention upon the account of the suffering and torment of the Jewish people, as recounted to the judges. Its powerful, and one could claim, revolutionary, consequences continue right up to the present day.
The trial set the first milestone of a years' long process, an ongoing turnabout in shaping an awareness of the Holocaust in Israeli and world public opinion. The trial broke down the reluctance of many Israelis and Jews to approach the Holocaust, due to the powerful impression left by the personal testimonies of over a hundred witnesses who were called upon to recount their experiences during the Holocaust. Echoes of the trial finally attracted attention and awareness to the Holocaust survivors living among us, who had hesitated prior to the trial, to tell their personal stories, owing to a reluctance and an absence of openness among many native-born Israelis.
The trial brought about a significant change among Israeli youth in their attitude to the Holocaust. For them and other young Jews, the Holocaust was a remote and abstract issue. The trial was a significant step in conveying the Holocaust to Israeli and Jewish students, a process that reached fruition in the eighties and nineties, in the form of school delegations to Poland; to the sites of the former ghettoes and camps; and with youngsters writing essays about their own roots. As a result of the trial, the Holocaust is now perceived as an integral part of their identity as Israelis and as Jews.
The Eichmann trial also served as a catalyst for promoting other important trials of German Nazis. The most significant of these was the trial of the Auschwitz criminals, launched in 1963 in Frankfurt am Main. The consequence was a growing nervousness among other fugitive criminals, principally in South America, obliging them to adopt heightened precautions. In Paraguay in 1965, following the capture of Eichmann, Mossad assassinated Herbert Cukors who had overseen the annihilation of the Jews of Latvia. Another outcome of the trial was the spotlight directed upon former Nazi criminals who were playing an active role in administration and culture in post-war Germany. The storm surrounding Hans Globke and Kanzler Konrad Adenauer, which raged in Israel and the Western world, can be attributed to this moral and legal aspect, and likewise, the campaign Israel waged against German scientists operating in the military field in Egypt.
The trial gave rise to a rich literature. To date, some 600 works of various categories have been published in numerous languages. In addition, 89 documentary films and 4 feature films have been produced, and more are in the works. Renowned poets and writers have written about the trial, including: Eli Wiesel, Primo Levi, Nathan Alterman, and Haim Gouri. The trial sparked intellectual controversy among scholars in Israel and worldwide, the best known being the debate on the journalistic reports of political philosopher Hannah Arendt.
The trial revolutionized the status and importance of Yad Vashem as the institution that provided the groundwork of research for the team preparing the trial. Ever since the trial, Yad Vashem has progressively achieved a pivotal position as the prime national and international location for Holocaust research and commemoration. The bringing together of documents and photographs, alongside the witnesses and testimonies the institution supplied to the prosecution, has secured its place as the most comprehensive resource on the Holocaust.