Real Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Book III

Adolf Eichmann

Otto Adolf Eichmann (/ˈaɪxmən/EYEKH-mən, German: [ˈɔtoː ˈʔaːdɔlf ˈʔaɪçman]; 19 March1906 – 1 June 1962) was a German-Austrian SS-Obersturmbannführerand one of the major organists of the Holocaust – the "FinalSolution to the Jewish Question" in Nazi terminology. He wastasked by SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich with facilitatingand managing the logistics involved in the mass deportation of Jewsto ghettos and extermination camps in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europeduring World War II. Eichmann was captured by the Mossad in Argentinaon 11 May 1960 and subsequently found guilty of war crimes in awidely publicized trial in Jerusalem, where he was executed byhanging in 1962.

After doing poorly in school, Eichmannbriefly worked for his father's mining company in Austria, where thefamily had moved in 1914. He worked as a traveling oil salesmanbeginning in 1927, and joined both the Nazi Party and the SS in 1932.He returned to Germany in 1933, where he joined the Sicherheitsdienst(SD, "Security Service"); there he was appointedhead of the department responsible for Jewish affairs – especiallyemigration, which the Nazis encouraged through violence and economicpressure. After the outbreak of the Second World War in September1939, Eichmann and his staff arranged for Jews to be concentrated inghettos in major cities with the expectation that they would betransported either farther east or overseas. He also drew up plansfor a Jewish reservation, first at Nisko in southeast Poland andlater in Madagascar, but neither of these plans were carried out.

The Nazis began the invasion of theSoviet Union in June 1941, and their Jewish policy changed fromemigration to extermination. To coordinate planning for the genocide,Heydrich, who was Eichmann's superior, hosted the regime'sadministrative leaders at the Wannsee Conference on 20 January 1942.Eichmann collected information for him, attended the conference, andprepared the minutes. Eichmann and his staff became responsible forJewish deportations to extermination camps, where the victims weregassed. Germany invaded Hungary in March 1944, and Eichmann oversawthe deportation of much of the Jewish population. Most of the victimswere sent to Auschwitz concentration camp, where about 75 per centwere murdered upon arrival. By the time the transports were stoppedin July 1944, 437,000 of Hungary's 725,000 Jews had been killed.Dieter Wisliceny testified at Nuremberg that Eichmann told him hewould "leap laughing into the grave because the feeling thathe had five million people on his conscience would be for him asource of extraordinary satisfaction."

After Germany's defeat in 1945,Eichmann was captured by US forces, but escaped from a detention campand moved around Germany to avoid re-capture. He ended up in a smallvillage in Lower Saxony, where he lived until 1950, when he moved toArgentina using false papers he obtained with help from anorganization directed by Catholic bishop Alois Hudal. Informationcollected by the Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, confirmed hislocation in 1960. A team of Mossad and Shin Bet agents capturedEichmann and brought him to Israel to stand trial on 15 criminalcharges, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimesagainst the Jewish people. During the trial, he did not deny theHolocaust or his role in organizing it, but claimed that he wassimply following orders in a totalitarian Führerprinzip system. Hewas found guilty on all of the charges, and was executed by hangingon 1 June 1962. The trial was widely followed in the media and waslater the subject of several books, including Hannah Arendt'sEichmann in Jerusalem, in which Arendt coined the phrase "thebanality of evil" to describe Eichmann.

Early life and education

Otto Adolf Eichmann, the eldest of fivechildren, was born in 1906 to a Calvinist Protestant family inSolingen, Germany. His parents were Adolf Karl Eichmann, abookkeeper, and Maria (née Schefferling), a housewife. The elderAdolf moved to Linz, Austria, in 1913 to take a position ascommercial manager for the Linz Tramway and Electrical Company, andthe rest of the family followed a year later. After the death ofMaria in 1916, Eichmann's father married Maria Zawrzel, a devoutProtestant with two sons.