190. Charlotte Salzberger, witness statement at Eichmann trial, session 42. Frau Salzberger dated this interrogation as March 3, 1945. She quoted Eichmann in German at his trial, eliciting one of the few visible reactions from him.
191. Rumors about the building of gas chambers in Theresienstadt led back to Eichmann (not least due to Wisliceny’s statement about him to Kasztner). Afterward Eichmann referred to Majdanek, which he had been accused of maintaining, and said this would not happen to him again. Kasztner Report. H. G. Adler assumes that these plans did exist but that Eichmann was forced to withdraw them: Theresienstadt, 1941–1945: Das Antlitz einer Zwangsgemeinschaft (Tübingen, 1960), p. 201. At the start of March, Eichmann called a halt to the preparations for extermination and led a second round of “beautification.” Adler, Der verwaltete Mensch, p. 354. Moritz Henschel also mentioned these plans in “Die letzten Jahre der Jüdischen Gemeinde Berlin,” lecture in Tel Aviv, September 13, 1946, extract in prosecution document T/649.
192. “L’activité des CICR dans les Camps de Concentration en Allemagne,” prosecution document T/865. A heavily abridged version was published in Jean-Claude Favez, The Red Cross and the Holocaust (Cambridge, 1999), pp. 305–6. See also attendee list for the event, prosecution document T/866. The visit was supervised by Ernst von Thadden (of the Foreign Office), Erich von Luckwald, and Erwin Weinmann (head of the SD in Bohemia and Moravia). The evening reception took place in the Hradčany castle district at the house of Reichsprotektor Karl-Hermann Frank.
193. Wisliceny and Eichmann both spoke about the promotion to SS Standartenführer that Eichmann had been offered. Wisliceny, Cell 133 Document, prosecution document T/84, p. 8; Sassen transcript 4:5.
194. Sassen transcript 11:11. In an earlier transcript, Eichmann spoke of “30 Eichmanns,” Sassen transcript 3:1.
195. Wisliceny, Cell 133 Document, prosecution document T/84, p. 14. Wisliceny spoke in detail about the story Eichmann told, and about comparable information given to him by Höttl in Nuremberg, regarding a conversation he had had with Eichmann.
196. Eichmann gave this version of events several times, and it was corroborated at least on this point by the testimonies of Zeischka, Goettsch, and Waneck. June 17, 1946, information date April 1945, NA, RG 263, CIA Name File Adolf Eichmann.
2 The Postwar Career of a Name
1. CIC Report, June 17, 1946, NA, RG 263, CIA Name File Adolf Eichmann.
2. Facsimile in Manus Diamant, Geheimauftrag: Mission Eichmann (Vienna, 1995), p. 224. Also in Simon Wiesenthal, Ich jagte Eichmann: Tatsachenbericht (Gütersloh, 1961), p. 25.
3. Robinson to Jackson, July 27, 1945, World Jewish Congress Collection (MS-361), American Jewish Archives, box C106, file 16; cited in Tom Segev, Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends (New York, 2010), p. 13.
4. Arrest Report Wisliceny, Dieter, August 25 and 27, 1945, NA, RG 263, CIA Name File Adolf Eichmann.
5. Arrest warrant in Staatspolizei Fahndungsblatt, under the terms of article 1654/46 (1946), paragraphs 3 and 4, KVG (Kriegsverbrechergesetz Österreich). The proceedings were unsuccessful, but the file was made available to Fritz Bauer in Frankfurt ten years later.
6. One part was made available according to the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act 1998, NA, RG 263, CIA Name File Adolf Eichmann, box 14–15.
7. In the Paris 1945 edition (unpaginated), Kiel University Library. The Berlin, March 1947, edition, mentioned Eichmann seven times (once as Eickmann) and said he was wanted in the United States and France for war crimes, murder, and torture.
8. Sassen transcript 10:17.
9. Adolf Karl Barth had been the name of a colonial goods merchant in Berlin, Eichmann later said. In Ulm, Eichmann claimed to be a Luftwaffe Obergefreiter, and when he was transferred to the collecting camp at Weiden, Oberpfalz (Stalag Xiii B), he said he was an SS Oberscharführer in the Waffen-SS. See “The Others Spoke,” in the Argentina Papers. The transfer to Oberdachstetten in Bavaria followed, in August 1945. The first reference to the name Eckmann comes from a witness statement from June 1945: interrogation of Rudolf Schneide by L. Ponger, Yad Vashem Archive, M-9, file 584a. The statement is also in the relevant CIC report from December 3, 1946, NA, RG 319, Investigative Records Repository, Adolf Eichmann.
10. Sassen interview, BA tape 10B, starting at 1:14. Word-for-word transcription, abbreviations marked.
11. Shlomo Aronson, “Preparations for the Nuremberg Trial: The O.S.S., Charles Dwork, and the Holocaust,” Holocaust and Genocide Studies 12, no. 2 (1998), pp. 257–81.
12. One example is David Cesarani, who summarizes: “Eichmann was not mentioned sufficiently often or prominently enough to penetrate the consciousness of those who heard every word of the proceedings at Nuremberg, let alone those who received infrequent and drastically abbreviated reports from the press” (p. 1). German newspaper readers weren’t interested in names, either, using their focus on day-to-day survival as justification for their lack of interest. There is also the question of which of the trial observers Cesarani is talking about. Those who knew Eichmann’s name from before, like the wide circles of his victims and his fellow perpetrators, had various reasons for either noticing or ignoring things.
13. The English transcripts and documents from the first Nuremberg trial have been made available as part of Yale Law School’s Avalon Project: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/imt.asp. In these endnotes, transcript quotations are given by the session date, and documents are cited according to the numbers used in the trial. IMT vols. refers to the printed edition (the so-called Blue Series).
14. Prosecution document T/585, identical with IMT 2376-PS, Gestapo-62 (June 22, 1945).
15. Dieter Wisliceny, witness statement, IMT, January 3, 1946.
16. Gustave M. Gilbert, Nürnberger Tagebuch (Frankfurt am Main, 1962), p. 109.
17. This announcement was quickly spread via Eichmann’s adjutant Rudolf Jänisch and appears in the CIC files. It was frequently documented. Eichmann confirmed this trick in detail in Argentina: Sassen transcript 10:17.
18. The name frequently given in the secondary literature is Feiersleben, which stems from the incorrect entry in the residents’ register from Eversen, and interviews in Altensalzkoth in summer 1960. The additional “von” was crossed out in the registry book (Bergen City Archive, shelf 585 no. 2). Later documents give the correct name. Thanks to Kurt Werner Seebo at the Bergen City Archive for his expert help.
19. Eichmann mentions this stopping point, which has not been closely researched, twice: in conversation with Sassen in 1957 (only on the original tape, BA tape 10B, 1:22:15) and in the manuscript “Meine Flucht,” p. 21 (March 1961), BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/247. The latter implies that Eichmann obtained new papers in the Rhineland.
20. Sassen transcript 11:2.
21. The brother’s housekeeper gave an interview in 1960 that has previously been overlooked, in which she mentioned the letters between the brothers about Eichmann’s escape. She knew numerous details that we have only recently been able to verify, lending credibility to her statement. “Adolf Eichmann Dug His Own Grave: The Family Housekeeper’s Story,” Neues Österreich, June 2, 1960.
22. Much later Robert Eichmann admitted that his stepfather had stayed in constant contact with his stepbrother Adolf—though the family discovered this only after his death. Robert Eichmann to Leo Maier-Frank, police captain (retired), March 8, 1990, in Die Rattenlinie: Fluchtwege der Nazis: Eine Dokumentation, edited by Rena Giefer and Thomas Giefer (Frankfurt am Main, 1991), pp. 71– 73. (The letter also contains other, more dubious information.)
23. “Henninger” is a mishearing. The entry in the residents’ registry book from Eversen is clear. Eversen arrival and departure registry, Bergen City Archive, shelf 585, no. 2. Thanks to Kurt-Werner Seebo.
24. Eversen registry book, ibid.
25. Wisliceny, Cell 133 Document, prosecution document T/84, p. 22.
26. CIC Report, NA, RG 319, Investigative Records Repository, Adolf Eichmann; and NA, RG 263
, CIA Name File Adolf Eichmann, SS Obersturmbannführer A.E. 1946.
27. Declaration under oath, read out on April 11, 1946.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.
30. Eichmann’s misremembering of this speech is telling. In Argentina, he quoted Jackson: “He [Jackson] felt he had to attest on the occasion of this trial, that I … was ‘In truth the most sinister figure of this century’ ” (“Re: My Findings,” part 2 of “The Others Spoke”), which included two separate elevations of what Jackson actually said.
31. IMT, Gest-39, Huppenkothen’s declaration under oath.
32. Otto Winkelmann, SS Obergruppenführer and senior SS and police leader in Hungary, and Hans Jüttner, SS Obergruppenführer and general of the Waffen-SS, told an outrageous story (corroborated by Kurt Becher) absolving each other of responsibility for the death marches, although Winkelmann was responsible for the deportations and Jüttner wanted the forced labor. Jüttner stated: “At that time [November 1944] Winkelmann said he was completely powerless in the matter, and would be very grateful if I could raise an objection.” Jüttner attempted it, although “I was well aware of the fact that this intervention could have very unpleasant consequences for me personally.” Eichmann, however, claimed both of them had congratulated him on the idea for the foot marches, which is not unlikely. The only thing that may have disturbed Jüttner was the demographic of the foot marches—there were too few men capable of work. Jüttner’s statement, Nuremberg, May 3, 1948. All three repeated their performance for the Eichmann trial: Winkelmann at Bordesholm, May 29, 1961; Jüttner at Bad Toelz, May 31, 1961; Kurt Becher at Bremen, June 20, 1961.
33. Kasztner Report, p. 194. For Kasztner, the term stood for the unassailable position of power that Eichmann’s system established for anti-Jewish policy in all occupied countries, against which no one could say anything.
34. Judgment read out on September 30, 1946. IMT vol. 1,298.
35. Ibid. IMT vol. 1,283.
36. The handwritten note appears on an internal document called “Suggested Frame of the Judgment, in bare outline (for consideration and criticism only),” which was strictly classified because the news that the judges were already preparing notes for a judgment could itself have disastrous consequences. This suggests it was a very early document. Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y., Francis Biddle Papers, box 14. Thanks to Nicolette A. Dobrowolski for her expert help in finding the note and for her information on the document. The description in Bradley F. Smith, Reaching Judgment at Nuremberg (New York, 1977), p. 115, is problematic.
37. The final version of the indictment was submitted in the opening session, on October 18, 1945.
38. The apt phrase comes from Moshe Pearlman.
39. Sassen transcript 3:3.
40. Sassen transcript 6:1.
41. The formulation comes from Dieter Wisliceny, who claimed his boss had operated in secret in order to protect himself. Wisliceny, Cell 133 Document, prosecution document T/84.
42. Israeli government, note to the U.S., British, French, and Russian governments, published in full in Jüdische Allgemeine, July 27, 1951. The other names are Heydrich, Höß, Frank, and Hitler. Eichmann is named twice in this relatively short text.
3 Detested Anonymity
1. Contemporaries unanimously report that hunger was not a problem in the region.
2. “The Others Spoke,” handwritten text, marginal note, p. 57, BA Ludwigsburg, “Miscellaneous” folder.
3. Eichmann claimed Rudolf Höß had told him about this saying of Himmler’s. “Meine Memoiren,” p. 110, and the interrogation and trial.
4. Sassen transcript 11:2. Eichmann corrected this section in his own hand, excising any mention of helpers. What remained read “there I found a whole pile of old newspapers, with articles about me among other things.”
5. Eichmann quoted the book in detail even in the Sassen interviews, although it was not one the group was reading. He also had a copy in Israel (in its fifth edition) and used the volume for his last attempt to justify himself, “Götzen” (1961).
6. The volume was among Eichmann’s books in Buenos Aires. His handwritten notes on it have also been preserved. Eichmann Estate, BA Koblenz, N/1497-89.
7. “Meine Flucht,” p. 11, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/247.
8. Sassen interview, original tape 10B, 1:22. Word-for-word transcription, grammar errors uncorrected.
9. “Meine Flucht,” p. 22.
10. “The Others Spoke,” handwritten text, marginal note, p. 57, BA Ludwigsburg, “Miscellaneous” folder.
11. Ruth Tramer, interviews by Robert Pendorf (Stern) and Richard Kilian (Daily Telegraph), June 1960, used in Stern articles (June 16–25, 1960) and in Quentin Reynolds, Ephraim Katz, and Zwy Aldouby, Minister of Death: The Adolf Eichmann Story (New York, 1960). Also confirmed in the documentary I Met Eichmann (Adolf Eichmann—Begegnung mit einem Mörder) (BBC/NDR, 2002), and in interviews by Raymond Ley in 2009 and on July 24, 2010, in Menschen und Schlagzeilen (NDR, broadcast July 28, 2010). The witnesses’ names are omitted here at their request.
12. Children’s memories are drawn from interviews in Altensalzkoth, July 24, 2010, in Menschen und Schlagzeilen (NDR, broadcast July 28, 2010).
13. Journalists (e.g., Robert Pendorf of Stern) conducted the first interviews in and around Altensalzkoth in summer 1960. Many people, like Woldemar Freiesleben, claimed to have had “no idea” (Spiegel, June 15, 1960). Witness statements still concur on Eichmann’s behavior and on his role in the sparsely populated area. When it became clear who had been living in their midst, the general horror was entirely credible. It was also clear that maintaining a fearful silence about one’s own past had become a general strategy for survival. Extensive research was done there by Karsten Krüger (2002), partly printed in Frankfurter Rundschau, May 30, 2002. See Neue Presse, July 23, 2009. See also interviews for the production I Met Eichmann (Adolf Eichmann—Begegnungen mit einem Mörder) (NDR/BBC, 2002) and interviews for the docudrama Eichmanns Ende (ARD, 2009). The 1960 Stern and Life interviews with Nelly Kühn (née Krawietz) complete the picture: Reynolds et al., Minister of Death, p. 185; Stern, June 16–25, 1960.
14. “Meine Flucht,” p. 12.
15. Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963; reprint New York, 1994), p. 236.
16. If this “Uncle Willi” who paid Eichmann regular visits really was an SS man himself, then Koch and Eichmann must have known each other. Willi Koch was born on September 22, 1910, and worked at the Central Emigration Office in Posen in October 1940, then headed the Gnesen field office. The emigration office in Posen was under Eichmann’s jurisdiction at this point. SS rankings list December 1, 1938, and June 15, 1939, no. 4813, SD main office.
17. See “I Had No Comrades,” in this book.
18. Luis (occasionally Alois) Schintlholzer, born December 16, 1914, in Innsbruck, SS no. 308210, no. 2076 in the Waffen-SS rankings list (on July 1, 1944) as Hauptsturmführer in the reserves. BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, BDC files. See Gerald Steinacher, Nazis on the Run: How Hitler’s Henchmen Fled Justice (Oxford, 2011), pp. 50–52. This work also uses the Schintlholzer files in BA Ludwigsburg, Central Office collection.
19. See Philipp Trafojer, “Die Spuren eines Mörders. Alois Schintlholzer (1914–1989),” editorial in the Austrian journal Vinschgerwind (September 8, 2005).
20. Schintlholzer said this to an acquaintance who he didn’t realize was an informant for the West German secret service. Found in the supplementary file to BVerwG 7A 15.10, Saure vs. BND, BND files 121 099, 1664: writings from June 3, 1960, “On Foreign Office Questionnaire”; 1784: August 11, 1960. Thanks to Christoph Partsch for permission to use the quote.
21. Passage found only on original tape and left out by the transcriber in Argentina. BA tape 10B, 1:22:30.
22. A piece of film shot in the living room of these aging women gives us a glimpse, as they were still able to argue vociferously about whether the eyes of that unassuming Herr Heninger from the
south who loved sweet things were blue or brown. I Met Eichmann (Adolf Eichmann—Begegnungen mit einem Mörder) (NDR/BBC, 2002). Eichmann’s eyes were blue-gray.
23. “Liebl, Vera, Ex-Wife of Eichmann, Otto Adolf,” November 26, 1946, and “Interrogation of Parents and Brother of SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Adolf Eichmann,” mid-October 1946, NA, RG 263, CIA Name File Adolf Eichmann.
24. Eichmann later said that his wife had spent the whole time living at his uncle’s property. According to a report by Valentin Tarra, a policeman in Ausseerland, to Fritz Bauer, January 6, 1960, it was a hunting lodge. On July 30, 1948, Vera Eichmann and the children moved to a farmhouse in Fischerndorf. Valentin Tarra to Fritz Bauer, January 1, 1960, in Mahnruf (Austria), June 1960.
25. David Cesarani, Eichmann: His Life and Crimes (London, 2005), p. 27; Vera Eichmann, interview in Daily Express, December 12, 1961.
26. According to Valentin Tarra’s notes, Vera’s sister married Leopold Kals in Altaussee after the war. Vera’s other sister lived with her mother and husband on the Hörsching airbase near Linz.
27. Wiesenthal dates this attempt at April 30, 1947, in Ich jagte Eichmann: Tatsachenbericht (Gütersloh, 1961), p. 85. The date in the corresponding CIA Name File is unclear: “SS Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann, Report from Berlin,” June 17/?? (illegible). Wiesenthal gave more frequent reports and described his intervention against Vera Eichmann’s application as his most important contribution to Eichmann’s capture. For the Altaussee police perspective, see Valentin Tarra, report to Bauer, January 6, 1960.
28. For the house searches, see CIC report on Adolf Eichmann, June 7, 1947, NA, RG 319, Investigative Records Repository, Adolf Eichmann. Ingrid von Ihne’s house in Bad Gastein was also searched. For the discovery of the first photo, see Manus Diamant, Geheimauftrag: Mission Eichmann (Vienna, 1995), p. 223. The 1945 date was a mistake made by the German press. The photo is often mistaken—the correct one is reproduced in the cited volume.
Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer Page 58
