Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer

by Bettina Stangneth

  9. BA tape 10C, 1:28:00.

  10. There is still clear evidence of around twenty contacts, from letters or notes on conversations, including a phone call.

  11. Rajakowitsch joined the SS in 1940. See Eichmann’s staff report on Rajakowitsch, July 19, 1940, prosecution document T/55(6). Between February and August 1952, there is evidence that Eichmann occasionally went to Buenos Aires during his Tucumán period.

  12. Pathetic tales of Germans’ fear of being unmasked, which can be found in Juan (Hans) Maler’s late texts, belong to the realm of fiction. Buenos Aires had a German infrastructure, with its own restaurants, a cinema, a theater, and many shops, forming a natural part of the city. Argentina was particularly welcoming to Germans.

  13. Goñi found proof of Armin Dadieu, Berthold Heilig, Erwin Fleiss, and Franz Sterzinger (Odessa, p. 301). The presence of Siegfried Uiberreither, former gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter of Styria, also mentioned by Goñi and Holger Meding, is still disputed. Eichmann explicitly mentions Uiberreither as a direct influence on his own escape to Argentina, in “Meine Flucht,” p. 12

  14. According to his daughter Karin (née Heilig). See Schimpf, Heilig, p. 111. Heilig arrived in Buenos Aires on January 17, 1951; his children followed in 1953. He told them he had met Eichmann in Rome, which kept him from having to explain to his family where he had really met the Adviser on Jewish Affairs—Rome didn’t sound suspicious.

  15. Herbert Hagel, interview by Joshua Goltz and Abel Basti, 1998 and 1999, cited in Goñi, Odessa, p. 282n494. Habel (SS no. 112171) was secretary to SS Obergruppenführer August Eigruber, the gauleiter of Linz.

  16. Heinz Lühr, interview in I Met Eichmann (Adolf Eichmann—Begegnungen mit einem Mörder) (NDR/BBC, 2002). Lühr dated the conversation to shortly after Vera Eichmann’s arrival, which was in July 1952.

  17. “Meine Flucht,” p. 24.

  18. Occasionally incorrectly written “Davmanin.”

  19. In Israel, Eichmann was shown to be unable to read French texts. The tapes made in Argentina reveal him as anything but a talented linguist, as he spoke Spanish with a heavy German accent.

  20. Identity card no. 1378538, produced by the Buenos Aires district police. The Tucumán district produced two further identity papers for Eichmann in short order: on February 8, 1952, one numbered 341952, and on April 3, 1952, a CdI (identification key) numbered 212430, a facsimile of which is in Gideon Hausner, Justice in Jerusalem (New York, 1966).

  21. “Meine Flucht,” p. 25.

  22. Constantin von Neurath (1902–81) was said to have been president of Kameradenwerk for a time. Neurath, interview by Wilfred von Oven (Gaby Weber in “hr2 Kultur,” Wissenswert, broadcast on May 8, 2008); interviews by Ludwig Lienhardt and Josef Janko. Holger Meding, Flucht vor Nürnberg? Deutsche und österreichische Einwanderung in Argentinien 1945–1955 (Cologne, 1992), p. 176. Neurath officially worked for Siemens from 1953, becoming director of Siemens Argentina S.A. in 1958. He then worked in Munich (where he gained joint procurement responsibility for the company headquarters by 1965) and retired in 1966. Thanks to Frank Wittendorfer of the Siemens Archive in Munich, where surprisingly little was known about this employee. See “For Better, for Worse” and “I Had No Comrades” in this book, for the help Neurath provided to wanted war criminals.

  23. Rudel (with help from his ghostwriter Sassen) talks about Fritsch’s life in Zwischen Deutschland und Argentinien (Buenos Aires, 1954), p. 220. Also published by Dürer, this book contained a right-wing paean to the publisher. Fritsch’s short visit is the only grain of truth to the rumors of his involvement in war crimes and high offices in Germany. He was far too young to have made a career under Hitler. There was only one of these “world congresses,” which allows us to pinpoint its date.

  24. Holger Meding’s first-rate study “Der Weg”: Eine deutsche Emigrantenzeitschrift in Buenos Aires 1947–1957 (Berlin, 1997) has uses far beyond what the title suggests. It is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand these groups of German nationals in Argentina and beyond. And it opens up exciting fields for further research, as we are still a long way from knowing about everyone who worked for Der Weg. For in-depth study, there is no substitute for reading the Dürer publications and Der Weg itself. The following description is based on these sources. I thank Eberhard Fritsch’s grandson for his willingness to provide me with as much information as he could.

  25. “Dry goods store” is a translation error. The descriptions in Fritsch’s letters are clear, however.

  26. Hans Hefelmann, statement, December 28, 1960, Js148/60 Generalstaatsanwaltschaft, Frankfurt am Main, against Prof. Werner Heyde, Hefelmann, et al. For the particulars, see Klee, Persilscheine.

  27. Fritsch to Werner Beumelburg, August 19, 1948, Werner Beumelburg Estate, Rheinische Landesbibliothek Koblenz; quoted in Stefan Busch, Und gestern, da hörte uns Deutschland: NS-Autoren in der Bundesrepublik: Kontinuität und Diskontinuität bei Friedrich Griese, Werner Beumelburg, Eberhard Wolfgang Müller und Kurt Ziesel (Würzburg, 1998). Thanks to Barbara Koelges of the Landesbibliothek Koblenz for her thorough insight into the correspondence.

  28. We can now be certain that Werner Beumelburg, Hans Grimm, Kurt Ziesel, Eberhard Wolfgang Möller, Friedrich Griese, Erhard Wittek, Paul Alverdes, and Heinrich Zillich were among them, and they all went on to write for Dürer. See Der Weg—El Sendero but also indirect letters from Fritsch to Beumelburg of February 10, 1948, and February 9, 1949, in which he brags about his correspondents. Werner Beumelburg Estate, Rheinische Landesbibliothek Koblenz,.

  29. Fritsch to Beumelburg, February 10, 1948; Grimm to Beumelburg, March 5, 1948; both in Werner Beumelburg Estate. Rheinische Landesbibliothek Koblenz. Thanks to Birgit Kienow of the German Literature Archive in Marbach for access to Hans Grimm’s correspondence.

  30. This is no literary invention, either: Dürer sold the crochet instructions for it. A contemporary claims she still owns one, which we can believe, as she declined to have her name printed in connection with it.

  31. Wilfred von Oven, Ein “Nazi” in Argentinien (Gladbeck, 1993), p. 19.

  32. For the way the EROS travel service was used in practice, see the correspondence between Fritsch and Werner Beumelburg, where it emerges that Beumelburg was also paid in kind. Beumelburg Estate, Rheinische Landesbibliothek Koblenz.

  33. The following information is drawn not only from my own archive research and interviews but also from the excellent fieldwork done by Natasja de Winter.

  34. Volberg gave a rather implausible denial of his leading role in his memoirs. See Heinrich Volberg, Auslandsdeutschtum und drittes Reich: Der Fall Argentinien (Cologne and Vienna, 1981). For background on the office in Argentina, and the extant staff lists, see Frank-Rutger Hausmann, Ernst Wilhelm Bohle, Gauleiter im Dienst von Partei und Staat (Berlin, 2009).

  35. Heiner Korn’s successor, Heriberto Korch, did not want to be interviewed. The company was apparently bought by Kühne and Nagel just a few years ago.

  36. Names and addresses mentioned in Fritsch’s correspondence.

  37. Inge Schneider, interview by Roelf van Til (1999).

  38. Ibid.; Saskia Sassen, interview by Raymond Ley (2009); Saskia and Francisca Sassen, correspondence with the author.

  39. On February 4, 1959, Gustav Flor was tried before the fourth chamber of the Lüneberg District Court for distributing National Socialist writings. Large stocks of Dürer publications and a list of subscribers had been seized from him; the publisher had recruited him a year before. Fritsch, who was also summoned, did not appear. See the articles in the Stuttgarter Zeitung and Die Welt, February 4, 1959, and the coverage in the local Hamburg papers. Unfortunately the evidence is no longer available: it was probably destroyed after the retention period elapsed. Berchtesgaden is mentioned in Fritsch’s correspondence.

  40. Thanks to Daniel Fritsch for his information.

  41. Rudel, Zwischen Deutschland und Argentinien, p. 206.

  42. Sassen is named as an employee of CAPRI in a CIA
report from 1953. As the informant was also from Argentina, we can at least be sure that the foreigner Sassen was on the CAPRI staff. German Nationalist and Neo-Nazi Activities in Argentina, July 8, 1953, declassified on April 11, 2000 (CIA-RDP620–00 856 R000 3000 30004–4). Pedro Pobierzym, interview by Raymond Ley (2009), also claims Sassen was often in Tucumán for this reason.

  43. Eckhard Schimpf describes the distribution channel used by Berthold Heilig, through his old contacts in Rome, whom he also used to obtain passports for his family, and through the SS organization Stille Hilfe (Silent Aid). With Heilig too, letters were sent via a variety of cover addresses. Schimpf, Heilig, p. 111. Helene Elisabeth, Princess of Isenburg, who ran Stille Hilfe, also had contacts with Rudel’s Kameradenwerk.

  44. Eichmann told this version for the first time to the Mossad team’s interrogation specialist. Quoted in Zvi Aharoni and Wilhelm Dietl, Operation Eichmann: The Truth About the Pursuit, Capture and Trial (New York, 1997), p. 67.

  45. According to the commune’s records, Vera Eichmann moved to Fischerndorf on July 30, 1948. See also Valentin Tarra to Fritz Bauer, January 1, 1960, in Mahnruf (Austria), June 1960.

  46. Wiesenthal’s press conference in Jerusalem, October 24, 1960, quoted in Allgemeine Wochenzeitung der Juden, October 28, 1960.

  47. See Tom Segev, Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends (New York, 2010). Segev was able to look over Tarra’s papers and analyzed his letters to Wiesenthal (p. 99).

  48. We know about this letter thanks to Eichmann’s uncle’s housekeeper in the Rhineland, who was interviewed in “Adolf Eichmann Dug His Own Grave: The Family Housekeeper Speaks Out,” Neues Österreich, June 2, 1960. When Eberhard Fritsch left Argentina for Austria in 1958, Eichmann had told him his family’s address in Linz. See “Aftermath” in this book.

  49. Klaus Eichmann, interview in Quick, January 2, 1966.

  50. Valentin Tarra to Fritz Bauer, January 1, 1960, in Mahnruf (Austria), June 1960.

  51. This refers to Fritz Eichmann, Eichmann’s half brother from his father’s second marriage.

  52. Current Federal German residency applications confirm this point.

  53. Tarra to Wiesenthal, January 19, 1953, Wiesenthal Private Papers, quoted in Segev, Simon Wiesenthal, p. 100.

  54. Klaus Eichmann, interview in Quick.

  55. The Bild published a facsimile of the first page of the index card from the Eichmann BND file, labeled “Eichmann/Aichmann, Adolf DN Clemens,” on January 8, 2011. From supplementary file to case BVerwG 7A 15.10, Saure vs. BND, BND files 100 470, p. 1.

  56. In Wilhelm Fuchs’s trial in Yugoslavia, the accused referred to him as “Standartenführer,” which suggests that Eichmann had been giving himself airs in advance of this promotion.

  57. This message suggests the possibility that the informant was Josef Adolf Urban. But there are too many people it might have been for us to speculate in any meaningful way. The informant could have been any one of the links in the information chain or an employee of the Eichmann family in Linz.

  58. Only in the very first issues in 1947 did Fritsch hide behind his printer Gustav Friedl. After that he not only regularly wrote the foreword but gave his details clearly in the masthead. It is sometimes claimed, incorrectly, that Johann von Leers was the editor-in-chief. This error can be traced back to a report from the German embassy in Buenos Aires to the German Foreign Office in 1954, as Leers was leaving Argentina. The embassy was obviously aware of the influence Leers exerted in editorial meetings. West German embassy in Buenos Aires to Foreign Office, June 11, 1954, “Politische Beziehungen zu Argentinien” Aktenzeichen 81.33/3, PA AA, dept. 3, vol. 74, cited in Meding, Der Weg, p. 125.

  59. This interpretation was given by Die Welt (online edition) as a reaction to the publication of the index card from the BND file on January 8, 2011.

  60. Jorge Camarasa even found the name Ricardo Klement in the Buenos Aires telephone book, as Eichmann seems to have had an entry there in 1952. Jorge Camarasa, Odessa al Sur: La Argentina Como Refugio de Nazis y Criminales de Guerra (Buenos Aires, 1995), p. 157; Goñi, Odessa, p. 385. This clue can unfortunately not be verified. In 1951–52, the name was neither in the regional edition nor in the full directory for Buenos Aires. This doesn’t necessarily mean anything, as the edition containing new entries for 1952 is 1953–54, which is nowhere to be found (either in the official edition or in Edition Guia de Abonos). Thanks to Natasja de Winter, who searched for it with admirable patience in various libraries and archives in Buenos Aires.

  61. The cover name is not only to be found on the index card; it also features in the mere twenty-two pages on 1960 contained in the file. See the supplementary file to case BVerwG 7A 15.10, Saure vs. BND, BND files 100 470, pp. 1–18.

  62. The number of aliases appearing in the rumors about Eichmann’s disappearance is impressive. If you take into account the CIA reports, newspaper articles, and books prior to the start of the trial, there are around twenty different names, including the false name that Eichmann had actually chosen.

  63. Questionnaire, September 1, 1959, and answer, September 8, 1959, in supplementary file to case BVerwG 7A 15.10, Saure vs. BND, BND files 100 470, pp. 17–18. Thanks to Christoph Partsch.

  64. Salto is a misprint.

  65. Under the official exchange rate of the time, 100 pesos was a little over 5 U.S. dollars or 20 Deutschmarks—it really was a lot of money. For more on exchange rates, see note 80 for this chapter. Klaus Eichmann, interview in Quick, January 2, 1966.

  66. “Meine Flucht,” p. 25.

  67. Ibid.

  68. Vera Eichmann had kept the photos of her husband well hidden, as evidenced by the substantial collection she sold to Life and Stern in 1960 alone, via Willem Sassen.

  69. Vera Eichmann, interview for Paris Match, April 29, 1962; original transcript in BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/252, p. 23.

  70. The notorious Nazi Erich Kernmayr (alias Kern) said this in the presence of a CIA informant in March 1952. CIA report, NA, RG 263, CIA Name File Wilhelm Höttl.

  71. In 1966, Klaus Eichmann was still full of admiration for his father, whom he said was “able to do a whole lot of things.” Klaus Eichmann, interview in Quick.

  72. Adolf Eichmann was still talking about his trip to Aconcagua in letters he wrote in Israel. Conquering that mountain was clearly an ambition among German immigrants, and Hans-Ulrich Rudel proudly published photos of his climb.

  73. Schimpf, Heilig, p. 111.

  74. “Meine Flucht,” p. 25.

  75. When he applied to Mercedes-Benz Argentina in 1959, Eichmann said his employment relations with CAPRI ended on April 30, 1953. Facsimiles in Heinz Schneppen, Odessa und das Vierte Reich: Mythen der Zeitgeschichte (Berlin, 2007), pp. 160–61.

  76. Argentina Federal Police, report on Eichmann’s kidnapping, June 9, 1960, Archivo General de la Nacíon (AGN), DAE, Bormann file, pp. 77–79; cited in Goñi, Odessa, p. 316.

  77. Berthold Heilig’s family—Annegret, Karin, and Hannelore “Richwitz”—arrived in Argentina on March 25, 1953, but left on December 21, 1953, as Berthold Heilig (alias Hans Richwitz) was unable to decide between his old family and his new partner. Annegret was the same age as Eichmann’s second son. According to him, Heilig worked for Fuldner and CAPRI until 1955. See Schimpf, Heilig, pp. 110 and 129. After Eichmann was kidnapped, Hans Fischböck’s wife said that he and her husband had been employed by CAPRI until 1955.

  78. Siemens Argentina S.A. was officially founded in 1954. The engagement in Rosario predates the founding. Neurath was on the payroll from December 1, 1953. Thanks to Frank Wittendorfer from the Siemens Archive.

  79. Neurath lobbied the German embassy in Buenos Aires not to extradite Schwammburger in spite of an extradition order from the Federal Republic.

  80. In 1950 the average income in the Federal Republic was 500 Deutschmarks. I am grateful to the employees of the German Bundesbank for helpful information regarding historical exchange rates. The basis for calculation in this case is the Frankfurt a
m Main stock prices. The information on Eichmann’s income comes from the interview with Klaus Eichmann in Quick on January 2, 1966. Eichmann’s son has a tendency toward understatement when it comes to financial questions, and we can assume that the figures here are the ones his father gave him. In his application to Mercedes-Benz Argentina in 1959, Eichmann said he had earned 3,500 pesos at CAPRI, and 4,500 pesos at Efeve, Buenos Aires. Schneppen (Odessa, p. 159) seems to confuse Deutschmarks and U.S. dollars. These exchange rates correspond to what was actually paid, as we can see from the record of fees paid to German authors by Dürer. See Fritsch correspondence.

  81. Cited in CEANA’s final report, Carlota Jackisch, Cuantificacion de Criminales de Guerra Según Fuentes Argentinas (Informe Final, 1998), p. 9.

  82. Still, a remarkable number of witnesses claim to have met Eichmann personally, even if they emphasize that he was unremarkable. See the current head of ABC, interview by Raymond Ley (2009), and Pedro Pobierzym, interview by Raymond Ley (BBC, 2002).

  83. The Argentine newspaper La Razón published the first information on Eichmann’s life in Argentina at the end of May 1960. In Germany, the Frankfurter Allgemeine used this as the basis for its report from an unnamed “correspondent in Buenos Aires”: “Proof of Eichmann’s Life in Argentina,” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, June 2, 1960.

  84. Fabrica Metalúrgica Efeve in Sta. Rosa/Buenos Aires; see Goñi, Odessa, p. 385n525. Eichmann mentioned the firm in his application to Mercedes-Benz Argentina in 1959.

  85. Eichmann himself gave a higher salary of 4,500 pesos in his application to Mercedes-Benz Argentina. But this was the basis for his salary expectations with Mercedes, so Klaus Eichmann’s memory seems the more credible source.

  86. This can be seen most clearly in the fifteen-page document he wrote in Israel before the start of the trial: “Mein Sein und Tun,” All. Proz. 6/253, p. 12.

  87. Wislicency, Cell 133 Document, prosecution document T/84, pp. 12 and 16. None of the witness statements about Eichmann contradicted him.