Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer

by Bettina Stangneth

  3. Eichmann trial, session 105, July 20, 1960. German transcript, Y1.

  4. Skorzeny told this story to the U.S. intelligence service after Eichmann had been abducted. NA, RG 263, CIA Name File Otto Skorzeny; also held in the Eichmann file.

  5. Rudel proudly mentions the use of this technology, which was still very new in 1953, in Hans-Ulrich Rudel, Zwischen Deutschland und Argentinien (Buenos Aires, 1954), p. 224.

  6. The sixth chapter is a reworking of his own escape from Ireland to Argentina, with his very pregnant wife and their child.

  7. Der Weg (1954), no. 10, pp. 679–85. The chapter was abridged for the magazine and made a little “milder.”

  8. Willem Sluyse, Die Jünger und die Dirnen (Buenos Aires, 1954). A few examples of these formulations are the repeated use of the phrases “It doesn’t interest me” (e.g., p. 55); “If you ask me, … so I will answer to you that” (p. 56); “It is not for my own sake that I now say to you” (p. 66); “I—I who am …” (p. 68). Like Eichmann, Holz mixes up the Morgenthau Plan and the supposed Kaufmann Plan. See also “An Untimely Peroration” in this book.

  9. On Mengele, see “I Had No Comrades” in this book.

  10. Sluyse, Die Jünger und die Dirnen, pp. 55, 63, 64.

  11. Stan Lauryssens has claimed that Eichmann approached Sassen because he felt this fictional character represented him so well, he wanted to meet the author. This claim cannot be true, however, even without taking into account Lauryssens’s rather free interpretation of sources, as Sassen and Eichmann already knew each other by the time the book was published.

  12. Warwick Hester, “On the Streets of Truth,” Der Weg (1954), no. 8, p. 574.

  13. A UN wanted list for the key figures in the Nazi hierarchy from February 1947 contained the note on Eichmann: “believed to have committed suicide US CIC source.” Archives of the UN War Crimes Commission, UN Archives, New York, quoted in Guy Walters, Hunting Evil (London and Toronto, 2009), pp. 115 and 598. From a document by the British War Crimes Group, also dated February 1947. Walters suspects that this story was believed in England and that this was why the British never made an effort to assist in the hunt for Eichmann.

  14. Wisliceny, Cell 133 Document, prosecution document T/84.

  15. Holger Meding, “Der Weg”: Eine deutsche Emigrantenzeitschrift in Buenos Aires 1947–1957 (Berlin, 1997), p. 131.

  16. Der Weg (1954), no. 8, p. 575.

  17. Ibid., p. 578.

  18. Hugo C. Backhaus (Herbert Grabert), Volk ohne Führung (Göttingen, 1955). A second edition appeared in 1956; quotes here are taken from the 1955 edition, p. 233. Grabert was the founder of the “Group of Noncurrent (Displaced) University Lecturers” (from 1950), publisher of the Deutschen Hochschullehrer-Zeitung (from 1953), and a conscientious networker in the far-right milieu. See Martin Finkenberger and Horst Junginger, eds., Im Dienste der Lügen: Herbert Grabert (1901–1978) und seine Verlage (Aschaffenburg, 2004).

  19. Two articles that clearly draw on Der Weg (without naming their source) claim that only 300,000 opponents of the Nazi regime were killed, some of them Jews. This is a further reduction of the figure of 353,000 claimed by Guido Heimann, “The Lie of the Six Million,” Der Weg (1954), no. 7, p. 485. The Die Anklage articles are “The Basest Falsification of History” (January 1955) and “Proof from Switzerland. What Now, Prosecutor?,” (April 1, 1955). Both are quoted in Wolfgang Benz, who admittedly was not aware of the connection to Dürer’s magazine and was therefore unable to pin down the name Warwick Hester. Wolfgang Benz, “Realitätsverweigerung als antisemitisches Prinzip: Die Leugnung des Völkermords,” in Antisemitismus in Deutschland: Zur Aktualität eines Vorurteils (Munich, 1995), pp. 121–39, esp. p. 130.

  20. For the anatomy of this forgery and how it was spread from a European perspective, see Benz, “Realitätsverweigerung.”

  21. Udo Walendy reproduced this nonsense under the title “The Dr. Pinter Report” in Historische Tatsachen, no. 43 (1990), pp. 20–23. He manufactured the reference to Stephen F. Pinter there.

  22. Holger Meding searched in vain for a U.S. jurist by the name of Pinter, though he wasn’t aware of the connection between Warwick Hester and Die Anklage. Meding, Der Weg, p. 64. On Pinter, see Nation Europa 10, no. 4 (1960), p. 68. This issue contains a reference to a statement by Pinter in the Catholic weekly Our Sunday Visitor (Indiana), June 14, 1959. There he (allegedly) bears witness against the gas chambers, in particular Dachau. In reality the item was a reader’s letter, which has since been cited as an article. Thanks to John Norton, the current editor-in-chief of Our Sunday Visitor, for letting me know that no one in his publishing house knew about the far-right popularity of this letter. Unfortunately, the original letter does not seem to be extant.

  23. Eichmann claimed to have seen it this way, in his very restrained remarks in Israel. He praised Sassen as a journalist “accredited” by the Argentine government and described Fritsch as a respected publisher. Interrogation, p. 397; Eichmann trial, session 105, and elsewhere.

  24. Sassen transcript 3:4.

  25. Sassen transcript 6:2. I was unable to find what Eichmann claimed to have read in any of the articles, but if anyone is more successful, I would appreciate references.

  26. Ha’aretz, September 17, 1954.

  27. Reynolds et al. draw on Eichmann’s dating of the article to the 1940s and also claim Bauer served in Gustav Noske’s Einsatzkommando 12 and in the SS Einsatzgruppe under Otto Ohlendorf. Reynolds quotes a newspaper article that states “at the end, he was a man again,” which goes back to the Sassen transcripts. These had already formed the basis of the Life collage. See Quentin Reynolds, Ephraim Katz, and Zwy Aldouby, Minister of Death: The Adolf Eichmann Story (New York, 1960), p. 30. Pendorf, who says he researched the case, also fell for Eichmann’s story, as he clearly couldn’t find any newspaper articles. Since then, the story has cropped up repeatedly in the literature on Eichmann. It is correctly dated only by Wiesenthal.

  28. BND report, “Near Eastern Connections,” March 19, 1958, NA, RG 263, CIA Name File Adolf Eichmann.

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

  30. The issue date for each passport is August 20, 1954. The details came to light in 1960. Note by Raab to State Secretary and Minister, July 27, 1960, PA AA, vol. 55; cited in Eckart Conze, Norbert Frei, Peter Hayes, and Moshe Zimmermann, Das Amt und die Vergangenheit: Deutsche Diplomaten im Dritten Reich und in der Bundesrepublik (Munich, 2010), pp. 603 and 792.

  31. Horst Eichmann, transcript of a hearing with Fritz Bauer. Bauer then passed the information on to the West German foreign minister, via Hesse’s minister of justice, on March 10, 1961. PA AA B82/432.

  32. The passport was issued on June 23, 1954. It would not be the last: Josef Schwammberger would receive another from the embassy in 1962, according to investigations by the Stuttgart public prosecutor’s office. See the letter from Werner Junker (ambassador) to the German Foreign Office, December 13, 1962, published as document 483 in Akten zur Auswärtigen Politik des Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 1962 (Munich, 2010), pp. 2060–61. Schwammberger and Eichmann had known each other a long time, having qualified in military drill from the same training camp.

  33. See also Nikolas Berg, Der Holocaust und die westdeutschen Historiker: Erforschung und Erinnerung (Göttingen, 2003), pp. 284–89. The board meeting took place on June 25, 1954.

  34. Helmut Krausnick, “Zur Zahl der jüdischen Opfer des Nationalsozialismus,” in Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, supplement to Das Parlament, August 11, 1954.

  35. The Attorney General of the Government of Israel vs. Malchiel Grünwald, Case 124/53. For a detailed account, see Anna Porter, Kasztner’s Train: The True Story of an Unknown Hero of the Holocaust (New York, 2007), pp. 324ff. Porter relies largely on the Hebrew typescript by Yechiam Weitz, which has been translated only unofficially (as The Man Who Was Murdered Twice), and on the documentary film Mishpat Kastner (Israel Broadcasting Authority, 1994). See also Ladislaus Löb, Rezsö Kasztner, The
Daring Rescue of Hungarian Jews: A Survivor’s Account (London, 2008), and Tom Segev, The Seventh Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust, trans. Haim Watzman (New York, 1993), pp. 255–320.

  36. This episode also cost Halevi the leading role in the Eichmann trial in 1961, which he had to concede to Moshe Landau.

  37. For example, “On Trial,” Time, July 11, 1955; “Zionist Ex-Leader Accused of Perjury,” New York Times, July 8, 1955; and “Israeli Case Revived,” New York Times, August 1, 1955. An even greater wave of publicity followed after Kasztner was assassinated on March 3, 1957, which was another topic for the Sassen circle.

  38. Even in 1993 Wilfred von Oven referred to it as a paper “principally read by Jews and leftist intellectuals.” Wilfred von Oven, Ein “Nazi” in Argentinien (Gladbeck, 1993), p. 9.

  39. Sassen transcript 12:4.

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

  41. The investigations and the newspaper cuttings were included in Eichmann’s wanted file, which was sent to Fritz Bauer in Frankfurt am Main in 1956. Unfortunately, in spite of reports to the contrary, this file has now vanished. All that remains are a few pages of notes on the events and collected excerpts. These pages can be found in Vienna National Criminal Court to the investigating judge, November 18, 1954, HHStA Wiesbaden, Section 461, no. 33,531, pp. 118ff. Thanks to Herr Pult from the HHStA Wiesbaden for his kind help in searching for the pages in question and the commitment to finding a few more. Irmtrud Wojak, contains misprints in the footnotes on this source in both of her books. (Eichmanns Memoiren. Ein kritischer Essay, Frankfurt a.M., 2001; Fritz Bauer 1903–1968. Eine Biographie. Munich, 2009.)

  42. Entry on “Johannes von Leers” in Die deutschsprachige Presse: Ein biographisch-bibliographisches Handbuch, comp. Bruno Jahn (Munich, 2005), vol. 1, p. 617.

  43. Reader’s letter, “Johann von Leers: A Correction” in Nation Europa 11, no. 4 (1961), p. 68.

  44. His departure from Argentina was reported to Germany. See West German embassy in Buenos Aires to German Foreign Office, August 11, 1954, under 212, no. 2116/54. The Foreign Office passed the information on to the BfV (306212-02/5.20973/54). Thanks to the BfV for copies.

  45. Pedro Pobierzym, interviews by Uki Goñi (1997) and Roelf van Til (2000) and in the documentary I Met Eichmann (Adolf Eichmann: Begegnungen mit einem Mörder) (BBC/NDR, 2003). Pobierzym occasionally worked for Dieter Menge and evidently observed his guests with surprise and displeasure. Rumors about Menge’s memorabilia collection and subscriptions to all the far-right publications still circulate in Buenos Aires to this day. Thanks to Uki Goñi and Natasja de Winter for their help and information.

  46. “All the Jews talked about in Argentina was Mengele.” José Moskovits, leader of the Jewish Religious Community of Buenos Aires, interview by Raymond Ley and Natasja de Winter (2009), extract in Eichmanns Ende (NDR/SWR, 2010).

  47. Willem Sassen, interview in The Hunt for Dr. Mengele (Granada Television, 1978). For Sassen’s statements about Mengele’s “research,” see the interview fragments in Edicion Plus (Telefe Buenos Aires, 1991).

  48. Heinz Schneppen, Odessa und das Vierte Reich: Mythen der Zeitgeschichte (Berlin, 2007), p. 139.

  49. Ibid., p. 153.

  50. Ibid., p. 136.

  51. Documented in I. S. Kulcsár, Shoshanna Kulcsár, and Lipot Szondi, “Adolf Eichmann and the Third Reich,” in Crime, Law and Corrections, ed. Ralph Slovenko (Springfield, Ill., 1966), pp. 16–32, esp. p. 28.

  52. Quentin Reynolds, Ephraim Katz, and Zwy Aldouby, Minister of Death: The Adolf Eichmann Story (New York, 1960), p. 201.

  53. “Peron as Protector of Rudel and the Fascist International,” Argentinisches Tageblatt, December 17, 1955.

  54. The research group headed by Norbert Frei quickly discovered a reference to the article from the Argentinisches Tageblatt (December 17, 1955) in the Foreign Office archive. Eckart Conze, Norbert Frei, Peter Hayes, and Moshe Zimmermann, Das Amt und die Vergangenheit: Deutsche Diplomaten im Dritten Reich und in der Bundesrepublik (Munich, 2010), p. 596.

  55. The Argentinisches Tageblatt gave a commentary by Korvettenkommandant (retired) Hermann Brunswig under the title “Peronazism,” the main aim of which was to protect the German immigrants from a collective accusation. For this reason, within its sober realism, it also tended to downplay the issue.

  56. Zvi Aharoni and Wilhelm Dietl, Operation Eichmann: The Truth About the Pursuit, Capture, and Trial, trans. Helmut Bögler (New York, 1997), p. 70. Eichmann said he started work at the farm on March 1, 1955, but since he wrote it on a job application form, its accuracy is not entirely certain. Personnel form for Mercedes-Benz Argentina, March 20, 1959; facsimile in Schneppen, Odessa, p. 160.

  57. Wisliceny, Cell 133 Document, prosecution document T/84, p. 16.

  58. Eichmann’s annotation on the title page of Fritz Kahn, Das Atom (Zurich, 1948), quoted in Stern, July 9, 1960. Eichmann confirmed the quote was correct in interrogation, September 15, 1960.

  59. Application to Mercedes-Benz Argentina; facsimile in Schneppen, Odessa.

  60. “Meine Flucht,” p. 25.

  61. BA tape 29:05ff. (corresponds to tape 64, but the remarks have been left out of the transcript).

  62. The property-owning arm of the Vienna Central Office, the “Vienna Emigration Fund,” acquired a paper factory in Doppl (Mühltal) / Altenfeld near Linz, in Upper Austria, on May 8, 1939. Among the documents there is the note: “a valuation of the property [is] not necessary.” AdR, Ministry for Interior and Cultural Affairs, Dept. II, Gr. 4, Office: Foundations and Funds, Emergency Matters, Vienna 1, Ballhausplatz 2, Zi. II / 4-127.517, 1939. Object Emigration Fund (AWF), Acquisition of Property, May 11, 1939; attachments: purchase contract between M. Mösenbacher and the AWF, May 8, 1939: Gudrun Rohrbach, file no. R76/39. Quoted in Gabriel Anderl, “Die ‘Umschulungslager’ Doppl und Sandhof der Wiener Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung,” article at www.david.juden.at/kulturzeitschrift/57-60/58-Anderl.htm (2003 and 2004).

  63. An Israeli spy heard this rumor after the war, and as late as the 1990s, journalists conducting investigations in Lemburg heard it there. It concerned Maria “Mitzi” Bauer, the manager of the Pension Weiss, which functioned as the secret meeting place for Eichmann’s men and later played a significant role in their escape. Manus Diamant, Geheimauftrag: Mission Eichmann (Vienna, 1995), p. 209, and Georg M. Hafner and Esther Shapira, Die Akte Alois Brunner: Warum einer der größten Naziverbrecher noch immer auf freiem Fuß ist (Hamburg, 2002), p. 73.

  64. Sassen transcript 59:3. Eichmann mentions it only as an Easter trip, but Vera Eichmann’s birthday also fell on the holiday that year.

  65. Zvi Aharoni convincingly contradicted this with reference to his operation book. Eichmann was not at home on this day: according to his son’s statement, he was visiting Tucumán.

  66. The description comes from Rosemarie Godlewski and Emilie Finnegan, two department secretaries, interviewed for I Met Eichmann (Adolf Eichmann—Begegnungen mit einem Mörder) (NDR/BBC, 2002); from Maria Mösenbacher, Mitzi Bauer, and Margrit Kutschera, Eichmann’s lovers (Diamant, Geheimauftrag, pp. 210–28); and from Eichmann’s female contacts in Altensalzkoth (interviews for Stern, June–July 1960, and for I Met Eichmann).

  67. Eichmann’s nickname appears in the first CIC reports and, as the context shows, this information comes from Wisliceny and Höttl. Arrest Report Interrogation Wisliceny and CIC Report Eichmann, NA, RG 263, CIA Name File Adolf Eichmann; Rudolf Höß, Kommandant in Auschwitz: Autobiographische Aufzeichnungen (1958; reprinted Munich, 2000), p. 336.

  68. BA tape 02 A, from 8:25 (Argentine tape no. 68).

  69. David Cesarani, Eichmann: His Life and Crimes (London, 2005), p. 188.

  70. Wisliceny, Cell 133 Document, prosecution document T/84, p. 13.

  71. BA tape 9C, 27:30–29:30. Cuts were made in the transcript because of frequent stuttering in this sequence.

  72. Examples can be found in Sassen transcript t
apes 17 (concentration camp bordellos) and 67 (BA tape 05B, starting at 20:00) and elsewhere.

  73. In Israel, Eichmann even announced his plan for world peace: women should be in power. “Götzen,” p. 199. He didn’t mention that he thought world peace was “un-Aryan.”

  74. “Mein Sein und Tun,” fifteen-page paper written in Israel, All. Proz. 6/253, here p. 10.

  75. Peter Longerich convincingly proved that what was done in practice bore little resemblance to Himmler’s theory. Longerich, Heinrich Himmler: A Life (Oxford, 2011), p. 370.

  76. Sassen transcript 10:7. Kurt Becher showed Eichmann an expensive jeweled necklace that he had obtained by extortion in Hungary on Himmler’s orders. Eichmann was also a witness to Becher handing the stolen goods over to Himmler.

  77. Himmler’s memos from April 1936 and June 1937, quoted in Longerich, Heinrich Himmler, p. 370.

  78. Kulcsár, Kulcsár, and Szondi, “Adolf Eichmann and the Third Reich,” pp. 30– 32.

  79. Ibid., p. 17. Three people were involved in the psychological examinations. Kulcsár himself conducted the interviews and tests, and his wife and (in one case) Lipot Szondi evaluated them. Many years later a further evaluation of individual test results, partly using blind trials, did not differ greatly from the Kulcsárs’ results. They have not been seen outside the profession until now.

  80. Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963; reprint New York, 1994), p. 77, and notes by Avner W. Less on February 7, 1961, Avner Less Estate, Archiv für Zeitgeschichte, ETH Zurich, NL Less, 4.2.3.2.

  81. Examples are early pamphlet-style publications, like Dewey W. Linze, The Trial of Adolf Eichmann (Los Angeles, Calif., 1961); Comer Clarke, The Savage Truth: Eichmann, the Brutal Story of Hitler’s Beast (London, 1960); and John Donovan, Eichmann: Man of Slaughter (New York, 1960). The most extreme example in film is Eichmann, dir. Robert W. Young (UK/Hungary, 2007).

  82. Sassen transcript 39:3.

  83. Chapter 6 of his novel Die Jünger und die Dirnen gives an account of Sassen’s escape that is only superficially fictionalized; here p. 168.