Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer

by Bettina Stangneth

  57. Schneppen, Odessa, p. 136.

  58. The source editions are edited by the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich. We can only hope that the gap in the years 1954–61 will now be immediately closed. The recent volumes on 1962 were taken into account for this book, which, because of the selection of documents they contain, was unfortunately a quick and easy process.

  59. Mohr and his predecessor, Werner Junker, who was ambassador in Buenos Aires until 1963, knew each other well. They had met in 1936, when they were working in the embassy in Nanking. For information on their lives, with a few gaps, and certain things downplayed, see Biographisches Handbuch des deutschen Auswärtigen Dienstes 1871–1945 (Paderborn, 2005), vols. 2 and 3.

  60. “Götzen,” p. 360; p. 40; the letter from Mohr to the RSHA, February 26, 1941, was a prosecution document.

  61. Hubert Krier, interview by Dan Setton in Josef Mengele: The Final Account (SET Productions, 2007).

  62. Answers to questionnaire for Paris Match, May 1962, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/252.

  63. Eichmann’s note in Israel: “Vorgeschichte der Entführung,” BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/253.

  64. Vera Eichmann, interview in Paris Match, April 29, 1962; commentary and explanation to the publisher Dr. Sudholt, according to information given by Dr. Sudholt in 2009, and the sworn statement from Vera Eichmann published in Druffel Verlag’s 1980 edition of the Argentina Papers: Ich, Adolf Eichmann. See also “Aftermath” in this book.

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

  66. For example, Miguel Serrano, Das goldene Band (Wetten, 1987). The legend of Hitler’s survival in an eternal block of ice is, as a simple Internet search shows, still around today, although in the age of artificial insemination and cloning, the modern variation is slowly softening to say that Hitler deposited only his “genetic material,” so that he could be born again.

  67. Unidentifiable staff member to Hanns Martin Schleyer, May 30, 1960, quoted in Gaby Weber, Daimler-Benz und die Argentinien-Connection (Berlin and Hamburg, 2004), p. 91.

  68. Immediately after the press reported Eichmann’s abduction, Mengele noted: “Now you see, I was right.”

  69. “Not a Templar After All: Eichmann’s Birthplace: Solingen, not Sarona,” Die Zeit, September 11, 1959. The article is a correction to the Israel report by Gerhard F. Kramer, who wrote for the magazine as the former attorney general of Hamburg.

  70. Principally Weber, Daimler-Benz, pp. 87–95. For a facsimile of the application and the personnel record, see Schneppen, Odessa, p. 160. Fuldner made no secret of the favor and mentioned it in his statement to the police following Eichmann’s abduction. The information is also in the report from the German embassy, Argentina, to the Foreign Office.

  71. Unidentifiable staff member to Hanns Martin Schleyer, May 30, 1960, quoted in Weber, Daimler-Benz, p. 91. Weber questions the authenticity of the letter. The content, however, fits perfectly with the other pieces of writing we have from Eichmann’s helpers, as they attempted to justify themselves.

  72. The contributions to be found in the literature so far rest on incorrect exchange rates and frequently confuse dollars and Deutschmarks. The average gross monthly salary is generally given as around 600 Deutschmarks for men. Thanks to the staff of the German Bundesbank for their help in providing this information. The fact that this exchange rate corresponded to what was actually paid can be traced in Dürer Verlag’s statements of fees paid to its German authors. See Fritsch correspondence.

  73. Facsimile in Weber, Daimler-Benz, unpaginated appendix. For the period April 8 to June 30, 1959, Ricardo Klement received 15,216.60 pesos.

  74. David Filc, interview by Gaby Weber (2000), in Weber, Daimler-Benz, p. 91.

  75. Eichmann to Nebe, October 16, 1939, DÖW. File 17 072/a. Nebe had asked whether they might take the opportunity of the transports to Nisko to also transport “the Berlin gypsies,” and Eichmann suggested adding “3 to 4 cars of gypsies” to the trains.

  76. Sassen transcripts 13:7.

  77. Simon Wiesenthal, Ich jagte Eichmann (Gütersloh, 1961), p. 239.

  78. Hermann Langbein Estate, ÖStA, E/1797. Evidence, documents, and commentaries on this campaign can be found in several folders and boxes. See, for example, Folder 106, correspondence with Ormond at the start of 1959; the green correspondence folder with Germany (20:21—press; 23:24—justice).

  79. BfV to Foreign Office, June 9, 1960 (II/a2-051-P-20364-5a/60). Thanks to the BfV for permission to quote.

  80. Paul Dickopf’s friends included the famous/infamous Hitler fan François Genoud, with whom he maintained a close relationship after their work for the SS and the Nazi regime. Genoud then helped to finance Eichmann’s defense from 1960. See “Aftermath” in this book.

  81. Two former colleagues of Fritz Bauer, who prefer not to be named, conversation with the author.

  82. Annette Weinke, Eine deutsch-deutsche Beziehungsgeschichte im Kalten Krieg (Paderborn, Munich, Zurich, and Vienna, 2002), pp. 151–57.

  83. F. J. P. Veale, “Eichmann’s Abduction—Coincidence or Staged?” Nation Europa 11, no. 1 (1961), pp. 73–78, esp. p. 73.

  84. Bauer wrote to Sassen in 1962 with a plea for background information, and nothing in Sassen’s reply suggests that they had been in prior contact. Willem Sassen, Comodoro Rivadavia, to Attorney General Bauer, Frankfurt am Main, July 16, 1962, cited in Wojak, Eichmanns Memoiren, pp. 48 and 218. Unfortunately the source given there is incorrect (Landesarchiv Berlin, no. 76, BRep 057-01), as the staff there assured me. Nor was it possible to find the letter in any of the other likely archives (Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden, Fritz Bauer Archiv Frankfurt, Archiv der Sozialen Demokratie Bonn).

  85. Interview in Fritz Bauer—Tod auf Raten (Ilona Ziok, 2010).

  86. The search turned up fourteen SS men with this name.

  87. Wolfgang Rabus to author, December 7, 2010, which in spite of its banal content was cc’d to four other people in the firm.

  88. Thomas Harlan to author, 2010; and the film Fritz Bauer—Tod auf Raten (Ilona Ziok, 2010).

  89. Also mentioned in Quentin Reynolds, Ephraim Katz, and Zwy Aldouby, Minister of Death: The Adolf Eichmann Story (New York, 1960), p. 206.

  90. For information on this site of horror, see Jules Schelvis, Vernichtungslager Sobibór (Berlin, 1998); Thomas “Tovi” Blatt, Sobibór—der vergessene Aufstand (Hamburg and Münster, 2004).

  91. In 1967 Szmajzner also sold this business and became the director of a paper-recycling firm in Goiania. He died in 1989. See Schelvis, Vernichtungslager, pp. 291, 314, and 220 (photo); Richard Lashke, Flucht aus Sobibór, Roman (Gerlingen, 1998), appendix of source material, p. 436.

  92. Or rather Inferno em Sobibór—A tragédia de um adolescente judeu (Rio de Janeiro, 1968). The work has not yet been translated.

  93. Gustav Franz Stangl, the former commandant of Sobibór, confirmed this himself in 1969; quoted in Schelvis, Vernichtungslager.

  94. Simon Wiesenthal recounted several versions of his search for Stangl, which Tom Segev reconstructed. Segev suspects that Wiesenthal did not give the real information but obviously found no reference to Szmajzner, just a conspicuous hole in the archive. Tom Segev, Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends (New York, 2010), pp. 208–9. Szmajzner spoke of his memories of Stangl later, in conversations with other Sobibór survivors. There are photos of the encounter with Wagner where he identified him. See also Simon Wiesenthal, Justice Not Vengeance: Recollections (New York, 1990).

  95. Jules Schelvis conducted long interviews with Szmajzner for his book on Sobibór; Schelvis, Vernichtungslager, p. 314. The journalist Mario Chimanovich, who acted on Wiesenthal’s behalf in Brazil, was convinced that Wagner was murdered. Tom Segev, interview by Mario Chimanovich, October 29, 2008; see also Segev, Simon Wiesenthal, p. 209. Even the police photos contradict the story that Wagner hanged himself.

  96. This article appeared in almost all the newspapers the following day, including the Argentinisches Tagebl
att. Quoted here from the Schwäbische Albzeitung, December 24, 1959.

  97. Segev, Simon Wiesenthal, p. 177.

  98. Heinz Weibel-Altmeyer, “Hunt for Eichmann,” Neue Illustrierte, June 11–July 8, 1960, a five-part series.

  99. BfV to Foreign Office, June 9, 1960 (II/a2-051-P-20364-5a/60). Thanks to the BfV for permission to quote from this document.

  100. BfV to Foreign Office, June 9, 1960 (II/a2-051-P-20364-5a/60).

  101. Langbein to the Federation of German Industry, February 12, 1960; the Federation to the Comité International d’Auschwitz, April 26, 1960. Both letters are in Langbein Estate, ÖStA, E/1797-25, green correspondence folder, Germany A-C.

  102. As with all operations of this sort, Langbein first asked the Frankfurt prosecutor Henry Ormond whether he would be causing any damage with this letter. Evidence in correspondence folder Ormond, Langbein Estate, ÖStA. For the connections among Ormond, Langbein, and Bauer, see “Aftermath” in this book.

  103. BfV to Foreign Office, June 9, 1960 (II/a2-051-P-20364-5a/60).

  104. Erwin Schüle to Tuviah Friedman, August 20, 1959, in Tuviah Friedman, ed., Die “Ergreifung Eichmanns”: Dokumentarische Sammlung (Haifa, 1971).

  105. “Israel and the Eichmann Case,” Argentinisches Tageblatt, October 16, 1959.

  106. Some facsimiles of press articles are in Tuviah Friedman, We Shall Never Forget (Haifa, undated). Investigating authorities faced an increasing number of issues caused by Friedman acting on his own authority; see the 1970s correspondence between Simon Wiesenthal and the Central Office in BA Ludwigsburg. See also the report by Dietrich Zeug to Ludwigsburg in 1961, both in BA Ludwigsburg, Central Office collection.

  107. On Bauer’s fabricated statements to the press, and the position taken by the British foreign minister on October 13, 1959. The campaign continued until well into 1960. Evidence appears even in the smaller newspapers; for this account, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurter Neue Presse, The Times, Die TAT, Schwäbische Albzeitung, Weltwoche, Deutsche Woche, and Neues Österreich were checked.

  108. Deutsche Woche, January 27, 1960.

  109. Federal Ministry of Justice to the Foreign Office, December 16, 1959, quoted in Schneppen, Odessa, p. 163. Schneppen does not give an archive reference but usually consults the Foreign Office’s Political Archive.

  110. Anyone thinking this is malicious is recommended to spend a few hours with Adolf von Thadden’s estate. The shelves of Thadden’s correspondence, comprising thousands of letters, contain reams of genuinely malicious gossip and rumor. Sassen wrote at least one article for Thadden (Reichsruf, October 29, 1955). Thadden even denounced Sassen in public. See “Aftermath” in this book for a review of the Druffel publication.

  111. BfV to Foreign Office, June 9, 1960 (II/a2-051-P-20364-5a/60).

  112. “Neo-Nazi Leader ‘Was MI6 Agent,’ ” Guardian, August 13, 2002. Thadden thoroughly cleansed his estate of all evidence that he might have spied for the British.

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

  114. Hermann’s correspondence with Tuviah Friedman. Tuviah Friedman, Die Ergreifung Eichmanns: Dokumentarische Sammlung (Haifa, 1971).

  115. BA Ludwigsburg, Central Office collection, III 24/28.

  116. Friedman to Hermann, April 27, 1971, talking about Arie Tartakower. Friedman, Die Ergreifung Eichmanns.

  117. Hermann to Friedman, March 28, 1960, ibid.

  118. Friedman apologized to Hermann in his letters from 1971.

  119. For the decision, see Hanna Yablonka’s excellent book The State of Israel vs. Adolf Eichmann (New York, 2004).

  120. Ibid., p. 15; Segev, Simon Wiesenthal, p. 141.

  121. Interestingly, I also found a copy in Langbein Estate, ÖStA, Eichmann press folder.

  122. A photo of them as children shows how similar the brothers were, even then.

  123. See also Segev, Simon Wiesenthal, p. 143.

  124. Aharoni did not say which assignment he had been on in March 1959.

  125. “Meine Flucht,” p. 26, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/247.

  126. “Vorgeschichte der Entführung” (Background to the Abduction), dated November 7, 1961, and the lengthy “Verhaftungsbericht” (Arrest Report), undated but written before the start of the trial, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/253. The content tallies with Eichmann’s “Meine Flucht” (March 1961), BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/247

  127. The theories that Eichmann willingly left Argentina, traveling to Israel via various other places—or that Argentina extradited him—still exist. But the only possible reason for anybody continuing to subscribe to them today would be some evidence that Eichmann was forced to lie in both his written testimonies, and his statements in court. There is no sort of evidence for it. Based on a thorough investigation of the sources, ideas that Eichmann consented to go to Israel, and scenarios other than that of an abduction, simply don’t stand up.

  128. Klaus Eichmann, interview in Quick, January 2, 1966; Vera Eichmann recounted this dream in her interview in Paris Match, April 29, 1962.

  129. “Vorgeschichte der Entführung,” November 7, 1961, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/253; “Meine Flucht,” p. 28.

  130. Eichmann’s own reports also give detailed information, backed up by the other accounts from the people involved.

  131. Inge Schneider confirmed this point. She was living in Europe, and Miep Sassen came to stay with her. Inge Schneider, interview by Roelf van Til (2005).

  132. Vera Eichmann, interview in Paris Match, April 29, 1962; Fuldner’s very understated statement to the Argentine police; Klaus Eichmann, interview in Quick.

  133. Klaus Eichmann, interview in Quick; Mohn to Servatius, Servatius Report, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/253.

  134. Klaus Eichmann and his family initially stayed in their own apartment, then disappeared from the press’s gaze for a while. After May 23, 1960, the press started looking for traces of Eichmann in Buenos Aires. A warning to Israel soon appeared in newspapers from Nation Europa to Der Spiegel: it would damage the reputation of “the Jews” if they had laid hands on Eichmann’s family as well.

  135. As it later emerged, Werner Junker, then the ambassador in Buenos Aires, had frequently withheld information from his employer, Heinrich von Brentano.

  136. José Moskovits, interview by Raymond Ley (2009). Herr Moskovits speaks a broken but comprehensible German. The content of his words cannot be misunderstood. When probed further, he remained absolutely sure about these dates.

  137. Segev, Simon Wiesenthal, pp. 333–34.

  138. Everyone involved confirms this fact. Moskovits, in his 2009 interview by Raymond Ley, mentions the help he provided: he even made it possible for Aharoni to visit the embassy incognito. Tom Segev found an extensive correspondence between Wiesenthal and Moskovits in Wiesenthal’s private papers. Zvi Aharoni mentions Moskovits as a helper from the start, even if he only names him later on. Moskovits helped Aharoni get hold of information and arranged the inconspicuous rental of an apartment and cars for the Mossad team. Even Isser Harel alludes to a Hungarian in Buenos Aires, with good police contacts, who had been Aharoni’s point of contact. Isser Harel, The House on Garibaldi Street (1997), p. 35. Moskovits’s and Aharoni’s cover names are not explained.

  139. Moskovits’s, Aharoni’s, and Harel’s accounts do not contradict here, either.

  140. See the federal government publication Die antisemitischen und nazistischen Vorfälle: Weißbuch und Erklärung der Bundesregierung (Bonn, 1960), p. 36.

  141. Spiegel, June 15, 1960.

  142. From the Federal Chancellery Office’s explanation of why the BND’s Eichmann files cannot be released, even in 2010 (p. 3). See “Aftermath” in this book for more details.

  143. Rolf Vogel to Günther Diehl, August 30, 1960, cited in Raphael Gross, Anständig geblieben: Nationalsozialistische Moral (Frankfurt am Main, 2010), p. 197. Institute for Contemporary History, Munich, B145, 1132.

  144. Werner Junker’s report on Sassen, November 29, 1960, PA
AA, B83, vol. 55; Brentano to Janz, December 1, 1960, quoted in Das Amt, p. 608. There too one can find detailed reactions from the Foreign Office to Eichmann’s abduction—although clearly very little was found during the research on the files covering the Nazi community in Argentina in the 1950s.

  145. Ambassador Werner Junker to the Foreign Office, December 13, 1962, published as document 483 in Akten zur Auswärtigen Politik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: 1962 (Munich, 2010), pp. 2060–61.

  146. See Irmtrud Wojak, Fritz Bauer: 1903–1968: Eine Biographie (Munich, 2009).

  147. For the CIA, see Richard Breitman, ed., U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis (Washington, D.C., 2004).

  148. Das Amt, p. 609.

  149. Ibid., pp. 600ff.

  150. This double bookkeeping can be clearly seen in Servatius’s papers in BA Koblenz, which contain detailed financial statements. For the financing of Eichmann’s defense, see “Aftermath” in this book.

  151. Quoted from the strictly confidential memo to ministers in Das Amt, p. 614.

  152. Adenauer to Ben-Gurion, January 22, 1962; published as document 37 in Akten zur Auswärtigen Politik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: 1962 (Munich, 2010), pp. 206–7.

  153. The events up to the end of 1960 are documented in the supplementary file to case BVerwG 7A 15.10, Saure vs. BND, BND files 121 099, 1664: letter of June 3, 1960 “on Foreign Office inquiry” and 1784: August 11, 1960. Thanks to Christoph Partsch for permission to cite these.

  154. Members of the family publicly distanced themselves from the notice. See Philipp Trafojer, “Die Spuren eines Mörders. Alois Schintlholzer (1914–1989),” editorial in the Austrian journal Vinschgerwind (September 8, 2005).