Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer

by Bettina Stangneth

  Based on the Sassen interviews:

  Aschenauer, Rudolf, ed. Ich, Adolf Eichmann: Ein historischer Zeugenbericht. Leoni am Starnberger See, 1980.

  The composition, with its clearly revisionist tendencies, can now be analyzed: manuscript copy in Eichmann Estate, BA Koblenz, N/1497, 77–86.

  From the Sassen interviews:

  Life: “Eichmann Tells His Own Damning Story,” in Life, Chicago, November 28 and December 5, 1960. Reprinted as “Eichmann Tells His Own Damning Story.” Part I: “I Transported Them to the Butcher,” in Life International 30, no. 1 (January 9, 1961), pp. 9–19; part II: “To Sum It All Up, I Regret Nothing,” in Life International 30, no. 3 (February 13, 1961), pp. 76–82 (prosecution document T/47).

  Licensed reprints:

  “Das Geständnis des Adolf Eichmann,” Revue, no. 8, 9, 10, Munich 1961.

  Paris Match, May 6, May 13, May 20, 1960.

  Polityka, May 20–June 17, 1961, parts of the Linz copy with commentary.

  Gideon Hausner. Hausner used the Israel (Hagag) copy for his report on the trial, Justice in Jerusalem. He was the only author before 1979 who was able to draw on the Sassen transcript.

  List of Eichmann’s contemporary comments on the Life articles during the Sassen interviews: prosecution document T/1432.

  “Erklärung zur Überstellung nach Israel” (Declaration on Transfer to Israel), May 1960 (T/3)

  Israel Sources

  “Meine Memoiren” (My Memoirs)

  “Today, 15 years and one day after May 8, 1945 …,” dated “May 9 to June 16, 1960,” but begun only after May 23. Comprises 128 pages of handwritten text, copied for the court files on June 16, 1960. Trial document B06-1492 (T/44).

  Also published, without academic rigor and in a flawed transcription, in Die Welt, August 12–September 4, 1999. The text is also cited as “127 [sic] Eichmann-pages.”

  “Meine Flucht: Bericht aus der Zelle in Jerusalem” (My Escape: Report from the Cell in Jerusalem)

  Alternative title: “Mein Fluchtbericht”; original title: “In einer Mainacht 1945” (On a May Night in 1945). Dated March 1961. The text wasn’t used as evidence in the trial. BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/247; NA, RG 263 CIA Name File Adolf Eichmann, vol. 1, document 72; a better copy is vol. 3, 76.

  Handwritten text “Mein Fluchtbericht,” Israel State Archives, published in the British magazine People, April 30–May 28, 1961.

  Interrogations, May 29, 1960–January 15, 1961 (Tape 1–76) and February 2, 1961 (Tape 77). Trial documents (T/37 and T/41).

  Seventy-six tapes from 38 days of interrogation, 270 hours, 3,564 typed pages, corrected by Eichmann.

  First: Police D’Israel, Quartier General 6-ème Bureau (Commander A. Selinger), Adolf Eichmann, vols. 1–6, Mahana Iyar, February 3, 1961, facsimile.

  Then: State of Israel, Ministry of Justice, The Trial of Adolf Eichmann. Statement made by Adolf Eichmann to the Israel Police prior to his trial in Jerusalem. Vols. 7–8, Jerusalem, 1995, facsimile.

  Prison Notes, May 30–December 19, 1960. T/44; copies largely in Eichmann Estate, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6

  Fourteen typewritten pages of comments on the Life articles, written in Israel (T/48-51).

  Handwritten comments on the Sassen transcript (prosecution document T/1393).

  Various notes and handwritten essays from prison, even before the trial, including letters to his family.

  Psychiatric and Psychological Evaluations, conducted by I. S. Klucsár (Israel), January 20–March 1, 1961

  Seven sessions of around three hours, with the tests in use at that time (IQ, Rorschach, TAT, Object Relation Test, Wechsler, Bender, Drawing Test, Szondi).

  The original report is still classified. A summary may be found in Shlomo Kulcsár, Shoshanna Kulcsár, and Lipot Szondi, “Adolf Eichmann and the Third Reich,” in Crime, Law and Corrections, ed. Ralph Slovenko (Springfield, Ill., 1966), pp. 16–52. Pictures from the drawing test were published in Spiegel (1978), no. 2.

  Trial Documents

  State of Israel, Ministry of Justice, The Trial of Adolf Eichmann. Microfiche Copies of the Exhibits Submitted by the Prosecution and Defense, Vol. 9 (Jerusalem, 1995). Documents are cited by T/xx numbers.

  A complete copy is housed in the Central Office for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes, Ludwigsburg, now BA Ludwigsburg, B 162. Large parts of the copy are also held in the Servatius Estate, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6, and at Avner Less Estate, ETH Zurich.

  Trial Transcripts

  The Attorney General of the State of Israel vs. Adolf, son of Karl Adolf Eichmann. Jerusalem District Court, Criminal Case 40/61. April 2–August 14, 1961. Statements before the court. Transcript of sessions 1–121. Unrevised and uncorrected transcription (German translation). Complete transcript: Servatius Estate, Less Estate.

  State of Israel, Ministry of Justice, The Trial of Adolf Eichmann: Record of Proceedings in the District of Jerusalem, vols. 1–6, Jerusalem, 1992–94 (English translation).

  Film of the proceedings: Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive/Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

  “Götzen” (Idols)

  Consisting of 1,206 pages, 676 of which are marked for publication, dated September 1961. Released on February 27, 2000, as evidence in the Irving-Lipstadt trial, London. Israel State Archives.

  According to Servatius, Eichmann’s working titles were “Recollections for Generations to Come” and “Versailles.”

  Prison Writings from the Start of the Trial to the Execution

  Numerous notes, letters, dossiers, sketches, organizational charts, and larger manuscripts. These include the “Verhaftungsbericht” (Arrest Report), “Vorgeschichte der Entführung” (Background to the Abduction), “Auch hier im Angesicht des Galgens …” (Even Here, Facing the Gallows …), Eichmann’s positions on the sentence and the appeal, various drafts of his concluding statement, correspondence with his family, associates, lawyer, foreign inquiries, the Paris Match questionnaire, and so on. Most of it is now in the Eichmann Estate, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6; Eichmann Trial Collection, Israel State Archives; and some in the family’s possession (not accessible).

  Theological Letters

  “Conversion discussions” with Rev. William Hull. William L. Hull, Kampf um eine Seele, Gespräche mit Eichmann in der Todeszelle (Wuppertal, 1964), reproduces three letters from Eichmann, with (problematic) transcripts from memory of thirteen visits between April 11 and May 31, 1962.

  Select Bibliography

  With the wider body of source material and studies that has now become available, this book departs all the more frequently from previous works—though without pointing out every error made in these books. This sort of destructive text is not a joy to read, and the following titles are still indispensible to anyone making an intensive study of Eichmann, as I was. A complete list of the Eichmann literature used here is naturally impossible, as it extends to more than eight hundred titles. More references for further reading can be found in the endnotes. Randolph L. Braham’s Eichmann bibliography remains essential reading: The Eichmann Case: A Source Book (New York, 1969).

  Books and Articles

  Adler, H. G. “Adolf Eichmann oder die Flucht aus der Verantwortung.” Tribüne 1 (1962), pp. 122–34.

  “Adolf Eichmann, Novelist.” Time and Tide (London) 42, no. 25 (1961), p. 1009.

  Aharoni, Zvi, and Wilhelm Dietl. Operation Eichmann: The Truth About the Pursuit, Capture, and Trial. Translated by Helmut Bögler. New York, 1997.

  Aly, Götz. “Endlösung”: Völkerverschiebung und der Mord an den europäischen Juden. Frankfurt am Main, 1995.

  ———. “Die späte Rache des Adolf Eichmann.” Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften 11, no. 1 (2000), pp. 186–91.

  Aly, Götz, and Christian Gerlach. Das letzte Kapitel: Realpolitik, Ideologie und der Mord an den ungarischen Juden 1944/1945. Stuttgart and Munich, 2002.

  Anderl, Gabriele. “Emigration und Vertreibung.” InVertreibung und Neubeginn: Israelisc
he Bürger österreichischer Herkunft. Edited by Erika Weinzierl and Otto D. Kulka. Vienna, 1992.

  Anderl, Gabriele, and Dirk Rupnow. Die Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung als Beraubungsinstitution. Vienna, 2004.

  Anderson, Jack. “Nazi War Criminals in South America.” Parade, November 13, 1960, pp. 6–9.

  Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. 1963; reprint New York, 1994.

  ———. “Thinking and Moral Considerations: A Lecture.” Social Research 38, no. 3 (Autumn 1971), pp. 417–46.

  “Arendt in Jerusalem.” History and Memory 8, no. 2 (Fall–Winter 1996), special issue.

  Aronson, Shlomo. Reinhard Heydrich und die Frühgeschichte von Gestapo und SD. Stuttgart, 1971.

  Arnsberg, Paul. “Eichmann—The Germans Don’t Care.” Jewish Observer and Middle East Review 10, no. 15 (April 14, 1961).

  Ausschuß für deutsche Einheit, ed. Eichmann: Henker, Handlanger, Hintermänner: Eine Dokumentation. East Berlin, 1961.

  Avni, Haim. “Jewish Leadership in Times of Crisis: Argentina During the Eichmann Affair (1960–1962).” Studies in Contemporary Jewry 11 (1995), pp. 117–35.

  Bach, Gabriel. “Gespräch mit Herrn Gabriel Bach, stellvertretender Ankläger im Prozess gegen Adolf Eichmann, anlässlich des 65. Jahrestages der Wannsee-Konferenz vom 20. Januar 1942 am 18. Januar 2007 im Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz.” In Haus der Wannseekonferenz, ed., Newsletter 8 (December 2007), pp. 2–21.

  ———. “Adolf Eichmann and the Eichmann Trial.” In Holocaust: Israel Pocket Library. Jerusalem, 1974.

  Bar-Nathan, Moshe. “Background to the Eichmann Trial.” Jewish Frontier 28, no. 5 (May 1961), pp. 4–7.

  Bar-On, A. Zvie. “Measuring Responsibility.”Philosophical Forum 16, nos. 1–2 (1984–85), pp. 95–109.

  Bar-On, Dan. “Steckt in jedem von uns ein Adolf Eichmann?” Die Welt, August 19, 1999.

  Bar-Zohar, Michel. Les vengeurs. Paris, 1968. English: The Avengers. New York, 1968.

  Bascomb, Neal. Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World’s Most Notorious Nazi. Boston and New York, 2009.

  Bauer, Yehuda. Freikauf von Juden? Verhandlungen zwischen dem nationalsozialistischen Deutschland und jüdischen Repräsentanten 1933–1945. Frankfurt am Main, 1996.

  ———. “Wir müssen jetzt die richtigen wissenschaftlichen Fragen stellen.” Interview in Die Welt, August 12, 1999.

  ———. “Das Böse ist niemals banal.” Interview in Spiegel, August 16, 1999.

  Baumann, Jürgen. “Die Psychologie des bürokratisch organisierten Mordes.” Frankfurter Hefte: Zeitschrift für Kultur und Politik 21 (1966), pp. 199–205.

  Beatty, Joseph. “Thinking and Moral Considerations: Socrates and Arendt’s Eichmann.” Journal of Value Inquiry 10 (1976).

  Beier, Lars-Olav. “Anatomie eines Mörders.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, February 17, 1999.

  Ben Natan, Asher. The Audacity to Live: An Autobiography. Tel Aviv, 2007.

  Bergman, Monika. “Transporttechnische Angelegenheiten.” Die Zeit, February 11, 1999.

  Bernstein, Richard J. “The Banality of Evil Reconsidered.” In Hannah Arendt and the Meaning of Politics. Edited by Craig Calhoun and John McGowan. Minneapolis, 1997.

  ———. “Responsibility, Judging, and Evil.” Revue Internationale de Philosophie 53, no. 2 (June 1999), pp. 155–72.

  Bethke. “Der Antisemitismus im Glaskasten. Zum Eichmann-Prozeß.” In Glaube und Gewissen. Halle a. d. Saale 7, 1961.

  Bettelheim, Bruno. “Eichmann—Das System—Die Opfer.” In Erziehung zum Überleben: Zur Psychologie der Extremsituationen. Munich, 1982.

  Biss, Andreas. Der Stopp der Endlösung: Kampf gegen Himmler und Eichmann in Budapest. Stuttgart, 1966.

  Biuletyn glownej komsji badania zbrodni Hitleowskich w Polsce (Bulletin of the Commission for Investigation of Hitlerite Crimes in Poland). Warsaw, 1960. Eichmann documents: vols. 12 and 13.

  Böll, Heinrich. “Befehl und Verantwortung. Gedanken zum Eichmann-Prozeß.” In Aufsätze, Kritiken, Reden. Cologne and Berlin, 1967.

  Botz, Gerhard. Nationalsozialismus in Wien: Machtübernahme und Herrschaftssicherung, 1938–1939. Buchloe, 1988.

  Braham, Randolph. Eichmann and the Destruction of Hungarian Jewry: A Documentary Account. New York, 1963.

  ———. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. New York, 1994.

  Brandt, Willy. Deutschland, Israel und die Juden: Rede des Regierenden Bürgermeisters von Berlin vor dem Herzl-Institut in New York am 19. März 1961. Berlin, 1961.

  Brand, Joel. Adolf Eichmann: Fakten gegen Fabeln. Munich and Frankfurt, 1961.

  Brand, Joel, and Alex Weissberg. Advocate for the Dead: The Story of Joel Brand. London, 1958.

  Brayard, Florent. “ ‘Grasping the Spokes of the Wind of History’: Gerstein, Eichmann and the Genocide of the Jews.” History and Memory 20 (2008), pp. 48–88.

  Brechtken, Magnus. “Madagaskar für die Juden”: Antisemitische Idee und politische Praxis 1885–1945. Munich, 1998.

  ———. “Apologie und Erinnerungskonstruktion—Zum zweifelhaften Quellenwert von Nachkriegsaussagen zur Geschichte des Dritten Reiches. Das Beispiel Madagaskar-Plan.” Jahrbuch für Antisemitismusforschung 9 (2000), pp. 234–52.

  Breitman, Richard David, and Shlomo Aronson. “The End of the ‘Final Solution’? Nazi Plans to Ransom Jews in 1944.” Central European History 25, no. 2 (1992), pp. 177–203.

  Breitman, Richard, ed. U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis. Washington, D.C., 2004.

  Breton, Albert, and Ronald Wintrope. “The Bureaucracy of Murder Revisited.” Journal of Political Economy 94, no. 5 (October 1986), pp. 905–26.

  Brochhagen, Ulrich. Nach Nürnberg: Vergangenheitsbewältigung und Westintegration in der Ära Adenauer. Hamburg, 1994.

  Brockdorff, Werner (alias Alfred Jarschel, former Nazi youth leader). “XVII. Karl [!] Adolf Eichmann.” In Flucht vor Nürnberg: Pläne und Organisation der Fluchtwege der NS-Prominenz im “Römischen Weg.” Munich-Wels, 1969 (summary of Eichmann’s delusional alternative biography).

  Browder, George C. Hitler’s Enforcers: Gestapo and the SS Security Service in the Nazi Revolution. New York, 1996.

  Browning, Christopher. The Path to Genocide: Essays on Launching the Final Solution. Cambridge, 1992.

  ———. Judenmord: NS-Politik, Zwangsarbeit und das Verhalten der Täter. Frankfurt am Main, 2001.

  Brunner, José. “Eichmann, Arendt and Freud in Jerusalem: On the Evils of Narcissism and the Pleasures of Thoughtlessness.” History and Memory 8 (1996), pp. 61–88.

  ———. “Eichmann’s Mind: Psychological, Philosophical and Legal Perspectives.” Theoretical Inquiries in Law 1 (2000), pp. 429–63.

  Buechler, Yeshoshua Robert. “Document: A Preparatory Document for the Wannsee ‘Conference.’ ” Holocaust and Genocide Studies 9, no. 1 (Spring 1995), pp. 121–29.

  Camarasa, Jorge. Odessa al Sur: La Argentina Como Refugio de Nazis y Criminales de Guerra. Buenos Aires, 1995.

  Cantorovich, Nati. “Soviet Reactions to the Eichmann Trial: A Preliminary Investigation, 1960–1965.” Yad Vashem Studies 35 (2007), pp. 103–41.

  Carmichael, Joel. “Reactions in Germany.” Midstream 7, no. 3 (Summer 1961), pp. 13–27.

  Cesarani, David. Eichmann: His Life and Crimes. London, 2005.

  Cesarani, David, ed. Genocide and Rescue: The Holocaust in Hungary, 1944. Oxford, 1997.

  ———. After Eichmann: Collective Memory and the Holocaust Since 1961. London, New York, 2005.

  Clarke, Comer. Eichmann—The Man and His Crimes. New York, 1960.

  Cohen, Ahiba, Tamor Zemach-Maron, Jürgen Wolke, and Birgit Schenk. The Holocaust and the Press: Nazi War Crimes Trials in Germany and Israel. New Jersey, 2002.

  Cohen, Richard J. “Breaking the Code: Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem and the Public Polemic: Myth, Memory and Historical Imagination.” In Michael: The Diaspora Research Institute, edited by Dina Porat
and Shlomo Simonsohn (Tel Aviv, 1993) pp. 13:29–85.

  Conze, Eckart, Norbert Frei, Peter Hayes, and Moshe Zimmermann. Das Amt und die Vergangenheit: Deutsche Diplomaten im Dritten Reich und in der Bundesrepublik. Munich, 2010.

  Crossman, Richard H. S. “The Faceless Bureaucrat.” New Statesman, March 31, 1961.

  Diamant, Manus. Geheimauftrag: Mission Eichmann. Vienna, 1995.

  Donovan, John. Eichmann: Man of Slaughter. New York, 1960.

  “Eichmann and the German Government.”Jewish Chronicle (London), March 17, 1961, p. 31.

  “Eichmann’s Ghost Writer: A Dutch Friend in Argentina.” Wiener Library Bulletin 15, no. 1 (1961), p. 2.

  Einstein, Siegfried. Eichmann: Chefbuchhalter des Todes. Frankfurt am Main, 1961.

  Enzensberger, Hans Magnus. “Reflexionen vor einem Glaskasten.” In Politik und Verbrechen: Neun Beiträge. Frankfurt am Main, 1964.

  Felstiner, Mary. “Alois Brunner: ‘Eichmann’s Best Tool.’ ” Simon Wiesenthal Center Annual 3 (1986), pp. 1–46.

  Friedman, Tuviah. The Hunter. New York, 1961.

  ———. Die Ergreifung Eichmanns: Dokumentarische Sammlung. Haifa, 1971.

  Friedman, Tuviah, ed. We Shall Never Forget: An Album of Photographs, Articles and Documents. Haifa Documentation Centre, undated (1965).

  Garner, Reuben. “Adolph Eichmann: The Making of a Totalitarian Bureaucrat.” In The Realm of Humanitas: Responses to the Writing of Hannah Arendt. New York, 1990.

  Gellhorn, Martha. “Eichmann and the Private Conscience.” Atlantic Monthly 209, no. 2 (February 1962), pp. 52–59.

  Gerlach, Christian. “The Eichmann Interrogations in Holocaust Historiography.” Holocaust and Genocide Studies 3 (2001), pp. 428–52.

  Giefer, Rena, and Thomas Giefer. Die Rattenlinie: Fluchtwege der Nazis: Eine Dokumentation. Frankfurt am Main, 1991.

  Gilbert, G. M. “The Mentality of SS-Murderous Robots.” Yad Vashem Studies 5 (1963), pp. 35–41.

  Glock, Charles Y., Gertrude J. Selznick, and Joe L. Spaeth. The Apathetic Majority: A Study Based on Public Responses to the Eichmann Trial. New York, 1966.