Adolf Eichmann

The complete transcripts from the Trial of Adolf Eichmann

Adolf Eichmann, Germany 1940
Photo Courtesy United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives.

SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Karl Adolf Eichmann (1906-1962) was head of the Department for Jewish Affairs in the Gestapo from 1941 to 1945 and was chief of operations in the deportation of three million Jews to extermination camps. He joined the Austrian Nazi party in 1932 and later became a member of the SS. In 1934 he served as an SS corporal in the Dachau concentration camp. That same year he joined the SD and attracted the attention of Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich. By 1935 Eichmann was already working in the Jewish section, where he was investigating possible "solutions to the Jewish question." He was even sent to Palestine to discuss the viability of large scale immigration to the Middle East with Arab leaders. British authorities, however, forced him to leave. With the takeover of Austria in March 1938, Eichmann was sent to Vienna to promote Jewish emigration. He set up the Zentralstelle fuer juedische Auswanderung [Center for Jewish Emigration], which was so successful that similar offices were soon established in Prague and Berlin. In 1939 Eichmann returned to Berlin, where he assumed the directorship of Section IV B4, Jewish affairs and evacuation, in the Reich Security Main Office. It was Eichmann who organized the Wannsee Conference of January 1942, which focused on issues related to the "final solution of the Jewish question." From this point Eichmann assumed the leading role in the deportation of European Jews to the death camps, as well as in the plunder of their property. At the end of the war, Eichmann was arrested and confined to an American internment camp, but he was able to escape unrecognized. He fled to Argentina and lived under the assumed name of Ricardo Klement for ten years until Israeli Mossad agents abducted him in 1960 to stand trial in Jerusalem. The controversial and highly publicized trial lasted from April 2 to August 14, 1961. Eichmann was sentenced to death and executed in Ramleh Prison on May 31, 1962. (Text courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives)

The Eichmann Diary (German)
Eichmann talks of his visit to the Treblinka death camp during his interrogation in Israel
Eichmann Photo Gallery ABC News/PBS Presentation (External link)

Books about Eichmann

The following are available from Amazon Books:

Eichmann in Jerusalem : A Report on the Banality of Evil While living in Argentina in 1960, Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann was kidnapped and smuggled to Israel where he was put on trial for crimes against humanity. The New Yorker magazine sent Hannah Arendt to cover the trial. While covering the technical aspects of the trial, Arendt also explored the wider themes that inherent in the trial, such as the nature of justice, the behavior of the Jewish leadership during the Nazi Regime, and, most controversially, the nature of Evil itself. (From Amazon's review.)

The House on Garibaldi Street The kidnapping of Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann by the Israeli Mossad was one of it's most known coups of the 1960's. Eichnmann was one of Nazi Germany's most notorious war criminals, who was personally responsible for the killing of millions of Jews in occupied Europe. This book brings the story of Isser Harel, Israel's legendary intelligence spymaster who was Head of the Mossad at the time of the operation. Harel's story of this complex action is told in a simple and moving way. The editor Shlomo Shpiro, an Israeli intelligence expert, places in his detailed introduction the operation in its overall historical contex. The new books contains, for the first time, the real names of all Mossad personnel involved, as well as the astounding facts about the involvement of West Germany in this operation. A must reading not only to those interested in the hunt for Nazi criminals but also to everyone interested in real, as opposed to fictional, intelligence work. (Reader's review)

Operation Eichmann : The Truth About the Pursuit, Capture and Trial One of the most feared and hated Nazi leaders of World War II, Adolf Eichmann was responsible for the deaths of millions of Jews. Israeli Mossad agent Zvi Aharoni tracked down Eichmann in Argentina in 1960. Here Aharoni provides first-hand details of Eichmann's capture and interrogation, never before revealed accurately. A fascinating inside story of history's most notorious manhunt. (Amazon Synopsis)

The Specialist, a documentary film about the trial of Adolf Eichmann, is discussed by the Film Forum

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Eichmann in Jerusalem : A Report on the Banality of Evil	While living in Argentina in 1960, Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann was kidnapped and smuggled to Israel where he was put on trial for crimes against humanity. The New Yorker magazine sent Hannah Arendt to cover the trial. While covering the technical aspects of the trial, Arendt also explored the wider themes that inherent in the trial, such as the nature of justice, the behavior of the Jewish leadership during the Nazi Regime, and, most controversially, the nature of Evil itself. (From Amazon's review.)
The House on Garibaldi Street	The kidnapping of Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann by the Israeli Mossad was one of it's most known coups of the 1960's. Eichnmann was one of Nazi Germany's most notorious war criminals, who was personally responsible for the killing of millions of Jews in occupied Europe. This book brings the story of Isser Harel, Israel's legendary intelligence spymaster who was Head of the Mossad at the time of the operation. Harel's story of this complex action is told in a simple and moving way. The editor Shlomo Shpiro, an Israeli intelligence expert, places in his detailed introduction the operation in its overall historical contex. The new books contains, for the first time, the real names of all Mossad personnel involved, as well as the astounding facts about the involvement of West Germany in this operation. A must reading not only to those interested in the hunt for Nazi criminals but also to everyone interested in real, as opposed to fictional, intelligence work. (Reader's review)
Operation Eichmann : The Truth About the Pursuit, Capture and Trial	One of the most feared and hated Nazi leaders of World War II, Adolf Eichmann was responsible for the deaths of millions of Jews. Israeli Mossad agent Zvi Aharoni tracked down Eichmann in Argentina in 1960. Here Aharoni provides first-hand details of Eichmann's capture and interrogation, never before revealed accurately. A fascinating inside story of history's most notorious manhunt. (Amazon Synopsis)