[4], After Germany's defeat in 1945, Eichmann was captured by US forces, but escaped from a detention camp and moved around Germany to avoid re-capture. We know that one doesn't need to be fanatical, sadistic, or mentally ill to murder millions; that it is enough to be a loyal follower eager to do one's duty. [14][15], During this time, he joined the Jungfrontkämpfervereinigung, the youth section of Hermann Hiltl's right-wing veterans movement, and began reading newspapers published by the Nazi Party. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. [33][216] He does not agree that his father's "following orders" argument excuses his actions and notes how his father's lack of remorse caused "difficult emotions" for the Eichmann family. Otto Adolf Eichmann (* 19. History 04/03/20 Adolf Eichmann: how Mossad kidnapped from Argentina of Nazi war criminal . [44] Funding came from money seized from other Jewish people and organisations, as well as donations from overseas, which were placed under SD control. On This Date in 1962, Nazi War Criminal Adolf Eichmann Hanged in Israel ... Of these 75-90 percent were murdered in the gas chambers immediately after arriving in the death camps. [215], Eichmann's youngest son Ricardo Eichmann says he is not resentful toward Israel for executing his father. ... “It was the first time that the world heard from survivors of the Holocaust — most of whom were young men and women — in such a concerted fashion,” historian … Eichmann was captured by the Mossad in Argentina on 11 May 1960 and subsequently found guilty of war crimes in a widely publicised trial in Jerusalem, where he was executed by hanging in 1962. April 11, 2021, marks the 60th anniversary of the opening of Adolf Eichmann’s trial, which coincided with the young Jewish state’s bat/bar mitzvah year of independence. [90][93] In spite of the orders to stop, Eichmann personally made arrangements for additional trains of victims to be sent to Auschwitz on 17 and 19 July. [69], Eichmann stated at his later interrogations that Heydrich told him in mid-September that Hitler had ordered that all Jews in German-controlled Europe were to be killed. [141] In the ensuing debate, Israeli representative (and later Prime Minister) Golda Meir claimed that the abductors were not Israeli agents but private individuals and so the incident was only an "isolated violation of Argentine law". [201], Eichmann was hanged at a prison in Ramla hours later. Moreover, he claimed to have read Theodor Herzl’s The Jewish State but said that he had never read Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf thoroughly or closely and that he had never read the anti-Semitic tract Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. His trial lasted from April 11 to December 15, 1961, and Eichmann was sentenced to death, the only death sentence ever imposed by an Israeli court. [197] Eichmann's wife and brothers also wrote to Ben-Zvi requesting clemency. After the war, uncertainty over his forenames became apparent. Both were concerned about what Eichmann might say in his testimony about West German national security advisor Hans Globke, who had coauthored several antisemitic Nazi laws, including the Nuremberg Laws. Coming only sixteen years after the end of World War 2, the trial of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, which began in Jerusalem 60 years ago today, brought the Holocaust into international public focus as never before. [67] On 31 July, Göring gave Heydrich written authorisation to prepare and submit a plan for a "total solution of the Jewish question" in all territories under German control and to co-ordinate the participation of all involved government organisations. Home Breaking News 60 years ago - desk perpetrator or mass murderer? [144], US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) documents declassified in 2006 show that the capture of Eichmann caused alarm at the CIA and West German Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND). Während der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus und des Zweiten Weltkrieges leitete er in Berlin das „Eichmannreferat“. The content of his letter and other trial documents were made public on 27 January 2016. [178] Servatius also proposed that decisions of the Nazi government were acts of state and therefore not subject to normal judicial proceedings. [95] In June 1944 Eichmann was involved in negotiations with Rudolf Kasztner that resulted in the rescue of 1,684 people, who were sent by train to safety in Switzerland in exchange for three suitcases full of diamonds, gold, cash, and securities. He sent for his family in 1952, and they moved to Buenos Aires. [139], In Argentina, news of the abduction was met with a violent wave of antisemitism carried out by far-right elements, including the Tacuara Nationalist Movement. [181], Throughout his cross-examination, prosecutor Hausner attempted to get Eichmann to admit he was personally guilty, but no such confession was forthcoming. “I never claimed not to know about the liquidation,” he testified. [5] The execution was attended by a small group of officials, four journalists and the Canadian clergyman William Lovell Hull, who had been Eichmann's spiritual counselor while in prison. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. At war's end, Eichmann found himself in US custody, but escaped in 1946. [90][92] Under international pressure, the Hungarian government halted deportations on 6 July 1944, by which time over 437,000 of Hungary's 725,000 Jews had died. Eichmann joined the Nazi Party in April 1932 in Linz and rose through the party hierarchy. Following the war Eichmann lived in Germany under a false name before fleeing to Argentina, where he was arrested by Israeli secret service agents in 1960. Once Eichmann finally was behind bars in Jerusalem in 1960, Israel prepared for the trial. Eichmann and his staff became responsible for Jewish deportations to extermination camps, where the victims were gassed. Otto Adolf Eichmann, the eldest of five children, was born in 1906 to a Calvinist Protestant family in Solingen, Germany. He escaped from a work detail at Cham, Germany, when he realised that his identity had been discovered. [76] Under Eichmann's supervision, large-scale deportations began almost immediately to extermination camps at Bełżec, Sobibor, Treblinka and elsewhere. The three wrestled Eichmann to the ground and, after a struggle, moved him to a car where they hid him on the floor under a blanket. Sixty years ago I was assigned by a Brazilian weekly news magazine to cover the trial in Israel of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. [162] Many major newspapers from all over the globe sent reporters and published front-page coverage of the story. The operation soon was called off, partly because Hitler decided the required trains were better used for military purposes for the time being. Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Adolf-Eichmann, Jewish Virtual Library - Biography of Adolf Eichmann, History Learning Site - Biography of Adolf Eichmann, Spartacus Educational - Biography of Adolf Eichmann, Adolf Eichmann - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), Know about the role of Adolf Eichmann during the Holocaust and his trial. [50], After a posting in Prague to assist in setting up an emigration office there, Eichmann was transferred to Berlin in October 1939 to command the Reichszentrale für Jüdische Auswanderung ("Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration") for the entire Reich under Heinrich Müller, head of the Gestapo. [156] The chief prosecutor was Israeli Attorney General Gideon Hausner, assisted by Deputy Attorney General Gabriel Bach and Tel Aviv District Attorney Yaakov Bar-Or. [154] Hausner's opening address began, "It is not an individual that is in the dock at this historic trial and not the Nazi regime alone, but anti-Semitism throughout history. Some called for an international tribunal to try Eichmann, and others wanted him tried in Germany, but Israel was insistent. [136] He was smuggled out of Argentina aboard the same El Al Bristol Britannia aircraft that had carried Israel's delegation a few days earlier to the official 150th anniversary celebration of the May Revolution. [107], Eichmann initially lived in Tucumán Province, where he worked for a government contractor. [16] The party platform included the dissolution of the Weimar Republic in Germany, rejection of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, radical antisemitism, and anti-Bolshevism. Eichmann was frightened and attempted to leave, but two more Mossad men came to Malkin's aid. [134] Eitan told the Haaretz newspaper in 2008 that they decided not to pursue Mengele as it might have jeopardised the Eichmann operation. Both organisations had known for at least two years that Eichmann was hiding in Argentina, but they did not act because it did not serve their interests in the Cold War. [62] On 15 August 1940, Eichmann released a memorandum titled Reichssicherheitshauptamt: Madagaskar Projekt (Reich Main Security Office: Madagascar Project), calling for the resettlement to Madagascar of a million Jews per year for four years. [15], A few months after the Nazi seizure of power in Germany in January 1933, Eichmann lost his job due to staffing cutbacks at Vacuum Oil. [191], Eichmann's defence team appealed the verdict to the Israeli Supreme Court. Couldn’t! After settling the controversy that arose over this Israeli violation of Argentine law, the Israeli government arranged his trial before a special three-judge court in Jerusalem. Of his observation of a gassing van in operation at Chelmno, he said, “I didn’t look inside; I couldn’t. Next, between 1927 and early 1933, Eichmann worked in Upper Austria and Salzburg as district agent for the Vacuum Oil Company AG. [117] Hermann then sent his daughter on a fact-finding mission; she was met at the door by Eichmann himself, who said that he was Klaus's uncle. Adolf Eichmann's Final Plea, from the PBS/ABC documentary. [177] Eichmann asserted that the decisions had been made not by him, but by Müller, Heydrich, Himmler, and ultimately Hitler. Eichmann collected information for him, attended the conference, and prepared the minutes. Adolf Eichmann was found guilty by an Israeli Court and sentenced to death. Later published as Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, her articles’ portrayal of Eichmann as banal rather than demonic provoked a storm of debate that lasted for almost a decade. Thereupon he organized the identification, assembly, and transportation of Jews from all over occupied Europe to their final destinations at Auschwitz and other extermination camps in German-occupied Poland. [153] Eichmann was convicted on 15 counts of crimes against humanity, war crimes, crimes against the Jewish people, and membership in a criminal organisation. He was a resourceful and proactive manager who relied on a variety of strategies and tactics to secure scarce cattle cars and other equipment used to deport Jews at a time when equipment shortages threatened the German war effort. They were deported … [161] Capital Cities Broadcasting Corporation of the United States obtained exclusive rights to videotape the proceedings for television broadcast. [57] On many of the trains in this period, up to a third of the deportees died in transit. [210] Arendt, a political theorist who reported on Eichmann's trial for The New Yorker, described Eichmann in her book Eichmann in Jerusalem as the embodiment of the "banality of evil", as she thought he appeared to have an ordinary personality, displaying neither guilt nor hatred. Such work was to earn Eichmann the title ‘Chief Executioner of the Third Reich’. U.S. troops captured Adolf Eichmann when World War II ended, but he escaped in 1946 and settled in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1958. What I saw and heard was enough. But … He even learned a smattering of Hebrew and Yiddish, gaining a reputation as a specialist in Zionist and Jewish matters.

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