Eichmann, Karl Adolf b. March 19, 1906; Solingen, Prussia d. May 31, 1962; Ramleh, Israel
German Schutzstaffel (SS) lieutenantcolonel in charge of the Gestapo Section IV B4 for Jewish Affairs who implemented and administered the operational apparatus behind the deportation and deaths of Jews to extermination camps in the sixteen German-occupied territories during World War II.
After the war, Adolf Eichmann escaped to Argentina, where he lived peacefully and undiscovered for about ten years before he was captured by MOSSAD and tried in Israel.Eichmann’s Protestant middle-class parents relocated from Solingen to Linz, Austria, upon the death of his mother. He failed to complete his engineering degree, but his studies taught him to be particularly meticulous in his endeavors. He began his working life as a laborer and salesman. He worked for the U.S.-based Vacuum Oil Company from 1927 to 1933. He found his true vocation when he joined the Austrian army and the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (NSDAP) in 1932; he served as a Schutzstaffel (SS) corporal at Dachau concentration camp in 1934. Thereafter he joined the Security Service (SD) where his performance in devising a solution to the “Jewish problem” garnered attention from his superiors, Heinrich Himmler and Richard Heydrich. To better understand his prey, Eichmann undertook an in-depth self-study course of Jewish history, faith, and culture; Zionism; and the Hebrew and Yiddish languages.
By 1938 Eichmann was ordered to Vienna, where he established the Central Office of Jewish Emigration with the aim of addressing the “Jewish problem.” In exchange for an exit visa, Jews met with forced emigration, extortion, and bribery. As the Reich’s expert on Jews, Eichmann became director of the Gestapo Section IV B4 of the Security Office (RHSA), making him solely responsible for the Department of Jewish Affairs and evacuation. From this position, Eichmann implemented the Final Solution (Endlosung), based on directions
from the Wannsee Conference of January 20, 1942, that he had helped to organize.
Before Eichmann’s elevation to director, Jews were shot and buried in common graves that caused seepage and proved unsanitary. To spare his SS troops this inhumane sight, he turned to using gas; first in mobile van units and later in concentration camps. He introduced Zyklon B, which was far less costly than one bullet per Jew. Victims were gassed in supposed shower rooms, and their bodies were then incinerated in camp ovens. Eichmann was a zealot in this job; he complained about unmet death camp quotas. He reported to Himmler that some 6 million Jews had met their deaths under his supervision.
After the collapse of the Third Reich, U.S. troops captured Eichmann near Ulm on May 7, 1945, wearing the uniform of a Luftwaffe airman second class and carrying the identity of Adolf Karl Barth. He fled the camp, knowing very well that he would be discovered sooner rather than later. In August 1945 the Americans captured Eichmann again and confined him to Oberdachstetten camp. The Americans still had no knowledge of whom they held in custody because he was using the alias of SS Lieutenant Otto Eckmann, 22nd Calvary Division. On January 5, 1946, Eichmann escaped with forged identification under the name Otto Neninger. He then went underground. In 1950, Eichmann reached Austria and then Italy, where he received a refugee passport as Ricardo Klement, posing as a German national from Bolzano, Italy. Eichmann obtained an Argentine visa and moved there in 1950; his family arrived later.
On May 2, 1960, Israeli secret service agents found Eichmann living on Garibaldi Street in Buenos Aires. The spectacular kidnapping of Eichmann and his secret abduction to Israel engendered considerable global interest. Eichmann was charged with crimes against humanity and stood trial from April 2 to August 14, 1961. He was found guilty on December 2, 1961, and hanged in Ramleh prison on May 31, 1962.
Annette Richardson
See also Argentina; Latin America, Nazis in
References and Further Reading
Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalam: A Report on the Banality of Evil. New York: Penguin Books, 1994.
Harel, Isser. The House on Garibaldi Street: The Capture of Adolf Eichmann. London: Deutsch, 1975.
Loziwick, Yaacov. Hitler’s Bureaucrats; The Nazi Security Police and the Banality of Evil. London: Continuum, 2002.
Reynolds, Quentin J. Minister of Death: The Adolf Eichmann Story. London: Cassell, 1961.
Russell of Liverpool, Edward. The Record: The Trial of Adolf Eichmann for his Crimes against the Jewish People and against Humanity. London: Heinemann, 1962.