Eichmann Before Jerusalem

by Bettina Stangneth

  32. Saskia Sassen remembers that both her parents made a concerted effort to pass on their educational ideals to their daughters.

  33. All the contemporary witnesses who have spoken about this mention the discussions at Sassen’s house (Sassen’s daughters, Pedro Pobierzym, Willem Sassen from the 1970s onward, Vera Eichmann, Klaus Eichmann). Not one of them mentions a recording session in Eichmann’s house. In particular, the fact that Eichmann’s family knew nothing of the content of the tapes speaks conclusively against the story he told in Israel.

  34. In Israel, Eichmann talked about Saturday afternoons and evenings, and Sunday mornings (trial session 92). The transcripts and documents allow us to verify this. Details following in this chapter and notes. Saskia Sassen remembers the Sundays in particular, but we can now establish that these were not the only sessions. Of course, Saturday was a normal school day, quite apart from the fact that Miep Sassen liked to take her daughters on outings and little trips.

  35. Sassen transcript 10:2.

  36. “Comrade Sassen” is used countless times, “my dear Comrade Sassen” (11:13). Elsewhere Eichmann frequently refers to “Langer” and “Fritsch” when they are not present but also to other absent associates like “Rajakowitsch.” “Gentlemen” is used in larger groups, for example 18:8: “But that must be apparent to you, gentlemen …”

  37. Even the transcriber (who was not present at the recordings) occasionally adds “Eichm” in brackets for clarification (13:11).

  38. E.g., BA tape 09D 5:59, Sassen to Eichmann: “I would just like to ask you to think about this again this week.”

  39. E.g., 72:6, Eichmann: “You recently gave me a number of pages on the activities of the Foreign Office.”

  40. Eichmann: “I believe that these papers that I gave to Comrade Fritsch give a much more exact account of the matter” (meaning newspaper articles on Raoul Wallenberg); 10:2.

  41. Sassen transcript 9:17.

  42. “The Enthusiasts of Zion”—a long article about radical groups in Israel, in reaction to discussions after the assassination of Rudolf Kasztner, which Eichmann read so closely that he was able to quote it word for word.

  43. “Religion: Two Kinds of Jews,” Time, August 26, 1957 (published August 20). The article refers to a speech made by Ben-Gurion on Zionism at the start of August. Albert Ballin was born on August 15, 1857, and the Argentinisches Tageblatt reported on the celebrations on the Thursday (“Albert Ballin’s Life’s Work,” August 15, 1957). This dates the recording sessions 37–39 to the weekend of August 24–25, 1957.

  44. Eichmann: “Take the case of Schörner, since it is current right now.” Eichmann’s thoughts on the verdict follow (72:2). Ferdinand Schörner was sentenced to four and a half years for manslaughter by the Munich I District Court in October 1957.

  45. Amendment 3:9 (to vol. 20:2): “Last Sunday we found a dating in the ‘thick book.’ ” BA Ludwigsburg, “Miscellaneous” folder, p. 12.

  46. The handwritten attempts to order the transcript were obviously made by Sassen, as they are the same on the originals as on all films and copies. Tape 10, p. 3, is a good example, to gain a quick impression of these markings (including the mistakes).

  47. Based on a line-by-line evaluation, the Sassen transcript contains 11 percent quotes from books and 6 percent other material (sections that are not conversations with Eichmann, Sassen’s notes and dictations). Eighty-three percent is therefore genuine discussion. The number of quotations on single pages can be well over 90 percent, when Eichmann limits himself to comments like “that’s right” and “that’s incorrect,” as on tapes 63 and 65. In one case, an entire page consists of one such quote, from Poliakov, p. 236, at 63:5. Léon Polikov, Joseph Wulf: Das Dritte Reich und die Juden (Berlin-Grunewald, 1955).

  48. The putative edition of the transcripts from Druffel Verlag (Aschenauer, Ich, Adolf Eichmann [Leoni am Starnberger See, 1980]) is unusable: it smooths out phrases throughout and turns the dialogue structure into a monologue, as the editors failed to recognize the presence of various other speakers and quotations. It puts a jumble of words into Eichmann’s mouth that he did not say. Moreover, the Druffel edition effectively blocks any opportunity to recognize that the problem even exists. As a result, things said by Sassen and Alvensleben have slipped into otherwise serious secondary literature as Eichmann’s words. On that edition, see “Aftermath” in this book.

  49. To mention a few examples: Eichmann’s amendments were sometimes written over several tapes at one time and numbered all the way through, showing the order in which the recordings were made. On tape 8, Eichmann has not yet read Brand and Weissberg’s book, and his impression of it follows on tape 24. Tapes 11, 12, and 13 feature a discussion that is complete in itself; internal markers like “before” (tape 42), which clearly relates to tape 41, show the order, as do “a few weeks ago” (tape 46, referring to tape 37), “yesterday” (tape 54, referring to tape 51), and planned discussions that subsequently take place (Langer’s lecture is announced on tape 50 and follows on tape 64). Discussions of the subject literature was very detailed, following the books’ content; it is therefore possible to order the discussions based on quotes from the books. For example: tape 58 ends with a quote from Reitlinger’s page 399, and tape 59 starts with Reitlinger’s page 399. This also allows us to connect the middle of tape 54 to tape 58. Tape 54 ends with the chapter on France from Reitlinger, and tape 58 starts with the chapter on Belgium that follows it. Such evidence is abundant, allowing for a surprisingly exact reconstruction of the original chronology.

  50. Tape 72 has a question mark instead of a number, as it was not clear to the transcriber whether it was tape 72. Tape 7, according to a note from Sassen, never existed. No trace has yet been found of tapes 70 and 71. Tapes 55 and 69 are obviously fragmentary.

  51. Tape 61 contains a conversation about the Poliakov book, and then the debate on Reitlinger’s pages, 218–20. The unnumbered tape that was made when Sassen picked up the wrong reel contains the previous conversation on Reitlinger, covering pages 212–17.

  52. BA tape 8A, 30:10 onward.

  53. Vera Eichmann, interview in Paris Match, April 29, 1962.

  54. Sassen transcript 67:6. The tape goes into more detail: BA tape 10B, 38:50 onward.

  55. Eichmann during interrogation by Avner W. Less, June 6, 1960, p. 397: “This was the first time I spoke to Mildner again, about three years ago … and I picked this issue apart in the presence of a certain Herr Sassen.”

  56. The planned large-scale deportations from Denmark could not be implemented as there was too much resistance from the Danes. As Eichmann was directly involved in the plans, he took the failure personally and looked for someone to blame in his own ranks.

  57. All the sources that suspect Mildner was in Argentina are based exclusively on Eichmann’s incriminating statement in Israel, and appear to be independent only where this basis is not mentioned or not repeated frequently enough, as in Wiesenthal, Goñi, Schneppen, Wojak, and Cesarani. It does not mean that Mildner cannot have been in Argentina. But it does mean that Eichmann should not be called as a witness to it, since to date we have no other evidence. Mildner was certainly never part of the Sassen circle.

  58. We can safely dismiss the charitable notion that Eichmann might have misheard Dr. Langer’s name in Buenos Aires. Langer was a long-term fixture in the Sassen circle, and Eichmann pronounces the name audibly several times on the tapes and even writes it correctly on one of the transcribed pages. Sassen transcript 59:6.

  59. Amendment 4:1 on Sassen transcript tape 37, BA Ludwigsburg, “Miscellaneous” folder, p. 14.

  60. BA tape 8A, 27:50 onward. The context suggests that this recording is a relatively early tape, from the first third of the discussion sessions.

  61. See also Holger Meding, “Der Weg”: Eine deutsche Emigrantenzeitschrift in Buenos Aires 1947–1957 (Berlin, 1997), p. 117.

  62. Juan Maler, Frieden, Krieg und “Frieden” (Bariloche, 1987), p. 340.

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p; 63. Josef Schwammberger lived there for a while but returned to Buenos Aires by 1954 at the latest.

  64. BA tape 03A, from the beginning.

  65. Sassen transcript 3:4.

  66. From what remains of the Telefe interviews, broadcast in the Argentine Edition Plus in 1991. Regrettably the raw material was not archived.

  67. Sassen transcript 3:3.

  68. I myself noticed the clues to the ladies’ visit, and Ludolf von Alvensleben, which were actually obvious, only after several readings—or more precisely, once I had followed the advice of my esteemed teacher in the interpretation of hermetic texts, Klaus Oehler, and read the material once more from back to front. He had used the method to read Aristotle with us, but it is also an excellent tool for approaching the Eichmann papers.

  69. Sassen transcript 3:2.

  70. Sassen transcript 3:1.

  71. Sassen transcript 29:4. The transcript of tape 29 has Eichmann’s handwritten note on it: “This tape 29 is for your information only.” The correction sheets also state clearly that this sort of biographical information was “not for the book.”

  72. Eichmann later told different versions of this story, but his personnel file allows it to be dated to the first half of 1938. SS files, BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, BDC.

  73. Document from the SS files; produced at the trial as prosecution document T/37(12).

  74. See note 77 to “The So-Called Sassen Interviews” for more information on Hull.

  75. Sassen transcript 3:2.

  76. The transcriber’s habit of shortening “National Socialism” in a way that could easily be misunderstood persists through the first transcripts, until Sassen can be heard on the tape giving clear instructions on these abbreviations. However, the problems with this term continue to crop up.

  77. See the SS files, BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, BDC; Karl Schlöger, ed., Russische Emigranten in Deutschland 1918–1994 (Berlin, 1995).

  78. Sassen transcript 3:2.

  79. Ibid.

  80. Erika Elisabeth Garthe de Galliard, who was married to a Belgian friend of the war criminal Pierre Daye. She didn’t conceal the fact that she knew about Sassen’s project, as Uki Goñi was kind enough to tell me, or that she had close ties to Wilfred von Oven and Dieter Menge. These close ties don’t exactly speak for her being somebody who would have posed a lot of critical questions about the National Socialist mentality.

  81. Inge Schneider, interview by Roelf van Til. She explains that she never understood why her sister wanted to listen to this nonsense, or why she didn’t end her affair with Sassen, even though Miep Sassen knew about it. Antje Schneider died of cancer in 1990, and Inge Schneider lived in Argentina and Bremen until her death in 2006.

  82. BA tape 09D, 29:08

  83. The spelling “Dr. Lange” occasionally appears in the transcript, but as Eichmann corrected the name by hand and pronounced it several times on the tapes, there is no doubt that this man was called “Langer.”

  84. Sassen transcript 47:12.

  85. Sassen transcript 44:9.

  86. Sassen transcript 46:8.

  87. Sassen transcript 44:10.

  88. Sassen transcript 59:10.

  89. A handwritten amendment on Sassen transcript 16:1.

  90. Sassen transcript 44:10, handwritten addition by Eichmann: “This was said by Dr. Langer, not me.” Eichmann was evidently keen to avoid any suspicion that he might have helped a Jew.

  91. Sassen transcript 47:16.

  92. Sassen transcript 50:2.

  93. BA tape 09D, 53:45 onward.

  94. BA tape 09D, 1:04:30 onward.

  95. BA tape 09D, 29:55 onward.

  96. Dieter Vollmer, interview by Holger Meding; and Dieter Vollmer, “On the Professional Ethics of Journalists,”Nation Europa, no.11, issue 11, 1961, pp. 37–42. Vollmer left Argentina again at the end of 1953 but continued writing for Fritsch until the end, and he apparently looked after the distribution of Dürer Verlag’s banned publications in Germany. By 1961 at the latest, he knew so much about the 1957 project that he even made an effort to mitigate the danger that the Sassen transcript represented. See “Dismantling the Evidence” in this book.

  97. Sassen transcript 54:14.

  98. BA tape 10D, 22:45 onward.

  99. See the schedules of responsibilities from the RSHA (IV), all prosecution documents at the Eichmann trial. Prosecution document T/99, BA Koblenz, R58/840. For IV A 4: circular from Kaltenbrunner, February 10, 1944, BStU, RHE 75/70, vol. 3, sheets 12–17; Gestapo schedule of responsibilities in Department IV, dated March 15, 1944, ibid., sheets 2–10. Evidence of department name IMT 42, p. 315, Walter Huppenkothen affidavit (Gestapo-39), and Wisliceny’s testimonies.

  100. Personal notes, Avner Less Estate, Archiv für Zeitgeschichte, ETH Zurich, NL Less, 4.2.3.2.

  101. BA tape 10D, 21:30.

  102. Sassen transcript 53:15.

  103. Eichmann trial, session 102.

  104. I have not come across a single case of anyone trying to hide their identity from anyone else in the group, or not calling someone by their name, either in the transcript or on the tapes. There is not even any evidence of ironic references to aliases. The only “name changes” are the result of typing errors, as names like Globocnik and Wisliceny are not as simple to write as Eichmann or Sassen.

  105. The officers lists of the SS (and to be on the safe side, the Waffen-SS) were checked, for Langer or similar names, as were the BDC files in BA Berlin-Lichterfelde. There are only two records that could have come into question here, namely Otto Langer (no SS number given, born March 18, 1899, SS Scharführer, with a single entry “Concentration camp Mauthausen”) and Fritz Langer (SS no. 54691, born January 13, 1904, police secretary, possibly Vienna). Fritz Langer’s position as “assessment officer” with the Gauleitung in Vienna (RS-PK) suggests it might be him, but unlike the Dr. Langer of the tapes, who apparently had no experience of frontline fighting, he received commendations for dedicated fighting against partisans in northern Italy. This “Front deployment” (R70) earned him an entry in the Allies’ CROWCASS wanted lists. The files R70 and RS-PK also throw up inconsistencies. I have not been able to find enough documentation on Otto Langer to properly identify him, but his rank is clearly too low for the assignments Dr. Langer describes. Thanks to Lutz Möser from BA Berlin-Lichterfelde for his involvement.

  106. Special thanks to Barbara Bieringer, University of Vienna Archive.

  107. Thanks to Michael Wildt, Bertrand Perz, and the staff at DÖW, who took the time to consider further possibilities for tracking down Langer. Uki Goñi tried to find traces of Langer in Argentina but found no clues in the records, on Langer or Lange or “Dr. Klan.”

  108. Tape 73, BA tape 8A, 10:35.

  109. I have consciously avoided including speaker names or other reading aids in this chapter. It would not only make the text illegible through all the “sics” and exclamation marks, but would also prevent the reader observing the effect of the language.

  110. Sassen transcript 5:6.

  111. Sassen transcript 21:10.

  112. Sassen transcript 9:3.

  113. Sassen transcript 17:1. Eichmann added a handwritten amendment to the phrase to make it read like this!

  114. Sassen transcript 18:3.

  115. Sassen transcript 21:6.

  116. Sassen transcript 34:4.

  117. Sassen transcript 5:5.

  118. Sassen transcript 68:9.

  119. Sassen transcript 34:4.

  120. Sassen transcript 11:6 and 11:8.

  121. Sassen transcript 23:4.

  122. Sassen transcript 13:6.

  123. Sassen transcript 13:7.

  124. Sassen transcript 17:1.

  125. Sassen transcript 12:2.

  126. Sassen transcript 14:9.

  127. Sassen transcript 14:10.

  128. Sassen transcript 41:1.

  129. Sassen transcript 22:9.

  130. Sassen transcript 8:4.

  131. Sassen transcript 13:5.

>   132. Tape 8 was transcribed onto fanfold paper, which was impractically long. The pagination therefore related to the double pages into which it has now been cut. The reference for this quote, 8:8.2, means “tape 8, page 8, sheet 2.”

  133. Sassen transcript 9:8.

  134. Sassen transcript 10:5.

  135. Sassen transcript 10:1.

  136. Sassen transcript 13:4.

  137. Sassen transcript 64:4.

  138. Sassen transcript 50:5.

  139. Sassen transcript 33:10.

  140. Sassen transcript 72:16.

  141. Sassen transcript 68:5.

  142. Sassen transcript 26:7.

  143. Sassen transcript 73:1.

  144. Sassen transcript 21:8.

  145. Sassen transcript 19:5.

  146. Sassen transcript 61:4.

  147. Sassen transcript 52:13.

  148. At 42:5 the discussion centered on the so-called euthanasia campaign, in which Sassen had little interest and therefore omitted from the transcript. For most of these quotations, see BA tape 7B, 39:15.

  149. Sassen transcript 43:8.

  150. Sassen transcript 39:4.

  151. Sassen transcript 56:7.

  152. Sassen transcript 56:9.

  153. Tape 23. For the untranscribed passage, see BA tape 09D, 51:55 onward.

  154. Sassen transcript 15:3.

  155. Sassen transcript 15:3.

  156. Sassen transcript 60:2.

  157. Sassen transcript 43:5.

  158. Sassen transcript 46:5.

  159. Sassen transcript 16:10.

  160. Sassen transcript 18:3.

  161. Sassen transcript 17:9.

  162. Sassen transcript 20:7.

  163. Sassen transcript 44:4.

  164. Sassen transcript 51:11.

  165. Sassen transcript 58:5.

  166. Sassen transcript 68:6.

  167. Kulcsár, Kulcsár, and Szondi, “Adolf Eichmann and the Third Reich,” p. 28.

  168. Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963; reprint New York, 1994), pp. 49–50.

  169. Some of these departures can be found on the few surviving tapes. E.g., an unknown voice, clearly audible, on BA tape 06A,47:55: “Excuse me, but I have to go …”