Eichmann Before Jerusalem
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156. Argentine state police, report on Eichmann’s abduction, June 9, 1960, Archivo General de la Nacíon (AGN), DAE, Bormann file, pp. 77–79, quoted in Uki Goñi, The Real Odessa: How Perón Brought the Nazi War Criminals to Argentina, rev. ed. (London, 2003), p. 315n543.
157. Kurier, May 31, 1960, and others.
158. See Timothy Naftali, “The CIA and Eichmann’s Associates,” pp. 341–43. On Mildenstein’s activities in Egypt, see the CIA report from Cairo, “Combined Allied-Israeli Invasion of Egypt,” January 3, 1957, NA, RG 263, CIA Name File Leopold von Mildenstein.
159. A threat to avenge Eichmann and kill Fritz Bauer—the only one that I know of—is in the notorious “ODESSA protocol” from the private archive of Friedrich Schwend. This peculiar piece of work is allegedly the report from a meeting of an SS secret society in Spain in June 1965. (The date was unclear for a long time.) The “protocol” contains a call to murder Fritz Bauer. As Schwend was a professional counterfeiter, it cannot be determined whether this was a counterfeit or the transcript of an overly ambitious men’s drinking session. HIS, Archive, Schwend papers.
160. Report from March 3, 1961, NA, RG 263, CIA Name File Adolf Eichmann. Otto Skorzeny himself may have been the source of this report. The story of the assassination plans probably goes back directly to East German propaganda: on May 29, 1960, the Berliner Zeitung reported, under the headline “Eichmann—a Middleman for Bonn Companies in Kuwait,” that the BND head Gehlen had personally ordered Eichmann to be liquidated, to protect West German Nazis.
161. Ulrich Völklein, Josef Mengele: Der Arzt von Auschwitz (Göttingen, 2003), p. 270.
162. The article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung by its correspondent “Nikolaus Ehlert” in Argentina clearly rested on information from Wilfred von Oven and Horst Carlos Fuldner.
163. See also Friedrich Paul Heller and Anton Maegerle, Thule: Vom völkischen Okkultismus bis zur Neuen Rechten (Stuttgart, 1995), p. 93.
164. Buenos Aires police report, cited in Goñi, Real Odessa, p. 315.
165. “Eichmann, alias Klement. Jodenvervolger in zwaar verhoor,” Volkskrant, June 8, 1960.
166. Saskia Sassen is still convinced that her father couldn’t stand Eichmann. But his sympathetic texts on Eichmann, and his later efforts to support his defense, tell a different story. Sassen referred to his Americanized nickname in an interview with La Razón.
167. “The Manager of the ‘Final Solution,’ ” Widerstandskämpfer (Austria), May–June 1960; “Eichmann: Manager of Mass Murder,” Arbeiterzeitung, May 25, 1960.
168. “The Crime Has No Fatherland. The Eichmann Trial Throws Its Shadow Ahead,” in Der Heimkehrer, year 12 (Göppingen, 1961), p. 6:1.
169. “Preview of a Show Trial,” Nation Europa 11, no. 4 (1961), pp. 37–41, here p. 41.
170. A facsimile of this diary entry from June 7, 1962, is in Schneppen, Odessa, p. 155, citing the HHStA as the source. An inquiry, however, revealed that although this archive has a few of Mengele’s diaries, it does not have this one. Also cited in Völklein, Mengele, p. 270.
171. Eichmann to his family, April 17, 1961, p. 6, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/165.
172. Mengele, diary entry, June 1, 1962, immediately after hearing news of the execution; quoted in Völklein, Mengele, p. 270.
173. Eichmann really wrote “create a judgment.” He didn’t understand that natural rights exist independently of any particular period, because there is a general, human idea of “right,” according to which he would never be absolved.
A Change of Role
1. Transfer declaration, prosecution document T/3.
2. Avner W. Less, Avner Less Estate, Archive für Zeitgeschichte, ETH Zurich, NL Less, 4.2.3.2.
3. Avner W. Less, interview with Gespräch in 3, Avner Less Estate, Zurich, NL Less, tape 7.1 X.
4. Avner W. Less, interview for the documentary Erscheinungsform Mensch: Adolf Eichmann (Hamburg, 1978–79), cassette in Avner Less Estate, 7.1 IX.
5. “Meine Flucht,” p. 39, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/247.
6. This tale, which Eichmann polished again in Israel, was one of his most successful fabrications. As he explained several times in Argentina, he had the job of censoring the transcript in accordance with the “language rules,” before it was sent to the ministries. Heydrich introduced Eichmann to the conference as the point of contact for everyone involved, and afterward everyone present treated him this way. Why anyone ever believed that Eichmann could have been in charge of transcribing the conference is a mystery, particularly as he lacked the training for it. Eichmann was the one directing the real transcriber. The quote is from “Auch hier im Ansicht des Galgens,” BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/193, p. 16.
7. Answers to questionnaire for Paris Match, May 1962, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/252.
8. “Auch hier im Ansicht des Galgens,” BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/193, p. 22.
9. Particularly overpowering in his text “Mein Sein und Tun,” BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/253, p. 8.
10. “The Foundations of Bureaucracy” in Das Schwarze Korps (the official SS newspaper), June 12, 1941, develops an impressive image of a new bureaucracy according to SS ideas.
11. See the early documentary Erscheinungsform Mensch: Adolf Eichmann (Hamburg, 1978–79), as well as notes and further interviews by all those named.
12. This is also the case with many of the photos in David Cesarani, Eichmann: His Life and Crimes (London, 2005). Eichmann’s face is so asymmetrical that it is easy to spot a reversal; the uniform also provides a clear orientation.
Aftermath
1. Raul Hilberg, Sources of Holocaust Research: An Analysis (Chicago, 2001), p. 160.
2. According to a letter from Mohn, a former Luftwaffe officer, to Eichmann’s lawyer, Robert Servatius, who was looking for the Argentina Papers, Sassen and Klaus Eichmann appeared in his office at Mercedes-Benz on May 12. Servatius Report, “Re: copyright ADOLF EICHMANN, publication LIFE, USA,” BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/253, pp. 10-17 (hereafter cited as Servatius Report).
3. Inge Schneider, interview by Roelf van Til.
4. “Meine Flucht,” p. 31, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/247.
5. Quotes from Eichmann’s handwritten texts in press and literature can therefore be used only with caution. The hasty transcriptions made from 1960 to 1979 are thoroughly unreliable. Anyone getting horribly tangled up in Eichmann’s handwriting is welcome to contact me, however, as transcriptions of most of the handwritten texts were produced in the course of this research. The tapes, by contrast, were transcribed immediately after the recordings were made in 1957. Eichmann’s handwritten corrections can be found even on the last transcript of tape 73 (pp. 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8).
6. Sassen’s daughter remembers the long nights during which the texts were typed onto fanfold paper, which had to be neatly cut up by the family. You can still see these cut edges on the originals.
7. Knowledge of the history of copier technology is very important for the evaluation of individual items in the Argentina Papers. During the years of the Eichmann trial, the conversion to Xerox machines was being made. The copier familiar to us today, which allows us to make dry copies on normal paper, came onto the market only at the start of 1960 and gradually took over in private and public offices thereafter. Sassen, and the Hesse attorney general’s office, mainly used photostats, a copier based on camera technology, using photosensitive paper. Reflex copies and Thermofax duplicates were also used in the Eichmann trial.
8. The letters from Sassen to Servatius are held in BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/253, here January 13, 1961. Sassen said similar things in early interviews.
9. Even Der Spiegel imagined in detail the existence of torture chambers directly beneath Eichmann’s cell, in which he would be made to change his mind about any statements the Israelis didn’t like. Der Spiegel, June 15, 1960.
10. Copy in BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/253, pp. 18–19, pp. 70–71, copy sent by Vera Eichmann to her brother-in-law in Linz. According to a letter from Mohn to Servatiu
s, Vera Eichmann felt pressured by her “press adviser.” Servatius Report.
11. Utopian sums are also sometimes named. Sassen wasn’t particularly skilled in business matters, and in his great haste to conclude the sale of the Eichmann papers, alone and without aid, he made crucial mistakes. His lack of experience cost him the copyright to the Life articles, which he would have retained if Life had actually left the compilation of the texts to him. Servatius was able to find speculations about the sale price between $50,000 and $1.2 million; see Servatius Report, November 26, 1960, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/253, and Servatius to Robert Eichmann, December 5, 1960 BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/253.
12. Servatius to Vera Eichmann, November 28, 1960, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/253.
13. Frondizi traveled around Europe from June 14 to July 10, 1960, which was too late for the flight out and too early for the return flight. Sassen did, however, pursue contacts with presidents after Perón. A photo from the national archive shows him with President Arturo Umberto Illia—accompanied by Rudel. Thanks to Uki Goñi.
14. Stern published this information itself after a long silence; Stern, June 24, 2010.
15. Saskia Sassen has said repeatedly that her father spoke of Stern, Spiegel, and Life. It has not yet been possible for me to conduct thorough research in this area.
16. Report, December 1, 1960, NA, RG 263, CIA Name File Adolf Eichmann.
17. Robert Pendorf, Mörder und Ermordete: Eichmann und die Judenpolitik des Dritten Reichs (Hamburg, 1961), p. 7.
18. According to rumors that I have so far been unable to prove, Der Spiegel checked over the material, declined to use it, and sent it “to Munich.” Saskia Sassen says that her father claimed he was also a correspondent for Spiegel, and a CIA report from a Munich informant on December 1, 1960, talks of Sassen having sold eighty pages to “Spiegel and Stern.” NA, RG 263, CIA Name File Adolf Eichmann. Saskia Sassen, interview and correspondence with the author (2009).
19. Servatius researched this contract and spoke of a fee of more than 50,000 Dutch florins (around 50,000 Deutschmarks). This contract could explain why the Dutch filmmaker Roelf van Til found a copy of some Sassen material in Dutch archives. Servatius to Robert Eichmann, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/253, pp. 30–32; Roelf van Til, personal conversation with the author (2004).
20. Interrogation, June 5, 1960, p. 397.
21. Ibid.
22. Servatius Report, November 26, 1960; Servatius to Robert Eichmann, December 5, 1960; both in BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/253.
23. Servatius Report and letter both dated November 30, 1960.
24. On François Genoud and Hans Rechenberg, and the details of their involvement with Eichmann, see the impressively well-researched work by Willi Winkler, Der Schattenmann: Von Goebbels zu Carlos: Das mysteriöse Leben des François Genoud (Berlin, 2011), esp. chap. 9. A necessarily but less detailed account is Karl Laske, Ein Leben zwischen Hitler und Carlos: François Genoud (Zurich, 1996). See also the interview with Genoud in Pierre Péan, L’Éxtrémiste: François Genoud, de Hitler à Carlos (Paris, 1996), pp. 257ff. Substantial original interviews appear in the documentary L’Éxtrémiste de Hitler à Carlos (Television Suisse Romande, 1996).
25. Servatius was the defense counsel for Fritz Sauckel, and Rechenberg worked on the defense for Walther Funk.
26. Rechenberg and “his friend G.” are named as trial financers in the Linz correspondence, and in Servatius’s estate there is further clear evidence. BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/253, p. 257. Servatius tried in vain to make the German government officially responsible for the trial costs. In the end, the State of Israel paid his fee. The substantial finances raised by Genoud and Rechenberg were never officially declared. The statements in Servatius’s estate, however, clearly reveal Rechenberg’s role. Rechenberg was also being watched by the CIA; details in NA, RG 263, CIA Name File Hans Rechenberg, but also under Franz Rademacher. The BND file 121 099 also shows that Rechenberg was one of their sources and passed material for the defense on to the BND, who were also kept informed of the activities for financing the trial.
27. Peter Woog, handwritten note, February 24, 1965, ETH Zurich, Archiv für Zeitgeschichte, JUNA archive/567, Peter Woog correspondence.
28. In a meeting on July 25 Eberhard Fritsch promised the defense counsel Servatius his cooperation and provision of all documents, in return for the exploitation rights for Europe. Servatius Report.
29. Servatius Report, November 26, 1960, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/253; correspondence between Robert Servatius and Hans Rechenberg, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/253.
30. Many of the documents so far presented from the Eichmann files are collections of sometimes fantastical fears about what Eichmann might have said. Every page of the Argentina Papers that was released was pored over for names. The work was not so thorough as the evaluation that Fritz Bauer commissioned, but the index of names was entirely usable. Supplementary file, case BVerwG 7A 15.10, Saure vs. BND, BND files 121 099, pp. 1–66; 100 470, pp. 181–253.
31. September 13, 1960, NA, RG 263, CIA Name File Adolf Eichmann. Most of this correspondence is missing from the documents so far released from the BND’s Eichmann file.
32. CIA report, September 20, 1960.
33. I couldn’t find the name while listening to the tapes, or on the pages that Life didn’t have.
34. The Servatius Report dates the requests from Allen Dulles (CIA) to Henry Luce (Life), and the argument with Fritsch, to the end of September or October 1960.
35. On October 11, 1960, a CIA informant reported from Frankfurt (obviously someone close to Die Welt) that Eichmann had already written five hundred pages. NA, RG 263, CIA Name File Adolf Eichmann.
36. Sassen transcript 21:2, 12.7.
37. Servatius Report: “While being held in Israel, he has been dictating reports daily.” Servatius made an effort to advise Eichmann against it, though without much success.
38. The BND files contain several pieces of writing from Israel and large parts of the Servatius correspondence.
39. Negotiations took place with Patrick O’Connor from Glasgow, who among other things represented the British agency Curtis Brown. There was talk of six-figure sums in pounds sterling. Genoud also negotiated with the Italian Epoca and the English magazine People. Servatius Report and interview with Genoud, in Péan, L’Extrémiste. Eichmann photos from Argentina that had not previously been seen were published in Epoca, and selections from “Meine Flucht” appeared in five issues of People, April 30–May 28, 1961. Vera Eichmann, interview in Paris Match, April 29, 1962; original transcript in BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/252; Paris Match 683, May 12, 1962.
40. Answers to questionnaire published in Paris Match 687, dated June 9, 1962.
41. For Genoud’s disappointment, see François Genoud, interview by Péan.
42. Servatius Report. Sassen would only telegraph in December 1960 to say that he was coming.
43. The issues of Life went on sale the Tuesday before the printed date, which is normal for U.S. magazines. The advance notice from Harry Golden was published in the November 21, 1960, issue (appearing November 15). The two issues that followed then contained the serial “Eichmann Tells His Own Damning Story.” The November 28 issue appeared on November 22, and the December 6 issue on November 29, 1960.
44. Vera Eichmann, interview in Paris Match, April 29, 1962.
45. Servatius Report. Reports appeared in almost all the German daily newspapers on December 1, 1960. Another press conference took place on December 9, 1960, and Servatius further qualified his resolution.
46. Zwi Wohlstein was responsible for Eichmann’s health and well-being following his imprisonment and kept a diary of what was for him a difficult experience. Extract from Wohlstein’s notes, December 4, 1960, published in Die Welt, September 1, 1999.
47. Vera Eichmann to Servatius, telegram, November 28, 1960, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/253, p. 59.
48. Servatius Report. A copy also reached the BND files, supplementary file, case BVerwG 7A 15.10
, Saure vs. BND, BND files 121 099, 1840–43.
49. “Eichmann parle,” L’Express, no. 494, December 1, 1960; Sassen to Servatius, January 13, 1961, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/253, pp. 113–14. Servatius used this article in the trial to discredit Sassen as a potential witness. Trial transcript, session 105.
50. “Eichmann Fue un Engranaje de la Diabólica Maquinaria Nazi, Dice el Hombre que Escribió sus Memorias en Buenos Aires,” La Razón, December 12, 1960.
51. Sassen to Servatius, January 13, 1961, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/253, pp. 113–14, and Sassen to Servatius, January 28, 1961, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/253, p. 110. Sassen’s advice betrays his intimate knowledge and his anti-Semitic and Nazi attitude, which made some of his offers of help simply naïve, even if we can see they were well intentioned.
52. The letter giving power of attorney to his stepbrother, Robert Eichmann, on February 7, 1961, envisaged 50 percent for his children and 50 percent for Servatius. BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/253, p. 6.
53. Report, December 21, 1960, NA, RG 263, CIA Name File Adolf Eichmann. The informant’s name is blacked out.
54. NA, RG 263, CIA Name File Léon Degrelle, 023-230/86/22/04. The clue is contained in the Degrelle file because Zwy Aldouby had apparently planned to abduct Léon Degrelle. Heartfelt thanks to Willi Winkler.
55. Robert Pendorf, Mörder und Ermordete: Eichmann und die Judenpolitik des Dritten Reichs (Hamburg, 1961), p. 7.
56. The information on Langbein and the following account are supported by Hermann Langbein Estate, ÖStA, E/1797.
57. Langbein, March 12, 1959, reported to Ormond on “a few pictures of SS men” that he had picked up on his trip to Poland. Ibid., E/1797, binder 106. Correspondence on the criminal charges, ibid.
58. The correspondence with Hermann Langbein includes several commentaries on the magazines. They also consulted one another on their press activity, when they feared a backslide into Nazi hero-worship. Langbein Estate, ÖStA, E/1797, binder 106.
59. Henry Ormond’s estate is now held in the Yad Vashem Archive. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to look into it. Thanks to Werner Renz (of the Fritz Bauer Institut) for sending Walter Witte’s Ormond biography (Alles zu seiner Zeit: Rechtsanwalt Henry Ormond 1901–1973, undated typescript), which contained no references for this chapter but provided valuable information on his biography. The following reconstruction of Ormond’s role rests on his extensive correspondence with Langbein, which is now in the Langbein Estate, ÖStA, E/1797, binder 106. Thanks to Anton Pelinka for the permission to use this incredibly rich source for my Eichmann research.