Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer

by Bettina Stangneth

  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 …”

  170. See BA tape 09C, 1:51:55. Sassen closes the session, the men fall into a conversation, and a voice discusses with Sassen the submission deadline for another text.

  171. Examples: BA tape 8A, 27:50 onward; 10C, 39:46.

  172. BA tape 10B, 1:11:00 onward.

  173. Sassen transcript 1:1.

  174. Sassen transcript 1:2: Eichmann as a “fanatical Zionist.”

  175. Sassen transcript 1:2, on the claim that a mass shooting was organized in Poland by Eichmann himself. Sassen transcript 1:3, on the Eichmann quote, “I would leap joyfully into the grave …”

  176. The first edition appeared in 1952, as part of the series Das Ausnahmerecht für die Juden in den europäischen Ländern, but the Sassen group used the affordable single edition (Düsseldorf, 1954).

  177. A rough overview of the basis for discussion in each case: Weissberg, tapes 6, 8–17, 19–22, 24–26; Poliakov/Wulf, tapes 28, 34, 37–39, 42–44, 49–52, 54–57, 61–67; Blau, tapes 39–40, 44–47; Hagen/Hottl, tapes 10–11, 51, (56), 64; Reitlinger, tapes 1, 18–19, 22–23, 25–27, 33, 49, 52–54, 58–61, 68, 69, 72, 73, and unnumbered tape.

  178. For example, Hermann Graml, Der 9. November 1938, “Reichskristallnacht” (Bonn, 1955); Gerhardt Boldt, Die letzten Tage der Reichskanzlei (Hamburg, 1947); and Charles Callan Tansill, Die Hintertür zum Kriege (Düsseldorf, 1956).

  179. Tape 37:1 onward. Sassen read that article hot off the press, as we can see from the precise date that can be given to the recording.

  180. The photos, which were made public at the start of the trial, were published in various places. Claims that they showed Eichmann working on his “Götzen” manuscript are incorrect—he got the books at the request of his lawyer, who wanted him to take a position on them. In addition to the volumes mentioned, there were a few books that had been published since the Sassen interviews, namely Rudolf Höß, Kommandant in Auschwitz (1958); Albert Wucher, Eichmanns gab es viele (1961); Joel Brand, Fakten gegen Fabeln (1961); Léon Poliakov and Joseph Wulf, Das Deutsche Reich und seine Diener (1956); Poliakov and Wulf, Das Dritte Reich und seine Denker (1959); and H. G. Adler, Theresienstadt 1941–1945 (1960). Special thanks to Carlo Schütt, who made the books available at the Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte Hamburg library to reconstruct the pile and, with it, the list of books.

  181. Avner W. Less, interview by Rolf Defrank, for Erscheinungsform Mensch, at Avner Less Estate, Archiv für Zeitgeschichte, ETH Zurich, NL Less, tape 7.1.IX.

  182. Sassen transcript 50:6.

  183. Sassen transcript 49:16.

  184. Sassen transcript 4:6; 39:8.

  185. Sassen transcript 18:1; 33:9; 40:2; 52:1; 52:5; 52:6; 54:4.

  186. Sassen transcript 49:14.

  187. Sassen transcript 2:7.

  188. Sassen transcript 24:1.

  189. Sassen transcript 31:10; 61:3.

  190. Sassen transcript 17:5.

  191. Sassen transcript 21:3.

  192. Sassen transcript 62:1; 72:8.

  193. Sassen transcript 2:4.

  194. Sassen transcript 73:13.

  195. Sassen transcript 68:15.

  196. Sassen transcript 6:1.

  197. The Deutsche Forschergemeinschaft (German Researchers Foundation) published a whole journal series to establish a “German mathematics” (Leipzig, 1936–44).

  198. Sassen transcript 20:4.

  199. Sassen transcript 11:6.

  200. Sassen transcript 11:4.

  201. Sassen transcript 25:8.

  202. Sassen transcript 8:2.

  203. Sassen transcript 10:14.

  204. Sassen transcript 10:17.

  205. Tape 24 and the start of 25 contain Eichmann’s book review. The notes are also extant and are held in Eichmann Estate, BA Koblenz, N/1497-87. They show that Eichmann’s lecture was given almost word-for-word from his script.

  206. Sassen transcript 8:2.

  207. Sassen transcript 12:1.

  208. Sassen transcript 14:7.

  209. A long handwritten addition by Eichmann on the transcript, 52:16.

  210. “Götzen,” sheet 19 (Eichmann’s numbering: 1) and elsewhere.

  211. Sassen transcript 3:6.

  212. Sassen transcript 26:4.

  213. Sassen transcript 31:9.

  214. BA tape 10C, 55:40.

  215. Sassen transcript 54:5.

  216. Pedro Pobierzym, interviews by Natasja de Winter and Raymond Ley (2009).

  217. BA tape 09D, 41:30.

  218. Sassen transcript 47:12.

  219. Ibid.

  220. Sassen transcript 36:2. This sentence clearly comes from Willem Sassen, from a long dictation that he had transcribed in the context of the discussions. It has previously been assumed to be a statement by Eichmann and has always been attributed to Eichmann. This is simply incorrect. There is also no evidence that Sassen took the sentence from Eichmann—quite apart from the fact that Sassen was much too assured in his own phrasing to help himself to Eichmann’s language, of all things.

  221. Sassen transcript 36:5.

  222. Sassen transcript 52, with handwritten addition by Eichmann.

  223. Sassen transcript 54:9.

  224. Eichmann, during a telephone call with his subordinate officer Theodor Dannecker, prosecution document T/439; identical with IMT RF-1233. Dannecker’s note of July 21, 1942, about telephone calls with Eichmann and Novak on July 20, 1942, is published in Serge Klarsfeld, Vichy—Auschwitz: Die Zusammenarbeit der deutschen und französischen Behörden bei der “Endlösung der Judenfrage” in Frankreich (Nördlingen, 1989), p. 416; new edition (Darmstadt, 2007), p. 441. Facsimile in R. M. W. Kempner, Eichmann und Komplizen (Zurich, Stuttgart, and Vienna, 1961), p. 212.

  225. Sassen transcript 3:6.

  226. On one of the untranscribed parts of the tapes, Eichmann demonstrates that he has no idea about other drugs. For example, he doesn’t even know how morphine is taken. Sassen interviews, BA tape 10B, 1:14 onward.

  227. BA tape 10C, 1:00:00 onward.

  228. Ernst Klee, Persilscheine und Falsche Pässe: Wie die Kirchen den Nazis halfen (Frankfurt am Main, 1992).

  229. BA tape 10C, 1:00:00 onward.

  230. Sassen transcript 44:6.

  231. Two references date tapes 37 and 39 to the end of August. On tape 37, Sassen translates from a current article in Time, issue dated August 26, 1957 (published a few days earlier, on August 20, as is usual for U.S. magazines); and on tape 39, Eichmann refers to an announcement he has read the previous week of the centenary celebrations for Ballin, which can be identified as an article from the Argentinisches Tageblatt of August 15, 1957.

  232. On his biography, see principally the files on Dieter Wisliceny at BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, BDC. Also the information in the CIC Arrest Report, August 1, 1946, NA, RG 263, CIA Name File Adolf Eichmann.

  233. Eichmann always emphasized that Wisliceny had still been with him in Altaussee. Wisliceny disputed this, but there is evidence he was arrested on May 12, 1945, by the lake that gave the little town its name.

  234. Wisliceny’s essential statements and notes on Eichmann include a discussion with Kasztner, in which Wisliceny tried to promote an image of Eichmann that blamed him as much as possible and exonerated Wisliceny, January–February 1945, Kasztner Bericht [Kasztner Report], pp. 273ff; detailed statements after his May 3, 1945, arrest by U.S. authorities, dated August 25 and August 27, 1945 (Arrest Report, and Reports from NA, RG 263, File Name Adolf Eichmann); an affidavit in Nuremberg, November 9, 1945, prosecution document T/57; a witness statement in Nuremberg, January 3, 1946, prosecution document T/58; a statement in Bratislava to Michael Gerd, May 6, 1946, police document B06-899; handwritten notes on the Fiala affair, July 26, 1946, prosecution document T/1107; handwritten notes on Eichmann’s relationship with the mufti, July 26, 1946, prosecution document T/89;
a twenty-two-page handwritten report “Re: former SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann,” aka Cell 133 Document, October 27, 1946, prosecution document T/84; a conversation with Moshe Pearlman about Eichmann, November 14, 1946, Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine, Paris, 88-47, published in Pearlman, The Capture and Trial of Adolf Eichmann (New York, 1963); and a report on “The Final Solution,” aka Cell 106 Document, November 18, 1946, prosecution document T/85, excerpted in Poliakov and Wulf, Das Deutsche Reich und die Juden (Berlin, 1955), pp. 87–98.

  235. Wisliceny, Cell 133 Document, prosecution document T/84, p. 17.

  236. On February 27, 1948.

  237. In the early 1930s, Eichmann had been a witness to several Gestapo interrogations, which as an SD man, he could not conduct himself but could initiate. His own interrogation methods can be reconstructed in a few cases and can only be described as perfidious psychological terrorism. In Auschwitz, for example, he tried to break Jacob Edelstein during his interrogation using a letter from his wife, which he had extracted from the unsuspecting woman in the adjoining camp complex. She had written in the belief that her husband was still in (relative) freedom, and that Eichmann would simply be good enough to take the letter to him. Eichmann would leave the room when the physical violence began, but return in order to make use of its consequences. Adler, Theresienstadt 1941–1945, pp. 730 and 810.

  238. Sassen transcript 44:5.

  239. Sassen transcript 42:3–44:6.

  240. Sassen transcript 44:5–44:8.

  241. We have two recordings from before this turning point, so the change in tone can be observed acoustically. Unfortunately, the crucial session is missing.

  242. BA tape 08A, 42:13 onward.

  243. Sassen transcript 46:8.

  244. Sassen transcript 47:7.

  245. This section of the book is a summary of my unpublished manuscript “Noch ein Nazi in Argentinien: Ludolf von Alvensleben im Gespräch mit Willem Sassen,” which Raymond Ley and the NDR used as the basis for the docudrama Eichmanns Ende (NDR, 2009). The manuscript contains a complete edition of the interviews with a commentary.

  246. Sassen transcript 54:5.

  247. Tape 56 is not a foreign body in the transcript: it was a component of the discussion project, was numbered and transcribed in the same way, and remains a reference point for further discussions. Sassen did not therefore accidentally put the interview in the wrong pile.

  248. The information that follows is primarily based on Alvensleben’s SS files, BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, BDC. Also indispensable were Ruth Bettina Birn, Die höheren SS- und Polizeiführer: Himmlers Vertreter im Reich und in den besetzten Gebieten (Düsseldorf, 1986), esp. p. 330, but also pp. 311 and 382ff. (footnote 2); and Christian Jansen and Arno Weckenbecker, Der “Volksdeutsche Selbstschutz” in Polen 1939/40 (Munich 1992). And of course Stanislaw Mucha’s great film Mit “Bubi” heim ins Reich: Die Spuren eines SS-Generals (ZDF, 2000).

  249. Heinz Schneppen, Odessa und das Vierte Reich: Mythen der Zeitgeschichte (Berlin, 2007), p. 125. Schneppen made a concerted effort to dismantle the Odessa myth and trace its origins. Regrettably, some of the research on individual Nazis is not what it might have been, and his depiction of them occasionally tips over into another kind of myth. Even in the source material he cites, significantly more connections can be seen than he actually uses. The idea that one soon hits a brick wall when attempting to research the lives and personalities of these fugitives is unsupportable in the cases of Alvensleben, Eichmann, Mengele, Heilig, Rajakowitsch, and Klingenfuß, although admittedly, the source research is rather taxing. (Rudolf Mildner, incidentally, slips into the list of Nazis in Argentina, because Schneppen did not recognize that Wiesenthal was drawing on Eichmann’s testimony in Israel.)

  250. In the seniority lists of the Waffen-SS from November 1944, original Berlin 1944.

  251. The numbering in the officers lists of the Waffen-SS is confusing at first glance, as the grades were a combination of numbers and letters, but Alvensleben is at place 41f in the SS-Gruppenführers and lieutenant generals, after 43 SS Obergruppenführers and generals. This puts him at number 90 of all members of the Waffen-SS. Dienstaltersliste der Waffen-SS. Stand vom 1. Juli, 1944. SS-Obergruppenführer bis SS-Hauptsturmführer (Osnabrück, 1987), p. 14.

  252. Alvensleben’s SS file, staff appraisal from June 15, 1938.

  253. There are many examples of this, both on the tapes and the transcript. Eichmann had no qualms about shouting over other participants, upstaging them or finding some other way to bring the conversation back to him as quickly as possible. The Alvensleben discussion offered enough inducements for him to butt in and contradict what was being said. And Eichmann didn’t tend to suffer in silence.

  254. On tape 58, Alvensleben talks about Himmler’s reaction to the bombing of Dresden in 1945, which he knows about “from my own experience.” Alvensleben reported to Himmler shortly after the event in Dresden, which fell under his jurisdiction as HSSPF. He then gave an account of Himmler’s behavior to Goebbels, whom he also visited. The propaganda minister wrote about Alvensleben’s visit in his diary on March 6, 1945. None of the other participants in the Sassen circle (apart from Eichmann) had even come close to Himmler or Goebbels.

  255. The possibility that Alvensleben was only pretending to be a devoted National Socialist in order to gain access to the Sassen circle, or to “infiltrate” it, is slight. The discussion groups at Sassen’s house were no secret, and there is no evidence of any “entry criteria.” Anyone wanting to claim that Alvensleben changed his views after 1945 has a heavy burden of proof.

  256. See Peter Longerich, Heinrich Himmler, p. 3: “In the postwar years no Himmler legend was waiting to be born.”

  257. Sassen transcript 56:7.

  258. Gerald Steinacher, Nazis on the Run: How Hitler’s Henchmen Fled Justice (Oxford, 2012).

  259. The letter and the reply are held in the National Archive in Bozen. Many thanks to Gerald Steinacher for making it available so quickly.

  260. The letters from Alvensleben to Himmler in the SS files serve as a comparison. Handwriting is individual in so many respects that very few people succeed in changing theirs. Alvensleben tried to write in a slightly florid, “feminine” way, but the writing samples in the SS files are a clear match. Someone with twenty years’ experience in identifying handwriting can show the similarities in detail: the writing angle, the extension of letters above and below the line, the particular capital letters, the way numbers are written, line spacing. But in this case I didn’t need my experience—it is obvious at first glance. Anyone wanting to try for themselves could digitally merge the two samples.

  261. Alvensleben and his wife Melitta, née Guaita, had four children: two daughters, born in 1925 and 1934, and two sons, born in 1942 and 1944. The elder daughter was an adult by this point (and most probably already married) so didn’t count as a child to be registered. Detailed information in SSO File Alvensleben, BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, BDC.

  262. There are actually two applications for “Theodor Kremhart” with two different photos of Alvensleben, possibly because an error was made in completing one of the forms. Many thanks once again to Uki Goñi and Gerald Steinacher for their help with these documents.

  263. Uki Goñi told me he knew of only two passport applications signed by Dömöter.

  264. Juan Maler, Frieden, Krieg und “Frieden” (Bariloche, 1987), p. 345.

  265. Stanislaw Mucha, Mit “Bubi” heim ins Reich, ends with a suspicion of this kind from a member of the Alvensleben family. Mucha had insufficient evidence to argue against it.

  266. Sassen transcript 49:15.

  267. See Der Weg (1957), no. 7, pp. 495–96. The reader’s letter is signed “Dr. Ernst Rauhart, Sao Paulo, Brazil.” Many of the readers’ letters in Der Weg were written by the editors themselves, so this name may not be genuine. In any case, Fritsch decided to print this text on this particular date.

  268. Published in IMT vol. 31, pp. 85–87; in Poliakov
and Wulf, Das Deutsche Reich und die Juden, pp. 99–100.

  269. Sassen transcript 4:10.

  270. Sassen transcript 50:1.

  271. Wisliceny, statement at IMT, January 3, 1946, 4, p. 412. On further figures, ibid., p. 411.

  272. Grell, statement for Eichmann trial, Berchtesgaden, May 23, 1961.

  273. Judge Yitzhak Raveh confronted Eichmann with the sentence in his own handwriting (notes, prosecution document T/43).

  274. Sassen transcript 24:1.

  275. Sassen transcript 4:2.

  276. Sassen transcript 50:10 onward.

  277. Sassen transcript 49:9.

  278. Sassen transcript 49:8.

  279. BA tape 02A, 43:30.

  280. If any further proof had been needed that the Heimann and Herster articles were homemade forgeries, this fact would suffice. The Sassen circle read every publication that had anything to do with the topic, even articles from Time magazine. Only Der Weg’s articles were not discussed. Everyone present knew that it was unnecessary, as they bore little resemblance to reality.

  281. Sassen transcript 53:11.

  282. Sassen transcript 73:3.

  283. Sassen transcript 61:3.

  284. Sassen’s dictation, accidentally transcribed along with the discussion, and ordered in the Hagag copy as the start and pp. 326–35 of transcript 36. Further details of the dictation can be found on BA tape 08A, 32:37 onward.

  285. Thanks to Martin Haidinger for letting me read his interview transcript.

  286. Tape 67.

  287. The ten tapes held in the Bundesarchiv also contain copies of this speech in various lengths and with cuts made in different places. Unfortunately, for this reason, not every transcription to be found in the literature and media today is complete. The following is the first complete transcript from the uncut BA tape 10B, 52:30 to 1:02:58.

  288. Misheard words in other transcriptions have been corrected and are not noted here.

  289. “Kaufmann”: in the conversations with Sassen, the so-called Kaufmann Plan is repeatedly confused with the Morgenthau Plan. Theodore N. Kaufman self-published a pamphlet with the title Germany Must Perish, calling for the extinction of the Germans through sterilization. The Nazi Ministry of Propaganda used the publication to support the thesis of a “monstrous Jewish extermination program”; Völkische Beobachter, July 24, 1941. In 1944 Henry Morgenthau, Jr., the U.S. secretary of the treasury, commissioned the development of a plan for the division and deindustrialization of the German Reich. Goebbels used it as a warning in his calls for perseverance. Although both plans remained theoretical, they have always served National Socialists as a justification for German war crimes and crimes against humanity. They also led to the confusion in the Sassen circle. See Wolfgang Benz, ed., Legenden Lügen Vorurteile: Ein Lexicon zur Zeitgeschichte (Munich, 1990), pp. 85 and 145.