Berlin – As Israel marks the 50th anniversary of the trial of Adolf Eichmann, new documents and witness accounts are coming to light in Germany that reveal more details about the postwar life of the Nazi war criminal right up to his capture by the Mossad.
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Over the weekend, the German weekly Der Spiegel published a transcript of a tape recording in which Eichmann, who lived in Argentina after the war, can be heard bragging to his friends about his role in the Holocaust. Eichmann is even heard expressing regret for not being able to complete the task.
“We didn’t do our work correctly,” he said. “There was more that could have been done.”
In the recording, Eichmann, who masterminded the expulsion and transfer of millions of Jews from their homes to the death camps, contradicts statements he later made in his defense during his 1961 trial in Jerusalem. Eichmann was found guilty and executed.
Continue to read at Haaretz.com also at Der Spiegel
if only we could bring this freak back to life we could torture him. maybe make him watch a charlie sheen concert.. WINNING!!!!
Read the book by Peter Malkin, a former Mossad agent and the spy who actually jumped Eichmann. Along with a team of Israeli agents, he captured the infamous German in Argentina, later sneaking him out of the country to stand trial in Israel. Malkin was sworn to secrecy for 25 years. In 1990 he published the book “Eichmann in My Hands,” in which he recounts how, as part of his assignment, he was required to build up anger and hatred toward Eichmann before the mission began. That might sound easy, but Malkin writes that no one in his family spoke about what happened during the Holocaust. It was much too painful. Malkin’s parents were reticent about the horrors despite the fact that their eldest daughter, her husband and child stayed behind in Poland when the family immigrated to Israel before the war. They waited, along with thousands of others, to hear from their European relatives after the war. And they heard….nothing. Silence.
So Malkin started with a photograph of his sister and began questioning his mother about what happened to her. He started to feel the pain of her loss very deeply. He then read everything he could about Eichmann, and about how brutal a man he was. He describes eye witness accounts of Eichmann calmly wiping the blood off his boots and clothing after blowing a Jew’s brains out. It was not difficult to truly hate, despise, and be disgusted by this man. Eichmann was evil personified.
To #7 , you are wrong on one point. If the Jews showed any resistance, the nazis became furious and became even more murderous(yes, I know it is hard to believe they could possibly be more murderous). On the issue of the world not doing anything, you have a good point.
The Mossad agent, Peter Malkin, who captured, Eichmann on a street in Buenos Aires and smuggled him to Israel, came to New York in 1991. He spoke at a shul on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn, and I went to hear him, where I took his picture and bought his book, which he autographed for me. “Twenty years later,” I can say that as the child of a survivor, I was very fortunate to have met the man who had risked his life to see that a tiny bit of justice was served. He passed away in 2005. I often question the limited justice meted out on earth to Eichmann and other monsters and perpetrators of such unspeakable crimes. The time will come when they will face their Maker, and true “tzedek” will be served. The Peter Malkins, Isser Harels, and Simon Wiesenthals of the world deserve our thanks and admiration for the work they’ve done. And you, Kzler, are a hero of a different sort. You saw the face of evil many years ago in Vienna. You fought to survive and tell your story so that all of us will know the truth, and so that the Eichmanns of the world will be stopped before their evil ever gets a chance to take root again. (They come in different disguises now). I am honored and privileged to meet you on VIN; may we continue posting together for many more years!
From what I understand, the trial of Eichmann was a turning point for many Jews, and indeed, for the world. Until then the trauma of what had happened prevented many from speaking about it. And it seems many didn’t want to hear about it either. Guilt, sadness…….survivors were victimized all over again by not being allowed to really speak up. No one wanted to know. Eichmann’s trial changed all that. Suddenly there was a face to evil, there was testimony from survivors, there were judges and prosecutors helping to tell the story to the world. And finally, because of a sensational spy story and televised trial, the world started to listen. Kzler, you have obviously been an effective communicator of the horrors and tragedies that you witnessed. It is now up to the next generation to remain vigilant. From true survivors like yourself, we know all too well what can happen. And the threats are arriving from a different address now. We will use your experiences, Kzler, and the experiences of others, to educate ourselves and others about the evil perpetrated by man, and of the world’s silence in the face of that evil. Thank you for posting honestly and courageously, Kzler. Have you remained in Baltimore? May your Pesach be sweet, and may you celebrate liberation at the sedarim for many more years!!