62 years ago today, SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Adolf Eichmann was arrested by the Israeli secret service “Mossad” in Argentina. Eichmann was born in Solingen in 1906. In 1932 he joined the NSDAP, in which, after some professional setbacks, he obtained a permanent position in the party administration. Thus, in 1935, he joined the Department for Jews. From 1938 he was entrusted with the foundation of the “Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Vienna”. This organized the expulsion of Jews from Austria. He subsequently established a similar organizational model in Prague. His success in that function helped him to be appointed managing director of the “Reichszentrale für jüdische Auswanderung” in 1940. Eichmann was thus entrusted with the logistics of deporting all Jews in Germany and from the occupied territories. He organized all transports to concentration camps and was consequently involved in the killing of six million Jews.
After the defeat of the German Reich in 1945, Eichmann became a U.S. prisoner of war, from which he was able to escape. A manhunt by the German and Israeli police followed. Under various pseudonyms, he initially went into hiding in Germany before escaping to Argentina in 1950 under the name “Ricardo Klement”.
In 1959, the well-known Attorney General Fritz Bauer received a decisive tip about Eichmann’s whereabouts and forwarded this information to the Mossad. On May 11, 1960, the Israeli secret service seized Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires. Since there was no extradition treaty between Israel and Argentina, the operation took place in secret. As a result, the arrest was not announced until 23.05. by the Israeli Prime Minister and a corresponding arrest warrant was issued.
On April 11, 1961, the trial of Adolf Eichmann was opened amid great public interest. Because of his leading role in the planning and execution of the Holocaust, he was sentenced to death in December. The execution of the sentence took place on 01.06.1962 and remained the only death sentence ever passed by the Israeli judiciary.
Since then, Adolf Eichmann has been regarded as the symbol of the classic Nazi desk offender. Based on this observation, Hannah Arendt described him as a “Hanswurst” and established the banality of evil in her book “Eichmann in Jerusalem”.
(kk)