![]() First edition (German) | |
Author | Jochen von Lang |
---|---|
Original title | Das Eichmann-Protokoll |
Translator | Ralph Manheim |
Language | English |
Publisher | Severin und Siedler (Germany) Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
Publication date | 1982 |
Publication place | Canada |
Published in English | 1983 |
Media type | Print hardcover |
Pages | 293 |
ISBN | 0-88619-017-7 |
OCLC | 11619460 |
Eichmann Interrogated is a 1982 non-fiction book containing selections from the pre-trial interrogation of high-ranking former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann.
Eichmann was a German World War II war criminal who was living in Argentina under a false identity when he was captured by Israeli forces in 1960. Upon being brought to Israel, he was interrogated for 275 hours before his trial. This book contains testimony where Eichmann speaks of his life, from childhood to his years in hiding, though the focus is on his role in organizing the mass executions of civilians, particularly Jews, by the Nazi regime.
Eichmann Interrogated reads mostly as Eichmann denying any personal responsibility for Germany's mass executions. He repeatedly claims he was only in charge of transportation of Jewish and enemy civilians, he was only following orders, and that disobeying such orders would have result in his own execution. He also claims that other, previously tried German war criminals, deliberately implicated him to mitigate their personal responsibility. Eichmann also denies any feelings of antisemitism; indeed, he claims to have attempted to create a homeland for Jews, once in Madagascar and later in Eastern Europe.
These claims are challenged by his interrogator, Avner W. Less, a German Jew who escaped the Holocaust and immigrated to Israel. Less, who is also quoted in the book, often asks Eichmann about a particular event; after Eichmann denied knowledge of or culpability for it, Less would produce a signed document or other evidence to show Eichmann was responsible. Eichmann referred to Less as "Herr Hauptmann," German for "Mr. Captain."
From page 141. (All ellipses are in the original)
Reading from a memo from Rudolf Höss, another high-ranking German war criminal, who had been captured in 1946 and tried and executed in Poland in 1947:
![]() First edition (German) | |
Author | Jochen von Lang |
---|---|
Original title | Das Eichmann-Protokoll |
Translator | Ralph Manheim |
Language | English |
Publisher | Severin und Siedler (Germany) Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
Publication date | 1982 |
Publication place | Canada |
Published in English | 1983 |
Media type | Print hardcover |
Pages | 293 |
ISBN | 0-88619-017-7 |
OCLC | 11619460 |
Eichmann Interrogated is a 1982 non-fiction book containing selections from the pre-trial interrogation of high-ranking former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann.
Eichmann was a German World War II war criminal who was living in Argentina under a false identity when he was captured by Israeli forces in 1960. Upon being brought to Israel, he was interrogated for 275 hours before his trial. This book contains testimony where Eichmann speaks of his life, from childhood to his years in hiding, though the focus is on his role in organizing the mass executions of civilians, particularly Jews, by the Nazi regime.
Eichmann Interrogated reads mostly as Eichmann denying any personal responsibility for Germany's mass executions. He repeatedly claims he was only in charge of transportation of Jewish and enemy civilians, he was only following orders, and that disobeying such orders would have result in his own execution. He also claims that other, previously tried German war criminals, deliberately implicated him to mitigate their personal responsibility. Eichmann also denies any feelings of antisemitism; indeed, he claims to have attempted to create a homeland for Jews, once in Madagascar and later in Eastern Europe.
These claims are challenged by his interrogator, Avner W. Less, a German Jew who escaped the Holocaust and immigrated to Israel. Less, who is also quoted in the book, often asks Eichmann about a particular event; after Eichmann denied knowledge of or culpability for it, Less would produce a signed document or other evidence to show Eichmann was responsible. Eichmann referred to Less as "Herr Hauptmann," German for "Mr. Captain."
From page 141. (All ellipses are in the original)
Reading from a memo from Rudolf Höss, another high-ranking German war criminal, who had been captured in 1946 and tried and executed in Poland in 1947: