Adolf Eichmann

[[File:Adolf_Eichmann,_1942.jpg|thumb|right|165px|"Little" Adolf Eichmann.]]
{{Nazism}}
'''Otto Adolf Eichmann''' {{lived|1906|1962}} (his rank in the [[SS]] being ''Obersturmbahnfuehrer'') was the other Adolf and the head of the "[[Jewish]] Department" in the [[Gestapo]] and was responsible for the deportation of up to three million Jews to [[concentration camps]] during the [[Holocaust]]. After the [[WWII|War]] Eichmann was held inside an [[American]] POW Camp but was able to escape unrecognized, after which he [[ratlines|fled]] to [[Argentina]] and lived under the assumed name of "Ricardo Klement" for a decade or so until [[Mossad]] agents captured him and shipped him to [[Israel]] so he could face justice. He was declared guilty of [[war crimes]] and was thereafter [[execution|executed]] in 1962.<ref>[http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf/ "Adolf Eichmann"] - The [[Nizkor Project]]</ref> 

==Holocaust==
Eichmann joined the SS during the early 1930s, wherein he was assigned to be the head of the aforementioned "Jewish Department". In 1935 Eichmann underwent negotiations and tours with [[Zionist]] leaders in [[Palestine]], the intent of this of course being the [[ethnic cleansing]] of all ethnic Jews from the [[Third Reich]] through forced deportation to Palestine. He would draw on this experience in the years to come as the overseer of the Holocaust.<ref>[https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/adolf-eichmann "Adolf Eichmann"] — The Holocaust Encyclopedia available from the United States Holocaust Memorial</ref> Hundreds of thousands of Jews would be deported from [[Germany]] in the following years. To help speed things up, Eichmann installed rail systems to make the deportation of Jews a more efficient process; he also designed plans for a so-called "General Reservation" in [[Austria]] to temporarily hold Jews and other "undesirables" before ultimately deporting them.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Longerich | first = Peter | title = The Wannsee Conference in the Development of the 'Final Solution' | year = 2000 | journal = Holocaust Educational Trust Research Papers | volume = 1 | issue = 2 | publisher = The Holocaust Educational Trust | location = London | format = PDF | url = http://www.ghwk.de/ghwk/engl/texts/wannsee-conference.pdf | isbn = 0-9516166-5-X | ref = harv | deadurl = yes | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20150402115820/http://www.ghwk.de/ghwk/engl/texts/wannsee-conference.pdf | archivedate = 2 April 2015 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> Jews would be crowded into ghettos before awaiting deportation, and the conditions inside these ghettos were deplorable, with poor sanitation, overcrowding, and disease all being problems.<ref name="Longerich">{{cite book | last = Longerich | first = Peter | title = Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews | year = 2010 | isbn = 978-0-19-280436-5 | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford; New York | ref = harv}}</ref> 

The 1941 Nazi invasion of the [[USSR]] changed things, as the general focus of Nazi policy regarding the Jews and other "undesirables" shifted from deportation to outright [[genocide]]. This was still in the ''very early'' stages of the Holocaust, so the methods weren't as "refined" (ugh) as they would be towards the later stages. Inside the occupied territories, tens of thousands of Jews and other undesirables were rounded up and systematically executed by firing squad.<ref>{{cite book | last = Longerich | first = Peter | year = 2012 | title = Heinrich Himmler: A Life | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford | isbn = 978-0-19-959232-6 | ref = harv}}</ref><ref group="notes">Eichmann was ultimately responsible for this shift in policy, as he was the overseer of the Holocaust after all; although it was Heinrich Himmler and [[Hermann Göring]] who came up with it in the first place, Eichmann would get detailed reports weekly on the "Jewish Question," and so he ultimately bears as much culpability for this as Himmler, Göring, and Hitler do, if not more so due to being the head of the operations.</ref> Eichmann then oversaw the {{wpl|Wannsee Conference||,}} which was called in order to better coordinate the then nascent Holocaust efforts. There Eichmann was appointed as supervisor of the Holocaust, and under his supervision large scale deportations to extermination camps like {{wpl|Sobibor}} and {{wpl|Treblinka}} began almost immediately.<ref name="Longerich" /> In 1944, the government of [[Hungary]] was deposed and replaced by a government more amenable to Nazi interests. This served Eichmann and [[Hitler]] well, for previously Hungary's Jews had mostly gone unharmed, but were now liable to be shipped to {{wpl|Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz}} ''en-masse'', wherein they would either be put to work as [[slaves]], or be gassed. As usual, Eichmann was the overseer of all of this.<ref>{{cite book | last = Evans | first = Richard J. | year = 2008 | title = The Third Reich at War | publisher = Penguin | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-14-311671-4}}</ref> It would only be due to international pressure that Hungary stopped deporting Jews to Auschwitz on July 9, 1944, by which point some ''half'' of Hungary's roughly 700,000 strong Jewish population had been killed.<ref name="Longerich" />

==Escape and capture==
[[File:Adolf Eichmann at Trial1961.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Eichmann on trial in 1961]]
US forces captured Eichmann at the end of the war, but he managed to escape from prison using forged documents and spent some time hiding on a plot of land in Lower Saxony.<ref>Levy, Alan (2006) [1993]. Nazi Hunter: The Wiesenthal File (Revised 2002 ed.). London: Constable & Robinson. ISBN 978-1-84119-607-7.  pp. 129–130</ref> During this time, Eichmann's former comrades [[Rudolf Hess]] and others during the [[Nuremberg trials]] gave damning evidence and testimony proving Eichmann's involvement and oversight of the mass murders of the Holocaust.<ref>Cesarani, David (2005) [2004]. Eichmann: His Life and Crimes. London: Vintage. ISBN 978-0-09-944844-0.  p. 205</ref> Alarmed by these developments, Eichmann obtained more false papers declaring himself to be "Ricardo Klement" and used a series of safe houses to flee the continent for Argentina.<ref>Bascomb, Neal (2009). Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World's Most Notorious Nazi. Boston; New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-618-85867-5. pp. 70–71</ref> 

Eichmann wasn't home free yet, though, as many Holocaust survivors in Israel had dedicated themselves to hunting down those Nazi war criminals who had escaped justice during the chaotic aftermath of the war. Isser Harel, head of Mossad, was resolved to find Eichmann after reading the dossier produced by the Nuremberg trials which revealed that Eichmann was one of the men most responsible for the Holocaust.<ref>[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-capture-of-nazi-criminal-adolf-eichmann Israel Military Intelligence: The Capture of Nazi Criminal Adolf Eichmann – Operation Finale] Doron Geller, ''Jewish Virtual Library''.</ref> Unfortunately, Argentina's regime under [[Juan Perón]] was rabidly [[Antisemitism|anti-Semitic]], and the Argentine government had infamously made itself a safe haven for escaped Nazis.<ref>[https://www.thoughtco.com/juan-domingo-peron-and-argentinas-nazis-2136208 Juan Domingo Peron and Argentina's Nazis] ''ThoughtCo''</ref> After learning of Eichmann's location, Mossad launched a covert mission in 1960 which captured and successfully extracted him from Argentina.<ref>[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-operation-finale-180970153/ The True Story of “Operation Finale”] ''Smithsonian Magazine.''</ref> 

Fallout was swift and came from many corners. Eichmann's capture prompted [[far-right]] elements in Argentina to perpetrate a years-long period of anti-Semitic violence against the country's Jewish population in retaliation.<ref>[https://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-51068-2005-05-15.html Tacuara went out to the street] (In Spanish)</ref> Meanwhile, Argentina's government complained to the [[UN]] that Israel had violated their sovereignty by covertly extracting the Nazi war criminal; the UN concurred but Israel ignored them.<ref>[https://undocs.org/S/RES/138(1960) United Nations Security Council Resolution 138]</ref> In America, news of the capture was not celebrated by everyone. The [[CIA]] had actually been aware of Eichmann's location for years but had chosen not to act on it or inform Israel.<ref name="ciabad">[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jun/08/secondworldwar.usa Why Israel's capture of Eichmann caused panic at the CIA] ''The Guardian''.</ref> The US government had recruited numerous ex-Nazis in the name of anticommunism (e.g., {{wpl|Operation Paperclip}}), and they were afraid that Eichmann's testimony during any potential trial could draw attention to this embarrassing fact and potentially imperil those ex-Nazis working for the CIA inside the [[Eastern Bloc]].<ref name="ciabad"></ref>

==See also==
*[[Himmler on the execution of Jews]]
*[[Holocaust denial]]

==Notes==
<references group="notes"/>

==References==
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[[Category:Antisemites]]
[[Category:Crimes against humanity]]
[[Category:European history]]
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[[Category:Genocide]]
[[Category:Holocaust]]
[[Category:Holocaust perpetrators]]
[[Category:Military]]
[[Category:Racists]]
[[Category:Nazis]]
[[Category:War criminals]]

Categories: Antisemites, Crimes against humanity, European history, Fascists, Genocide, Holocaust, Holocaust perpetrators, Military, Racists, Nazis, War criminals