Adolf eichmann
EARLY LIFE
Adolf Eichmann was born in 1906 in Solingen, Germany but moved to Austria with his family when he was a young boy. In Austria he studied mechanical engineering but he never finished his schooling. He held multiple jobs in the 1920s including day laborer, office worker, and vacuum oil company salesman. in 1932 he joined the Nazi party and then in 1933 he joined the Austrian legion, an association for unemployed Nazi members from Austria. As a member of this organization he received military training. Soon after, he joined the SD main office, whose objectives in the 1930s were centered around the surveillance of Jewish organizations. In March of 1938, he led a raid on the Jewish Cultural Community offices, and organized a central office for Jewish emigration. This was more or less overridden as deportation of Jews took precedence over emigration as a strategy for a “Jew-free” Germany. He was also responsible for the expulsion of Czech Jews from Bohemia and Moravia. NAZI INVOLVEMENT AND CRIMES IN WORLD WAR II After the beginning of WWII, Eichmann organized the first attempt at mass deportation of 3500 Jews. In 1939 he moved from the SD to the Gestapo and became director of the RSHA section (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, Reich Security Head Office), in charge of clearing activities and in October of 1940, he organized the deportation of 7000 Jews from Baden and Saarpfalz to unoccupied areas of France. From his role in the RSHA, he played the central role in the deportation of over 1.5 million Jews from all over Europe to killing sites in Poland and parts of the Soviet Union. He played a critical part in educating the Nazi Party on the implementation of the so called “Final Solution". In 1942, he organized the deportation of Jews from Slovakia, Netherlands, France, and Belgium, and in 1943 and 1944 the Jews of Greece, northern Italy, and Hungary. Between April of 1944 and July of 1944, he deported around 440,000 Hungarian Jews. CAPTURE, TRIAL, AND DEATH Immediately after the war, Eichmann was in US custody, but he escaped in 1946. He was indicted during the Nuremberg trials, but again escaped the POW camp. He then fled to Argentina and lived under many false identities, but most famously as Ricardo Klement. He worked as a labor organizer for Capri construction, which sheltered many ex-Nazis after the war. In 1960, the Israeli Security Service abducted Eichmann and brought him to Israel for trial. This trial attracted much attention from around the world, and awakened public interest in the Holocaust. On December 15,1961 Eichmann was found guilty of crimes against the Jewish people. He was hanged at midnight on May 31 and his ashes were scattered in the sea beyond Israeli boundary waters by Jewish authorities. Eichmann remains the only person to be sentenced to death by the Israeli courts. Sources: www.ushmm.org/wic/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007412 http://remember.org/eichmann/timeline www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-eichmann.htm http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/202817989/18938CB7FAD8402DPQ/2?accountid=465 |