Becoming Eichmann: Rethinking the Life, Crimes, and Trial of a ""Desk Murderer""

480 Pages·2007·33.295 MB·English

by  David Cesarani

$27.50 / £16.50
THIS GROUNDBREAKING BIOGRAPHY of
Adolf Elchmann-the first in forty years--
uncovers the frightening reality of the man
who administered Hitler’s “Final Solution.”
From 1941 to 1945 Adolf Eichmann
organized the mass deportation and extinction
of Jews in Europe. At his desk and in the field
he was at the center of Nazi genocide and was
directly responsible for ordering the transport
of over two million Jews to their deaths in
Auschwitz -Birkenau and other camps. But
was Eichmann really the type of perpetrator
that the Germans dubbed a Schreibtischtater, or
“desk murderer”?
Becoming Eichmann is the first account of
Eichmann’s life to appear since the aftermath
of his famous 1961 trial in Jerusalem and his
subsequent execution a year later. It reveals a
surprising portrait of the man once seen as
epitomizing the “banality of evil.” Eichmann
was not a disgruntled loser who drifted into the
ranks of the SS; rather, Cesarani shows us how
Eichmann came from a solid bourgeois back¬
ground and chose to become a Nazi. His
administrative abilities brought him to the
attention of Nazi party officials, but Eichmann
was not driven by anti-Semitism.
Drawing on recently unearthed documents,
David Cesarani shows how Eichmann unex¬
pectedly developed into the Reich’s “expert” on
Jewish matters and reveals his initially cordial
working relationship with Zionist Jews in
Germany. Eichmann became ever more hateful
and brutal, but Cesarani explains how the mas¬
sive ethnic cleansing Eichmann conducted in
Poland in 1939-40 was the crucial bridge to his
later role in the deportation of the Jews. And
he argues controversially that Eichmann was
not necessarily predisposed to mass murder,
exploring the remarkable, largely unknown
period in Eichmann’s early career when he
learned how to become an administrator of
genocide—a “desk murderer.”
continued on back flap

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David Cesarani
BECOMING
EICHMANN
RETHINKING THE LIFE, CRIMES,
AND TRIAL OF A “DESK MURDERER
DA CAPO PRESS
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
Copyright © 2004 by David Cesarani
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission
of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.
Set by SX Composing DTP, Rayleigh, Essex,
United Kingdom
Cataloging-in-Publication data for this book is available from
the Library of Congress.
First Da Capo Press edition 2006
First published in Great Britain by William Heinemann as
Eicbmann: His Life and Crimes
Reprinted by arrangement with the author
ISBN-13: 978-0-306-81476-1
ISBN-10: 0-306-81476-5
Published by Da Capo Press
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
www.dacapopress.com
The publishers gratefully acknowledge permission to
reproduce copyright illustrations from the following: Corbis
for Eichmann’s Argentinian ID card, © Berrmann/CORBIS;
Hulton Archive/Getty Images for Eichmann’s medical
examination in prison; and Yad Vashem Holocause Martyrs’
and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, Jerusalem,
for all other photographs.
Da Capo Press books are available at special discounts for
bulk purchases in the U.S. by corporations, institutions, and
other organizations. For more information, please contact the
Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group,
11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, or call
[phone] or [phone], or
e-mail [email protected].
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9—09 08 07 06
CONTENTS
Introduction i
CHAPTER i:
Childhood, Youth and Career, 1906-33 18
CHAPTER 2:
From the SS to the SD, 1933-8 36
CHAPTER 3:
The Expert on Emigration, 1938-41 61
CHAPTER 4:
‘Physical Annihilation’, 1941-2 91
CHAPTER 5:
Managing Genocide, 1942-4 117
CHAPTER 6:
‘In the Middle of Death’s Whirlwind’, 1944-5 159
CHAPTER 7:
Flight and Capture, 1945-60 200
CHAPTER 8:
Interrogation, Trial and Execution, 1960-62 237
CHAPTER 9:
After Eichmann 324
Conclusion 357
Glossary and Abbreviations 369
Notes 373
Sources and Bibliography 424
Acknowledgements 443
Index 445

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in 2017 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation
https://archive.org/details/becomingeichmannOOcesa