REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING
TEACHING LESSON 10
HANDOUT 10C
JULIUS REMEMBERS EICHMANN

In this selection Julius, who was imprisoned in the Auschwitz death camp, tells about his encounter with Adolf Eichmann, the top Nazi official in charge of rounding up and departing Jews to the death camps. __________________________________________

In September 1944, something was in the air. The soldiers and the kapos were extremely strict, more strict than usual and everything had to be just so. Naturally we suspected that something was going to happen.   We figured that maybe some high-ranking visitors were coming, maybe Himmler himself. During the night, before we left for work, they started building something in the middle of the square, but we didn’t know what they were building. We thought maybe it was a podium.

The next morning I happened to be working on the day shift. We went to work as usual at 6:45 a.m. But at two o’clock in the afternoon the whistle blew and we had to stop. This happened only one day the whole time I was in this camp. It was very unusual. Everyone started whispering. Rumors began to fly that high dignitaries were visiting the camp. We marched back to camp and as we entered the gate, we saw three inmates standing in line in the tube. This was a space between two electrically charged wires and was the area where they punished us for minor infractions like stealing some potato peels from the kitchen.

They marched us to the center of the square and we saw that what they had been building was a gallows. Near the gallows were some chairs. So we start adding up. We saw the three guys, three gallows. You didn’t have to be a genius to figure what was happening. We tried to find out why these guys had been picked up. Nobody knew. Later on, we found they were from the night shift. They were supposed to be sleeping, but during the day, you were allowed to go the bathroom if you had to. They went to the bathroom and were going back to their barrack, when they were taken. They spent the rest of the day waiting for the hanging.

After about a half hour of waiting in front of the gallows, a group of officers came in—the camp commander, all his officers, and a few other high-ranking officers. Then suddenly, the grapevine started moving. “It’s Eichmann, it’s Eichmann.” We saw them walk in front of the gallows and sit in the chairs. They sat down and the three poor souls were brought from the tube. They lined them up in front of the gallows on stools and a German soldier put a noose around each of their necks. Then they stood there, waiting. After a while the German solider who had put the nooses around their necks went by and kicked each stool out of there. I had seen dead people before, but this was the worse sight I’ve ever seen before or since. Three men, innocent young fellows from Budapest. I knew them personally. No speeches. No reasons. Actually, it was in honor of the visitor, who turned out to be Eichmann. It was a hanging party in his honor. Some dignitaries would have been satisfied with a bouquet of flowers. He had to have a hanging party.

The Nazi officers were carrying on a conversation among themselves and we were wondering what was going to happen next. After a few minutes the officers stood up, and actually I could see Eichmann clapping his hands and stomping his foot in glee like he had seen a beautiful performance of some sort. The officers were laughing and joking among themselves.

Click on the picture to see a larger version

USHMM: courtesy Israel Government Press Office Adolf Eichmann listens as he is sentenced to death at his trial in Israel, 15 Dec. 1961

The hanging was gruesome, but the worst was yet to come. The guest of honor got up from his chair. He had decided to have another hanging party. Eichmann passed down in front of us. We were lined up in rows five deep. He picked his first victim. Then he walked further down the line and stopped right in front of me, reaching as if he would grab my neck; but instead of grabbing me, he pulled out the poor fellow behind me and then he picked a third one. The three men were lined up on the gallows and executed in turn.

The hanging party was over. The guest of honor, whom we were told was Eichmann, left and the camp went back to its normal routine.

Published in cooperation with the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust
Copyright © 2002 by the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust. Updated 2005.
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/holocaust_council/