REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING
TEACHING LESSON 10
HANDOUT 10D
GERMAN OFFICERS STATE THEIR CASE. PART II

Adolf Eichmann has been described as the main coordinator of the Final Solution. He was brought to trial in Israel in April 1961. At the trial, the prosecution presented more than 1400 documents showing Eichmann’s deep involvement in Hitler’s plans to annihilate the Jews. Eichmann’s defense never challenged the factual account by the Holocaust survivors of his actions or the authenticity of the prosecution’s documents. The trial lasted four months. After it ended, the court recessed as the panel of judges adjourned to consider the evidence. The judges reassembled in December 1961 to hand down a guilty verdict. After the conviction, the presiding judge gave Eichmann the chance to address the court before the sentencing phase of the trial began. Here are excerpts from Eichmann’s statement: _________________________________________

Once again I would stress that I am guilty of having been obedient, having subordinated myself to the official duties and the obligations of war service and my oath of allegiance and my oath of office. . . . This obedience was not easy. And again, anyone who has to give orders and has to obey orders knows what one can demand of people. I did not persecute Jews with avidity and passion. That is what the government did. Nor could the persecution be carried out other than by a government. . . . I accuse the leaders of abusing my obedience. At that time obedience was demanded, just as in the future it will also be demanded of the subordinates. Obedience is commended as a virtue. May I therefore ask that consideration be given to the fact that I obeyed, and not whom I obeyed.

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USHMM: courtesy Israel Government Press Office Adolf Eichmann, in a bullet-proof glass enclosure, taking notes during his trial in Jerusalem, 1961

[The] top echelons, to which I did not belong, gave the orders, and they rightly, in my opinion, deserved the punishment for the atrocities which were perpetrated on the victims on their orders. But the subordinates are now also victims. I am one of such victims. It is said that I could and should have refused to be obedient. . . .   Under the circumstances then prevailing such an attitude was not possible. Nor did anyone behave in this fashion. From my exper-ience I know that the possibility, which was al-leged only after the war, of opposing orders is a self-protective fairy tale. An individual could secretly slip away. But I was not one of those who thought that was permissible.

I was asked by the judges whether I wished to make an admission of guilt, like the Commandant of Auschwitz, Hess, and the Governor General of Poland, Frank. These two had every reason to make such an admission of guilt. . . . Hess was the one who actually carried out the mass killings.

My position is different. I never had the power and the responsibility of a giver of orders. I never carried out killings, as Hess did.

1. I am not the monster that I am made out to be. I am the victim of an error of judgment.
2. On whom does Eichmann place the blame for the war crimes of the Nazis?
3. What does Eichmann say was his role was in these crimes?   Why does he say he is a “victim”?
4. How are Eichmann’s arguments similar to and different from those of Ohlendorft and Hess?
   How does Julius’s eyewitness account of Eichmann’s actions at Auschwitz undermine the credibility of Eichmann’s statements about his actions? How does Julius’s testimony contradict Eichmann’s statement that he did not persecute Jews with “avidity and passion”?
5. What other statements by Eichmann does Julius’s testimony contradict?
6. Would Julius have been a good witness for the prosecution at Eichmann’s trial? Give reasons for your answer.

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/