^r^<^-:^W^^S£<^i^iWfWr^r.. m Volume XXXVI No. 11 November 1981 INFORMATION ISSUED BY THE ASSOOAim OF MWm I^UOES « aiEAT BRITAtl Martin Stern murder or extermination were always given by word of mouth. Eichmann writes: "It is com­ pletely wrong to believe that at the start of the Russian campaign, Himmler, Heydrich, Muller THE CASE OF and Eichmann decided upon the extermination of Jewry. The Head of the Sipo (Security Police) and of the SD (Security Service) Heydrich received the order. In my opinion it was in no way his EICHMANN'S MEMOIRS own idea. I still remember the very moment when he told me that the Fuhrer had ordered physical extermination. I heard the expression for the first Novemljer inevitably brings back memories of it suits him. Gideon Hausner's "Justice in Jerusa­ time in my life and I shall never forget that the Kristallnacht and the great tragedy that lem" is not listed in the bibliography, an extra­ moment." Later, Eichmann writes: "As I have followed inexorably from that prelude. And here ordinary omission in a book with scholarly stressed, Heydrich personally told me that the we find ourselves confronted by a long book* pretensions. Hannah Arendt's "Eichmann in Fuhrer had given the order and the Reichsfuhrer claiming to be the memoirs of Adolf Eichmann. Jerusalem" is also omitted (though her "Origins SS, as is well known, had charged Brigadefuhrer Two questions come immediately to mind. Are of Totalitarianism" is included). Raul Hilberg is Globocnik with carrying it out within the frame­ they genuine? And even if they are, does it really called Paul. work of the Reinhard Action." matter? With due caution and wariness one finds In his potted historical background survey, Goering's role turns out to be more important oneself answering in both cases: yes. Aschenauer seems to imply that since antisemi­ than previously assumed. Eichmann reports: "In The book is published by Druffel, the extreme tism was widespread in Germany and else­ October 1941 Goering gave the Head of the Sipo right-wing (rechts-radikal) house with a list where, it was a natural and respectable ideology and SD (Heydrich) responsibility for carrying out chiefly concerned with "revising" and whitewash­ to adopt. In any case, the book is being examined the Final Solution of the Jewish problem." It will ing the history of the Third Reich. Eichmann is by the Munich State Prosecutor with a view to be recalled that just after the November pogrom supposed to have recorded his memoirs in determining whether its content contravenes the of 1938 Goering declared that if war broke out Argentina in the mid- and late-fifties, and the law. there would be a great reckoning with Jewry. In publishers claim to have received tapes, micro- notes he made after his arrest Eichmann wrote: fihns and documents through and from Eich­ Authenticity "The entire solution of the Jewish problem at the mann's wife and son, and they print a sworn highest level really lay with . Reichsmarschall Nevertheless, despite the sloppy editing and affidavit of authenticity from his wife. One Goering." wonders whether these materials are available for pseudo-scholarly presentation, from the internal inspection. There are eight photographs in the evidence of Eichmann's text, it would seem to be book, and one would have expected the publishers authentic. Prof. Helmut Krausnick, former head Himmler's Visit to use them to show what the tapes and micro­ of the Munich Institute for Contemporary His­ tory, considers the memoirs genuine, and re­ For the enlightenment of those neo-Nazi films looked like, but they do not. In the marked in an interview that if they had been apologists who deny the existence of gas chambers, photographic reproduction of Eichmann's Per­ published by his Institute, they would doubtless Eichmann confirms their existence in Auschwitz, sonnel Report of 1937, his wife's name is given as have been called a brazen forgery by extreme Treblinka and elsewhere, says that Hoss, com­ Vera Liebel, whereas on the printed affidavit it is right apologists, since Eichmann concedes and mandant of Auschwitz, invented gassing by Veronika Liebl. Perhaps this was a printer's error, admits so much about the criminal anti-Jewish Zyklon B, and reports Hoss having told him of but Eichmann and his editor make much of policy of the Third Reich, more than the reader Himmler's visit to Auschwitz, where Himmler bureaucratic errors of detail when it suits them— could ever have expected. Eichmann sketches witnessed "physical extermination from gassing to in fact, it is their chief line of defence. sharply-etched word-portraits of his colleagues: cremation" (p. 458). On the next page Eichmann The book has been edited and provided with a Heydrich, Kaltenbrunner, Miiller, Schellenberg, tells of how Hoss showed him a pile of corpses on commentary and notes by Rudolf Aschenauer, Hoss, Canaris, et al. Eichmann also implies that an iron grate in a ditch, which were then inciner­ the lawyer who has defended many Nazis in war Muller was a Soviet agent. ated, and that he was so horrified that he could crimes trials. The background material he pro­ We only have space to report some of the still see it as he wrote. Aschenauer vi'rites (p. 52): vides is selective and tendentious, and sometimes major points that emerge from the memoirs. "Defendants and witnesses in Nazi proceedings clearly false. Thus, on a crucial issue, Aschenauer There is the question of Hitler's direct involve­ confirm Eichmann's statements." claims that the original transcript of the proceed­ ment with the order for the implementation of ings of the Wannsee Conference, where the Eichmann and Aschenauer quibble about the the Final Solution. Much has been made in number of Jews killed, and juggle with the figures. decision on the Final Solution was taken on recent years of the fact that no written order 20 January 1942, was never found (p. 478). The "However," Aschenauer writes on p. 53, "Eich­ from Hitler to exterminate the Jews has been mann's figures are relatively large". original can be seen by any serious researcher in found. Eichmann says that only an idiot could the Political Archive of the German Foreign imagine the Reichsfuhrer of the SS, Himmler, The Eichmann who emerges from these Ministry in Bonn in the File Section "Inland issuing a written order saying that Hitler had memoirs, however self-serving they may be, shows II G, Vol. 177". Eichmann remembers how "after commanded physical extermination. Orders for how wrong-headed Haimah Arendt was when she the Wannsee Conference Heydrich, Muller and I sp>oke of the "banality of evil". She was taken in sat cosily around the fireside." (p. 446). On a trivial by Eichmann's presentation of himself at his level, Aschenauer follows his dubious sources Jerusalem trial as a mere bureaucratic cog in the and says that Alexander Kerensky was a Jew, wheel of destruction. Eichmann presents himself which, of course, he was not. (p. 42). Aschenauer Make at least one friend— here as a highly-motivated idealist who made dismisses Eichmann's comments and testimony at many sacrifices for his cause, and we know that his trial in Jerusalem as "worthless", since he was he was full of enthusiasm and drive and that he Under pressure, yet he does not hesitate to quote enrol as a showed very great initiative in delivering Jews to from the testimony and cross-examination ver­ the death camps despite all the difficulties he faced batim and at length—without attribution—when "FRIEND OF THE AIR" in war-torn Europe. It is all there in the 1937 'tch, Adolf Eichinann. Ein historischer Zeugenbericht. Edited by Dr. Rudolf Aschenauer. Druffel-Verlag, Leoni am Starnberger See. 5S0 pp. Continued on page 2 Page 2 AJR INFORMATION November 1981 Continued from page 1 EICHMANN'S MEMOIRS NEWS FROM GERMANY Personnel Report: "Very lively, sociable, highly EAST GERMAN JEWISH NEWS BULLETIN CELLE NAZIS IN OFFICE motivated . very alert mind and understanding, The latest issues of the News Bulletin of the especially good at negotiating, speaking and organ­ Eckart Spoo, Hanover correspondent of the Jewish community of East Berlin and the Associ­ "Frankfurter Rundschau", recently decided to look ising ... an energetic and impulsive person, a ation of Jewish Communities in the GDR (Nachrich- round the pleasant town of Celle for former great talent for independent administration, a tenblatt) bring together information about the National Socialists and to trace their careers since recognised specialist in his field." In a sense, various Jewish centres in the country. There are 1945. He found a host of past and present judges there is the essence of the Nazi phenomenon: the brief reports from the Jewish corrmiunities of and lawyers who had risen to high positions in use of rational means for a wildly irrational end. Berlin, Dresden, Erfurt and environs, Halle/Saale, Celle courts after the war, notwithstanding their A specialist in the persecution, then destruction Karl-Marx Stadt, Leipzig, Magdeburg and Meck­ records. One judge had sentenced two soldiers to lenburg. There is a homily from the late Rabbi death in 1943 for destroying a picture of Hitler: of Jews. Dr. Martin Riesenburger, and articles on the old The Nazi phenomenon and the Holocaust were another had been the Gestapo chief in Paris. Both Jewish cemetery in Dresden, on Dietrich Bon­ rose to the rank of President of their respective central events of the 20th century, perhaps the hoeffer and the Jews, on Max Mack, the pioneer courts after the war. Karl-Heinz Muller, a former central events.