when the 1925 inflation ruined his father’s business, and left him without seemingly any chance of employment, Eichmann’s opinion concerning the Jews began quickly to change. This was in no small part due to his reading of Hitler’s Mein Kampf (the first volume of which had recently been published), with its many, virulently anti-Semitic passages.
Declared Eichmann later:
‘ …I began to think these foreign-looking people were the enemy of us all. I wondered about my friendship with Jews and I felt they had always treated me as someone rather inferior. I then believed that Adolf Hitler was right… ’
Finally he was able to find work as an oil salesman, and faithfully attending Nazi Party meetings then became a fully paid-up member of the Party in 1931.
‘ …Having heard the Fuhrer speak, I felt disgusted that I had mixed with those Jews who are the enemies of the German people and the defilers of their blood… ’
Ironically, Eichmann was himself attacked (due to his Jewish appearance, and unable to produce his Nazi Party card in time) by one of the vicious ‘Brownshirt’ gangs, who terrorized any Jews they encountered out on the streets of Germany.
Left bleeding and barely-conscious, Eichmann subsequently blamed only the Jews for his savage assault:
‘ …If there were no Jewish people, I wouldn’t be mistaken for a Jew. What the hell are they doing in Germany, anyway?... ’
The feared ‘Brownshirts’ demonstrate against a Jewish-owned business
Eichmann also found himself having to explain his Jewish appearance to the Party leaders, along with such things as his obvious knowledge of Jewish customs and his ability to speak Yiddish. In order to disguise the affection he’d felt for the Jews in his earlier life, Eichmann resorted to lying, declaring that he knew such things only because he’d been born in the German colony in Mount Carmel, Palestine.
The truth concerning Eichmann’s knowledge of Jewish customs and the Yiddish tongue was later discovered, but it was felt that this information could be most effectively used to keep Eichmann ‘in line’ – it would be divulged only if he acted in a manner deemed threatening or rebellious towards the Nazi Party.
But it is certain that Eichmann did not actually require such blackmail to ensure his loyalty towards the Party. He was by now rabidly anti-Semitic, and equipped with Party uniform, swastika armbands, pistol and whip, began to exercise exactly the same level of violence towards others that he himself had so recently experienced.
Such enthusiasm was quickly rewarded with his promotion to Sergeant in the Security Service at Berlin Headquarters. There, under the command of Reinhard Heydrich , he conducted historical and linguistic research concerning the Jewish people – in particular concentrating on their ‘destructive activities’.
By 1937, Eichmann had been tasked with formulating ways of dealing with ‘the Jewish problem’ in every country that would be taken by Germany. Initially, Eichmann proposed dispatching all captured Jews by cattle cars to the vast, freezing Russian frontiers, where they could be dealt with at leisure.
The German occupation of Austria, in March 1939, allowed Eichmann to enthusiastically commence his ‘work’. No longer would it be primarily theoretical. Jews were arrested, and subsequently executed or dispatched to the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps.
Following the invasion of Poland in September of that year, Eichmann first proposed ‘burning’ the Jews. By 1941, he had become fully aware of Endlosung – the ‘Final Solution’. Accordingly, Eichmann now suggested the idea of mass-gassing. Comparatively cheap, its effectiveness had already been demonstrated on those ‘mental defectives’ and ‘chronic invalids’ secretly executed before the start of the war.
Initially, Jews were shut into lorries and gassed by carbon monoxide fumes. But how could this method hope to
Declared Eichmann later:
‘ …I began to think these foreign-looking people were the enemy of us all. I wondered about my friendship with Jews and I felt they had always treated me as someone rather inferior. I then believed that Adolf Hitler was right… ’
Finally he was able to find work as an oil salesman, and faithfully attending Nazi Party meetings then became a fully paid-up member of the Party in 1931.
‘ …Having heard the Fuhrer speak, I felt disgusted that I had mixed with those Jews who are the enemies of the German people and the defilers of their blood… ’
Ironically, Eichmann was himself attacked (due to his Jewish appearance, and unable to produce his Nazi Party card in time) by one of the vicious ‘Brownshirt’ gangs, who terrorized any Jews they encountered out on the streets of Germany.
Left bleeding and barely-conscious, Eichmann subsequently blamed only the Jews for his savage assault:
‘ …If there were no Jewish people, I wouldn’t be mistaken for a Jew. What the hell are they doing in Germany, anyway?... ’
The feared ‘Brownshirts’ demonstrate against a Jewish-owned business
Eichmann also found himself having to explain his Jewish appearance to the Party leaders, along with such things as his obvious knowledge of Jewish customs and his ability to speak Yiddish. In order to disguise the affection he’d felt for the Jews in his earlier life, Eichmann resorted to lying, declaring that he knew such things only because he’d been born in the German colony in Mount Carmel, Palestine.
The truth concerning Eichmann’s knowledge of Jewish customs and the Yiddish tongue was later discovered, but it was felt that this information could be most effectively used to keep Eichmann ‘in line’ – it would be divulged only if he acted in a manner deemed threatening or rebellious towards the Nazi Party.
But it is certain that Eichmann did not actually require such blackmail to ensure his loyalty towards the Party. He was by now rabidly anti-Semitic, and equipped with Party uniform, swastika armbands, pistol and whip, began to exercise exactly the same level of violence towards others that he himself had so recently experienced.
Such enthusiasm was quickly rewarded with his promotion to Sergeant in the Security Service at Berlin Headquarters. There, under the command of Reinhard Heydrich , he conducted historical and linguistic research concerning the Jewish people – in particular concentrating on their ‘destructive activities’.
By 1937, Eichmann had been tasked with formulating ways of dealing with ‘the Jewish problem’ in every country that would be taken by Germany. Initially, Eichmann proposed dispatching all captured Jews by cattle cars to the vast, freezing Russian frontiers, where they could be dealt with at leisure.
The German occupation of Austria, in March 1939, allowed Eichmann to enthusiastically commence his ‘work’. No longer would it be primarily theoretical. Jews were arrested, and subsequently executed or dispatched to the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps.
Following the invasion of Poland in September of that year, Eichmann first proposed ‘burning’ the Jews. By 1941, he had become fully aware of Endlosung – the ‘Final Solution’. Accordingly, Eichmann now suggested the idea of mass-gassing. Comparatively cheap, its effectiveness had already been demonstrated on those ‘mental defectives’ and ‘chronic invalids’ secretly executed before the start of the war.
Initially, Jews were shut into lorries and gassed by carbon monoxide fumes. But how could this method hope to
Similar Books
Big Breasts and Wide Hips
Mo Yan
Handwriting
Michael Ondaatje
Being a Girl
Chloë Thurlow
Underbelly
G. Johanson
Strawman's Hammock
Darryl Wimberley
BENCHED
Abigail Graham
Operation Zulu Redemption: Out of Nowhere - Part 2
Ronie Kendig
Solitaire, Part 2 of 3
Alice Oseman