Adolf Eichmann, who killed five million Jews

Adolf Eichmann (19 March 1906 – 1 June 1962) was a German Nazi Lieutenant Colonel and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust. He was as a self proclaimed 'Jewish specialist' and was the man responsible for keeping the trains rolling from all over Europe to death camps during the Final Solution. Eichmann's sole purpose related to the Final Solution. He assumed the leading role in coordinating the deportation of Jews from every corner of Europe to existing ghettos in occupied Poland and to newly constructed gas chambers at places such as Sobibor, Chelmno, Treblinka and Auschwitz-Birkenau. At Birkenau the gas chamber disguised as a shower room could accommodate 2000 persons at a time. With boundless enthusiasm for his task and fanatical efficiency, Eichmann travelled throughout the Reich coordinating the Final Solution, insuring a steady supply of trainloads of Jews to the killing centers of occupied Poland where the numbers tallied into the millions as the war in Europe dragged on.

Following the surrender of Nazi Germany in May of 1945, Eichmann was arrested and confined to an American internment camp but managed to escape because his name was not yet well known. In 1950, with the help of the SS underground, he fled to Argentina and lived under the assumed name of Ricardo Klement for ten years until Israeli Mossad agents abducted him on May 11, 1960.

Eichmann went on trial in Jerusalem for crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity and war crimes. During the four months of the trial over 100 witnesses testified against him. Eichmann took the stand and used the defense that he was just obeying orders. "Why me," he asked. "Why not the local policemen, thousands of them? They would have been shot if they had refused to round up the Jews for the death camps. Why not hang them for not wanting to be shot? Why me? Everybody killed the Jews." He was found guilty on all counts, sentenced to death and hanged at Ramleh Prison, May 31, 1962.

His quotes:
  • To sum it all up, I must say that I regret nothing.
  • I was one of the many horses pulling the wagon and couldn't escape left or right because of the will of the driver.
  • We shall meet again. I have believed in God. I obeyed the laws of war and was loyal to my flag.
A fellow Nazi reported Eichmann once said "he would leap laughing into the grave because the feeling that he had five million Jewish people on his conscience would be for him a source of extraordinary satisfaction."

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