The Eichmann Files

In the famous trial of Adolf Eichmann, who headed the Gestapo Department for Jewish Affairs, 1,506 documents were filed by the court as "smoking guns" against Eichmann. They show how he insisted on reaching every single Jew, how he tried to cover up the extermination by using the phrase "special treatment," how he fumed that in his opinion, there were too few Jews on the death trains. And how he personally ensured that children were also sent to Auschwitz.

Sixty years after Eichmann's capture, the evidence used against him is revealed: Thousands of telegrams and transcripts prove how his monstrous policy was implemented, how he tried to cover up the annihilation, how he raged when the monthly targets for Jews on death trains were missed, and how he personally made sure to send even children to Auschwitz.

"In all his activities the accused displayed indefatigable energy, verging on overeagerness towards advancing the Final Solution … He was not a puppet in the hands of others; his place was amongst those who pulled the strings ... Even if we had found that the Accused acted out of blind obedience, as he argued, we would still have said that a man who took part in crimes of such magnitude as these over years must pay the maximum penalty known to the law, and he cannot rely on any order even in mitigation of his punishment. But we have found that the Accused acted out of an inner identification with the orders that he was given and out of a fierce will to achieve the criminal objective…" – Excerpts from the verdict and sentencing of Adolf Eichmann, December 1961.

The trial of Adolf Eichmann, who headed the Gestapo Department for Jewish Affairs known as IV B4, is an integral part of the consciousness of the Jewish people. One of the prevailing memories of the trial sessions in the Beit Ha'am community center in Jerusalem is the chilling testimonies of 121 Holocaust survivors. Read more...