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Eichmann's Men
More than sixty years after the advent of the National Socialist genocides, the question still how could a state-sponsored terror that took the lives of millions of men, women, and children, persecuted as Jews or Gypsies, happen? Now available in English, Hans Safrian’s path-breaking work on Adolf Eichmann and his Nazi helpers chronicles the escalation of Nazi anti-Semitic policies beginning in 1933 and during World War II to the “final solution.” This book examines a central group of National Socialist perpetrators who expelled German, Austrian, and Czech Jews from their homelands and deported massive numbers of them to the ghettos, concentration camps, and killing centers of occupied Eastern Europe. Safrian reconstructs the “careers” of Eichmann and his men in connection with the implementation of racial policies, particularly the gradual marginalization of their victims and the escalation from stigmatization, divestment, and segregation to deportation, forced labor, and, finally, mass murder.
- GenresHolocaust
328 pages, Hardcover
First published December 21, 2009
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October 28, 2022
“Eichmann’s Men” by Hans Safrian (1993; 317 pages). With respect to the torture and murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews, Hans Safrian explodes the “Just following orders” myth by detailing the creativity and zeal of not only Eichmann and “His Men” but the SS and Wehrmacht as well. Of particular interest to this reader were the chapters covering “The Development of the Genocide Program”, “The Destruction of the Jewish Community of Salonika”, “Manhunts in France and Greece” and “Manhunts in Hungary and Slovakia” as they provided exhaustive evidence of the motivations and backgrounds of the criminals and their activities. Some of the passages that stood out are below;
(Page 197 on “Manhunts in Hungary and Slovakia”), “To succeed in the deliberate deception of the members of the Zentralrat, Eichmann gave an hour long presentation that made no mention of his instructions and intentions. He pretended to work towards establishing Jewish labor cadres. To achieve an allegedly consistent, centralized organization of Jews, he demanded a map that was to mark the location and type of every Jewish facility and institution. He also employed crude lies: All anti-Jewish measures would be in force for the duration of the war only. At the end of the war, ‘Germans could once again be their old jovial selves and permit everything as it was before’”.
(Page 204), “The doggedness with which Eichmann and his men pursued their goal of delivering more Jews to their doom was obvious in July 1944. In mid-July, despite [Miklos] Horthy’s prohibition, Eichmann ordered deported to Auschwitz 1,500 people, most of them internees at the Kistarsca camp. When the Budapest Zentralrat learned of this transport, its leaders informed certain church prelates and diplomats of neutral countries. Upon their immediate intervention, Horthy ordered the minister of the Interior to stop this train, even though it had already left Kistarsca. Shortly before reaching the border it was intercepted and returned to Kistarsca. Eichmann knew exactly how this deportation was foiled. To succeed anyway, he used a satanic ruse. On July 19 he summoned all leading members of the Zentralrat to his office in the Hotel Majestic…. There, he forced them to spend the entire day discussing trifles with one of Eichmann’s coworkers to keep them incommunicado. Meanwhile, Eichmann ordered German and Hungarian Entjudungskommandos to load more than 1,200 persons at Kistarsca on trucks to take them to Rakoscsaba, where, brutally mistreated by their guards, they were driven into freight cars. In the evening, when members of the Zentralrat finally were allowed to go home, the train already was on its way to Auschwitz.”
Eichmann’s men highlighted in the book were Dieter Wisliceny, Alois Brunner, Gerbing, Takasch, Zita and Bruckler (page 157); others were Hermann Krumey, Franz Novak, Franz Abromeit, Otto Hunsche, Theo Dannecker, Sigfried Seidl, Ernst Girzick, Richard Hartenberger and Alfred Slawik (page 196). Although some were prosecuted for their crimes, most avoided being held accountable for their actions.
(Page 197 on “Manhunts in Hungary and Slovakia”), “To succeed in the deliberate deception of the members of the Zentralrat, Eichmann gave an hour long presentation that made no mention of his instructions and intentions. He pretended to work towards establishing Jewish labor cadres. To achieve an allegedly consistent, centralized organization of Jews, he demanded a map that was to mark the location and type of every Jewish facility and institution. He also employed crude lies: All anti-Jewish measures would be in force for the duration of the war only. At the end of the war, ‘Germans could once again be their old jovial selves and permit everything as it was before’”.
(Page 204), “The doggedness with which Eichmann and his men pursued their goal of delivering more Jews to their doom was obvious in July 1944. In mid-July, despite [Miklos] Horthy’s prohibition, Eichmann ordered deported to Auschwitz 1,500 people, most of them internees at the Kistarsca camp. When the Budapest Zentralrat learned of this transport, its leaders informed certain church prelates and diplomats of neutral countries. Upon their immediate intervention, Horthy ordered the minister of the Interior to stop this train, even though it had already left Kistarsca. Shortly before reaching the border it was intercepted and returned to Kistarsca. Eichmann knew exactly how this deportation was foiled. To succeed anyway, he used a satanic ruse. On July 19 he summoned all leading members of the Zentralrat to his office in the Hotel Majestic…. There, he forced them to spend the entire day discussing trifles with one of Eichmann’s coworkers to keep them incommunicado. Meanwhile, Eichmann ordered German and Hungarian Entjudungskommandos to load more than 1,200 persons at Kistarsca on trucks to take them to Rakoscsaba, where, brutally mistreated by their guards, they were driven into freight cars. In the evening, when members of the Zentralrat finally were allowed to go home, the train already was on its way to Auschwitz.”
Eichmann’s men highlighted in the book were Dieter Wisliceny, Alois Brunner, Gerbing, Takasch, Zita and Bruckler (page 157); others were Hermann Krumey, Franz Novak, Franz Abromeit, Otto Hunsche, Theo Dannecker, Sigfried Seidl, Ernst Girzick, Richard Hartenberger and Alfred Slawik (page 196). Although some were prosecuted for their crimes, most avoided being held accountable for their actions.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews