Adolf Eichmann

Otto Adolf Eichmann (pronounced [ˈɔto ˈaːdɔlf ˈaɪ̯çman]; 19 March 1906 – 1 June 1962) was a German Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) and one of the major organisers of the Holocaust. Eichmann was charged by SS-Obergruppenführer (general/lieutenant general) Reinhard Heydrich with facilitating and managing the logistics of mass deportation of Jews to ghettos and extermination camps in German-occupied Eastern Europe during World War II. In 1960, he was captured in Argentina by Mossad, Israel's intelligence service. Following a widely publicised trial in Israel, he was found guilty of war crimes and hanged in 1962.

After an unremarkable school career, Eichmann briefly worked for his father's mining company in Austria, where the family had moved in 1914. He worked as a travelling oil salesman beginning in 1927, and joined the Nazi Party and SS in 1932. After returning to Germany in 1933, he joined the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; Security Service), where he was appointed head of the department responsible for Jewish affairs—especially emigration, which the Nazis encouraged through violence and economic pressure. After the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Eichmann and his staff arranged for Jews to be concentrated into ghettos in major cities with the expectation they would be transported farther east or overseas. Eichmann drew up plans for a Jewish reservation, first at Nisko in south-east Poland and later in Madagascar, but neither of these plans were ever carried out.

Eichmann (disambiguation)

Adolf Eichmann (1906–1962) was a German Nazi leader and Holocaust perpetrator.

Eichmann may also refer to:

Titled works

Films about Adolf Eichmann

Other works