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NEWS
Eichmann Recordings Published
By R. Hoffner
Fifty years after the trial of Adolf Eichmann, Germany continues to
disclose documents and testimonials that reveal new perspectives on
the life the Nazi criminal led after the Holocaust before he was
caught by the Mossad and executed in Israel. German weekly Der
Spiegel published the transcription of a recording made in
Argentina after World War II in which Eichmann boasts to his friends
about his involvement in the annihilation of the Jewish people and
laments that he was unable to complete the task. "We didn't do our job
properly, therefore Jews survived. We could have done more," Eichmann
is heard to say in the recording.
In stark contradiction to his claims during the trial that he was just
a small cog in the Nazi machine, while hiding from justice in Buenos
Aires, Eichmann told Nazi friends he was an "idealist" and took part
in masterminding the Final Solution.
"I didn't just take orders," Eichmann says in the tapes. "If I had
been that kind of person, I would have been a fool. Instead, I was
part of the thinking process. I was an idealist."
The remarks were made in a private conversation between Eichmann and
two friends, former Nazi reporters, in a Buenos Aires suburb. The
declassified document is now in the German Federal Archive in
Koblenz.
The recordings were released following a media campaign to apply
pressure on German intelligence to publish 4,500 classified documents
on the subject.
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