Language:
English
Year of publication:
2001
Titel der Quelle:
Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
15,3 (2001) 428-452
Keywords:
Eichmann, Adolf,
;
War crime trials
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Historiography
Abstract:
Argues that Eichmann's interrogations, as well as those of other major Nazi perpetrators, cannot serve as the exclusive or main basis of any historiographical arguments. His statements made at the trial were self-exculpatory and a part of his defense strategy. Eichmann's main goal was to present himself as a cog in the wheel rather than an initiator of mass murder. Examines some of Eichmann's statements; e.g. shows that the purpose of his travels to Minsk in 1941-42 was not "inspection" but preparation for forthcoming deportations of Jews from Central Europe to this ghetto. Dismisses Eichmann's self-portrait as a cog; although he was not the architect of the genocide, as the Israeli prosecution tried to present him, he was also not an automaton fulfilling orders from above. Criticizes scholars who took Eichmann's self-exonerating statements at face value, especially Hannah Arendt, who depicted Eichmann as a "desk killer" and thereby influenced many other historians.
DOI:
10.1093/hgs/15.3.428
URL:
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