• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Going to read "Ich, Adolf Eichmann"

Oystein

Penultimate Amazing
Oystein
Joined
Dec 9, 2009
Messages
18,903
Some months ago I bought Adolf Eichmann's autobiography "Ich, Adolf Eichmann", after I found it quoted in other works on the holocaust, and also after I had read Rudolf Höß's autobiography.

Days ago, I started reading, and found, to my slight dismay, that the book is published by a publishing house, Druffel, which is sympathetic to nazi ideology, and edited, introduced and annotaded by a lawyer, Rudolf Aschenauer, who represented a large number of nazis in the post-war trials, and is also very sympathetic to nazi ideology. Oh well.

According to the introduction, which quotes an affidavit by Eichmann's widow Veronika, Eichmann mostly spoke his memoirs onto tape, and also wrote some parts by hand, in Argentina between 1951 and 1959, and had it transcribed by several typists. He intended to have it published after his death "for the benefit of the German post-war generation". The manuscript was given to the publisher in 1979 and published in 1980. I have in hand now the second edition (or printing? I am never sure how what the correct translation of the German word "Auflage" is) from 1981.


Now, after I found that the book has been published by nazis, I wanted to learn a little about its history, reception and authenticity as seen by mainstream historians, turned to Wikipedia and found - nothing:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Eichmann
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Eichmann
Neither the German nor the English Wikipedia mention his memoirs (nor do the French, Polish or Norwegian; only the Spanish lists the book under "Bibliografía consultada"). Strange, isn't it? Those articles are by no means stubbs, one would expect that a lengthy autobiography is of obviuous interest, not?

The German Wikipedia talks of a collection of tapes and manuscripts apparently created in 1957 in the presence of nazi journalist Wilhelm Sassen, referred to as the "Sassen-Interviews", which amount to more than a thousand pages, apparently with lots of autobiographical content also, parts of which were already published in 1960.


So ... I am a little confused. Do the Sassen-Interviews and his memoirs in "Ich, Adolf Eichmann" overlap, or are these disjoint works? And why don't the good folks at Wikipedia at least mention or list the book? I feel like amending the articles, but am timid, given the fact that I am not a historian, and Eichmann is person who has drawn so much scientific and popular interest.

Has anyone read the book, or knows some more background? Is it even available in English, and if yes, who are the publisher and editor? (I quickly searched the German Amazon for books authored by Eichmann (3 results), and biographies with "adolf eichmann" as search criterion (130), but didn't find this)
 
I don't know about this book, but I have read Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt. I just checked the bibliography and she doesn't mention this biography either. (Although I seem to remember that she mentioned it. And there is a reference to 'Eichmann tells his own damning story' in Life.)

ETA: Never mind. Arendt's book was first published in 1963, so that biography couldn't have been mentioned. I suspect that article in Life is pretty much based on the same tapes.
 
Last edited:
Always useful to check the talk pages of controversial wikipedia articles. Didn't find anything on the English one, but the archives of the German one mention the book once as "dubious" and indicate that at least parts of it are quotations from the Sassen-Interview.

You could ask on the recent talk page (Reiter "Diskussion") why it isn't mentioned.
 
Thanks, CE

I really am a fan of Wikipedia, I think its mostly better than its reputation; but I my experience with the Talk pages didn't leave me quite as enthusiastic so far, that's why I tried it here first.
 
Eichmannology is quite a well-developed branch of knowledge, since he left so many different accounts of his activities from the Sassen interviews through to his post-trial prison memoirs. Historians do avoid the Aschenauer-edited 'memoir' somewhat, but you will find some discussion of the book in the essay by Irmtrud Wojak (Eichmanns Memoiren), in Christopher Browning's Collected Memories and notes of Origins of the Final Solution, and in an article by Christian Gerlach in Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

The upshot is, one can read several different versions of Eichmann's own story. Therefore one can compare for the essential details.

It's worth noting that David Irving received another version of Eichmann's memoirs, probably from a similar provenance to the version ending up in the Aschenauer edition, which seem to predate his capture. He has posted an excerpt on his website and it contains extremely damning material.

Meanwhile, the Irving-Lipstadt trial triggered the release of a post-trial memoir, 'Goetzen', which is on the web, while Die Welt published a pre-trial, post-capture manuscript in 1999 (link is to reproduction on Irving's site, out of convenience).

One should add that there are a fair number of excerpts from 'Eichmann Interrogated' on Nizkor; the complete interrogation transcripts are available on the Israeli Ministry of Justice website; and of course, he was cross-examined in court.

Oh, and the Sassen tapes were given to the Bundesarchiv, eventually. Wojak used them as a major source for her book.

The Aschenauer edition seems to have been based on the Sassen tapes, with some false transcriptions inserted. At least, that's how David Irving tells it.
 
Oh wow, what a mess! Thank you very much, Nick!

Memories and memoirs are always to be taken with a grain of salt. If Eichmann wrote these memoirs between 1951 and 1959, as his wife swore, then this was at least 6 and up to 18 or 19 years after the holocaust events. Do I remember details of my life between 1994 and 2006 well? Probably not. In addition, the manuscript and Veronikas affidatvit appeared 20 years after the capture, so again, Veronika's memory may have suffered.

And then comes the effect that I have experienced myself a few times: When you write down memories of the same event more than once, with consoderable time in between, you'll likley find a considerable "evolution". In such cases I have wondered if the latter version would have different if I had never written a former version, i.e. if memory of the event changes that much, or if writing down memories changes them.

At any rate, I know to take Eichmann's statements at his trial with at least three grains of salt, as well as everything else he wrote, but figured that the first, pre-capture, memoirs would be least affected by deteriorating memory, piling-up reconstructions and the tactics of a trial.

Now I know to also beware of false trancripts -.-


Nick, when you say that "some false transcriptions (were) inserted", is that material outrightly invented by some third party, consciously manipulated text, or just erroneous transcripts as in incompetent handiwork?
 
Oystein said:
Oh wow, what a mess! Thank you very much, Nick!

Memories and memoirs are always to be taken with a grain of salt. If Eichmann wrote these memoirs between 1951 and 1959, as his wife swore, then this was at least 6 and up to 18 or 19 years after the holocaust events. Do I remember details of my life between 1994 and 2006 well? Probably not. In addition, the manuscript and Veronikas affidatvit appeared 20 years after the capture, so again, Veronika's memory may have suffered.

And then comes the effect that I have experienced myself a few times: When you write down memories of the same event more than once, with consoderable time in between, you'll likley find a considerable "evolution". In such cases I have wondered if the latter version would have different if I had never written a former version, i.e. if memory of the event changes that much, or if writing down memories changes them.

At any rate, I know to take Eichmann's statements at his trial with at least three grains of salt, as well as everything else he wrote, but figured that the first, pre-capture, memoirs would be least affected by deteriorating memory, piling-up reconstructions and the tactics of a trial.

Now I know to also beware of false trancripts -.-


Nick, when you say that "some false transcriptions (were) inserted", is that material outrightly invented by some third party, consciously manipulated text, or just erroneous transcripts as in incompetent handiwork?
Click to expand...

re: false transcriptions, I was just quoting Irving, who might be more inclined to generosity towards Aschenauer's intentions than others, since they are on the same basic 'side' politically. It would take quite a lot of effort to identify the interpolations and work out whether they were the result of malice or stupidity.
 
Nick Terry said:
re: false transcriptions, I was just quoting Irving, who might be more inclined to generosity towards Aschenauer's intentions than others, since they are on the same basic 'side' politically. It would take quite a lot of effort to identify the interpolations and work out whether they were the result of malice or stupidity.
Click to expand...


It's quite clear from your linked Irving text that he's talking about erroneous transcripts on part of Sassen:

Aus einigen Eröffnungen Eichmanns und zwar aus der einleitenden Formulierung "Wenn mir jetzt gesagt wird..." [190], geht hervor, daß sie in der Form entstanden, daß der Publizist Sassen ihm Fragen stellte bzw. Behauptungen aus der Nachkriegsliteratur vorhielt, die Eichmann so oder so beantwortete, und daß diese Kapitelentwürfe anhand der Gesprächsniederschriften eher von Sassen als von Eichmann selber angefertigt wurden. Dieser Eindruck wird von den zahlreich vorhandenen orthographischen und grammatischen Schreibfehlern in der Vorlage bekräftigt (z.B. "Sippschaft" anstelle von "Sippenhaft" [194]).
Click to expand...
 
Childlike Empress said:
It's quite clear from your linked Irving text that he's talking about erroneous transcripts on part of Sassen:
Click to expand...

I only skimmed the article, but would still express caution as to whether Aschenauer then consciously edited parts. However, as I said, it would be a major task to identify the precise places where distortions occurred.

I do know that Christopher Browning quoted at least once from the Aschenauer edition and the quote "fitted" with other versions and with other contextual information, so the Aschenauer edition should not be dismissed out of hand; it is clearly based on the same Sassen materials as other versions.

This certainly isn't like the fake Gestapo-Mueller memoirs fabricated in their entirety by Gregory Douglas.
 
Nick Terry said:
I only skimmed the article, but would still express caution as to whether Aschenauer then consciously edited parts. However, as I said, it would be a major task to identify the precise places where distortions occurred.
Click to expand...


I searched for occurances of "Ich," and there are three. The piece I quoted is under two (of three) paragraphs directly related to the book, but it's not even clear if it is still referring to the book or to the Sassen material in general. But one can never be careful enough.
 
Nick Terry said:
This certainly isn't like the fake Gestapo-Mueller memoirs fabricated in their entirety by Gregory Douglas.
Click to expand...

Semi-OT: I'd really like to know what happened to that guy. Part of me hopes it was rather unpleasant. :blush:
 
Oystein said:
Thanks, CE

I really am a fan of Wikipedia, I think its mostly better than its reputation; but I my experience with the Talk pages didn't leave me quite as enthusiastic so far, that's why I tried it here first.
Click to expand...
Wikipedia is under Jewish censorship. That is the answer to Why?
 
Moss said:
Semi-OT: I'd really like to know what happened to that guy. Part of me hopes it was rather unpleasant. :blush:
Click to expand...

Even the book's blurb calls Müller "Eichmann's still opaque boss".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom