The first biography of the architect of the Nazi 'Final Solution' since before his death 40 years ago.
Adolf Eichmann stood at the centre of the Nazi genocide against the Jews of Europe between 1941 and 1945. He was directly responsible for transporting over 2 million Jews to their deaths in Auschwitz-Birkenau and other death camps. Yet he was an obscure figure until his sensational capture by the Israeli Secret Service in Argentina in 1960 and his subsequent trial in Jerusalem.
This study is the first account of Eichmann's life to appear since theaftermath of his trial. It reveals that the depiction of Eichmann as a loser who drifted into the ranks of the SS is a fabrication that conceals both Eichmann's considerable abilities and his early political development. Drawing on recently unearthed documents, David Cesarani shows how Eichmann became the Nazi Security Service's 'expert' on Jewish matters and his initially cordial working relationship with Zionist Jews in Germany, despite his intense anti-Semitism. He explains how new research reveals how the massive ethnic cleansing Eichmann conducted in Poland in 1939-40 was the crucial bridge to his role in the deportation of the Jews. And Cesarani argues controversially that Eichmann was not necessarily predisposed to mass murder, exploring the remarkable, largely unknown period in Eichmann's career when he learned how to become a perpetrator of genocide.
