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Eichmann: Administrator of Extermination:
“The Definitive Solution of the Jewish Problem”
- Abstract
Hitler’s pronouncements on the “Jewish question” were generally regarded as the fantasies of a disordered mind. But Hitler was able, alas, to implement his fantasies so that they had consequences in the world of reality. To work out the practical details of Jewish extermination he required the services of a bureaucrat—a neat and competent administrator. Such a man was Adolf Eichmann, who is said to have told a subordinate: “I will jump into my grave laughing, for to know that I have six million people on my conscience will be a source of extraordinary satisfaction.” Adolf Eichmann did not share in the fame of his superiors Himmler and Heydrich, yet he was more directly involved in the extermination of European Jews than any other single man.
Adolf Eichmann was born in 1907 or 1908 in a small town in Westphalia, but his family soon moved to the Austrian city of Linz and it was there that he spent his childhood and youth. His father was a small manufacturer of electrical equipment. After completing secondary school (he later took pride in having had the same history teacher as Adolf Hider), Eichmann wished to become an engineer; but his father’s business was on the downgrade and he was unable to complete his studies at the Linz technical school.
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