Document Collections
Archiv des Bundes der Verfolgten des Naziregimes, Berlin
Deutsche Reichspartei Collection
Archiv der Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte (The Research Centre for Contemporary History in Hamburg, Archive), Hamburg
Archiv der Sozialen Demokratie, Bonn
Fritz Bauer Estate
Archiv der Universität, Vienna
Doktorandenlisten (list of doctorate degrees)
Archiv für Zeitgeschichte, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich
Avner W. Less Estate
JUNA Archive
Berlin Hoppegarten
Die Bundesbeauftragte für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the Former GDR)
Archive material HA IX/11 1933–45
Bundesarchiv Berlin-Lichterfelde
BDC-Bestände (formerly U.S. Berlin Document Center)
Bundesarchiv Koblenz
Alliierte Prozesse (All. Proz. 6), Servatius papers, Eichmann Trial
N/1497 Eichmann Estate
R/58 RSHA
Bundesarchiv Ludwigsburg/Zentrale Stelle
Eichmann Trial files
Central Office of the State Justice Administrations for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes
General files III, Correspondence Tuviah Friedman
Trial report by Dietrich Zeug for the Central Office
Central Archives of the History of the Jewish People, Jerusalem
A/W IKG-Archiv Collection, Vienna
Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine, Paris
Central Zionist Archive, Jerusalem
Deutsches Literatur Archiv, Marbach
Hans Grimm Estate (Correspondence with Eberhard Fritsch)
Ernst Kernmayr Estate (Correspondence with Eberhard Fritsch)
Deutsches Rotes Kreuz Archiv, Berlin
Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv, Frankfurt am Main
Eine Epoche vor Gericht
Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung
Schwend Collection
Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Wiesbaden
Section 461
Holocaust Memorial, Washington, D.C.
Uki Goñi Collection
Institut für Stadtgeschichte, Frankfurt
Arnold Buchthal Estate
Israel State Archives
“Götzen” (Idols)
Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv, Hanover, Magazin Pattensen
Adolf von Thadden Estate
Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Vienna
E/1797 Hermann Langbein Estate
Rheinische Landesbibliothek Koblenz
Werner Beumelburg Estate (Correspondence with Eberhard Fritsch)
Russian State Military Archive
Formerly the Central State Archive of the Soviet Army, Moscow
Simon Wiesenthal Archive, Vienna
Correspondence
Státní oblastní archiv Litomerice (National Area Archive in Litomerice), Czech Republic
MLS (International Law Collection), Lsp 441/47
Karl Rahm
Stadtarchiv Bergen (Bergen City Archive)
Eversen Register, Shelf 585, No. 2
Stadtarchiv Salzburg (Salzburg City Archive)
Meldekartei (Record Office Card Index)
Státní ússtreédní archive Praha (Prague National Central Archive), Czech Republic
AGK Warsaw
Syracuse University, New York, Special Collections
Francis Biddle Papers
U.S. National Archives
RG 263, CIA Name Files
RG 319, Dossier XE 004471, Adolf Eichmann
Yad Vashem Archive
O–1 K. J. Ball-Kaduri Collection
O–3 Verbal Witness Statements Collection
O–51 Nazi Document Collection (DN)
Tr. 3 Documents from the Eichmann Trial (numbered B06/xxx)
Interviews
With many thanks for interviews to Uki Goñi, Martin Haidinger, Raymond Ley, Roelf van Til, and Natasja de Winter: Altensalzkoth, Buenos Aires, Coronel Suárez, 2009 and 2010, Rafael Eitan, Wilhelm Höttl, José Moskovits, Pedro Pobierzym, Inge Schneider, and Saskia Sassen.
1978 (Erscheinungsform Mensch): Simon Wiesenthal, Isser Harel, Avner Less, Zwi Wohlstein, Israel Gutman, David Franko, Gideon Hausner, Gabriel Bach, Benjamin Halevi, Shlomo Kulcsár, Willem Sassen.
Adolf Eichmann’s Texts (in Chronological Order)
Pre-1945
“Das Weltjudentum: Politische Aktivität und Auswirkung seiner Tätigkeit auf die in Deutschland ansässigen Juden” (World Jewry: Political Activities and Impact of Its Activities on Jews Resident in Germany), 1937.
Lecture at the conference of SD Advisers on Jewish Affairs on November 1, 1937, in SD Main Office, Berlin. (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi voennyi arkhiv—Russian State Military Archive, Moscow 500/3/322.) Published in Michael Wildt, ed., Die Judenpolitik des SD 1935 bis 1938: Ein Dokumenation (Munich, 1995), document 19, pp. 133–38.
Argentina Papers
Marginal notes in books
A few originals in Eichmann Estate, BA Koblenz, N/1497. Others quoted in Stern, June 26, 1960. Commentary in Interrogation, pp. 1026–35.
Commentaries on books
Originals and notes typed by Sassen in Eichmann Estate, BA Koblenz, N/1497; others in BA Ludwigsburg (B162).
“Die anderen sprachen, jetzt will ich sprechen!” (The Others Spoke, Now I Want to Speak!)
A large manuscript. Original handwritten pages, partial typed copies, films and copies distributed among: Eichmann Estate, BA Koblenz, N/1497; Servatius Estate, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6; and BA Ludwigsburg (B162), folder labeled “Diverses” (Miscellaneous).
Part of the manuscript is entitled “Betrifft: Meine Feststellungen zur Angelegenheit ‘Judenfragen und Maßnahmen der nationalsozialistischen deutschen Reichsregierung zur Lösung dieses Komplexes in den Jahren 1933 bis 1945’ ” (Re: My Findings on the Matter of the Jewish Question and Measures Taken by the National Socialist Government of the German Reich Toward the Solution of This Complex in the Years 1933 to 1945). This was originally planned as an open letter to Konrad Adenauer.
There is a poor-quality copy of the sixty-nine-page handwritten text “Betrifft: Meine Feststellungen zur Angelegenheit ‘Judenfragen und Maßnahmen der nationalsozialistischen deutschen Reichsregierung zur Lösung dieses Komplexes in den Jahren 1933 bis 1945’ ” (prosecution document T/1393), identical with Servatius Estate, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/95-111. So-called File 17, (incorrectly) dated February 19, 1959. The text is occasionally taken to be a commentary written in jail but clearly belongs to the Sassen interviews and was written before Eichmann was captured.
General Essays, Notes, and Speech Texts, 1956–57
Circa two hundred pages extant, including handwritten originals, copies, Sassen’s typed versions and microfilms in several archives: Eichmann Estate and Servatius Estate, BA Koblenz,; BA Ludwigsburg, “Miscellaneous” folder, and film.
“Tucumán Roman” (Tucumán Novel)
Manuscript, still privately owned by the family and inaccessible. Probably written in 1958–59 for Eichmann’s children. Said to be 260 handwritten pages. We cannot rule out some overlap with “The Others Spoke.”
Sassen Interviews
TAPES
Audio material in Eichmann Estate, BA Koblenz, N/1497. Ten tapes (29.5 hrs.), audiocassettes (K) (32 hrs.), and DAT cassettes (DAT) (32 hrs.) (Shelf mark Ton 1367, 6-1 to 6-10). Not all tapes are originals from Argentina but are later copies, as traces of more modern recordings underneath the conversations reveal. Audio and DAT cassettes are copies of the originals and are largely identical. The audio material also contains some conversations that were not transcribed.
TRANSCRIPTS
Listed in the order they came to light.
Life. Copy of 600 transcript pages and a few copied pages of handwriting. Not accessible to researchers.
Stern. Copy of transcript pages and 80 pages of handwriting. Cannot be found in the publisher’s archive.
Israel (Hagag)/Servatius. Israel State Archives 74/3156. Copy in Servatius Estate, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/95-111, available for use in BA Koblenz since 1979. Transcript of 62 tapes (1–5, 11–67 with pages missing), with Eichmann’s handwritten corrections on tapes 6, 7, 9–26, 31–39, 48–67, divided in Israel into 16 +1 files. Transcript is 713 pages in total; including File 17, it totals 795 pages (the official number of 798 is due to double paginations). No transcript of tapes 68–73.
Linz. Stolen from the office of Dr. Robert Eichmann in March 1961 and transferred to microfilm by Hermann Langbein. The copy comprises 900 pages (tapes 1–5, 11–67), also with pages missing, but different pages from the Israel copy. Extensive corrections by Eichmann and typed copies of these, as well as further Argentina Papers. Langbein gave copies to Henry Ormond, Thomas Harlan (used for Polityka), and other public offices. Harlan gave the remains of the Ormond copy, as his own was lost, to Irmtrud Wojak. One of the two copies in BA Ludwigsburg clearly also comes from the Linz copy.
Sassen. Original transcripts with original corrections, and Sassen’s microfilm copy, which was given to the Eichmann family in 1979 and has now been deposited in BA Koblenz by a Swiss publisher, Eichmann Estate, N/1497. This copy is the most extensive, at 835 pages plus 78 pages of Eichmann’s notes on the transcript. It includes tape transcripts 6–10 (except “7,” which never existed), and the rest of 68–73, though without tape 29 and page 41:3.
Early Editing and Ordering of Argentina Papers
Based on the Sassen interviews:
Aschenauer, Rudolf, ed. Ich, Adolf Eichmann: Ein historischer Zeugenbericht. Leoni am Starnberger See, 1980.
The composition, with its clearly revisionist tendencies, can now be analyzed: manuscript copy in Eichmann Estate, BA Koblenz, N/1497, 77–86.
From the Sassen interviews:
Life: “Eichmann Tells His Own Damning Story,” in Life, Chicago, November 28 and December 5, 1960. Reprinted as “Eichmann Tells His Own Damning Story.” Part I: “I Transported Them to the Butcher,” in Life International 30, no. 1 (January 9, 1961), pp. 9–19; part II: “To Sum It All Up, I Regret Nothing,” in Life International 30, no. 3 (February 13, 1961), pp. 76–82 (prosecution document T/47).
Licensed reprints:
“Das Geständnis des Adolf Eichmann,” Revue, no. 8, 9, 10, Munich 1961.
Paris Match, May 6, May 13, May 20, 1960.
Polityka, May 20–June 17, 1961, parts of the Linz copy with commentary.
Gideon Hausner. Hausner used the Israel (Hagag) copy for his report on the trial, Justice in Jerusalem. He was the only author before 1979 who was able to draw on the Sassen transcript.
List of Eichmann’s contemporary comments on the Life articles during the Sassen interviews: prosecution document T/1432.
“Erklärung zur Überstellung nach Israel” (Declaration on Transfer to Israel), May 1960 (T/3)
Israel Sources
“Meine Memoiren” (My Memoirs)
“Today, 15 years and one day after May 8, 1945 …,” dated “May 9 to June 16, 1960,” but begun only after May 23. Comprises 128 pages of handwritten text, copied for the court files on June 16, 1960. Trial document B06-1492 (T/44).
Also published, without academic rigor and in a flawed transcription, in Die Welt, August 12–September 4, 1999. The text is also cited as “127 [sic] Eichmann-pages.”
“Meine Flucht: Bericht aus der Zelle in Jerusalem” (My Escape: Report from the Cell in Jerusalem)
Alternative title: “Mein Fluchtbericht”; original title: “In einer Mainacht 1945” (On a May Night in 1945). Dated March 1961. The text wasn’t used as evidence in the trial. BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/247; NA, RG 263 CIA Name File Adolf Eichmann, vol. 1, document 72; a better copy is vol. 3, 76.
Handwritten text “Mein Fluchtbericht,” Israel State Archives, published in the British magazine People, April 30–May 28, 1961.
Interrogations, May 29, 1960–January 15, 1961 (Tape 1–76) and February 2, 1961 (Tape 77). Trial documents (T/37 and T/41).
Seventy-six tapes from 38 days of interrogation, 270 hours, 3,564 typed pages, corrected by Eichmann.
First: Police D’Israel, Quartier General 6-ème Bureau (Commander A. Selinger), Adolf Eichmann, vols. 1–6, Mahana Iyar, February 3, 1961, facsimile.
Then: State of Israel, Ministry of Justice, The Trial of Adolf Eichmann. Statement made by Adolf Eichmann to the Israel Police prior to his trial in Jerusalem. Vols. 7–8, Jerusalem, 1995, facsimile.
Prison Notes, May 30–December 19, 1960. T/44; copies largely in Eichmann Estate, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6
Fourteen typewritten pages of comments on the Life articles, written in Israel (T/48-51).
Handwritten comments on the Sassen transcript (prosecution document T/1393).
Various notes and handwritten essays from prison, even before the trial, including letters to his family.
Psychiatric and Psychological Evaluations, conducted by I. S. Klucsár (Israel), January 20–March 1, 1961
Seven sessions of around three hours, with the tests in use at that time (IQ, Rorschach, TAT, Object Relation Test, Wechsler, Bender, Drawing Test, Szondi).
The original report is still classified. A summary may be found in Shlomo Kulcsár, Shoshanna Kulcsár, and Lipot Szondi, “Adolf Eichmann and the Third Reich,” in Crime, Law and Corrections, ed. Ralph Slovenko (Springfield, Ill., 1966), pp. 16–52. Pictures from the drawing test were published in Spiegel (1978), no. 2.
Trial Documents
State of Israel, Ministry of Justice, The Trial of Adolf Eichmann. Microfiche Copies of the Exhibits Submitted by the Prosecution and Defense, Vol. 9 (Jerusalem, 1995). Documents are cited by T/xx numbers.
A complete copy is housed in the Central Office for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes, Ludwigsburg, now BA Ludwigsburg, B 162. Large parts of the copy are also held in the Servatius Estate, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6, and at Avner Less Estate, ETH Zurich.
Trial Transcripts
The Attorney General of the State of Israel vs. Adolf, son of Karl Adolf Eichmann. Jerusalem District Court, Criminal Case 40/61. April 2–August 14, 1961. Statements before the court. Transcript of sessions 1–121. Unrevised and uncorrected transcription (German translation). Complete transcript: Servatius Estate, Less Estate.
State of Israel, Ministry of Justice, The Trial of Adolf Eichmann: Record of Proceedings in the District of Jerusalem, vols. 1–6, Jerusalem, 1992–94 (English translation).
Film of the proceedings: Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive/Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
“Götzen” (Idols)
Consisting of 1,206 pages, 676 of which are marked for publication, dated September 1961. Released on February 27, 2000, as evidence in the Irving-Lipstadt trial, London. Israel State Archives.
According to Servatius, Eichmann’s working titles were “Recollections for Generations to Come” and “Versailles.”
Prison Writings from the Start of the Trial to the Execution
Numerous notes, letters, dossiers, sketches, organizational charts, and larger manuscripts. These include the “Verhaftungsbericht” (Arrest Report), “Vorgeschichte der Entführung” (Background to the Abduction), “Auch hier im Angesicht des Galgens …” (Even Here, Facing the Gallows …), Eichmann’s positions on the sentence and the appeal, various drafts of his concluding statement, correspondence with his family, associates, lawyer, foreign inquiries, the Paris Match questionnaire, and so on. Most of it is now in the Eichmann Estate, BA Koblenz, All. Proz. 6; Eichmann Trial Collection, Israel State Archives; and some in the family’s possession (not accessible).
Theological Letters
“Conversion discussions” with Rev. William Hull. William L. Hull, Kampf um eine Seele, Gespräche mit Eichmann in der Todeszelle (Wuppertal, 1964), reproduces three letters from Eichmann, with (problematic) transcripts from memory of thirteen visits between April 11 and May 31, 1962.