join the Austrian branch of the Nazi Party and the SS (Schutzstaffel,
or Protection Squad) in April 1932. Returning to Germany, Eichmann
found a position in the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; Security Service) and
in early 1935 became the official responsible for Jewish questions at
the main office in Berlin. Through a Zionist intermediary associated
with the Hagana, he visited Palestine under cover in the hope of ar-
ranging a full-scale resettlement, but the results proved “meager” in
his estimation. Following the 1938 Anschluss with Austria, his new
Viennese command gave him sole authority for matters related to
Jewish “emigration.” The procedures that he instituted—the rapid
“conveyor belt” processing of applications along with open violence
in the streets, the confiscation of Jewish assets to subsidize the
emigration of the poor, and the use of Jewish collaborators—made a
deep impression on his SS superiors and found imitation elsewhere
in the Third Reich.
In December 1939, Eichmann was transferred to the Gestapo and
given responsibility for Jewish affairs and evacuation. His position
within the Reichssicherheitshauptamt received additional consoli-
dation after the Wannsee Conference of 20 January 1942, which he
attended as the recording secretary. As Nazi policy underwent a fun-
damental shift from expulsion to extermination, Reinhard Heydrich
assigned Eichmann the task of coordinating the groups involved in
the arrest, transportation, and death of Jews. In August 1944, he re-
ported to the SS chief Heinrich Himmler that about 4 million had
been killed in the death camps and 2 million by the Einsatzgruppen.
In contrast to Himmler’s later willingness to enter secret negotiations
with the World Jewish Congress, revealed no weakening of resolve
as the Nazi regime’s end drew near.
Captured and placed in an internment camp by the U.S. Army,
Eichmann escaped, eventually settling in Argentina in 1950 under the
name Ricardo Klement. On 11 May 1960, a team of Israeli Mossad
agents abducted Eichmann at his home in a Buenos Aires suburb and
brought him to Jerusalem to stand trial. Convicted for crimes against
humanity and the Jewish people, Eichmann was hanged at Ramleh
Prison near Tel Aviv on 31 May 1962.EIGENDORF, LUTZ (1956–1983). A top-ranking East German soc-
cer player who died under mysterious circumstances after defecting
EIGENDORF, LUTZ • 93