EICHMANN IN HAIFA

by

Colin Galvan

EICHMANN IN HAIFA

The principal setting is an Interrogation room in a prison in Haifa, Israel in1960. The room is cramped and windowless. It is dividedby a table. There isa tape recorder, two microphones and papers on the table. The recorder isturnedon duringthe actual interrogation.

Music.

Interrogator and Eichmann enter. Interrogator turns on tape recorder,which is kept on.

Eichmann: It was 1928, and I was 22. My main job was to set up petrolstations in my territory, Upper Austria. I also arranged forkerosene deliveries in most of the Muhlviertel becauseelectricity hadn't gone very far in that area. It was a dreamylittle area, with the people still living as they had been fiftyor even one hundred years ago. That suited me. It was anarea extremely rich in old castles, or rather ruins of thevarious strands of nobility. In 1933, they transferred mefrom Upper Austria to Salzburg. The hurried life repelledme. I began to dislike my work. I lost interest in selling, invisiting the customers.Then I was dismissed because I was unmarried. They saidthey were cutting down on personnel and the unmarriedsalesmen were the first to go. I decided to go to Germanyand try my hand with Vacuum Oil After all, I was aGerman citizen. There was a lot of unemployment inAustria and Germany was a big country, I had otherreasons for wanting to get away. Even in my school days, wehad political groups, all perfectly harmless, of course:nationalists, socialists, monarchists. I had an old friend inLinz named Friedrich von Schmidt, his father was FieldMarshall Lieutenant von Schmidt, who died before Ibecame friends with his son. My friend Friedrich hadconnections with First World War veterans' organizations,since he associated mostly with military men. One day hepersuaded me to join the Youth Veterans' Association. Weyoung men sometimes took the streetcar to Klein-Munchen,a suburb of Linz. A marksmen's organization had a riflerange there. A rifle was put into my hands for the first timeand I was taught marksmanship.

2 EICHMANN IN HAIFA

Eichmann: [cont] The SS tried to recruit members of the Veterans'Association in Linz, because we were tolerated by thegovernment and allowed to practise marksmanship. Oneday the National Socialist German Workers Party, as theycalled themselves, staged a mass meeting in theMarzenkeller, a big Bajurvarische beer hall A certain ErnstKaltenbrunner came up to me. His father was a lawyer andhad business connections with my father.He put his arm around me and said: "You're going to joinusl" That's how it was then. Free and easy. No fuss. I said:"All right." I could think of nothing better. So I joined theSS. I would say it was October 1933,I was ordered to reportto a Sturmbannfuhrer Piehl in Passau. He was head of theReiehsfuhrer-SS's team in Passau, The work of his staff wasto monitor the border between Bavaria and Austria,together with the border police. At that time, people werecrossing the border illegally from Austria to Germany.Sturmbannfuhrer Piehl appointed me his assistant. Inreality, the work was quite useless and in Christmas 1934our work was ended and we were sent to Dachau. I had therank then of a sergeant. Dachau was a concentration camp.I'm not saying anything new. It was guarded by Bavarian SS.Strict military discipline was enforced. I didn't object tothat. What troubled me was the boredom of it all I said tomyself: how am I going to get out of here? When I learnedthat the Security Service was seeking men with experiencein the army, I told myself: This looks good to me. I'll be inthe thick of things. I'll see the world. I applied to go toMunich, and completed the application for the SecurityService.

Interrogator: What was happening in the camp? What did you see there?Eichmann: I never got to see anything. My job was simply to guard the

perimeter.Interrogator: How could you not have known what was happening there

as you were strolling around the perimeter? I don't believeyou.

Eichmann: Believe what you will I'm talking the truth. Why would I betalking at all if I was not telling you the truth? Do you thinkI would bother? You have your choice - to hear the facts orthe version of events which suits you. No one wants to hearthe truth. Why is that? You have your choice - to hear thefacts or the version of events which suits you.

Interrogator: Then tell us facts. That's all we want to hear... the truth.

EICHMANN IN HAIFA 3

Eichmann: Very well. The truth was that I was not at the camp for verylong, and I honestly did not know what was happeningthere. I did my job, and awaited a transfer to Berlin. I wassent to join the Reicbsfuhrer SS Security Service. Well,what a disappointmentI My expectations were effected bywhat I'd seen in the "Muncher Illustriete" : SS commandosriding in cars behind high party leaders, men standing onrunning boards. I was taken to a huge room with enormousfiling cabinets. My job was to put cards in alphabeticalorder. The cards were all about Freemasons. After a fewweeks I was transferred from this activityto the FreemasonsMuseum. The job was to create a museum with materialstaken from Masonic Lodges. My work was to describe,catalogue and label thousands of seals and hundreds ofmedallions. So, you see much of what I was doing wasextremely boring. Not what you want to hear. I am sure youare disappointed.

Interrogator: Go on.Eichmann: It was during this drawn out period that I met

Untersturmfuhrer von Mildenstein, and he asked me if Iwould like to join a Jews department at the Security Servicewhich he had just set up. I said yes, and shortly afterwardswas ordered to report to him.In thisJews department I wasgiven entirely different work to do. One of the first jobs wasto read the book "The Jewish State" by Theodor Herzl, theso-called father of Zionism. It interested me very much. Tillthen I had never heard anything like that, and I took noticeof it. Probably because of my romantic streak, my love ofnature, mountains and forests - this book touched a specialsympathy in me and I noted its contents carefully. I was notaware of what might come of it in the future. When Ifinished it, I was told to make a summary to serve as anintroductory booklet for the General SS. In it, I stressed theneed to encourage Zionism. The Zionists wanted a territorywhere the Jewish people could finally settle in peace. Andthat was what I supported too.

Interrogator: Why did you agree to join the Jews department? What wasyour interest in Jews?

Eichmann: I have always been fascinated by the Jews. I've never hatedthe Jews. I have throughout my life enjoyed closefriendships with a number of Jewish people. If you think Iwas motivated by hatred for Jews, you've never understoodall that happened.

4 EICHMANN IN HAIFA

Eichman: [cont] You see, the situation had been reached where Europewas about to explode, and the Jews were trapped in themiddle. They were in the eye of the storm. With them wentthe fate of Europe. Do you want me to mumble off somerubbish? We were placed in an untenable position asregards the Jews. By everybody. By France, Britain, theUnited States and the Soviet Union. Your allies. What doyou think? It is good to wina war, if onlyto be the author ofits history. I need hardly tell you that the entire worldturned its back on the Jews. We pleaded with the greatAllied powers to help. It wasn't simply an idea of mine, orthe Reich. It came from within the people. The people ofEurope are guilty, for closing their doors. Only the Zionistmovement could read the popular sentiment The Reichgovernment was looking for a solution for the Jewishproblem. It wanted emigration. Whatever favoredemigration had to be. done. Nothing was to be allowed tohinder it So I was interested in sending as many Jews aspossible to Palestine, That suited the Zionists, and Isupported their goals. I advocated that position to mysuperiors... I had read about the Hagannah in the Yiddishnewspaper "Haint".

Interrogator: [Incredulous] You mean to say that you read Yiddish?Eichmann: I had bought a book by Samuel Kaleko to teach me how to

read the Hebrew letters. I read. about the Hagannah, andlearned that it was a military Zionist organization.I realisedthat the Jews were planning to use force against the HighCommissioner, against the Mandatory government, againstthe Arabs. I also realised that strong action by theHagannah could lead to immigration quotas beingincreased. It was possible that large numbers could be sentfrom Europe. A meeting was arranged for me with a Jewishofficial from Palestine. He invited me to Palestine. I wasmore than willing, and Heydrich allowed me to accept theinvitation. My colleagues were most surprised and morethan somewhat envious. There was competition amongstthem for who would join me. In fact, Hagen went. He wasmy immediate superior. From Constanta, we took thesteamer to Haifa. While the ship was in the harbour,permission was obtained for us to go ashore. I took a taxi tothe top of Mt. Carmel..

Interrogator: How fortunate we are to have you in Haifa yet again.

EICHMANN IN HAIFA 5

Eichmann: You could say that, although I deeply regret that I haven'tmanaged to see much on either occasion. It must be such apretty town. On returning to the ship to gather some things,I was told I had to leave Palestine. We went on to Cairoand waited for permission to re-enter the Mandate, but i1was refused. I'm fairly certain that British Intelligence hadcaught on to us. But then our contact in the Hagannahcame to us in Cairo. We invited him to dinner and were allfriendly and polite, but for practical purposes the trip was afailure. All I had was a few hours in Haifa. I couldn't reallyform a proper view of the place.

[Spoton Interrogator. Music.]Interrogator: [To audience] At the end of the war, I travelled to Haifa on

a ship of Polish survivors from Marseilles, beating theBritish cordon on so-called illegal immigrants by wadingashore from row boats at a secluded spot when no guardswere in sight. We were like thieves in the night, arriving inwhat was meant to be our own home. You cannot imaginehow out of place I was as a German amongst the PolishJews on the boat In fact, the rumor raced around the boatthat maybe I was not even Jewish, which I struggled tocounter in broken Yiddish. There were stories goingaround that ex-Nazis were smuggling themselves intoPalestine. Having slaughtered Jews, some could not bear tobe away from them. I was terrified that I would bemassacred on the boat by mistake.

[Music.][Lights up on Interrogator and Eichmann seated attable. ]

Eichmann: I was still in Austria, on January 30, 1933, when I heard ofHitler's seizure of power on the radio. I was very pleased atthe time. You see, it is my practice now as always to tell thetruth, and not simply to invent fanciful tales to save my ownneck. In this seizure of power by Hitler I saw, with myyouthful, relatively naive eyes and instincts, I saw anationalism which had an obvious appeal to me. Hitlermercilessly attacked the Versailles treaty. He promisedwork and bread. You must understand that these promiseswas kept. We were imprisoned by Versailles. That treatywas nothing more than a time bomb set to explode amongstthe people.

Interrogator: You supported Hitler's doctrine at the time?

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Eichmann:

Interrogator:Eichmann:

Interrogator:

Eichmann:

Interrogator:

Eichmann:

Interrogator:

Eichmann:Interrogator:

Eichmann:

Interrogator:

Eichmann:Interrogator:

EICHMANN IN HAIFA

Of course I did Nearly every ordinary person of Germanorigin supported him,.. people like you.I take it that you had read the party program?The twelve points? Yes I must have read them, but today Icouldn't tell you what they were.Can you remember the point denying Jews the right to beGerman citizens? How did you feel about that?To be perfectly honest, I didn't give this detail a thought. Itwas not the central matter in our minds then, as it is nowafter the event.Have you read Rosenberg's "Myth of the TwentiethCentury", where the so-called international Jewishconspiracy was so infamously exposed?No. To tell the truth, I never read any books about NationalSocialism. I actually read many Jewish books. ShalomAleichem in translation, for example. I enjoyed his storiesgreatly. In a way, I sometimes identified as a Jew. I supposeit wasa natural tendency to be on the side of the underdog.We were certainly the underdogs after Versailes... the Jewsof central Europe, ifyou could imagine.You appreciate that Hitler accused the Jews of causing thedefeat of Germany in the First World War?I am not sure that is right.You are not sure? Perhaps you can recall whether you werea loyal and obedient SS man? [Sarcastica/M Give ussomething to work with.Yes. I can say yes, without hesitation. I had taken the oath,and I obeyed orders. In the first years, I had no innerconflicts. I attended at my desk and carried out my work.My unconditional, my absolute allegiance was underminedwhen I... when the... the so-called solution of the Jewishquestion became more violent - I mean to say, when thegassing and shooting started I did not conceal the fact andI said - yes, I am sure I said... to my superiorGruppenfuhrer Muller... I said, that is, I said, this isn't whatI imagined should happen because it is not a politicalsolution.How do you explain your contention that you never hatedthe Jews and were never an anti-Semite?There is nothing to explain. It was so.You submitted a detailed report to your superiors afteryour ill-fated trip to Palestine.

EICHMANN IN HAIFA 7

Eichmann: I can't remember what I wrote. If my memory serves meright, the report was not written by me anyway but byHagen, my superior. It was most likely only a fairlysuperficial impression. I was only there for such a shorttime.

Interrogator: If Hagen wrote it... [ShOWS document to Eichmann, whoglances at it]

Eichmann: I must have signed it. Of course, my sympathies wereentirely with the Jews. I've always said that in Palestine oneshould only deal with Jews, because an Arab is alwaysholding out his hand and the person: who gives him the lastpiaster is his friend.

Interrogator: [Studying the document, thenshowmg it again to Eichmann]Are you sure the writing isnot in your hand?

Eichmann: I can't be sure at the moment. It was written so many yearsago. The T could be mine, and that D. I'recognize the D...V ndoubtedly, my corrections, in any event.

Interrogator: Amongst other things, it says that "Palestine presents adepressing picture. We were told that the main currencywas bills of exchange, which were not drawn. In fact, theywere completely valueless, even though they were used ascurrency. The protesting of bills of exchange was usuallywithout success. Bills of exchange drawn on the GermanTemplar banks are regarded as the safest means ofpayment, since these were the only financial institutionswith a good credit rating." The report concludes: "Thiseconomic chaos is mainly due to the fact that the Jewscheated each other because they could not cheat Aryans.The total incapacity of Jews to manage an orderly economyin their own land is. evidenced by the fact that in Jerusalemalone there are allegedly fortyJewish banks which live bycheating their own race." .

Eichmann: [Taking document] I would not have expressed myself thatway. Hagen dictated it, and I see here, he gave it to me tolook through. I corrected it, but Hagen composed anddictated the whole thing.

Interrogator: If the report is that of your superior, then why are younamed first in it and why have you corrected it? And, ofcourse, you were the initiator of the trip. Hagen may havewritten the words, but the opinions must have also beenyours.

Eichmann: Yes certainly, I must bear the responsibility, but understandthe times. I am a scapegoat for the times.

[Spot on Interrogator. Music.]

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Interrogator:

Interrogator:

Eichmann:

Interrogator:Eichmann:

EICHMANN IN HAIFA

[ToAudience] Germany before the war was like a jewel. Inthe cabarets, my wife Miriam and I would drink and dance.A fine pair, with not a trouble in the world. Around andaround beneath the colored lights, we would dance...catching the whispering of anti-semitic nothings.

[Music stopsabruptly.][To Audience] It was 1934, and opponents of the newgovernment were everywhere. The thud of the explosionstill resonates in my head. I ran out of myjewellery shop inour dear Magdeburg to find Miriam lying on the ground,the victimof an indiscriminate bombing.The police blamedanarchists. Innocent Miriam, with the luck of a Jew, hadchosen to be in exactly the wrong place at precisely thewrong time.

[Lights up on Interrogator and Eichmann]I was ordered to report to the head of the Secret StatePolice in Berlin It was the beginning of October 1939. Itwas intended that I brief Goering on the Jewish question. Infact I was being transferred to set up a Central Bureau forJewish Emigration. I honestly did not know where to start.The reality was that by that time there were simply nopossibilities for emigration worth mentioning. Out of a kindof desperation I began to concentrate on the Madagascarplan.What could have prompted you to dream of Madagascar?Here again, Theodor Herzl was my inspiration. Iremembered that Herzl had considered plans forMadagascar. The situation was getting increasinglydangerous with Jews being driven out of one part of thecountry after another, on the one hand by legal restrictions,and on the other by party pressure on the non-Jewishpopulation to boycott the Jews. You didn't have to be agenius to see that if things continued in thisway, the resultwould be complete and utter turmoil, the nature of which Icould not begin to appreciate at the time. Something had togive, because a boiler full of water, with a fire under it andno safety valve, can only explode. I, in my way, wanted tohelp find that valve. The Madagascar plan occurred to meas offering a way out. But in Berlin, I was dealing with abureaucracy of a kind I had never encountered before. Bythe time all the objections had been overcome, it wasalready too late. The war was on. Madagascar was out ofthe question. It was all over. The plan had been defeated. Igave up. The dream was over.That must have been in 1940.

EICHMANN IN HAIFA 9

Interrogator:

Eichmann:

Interrogator:Eichmann:

Interrogator:

Eichmann:Interrogator:

Interrogator:

Eichmann:

Was the Madagascar plan supposed to account for all theJews? Your records alwaysspeak of four million.It never went beyond theory. No one knew whether or notthere would be room for four million Jews on Madagascar.But the plan was supposed to contribute a solution.Particularly, at the outset with regard to the Jews located inGermany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. What could havebeen done afterwards remained to be seen.Have you ever heard of a report by a Polish commission ofinquiry that visited Madagascar in 1937?No, never. I got the idea from Theodor Herzl.I told you.Madagascar had previously been considered by this Polishcommission which concluded that a maximum of fifteenthousand families could be settled there. Some members ofthe commission thought that number excessively high. I putit to you that you knew all along that Madagascar did notprovide any solution at all. I put it to you that it was yourintention all along to have emigration eliminated as aserious proposition. Extermination was always your desiredgoal, and Madagascar was a charade, just as the Haifa visitYou came to Haifa to conjure the end of the Jews.

[Eichmann is silenced by Interrogator's passion.Interrogatorpausestoreview papers.]

Why don't you tell us about the final solution? What did itmean? When did it start?The final solution, as it is called, is mixed up with somethingthat happened after the start of the German-Russian war.That war began in June 1941, as I recall. I believe it was twoor three months later that Heydrich beckoned me. He said,"The Fuhrer has ordered physical extermination." Thosewere his exact words. I shall never forget them. It was assimple as that Then he told me to go and see Globocnik,the head of the SS in Lublin. "The Fuhrer has already givenhim instructions," he said." See what he is doing and howthe program is progressing. I believe he's using Russiananti-tank trenches for exterminating the Jews." So I went toLublin, and they took me somewhere. I don't remember thename. I keep getting the names mixed up. It could've beenTreblinka. There were a few workmen there. They wereconstructing small wooden shacks, like two or three-roomhuts. I was told they were going to hook up some kind ofRussian machine, taken from a submarine, and pipe theexhaust into the huts. The Jews inside would be poisoned.

10 EICHMANN IN HAIFA

Interrogator:Eichmann:Interrogator:

Eichman: [cont] I was horrified. I could not believe what I was hearing. Mynerves were not strong enough, neither then nor now... Ican't take such things in. Even today, if I see someone witha bad gash, I have to turn away. I also went to Kulm, orChelm as you call it.. I was bewildered. In Chelm, there wasa room perhaps five times bigger than thisone. It wasfull ofJews. They were made to undress, and then a sealed truckdrove up. The doors were opened. It proceeded on to aramp, and the naked Jews were moved into the truck. Thenthe doors were closed and the truck drove off.

Interrogator: Do you remember how many people the truck held?Eichmann: Not exactly. The only thing I remember is that a doctor in a

white coat wanted me to look through a peephole andwatch the people inside the truck. I refused. What I saw andheard was enough. The screaming and... I was toooverwhelmed. I ordered my driver to follow... and then Isaw the most horrible sight in all my life. The truck droveup to a long trench. The doors were opened and corpsesthrown out The limbs were as supple as if the people hadbeen alive. I can still see today how a civilian with pliersremoved teeth. I had to leave. I ran to my car and we droveoff. I didn't say another word. I sat for hours withoutexchanging a word with my driver. It was enough for me. Iwas finished.

Interrogator: Did you say anything to anybodyabout your reaction?Eichmann: No I did not I was really not capable of anythingother than

desk work.So you knew what was happening to the Jews.I have never denied that, but nor have I denied myrole.Which was to arrange for the transportation ofJews to theirdeath.

Eichmann: What would you have done in myposition? Would youhavebeen any better? Imagine that you are on trial You arecharged with crimes against humanity, yet you obeyedorders and nothing more. Furthermore, those orders werefully endorsed by the populace. This is not a distortion ofthe truth. Think of the context How can you take eventsfrom their factual setting? How can you do such a thing? Idid speak up. Take Lemberg. I had no orders to go toLemberg, but I went anyway. I visited the GestapoCommand there, and told the officer in charge, "It'shorrible what they are doing. Our men are being trained tobe sadists. How can they stand there firing at women andchildren?

T

EICHMANN IN HAIFA 11

Eichman: [cont] Those men will either go mad or they'll turn intolunatics... our own men." The officer said, "The same thingis happening here. Want to see?" I didn't want to, but wedrove past a pit anyway. It was already filled in, and bloodwas gushing out, like a geyser. I've never seen anything likeit. I could not believe that I was still on the Earth.Returning to Berlin, I reported all I had seen to Muller. Isaid to him, "This is no answer to the Jewish question. Andbesides we're training our men to be sadists." He agreed,but there was nothing he could do, not a thing? Who gavethe orders? Obviously, Heydrich, but Heydrich must havehad orders from Himmler himself. And Himmler must havehad express orders from Hitler. If he hadn't, he would havebeen finished.

Interrogator: But you acknowledge that you did nothing. You never actedto try to change the pattern of events. You just went alongwith everything.

Eichmann: No! I did what I could.Interrogator: From the start, you knew all about the planned liquidation.

You do not deny that as early as autumn of 1941, you knewthat action groups liquidated Jews by shooting, both in Rigaand Minsk?

Eichmann: I heard about it.Interrogator: And you received regular reports about the action groups,

so-called occurrence reports.Eichmann: Yes. About the liquidation of the Jews. I never claimed not

to know about this liquidation. What I insist nevertheless isthat Bureau IV B 4 had nothing to do with it.

Interrogator: You were also in Auschwitz? Did you have to go along withit all so willingly?

Eichmann: I kept getting orders to visit Auschwitz. I had to go. I couldnot refuse my orders. Muller told me they were expandingthe plant, and he wanted me to take a look at what washappening and report back to him. At Auschwitz, if youreally want to know, I never got any further than thecommand post. I frankly had no desire to go any further. Aswe were driving, I saw some big buildings, like factories.Enormous chimneys. Hoss, the camp commander, said tome, "Working to capacity! Ten thousand!" Ajob was underway. I didn't watch the gassing. I couldn't. I'd probably havecollapsed. And I thought: Thank God, I've got out ofgetting too close. But then he drove me to a big trench.Maybe a hundred meters long, maybe a hundred and fiftyor a hundred and eighty.

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EICHMANN IN HAIFA

Eichmann: [cont] There was an enormous grating. Corpses were burningon it. I got sick to myvery core.

Interrogator: [Checking document] Then after a miraculous recovery,where was the next stop on your journey? Treblinka, if I amnot mistaken. You got to see it all

Eichmann: I was there under orders. What was I to do? I went to seeGlobocnik in Treblinka. That was the second time, in fact.The installations were now in operation. I had to report toMuller. I came to a railway station with a sign saying"Treblinka". It all looked so peaceful, but then I saw afootbridge enclosed by barbed wire. And over thatfootbridge, in the distance, a line of naked Jews were beingforced into a big, one room structure. They were gassed, asI was told, with, what's it called... potassium...

Interrogator: ... Cyanide.Eichmann: Potassium cyanide... or cyanic acid, as it was called. I

reported to Muller, and he listened without a comment. Hisfacial expression was enough for me to appreciate his senseof helplessness. I am convinced that if it had been up tohim, none of this would have happened.

Interrogator: [Reviewing documents] In his book "Commandant ofAuschwitz", Hoss wrote:"Eichmann told me about the killing by exhaust fumes intrucks, as had been practiced in the East up until then. Thathowever would not work with the mass shipments that wereexpected... Eichmann offered to find out about a gas thatwas easily obtainable and required no special installations,and report to me about it."

Eichmann: The statement of Ross is pure invention. It is obviousto methat he was interested only in protecting himself Wasn't itconvenient that I was not there to speak for myself?

Interrogator: At the Nuremberg war crimes trial, Dr. Kurt Gerstein,former head of the technical disinfection service in the SSCommand Headquarters said that in June 1942, Gunther,your permanent representative, ordered poison gas fromhim. Would you care to read his statement? [Hands overdocument]

Eichmann: [Studying document] It says that he ordered one hundredkilograms of prussic acid, and that he participated inkillings in the Government General. Then in 1944, heordered more prussic acid, asking Gerstein whether he hada gas with which one could take advantage of the wind forkilling people in Theresienstadt... I don't even know whatthat means. I must say this is all news to me.

EICHMANN IN HAIFA 13

Interrogator:

Eichmann:Interrogator:

Eichmann:

Interrogator:

Eichmann:

Interrogator:

You gave Gunther orders about obtaining and distributinggas. He certainly didn't act on his own initiative. Howdistant were you really from the program of gassing?If he received an order, then it was not from me.But if you recall Hoss' statement about your telling him thatyou would find out about a gas, and then in 1942 Guntherorders a gas. It all makes sense. You were to take charge ofthe program of gassing.A lot of things make sense after the event Maybe the orderto Gunther came directly from Muller. He had come toknow me as a more sensitive person than Gunther.It's impossible to believe that Muller would go over yourhead in giving Gunther a special order. Gunther was underyour direct command. The evidence condemns you yetagain.Look, stop your baiting. I absolutely refuse to be identifiedwith that affair. I had nothing to do with it.

[Spot on Interrogator. Music][To Audience] Miriam and I were in Berlin locked in ourglass cage, living off our jewels, in dread of every knock atthe door which threatened the most savage end to our lives.The moment we had been putting off arrived almostinevitably. A knock at the door heralded the coming of aCaptain, his SS badge sparkling in the passage light. HerrSchmidt, he said, I'm sorry to have held you up, but we arerequired to check every report Why, of course. Weunderstood. Who wouldn't? He could not leave any stoneunturned, no matter how remote the prospect Just doinghis job of gathering the innocent for murder. Not much of ajob, but it helped pay the rent. At times, he assured us, hewas required to do the service of mischief makers, but henever allowed any interference with his impeccablejudgment. You would think he was doing us a favor. Hewarned that someone could have a grudge against us, andthat we should be wary. Anyway, he was sorry to haveinconvenienced us... sincerest apologies, and so 00... Iwondered whether we would be spared as the last Jewsalive. Just a crippled woman and I to show for five thousandyears of effort - the last of the performing Jews, trampledby centuries of persecution into not even knowingthemselves. Surviving by not being themselves, like theeternal Marranos. And finally, of all things, a Jewishpoliceman, the most incongruous invention of all time.

14 EICHMANN IN HAIFA

Interrogator: [cont] It was a job which appealed to my basic sense of theabsurd - mustering the Jews of Palestine in my teutonicway. The paradox was irresistible.

[Music stops.][Lights up on Interrogator and Eichmann]

Interrogator: You do, of course, remember the Wannsee Conference, theso-called "final solution" conference?

Eichmann: At the time of the Wannsee Conference, the killing planhad begun.

Interrogator: So you concede that in Auschwitz in November 1941, thegassing machines were already working?

Eichmann: That was a fact. Nothing to do with my conceding anything.At the conference, Heydrich officially announced hisauthorization. Everybody present knew about it.

Interrogator: I regard the fact of your presence at Wannsee as anindication that you played a more prominent role in thedestruction than you care to admit.

Eichmann: I repeatedly state that I had nothing to do with the killing.With the evacuation, yes, I can't avoid responsibility forthat. But once a shipment was delivered to its destination,according to the timetable, myresponsibilitiesceased.

Interrogator: Of course, if the transports hadn't got there, the killingwouldn't have been possible.

Eichmann: Don't you understand? I had nothing to do with killingJews. I have repeated myself over and over again. It's sobasic. I've never killed a Jew. I've never ordered anyone tokill a Jew. With all your resources, you can't produce adocument or a single scrap of evidence to say that I did.

Interrogator: You never accept a personal role. You never say you didanything. I don't believe you! It's all lies to protect yourneck.

Eichmann: I was a public official in a massive bureaucratic structureconcerned with the administration of the evacuation. Doesthat make every administrative officer personallyresponsible for the killing of the Jews? I have challengedyou to produce one document to prove your case that I amthe great killer that you make out.

Interrogator: Very well.Just one of thousands. Here is a document aboutthe evacuation of the Romanian Jews. It is drafted byyou. Itsays that it is planned to transfer the Jews from Romania ina series of transports beginning September 10, 1942 to theLublin district.