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Should Eichmann Have Been Executed?

SLD

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Granted he was an evil dude. He was responsible for organizing the trains to pick up and take Jews to Auschwitz and other camps.

He claimed he was just a low level functionary. His highest rank was as a Lieutenant Colonel in the SS. He never participated in any killings although he may have witnessed one.

So if he had been tried at Munich, would he have received the death penalty? I’m thinking not. Many others who were far more involved in the holocaust didn’t receive the death penalty. Maybe life in Prison that would have been commuted.

Some examples:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udo_von_Woyrsch (in charge of Einsatzgruppen in Poland)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottlob_Berger
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Walther_Darré (developed racial policy)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josias,_Hereditary_Prince_of_Waldeck_and_Pyrmont (Commandant of Buchenwald)


All of whom were Obergruppenfuhrer's, or Lieutenant General rank. There were of course many others. I think if he’d stuck around Germany, Eichmann would eventually have been brought to trial, but given a relatively light sentence.

SLD
 
Granted he was an evil dude. He was responsible for organizing the trains to pick up and take Jews to Auschwitz and other camps.

He claimed he was just a low level functionary. His highest rank was as a Lieutenant Colonel in the SS. He never participated in any killings although he may have witnessed one.

So if he had been tried at Munich, would he have received the death penalty? I’m thinking not. Many others who were far more involved in the holocaust didn’t receive the death penalty. Maybe life in Prison that would have been commuted.

Some examples:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udo_von_Woyrsch (in charge of Einsatzgruppen in Poland)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottlob_Berger
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Walther_Darré (developed racial policy)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josias,_Hereditary_Prince_of_Waldeck_and_Pyrmont (Commandant of Buchenwald)


All of whom were Obergruppenfuhrer's, or Lieutenant General rank. There were of course many others. I think if he’d stuck around Germany, Eichmann would eventually have been brought to trial, but given a relatively light sentence.

SLD

Really,
This is a sad reading of history. His presence at the Wannsee conference and his implementation of same is sufficient for him to be convicted of the crimes for which he was charged.
 
The Nuremberg Trials executed some, jailed some, and let some go. Eichman escaped.

Albert Speer who was Hitler's chosen successor got off by playing and ignorant victim and turning on Hitler. When he got out of prison he apparently lived well on stolen art he managed to sell and writing books dieing in bed. There was a Nazi post war underground of the elites that did well. IMO he should have been hung by a wire noose like the Nazis used.

Those at the upper levels should have been taken to Auschwitz and gassed. The Russians wanted large scale summary executions. The USA and Brits prevailed with a legal due proces.

It was not just the Jews. The SS and the leadership were utterly psychopathic and wantony killed without restraint across Europe and Russia. Sadistic does not come close..

Yes he should have been executed. There are no words to describe these people, evil does not seem enough.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Eichmann

Otto Adolf Eichmann[a] (/ˈaɪxmən/ YKHE-mən,[1] German: [ˈʔɔto ˈʔaːdɔlf ˈʔaɪçman]; 19 March 1906 – 1 June 1962) was a German-Austrian[2] Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer (Senior Assault Unit Leader) and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust. He was tasked by SS-Obergruppenführer (Senior Group Leader) Reinhard Heydrich with facilitating and managing the logistics involved in the mass deportation of Jews to ghettos and extermination camps in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe during World War II. He was captured by the Mossad in Argentina on 11 May 1960 and subsequently found guilty of war crimes in a widely publicised trial in Jerusalem, Israel. Eichmann was executed by hanging in 1962.

After an unremarkable school career, Eichmann briefly worked for his father's mining company in Austria, where the family had moved in 1914. He worked as a travelling oil salesman beginning in 1927, and joined both the Nazi Party and the SS in 1932. He returned to Germany in 1933, where he joined the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; Security Service); there he was appointed head of the department responsible for Jewish affairs—especially emigration, which the Nazis encouraged through violence and economic pressure. After the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Eichmann and his staff arranged for Jews to be concentrated in ghettos in major cities with the expectation that they would be transported either farther east or overseas. He also drew up plans for a Jewish reservation, first at Nisko in southeast Poland and later in Madagascar, but neither of these plans were ever carried out.

The Nazis began the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, and their Jewish policy changed from emigration to extermination. To co-ordinate planning for the genocide, Heydrich, who was Eichmann's superior, hosted the regime's administrative leaders at the Wannsee Conference on 20 January 1942. Eichmann collected information for him, attended the conference, and prepared the minutes. Eichmann and his staff became responsible for Jewish deportations to extermination camps, where the victims were gassed. Germany invaded Hungary in March 1944, and Eichmann oversaw the deportation of much of the Jewish population. Most of the victims were sent to Auschwitz concentration camp, where about 75 per cent were murdered upon arrival. By the time that the transports were stopped in July 1944, 437,000 of Hungary's 725,000 Jews had been killed. Dieter Wisliceny testified at Nuremberg that Eichmann told him he would "leap laughing into the grave because the feeling that he had five million people on his conscience would be for him a source of extraordinary satisfaction".[4]

After Germany's defeat in 1945, Eichmann was captured by US forces, but escaped from a detention camp and moved around Germany to avoid re-capture. He ended up in a small village in Lower Saxony, where he lived until 1950, when he moved to Argentina using false papers. Information collected by the Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, confirmed his location in 1960. A team of Mossad and Shin Bet agents captured Eichmann and brought him to Israel to stand trial on 15 criminal charges, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the Jewish people. During the trial, he did not deny the Holocaust or his role in organising it, but claimed that he was simply following orders in a totalitarian Führerprinzip system. He was found guilty on all of the charges, and was executed by hanging on 1 June 1962.[c] The trial was widely followed in the media and was later the subject of several books, including Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem, in which Arendt coined the phrase "the banality of evil" to describe Eichmann.[
 
Granted he was an evil dude. He was responsible for organizing the trains to pick up and take Jews to Auschwitz and other camps.

He claimed he was just a low level functionary. His highest rank was as a Lieutenant Colonel in the SS. He never participated in any killings although he may have witnessed one.

So if he had been tried at Munich, would he have received the death penalty? I’m thinking not. Many others who were far more involved in the holocaust didn’t receive the death penalty. Maybe life in Prison that would have been commuted.

Some examples:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udo_von_Woyrsch (in charge of Einsatzgruppen in Poland)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottlob_Berger
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Walther_Darré (developed racial policy)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josias,_Hereditary_Prince_of_Waldeck_and_Pyrmont (Commandant of Buchenwald)


All of whom were Obergruppenfuhrer's, or Lieutenant General rank. There were of course many others. I think if he’d stuck around Germany, Eichmann would eventually have been brought to trial, but given a relatively light sentence.

SLD

Really,
This is a sad reading of history. His presence at the Wannsee conference and his implementation of same is sufficient for him to be convicted of the crimes for which he was charged.

I’m not saying he wasn’t an evil son of a bitch, but many participants in the Wannsee Conference weren’t executed. In fact, a good example is  Otto Hoffman who was head of the SS race and re...r much more than a few years punishment. SLD
 
Why make those earlier and over-lenient sentences into a precedent though? Maybe it's justice that Eichmann was executed and injustice that those other fellows were not? Why perpetuate the injustice of the earlier, overly light sentences?
 
They also serve who only stand and watch.

Most legal systems have a crime classification of Felony Murder." This means if any person dies as a result of a felony, all who are guilty of the felony, are also guilt of the murder, without regard to their actions in the crime. If the cashier drops dead at the sight of a robber's pistol, the robber and the get away driver are both guilty of felony murder.

We know people died in the Holocaust, and if this is a crime, Eichmann is guilty of felony murder. All that is left is to argue the particulars of which laws were violated. We can call the deportation of Jews from conquered territories "kidnapping" and there you have it.
 
Why make those earlier and over-lenient sentences into a precedent though? Maybe it's justice that Eichmann was executed and injustice that those other fellows were not? Why perpetuate the injustice of the earlier, overly light sentences?

It’s a good point, but many of the people I mention were alive in 1962 when Eichmann was executed. Why wasn’t Israel seeking their extradition?

I suspect that the allies didn’t want to be overly harsh on the defeated and wished only to punish the major offenders of the holocaust. Executing all involved, and as Bronzeage points out there is legal precedent for, would have involved a lot of hangings that may have seemed to taint the victory. Too many executions and there is a thirst for revenge. Shades of Versailles.

I suspect that had Eichmann stayed in Germany, he’d eventually have been found guilty but only received a sentence of 20 years which would’ve been commuted after serving 6 or so. I think Israel tried to pin responsibility for the entire holocaust on him at his trial, which isn’t fair. He was the only one that they captured. I’m unaware of any others tried in Israel for their role in the holocaust. Demjanyuk, but his conviction was overturned.

SLD
 
The fact that Germany let so many off the hook does not mean they didn't deserve worse. And Israel would have if they could. They wouldn't have been extradited because they had already been convicted and 'punished' for their crimes. The fact that he fled to hide in Argentina probably means he thought he was in for worse. Keep in mind that Israel is a tiny country with limited power and very much had to stay on the good side of the 'new' europe.

And you are right, he probably would have gotten a slap on the wrist punishment. That means nothing. I am with the USSR on this issue. Being an officer in the SS ought to earn you a bullet, no ifs ands or buts. The way we kissed up to the "ex" Nazis to win over West Germany was disgraceful.
 
Granted he was an evil dude. He was responsible for organizing the trains to pick up and take Jews to Auschwitz and other camps.

He claimed he was just a low level functionary. His highest rank was as a Lieutenant Colonel in the SS. He never participated in any killings although he may have witnessed one.

So if he had been tried at Munich, would he have received the death penalty? I’m thinking not. Many others who were far more involved in the holocaust didn’t receive the death penalty. Maybe life in Prison that would have been commuted.

Some examples:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udo_von_Woyrsch (in charge of Einsatzgruppen in Poland)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottlob_Berger
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Walther_Darré (developed racial policy)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josias,_Hereditary_Prince_of_Waldeck_and_Pyrmont (Commandant of Buchenwald)


All of whom were Obergruppenfuhrer's, or Lieutenant General rank. There were of course many others. I think if he’d stuck around Germany, Eichmann would eventually have been brought to trial, but given a relatively light sentence.

SLD

Really,
This is a sad reading of history. His presence at the Wannsee conference and his implementation of same is sufficient for him to be convicted of the crimes for which he was charged.

I’m not saying he wasn’t an evil son of a bitch, but many participants in the Wannsee Conference weren’t executed. In fact, a good example is  Otto Hoffman who was head of the SS race and re...e was a participant. He was the implementer.
 
War is an atrocity against humanity participated in by both the victor and the vanquished. Unfortunately, war is sometimes preferable to the alternative. War crime trials are a method for the victor to kill some of the vanquished that they were unable to kill during the war. Had the Axis powers been the winners, could Truman, Churchill, FDR (posthumously), the generals of bomber command, etc. have been tried for war crimes for the millions of civilians killed in the fire bombing, saturation bombing, and atomic bombs dropped on civilian population centers?
 
Absolutely, what is your point?

Seward (or Blair? I don't remember) to Stanton: If the cause is lost, we will hang.
Stanton: If the cause is lost, I don't want to live.

When one is animated by righteousness, one accepts the costs. When good regimes go down, you don't see the leaders fleeing like rats. They fight til the end. Nazi Germany was not such a regime.
 
The point being that I think that war crimes trials as they were conducted were highly hypocritical. Leaders of both sides oversaw mass slaughter of innocent civilians. The leaders of the winning side tried the losers for slaughtering Jews and justify their own actions as only slaughtering nasty old 'kraut' and 'Nip' civilians, not really fully humans that deserve consideration.

As I said, war itself is an atrocity against humanity... but, unfortunately, sometimes preferable to the alternative.

ETA:
And I disagree with you about leaders of "good regimes". The leadership of both sides think they are fighting for 'righteousness causes' or they wouldn't be fighting.

Then it is the winner that writes the history and it is that history that defines which was the 'good regime'.
 
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Well that is the question. The Geneva Cobventions formed mass madern slaughter with machine guns into a rule based game. Kill as many as you can but do not kill prisoners.

Curtis Lemay who orchestrated the firebombingh of Japan said if the war had gone the oter way he waould be tried as a war criminal.

The Brits firebombed Germany in retaliation for bombing British civilians.

The question is what are fighting for.

The Japanese Emperor was spared execution because they thought he was needed for post war Japanese stability.

The Nazis along with a large number of the German population supported genocide of Jews along with others deemed undesirables. No one was going to allow extradition to Israel. Anti semitism did not disappear with the Nazi defeat.

If I were an Israeli I would want to execute any Nazi associated with the genocide. IMO they would be justified.
 
War is an atrocity against humanity participated in by both the victor and the vanquished. Unfortunately, war is sometimes preferable to the alternative. War crime trials are a method for the victor to kill some of the vanquished that they were unable to kill during the war.
I don't think you understand the engineering that need to be performed to pull off the Holocaust and that the Jewish and Gypsies weren't Axis or Allies, they were civilians who were murdered while millions were tortured to 'purify' the human race's genetics so everyone had blonde hair and blue eyes like Hitler.

The Germans and Japanese civilians died in large part because their leaders didn't surrender when the writing was on the wall... and poetically suffered in kind with those tortured and murdered by their armies.
 
One perspective was the question of whether citizens in a democracy would fight. Until the end reposts of American casualties were highly censored in the Pacific out of fear of fueling the anti war movement in the USA.

In Mein Kempf Hitler wrote war is a natural human state.

We see it in chimps. Troup[s periodically make war on others.

Modern history shows any form of pacifism the door to dictatorship. The appeasement of Hitler. Today the lack of a strong position against Russian aggression. A weak NATO would most certainly lead to a Russian incursion into states like Poland.

In WWII Gandhi proposed the Allies disarm themselves in Europe and defeat the Nazis with passive resistance. It would have been a slaughter.

Here in the USA current conflicts are tested by politicians and the media like a college football game.
 
And after Heydrich died, Eichmann was the implementer!
 
And after Heydrich died, Eichmann was the implementer!

No. Ernst Kaltenbrunner took over most of Heydrich's duties with respect to implementing the holocaust. Heydrich was a 3 star general equivalent, as was Kaltenbrunner. Eichmann was merely a Lieutenant Colonel.

SLD
 
The evidence presented at the trial stands: regardless of his rank, Eichmann was giving orders on his own responsibility. Or do you regard his trial as being unfair? Why would that be?

How many deaths does one have to be responsible for before the death penalty is appropriate? No one is trying to pin the whole holocaust on him. The question is, did he have a role in implementing it? (yes). Did he do so on his own initiative and responsibility? (yes) Was he aware of his responsibility and culpability? (yes) And did his actions directly lead to deaths? (yes)

What is your basis for defending him? That a lieutenant colonel isn't high enough a rank not to be responsible? That's simply naive. Qaddaffi was just a colonel when he overthrew the government of libya. Plenty of massacres throughout history were ordered by men of lesser rank. Death camps were commanded by captains or majors, are you claiming they weren't responsible? People in responsible positions in military bureaucracies are often of relatively low rank vis-a-vis field officers, but have greater relative power. Young, low ranking, fanatical nazis like Eichmann were put in charge of these operations, for the express purpose of taking it out of the hands of more traditional, older, higher ranked officers, who might have a different perspective and qualms about the task.

The question was whether he knowingly gave orders under his own responsibility, and this was adequately proven at his trial.
 
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