Raphael Ben Nescher | Eichmann’s „Memoirs“ as a historical-political source for resistance against National Socialism

In 1957, Adolf Eichmann had lengthy conversations with the journalist and former SS man Willem Sassen. The trigger was to write a book, and the thrust was clear: the „legend of the six million murdered Jews“ was to be debunked and Germany „rehabilitated“. In the interviews, Eichmann spoke at length about the Jewish policy of the Nazi regime. He also discusses the countries in which the deportations of Jews could be carried out smoothly and where the National Socialists encountered individual or collective resistance. How does this resistance appear from the perspective of someone against whom it was directed? How did Eichmann react when he was confronted with acts of resistance and how did he assess them over a decade after the end of the war? What types of resistance actually hindered the Nazi regime in the implementation of its policies and where was resistance merely seen as an annoying phenomenon? These and other questions will be examined and discussed in the lecture. It will be shown that although it is not easy to adopt Eichmann’s perspective, it offers interesting and less familiar highlights on the subject of resistance.

Raphael Ben Nescher studied political science, law and information science in Zurich. In 2016, he published the justification pamphlet „Götzen“, written by Eichmann in Israeli prison. Ben Nescher currently works in the public administration of the Canton of Bern. He is also working on a scholarly edition of the Sassen talks.

An event organised by the Fritz Bauer Forum

Photo: Adolf Eichmann in the courtyard of the Ajalon prison in Israel (April 1961) © Public domain