Becoming Eichmann: Rethinking the Life, Crimes, and Trial of a ""Desk Murderer""

from 1941 To 1945 Adolf Eichmann Organized The Mass Deportation And Extinction Of Jews In Europe. Working At His Desk And In The Field, He Was At The Center Of Nazi Genocide publishers Weekly to The Israeli Prosecutor Who Interrogated Him In 1961, Adolf Eichmann Was A Fanatical Anti-semite And A Central Figure In The Annihilation Of The Jews. To Hannah Arendt, He Was A Dim-witted Bureaucrat, A Cog In The Machinery Of Destruction That Was The Holocaust. British Historian Cesarani, Author Of Numerous Books On The Holocaust And Jewish History, Offers A More Complex And Nuanced Portrait. Based On Research Into Sources That Were Unavailable In The 1960s And On The Most Recent Scholarly Work On The Holocaust, Cesarani Corrects The Historical Record On Numerous Issues. Contrary To Popular Myth, He Says, Eichmann Had A Normal Childhood And A Socially And Professionally Successful Young Adulthood. Eichmann Joined The Ss Not Because He Was A Misfit But Because, Like So Many German And Austrian Middle-class Men, He Found The Third Reich A Great Engine Of Social Mobility. Cesarani's Biography Is Convincing On Many Counts. But In The End, The Broad Outlines Of Arendt's Portrait In Her Brilliant Eichmann In Jerusalem Remain Standing. Eichmann May Have Been More Intelligent And Skilled Than She Concluded, But He Was The Perfect Expression Of The Highly Bureaucratized And Systematic Killing Process That The Nazis Perfected. 8 Pages Of B&w Photos, 2 Maps. (may 15) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information. Adolf Eichmann was at the center of the Nazi genocide against the Jews, yet he remained an obscure figure until his capture by the Israeli Secret Service in Argentina in 1960 and his trial in Jerusalem. From 1941 to 1945 Eichmann organized the mass deportation and extinction of Jews in Europe. This book, the first account of Eichmann's life to appear in over forty years, reveals a surprising portrait of the man once seen as epitomizing the "banality of evil." Drawing on recently unearthed documents, historian Cesarani explores Eichmann's early career when he learned how to become an administrator of genocide, and shows how Eichmann developed into the Reich's "expert" on Jewish matters, becoming ever more hateful and brutal. This sobering account deepens our understanding and challenges our preconceptions of Adolf Eichmann, and offers fresh insights into both the operation of the "Final Solution" and its most notorious perpetrator.--From publisher information From 1941 to 1945 Adolf Eichmann organized the mass deportation and extinction of Jews in Europe. Working at his desk and in the field, he was at the center of Nazi genocide. This book, the first account of Eichmann's life to appear in over forty years, reveals a surprising portrait of the man once seen as epitomizing the "banality of evil." Drawing on recently unearthed documents, historian Cesarani explores Eichmann's early career, when he learned how to become an administrator of genocide, and shows how Eichmann developed into the Reich's "expert" on Jewish matters, becoming ever more hateful and brutal. This sobering account deepens our understanding and challenges our preconceptions of Adolf Eichmann, and offers fresh insights into both the operation of the "Final Solution" and its most notorious perpetrator.--From publisher description __Becoming Eichmann__, the first account of Eichmann's life to appear in over forty years, reveals a surprising portrait of the man once seen as epitomizing the “banality of evil.” Drawing on recently unearthed documents, David Cesarani explores Eichmann's early career, when he learned how to become an administrator of genocide, and shows how Eichmann developed into the Reich's “expert” on Jewish matters, becoming ever more hateful and brutal. This sobering account deepens our understanding and challenges our preconceptions of Adolf Eichmann and offers fresh insights into both the operation of the “Final Solution” and its most notorious perpetrator.