Eichmann, Adolf (īkh`män), 1906–62, German National Socialist official. A member of the Austrian Nazi party, he headed the Austrian office for Jewish emigration (1938). His zeal in deporting Jews brought him promotion (1939) to chief of the Gestapo's Jewish section. Eichmann promoted the use of gas chambers for the mass extermination of Jews in concentration camps, and he oversaw the maltreatment, deportation, and murder of millions of Jews in World War II. Arrested by the Allies in 1945, he escaped and settled in Argentina. He was located by Israeli agents in 1960 and abducted to Israel, where he was tried (1961) and hanged for crimes against the Jewish people and against humanity.

Bibliography

See biography by D. Cesarani, Becoming Eichmann (2006); H. Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963, rev. ed. 2006); J. Donovan, Eichmann: Mastermind of the Holocaust (1978); P. Rassinier, The Real Eichmann Trial (1980).

Eichmann, (Karl) Adolf

(born March 19, 1906, Solingen, Ger.—died May 31, 1962, Tel Aviv, Israel) German Nazi official. In 1932 he joined the Nazi Party and became a member of Heinrich Himmler's SS organization. In World War II he organized the identification, assembly, and transportation of Jews to Auschwitz and other death camps. In 1945 he was captured by U.S. troops but escaped and eventually settled in Argentina. In 1960 he was arrested near Buenos Aires and taken to Israel, where he was tried as a war criminal, with huge worldwide publicity, and hanged for his part in the Holocaust.