Adolf Eichmann Biography

The future SS official is born to a German family.

Adolf Eichmann is born in Solingen, Germany.

Spends much of his youth and early adulthood in Austria.

Moves with his family from Germany to Linz, Austria.

Travels through Upper Austria during his commercial employment.

Begins work as a traveling salesman for Vacuum Oil.

Appointed Member of Austrian Nazi Party

Begins formal participation in National Socialist organizations.

Joins the SS and Austrian Nazi movement.

Joins the Austrian Legion in Bavaria.

Receives several months of military training with Austrian Nazis.

Moves to Bavaria as Austrian Nazi activity is restricted.

Leaves Austria after the Nazi Party is suppressed.

Joins the Security Service Main Office as an SS-Scharfuehrer.

Begins intelligence work within the Nazi security apparatus.

Works in an SD section monitoring Jewish organizations.

Develops specialist knowledge of Zionist organizations and emigration.

Appointed Lieutenant Colonel

Studies Zionist organizations and potential emigration routes.

Travels to the Middle East to assess Jewish emigration possibilities.

The Vienna system becomes a model for later Nazi offices.

Develops centralized procedures for forced Jewish emigration.

Leads a raid on the Vienna Jewish community offices.

The raid follows Germany's annexation of Austria.

The office centralizes coercive procedures for Jewish emigration.

Opens the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Vienna.

Appointed Head of the IVA 4B Nazi Burueau which deals with "Jewish affairs"

Appointed Head of the IVA 4B Nazi Burueau which deals with "Jewish affairs"

Extends the Vienna model into the Protectorate.

Creates a Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Prague.

Moves into the Reich Security Main Office structure.

His work becomes part of the centralized Nazi security bureaucracy.

Coordinates forced emigration and emerging deportation policy.

The failed project becomes an early mass-deportation experiment.

Organizes deportations from Vienna and Moravia toward Nisko.

Takes leadership of the Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration.

The unit handles emigration, evacuation and deportation matters.

Becomes director of RSHA section IV D 4.

Organizes deportation of Jews from Baden and Saarpfalz.

Nearly seven thousand people are sent to unoccupied France.

The office coordinates deportations of Jews across Nazi-controlled Europe.

Becomes director of RSHA section IV B 4.

His transport office becomes central to implementation.

Participates in discussions concerning the planned annihilation of European Jews.

Is promoted to SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer.

The rank corresponds approximately to lieutenant colonel.

Coordinates deportations from the Greater German Reich eastward.

Tens of thousands are sent to ghettos and killing sites.

His office helps organize deportations from Belgium.

His office coordinates deportations from the Netherlands.

His office coordinates deportation transports from occupied France.

Transports carry deportees toward Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Victims are sent primarily toward Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Transport schedules connect transit camps with killing centres.

Transports send victims toward German-occupied Poland.

His office organizes deportations of Jews from Slovakia.

Takes minutes at the Wansee Conference. Summoned by Heydrich to discuss Jewish extermination. Later travels throughout Europe to witness the Wansee decisions

Records and later prepares the conference protocol.

Provides data used in planning continent-wide deportations.

Prepares briefing materials for Reinhard Heydrich before Wannsee.

Attends the Wannsee Conference as Heydrich's specialist official.

His office organizes deportations of Jews from Greece.

The transport network sends victims toward killing centres.

Victims are transported primarily to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

His aides organize deportations from German-occupied northern Italy.

Leads a task force which deports 437,000 Jews to Auschwitz from Hungary

Arrives in Budapest after Germany occupies Hungary.

Personally directs the SS deportation team assigned to Hungarian Jewry.

Jewish communities are concentrated in ghettos and transit sites.

Coordinates German planning with Hungarian authorities before mass deportations.

Oversees the start of systematic deportations from Hungary.

German and Hungarian authorities send mass transports toward Auschwitz.

Mass deportations from Hungary are halted by Regent Horthy.

Eichmann's deportation operation loses its main transport programme.

Most deportees are sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

His unit helps deport roughly 440,000 Hungarian Jews.

Uses a Vatican passport in the name of Ricardo Klement to escape to Argentina

Falls into American custody after Germany's defeat.

Uses false identity papers to conceal his senior SS role.

Lives under false identities while avoiding war-crimes investigators.

Escapes from American detention.

Flees Europe and reaches Argentina under an assumed identity.

Lives there under the name Ricardo Klement.

Israeli agents kidnap Eichman in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Israeli agents capture Eichmann near his Argentine residence.

He is secretly held before removal to Israel.

Israeli authorities prepare to prosecute him in Jerusalem.

Is secretly flown from Argentina to Israel.

The Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurian announces that Eichmann has been arrested

Israel publicly announces that Eichmann is in custody.

Prime Minister Ben-Gurion says he will stand trial.

The Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurian announces Eichmann will stand trial

The indictment also includes crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Faces charges including crimes against the Jewish people.

His trial begins before the Jerusalem District Court.

He faces fifteen counts under Israeli law.

Hanged for war crimes at Ramle

Hanged for war crimes at Ramle

Claims he acted within orders and bureaucratic authority.

Testifies extensively in his own defence.

1st day of trial under the Nazis & Nazi Collaborators Punishment Act

Sentenced to death after found guilty of all 12 charges brought against him

Judges reject his attempt to minimize responsibility.

Is convicted on major charges by the Jerusalem court.

Is sentenced to death by the District Court.

His defence prepares an appeal to Israel's Supreme Court.

The lower court conviction and death sentence are upheld.

Israel's Supreme Court rejects his appeal.

His request for clemency is rejected.

The execution occurs at Ramla prison in Israel.

Is executed by hanging shortly before midnight.

The death sentence remains in force.

Israeli authorities scatter the ashes beyond territorial waters.

His body is cremated after the execution.