Adolf Eichmann quotes

Adolf Eichmann was a high-ranking Nazi official, known as one of the major organizers of the Holocaust. As head of Jewish affairs in the Gestapo, he coordinated the logistics for the mass deportation of Jews to extermination camps. He was captured after World War II, tried in Israel, and executed for crimes against humanity. Here are 60 of his quotes:

To sum it all up, I must say that I regret nothing.

Adolf Eichmann

Adolf Hitler may have been wrong all down the line, but one thing is beyond dispute: the man was able to work his way up from lance corporal in the German Army to Führer of a people of almost 80 million. His success alone proved that I should subordinate myself to this man.

Adolf Eichmann

I am certain, however, that those responsible for the murder of millions of Germans will never be brought to justice.

Adolf Eichmann

My political sentiments inclined toward the left and emphasized the socialist aspects every bit as much as the nationalist ones.

Adolf Eichmann

Regret is something for little children.

Adolf Eichmann

From my childhood, obedience was something I could not get out of my system. When I entered the armed services at the age of 27, I found being obedient not a bit more difficult than it had been during my life to that point. It was unthinkable that I would not follow orders.

Adolf Eichmann

Because I have seen hell, death and the devil, because I had to watch the madness of destruction, because I was one of the many horses pulling the wagon and couldn't escape left or right because of the will of the driver, I now feel called upon and have the desire to tell what happened.

Adolf Eichmann

It wasn't in our interests for the material to be used for labor in the concentration camps to arrive completely useless and needing repair.... Look, how can you make 25,000 Jews, or people, or let's say 25,000 cows, how can you simply let 25,000 animals just disappear en route? Have you ever seen 25,000 people in a pile? ... Have you ever seen 10,000 people in a pile? That's five transport trains, and if you pack them in the way the Hungarian police planned, then at best you'll get no more than 3,000 people in one transport train. Loading a train is a tricky business anyway, whether it's with cattle or flour sacks ... and so much more difficult to load it with people, especially when you have problems to reckon with.

Adolf Eichmann

Our opinion at the time was that National Socialism and the Communism of the Soviet Republic were sort of 'siblings.' And it may also be that this attitude was peculiar especially to an Austrian SS member. For his enemies at that time were not Social Democracy and Communism; these were combated by the Austrian aristocracy as much as he himself was;...

Adolf Eichmann

I am one of those people who can't stand to see corpses.... But there is one good thing nature gave me. I can switch off and forget very quickly, without trying to.... I still have a very devout saying from my youth, and I always do it when I find something horribly unpleasant and I can't stop thinking about it. And in order to forcibly distract myself, do you know what I say? You'll laugh! "I believe in God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, died under Pontius Pilate, suffered" and so on and so on, "was raised from the dead," and so on. I somehow realized early on, as a child - still a devout believer at that time, of course - that once I'd said that, I didn't think about anything else.

Adolf Eichmann

Brand was then conveyed to Eichmann's office in the Hotel Majestic and ushered into his presence. Eichmann, resplendent in his SS uniform, stood in front of his desk and started barking at him: 'You ... do you know who I am? I am in charge of the Aktion! In Europe, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria it has been completed, now it is Hungary's turn.'

Adolf Eichmann

Over the years I learned which hooks to use to catch which fish.

Adolf Eichmann

I witnessed the gruesome workings of the machinery of death; gear meshed with gear, like clockwork. It was the biggest and most enormous dance of death of all times.

Adolf Eichmann

In Hungary in 1944, Eichmann introduced himself this way: "Do you know who I am? I am a bloodhound!"

Adolf Eichmann

I loved playing an open hand against all the Jewish political functionaries ... For me, 'open hand' is a winged word.

Adolf Eichmann

Müller said to me once, if we'd had fifty Eichmanns, we'd have won the war for sure. And I was proud. That should have given you an insight into my interior - since you don't know me, not from within, and that is important.

Adolf Eichmann

It was actually an achievement that was never matched before or since.

Adolf Eichmann

Obeying an order was the most important thing to me. It could be that is in the nature of the German.

Adolf Eichmann

Long live Germany. Long live Argentina. Long live Austria. These are the three countries with which I have been most connected and which I will not forget. I greet my wife, my family and my friends. I am ready. We'll meet again soon, as is the fate of all men. I die believing in God.

Adolf Eichmann

On the Lüneberg Heath, it was near where Bergen-Belsen had been, and everything round there smelled of garlic and it was all Jews, because who was buying anything at that time? Only the Jews, and then I said to myself, I, I who was bargaining with Jews over wood and eggs, I was amazed and astounded, and I thought you see - goddammit! They all should have been killed, and there those fellas are, doing deals with me, you know?

Adolf Eichmann

I have to forge my weapons according to the strength of the resistance.

Adolf Eichmann

As my chief, Gruppenführer Müller expressed it, they were sending in the master himself, so I wanted to behave like a master.

Adolf Eichmann