At the end of World War II, few names evoked as much revulsion as did that of Adolf Eichmann, one of the primary architects of the so-called Final Solution and the man ultimately responsible for the deaths of millions of Jews in Nazi-occupied nations.

Eichmann became an early supporter of Hitler and the Nazi movement. Under the guidance of Austrian Nazi official Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Eichmann became one of the Nazis' foremost “authorities” on Jews.

Figure 9-1 Adolf Eichmann.

Getty Images/David Rubinger/Contributor

Eichmann knew how to play politics and quickly became chief of the Reich Central Office of Jewish Emigration. In 1940, he was instructed to develop a plan to deport 4 million Jews to Madagascar, which was controlled at the time by the Vichy French. The plan never came to fruition because the Nazis found it easier to imprison and kill the Jews than to move them out of the country.

In January 1942, Eichmann attended the Wannsee Conference on the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question,” which involved discussion of the most effective ways to eliminate large numbers of people. Eichmann's notes on the genocide conference were recovered after the war and used as evidence at the Nuremberg war crimes trials. Throughout the war, Eichmann authorized the deportation of countless Jews to concentration camps and supervised the SS action groups.

Eichmann was one of numerous high-ranking Nazis who were tried for war crimes. He apparently felt no remorse for his actions. According to an associate, as Allied forces bore down on Berlin, Eichmann said he would leap laughing into the grave because the feeling that he had been instrumental in the deaths of 5 million people would be for him a source of extraordinary satisfaction.