Adolf Eichmann wanted to return to Germany, historian claims

[alp227]

For more than a decade after the second world war, his whereabouts were officially unknown. Adolf Eichmann, chief architect of the Holocaust, had escaped from a US POW camp, slipped into Italy and on to a ship bound for Argentina.

The West German government, busy rebuilding the country and rehabilitating its reputation, knew from at least 1952 where he was living, yet never made any real attempt to bring him to justice. But a new book claims Eichmann had wanted to return to his homeland and claim his place in history several years before he was captured by Israeli intelligence in 1960 and put on trial in Jerusalem.

(...)

A series of articles in Der Spiegel magazine recently have suggested West German secret agents knew full well where Eichmann was following his escape, but were never ordered to recapture him.

Full story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/11/eichmann-sought-trial-germany-1956

[Demeter]

1. Let the Dead Bury their Dead

It's time to let some of this go.

With so many real-time problems crying for redress, to worry about the actions or inactions of a bunch of dead men is foolish and petty.

[emilyg]

2. These "dead men "have been my shadows throughout

my life. I can't and won't forget.

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. 'Never again' doesn't mean all that much to you, huh? nt

[Demeter]

6. If Never Again Is to Mean Anything, then Work on It NOW

because it's still happening, and the US is doing it.

[Rebubula]

8. Sorry...

..nothing the US is doing rises to the level of the German Nazis.


Nothing. Period.

Learn your history, visit a Holocaust museum - talk to a survivor...you will find that the reality of 70 years ago is nothing like the current reality.

[The Second Stone]

11. We are now torturing.

In the past we did medical experiments on black men in Tuskegee, we did genetic cleansing on the mentally ill, we made war on the Indians. We discriminated against blacks and Jews as part of the mainstream culture.

What the Nazis did was worse than what we are doing now, but the things we have done prove that we are capable of what the Nazis did and we must be forever vigilant that we always do better.

The Germans of the 30s and 40s are very much like Americans of today. Or any other people.

[Rebubula]

13. A few points...

...1st and foremost - I agree with most of what you are saying.

However...

2nd Point - all nations\states\kingdoms are born in blood. The whole world discriminates against Jews and Blacks - we are not alone in that shame. Every single nation has abused the weaker population. EVERY SINGLE ONE.


3rd point - NO....the Americans of today are NOT much like Germans in the 30s and 40s. Germany had been defeated and humiliated in WW1 and was in extreme economic depression. The people were beaten down and tired - they wanted a savior. No matter what exaggerations are in play - we are not getting groped and molested at TSA checkpoints, the gestapo is not asking people for papers in Arizona, FoxNews is NOT all the powerful and a police state is not in effect.

Yes - not everything is good - but to trot out the tired and over used Nazi call is tedious and, quite honestly, ignorant of history.

[The Second Stone]

14. Jews and black people are victims

but there are countless other minorities who have been similarly victimized throughout history, some by Americans. Americans continue to victimize minorities and strongly support countries that do. That it is not quite as bad as what the Nazis did does not excuse America or its allies in any way.

Saying that it could never happen in modern day America ignores human nature, war mongering that America has committed in this century and atrocities that America has committed in this century. The Germans were quite shocked to find out about the death camps. Modern confederate heritage ceremonies are denial of a heritage of slavery that is just as stunning and immoral as the holocaust. What happened with the American Indians continued even after that. What happened in the 1910s and 1920s with race in this country is beyond shocking. Lookup Rosewood.

The German people were not exceptional and neither are the American people when it comes committing atrocities. Suggesting that the Nazis were only possible in their place and time is belied by a human history of genocides.

[emilyg]

16. +10

[emilyg]

15. You don't know your history.

[Enthusiast]

5. We will be doomed to repeat it...nt

[Chef Eric]

7. "Actions or inactions"? Are you implying that there is some doubt about what the Nazis did?

Are you implying that the Nazis' atrocities have been exaggerated in some way?

And why are you so concerned about people studying history? Do you have something against history?

[yellowcanine]

10. History has its own momentum. It should be understood, not ignored.

With history there is no such thing as "time to let go." I want to know what happened. If you don't, ok, but don't denigrate the endeavor.

“Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.” - Edmund Burke

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. Claim his place in history?

He did know, didn't he, that his contemporaries who claimed their place in history were HANGED?

[Myrina]

9. I'm rather sure the precursor to the CIA knew where he was, too ...

... we just didn't need him for the fledgling NASA like we did other former NAZI's so we didn't shake too many trees looking for him.


:(

[BobbyBoring]

12. It's rumored

That many of the top Nazis wound up in the good ol USA with a little help from their "Friends".

I don't find that too hard to believe.

[bemildred]

17. Operation Paperclip

Operation Paperclip was the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) program used to recruit the scientists of Nazi Germany for employment by the United States in the aftermath of World War II (1939–45). It was executed by the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA), and in the context of the burgeoning Soviet–American Cold War (1945–91), one purpose of Operation Paperclip was to deny German scientific knowledge and expertise to the USSR<1> and the UK.<2>

Although the JIOA’s recruitment of German scientists began after the European Allied victory (8 May 1945), US President Harry Truman did not formally order the execution of Operation Paperclip until August 1945. Truman's order expressly excluded anyone found “to have been a member of the Nazi Party, and more than a nominal participant in its activities, or an active supporter of Nazi militarism.” Said restrictions would have rendered ineligible most of the scientists the JIOA had identified for recruitment, among them rocket scientists Wernher von Braun and Arthur Rudolph, and the physician Hubertus Strughold, each earlier classified as a “menace to the security of the Allied Forces”.

To circumvent President Truman’s anti-Nazi order, and the Allied Potsdam and Yalta agreements, the JIOA worked independently to create false employment and political biographies for the scientists. The JIOA also expunged from the public record the scientists' Nazi Party memberships and régime affiliations. Once “bleached” of their Nazism, the US Government granted the scientists security clearance to work in the United States. Paperclip, the project’s operational name, derived from the paperclips used to attach the scientists’ new political personae to their “US Government Scientist” JIOA personnel files.<3>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip

[formercia]

18. Everyone knows where Junior and the Dickster live too

and I don't see anyone in the USG trying to bring them to Justice.