Adolf Eichmann quotes

Now that I look back, I realize that a life predicated on being obedient and taking orders is a very comfortable life indeed. Living in such a way reduces to a minimum one's own need to think. (Adolf Eichmann)
To sum it all up, I must say that I regret nothing. View quote
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. View quote
Adolf Eichmann
I am certain, however, that those responsible for the murder of millions of Germans will never be brought to justice. View quote
Adolf Eichmann
My political sentiments inclined toward the left and emphasized the socialist aspects every bit as much as the nationalist ones. View quote
Adolf Eichmann
Regret is something for little children. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
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;... View quote
Adolf Eichmann
If we had killed 10.3 million Jews, then I would have been satisfied and would say, good, we annihilated an enemy. ... I wasn't only issued orders, in this case I'd have been a moron, but I rather anticipated, I was an idealist. (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. View quote
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.' View quote
Adolf Eichmann
Over the years I learned which hooks to use to catch which fish. View quote
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. View quote
Adolf Eichmann
In Hungary in 1944, Eichmann introduced himself this way: "Do you know who I am? I am a bloodhound!" View quote
Adolf Eichmann
I loved playing an open hand against all the Jewish political functionaries ... For me, 'open hand' is a winged word. View quote
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. View quote
Adolf Eichmann
It was actually an achievement that was never matched before or since. View quote
Adolf Eichmann
Obeying an order was the most important thing to me. It could be that is in the nature of the German. View quote
Adolf Eichmann
During cross-examination, prosecutor Hausner asked Eichmann if he considered himself guilty of the murder of millions of Jews. Eichmann replied: "Legally not, but in the human sense ... yes, for I am guilty of having deported them". When Hausner produced as evidence a quote by Eichmann in 1945 stating: "I will leap into my grave laughing because the feeling that I have five million human beings on my conscience is for me a source of extraordinary satisfaction", Eichmann countered the claim saying that he was referring only to "enemies of the Reich". (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. View quote
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? View quote
Adolf Eichmann
I have to forge my weapons according to the strength of the resistance. View quote
Adolf Eichmann
As my chief, Gruppenführer Müller expressed it, they were sending in the master himself, so I wanted to behave like a master. View quote
Adolf Eichmann