We could have killed more Jews, says Adolf Eichmann in newly declassified tapes

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Updated:

One of the chief organisers of the Holocaust regretted that it did not kill more Jews newly declassified recordings have revealed.

Adolf Eichmann, who was tasked with managing the logistics of transporting Jews to concentration camps, said the biggest 'mistake' he made was not murdering all of them.

'We didn't do our job properly,' he said to a reporter who interviewed him following the end of the War. 'We could have done more.'

Flanked by two guards, Adolf Eichmann listens at his war crimes trial in Israel. Newly declassified tapes have revealed that he believe his biggest mistake was not murdering all Jews

Flanked by two guards, Adolf Eichmann listens at his war crimes trial in Israel. Newly declassified tapes have revealed that he believe his biggest mistake was not murdering all Jews

The claim from Eichmann was made during the 1950s when he fled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to try and escape justice.

Once he arrived there, he found it difficult to conceal who he really was and this eventually led to him discussing his past with friends in the city.

This failure resulted in him meeting with two journalists named Willem Sassen and Eberhard Fritsch who both had Nazi connections.

Adolf Eichmann was one of the main organisers of the Holocaust and was in charge of the transportation of Jews to the concentration camps

Adolf Eichmann was one of the main organisers of the Holocaust and was in charge of the transportation of Jews to the concentration camps

They took the opportunity to interview him regularly at Sassen's home and record what was said.

Using the alias Ricardo Klement during the interviews, he gave his insight into what happened during the War, and contradicts the defence he used at his war crimes trial in 1961.

At that trial in Israel he said that he was only following orders and was a small part of the Nazi machine, but in the tapes he is clearly heard boasting that he was part of the decision making process.

'I didn't just take orders,' Eichmann is heard saying.

'If I had been that kind of person, I would have been a fool. Instead, I was part of the thinking process, I was an idealist.'

In the tapes, Eichmann also appears to take pride in the crimes he committed as there is not one word of regret from the man who was one of the masterminds of the Final Solution.

The tapes were recently discovered by the German news magazine Der Spiegel after the country's intelligence service released 4,500 files on Eichmann.

The files are now located in the German Federal Archie in Koblenz.

Adolf Eichmann was hung in Israel during 1962 for crimes against humanity.

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