How much do you know about the early life of one of history’s most notorious war criminals? What led Adolf Eichmann to become a key figure in the Holocaust?
In her book Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt explores Adolf Eichmann’s early life and his rise to power within the Nazi Party. She argues that Eichmann was an unremarkable man who went on to commit atrocious crimes.
Read on to discover how a failed student and salesman became the so-called “expert” on the Jewish question, shaping the course of history in unimaginable ways.
Adolf Eichmann’s Early Life
Although we’ve seen that Eichmann undeniably committed atrocious crimes during the Holocaust, Arendt contends that he was nevertheless an unremarkable evildoer. We’ll examine Adolf Eichmann’s early life, which was rife with failure, as well as how he fortuitously stumbled into the role of “expert” on the Jewish question within the Nazi Party.
Eichmann’s Childhood, Education, & Early Career
While many historians deem Eichmann one of the “masterminds” behind the Holocaust, Arendt instead argues that Eichmann was a failure for most of his life before joining the Nazi party.
According to Arendt, Eichmann showed no signs of giftedness in childhood. For example, of his five siblings, he was the only one who couldn’t complete high school in his small German hometown, Solingen. After failing to graduate from high school, Eichmann also failed to graduate from the vocational school he was placed in.
(Shortform note: Because of the structure of the German education system, Eichmann’s lack of intellectual giftedness at a young age probably impacted his trajectory. In Germany, students are sorted into different educational paths early: Even today, at around age 10, the more promising students are admitted to a Gymnasium (similar to a preparatory school), while the less promising students go to a Hauptschule (vocational school).)
Following his struggles in vocational school and a brief stint working for his father’s mining company, Eichmann earned a bland job as a traveling salesman for an oil company in 1927. According to Arendt, this was likely the closest Eichmann came to success: Although he wasn’t a high earner, he made a steady income amidst economic hardship in Germany and Austria. However, even this modicum of success was short-lived, as Eichmann was laid off—though he never framed it that way—in 1933.
(Shortform note: Ironically, the economic turmoil that affected Eichmann—which was partially caused by Germany’s large reparations payments to countries like France and Great Britain after World War I—was part of the reason the Nazis rose to power in the first place. According to experts, the economic hardship in Germany made citizens more receptive to the Nazis’ extremist views, especially as the Nazis scapegoated the Jews for the economic instability.)
Eichmann’s Unfounded “Expertise” on the Jewish Question
While Eichmann’s job as a salesperson ended in failure, his time in the SS ultimately led him to be considered an expert on the Jewish question. However, Arendt writes that his self-proclaimed expertise on Jews was mostly a sham, as Eichmann lacked any formal education about the Jews and had only a smattering of informal education.
First, Arendt points out that, following Eichmann’s transfer in 1934 to the Jewish division of the SS’s intelligence agency, he was forced to read the Zionist book Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), which convinced him of the merits of Zionism. But, according to Eichmann, this book was the main source of his “expertise” about the Jewish people, and it’s hard to believe that true expertise could stem primarily from a single book.
(Shortform note: Although Eichmann agreed with the goal of Zionism laid out in Der Judenstaat—namely, the relocation of the Jewish people to Israel—he doubtless disagreed with the motivation behind Zionist reasoning. Theodor Herzl, author of Der Judenstaat, wanted Jews to relocate to Israel to avoid the antisemitism and oppression rampant in Europe, whereas Eichmann wanted Jews to relocate to Israel precisely because of his antisemitic views.)
Second, Arendt writes that Eichmann didn’t seem to understand the other source that allegedly contributed to his expertise—Adolf Böhm’s A History of Zionism. Though Eichmann frequently sang its praises at trial, he often mixed it up with Der Judenstaat. For this reason, Arendt suggests that Eichmann’s role as the “expert” on the Jewish question wasn’t earned through his keen insight and erudition, but rather through a series of fortuitous promotions that landed him in a job beyond his skill level.
(Shortform note: One way to explain Eichmann’s ascent to a high-ranking role in the Nazi Party is via the Peter Principle, which maintains that employees receive promotions until they reach a point of incompetence. In other words, low-ranking employees are promoted until they can’t handle their role. In Eichmann’s case, the Peter Principle suggests that his earlier success at more menial tasks in the SS caused him to rise too far in the party ranks.)
