-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.bostonherald.com/bostonherald/nat/memoir081299.htm <A HREF="http://www.bostonherald.com/bostonherald/nat/memoir081299.htm">National International News -- Boston Herald .c </A> ----- Adolf Eichmann papers found in German archive Associated Press Thursday, August 12, 1999 08/12/1999BERLIN - Adolf Eichmann, mastermind of the Holocaust, complains about an unfairly strict upbringing, describes his inability to disobey an order and ponders the meaning of life in an apparent first draft of his prison memoir released Thursday. The 127 handwritten pages, with the heading ``My Memoirs,'' were discovered in prosecution files brought to Germany after the Nazi war criminal's 1962 execution, said prosecutor Willi Dressen. ``Apparently they fell into oblivion,'' he said. Dressen heads the German agency coordinating efforts to track down Nazi crimes. Eichmann oversaw the deportation and murder of millions of Jews during World War II and promoted the use of gas chambers in death camps. He escaped to South America after World War II, but was kidnapped in Argentina in 1960 by Israeli agents and brought to Israel. The pages published Thursday were released two days after Israel announced it would hand over a 1,300-page memoir Eichmann wrote while in prison there in 1961 and 1962. A German research institution will prepare the memoir for scholarly publication. The decision to release that memoir - in which Eichmann tries to portray himself as a mid-level official who only followed Hitler's orders - came after one of Eichmann's sons, Dieter, hired a lawyer to claim the book as family property. Israel has had it locked up in its national archive since Eichmann was hanged, allowing access to only a handful of researchers. Its decision to release it with background, commentary and footnotes apparently is aimed at foiling attempts by neo-Nazis to use the text for propaganda. Dressen said he came across the earlier version Tuesday. He had decided to take another look through his thousands of files on the Eichmann case after the Berlin-based Die Welt newspaper asked him if he had a copy of the full memoir. ``We don't have that, but I found something else,'' he said in a telephone interview. He provided a copy to Die Welt, which began serializing it Thursday. In the first excerpt, Eichmann complains about how his parents treated him much more strictly than his siblings for some unknown reason. ``In no way was I a hard-to-raise child,'' he insists. He calls his father an ``absolute authority'' and describes transferring that relationship to his teachers and later to military officers. ``It would have been conceivable that the famous camel went through the eye of a needle, but it would have been inconceivable that I wouldn't have followed an order,'' he wrote. He also rambles about his quest for the meaning of life, settling on a vague ``cosmic movement'' as the answer. The rest of the manuscript, written in a tight cursive script, continues in the same ``bombastic and banal'' language and progresses to attempt to justify Nazi crimes, according to Dressen. Some historians accused Die Welt of sensationalism. Wolfgang Benz, head of the center for anti-Semitic research at Berlin's Technical University, told the Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel that it would be better ``if a handful of historians read the text, analyze in the context of other sources, and then publish the results for the broad public.'' But Johann Michael Mueller, an editor at Die Welt, said the memoir exposes Eichmann's attempts at ``lame excuses,'' even if there are no new revelations. ``I think it would be very interesting for psychologists,'' he said. Dressen said all of his agency's Eichmann files - including the memoir - are open for research, but not to the general public. He said his agency had no plans to publish the 127-page manuscript itself, citing unresolved copyright questions. ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
