 On Point Vincent Carroll, editor of the editorial pages, writes his On Point column most weekdays. He is also an author and freelance writer. Reach Vincent Carroll at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com. |
Carroll: The real Eichmann
What’s with The Denver Post and Adolf Eichmann?
On Tuesday, the Post explained Ward Churchill’s use of the term “little Eichmanns” as a “reference to Nazi figure Adolf Eichmann, who some historians have speculated wasn’t anti-Semitic but was an ambitious foot soldier for an evil cause.”
On Wednesday, the paper defined “little Eichmanns” as “mindless bureaucrats in a larger campaign like World War II war criminal Adolf Eichmann, who helped manage the logistics of the Nazis’ mass exterminations.”
And on Thursday, yet another article dubbed Eichmann “a World War II Nazi technocrat.”
Eichmann was no mere foot soldier, mindless bureaucrat or technocrat, although that is what he wished the world to believe at his trial in Israel in 1961. Regrettably, the philosopher Hannah Arendt famously reinforced this interpretation — “the banality of evil” was her memorable phrase — in her writings of the time.
Yet such descriptions trivialize Eichmann’s contribution to the Final Solution, as well as Churchill’s invoking his name. Yes, Eichmann was a superb bureaucrat — tireless, efficient and thorough, keeping his head below the radar — but he was also much more.
Far from being a foot soldier, Eichmann was chief of the Gestapo’s Jewish office in charge of implementing the annihilation of an entire people. He was one of the few privileged Nazi insiders asked to attend the Wannsee Conference in 1942, which formalized the extermination policy and where he functioned as confidante to the vicious Reinhard Heydrich, who chaired the proceedings.
As the war progressed, he hectored his colleagues and subordinates in the death machine toward greater efforts, deploring any lost opportunity to sweep up remaining Jews. Near the war’s end when he was overseeing deportations from Hungary, he even disputed Heinrich Himmler’s attempt to step back from genocide in time to cover the killers’ tracks. This from a man who denied any dislike for Jews!
Here is what the Israeli court that found him guilty of crimes against humanity said of his “just-following-orders” claim:
“We reject absolutely the accused’s version that he was nothing more than a ‘small cog’ in the extermination machinery. We find that in the .. . central authority dealing with the Final Solution of the Jewish Question, the accused was at the head of those engaged in carrying out the Final Solution. In fulfilling this task, the accused acted in accordance with general directives from his superiors, but there still remained to him wide powers of discretion which extended also to the planning of operations on his own initiative. He was not a puppet in the hands of others; his place was among those who pulled the strings.”
Why such a big deal about these distinctions? So that we remain faithful to history, of course. But also so that we understand the meaning of “little Eichmanns.” If someone calls you that, he’s not equating you to a mindless foot soldier in an ugly cause. He’s comparing you to an architect of genocide.
Vincent Carroll is editor of the editorial pages. Reach him at Carrollv@RockyMountain
News.com.
Thank you! In today era we would like to forget the bad in history. But history does not change and we should never forget.
Posted by Tom Peck on July 27, 2007 07:10 AMIt's an obvious attempt to minimize and obfuscate the offensive rantings of that so-called "tenured professor" Churchill.
Posted by bruno on July 27, 2007 02:15 PMi love the headline -
Carroll: The real Eichmann
can vincent sue himself for libel/
Posted by Vic on July 27, 2007 04:50 PMIf a driver gets pulled over for speeding, and the police officer runs a check on his license and finds he is wanted for felony manslaughter and arrests him, would it be said that the driver went to jail because he got pulled over? Ward Churchill certainly brought notoriety to himself by his political musings, but the University defended him publicly for his right to his opinion. But the simple fact that his quest for notoriety put him in the spotlight and brought about consequences for his other actions doesn't mean there was some kind of witch hunt as he would have us believe. A committee of his peers found him guilty of offenses that are deemed severe enough to warrant his dismissal and that should be the end of it. I just hope that after the University is made to defend it's actions in court, Churchill will be held liable for the costs that the taxpayers of Colorado will bear in the defense of this absurd lawsuit.
Posted by RandyD on July 27, 2007 07:05 PMChurchill should go to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem or to the Dachau concentration camp outside of Munich. There he could see what real Nazis did. Not that it would have much impression on his closed mind.
Posted by offended on July 27, 2007 09:03 PMChurchill should go to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem or to the Dachau concentration camp outside of Munich. There he could see what real Nazis did. Not that it would have much impression on his closed mind.
Posted by offended on July 27, 2007 09:03 PMChurchill should go to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem or to the Dachau concentration camp outside of Munich. There he could see what real Nazis did. Not that it would have much impression on his closed mind.
Posted by offended on July 27, 2007 09:03 PMGee, you mean Churchill and the Denver Post got it wrong again? What a suprise!
Posted by Whatasuprise on July 28, 2007 07:41 AMWhy does this guy always rag about the Post? Classless really.
Posted by on July 31, 2007 11:10 AMI see from the lack of commentaries from your usual detractors they find your analysis of Eichman compelling. After reading many comments from defenders of Churchill, you have finally place his remarks in a proper context that cannot find much defense.
Churchill is not intelligent enough to even comprehend the magnitude of the insult to the " little Eichmans" he meant to slander. Churchill is one of those educated beyond his intelligence. He was a flim flam artist and sold CU a bill of goods in their endevor to create a feel good dept of ethnic studies. It is only unfortunate it took so long for him to be called to task for his lack of scholarship.