Eric Johnson

Mrs. Wertz Orbaugh

UWRT 1103
November 12 2014
Inquiry Paper
This paper will consist of my research journey. I will write about my research process as
I search more into my topic. The initial topic of my paper will be about the hunt, capture, and trial
of Adolf Eichmann. This however, is not where my research journey had ended, I continued to
dig deeper and deeper until I learned about things that I never even thought I would ever learn
about.
Adolf Eichmann has become somewhat of a semester project of mine. Every single major assignment I have completed has involved him in some way. For the first project my group
and I created a networking board connecting many events that occurred through out WW2 and
after and connected them to Eichmann. We also researched and learned about his life, role in
the nazi party, his escape from post world war 2 europe, his eventual capture in South America,
and his trial and execution. When I received the rubric for this project I decided that I would
begin my research with Eichmann.
Adolf Eichmann was born in Sonlingen Germany in the year 1906. Throughout his life he
faced a series of failures, until he joined the Nazi party and quickly went up the ranks. in 1938
when Austria became a part of Germany Eichmann was placed in charge of the emigration of
jews. He transported around 110,000 jews out of Austria and Germany between the years 19381939. After the war Adolf fled to South America and hid for over 10 years. Adoff was later found,
and captured by the Jewish secret service Mossad. He was then smuggled out of the country
back to Israel where he was tried and found guilty, he is the only person to have ever been executed in the state of israel.

Eichmanns notoriety was huge at the time of his capture because all of his fellow nazis
began to finger point at him in order to try to lighten there own punishment. Eichmann before his
trial was constantly being interrogated by Israeli officials, and throughout he constantly denied
some of the allegations towards him. Eichmanns defense was also built around the fact that he
was just following orders. I do believe to some extent he was telling the truth, he may have
been convicted for more than he actually did. however, I also believe that even despite that his
role in the holocaust more than justified the results of the trial. Eichmann, after a fourteen week
trial was executer, he is the only person to have ever been executed by the state of israel.
While I read about the life and death of Adolph Eichmann I learned that in 2005 an Israeli organization named Mossad announced its role in capturing Adolf Eichmann. This intrigued
me, I wanted to learn more about Mossad. So in response to my curiosity, I next researched
Mossad, and found out many interesting things.
Mossad was the organization that headed up the Eichmann the investigation and capture. They went to incredible lengths to bring Eichmann back to Israel alive. The Investigation
started off with a very small lead and was a very long and slow process. It took years before the
investigation team could even confirm that the person they suspected to be Eichmann was actually him. Once they discovered it truly was Eichmann they moved cautiously and care. They
successfully captured and brought Eichmann to trial.
Mossad was found almost immediately after the creation of the state of Israel after world
war 2. Mossad led the team and investigation that would eventually end in the capture of Adolf
Eichmann. However, their role did not stop there. They are like the FBI or CIA and they typically
work secretively, and they have been involved in many more events in history such as the Munich olympics massacre. In this event Mossad gathered a team of investigators and agents and
searched for those responsible for that massacre. Mossads team found and killed each person
that was involved in the massacre. Mossad is still around today and they continue to work to
make Israel a safer place for its citizens, and continues to have a very deadly reputation.

In my research of Mossad, I noticed a brief reference to another Nazi-hunting organization. This group was called the Avengers, and from what I could infer from my previous they
used much more drastic and radical measures that the other groups of Nazi Hunters. I found
them very interesting as I have never really read or learned about any post world war 2 Jewish
retaliation for the Holocaust. I really wanted to learn more about this radical and vengeful group.
The avengers were a group of holocaust survivors who sought revenge for all the terrible
atrocities that were done unto the jews. Founded by Abba Kovner this group hunted and killed
former nazis all over the world. Kovner also planned to poison the water supplies of many major
German cities in order to enact his German holocaust however he was caught and arrested
before he could accomplish his goal. The goal of this mission was to kill around 6 million Germans in reparations for the 6 million jewish people killed during the Holocaust. It is crazy to think
what revenge can drive some people to do as it drove all the jewish people in this organization
to take justice into there own hands. They became judge, juror, and executioner
My research journey helped me learn about a lot of things that I had never even heard
about before. Before this paper I had no idea about any avengers, or Mossad. It was a really
interesting change in perspective because typically when you think of Jewish people during this
time period you think of victims and the millions that lost their lives in the holocaust. However, in
this research I was able to learn about groups of jewish people that fought back and sought justice for the injustices of the holocaust.

I felt this picture is a great representative of how in my research I learned about Jewish retaliation groups and how they sought revenge after the atrocities of the Holocaust.

http://matthewjbell.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/hvmwr.jpg?w=616

Eichmann, Adolf, Adolf Eichmann, Jochen Von. Lang, and Claus Sibyll. Eichmann Interrogated:
Transcripts from the Archives of the Israeli Police. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux,
1983. Print.
Cesarani, David. Becoming Eichmann : Rethinking the Life, Crimes, and Trial of a "desk
Murderer" Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 2006. Print.
Thomas, Gordon. Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad. New York: St. Martin's,
1999. Print.
Setton, Dan. "Angels of Vengeance : The Untold Story of Vigilante Justice against Nazi War
Criminals." N.p., n.d. Web.