Criminal Case 40/61, the Trial of Adolf Eichmann

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The trial of Adolf Eichmann began in 1961, labeled "criminal case 40/61." Hannah Arendt covered the trial for the *New Yorker*, later reflecting on her observations in *Eichmann in Jerusalem: The Banality of Evil*. Harry Mulisch, a young and emerging writer at the time, was also assigned to cover the trial for a Dutch news weekly. He later noted that he shared Arendt's views on Eichmann's character. Mulisch's account, modestly termed a report, provides firsthand insights into the trial, vividly describing Eichmann's asymmetric face and tics, as well as his absurdly grandiose self-image. The portrayal of Eichmann reveals a man consumed by bureaucratic calculations and delusions of innocence. Interspersed with reflections on a divided Berlin, a rebuilt Warsaw, and a visit to Auschwitz, Mulisch's work evolves into a deeply personal essay on the Nazi extermination of European Jews and the chilling efficiency of human evil amidst technological progress. Presented with a foreword by Debórah Dwork and translated into English for the first time, this account offers an unsettling portrait of Eichmann and the precision of his actions, marking it as a significant contribution to Holocaust literature.