Skip to content
quotesby

I'd like to say something about this last, about this last point of this terrible, terrible business. I mean Treblinka. I was given orders. I went to see Globocnik in Treblinka. That was the second time. The installations were now in operation, and I had to report to Muller. I expected to see a wooden house on the right side of the road and a few more wooden houses on the left; that's what I remembered. Instead, again with the same SturmbannFuhrer Hofle, I came to a railroad station with a sign saying Treblinka, looking exactly like a German railroad station - anywhere in Germany - a replica, with signboards, etc. There I hung back as far as I could. I didn't push closer to see it all. I saw a footbridge enclosed in barbed wire and over that footbridge a file of naked Jews was being driven into a house, a big... no, not a house, a big, one-room structure, to be gassed. As I was told, they were gassed with ...what's it called? ... Potassium cyanide... or cyanic acid. In acid form it's called cyanic acid. I didn't look to see what happened. I reported to Muller and as usual he listened in silence, without a word of comment. Just his facial expression said: 'There's nothing I can do about it.' I am convinced, Herr Hauptmann, I know it sounds odd coming from me, but I'm convinced that if it had been up to Muller it wouldn't have happened.

Adolf Eichmann#8

HistoryTestimonyEventsObservation

About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker describes visiting a site, observing conditions, and witnessing Jews being driven into a structure for gassing.
In plain terms
I saw a place where people were taken to be killed.
What can you take from it?
Witnessing events can confirm knowledge of atrocities.

Where it applies

  • inspection
  • confession
  • investigation

Putting it to work

  • verify events
  • review testimony
  • assess knowledge

Questions to consider

  • What does seeing entail?
  • How do witnesses respond?

Another view

Witnessing does not imply stopping the events.

More from Adolf Eichmann

  1. The war with the Soviet Union began in June 1941, I think. And I believe it was two months later, or maybe three, that Heydrich sent for me. I reported. He sai…

    Permalink to quote #7
  2. Obeying an order was the most important thing to me. It could be that is in the nature of the German.

    Permalink to quote #9
  3. Hatten wir 10,3 Millionen Juden getotet, dann ware ich befriedigt und wurde sagen, gut, wir haben einen Feind vernichtet. ... Ich war kein normaler Befehlsempf…

    Permalink to quote #6

Related quotes

  1. To sum it all up, I must say that I regret nothing.

    Adolf EichmannAdolf Eichmann quote #1
  2. I assisted at the birth of that most significant word 'flirtation,' which dropped from the most beautiful mouth in the world.

    Philip StanhopePhilip Stanhope quote #2
  3. Expositions are the timekeepers of progress.

    William McKinleyWilliam McKinley quote #3