Eichmann's Men is the English translation of Hans Safrian's Eichmann-Männer, first published in 1993. Not having read the original, this reviewer approached it as a fresh encounter, eschewing a tempting peak at earlier reviews of the original. But one needs to go no further than the Introduction—a graduate student's dream, exceeding by far what one would reasonably expect as a glimpse into the text—for a concise and on-target preview of the main themes. Safrian discloses in his preliminaries that the second-from-top echelon of the SS system of death, including the so-called Eichmann men, played more than a clerical, sanitized bureaucratic role in the Holocaust. They followed orders from on high, but in implementing these instructions, they improvised along the way, assumed the initiative, refined the murder process, and thereby evolved as experts in their sordid skills—and being confirmed, unrepentant anti-Semites, they relished what they were doing. Safrian leaves nothing for a Conclusion—which is nonexistent. Reading this book for the first time in English rather than in the original German precludes any comparisons between the German original and the translation, though the text reads smoothly—a clear, legible style with no recognizable errors in translating the often complex, subject-specific terminology. This edition contains a detailed and thorough listing of citations, with extra commentary threading from the text to generously annotated endnotes. In addition to the copious citations, to the pleasure and convenience of researchers and those who would like to pursue the subject in further readings, Safrian provides an impressive, accessible bibliography listing both primary and secondary sources.

The Introduction also provides a historiographical discussion of the Holocaust, lining up the “so-called Intentionalist School of interpretation, which stresses the direct, immediate connection between Hitler's anti-Semitic ideology, plans, directives, and the realization of mass murder,” against the “Structuralist … also referred to as Functionalist School … [that] points to a ‘cumulative radicalization’ of National Socialist racism and … modifies the importance of Hitler's unequivocal directives for the execution of genocides” (p. 9). The author, however, is not content with leaving the forum to these two familiar contenders alone, and injects a third, referring to scholars such as Herbert A. Strauss who espoused “the absolute incomprehensibility of the Holocaust,” Dan Diner “considering Auschwitz as a ‘black box’ … a no-man's land of comprehension,” and others who declined to take sides (p. 10). In broaching this Elie Wiesel-like option—the impossibility of complete understanding, Safrian hints at his own skepticism, intimating the futility of comprehending the Holocaust, a view this reviewer, after years of studying, reading, and teaching the Holocaust, is also slowly but surely adopting: the Holocaust does not fit into neat categories and constructs of scholarly debate and will always remain perplexingly enigmatic, no matter how broadly and deeply it is examined. Read it, study it, try to grasp its enormity, and that's about all one can expect in the way of comprehension.

Advancing beyond the Introduction, the reader encounters a dramatic and engaging exposition of the subject. Relying on thorough, evidently fastidious research in archives and his mastery of the relevant literature, Safrian crafts a compelling, frightening, and sobering tale of the human condition, particularly its dark side. Chapter by chapter he weaves an intricate tale of how a group of men, imbued with a common worldview bred within a virulent anti-Semitism peculiar to central Europe—specifically Austria—under the leadership of one of their own, Adolf Eichmann, discovered that they had the skills, the predilection, and the opportunities to perfect a killing machine based on the “Vienna Model,” the process they developed during and subsequent to the 1938 Austrian Anschluss. As he recounts the trial-and-error steps piecing together the “machinery” for murder, the author weaves together into an inextricable synthesis evidence for both interpretations, for the “Intentionalists” as well as the “Functionalists.”

As Eichmann's men fine-tuned the “machinery,” they along with others working toward the same goal of solving the “Jewish Question” eventually reached the Endlösung, the Final Solution. They found themselves at the center of the process, often summoned by superiors to apply their skills to particular problems—in transportation, rounding up victims, doing whatever it took to complete the operation. As these men honed their logistical skills, they by no means emulated deskbound bureaucrats, indifferently and dispassionately following routine clerical practices and implementing orders from above. Instead, from Eichmann on down, contrary to these “banal” everyday images first crafted by Hannah Arendt, they worked in the field, at the grassroots level, dealing face to face with Jews, resolving problems, making decisions, ensuring that the killing actions proceeded efficiently—and they did so with enthusiasm and no remorse. Alois Brunner, one of these men, noted “that the Jews deserved to die because they are ‘agents of the devil,’ human scum. I regret nothing and would do it all over again” (p. 224).

As one reads about the exploits of Eichmann and his men, one is ready to concede affirmation to the claims of “Functionalists,” since these SS zealots did so much on their own initiative, often without specific orders. But not so fast. No less omnipresent than Eichmann's subordinates in virtually all Jewish-related actions stood the orders, plans, and instructions originating with the top Nazis responsible in the planning and supervising of the Holocaust, Heydrich, Himmler, Göring, Goebbels, and Hitler himself—the centerpieces of the “Intentionalist” argument: these highest Nazis “intended” to deal with Jews in drastic ways, setting policy determined by their personal prejudices and interests that eventually resulted in the Final Solution of wholesale murder. Interwoven throughout the text among the names of Eichmann's SS subordinate officers are those of the leading Nazis; and setting parameters and guiding Eichmann's men as they worked locally were the orders from the very heights of Third Reich hierarchy, both in written form and as oral directions, some referring to the expressed wishes of the Führer himself. Overall Safrian balances “Functionalist” implementation from below with the “Intentionalist” orders, plans, and expectations from above, and true to the third alternative suggested in his Introduction, he seems to conclude that the Holocaust might not after all be as susceptible as some scholars would like to think to categorical constructs that provide the keys to its comprehension.

This reviewer found the final few chapters tracing the steps of Eichmann's men abroad of special interest. They hunted down, assembled, and then deported Jews from all corners of the Nazi empire, not only from Austria but also from Poland, France, Hungary, Bohemia-Moravia, Slovakia, Italy, and the Balkans to the east and to their ultimate murder. Of particular note is their reappearance, popping up throughout the book at different locations, at different times—not just Eichmann himself, but also his subordinates, Anton Zita, Josef Weiszl, Dieter Wisliceny, Alois Brunner, Anton Burger, Franz Novak, Alfred Slawik, Ernst Girzick, and many others. One of the most insightful episodes occurred in Greece in fall 1944 during the hectic evacuation of German military forces from the southern Balkans. When circumstances required all Reich efforts and resources be directed toward rescuing more than 300,000 German soldiers from envelopment, several of Eichmann's men, determined to the end to send all remaining Jews to their deaths, managed to find the transportation and manpower to round up several thousands more Greek Jews on Crete, Corfu, and other islands and deport them to the mainland and eventually to their deaths at Auschwitz.

Disclosures in the final chapter, “The Postwar Era,” are as eye-opening as they are disturbing. After the war many of Eichmann's men got away, and most that didn't received only minimal punishment. Particularly galling is the fact that their homelands, Germany and especially Austria, as they supposedly served postwar justice, let those standing trial off with relatively light jail sentences followed by early releases—and hardly any of them, if any at all, expressed any remorse for their deeds. Deplorable also is the fact that so many of their fellow Germans and Austrians hid and protected them, enabling so many to escape. Ultimately finding safe havens in Latin America and the Middle East, these fugitives, living under aliases, at times secretly and at times quite openly maintained contact with old friends, prominent citizens, even officials from their European homelands. As Safrian notes in the Introduction, “traces of many of Eichmann's men dissipated. Very few were arrested at the end of the war and forced to account for their deeds … went underground … [and] were able to escape” (p. 5). This tale of incomplete closure—with Eichmann himself being a major exception—reveals not only the absence of any contrition on the part of these perpetrators, but also reflects the broad sympathy for their evil cause shared by so many of their countrymen standing on the periphery.