Recording the Eichmann interviews

In June 1960, Israeli agents abducted Adolf Eichmann from Buenos Aires, sparking international outrage and a landmark trial in Israel. But behind the headlines was a hidden story: Eichmann had spent years living under an assumed name in Argentina, where he was interviewed extensively by Wilhelm Sassen, a Dutch Nazi sympathiser and journalist. Over 29 hours of recordings and 1,000 pages of transcripts were made, capturing Eichmann’s chilling reflections on the Holocaust—contradicting his later claim at trial that he was merely a bureaucrat. Sassen, who had fled Europe after being imprisoned for collaboration, sought to rewrite Nazi history through these interviews, even as Time and Life magazine bugged his home to verify the recordings. Saskia Sassen, his daughter, recalls the terror and moral horror of living with a man who orchestrated genocide, and the family’s fear that they were at risk. The tapes vanished for decades, raising questions about whether Sassen betrayed Eichmann to Mossad or altered the transcripts to protect him. Today, the recordings remain one of the most disturbing and revealing accounts of the Holocaust’s architect—unheard, unverified, and still shrouded in mystery.