The Federal Intelligence Service (BND) allegedly covertly introduced an agent into the Adolf Eichmann trial as early as 1961, an operation seemingly sanctioned by the Chancellor’s Office, with the goal of controlling the defendant’s defense. According to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, citing historical researcher Klaus-Dietmar Henke, this agent was a young lawyer assisting Eichmann’s defense who was simultaneously recruited by the BND.
The operation was reportedly designed to protect Hans Globke, the Chief Secretary of the Chancellery and one of Konrad Adenauer’s most crucial advisors. The objective was to prevent the legal responsibility of Globke and other former collaborators and Nazi high-ranking officials involved in the so-called “Final Solution” from surfacing during the trial.
These new insights come courtesy of Klaus-Dietmar Henke, who led the Independent Historical Commission, which studied the problematic early history of the BND from 2011 to 2022. By accessing previously classified documents, Henke completed his book, “Vergangenheitsabwehr” (Defense Against the Past), which examines the manipulations surrounding the Eichmann trial on behalf of the Chancellery. The book is slated for publication in mid-September.
Adolf Eichmann, the former SS-Obersturmbannführer responsible for the mass murder of millions of Jews, had to answer for the Holocaust in Jerusalem as a proxy for hundreds of thousands of accomplices. While Globke never joined the NSDAP, as a civil servant he had already begun establishing the legal and administrative foundations for the Holocaust before the Nazis took power. In 1936, he co-authored the crucial commentary on the “Nuremberg Laws,” which were explicitly designated as the basis for the “Final Solution” at the Wannsee Conference. Despite this ominous history, Globke was able to continue his career unimpeded after the war and became an indispensable pillar of the Chancellor’s administration. Thus, the “SZ” reports, it was deemed necessary, through all means including illegal ones, to prevent Eichmann from naming further individuals in court-top among them the administrative expert who rose to become a chief advisor to the Chancellor and who had previously served Hitler and was now managing affairs for Adenauer.
