Adolf Eichmann's memoirs were sold by a man looking to profit from them.
Posted by The Pete Quiñones Show, Checked
- Sources
- 4 support1 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 85%
The Pete Quiñones ShowOct 10, 2026
Multiple sources report that Willem Sassen, the Dutch Nazi journalist who recorded Eichmann's memoir material, sold pieces of it to Life magazine and Stern, and that he planned to split the profits from a memoir. The passage's 'corrupt man looking to profit' is the same Sassen, and the claim drops the 'corrupt' characterization, which is not a material element.
What was said
… you know, I, no, it's not weird that people are prone to devising shibboleths and worshipping strange lesser gods and things of their own devising, but I maintain Eichmann was a particularly odd choice of targets. But that too, I mean, that was, you know, he came on people's radar because a very corrupt man was essentially looking to profit by selling the man's memoirs that he'd sort of surreptitiously put the paper, you know, and then Eichmann entered the public mind, you know, when his face cropped up on the cover of Life magazine, and there was a sort of perfect convergence of variables whereby he could be transformed into some sort of bogeyman in the public mind, a …
The Pete Quiñones Show · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. Sassen sold part of the Eichmann material for two articles in Life magazine, according to a JTA report of the trial proceedings.[3]
Supports. The Jerusalem Post reports that Sassen sold the Eichmann tapes to West Germany's Stern magazine and to Time-Life, after financial bickering over his fee demands.[4]
Supports. Sassen's Life excerpts and the Sassen papers essay state that the original plan was for Sassen and Eichmann to publish a memoir and split the profits, which were abandoned when publication plans collapsed.[1]
Supports. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Willem Sassen sold pieces of the Eichmann interviews to Life magazine.[5]
Context. The CIA names file documents cables on the 'Selling of Eichmann Memoirs' and Life's plans to publish them in 1960, corroborating the sale of the memoirs.[2]
Sources
5 sources: 2 primary, 3 not rated
- 1Excerpts from the Sassen Papershac.bard.edu · primary source · cited for: supports
- 2The CIA Names File on Adolf Eichmannnsarchive2.gwu.edu · primary source · cited for: context
- 3Court Bars Admission of Full Text of Eichmann's Recorded Memoirsjta.org · not rated · cited for: supports
- 4Eichmann, Revisited | The Jerusalem Postjpost.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 5Saskia Sassen’s Missing Chapterchronicle.com · not rated · cited for: supports
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
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