An Israeli prosecutor of Nazi SS officer Adolf Eichmann said Friday that the convicted war criminal was obsessed with exterminating Jewish children during the "Final Solution" and dismissed the idea that he was a soldier following orders.

Former Israeli Supreme Court Justice Gabriel Bach said Eichmann, who was head of Hitler’s Department for Jewish Affairs during World War II, “was responsible during the war for every minor detail of the Holocaust,” as he commemorated the 50th anniversary of the trial at a speech in Beverly Hills, California.

Bach argued that Eichmann proactively engaged in the Nazi goal of exterminating Jews.

“This was someone who had a complete obsession,” Bach said.

Bach criticized Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt’s book about the trial, “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil,” in which she challenged the prosecution’s theory that Eichmann was an evil man. Arendt’s book characterized Eichmann as a bureaucrat carrying out orders from his superiors. 

Bach said Arendt “quoted evidence and documents in a completely falsified manner” in her book. 

He referred to a particular telegram admitted into evidence during the trial that he said proved Eichmann’s “fanaticism” for killing Jews was so profound that he contradicted direct orders from Adolf Hitler, and sent 8,700 Jewish families in Hungary to their deaths. 

Bach claimed Arendt twisted the document to suggest the Eichmann disobeyed an order from Nazi SS chief Heinrich Himmler to fulfill Hitler’s wishes.

“Himmler had nothing to do with it,” Bach continued.  “She had complete access to this, and I don't know if it was a mistake or deliberate.”

Bach then said there were rumors of a romance between Arendt and [Martin] Heidegger, who he referred to as a “Nazi professor,” but then added, “I'm not prepared to make such a statement.”

Roger Berkowitz, academic director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, said there is “no factual or meaningful support” to suggest Arendt was motivated by her relationship with Heidegger, which Berkowitz does not deny took place.

“It does not seem that Arendt ever cites this telegram in her book,” Berkowitz said.

Berkowitz claimed Arendt judged Eichmann not as a “monster,” but as “a shallow bureaucrat who was able to do inhuman acts by consoling himself with the belief that he was obeying the law.”

Editor's note: The statement by Roger Berkowitz regarding the relationship between Arendt and Heidegger was updated on Sept. 25 to improve clarity.