In 1944, Adolf Eichmann is 38 years old, 5-foot-8, and thin. He is a member of the Schutzstaffel (known as the SS), the paramilitary wing of the Nazi party. The scope of Eichmann's authority is large: director of Jewish affairs for eight years, and head of Department IVB—the department responsible for prosecuting the Nazis' "Final Solution."He is tasked with capturing and deporting the Jewish population of Hungary to concentration camps, to be killed—either through forced labor or outright execution. Eichmann takes pride in the efficiency with which he carries out his work. After his initial discomfort supervising executions in Central and Eastern Europe, he rationalizes his compliance through the idea that he is simply "following orders." Nonetheless, he relishes the opportunity to destroy, in his words, "the enemies of the Reich."

It is difficult to conceive of Eichmann's mentality in a single stroke; indeed, its internal divisions are as important as any of the constituent facts of his life. Most essential to Eichmann's personality, perhaps, are his attempts to reconcile his actions with his beliefs about himself, by purposefully and habitually muddying and confusing his choices and attitudes. In his attempts to reduce his role in the Holocaust, and recast himself as at times ignorant or simply indifferent, he attempts to obscure and deny history itself.