Adolf Eichmann was born on March 19, 1906. By the time Hitler clawed his way to power, Eichmann was a young man who knew exactly how to butter his bread on the right side. He impressed the right Nazis and climbed the bureaucratic ladder with the kind of ambition that makes corporate ladder-climbers look like amateurs. Despite his place in history, there is no evidence Eichmann ever personally murdered anyone. In fact, whispers claimed he might have had Jewish roots himself. He spoke Yiddish fluently, which is the sort of cosmic irony historians like to underline in red ink. Whatever his background, he sold his soul and cashed the Reich’s paychecks. Eichmann’s claim to infamy was as the transportation czar of the Third Reich. His job was simple in concept, monstrous in execution: coordinate the removal of Jews from every major European city and funnel them to concentration camps and death camps. Millions of people, loaded onto trucks, then stuffed into sealed freight cars. These were...