We received this email from a gentleman looking into comments made
about “Eichmann’s Priest” on UseNet…
——————————————————-
It was William Hull, and he wrote a book about his talks with
Eichmann: The Struggle for a Soul (Doubleday, 1963).
I have read most of the book now. Hull was not a Catholic priest,
but an “evangelical fundamental Christian” minister. His book
reports his conversations with Eichmann in (apparent) detail,
and also presents some letters between them.
Hull says that his mission was to save Eichmann’s soul by
reconverting him to Christianity, which Eichmann was in his
youth (Evangelical Church). He failed in this. A central
reason for the failure was Eichmann’s refusal to accept Hull’s
claim that only people believing in Christ were to be saved.
Josh’s statement that Hull believed Jews are damned appears
to be true: Hull believed that EVERYONE was damned except
Christians. He says so in his book many times, though never
with any specific mention of Jews.
Here is some of his conversation with Eichmann, whom Hull
describes as believing in God but not Christ. Stuff in [.]
is my paraphrase.
Eichmann: [there are at least two billion people who don’t
believe in Christ] Are they lost?
Hull: Yes, they are all lost.
Eichmann: I cannot believe this. The love of God is so great
that He would not let two thirds of the people of the
world die. My logic does not accept this.
…
Eichmann: I am talking about whether I am ready to meet God.
You say that the only way is through Jesus; you get
it out of that book which is Jewish thought. I don’t
believe it. Then two thirds of the world would be lost.
Hull: Yes! Yes! Yes! Two thirds of the world would be lost
and are lost.
Hull doesn’t state much about his personal views except in these
narrow religious matters. He speaks with horror about Eichmann’s
crimes, and does not sound in any way like a sympathiser.
I found mention of Hull in a few other books, and in the Jerusalem
Post of the time of the execution. There wasn’t anything of interest
to this thread.
Last-Modified: 1996/10/20
