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Adolf Eichmann was not solely an exceptional defendant because of his role as an SS officer responsible for the deportation of European Jews, but also because of his inclination to express his opinion during court proceedings and to participate in his own defense, as demonstrated by the thousands of notes he kept during his trial in Jerusalem (1960-1962). Eichmann’s notes allow us to study the defense strategy of a Nazi fighting his last battle, his interpretation of the Holocaust and his role in history. Far from supporting Hannah Arendt’s conception of the “puppet” or “desk perpetrator” who did not think for himself, Eichmann’s writing reveals a defendant who was actively involved with interpreting the prosecution’s 1,600 documents, who tried to act as his lawyer’s assistant and who attempted to disabuse the witnesses present.