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Capture
and Indictment.
Eichmann had been captured by Israeli agents in Argentina in May 1960,
and on February 21, 1961, the Israeli attorney general, Gideon Hausner,
signed a bill of indictment against him. The indictment consisted of
fifteen counts of "crimes against the Jewish people, crimes
against humanity, war crimes," and membership in the SS, SD and
Gestapo - all of which had been declared "criminal
organizations" at the International Military Tribunal at the
Nuremberg Trial. The charges did not confine themselves to Eichmann's
acts against the Jews, but included crimes against the Poles,
Slovenes, Gypsies and Czechs. All the counts related to offenses under
the Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law 5710-1950.
Leading Personalities in the Trial.
The trial, conducted by the District Court of Jerusalem, began on
April 10, 1961. The court consisted of Supreme Court justice Moshe
Landau (who presided), Jerusalem District Court president Benjamin
Halevi, and Tel Aviv District Court judge Yitzhak Raveh. The public
prosecution was headed by Gideon Hausner, and the defense by Dr.
Robert Servatius, a German lawyer who had defended several of the
accused in the Nuremberg Trial.
The Defense.
The defense raised several preliminary arguments: 1) There was reason
to doubt whether the judges, who were Jews and citizens of Israel,
were able to give the accused a fair trial; 2) the trial must not be
held, because the accused had been kidnapped and illegally taken to
Israel; 3) the Nazis and Nazi Collaborators Law 5710-1950 was a post-factum
law and therefore unjust; and 4) the offenses had been committed
outside the borders of the State of Israel and before its
establishment. All these arguments were rejected by the court, based
on legal reasoning and precedents. The defendant, then, pleaded on
each count: "In the sense of the indictment, not guilty."
The Prosecution's Case.
The prosecution presented its case using over 100 hundred witnesses
and 1,600 documents, many bearing Eichmann's own signature. It
furnished the court with details of the persecution of the Jews in all
its stages and in all of Nazi-dominated Europe. It proved the personal
involvement of Eichmann, as head of the Gestapo section for Jewish
affairs (Office IV B4), in all these stages. The defense did not
really question the facts related to these events, or challenge the
authenticity of the documents. Rather, it played down Eichmann's role
by depicting him as an underling who had no choice but to carry out
the orders of his superiors. The court rejected this claim. The trial
proved Eichmann had fully identified with his task. The court also
found that the claim that Eichmann was only following orders, was of
no avail to him from the legal standpoint. Eichmann was found guilty
on all counts, with some minor changes, and on December 15, 1961, was
sentenced to death. Eichmann lodged an appeal which was rejected by a
panel of five justices of the Israeli Supreme Court, presided over by
Yitzhak Olshan, on May 29, 1962. Following the denial of a plea for
clemency, by the president of Israel, Itzhak Ben-Zvi, Eichmann was
hanged on the night between May 31 and June 1, 1962. It was the only
instance in the annals of the State of Israel of a death sentence
being carried out. His body was cremated and the ashes scattered over
the sea, beyond Israel's territorial waters.
Ramifications of the Trial.
In general, the trial, which had aroused great interest in Israel and
around the world, was well received around the world and seen as the
embodiment of historical justice. It led to an increased interest in
Holocaust research and spurred other trials and investigations,
especially in West Germany.
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