Sixty years after the start of the trial of Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann in Israel, the International Auschwitz Committee has recognized the importance of the trial for the survivors of the mass murder of European Jews. For them, the trial was also an extremely important signal that no hiding place in this world was safe for Nazi murderers, said Executive Vice President Christoph Heubner today.
The SS-Obersturmbannführer Eichmann had millions of Jews deported to extermination camps during the Nazi era. After the war, the former head of the Jewish department in the Reich Security Main Office was able to flee to Argentina. In May 1960, however, Israeli agents overpowered him and abducted him to the Jewish state to be tried there.
Regarding the role of the authorities and the judiciary in Germany, Heubner said: “To this day, the survivors are also aware that government agencies in Germany knew long before the Jerusalem trial where Eichmann and other Nazi perpetrators had escaped. There was no interest in having him extradited to Germany and brought to justice there. “
„No escape for genocide“
Heubner continued: “The survivors are all the more grateful to this day for this trial in Jerusalem, which they still regard as a reminder that genocide cannot escape in the future and that the legal processing of Nazi crimes is in Germany must continue. “
The worldwide sensational trial against Eichmann lasted eight months after it started on April 11, 1961 and ended with a death sentence. The trial is considered to be a key trigger in coming to terms with the Nazi crimes. Chief Prosecutor Gideon Hausner said in his opening speech in 1961: „I’m not alone, there are six million accusers here with me.“ More than 100 witnesses were questioned during the trial. To this day, Eichmann is the only one in the history of the modern Israeli state against whom the death penalty was carried out.
