Evening star., 1961-04-09

vation degradation in
human suffering and torture"
Never before in history has one
man been charged with personal
responsibility for crimes of such
enormity. In the Nurnberg trials.
a group of Nazis was tried jointly.
Never before has trial been
fraught with greater moral, legal,
and political implications.
The Legal Questions
Few ever raised weightier ques-
tions:
Should Eichmann have been
turned over to West Germany for
trial? Or to an international
tribunal, perhaps under the aegis
of the United Nations?
BY reminding the world of the
hideous catastrophe visited on the
Jews during the war, will it help
to wipe out bigotry and bolt the
door forever against the posi-
bility of another such tragedy?
Or could it. on the cotnrary, trig-
ger new outbuStS of anti-Semi-
tiSm?
viii it revive the old hatreds
against the Germans? Both Chan
cellor Konrad Adenauer and Willy
Brandt, Mayor Of Berlin, have ex-
pressed concern on this score.
Will the testimony document
the existence of an operating
Nazi underground?
Will the case go into history as
another step in humanity's slow,
painful struggle to achieve work.
able system of law and order
among nations?
Finally, no other legal action
ever brought to a courtroom so
many reporters and news media
representatives. Some $50, from 35
nations, received credentials. This
is more than double the number
who covered the Nurnberg trials.
Moreover. this case is the first Of
such magnitude to be televised.
The Long Indictment
Every aspect Of the Eichmann
trial is on q gigantic scale.
It may last six weeks, two
months, or longer.
The indictment contains is
major counts.
They are distilled from evidence
in hundreds of documents, Sc
lected from 800 tons of papers
found in the archives of Hitler's
Germany. The attorney general.
Gideon Hausper, is ready to call
80 witnesses. Other information
was given to Zero Six" the spe-
cial police bureau set up to work
on the case, by 1853 persons. Pros
pective witnesses have come be-
fore Israeli consulates in the
United States, Canada, Latin
America and Germany.
Eichmann himself has written
or dictated more than 1000 type
written pages of his side of the
story.
Foreign Governments There
The Belt Ha'am Community
center) of Jerusalem has been
converted into a huge courtroom.
It has 756 seats. About two-thirds
have been reserved for the press.
The others are set aside for rep
resentatives of foreign govern
ments. Israeli government officials,
judges from other courts, lawyers,
and representatives of various po-
litical organizations.
Hebrew will be the official Ian
guage of the trial.
1t will be translated, simultane-
ously. into. English, French and
German. Transistor radios that
can be tuned to these languages
will bring the proceedings to
spectators who do not understand
Hebrew.
The basement of the Belt Ha' a'am
has been equipped as a press room
with communications facilities, in
cluding numerous overseas tele-
phone circuits to many of the
capitals Of the world.
These channels - which may
have to carry a million words of
written and spoken news on the
heavy days-are separate from
the normal communications ma
chinery of Israel.
What manner of man is the
object of all this?