Evening star., 1961-04-09
Merely q Little
Cog

IVY -. .
On what grounds will Adolpn
Eichmann'S defense be based? .
Last November, Life Magazine
published his memoirs. They said
he gave them to a German news
paperman in Argentine while he
was a fugitive, talking into a tape
recorder for hours at a time" In,
these statements. Eichmann is
quoted as saying:
Il was merely a little cog in the
machinery that carried out the
directives and orders of the Ger ~
man Reich. am neither a mur-
derer nor mass murderer.
1T would be as pointless to
blame me for the whole final So
luton of the Jewish problem as to
blame the official in charge of the,
railroads over which the Jewish
transports travelled . with us an
order was an order"
Elsewhere, he says: -
MY department never gave a
single annihilation order. We
were responsible only for deporta-
ton" be-
Referring to the Wannsee con-
ference of 1912 when Hitler al,
legedly ordered the final solu-
ton" - meaning determination.
the article says: -
"Heydrich) assured me that
neither I nor my men would have
anything to do with the physical
liquidation >. we would round UP
the Jews for Others"
He says he never watched the
Jews being herded into trains
headed for the death camps. And
he says he declined an invitation
to witness the asphyxiation Of !,
some captives.
II regret nothing" the article
quotes him as saying. st will not
humble myself or repent in any
way" -,
Grounds Of Defense -
Thus, he may attempt to de-
fend himself on the grounds: "S
/. That it was wartime and, as
an officer, he had no alternative.
but to carry out orders from
above. This was the principal line
of defense of the Nazis in the
Nuremberg trials. -.
Q. That his was an executive
task solely, to collect the Jews in
a given country and to arrange
the railroad timetables that
carried them to the death camps.
What happened there, he may
argue, was not his responsibility.
8. That my department never
gave a single annihilation order"
Eichmann's chief defense coun-
sci is DR.. Robert Servatius of CO..
logne, West Germany. Servatius
was not a Nazi. He defended.
among others at Nurnberg, Fritz
Sauckel, superintendent of the
Nazi slave labor camps. Sauckel>
was convicted and hanged. -,
Israel is paying Servatius' fees.
$4,000.
He said one of his reasons for
taking the Eichmann case is that
he believes there will be posi-
bility in this trial for an official,
revision. so to speak, of the Nurn-
berg trials. which were held under
the shadow of the victorious pow
ers.
"The general legal principles
will have to be cleared up some
time" -.
This apparently refers to the
retroactive character of the Nurn-
berg Charter. under which the
Nazi leaders were tried. -.rA
Israel is trying Eichmann under
a law entitled 1.-THE Nazis and Nazi,
CollaboratorS (punishment) Law,
5710." 1t was passed in 1850. IN
ternational lawyers describe it as
an elaboration" of the Nurnberg
Charter and the affirmations of
the charter in the United Nations
in December, 1916.
His Lowyer's PIons =.
ServatiuS indicated he might
challenge the validity of the trial
on three points of law: -.
/. The retroactive character of
the Israeli law of 1850. ,.-
2. The circumstances under
which Eichmann was captured in
Argentina and brought to Israel.
8. The fact that Eichmann's
crimes were not committed on
Israeli soil and at a time when
Israel did not yet exist.
Whether Servatius will have
witnesses to testify for Eichmann
is not yet clear. He said recently
he had been unable to find any.
Later, an assistant reported
that he had found some. But he
said they are afraid to go to
Israel for fear Of duplicating
themselves. =,
What is Eichmann's attitude on
the eve of the trial?
The Jerusalem Post recently
quoted Servatius as saying: -
Il think Eichmann is eager to
explain why things happened"
e