Israel authorities continued to maintain the strictest secrecy today as to where Adolf Eichmann. Nazi war criminal who directed the extermination of 6,000,000 Jews in Europe, had been captured. However, they disclosed that the Israeli security forces had not been aided by the intelligence forces of any other country in locating the fugitive.
In the face of the Government’s tight-lipped silence on the place and circumstances of Eichmann’s capture, considerable circulation was given here today to British Broadcasting Company reports that the Nazi had been found in Latin America, (British newspapers said today Eichmann had been living in Argentina.)
Eichmann pleaded not guilty today in Magistrate’s Court to charges of crimes against the Jewish people and crimes against humanity. He was bordered held for 14 days. Speaking in German, Eichmann told the court “I am not responsible for the facts I am alleged to have committed according to the charge sheet and O shall prove it in due course. “
Tel Aviv Magistrate Emanuel Halevi, who issued the detention order, said Eichmann seemed somewhat upset when he replied to the charge with the statement that “I am not guilty,” The prisoner said he would like legal counsel which authorities said would be provided him.
Meanwhile the general feeling in Tel Aviv about Eichmann was reported to be “hang him. ” Prison officials said that the Israel gallows had been destroyed after capital punishment was abolished. If Eichmann is convicted and sentenced to death, a new gallows will have to be built.
Many Jews who were survivors of Nazi extermination camps have telephoned police headquarters volunteering their services as executioners of Eichmann in the event he is convicted and sentenced to death, police reported today.
MINISTRY OF JUSTICE PREPARES INDICTMENT; DEATH SENTENCE ANTICIPATED
The Ministry of Justice, according to reports today, was preparing the indictment to be filed against the Nazi hatchet-man. It was not clear today whether Eichmann would be accused of mass murders or of a “crime against the Jewish people.” Either charge or both would be possible under the Israel law for the punishment of Nazis and Nazi collaborators. Both involve the death penalty.
A special police investigations unit has been set up to rush completion of the indictment and prosecution of Eichmann and to bring him to trial at the earliest possible time. It was indicated today that some prize money would be given to the men directly involved in the capture of Eichmann, A $20,000 reward for information leading to Eichmann’s apprehension had been offered by the Yad Vashem, the central office documenting the Nazi treatment of the Jews,
The capture of Eichmann was ascribed today to the thirst for revenge of an unidentified Jew whose wife and children were deported to the gas chambers, where they perished, under Eichmann’s orders
The Nazi’s nemesis, it was reported, vowed to spend the rest of his life in hunting down Eichmann and bringing him to retribution, Six month ago, he got on to Eichmann’s trail and notified the Israeli authorities. He dogged the Nazi’s footsteps until the moment came to signal his capture.
Diplomatic circles continued today to evince the greatest interest in the case, particularly in view of the fact that the trial of Eichmann may involve other personalities here and -abroad who had been associated with the work of rescuing Jews from the Nazis during World War II,
Former West German President Theodor Heuss, who is visiting Israel, commented; “I well understand the great excitement among all citizens of Israel. ” He was quoted as saying he was sure Eichmann’s case would be handled in a Just manner since Eichmann was a major war criminal and headed the list of these criminals in Germany.
Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, said he hoped Eichmann’s trial would be “a classic case of the Jewish people in Israel against the person who implemented the mass murder of six millions. ” Eichmann’s capture by the Jewish people had “historical significance,” he added.
Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Nissim described Eichmann as a criminal “whose like is unknown in all of Israel’s history of persecutors. Hundreds of thousands of the Children of Israel who have been bereaved and tortured by this oppressor look to the courts to Judge him with the maximum severity of the law “
The Yad Vashem, central agency for the collection of data on the extermination of European Jewry, established a special department to prepare a dossier on Eichmann from its archives to be placed at the disposal of the Justice Ministry for his trial. The files include his autobiography and a facsimile in Eichmann’s handwriting, as well as documents dealing with his visit to Palestine in 1937 and his connection with the former Mufti of Jerusalem,
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