An Israeli psychiatrist, who had 30 sessions with Adolf Eichmann during his pre-trial detention, was disclosed today to have reported that the defendant was a completely normal person. The psychiatrist examined Eichmann in an effort to detect the sources of his behavior in the crimes for which he is under trial here. He was quoted as saying: “By purely psychiatric tests, Eichmann seems more normal than I am by now. “
The trial of Eichmann, accused of directing the annihilation of 6, 000, 000 Jews in Nazi Europe, will resume tomorrow with Dr. Salo W. Baron, professor of Jewish History at Columbia University, on the witness stand. He will testify for the prosecution as an expert on comparisons between the Jewish communities in Europe in pre-Nazi and post-Nazi days, making the impact of the holocaust on the entire Jewish people.
Prior to calling Dr. Baron to the stand, the prosecution will complete the playback of the lengthy statement made by Eichmann during the police interrogation in the Israeli jail where he was held before the trial opened. In the playback, this weekend, Eichmann claimed that Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler wanted to meet the late Dr. Chaim Weizmann to discuss with him the notorious “trucks for blood” proposal. However, Dr. Weizmann rejected the offer.
Dr. Weizmann’s rejection came, according to Eichmann, through the late Dr. Israel Kastner, a leader of Hungarian Jewry who was assassinated in Israel three years ago. It was Dr. Kastner whom the Nazis used to present their ransom offer to Zionist leaders in Palestine.
There was a strong dramatic moment in the court this weekend when Eichmann said that he would have killed his own father, if requested to do so while serving the Hitler regime. “If somebody had told me ‘your father is a traitor’ and ordered me to kill him, I would have done it, ” Eichmann said during the police interrogation. Asked whether he would not have requested proof before carrying out the order, Eichmann replied, as recorded on the tape: “Such considerations did not exist at the time. “
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