Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, reiterated his belief yesterday that “Adolf Eichmann, who directed the deportation of Europe’s Jews to the Nazi slaughter camps, should be tried by an international court sitting in Jerusalem.
“My opinion was, and I am still of that opinion,” Dr. Goldmann told a press conference today, “that Eichmann and the Nazis did not exterminate Jews only and therefore it is advisable to invite other countries, whose citizens were exterminated, to send judges to Israel and sit as a tribunal with an Israel chairman, to try Eichmann.”
Dr. Goldmann called the conference to reply to Premier David Ben-Gurion who had accused him of a “blow to the feelings of the people of Israel and to the honor of the state” by his proposal. Mr. Ben-Gurion said in a public statement that he protests “with all the force at my command” against Dr. Goldmann making his proposal public. At his press conference, Dr. Goldmann announced that he had written a letter to Mr. Ben-Gurion rejecting his protest.
“I can understand that you oppose my proposal,” Dr. Goldmann said in his letter to the Israeli leader, “but I cannot understand why such a proposal is ‘a severe blow.’ I have already stated that I have no doubt of Israel’s right to try Eichmann and I have expressed my confidence in Israel’s justice. But I thought, and I still think that since it was not only Jews who were killed by Eichmann and the Nazis, but other countries whose citizens were murdered, it is advisable to invite these countries to send Judges to Israel.
“I think it a great honor to Israel that other Judges would come here and sit under an Israeli presiding Judge,” Dr. Goldmann stressed. He emphasized to the newspapermen that he had spoken as an individual, in his own name, not in the name of any organization he heads and that he had not, therefore, consulted them before making his proposals.
“If I were not permitted to express my own ideas,”he exclaimed, “I would have resigned within 24 hours from those organizations.” He noted that Mr. Ben-Gurion had frequently made a number of important statements that were his own personal opinions.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
