Israel drew virtually a total blank in response to requests to several East European countries to supply evidence on the activities in those countries of Adolf Eichmann, it was disclosed today.
More than two months ago Israel appealed to all such countries having any information whatever, on the man who directed the extermination of European Jewry to provide help in the preparation of his trial. The only country to give a positive reply, it was reported, was Yugoslavia, which promised help.
This negative attitude, it was noted, conflicted sharply with the many articles and statements in the Soviet Bloc press, after the announcement last May 23 of Eichmann’s seizure, welcoming the arrest and urging punishment.
Israel officials said the absence of East European cooperation would not delay the start of the Eichmann trial because sufficient evidence was available from other sources. Israel, however, sought material from East Europe, a major theatre of Eichmann’s extermination efforts, to obtain at the trial the fullest possible picture of the holocaust suffered by European Jewry.
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.
