The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith said today that favorable world press reaction to the conduct of the Eichmann trial has largely dispelled earlier criticism of the circumstances and legality of Israel’s capture of the former Nazi.
The League’s conclusion was contained in a survey of press reaction to the Eichmann trial, which closed yesterday in Jerusalem. The survey covered editorial opinion in the United States, Western Europe, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. It was prepared by a team of researchers directed by Arnold Forster, the League’s general counsel.
The League said the survey indicates that Israel has succeeded in making “a significant impact on civilized society” by spreading on the court record and establishing “the validity of the criminal charges against the Nazis for their mass murder of Jews.”
Noting exceptions to its general conclusions, the League pointed out that press treatment of the trial in the Soviet Union “was slanted to embarrass the Bonn government,” in the Arab countries “to whip up hatred of Israel,” and in Spain “by the government’s past association with the Hitler regime.”
The press in the Communist bloc countries, the League declared, unexpectedly revealed “great variations in approach” even though there was “a common line” which attempted to paint Eichmann as a symbol, not only of Hitler’s but of Adenauer’s Germany. It Poland and Hungary, however, the variation was great enough at times to obliterate the “common line” by stressing the extent of “Jewish martyrdom.”
Reviewing 1,033 editorials published in U. S. dailies after the trial began, the report showed that 735 or 73.1% generally expressed themselves in favor of the trial. Two hundred and fifteen or 20.8% thought the trial should take place even though they criticized alleged irregularities.” Sixty-three editorials or 6.1% “were opposed to the trial or unconvinced that Israel had a right to hold it.” As the trial progressed, the report said negative editorials disappeared and “not a single negative editorial could be found in June or July.”
In the Arab League countries the press, as anticipated, was uniformly hostile, ranging from bitter attacks on Ben-Gurion as a Jewish prototype of Adolf Eichmann, to a glorification of the defendant as a Nazi hero.
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