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Eichhann to Resume Defense Testimony; Cross Examination to Follow

June 26, 1961
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Adolf Eichmann will return to his bullet-proof prisoner’s dock tomorrow for testimony in his own defense which was scheduled to end this week. The prosecution will then begin cross-examination of the former Gestapo colonel on the charges that he master-minded the mass slaughter of 6,000,000 European Jews.

During his first four days of self-defense testimony last week, the defendant presented a dogged effort to turn away all incriminating evidence as due to such causes as faulty-interdepartmental filing, excessive bureaucracy, coincidence or downright stupidity–the sort of blunders which could happen in even the best-run wartime administration.

The questions from chief defense counsel Robert Servatius and the answers followed a quickly established pattern: that Eichmann’s Jewish Affairs Department in Bureau IV of the Security police never originated directives leading to the uprooting, expulsion and eventual murder of the Jewish victims of the Nazi era and that it only carried out the “technical requirements” of transporting the victims.

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