Eichmann to Testify at His Trial; Court Told of His Crimes in Greece

Adolf Eichmann is expected to take the witness stand on his own behalf on June 5, Dr. Robert Servatius, his chief defense counsel, stated here this afternoon, as the trial of the ex-Gestapo colonel was resumed.

A spokesman for the special security guard over the prisoner announced that, during his imprisonment, Eichmann has had two attacks of “extra systolia, ” manifested by an irregular pulse. This malady, also known medically as “functional arythmia, ” was caused by nervous tension, the spokesman said. The announcement about Eichmann’s attacks came after Dr. Servatius himself had told some correspondents here that Eichmann had suffered two heart attacks.

The trial today brought forth testimony, and documentary evidence, showing the nature and magnitude of Nazi atrocities against Jews in Greece and Bulgaria, eliciting from one witness the fact that, of 56, 000 Jews deported from Greece, only 1,900 survived.

At the same time, an announcement was made by Attorney General Gideon Hausner that former Nazi SS General Hubert Kappler, now serving a prison sentence in Italy for war crimes, will be questioned in Italy just as former Nazis in Germany are being questioned there now by German courts. Dr. Servatius had requested questioning of General Kappler. Both the prosecution and the defense will draw up questionnaires to serve as the basis for the Italian court’s interrogation of the Nazis.

Documents showing that Eichmann’s office had urged the Hitler Foreign Ministry to put pressure upon Bulgaria to hand over Bulgarian Jews to his Jurisdiction were introduced this afternoon by Mr. Hausner. Since Bulgaria was an ally of Nazi Germany, and not an occupied country, Eichmann had to approach the Sofia Government through the Foreign Ministry. The papers showed he wanted Bulgaria to close its borders against Jewish emigration before they could escape.

Then Mr. Hausner opened the chapter on Greece, showing that Eichmann was pressuring the Italian army, occupying Greece, to implement “systematic” anti-Jewish measures in Thracia and Macedonia. Eichmann was shown to have ordered his aide in Greece to report on “the progress” of the various steps he ordered, including establishment of ghettoes and the launching of a deportation program.

Yithak Nehama, a Jew who had been a small store owner in Salonika, Greece, testified to the terror and brutalities suffered by the Jews in his city at the hands of Germans. He told of being part of a transport of 2, 700 Jews sent to Auschwitz, saying only ten of these Jews survived. When Eichmann’s own assistant in Salonika tried to postpone further deportation of Greek Jews, Eichmann ordered that the transports be resumed.