Eichmann’s Orders Sending Jews to Death Camps Presented at His Trial

The prosecution in the Adolf Eichmann trial here presented documentary evidence today to prove that Eichmann personally had given specific orders to deport French, Belgian and Dutch Jews to death camps.

Deputy Attorney General Gabriel Bach, taking over the prosecution at this afternoon’s session, presented documentary evidence to support those portions of the 15-point indictment against Eichmann dealing with the Nazi program for the annihilation of Jews in Western countries occupied by the Hitler forces.

Earlier, Attorney General Gideon Hausner had detailed, through witnesses who took the stand, and through documents, the manner in which the Nazis, under Eichmann’s direct responsibility, carried on mass murders in sections of Eastern Europe later taken over by the Russian Soviet armies.

Among scores of documents introduced by Mr. Bach were several proving that the Paris representative of Gestapo Section IV-B-4 — the section headed by Eichmann– had acted on direct orders from Eichmann. Copies of cables and letters from Eichmann to the Paris man, an officer named Danecker, were introduced, showing Eichmann had demanded that Jews be prevented from escaping or emigrating from France.

Eichmann had personally ordered, other documents showed, that arrangements be made for the deportation, at first, of 6, 000 French Jews who were sent to Auschwitz, Instructions were given to Danecker by Eichmann to see to it that the French Government pay Germany for each deported Jew; later, the “price” to France was fixed at 1,750 marks for each Jew thus deported.

ORDERS REVEAL DETAILS ON DEPORTATION OF FRENCH, DUTCH AND BELGIAN JEWS

One document showed that Eichmann had ordered that, over a three-month period, one train was to leave daily for Auschwitz, each train carrying 1, 000 Jews. The Eichmann order specified that the deportations must include a total of 40, 000 French Jews, 40, 000 more from Holland, and 10, 000 Jews from Belgium.

At today’s morning session, Attorney General Hausner presented to the court the pattern of Nazi mass-murders of Jews in Eastern Europe. Prior to the launching of the death camp program, when the Einsatzgrupen, Nazi commando units, carried on the murders of Jews for the Nazi apparatus, these units killed over 400, 000 Jews in 1941 alone, according to documents presented by Mr. Hausner. He introduced a document showing that Adolf Hitler had received a report listing more than 360, 000 Jewish executions by the Einsatzgrupen in three months of 1942.

German Army commanders in occupied Russia, it was shown through still another document, complained to Berlin Headquarters that the executions of Jews interfered with their war effort. One German army commander in Byelorussia complained to Berlin about “brutalities which are impossible to describe” and asked Hitler himself to intervene to halt these killings.

The evidence piled up by the prosecution showed that nothing was done in Jewish matters in Eastern Europe without Eichmann’s approval or comment. Further, it was shown that Eichmann found time, midst his duties, to prevent a few individual Jews from escaping.

In one case, Eichmann notified the German Foreign Ministry in 1942 that a Jew, whose release was sought by the Argentine Government because the man was an Argentine national, was transferred on orders of Eichmann’s office to Auschwitz. Later, it was shown, Eichmann personally wrote to the Foreign Ministry that this Jew had died of a heart attack. Similar, personal interventions by Eichmann, in regard to Italian, Hungarian and Rumanian Jews, was documented in other papers presented by Mr. Hausner.

One of the documents introduced by Mr. Hausner was a letter from a Nazi named Wetzel who reported that Eichmann, as head of the Gestapo’s Section IV-B-4, had agreed with a suggestion that German Jews be sent to Riga and Minsk for execution. Appended to this letter was a hand-written note linking Eichmann to a plan for liquidating the Jews by gassing.

Another document, on stationery of Section IV-B-4, signed by Kaltenbrunner, discusses the treatment to be accorded to Jews of foreign, non-German nationality. This letter stated: “We reserve the right to give further instructions on this subject.” The Kaltenbrunner letter, Mr Hausner told the court, indicates that Eichmann’s Section IV-B-4 had the “right” to issue orders to Einsatzgrupen to murder Jews.

According to Mr. Hausner, the documents introduced today dovetail with others found in the archives of the Nazi foreign ministry, dealing with official reports about anti-Jewish actions in many cities later occupied by the Russians.

EYE-WITNESSES TESTIFY ON ANNIHILATION OF ENTIRE JEWISH COMMUNITIES

The first witness on the stand this morning was Mrs. Rivka Yoselevska, formerly of the town of Povusk, near Pinsk. She told how the Nazis plundered, killed and humiliated the Jews of Povusk before they annihilated all 500 of them.

A rabbi whose 10 children had been killed had been forced to don his prayer shawl and ordered to conduct the funeral service for his own children in the town square, in the presence of all the Jews of the town. When he refused to sing and dance, he was beaten. Finally, as he led Povusk Jewry in reciting the “Shema, ” he was tortured to death.

Mrs. Yoselevska told how her parents, sisters and her own infant child were shot to death, naked, in a grave all the Jews had been forced to dig. She had been wounded, and lay in the grave with the dead, but managed to escape, being sheltered by a Christian family living near the mass grave.

Mrs. Leanna Neumann testified about being part of a transport of Jews shipped from Vienna to Riga. She said she was among 350 Jews packed into a small boat which tried to land at Luebeck, Germany. The boat was forbidden to dock, and was set afire. Some saved themselves by jumping overboard. Mrs. Neumann was given refuge on another boat anchored nearby.

Shmuel Horowitz, formerly of Kolomaya, Galicia, told the court he was permitted to remain in his town because he was one of four tailors forced to make clothing for the Nazis. The entire Jewish community of Kolomaya was finally wiped out on one day, a Saturday, in 1943, he said.