All of the former SS men approached in West Germany to come to the defense of former Gestapo Colonel Adolf Eichmann in his trial in Jerusalem have refused to have anything to do with the case, one of the Nazi’s defense attorneys reported here today.
Dieter Wechtenbruch, the assistant defense counsel in the Eichmann trial which opens next Tuesday, returned here today from his hunt for defense witnesses in West Germany. He said that both he and Dr. Robert Servatius, the chief defense counsel, had approached such prospective witnesses and they had refused to come to Israel, fearing they might be arrested and held for trial under the same Israeli law under which Eichmann will be tried.
Dr. Wechtenbruch said the former SS men refused even to give testimony before a German notary public and that they expressed opposition to being involved in Eichmann’s case in any way. Among those approached by the two attorneys were former SS men who either testified before the Nuremberg trial courts or who had been tried by these courts.
The West German attorney disclosed also that the defense intended to call on other Israelis to testify in addition to Zvi Zohar, chief pilot of the El Al Israel plane which brought Eichmann to Israel last May, and Yaacov Shimony, then El Al Chief of Operations. He did not give any names of such additional Israeli witnesses.
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