Israel Announces Charges Against Eichmann; Some Carry Death Penalty

Adolf Eichmann was formally accused today by the Government of Israel in a 15-count indictment of committing a long list of crimes against humanity and against the Jewish people. The major crimes charged against Eichmann carry the maximum penalty of death.

The indictment was made public at the same time that it was formally handed to Dr. Robert Servatius of Cologne, who will direct the defense of the former Gestapo Colonel charged with directing the extermination of 6, 000, 000 European Jews.

The delivery of the indictment to Dr. Servatius, along with a list of prosecution witnesses, set in motion the machinery for the once-postponed trial, now set to open March 15. The indictment listed seven counts of crimes against humanity, four against the Jewish people, one war crime and three crimes of belonging to Nazi organizations.

The charge sheet was handed to Dr. Servatius by Attorney General Gideon Hausner, who also told the attorney of the legal conditions established for the attorney’s handling of his defense assignment. Mr. Hausner said arrangements had been made to enable Dr.Servatius to meet Eichmann in his Jail cell outside the hearing range of a third person.

He also told the attorney that he had the right to request, within 15 days, a preliminary hearing for Eichmann in District Court, and the right to see all evidence in possession of the prosecution, Israel’s legal system is almost unique in giving defense counsel the right to see all prosecution evidence.

The Attorney General said he would ask the court to begin the trial on March 15 as scheduled, and that no difficulties would be raised by the defense about the date. It was noted that, the largest number of counts against Eichmann was not for crimes against the Jewish people but for crimes against humanity. This was presumably aimed at underscoring the universal aspects of the trial.

ACCUSED OF CAUSING THE KILLING OF MILLIONS OF JEWS IN EUROPE

Eichmann was accused of having caused, with others, during the period 1939-1945, the murder, destruction, enslavement and deportation of the civilian Jewish population of Germany, the Axis countries and countries occupied by them. In another count, he was accused of having “persecuted Jews on national, racial, religious and political grounds.” Eichmann, together with others, was charged with causing between 1939 and 1945, the killing of millions of Jews.

This mass murder, the indictment said, was carried out by means of extermination, camps established and organized for the purpose of carrying out mass murder by means of

operational groups, the Einzatz-Gruppen, in German-occupied countries where Jews were enslaved and tortured, by means of local concentrations and mass deportations conducted under harsh and inhuman conditions in Germany, Austria, Italy, Bulgaria, Belgium, the Soviet Union, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Denmark, Holland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Greece, Luxembourg, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Czechoslovakia, France and Rumania.

Eichmann was charged with carrying out these acts while serving as the head of the department of Jewish Affairs in Berlin in 1942, and as head of a special Eichmann operations unit in Budapest.

ACTED WITH INTENTION TO DESTROY THE JEWISH PEOPLE, INDICTMENT SAYS

Another count charged him with having, from 1939to 1945, placed millions of Jews in Germany and other Axis and occupied countries in living conditions calculated to bring about their physical destruction in forced labor camps, via mass deportations and transportation under inhuman conditions. While functioning in his two official capacities, Eichmann committed these acts, the indictment charged, with the intention to destroy the Jewish people.

He was charged in another count with having caused serious physical and mental harm to millions of Jews by enslaving, starving, deporting, persecuting and incarcerating them in ghettoes and concentration camps under inhuman conditions of humiliation, starvation, overcrowding and torture.

In a further count, Eichmann was charged with devising in 1942, measures for the sterilization of Jews in Germany and occupied areas with the goal of preventing births among Jews, with the intent to destroy the Jewish people. The indictment also charged the Nazi together with others of having caused spoliation of property of Jewish residents in Germany and in occupied countries by robbery, coercion, terrorism, and torture.

Among the crimes against humanity charged to Eichmann was the deportation from 1940 to 1942 of 500,000 Polish civilians from their places of residences, with the intent to settle German families in their place. According to the indictment, the Polish deportees were in part transferred to Germany to serve as forced labor or for “re-Germanization, ” partly abandoned in German-occupied eastern regions and partly concentrated in labor camps by the Hitler Elite SS under inhuman conditions.

Eichmann also was accused, together with others, of having caused in 1941 the deportation of 14, 000 Slovene civilians from their places of residence in Yugoslavia, to make room for settlement of German families. According to the indictment, the Slovenes were transferred to Serbia by coercive, terrorist measures under inhuman conditions. Eichmann and his associates were also charged, in another count, With causing the deportation of many thousands of gypsies to concentration camps and then to extermination centers.