The Adolf Eichmann trial in Israel has elicited strong interest in the Federal Republic of Germany and in West Berlin, according to results of a survey announced here today by the Institute for Applied Social Science. The trial, according to a summary of the survey, cannot be termed “taboo” among the German people. The survey revealed that “practically every German family has had to concern itself with the past” due to the extensive German press, television and radio coverage of the Eichmann trial.
Eighty-seven percent of the adults polled said they knew about the Eichmann trial. Forty percent said they were satisfied with the reporting about the trial, while 12 percent said they would have liked to learn more about the case. However, 32 percent said “too much” was being written about the trial, most of the respondents in this group explaining they no longer wanted to hear about Nazi crimes because “we did not know about them.”
A small group among those sampled thought the reports were “exaggerated” and felt the trial was detrimental to Germany’s reputation abroad. Only two percent thought the trial was “unnecessary.”
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