Israel police officers today started direct questioning of Adolf Eichmann–Nazi leader who directed the annihilation of 6,000,000 Jews–in his cell in a jail in the Northern part of the country. He will be questioned from four to five hours a day. Until now he was writing his version of his Nazi career or dictating it on a tape recorder.
Eichmann was reported to be answering all questions without resistance and was understood to have no special requests for his interrogators. His spirits were reported to be very low. The Government Press Office published today for the first time a picture of Eichmann taken in the Israel prison. His Israel photograph resembles those recently published in American newspapers but he appears somewhat older.
Pinhas Rosen, Israel’s Minister of Justice, confirmed today that several months will be needed to prepare for trial the case against Eichmann. Speaking to a group of visiting West German Journalists, Mr. Rosen also hinted that an attorney from abroad will have to be Eichmann’s defense attorney. It had previously been reported that two leading Arab Israeli attorneys had been approached to handle the defense assignment and had turned it down.
The Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, defeated today a motion by the right-wing Herut party expressing opposition to Justice Minister Pinhas Rosen’s request to the Israel press to avoid comment which might prejudice the forthcoming trial of Eichmann. The vote was 29 to 20.
Mr. Rosen spoke against the motion, declaring that the Nazi war criminal must be tried in accordance with the law. He added that the law made no distinction between criminals accused under regular or extraordinary circumstances. The Cabinet Minister added a warning that the press could be liable to contempt charges if it condemned Eichmann before conviction.
BEN-GURION, OTHER MINISTERS GET THREATENING LETTERS ON EICHMANN
Threatening letters in connection with Eichmann’s arrest continued to arrive today addressed to various members of the Israel Cabinet. More than a half dozen have been received at Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion’s office written in various languages, some from France and some from Germany. Some of the letters were mailed in Israel and while these also were turned over to the Security Service, it was believed they were the work of pranksters.
The Israeli press published today a report, which it said was based on the notes Eichmann is writing in his cell in a jail in northern Israel, that as Nazi Gen. Erwin Rommel’s troops advanced on Cairo during the second World War, the SS political section prepared lists of leaders of the Palestine Jewish community for execution on the first day of entrance of German troops into Palestine.
According to the report, the lists were prepared in cooperation with Nazi agents then in Palestine. The SS also had prepared lists of those to be arrested on the first day and was working on an “overall plan” to deal with the Jewish population of Palestine. This latter plan was developed in cooperation with the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem, the war criminal Haj Amin Husseini.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
