American press reaction to the Adolf Eichmann trial and sentencing, as shown in editorials this weekend, approved of Israel’s handling of the case against the convicted Gestapo colonel. Several newspapers, however, among them The New York Times and the New York Post, agreed with Professor Martin Buber of Israel who had demanded that the death sentence against Eichmann be commuted to life imprisonment.
There was general opinion, as noted in an editorial in the Washington Evening Star, that “Eichmann’s personal guilt could not have been established without, at the same time, convicting the system within which he served.” The New York Times stated on this point: “In the broad context of history, this verdict marks one more condemnation of the whole Nazi regime and all it stood for.”
The New York Journal-American approved not only the fairness of the Eichmann trial, as all other newspapers did, but declared its belief that the death sentence was justified.
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.
