The trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Israel, which is scheduled to begin in Jerusalem on April 11, will be conducted in a way not to affect the present friendly relations between the Jewish State and the West German Government, the Israeli Government was reported here today as having informed Chancellor Konrad Adeneur.
Despite the assurances, however, which were conveyed to the Chancellor by the Israel Mission in Cologne, Dr. Adenauer and many of his associates expect a new wave of anti-German feeling abroad when the concentration camp atrocities of the Nazi regime are reviewed before the Israeli court next month.
A special West German prosecutor’s office will be set up to study evidence emanating from the Eichmann trial which would incriminate West Germans. Dr. Franz Myers, Premier of the North Rhine-Westphalia state, said that any such evidence would be checked immediately to prevent any “long period of smoldering unrest. “
In reassuring the West German Chancellor on the prosecution of the case, the Israeli Government, it was learned, informed Dr. Adenauer that they do not intend to handle the Eichmann trial in a way that “would put German-Jewish relations back to where they were in 1945.”
The Israeli Government also indicated that Eichmann’s testimony on his role in the murder of millions of European Jews may involve comparatively few disclosures about German war criminals that are not already public knowledge.
Eichmann’s list of war criminal associates is reported to include former Nazis already tried by German and Allied courts; war criminals still at large in the Middle East, South America and elsewhere outside Germany; and persons in West Germany still awaiting prosecution by German courts.
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.
