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Pardon Plea by Adolf Eichmann, Nazi War Criminal, Is Made Public Pardon Plea by Adolf Eichmann, Nazi War Criminal, Is Made Public
(about 3 hours later)
JERUSALEM — After he was convicted and sentenced to death in Israel for his role in the annihilation of millions of Jews by Nazi Germany, Adolf Eichmann pleaded for his own life.JERUSALEM — After he was convicted and sentenced to death in Israel for his role in the annihilation of millions of Jews by Nazi Germany, Adolf Eichmann pleaded for his own life.
In a 1962 letter handwritten in German that was made public for the first time on Wednesday, Mr. Eichmann asked the Israeli president, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, for a pardon, arguing, “There is a need to draw a line between the leaders responsible and the people like me forced to serve as mere instruments in the hands of the leaders.” “There is a need to draw a line between the leaders responsible and the people like me forced to serve as mere instruments in the hands of the leaders,” Mr. Eichmann, the Nazi war criminal who oversaw the lethal logistics of the Holocaust, pleaded in 1962 in a handwritten letter that was made public for the first time on Wednesday.
“I was not a responsible leader, and as such do not feel myself guilty,” Mr. Eichmann, the Nazi war criminal who oversaw the lethal logistics of the Holocaust, wrote. Mr. Eichmann asked the Israeli president, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, for a pardon, arguing, “I was not a responsible leader, and as such do not feel myself guilty.”
The letter, dated May 29, 1962, and other original documents from the Eichmann case, had only been discovered by researchers in the office of the current president, Reuven Rivlin, in the last few weeks, when they were digitizing files from the president’s archive. The letter, dated May 29, 1962, and other original documents from the Eichmann case, were presented on Wednesday by Israel’s current president, Reuven Rivlin, during an event to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The documents had been discovered by researchers only in the last few weeks, when they were digitizing files from the president’s archive.
Mr. Rivlin presented the documents on Wednesday during an event at his official residence to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day that was attended by Holocaust survivors and people who played a role in the Eichmann case. In the letter, Mr. Eichmann repeated the defense offered at his four-month trial in 1961: that he was a low-level functionary following orders, and he should not be held accountable for the crimes of his superiors. He wrote that the judges who convicted him were “not able to empathize with the time and situation in which I found myself during the war years.”
“It is also incorrect that I never let myself be influenced by human emotions,” he added, noting: “Specifically after having witnessed the outrageous human atrocities, I immediately asked to be transferred. Also, during the police investigation I voluntarily revealed horrors that had been unknown until then, in order to help establish the indisputable truth.”
Mr. Rivlin presented the letter and other documents on Wednesday during an event at his official residence to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day that was attended by Holocaust survivors and people who played a role in the Eichmann case.
“Not a moment of kindness was given to those who suffered Eichmann’s evil,” Mr. Rivlin said in a statement. “Eichmann’s application for amnesty revealed here today proves that Eichmann and his family recognized that in the state of Israel, a murderer such as Eichmann would be convicted and that justice would be done.”“Not a moment of kindness was given to those who suffered Eichmann’s evil,” Mr. Rivlin said in a statement. “Eichmann’s application for amnesty revealed here today proves that Eichmann and his family recognized that in the state of Israel, a murderer such as Eichmann would be convicted and that justice would be done.”
In his request for clemency, Mr. Eichmann wrote that he had only been following orders.In his request for clemency, Mr. Eichmann wrote that he had only been following orders.
“I am not able to recognize the court’s ruling as just, and I ask, Your Honor Mr. President, to exercise your right to grant pardons, and order that the death penalty not be carried out,” he concluded, before signing his name in blue ink on lined paper.“I am not able to recognize the court’s ruling as just, and I ask, Your Honor Mr. President, to exercise your right to grant pardons, and order that the death penalty not be carried out,” he concluded, before signing his name in blue ink on lined paper.
Mr. Eichmann’s wife, Vera, and his five brothers, made their own appeals for a pardon for Mr. Eichmann, and they were included among the documents released Wednesday, along with Mr. Ben-Zvi’s reply, in a letter typed in Hebrew and dated May 31, 1962. Mr. Eichmann’s wife, Vera, and his five brothers, made their own appeals for a pardon for Mr. Eichmann, and these were included among the documents released Wednesday, along with Mr. Ben-Zvi’s reply, in a letter typed in Hebrew and dated May 31, 1962.
“After considering the pardon requests made on behalf of Adolf Eichmann and after having reviewed all the material presented to me,” Mr. Ben-Zvi wrote to Israel’s justice minister, Dov Yosef, “I came to the conclusion that there is no justification in giving Adolf Eichmann a pardon or easing the sentence imposed on him by the Jerusalem District Court on Thursday, 15th December 1961, and approved by the Supreme Court sitting as a Court of Criminal Appeals on the 29th May 1962.” A telegram, in German, from Ms. Eichmann asked, “as a wife and mother of four children,” for her husband’s life to be spared. A handwritten note, in Hebrew, attached to the telegram by the president, contains a quotation from the Torah: “But Samuel said, ‘As your sword has made women childless, so will your mother be childless among women.’ (Samuel 1 15:3)”
In a letter typed in Hebrew and dated May 31, 1962, Mr. Ben-Zvi wrote to Israel’s justice minister, Dov Yosef, that, “After considering the pardon requests made on behalf of Adolf Eichmann and after having reviewed all the material presented to me, I came to the conclusion that there is no justification in giving Adolf Eichmann a pardon or easing the sentence imposed on him.”
At midnight on June 1, 1962, two days after he wrote his request for mercy, Mr. Eichmann was executed by hanging.At midnight on June 1, 1962, two days after he wrote his request for mercy, Mr. Eichmann was executed by hanging.
Israeli agents had captured Mr. Eichmann in Argentina in May 1960 and brought him to Israel, where his trial began in April 1961 and lasted four months. Israeli agents had captured Mr. Eichmann in Argentina in May 1960 and brought him to Israel, where his trial began in April 1961.
For many Israelis, the trial was the first time they were exposed to the shocking testimonies of Holocaust survivors. Their voices had hardly been heard before in Israel, where some people who were already living in the territory that would become the Jewish state sometimes blamed the victims of the Holocaust for not having emigrated sooner.For many Israelis, the trial was the first time they were exposed to the shocking testimonies of Holocaust survivors. Their voices had hardly been heard before in Israel, where some people who were already living in the territory that would become the Jewish state sometimes blamed the victims of the Holocaust for not having emigrated sooner.
Fifty years after the trial, the Israel State Archives, the repository of the country’s collective memory and many of its secrets, presented a selection of documents related to the Eichmann case. Last year, the State Archives released documents proving that Mr. Eichmann’s wife, Vera, had visited him in prison about a month before he was executed. But the newly released documents had never been shared publicly.Fifty years after the trial, the Israel State Archives, the repository of the country’s collective memory and many of its secrets, presented a selection of documents related to the Eichmann case. Last year, the State Archives released documents proving that Mr. Eichmann’s wife, Vera, had visited him in prison about a month before he was executed. But the newly released documents had never been shared publicly.
Mr. Eichmann’s role and importance in the Nazi machine has been the subject of historical debate. David Cesarani, a historian of 20th-century Jewish life who died last year, wrote a biography of Mr. Eichmann that sought to cast him as a committed subscriber to Nazi ideology to refute Hannah Arendt’s famous appraisal of him as a banal bureaucrat who simply followed orders.Mr. Eichmann’s role and importance in the Nazi machine has been the subject of historical debate. David Cesarani, a historian of 20th-century Jewish life who died last year, wrote a biography of Mr. Eichmann that sought to cast him as a committed subscriber to Nazi ideology to refute Hannah Arendt’s famous appraisal of him as a banal bureaucrat who simply followed orders.
Mr. Eichmann’s letter pleading for his life is not likely to settle that argument.Mr. Eichmann’s letter pleading for his life is not likely to settle that argument.
In the letter requesting a presidential pardon, Mr. Eichmann wrote, “It is not true that I was personally of such a high rank as to be able to persecute, or that I myself was a persecutor in the pursuit of Jews.”In the letter requesting a presidential pardon, Mr. Eichmann wrote, “It is not true that I was personally of such a high rank as to be able to persecute, or that I myself was a persecutor in the pursuit of Jews.”
He continued, “I declare once again, as I did in the presence of the court: I detest as the greatest of crimes the horrors which were perpetrated against the Jews and think it right that the initiators of these terrible deeds will stand trial before the law now and in the future.”He continued, “I declare once again, as I did in the presence of the court: I detest as the greatest of crimes the horrors which were perpetrated against the Jews and think it right that the initiators of these terrible deeds will stand trial before the law now and in the future.”
By then his fate was sealed.By then his fate was sealed.