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April 6, 2001
Passover edition
...And justice for all - even Nazis
Two trials, decades apart and with dramatically different
consequences, tested the judicial system of Israel.
EDGAR ASHER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
The month of April is a significant anniversary of two major
landmarks in modern Israeli history. Forty years ago, on April 11,
1961, the trial of Adolph Eichmann, one of the main architects of
the
"final solution" began in Jerusalem. April 1988 saw the
conviction in
the trial of John Demjanjuk, in which he was sentenced to death
for
his part in running the gas chambers at the Treblinka extermination
camp. This sentence was later overturned by the Supreme Court.
Early on Friday morning, the first of June 1962, an Israel Navy
patrol
boat left port in Ashdod and headed out to sea. After reaching the
limit of Israel's territorial waters, it continued on its westerly
course and shortly afterwards, without ceremony or fuss, scattered
ashes into the sea. The ashes were the remains of Adolf Eichmann.
Eichmann, one of the main architects of the "final solution,"
had
been hanged just before midnight the previous day for his crimes
against the Jewish people. His body had been cremated and his ashes
scattered in international waters so that his mortal remains could
never be a source of focus for any fascist group or individual.
On the 22nd of September 1993, an El Al jet took off from Ben-Gurion
Airport and headed westward on a non-stop flight to New York. Aboard
the airliner was John Demjanjuk. He was being deported after being
released from the same jail where Eichmann had been held some 31
years earlier. Demjanjuk's deportation followed the conclusion of
his
successful appeal to Israel's Supreme Court. The appeal judges
overturned an earlier conviction and sentence of death passed on
Demjanjuk in April 1988. He had been accused of being the notorious
"Ivan the Terrible," in charge of operating the gas chambers
at the
Treblinka death camp in Poland and putting to death some 900,000
Jews. Demjanjuk was later acquitted on grounds of reasonable doubt.
The past 53 years have seen many significant events that have molded
the character and direction of the Jewish state. However, the scope
of the Eichmann and Demjanjuk trials for crimes against the Jewish
people in the Second World War could claim to be among the most
significant events in the short history of the state of Israel.
The
horrors of the "final solution" and Treblinka were in
their own way
the raison d'être for the foundation of the Jewish state.
The incredible capture of Eichmann in South America and his journey
to Israel to stand trial astounded the world. Here was a man who
was
being judged by the remnants of the very people he had hoped to
annihilate. Ever since the foundation of the state, the Mossad
(Israel's secret intelligence agency) had searched for Eichmann,
following many leads that usually ended in failure. At one time,
it
was erroneously thought that he was living in Kuwait. Eventually,
Eichmann was traced by the Mossad to Argentina where was living
with
his family in Buenos Aires under the assumed name of Ricardo Klement.
Once his identity had been checked and established, he was abducted
by the Mossad on his way home from work one day and held secretly
for
10 days in a prepared house in a quiet suburb of Buenos Aires during
May 1960, before being flown to Israel with his captors on an El
Al
jet.
The trial of Eichmann began on April 11, 1961. During the next
eight
months, the nation and the world heard the survivors of the Holocaust
retell of their experiences, sufferings and degradation. Each witness
to history's most vile and organized destruction of any race told
of
death, torture and starvation for no better reason than being born
Jewish. The Eichmann trial could be regarded as a catalyst to bring
to the attention of the world, in the controlled environment of
an
organized courtroom, a firsthand account of the conception and
implementation of the attempt to remove the Jewish race from the
face
of the globe.
The outcome of the trial was never in doubt, nor was the sentence.
Whatever fate befell Eichmann, it could never be enough punishment
for such a heinous crime. A mind that could think up such barbaric,
inhumane treatment of other human beings, defies rational
explanation. The trial was a document, an indelible record of the
events that occurred some 20 years earlier, which led to the
foundation of the Jewish state. The court in Jerusalem represented
the six million Jews who did not survive to see their tormentor
being
brought to justice
The execution of Eichmann was carried out just hours after the
rejection of his appeal to the Supreme Court. It was as if the Jewish
people, through the judicial process, wanted to be finished with
Eichmann. His presence, dead or alive, on Israel's holy soil was
unacceptable.
The execution, cremation and disposal of the mortal remains of
one of
history's most evil men was not the end of the search for evidence
of
the Holocaust. It was a beginning.
In 1987, the attention of the world was once again focused on a
courtroom in Jerusalem. This time the accused, Demjanjuk, was not
one
of the major architects of the Holocaust, but rather typical of
the
sadistic individuals who carried out the implementation of the final
solution. Twenty-six years had elapsed since the revelations of
Eichmann. Those now giving testimony were that much older, their
memories now sometimes played tricks on them due to both their age
and their indescribable experiences.
The trial of "Ivan the Terrible," as Demjanjuk was known
in the
Treblinka death camp, lasted for almost three years. Witnesses came
forward to claim that the man in the dock was indeed "Ivan
the
Terrible." The evidence seemed damning. There was no argument
that
Demjanjuk had been a concentration camp guard during the Second
World
War, but he always claimed to the court that he was not the infamous
"Ivan the Terrible" who had been in charge of the gas
chambers at the
camp.
Demjanjuk was found guilty and sentenced to die by hanging. Once
again, the courtroom had provided a record of the horrors of the
Holocaust for future generations. There was general satisfaction
that
justice had been done and that the judicial execution would in some
small way go towards satisfying the desire of so many Jews to see
their tormentor punished in an appropriate way.
However, Demjanjuk's defence council, Yoram Sheftel, saw the case
as
a vehicle for a national desire to see retribution against Demjanjuk.
He was convinced that his client was not guilty as charged. He was,
Sheftel claimed, a small cog in the Nazi extermination machine.
Sheftel, convinced of his client's innocence, tracked down some
war-time documents in a collection of KGB files in Russia that
revealed that Demjanjuk could not have been "Ivan the Terrible."
After a protracted appeal process, the Supreme Court decided to
quash
Demjanjuk's sentence on the grounds of reasonable doubt. The victory
was one for both Sheftel and the Israeli justice system. It was
a
difficult decision for the judges to overturn the sentence, but
justice had to be seen to be done even if the crime was horrific.
The
integrity and fairness of Israeli justice was shown to the world.
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