"Millions of Jews were exterminated" at Auschwitz, said Eichmann Judge

Friday, 7 October 2011

On April 11, 1961, on the opening day of the Eichmann Trial in Jerusalem.

The presiding Judge Moshe Landau, read the indictment to Adolf Eichmann

FIRST COUNT

Nature of Offence: Crime against the Jewish People, an offence against Section 1(a)(1) of the Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law, 5710-1950 and Section 23 of the Criminal Law Ordinance, 1936.

Particulars of the Offence: (a) The Accused, during the period from 1939 to 1945, together with others, caused the deaths of millions of Jews as the persons who were responsible for the implementation of the plan of the Nazis for the physical extermination of the Jews, a plan known by its title "The Final Solution of the Jewish Question." [...]

(f) The Accused together with others perpetrated the extermination of Jews, inter alia, by means of putting them to death in concentration camps, the purpose of which was mass murder, of which the more important ones were:

1. Auschwitz Millions of Jews were exterminated here, commencing from the year 1941 and until the end of January 1945, in gas chambers, in incinerators, by shooting and by hanging. The Accused directed the commanders of this camp to use the gas Zyklon B and during the years 1942 and 1944 actually took steps to ensure the supply of a quantity of gas for the purpose of exterminating Jews.

The Trial of Adolf Eichmann: Record of Proceedings in the District Court of Jerusalem Vol. 1 Page 3

The Trial of Adolf Eichmann Session 1: Tuesday, 25 Nissan 5721 (11 April 1961): Nizkor

During the opening speech of Attorney General Gideon Hausner (which lasted three court

sessions: April 17, morning & afternoon sessions, and April 18 morning session), he said:

And now to the largest and most terrible of the extermination camps - AUSCHWITZ, the death factory for millions which will always be remembered in the annals of humanity as the symbol of horror and infamy.

Auschwitz, in Polish Oświęcim, is a small townlet to the west of Cracow. It is a small place, impoverished by nature, an area of swamps and sand dunes, mist and dampness, fever and putrid water. It was here that this camp was established, with the sure knowledge that it was to be a slaughter house. The SS guards were told that they must not even rinse their mouths with unboiled water. This enormous concentration camp contained 39 branches, including auxiliary camps, (Nebenlager), exterior camps (Aussenlager), work camps (Arbeitslager) and branch camps (Zweiglager). At the end of 1941, Auschwitz had a capacity of 18,000 persons; in 1943, there was room for 30,000. According to the confession of the first commander of the camp, Rudolf Hoess, about two and a half million people were exterminated and a further half million died of disease, hunger and torture. Not only Jews were brought here. There were many others whom the evil regime had resolved to afflict with forced labour and put to death. There were, for example, some thousands of Soviet prisoners of war, gypsies or opponents of the regime from other countries, amounting in all to some tens of thousands. But the Jews were brought here in their millions.