Trial of Adolf Eichmann – Opening Address by the Attorney-General Mr. Gideon Hausner, delivered on 17–18 April 1961 – reprinted for the Government Press Office from the book 6,000,000 Accusers: Israel’s Case Against Eichmann, edited by Ambassador of Israel Shabtai Rosen. Published by The Jerusalem Post, Jerusalem, 1961 – a copy dedicated and signed by Gideon Hausner to Nicholas Winton – the Jew who rescued 669 children, most of them Jews from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II.
Full text of the opening speech by Attorney General Gideon Hausner at the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem. The prosecution’s address, delivered by Gideon Hausner over the course of two full days (17–18 April 1961), was broadcast live on the radio. It constituted the historical and legal framework for the charges against Eichmann, one of the organizers of the extermination of the Jews of Europe. Hausner’s words became especially symbolic due to the famous opening sentence: “In this place, where I stand before you, Judges of Israel, to prosecute Adolf Eichmann – I do not stand alone. With me, at this moment, stand six million accusers. But they cannot rise to their feet; point an accusing finger toward the glass booth and cry out against the man sitting there: I accuse. For their ashes are piled up on the hills of Auschwitz and in the fields of Treblinka, washed away by the rivers of Poland, and their graves are scattered throughout the length and breadth of Europe. Their blood cries out, but their voices will not be heard. I will therefore be their mouthpiece, and in their name I will unfold this terrible indictment.”
In his speech, Hausner defined Eichmann as a “new kind of murderer”: “In this trial, we shall encounter a new kind of murderer – one who carries out his bloody work from behind his desk. Only on rare occasions does he commit the act with his own hands. We know with certainty of one case in which Adolf Eichmann beat a Jewish boy to death for daring to steal a peach from a tree in the courtyard of his home in Budapest. But with his words he operated gas chambers; a phone call from him dispatched trains to the extermination centers; with his signature, he condemned thousands, tens of thousands, and millions…”. He also described in detail Eichmann’s heinous acts: “The guilt of Adolf Eichmann lies in the initiation, planning, organization, and execution of the crimes detailed in the indictment. We shall prove his guilt as the planner, initiator, organizer, and executor of the crime known as ‘the Final Solution to the Jewish Question.’ His direct role in the implementation of this criminal plan, as well as his role as supervisor, coordinator, and commander of its execution; his role as partner and accomplice in carrying out the plan through others – all will be demonstrated. He was the central pillar in the criminal conspiracy to annihilate the entire Jewish people, or part thereof, and he is a partner in the crimes of the SS, the SD, and the Gestapo, including the Einsatzgruppen, commanders of the Security Police, senior SS and police officers, their agents, affiliates, subordinates, and enablers – in all acts of murder, plunder, torture, and persecution as detailed in the indictment. We shall prove that all these actions were committed by Eichmann with the intent to annihilate the Jewish people.” The historic speech stirred, among hundreds of thousands of listeners, not only bitter personal memories long repressed, but also a renewed shock and profound sorrow.
Sir Nicholas Winton (1909–2015) was a Jewish-British banker who initiated a remarkable rescue operation on the eve of World War II, through which he saved 669 children, most of them Jews from Czechoslovakia, which had been occupied by the Nazis. He arrived in Prague at the end of 1938 after being exposed to the harsh conditions in the refugee camps there, and began independently working to transfer children to safe countries, primarily to Britain and some to Sweden. Following Kristallnacht, Britain permitted limited immigration of Jewish children under the age of 17, under strict conditions. Winton found foster families for them and secured the necessary funding, initially from his own personal resources. Between December 1938 and September 1939, he organized eight trains that brought 669 children to safety. A ninth train, with about 250 children, never departed due to the outbreak of the war and the closing of borders by Germany. His efforts were part of the Czechoslovak Kindertransport operation and saved hundreds of children from the fate of the Holocaust. Over the years, Winton kept his rescue work discreet and secret. Only in 1988, nearly 50 years after the events, did his wife Grete accidentally discover a notebook containing detailed records of the children he had saved. In 2005, Winton visited Israel and met with the people he had rescued and their descendants.
182 pages. Slight wear to the cover. Good condition.
