LaMerhav

Transcription

We conducted this trial in the same way as we would any other criminal trial. We understood that we were not just trying someone who had personally committed a crime, but rather that he was being held responsible for the whole terrible event. As I have said many times, if I had been running this investigation in the absence of a defendant or suspect, and at the end of the investigation I would have been asked to choose one defendant to put on trial, and through him to describe what had happened, the crime that had been committed against the Jewish people, there is no doubt in my mind that I would have chosen Eichmann. The real Eichmann only emerged during the trial. The Eichmann in the investigation was this wretched man, and luckily, we were able to prove that the “wretched man” routine was just an act and no more than that. (All rise!) When those judges entered the courtroom, with the emblem of the State of Israel behind them, and when that man, whose sole aspiration was to destroy, to annihilate this people, rose and stood before the sovereign court of the sovereign Jewish Israeli State, the significance and importance of the establishment of the State of Israel was suddenly clearer to me and more emphasized than at any previous time. (Mr. Attorney General, please begin) As I stand before you, judges of Israel, to lead the prosecution of Adolf Eichmann, I do not stand alone. It was his wording. We wrote the opening statement, in which he referred to all the facts and all the legal problems that we wished to emphasize. Hausner added that opening later, and he added the famous sentences where he said that we are here on behalf of six million accusers, on the last day. That really was his wording. With me in this place and at this time stand six million accusers. But they cannot rise to their feet and point an accusing finger at the man in the glass dock with the cry "J'accuse!" I sided with the view that the trial should be broadened, beyond Adolf Eichmann’s murder trial, to encompass a wider field. To include not only what we could prove that Eichmann had done, but also a comprehensive account of the Shoah itself, using documents and witnesses. At this trial, we wanted to show the Jewish people and the whole world what had taken place, but we also knew that the court would be, and indeed was, very strict with us. The court did not admit any evidence that was not directly connected to Eichmann, and the judges stopped us immediately if they thought that a piece of evidence might be entered that was not relevant to the charges against Eichmann. Among the witnesses was Antek’s group from the ghetto fighters, leaders that remained alive, like Abba Kovner. They were witnesses at the trial. They were well-known, because they were Zionists who had established themselves in the kibbutzim, and had written and lectured in Hebrew, thus finding a way to make their deeds known amongst the Yishuv in Israel. What was different about the Eichmann trial was that they brought in regular people who told the court about their families, and explained what they had lost, and how they had fought. - What is your full name? - My name is Israel Gutman. - Gutman? - Yes, Israel Gutman. They didn’t execute any more people after that? What happened? For example, on the death march I went on – that’s what I called it, the death march. They decided to evacuate the remaining few from Auschwitz. We demanded to rebel, as we thought that the Jews didn’t stand a chance, but the underground told us that we should go along with the evacuation. They had inside information that this was a genuine evacuation and not an execution. On the way, anyone who sprained his leg or weakened for a moment, anyone who had to sit down for a few minutes, was shot. I wanted to say that our group of Jews walked arm in arm, and helped those who faltered as best we could. We dragged them along. We all arrived at Mauthausen, and except for one man who they killed while he was trying to save a friend, we all remained alive. Most of the witnesses testified to what had happened in Poland. In Poland and the Baltic States, the murders carried out by the Einsatzgruppen in Ukraine and Belarus and those areas invaded by the Nazis. Most of the witnesses were from those areas. I had to meet with the potential witnesses in order to hear their stories, what they had gone through, so that I could make my recommendations to Gideon Hausner as to who I thought could be summoned, who would be able to stand face to face with the murderer, physically and emotionally. Who would be able to go up on the witness stand and have the strength to relate what he had experienced. I wasn’t involved personally in the trial. I didn’t have to testify, I wasn’t a witness. My personal angle emerged completely coincidentally. Dr. Buzminsky was a Jew from the Przemysl ghetto, the same ghetto where I had lived, and he had been summoned to testify. I didn’t know about it because I had only just returned one day earlier from a work trip to Germany. The next morning, a man approached me in the courthouse and asked me where Hausner’s room was. I asked him why he needed Hausner and he said he had been summoned to testify at the trial. I asked him what he had been called to testify about, so he said “About the Przemysl ghetto.” I asked him “You were in the Przemysl ghetto?” and he said “Yes.” I asked him his name, and he said it was Dr. Buzminsky. I said “I don’t remember a Jew by the name of Buzminsky in the Przemysl ghetto.” So I asked him “What was your name before?” and he said “Diamant.” “Diamant the dentist?” I asked. He said “Yes, and what’s your name?” I said “My name is Goldman”, and then he said “I remember a boy by the name of Goldman in the ghetto, who was given 80 lashes by Schwammberger, and afterwards, they said that he’d died as a result.” I said “He didn’t die, he’s standing right in front of you.” When he heard that – I’d already told him where Hausner’s room was – he turned and went into Hausner’s room. I went back to the ghetto earlier, and I saw how Schwammberger shot and murdered people. He gave one boy 80 lashes Do you see the boy who was given 80 lashes in this courtroom? It’s the police officer sitting next to Mr. Hausner When he started telling the court about the 80 lashes, I sat next to Hausner, frozen. I had no idea that he had told Hausner about our meeting that morning. Afterwards, in the break... That morning Haim Gouri was there. At the time he was a journalist for the Lamerhav newspaper, and would write down everything that went on at the trial each day. Antek Zuckerman also testified later that day, and we stood together with Hausner in the break, and Hausner said: “Every evening we’ve been sitting in my room and going over the documents and material to be presented the following day in court, and you’ve never said a word about yourself.” I said “I didn’t tell you because once I spoke about it, and I saw that the person I was telling was looking at me doubtfully, as if I was telling him things that could not possibly have happened. So I simply closed myself up and I never told anyone else about this specific event, not even my wife.” No one knew anything about this, so when it came out at the trial, it happened quite by chance, because no one believed anything we told them. Then Antek Zuckerman or Haim Gouri, I don’t remember who anymore, said “And that was the 81st lash that you got.” I said “Yes, but I wasn’t the only one. No one believed the Holocaust survivors who came to Israel and started talking about what they had experienced, and that was the 81st lash that we were all given.”