Summary
The Eichmann trial, in Lahav’s account (Chapter 8): the 1961 Jerusalem trial of Adolf Eichmann before a district court panel chaired by Moshe Landau, designed by Ben-Gurion and prosecutor Gideon Hausner to establish “the correct historical perspective”, and its 1962 appeal, in which Simon Agranat’s jurisdiction portion recast “crimes against the Jewish people” as crimes against humanity and the Court upheld the death sentence (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 1733-1936).
Details
- Staging: the trial was moved to the new Bet ha-Am auditorium, with the common-law ban on cameras and microphones waived, simultaneous translation, a bullet-proof glass booth, and Israel paying for Eichmann’s chosen German counsel, Dr. Robert Servatius; because district court president Halevy would not stand aside, the statute was amended so a Supreme Court justice could preside over Nazi-crimes trials (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 1733-1800).
- International commentators, including the New York Times and Washington Post, had condemned trying Eichmann in Israel as Jewish judges would be too biased; the trial itself was widely conceded to have been fair, while the conviction for “crimes against the Jewish people” and Israel’s abduction and non-territorial jurisdiction drew continued criticism (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 1765-1850).
- The district court convicted on 15 December 1961. The appeal panel (Olshan, Agranat, Silberg, Sussman, Witkon) wrote per curiam: Silberg the facts and small-cog defense, Sussman procedure, Agranat jurisdiction (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 1780-1860).
- Agranat’s jurisdiction argument: international law did not prohibit ex post facto laws or insist dogmatically on territoriality (“negative perspective”); positively, the indictment’s categories shared a “special universal characteristic”, crimes against humanity being prosecutable by any state; Germany had refused to seek extradition, and expediency (documents at Yad Vashem, survivors in Israel) put the trial in Jerusalem (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 1800-1900).
- The acts-of-state and superior-orders defenses failed: sovereignty never licensed crimes against humanity, and Eichmann acted con amore. Agranat’s universalising and Silberg’s particularist portions sat in tension the per curiam form concealed (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 1846-1936).
- Eichmann was hanged on the night of 31 May–1 June 1962 after his pardon plea was denied; see Adolf Eichmann (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 1912-1945).
Related pages
Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, Adolf Eichmann, Gideon Hausner, Moshe Landau, Benjamin Halevy, Kasztner Trial