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Last-Modified: 1999/05/28

Session No. 1

Tuesday, 25 Nissan 5721 (11 April 1961)

Clerk of the Court  Criminal Case No 40/61. The Attorney
General: versus Adolf, the son of Adolf Karl Eichmann. On
behalf of the prosecution, Mr. Gideon Hausner, Attorney
General, Dr. Ya'akov Robinson, Assistant to the Attorney
General, Mr. Gabriel Bach, Mr. Ya'akov Bar-Or, Mr. Zvi Terlo-
Assistant State Attorneys; the Accused: in person and his
Counsel Dr. Robert Servatius.

Presiding Judge:  Adolf Eichmann, are you Adolf Eichmann,
the son of Adolf Karl Eichmann?

Accused:  [standing] Yes.

Presiding Judge:  Are you represented in this trial by Dr.
Robert Servatius and by Mr. Dieter Wechtenbruch?

Accused:  Yes.

Presiding Judge:  You are Accused: before this Court in
terms of an indictment containing 15 counts. I shall read
the indictment to you and this indictment will be translated
for you into German. This is the indictment against you on
behalf of the Attorney General.

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."

(b) Immediately after the outbreak of the Second World War
the Accused: was appointed to be the head of a department of
the Gestapo in Berlin the functions of which were to locate,
deport and exterminate the Jews of Germany and of the other
countries of the Axis as well as in the areas which the Axis
States had occupied. The Department bore, in succession,
these identification numbers:
IVD4, IVB4, IVA4

(c) Instructions for carrying out the plan of extermination
in Germany were given directly by the Accused: to local
headquarters of the Gestapo, whilst in Berlin, Vienna and
Prague the Accused's instructions were given to the central
offices (Zentralstelle fuer Juedische Auswanderung) for the
administration of which he was personally responsible until
their dissolution, shortly before the end of the Second
World War.

(d) In the areas of German occupation the Accused: operated
through the offices of the commanding officers of the
Security Police and the SD and the persons specifically
responsible for Jewish affairs who were appointed from
amongst the personnel of the Accused's Department in the
Gestapo, and who were subject to his directives.

(e) In the countries of the Axis and the occupied areas, the
Accused: made use of the offices of Germany's foreign
representatives in each individual place, and he did so in
constant liaison with the special departments of the German
Foreign Ministry in Berlin which dealt with matters
concerning Jews. In these representative offices advisers
were appointed subject to his directives.

(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.

2. Chelmno  This extermination camp was operated from the
beginning of November 1941 until the beginning of 1945, and
in it, inter alia, poisonous gases were used.

3. Belzec This extermination camp was operated from the
month of March 1942 until October 1943, and in it poisonous
gases were used, among other means of extermination.

4. Sobibor This extermination camp was operated from  the
month of March 1942 until October 1943, and in it were
installed, inter alia, five rooms built of stone into which
poisonous gases were introduced.

5. Treblinka This extermination camp was operated on 23 July
1942 and until the month of November 1943. Here too, inter
alia, poisonous gases were used.

6. Majdanek This extermination camp was operated from the
year 1941 until the month of July 1944, and in it, inter
alia, poisonous gases were used.

g)Immediately following the invasion of the German Army into
Poland, in September 1939, the Accused: carried out acts of
expulsion, the uprooting of populations, and extermination
which were coordinated with massacre units mobilized from
the ranks of the German Security Police and the SS and
called by the name "Operations Units" (Einsatzgruppen). Such
units operated also after the invasion of the Soviet Union
in the year 1941, and advanced in the wake of the German
Army. They received their orders directly from the "Reich
Security Main Office" (RSHA) and operated in collaboration
with the Accused: in the extermination of Jews, each within
the area of its authority. The Units were made to act
especially on the Jewish Sabbath and Feast Days - dates
which were selected for the massacre of Jews. These Units
exterminated hundreds of thousands of Jews in the German
area of occupation in Poland. h. Before the invasion of the
German Army into the regions of the Soviet Union and the
Baltic countries, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which were
annexed to her, four Operation Units were organized by the
Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) working in collaboration
with the Accused: in the extermination of the Jews in the
aforementioned regions in that part of Poland which had been
annexed to the Soviet Union after September 1939. The acts
of these Units included, inter alia, the following
operations: -

(h) Before the invation of the German Army into the regions
of the Soviet Union and the Baltic countries, Lithuania,
Latvia and Estonia, which were annexed to her, four
Operation Units were organized by the Head Office for Reich
Security (RSHA) working in collaboration with the Accused in
the extermination of the Jews in the aforementioned regions
in that part of Poland which had been annexed to the Soviet
Union after September 1939. The acts of these units
included, inter alia, the following operations:

(1) Operation Unit "A" put to death in the course of the
first four months of the German Army's invasion into the
aforementioned regions:

     Lithuania: over 80,000 Jews;
     Latvia: over  30,000 Jews;
     Estonia: about 470 Jews;
     Belorussia: over 7,600 Jews;
     Russia: about 2,000 Jews;
     The province of Tilsit: about 5,500 Jews.
     A total of over 135,000 Jews.
     
(2)Operation Unit "B" up to 14 November 1941 exterminated
upwards of 45,000 Jews in Belorussia and other zones.

(3)Operation Unit "C" up to 3 November 1941 exterminated in
the Ukraine more than 75,000 Jews - and amongst them about
33,000 Jews of Kiev.

(4)Operation Unit "D" exterminated about 54,000 Jews up to
12 December 1941.

(5)During the period August to November 1942, these
Operation Units exterminated approximately 363,000 Jews.

These Operation Units dealt on this scale and with this
objective in the aforementioned areas in the extermination
of the Jews, beginning from June 1941, and until the year
1944, and exterminated hundreds of thousands of Jews in
addition  to those previously specified.

i) At the end of the year 1941, the Accused: gave orders to
deport thousands of Jews from Germany, Austria and
Czechoslovakia (the Protectorate) to ghettos in Riga, Kovno
and Minsk. These Jews were exterminated - and amongst others-
(1) A transport of these Jews from the Reich (Germany) was
murdered on 30 November 1941 together with about 4,000 Jews
of Riga.

(2) About 3,500 Jews from Germany who were sent to Minsk as
mentioned, upon the orders of the Accused, were liquidated
by an Operation Unit in Belorussia, together with 55,000
Jews from amongst the residents of the area.

j) The Accused, together with others, caused the deaths of
thousands of Jews between the years 1940-1945 in forced
labour camps which were administered under a concentration
camp regime and where Jews were enslaved, tortured and
starved to death in Germany and the countries it conquered.

k) The Accused, together with others, caused the deaths of
additional hundreds of thousands of Jews between the years
1939-1945 by means of mass deportations and the assembly of
the Jews in ghettos and other places of concentration, which
were implemented under cruel and inhuman conditions in
Germany and the other countries of the Axis, and also in the
occupied regions, namely - in the following countries:

     Germany
     Austria
     Italy
     Bulgaria
     Belgium
     The Soviet Union and the Baltic countries Lithuania,
     Latvia and Estonia which were annexed by her, and that
     part of Poland which had been annexed to the Soviet
     Union after September 1939
     Denmark
     Holland
     Hungary
     Yugoslavia
     Greece
     Luxembourg
     Monaco
     Norway
     Poland
     Czechoslovakia
     France
     and Rumania.

l) The Accused: caused the deaths of approximately half a
million of the Jews of Hungary by means of their mass
deportation to the extermination camp at Auschwitz and other
places during the period between 19 March 1944 and 24
December 1944 when he was serving as Head of the "Eichmann
Special Commando Unit"(Sondereinsatz-Kommando Eichmann) in
Budapest.

m)The Accused: carried out all the acts detailed in this
count with the intention of destroying the Jewish People.

SECOND COUNT

Nature of Offence:  a) 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:  the Accused, together with
others, subjected many millions of Jews to living conditions
which were likely to bring about their physical destruction,
during the period 1939 to 1945 and to this end operated in
Germany and the other countries of the Axis, in the areas of
their occupation and also in areas which were in practice
subject to their authority. In the said period and by virtue
of his functions mentioned in the First Count, and in order
to implement "The Final Solution of the Jewish Problem" he
acted in the following ways:

     1. Enslaving them in forced labour camps
     2. Placing and keeping them in ghettos
     3. Driving them into transit camps and other places of
     concentration
     4. Their deportation and their mass transportation
     under          inhuman conditions

And all of this was done by the Accused: for those same
objectives, by the same methods of operation and in the same
places as described in the First Count.

b) The Accused: carried out these acts with the intention of
destroying the Jewish People.

THIRD COUNT

Nature of the 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) During the period of Nazi
rule, the Accused: fulfilled functions in the Security
Service of the SS (SD) for dealing with Jews, according to
the plan of the Nazi Party (NSDAP). These functions were
amalgamated after the outbreak of the Second World War with
the functions of the Department in the Gestapo described in
the First Count and which was headed by the Accused.

b) Throughout that entire period the Accused, together with
others, caused grave harm to millions of Jews, physically
and mentally, in Germany and in the other countries of the
Axis, in the occupied areas them and also in the areas which
in practice were subject to their authority in those
countries specified in the First Count.

c) The Accused, together with others, caused this grave harm
by means of enslavement, starvation, expulsion and
persecution, confinement to ghettos, to transit camps and to
concentration camps - all this under conditions intended to
humiliate the Jews, to deny their rights as human beings, to
oppress and torment them by inhuman suffering and torture.

d) The Accused, together with others, carried out these acts
by adopting methods, of which the most important were:

(1) Sudden mass arrests of innocent Jews, without judicial
process, and only because of their being Jews, and their
torture in concentration camps, such as those at Dachau and
Buchenwald;

(2) The organization of mass persecution by means of
arrests, cruel beatings, the infliction of serious injury,
and torture in concentration camps, of approximately 2,000
Jews of Germany and Austria on the night between the 9th and
10th November 1938;

(3) Organizing operations of social and economic boycott of
the Jews and stigmatizing them as a subhuman racial group;

(4) Putting into practice the laws known as "The Nuremberg
Laws" for the purpose of depriving millions of Jews in all
those countries specified in the First Count of their human
rights.

e)The Accused: carried out these acts with the intention of
destroying the Jewish People.

FOURTH 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) Commencing in the year
1942, the Accused, together with others, adopted measures
calculated to prevent births amongst the Jews of Germany,
and the occupied countries.

b) The adoption of these measures by the Accused: in his
official capacity as Head of the Department for Jewish
Affairs in the Gestapo in Berlin was also intended to
advance the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question."

c) Amongst these measures were:  (1) Instructions by the
Accused: to Dr. Eppstein, head of the Council of Elders in
the Concentration Camp at Terezin (Theresienstadt) in the
years 1943-44, concerning the ban on births in the camp, and
concerning the termination of pregnancies by means of
artificial abortion in every case and in all stages of
pregnancy;

(2) An order of the German police in the Baltic countries in
the year 1942 against Jewish women in the Kovno Ghetto
forbidding them to give birth and compelling them to undergo
operations for abortion in every case of pregnancy;

(3) On 27 October 1942 in the offices of the Accused: (RSHA)
IVB4 in Berlin, the Accused, together with others,
prescribed measures for the sterilization of persons of
mixed descent of the first degree of Jews in Germany and in
the occupied territories according to the following
principles:

(aa) The sterilization would be carried out on the person of
the individual of mixed descent, Jew or Jewess, upon their
agreeing to this in return for the favour of receiving
permission to remain within the borders under the rule of
the German Reich;

(bb)The individual of mixed descent would be entitled to
choose between sterilization and deportation to the
extermination areas in the East;

(cc) The authorities were to suggest to individuals of mixed
descent to choose deportation;

(dd) Those choosing deportation would be separated according
to their sex in order to prevent any further births;

(ee) The sterilization would be performed privately and
secretly.

d) In laying down these measures the Accused: intended to
destroy the Jewish People.

FIFTH COUNT

Nature of the Offence  Crime against humanity, an offence
against Section 1(a)(2) of the Nazis and Nazi Collaborators
(Punishment) Law 5710-1950, and Section 23 of the Criminal
Law Ordinance, 1936.

Particulars  of the Offence:  The Accused: committed acts,
during the period between 1939 and 1945, in Germany and the
other countries of the Axis, in the occupied territories and
also in the areas which were in practice subject to their
authority, which are to be defined as crimes against
humanity, when, together with others, he caused the murder,
extermination, enslavement, starvation and expulsion of the
Jewish civilian population in those countries and areas. The
Accused committed these acts in the course of fulfilling his
functions as specified in the First Count.


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