The Great Expediter

Summing up, Adolf Eichmann said: "I have regret and condemnation for the extermination of the Jewish people, which was ordered by the German rulers, but I myself could not have done anything against it. I was a tool in the hands of the strong and powerful and in the hands of fate itself. . . Where there is no responsibility, there can be no guilt." Thus, finishing 70 hours of testimony, he closed up the last of the brown folders from which he had produced mountains of documents, blew his nose heartily and leaned back to receive the onslaught of cross-questioning from Attorney General Gideon Hausner.

Fussy and long-winded, Eichmann had irritated his defense lawyer, Robert Servatius and three judges of the Israeli court. Loquaciously he had told (though nobody asked him) how his functions had grown to include confiscation of Jewish property and deciding which Jews were hostile to Germany. Affidavits from six former Nazi associates hurt him the most. They pictured Eichmann not as a humble cog but as a fanatic anti-Semite who made decisions. One called Eichmann "death's great expediter."

But under the circumstances. Eichmann had not done too badly for himself. He had some success in showing that he followed rather than originated orders. He disproved charges that his Bureau IV B 4 administered the death camps and showed that his job, organizing transportation to the death camps, was always carried out on orders from very senior Nazis. Said Servatius: "Eichmann and I are confident, and we feel some hope.''

This was before Hausner began his crossexamination. At the prosecution table, Hausner had been waiting impatiently to begin the attack, fidgeting and rubbing his bald pate red. Speaking stridently, questioning vindictively. Hausner opened with a quick barrage.

"When you were interrogated by the police, you said. 'I know that I shall be found guilty of murder. . . I am ready to hang in public and atone for this terrible crime.' Are you ready to repeat those words here in court now?'' he demanded. Mumbled Eichmann: "I do not deny what I said during interrogation.''

"In your own heart, do you find yourself guilty as an accomplice to the murder of millions of Jews. Yes or No?"

"Yes, from the human point of view, because I was guilty of carrying out and implementing deportations."

Reminding Eichmann of his oft-quoted statement in 1945 that "I will gladly leap into my grave knowing that 5,000,000 enemies of the Reich had been wiped out along with me," Hausner hammered at Eichmann to get him to admit that he had considered the Jews to be the enemy, and finally Eichmann surrendered saying, "Yes, the Jews were the enemy."

Shrilly Hausner asked if Eichmann believed that the Nuernberg death sentences carried out against top Nazis were just. Eichmann replied with a weak jawohl. When court recessed, Eichmann leaned forward dazedly, his head almost touching the glass of his protective cage.

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