Editorial on Eichmann

As Israel prepares to bring the perpetrators of October 7 to justice, the Eichmann trial resonates with renewed urgency. Jewish Action is proud to republish these remarkable essays from Jewish Life, written in 1960 following Eichmann’s capture.

In this column, we dive into the rich history of Jewish Life, the precursor to Jewish Action. Published by the OU from the 1940s to the 1980s, Jewish Life offers a unique window into the vibrant evolution of American Jewish life during the 20th century.

The article below appeared in the June 1960 issue of Jewish Life.

The capture of Adolf Eichmann has stunned the entire world. The sensation which this event evoked arises only in part from the manner of his capture, from the extraordinary story—of which only rumor-shrouded fragments are known—of the unrelenting perseverance and skill with which he was tracked down through the years and finally caught and smuggled off to Israel. The real shock comes from the re-awakening to the fact that the ghastly plot in which Eichmann was a key figure was not a bad dream but a monstrous reality.

Reminder of Evil

The crimes of Nazidom were on so stupendous a scale, were conceived and executed with such fiendish, cold-blooded malevolence, as to make the ordinary human recoil and flee from the effort to bring them within scope of his understanding. Years have passed since the destruction of Nazi power, but the enormity of the evil has not been assimilated. Rather, there has been a prevailing impulse to thrust the horror out of mind, as an incomprehensible nightmare, not part of the world of daily reality. Now comes the capture of Eichmann and with it the blunt reminder that he and his fellows did in fact walk this earth, in our own day and not in the age of legend, that they were deferred to by the world’s leaders, that they were permitted to take command of vast power resources which are the distinctive feature of modern civilization and to exploit this power for uttermost evil.

The question of what to do with Eichmann poses problems that engage discussion around the world. Argentina, offended by the breach of sovereignty entailed in the manner of his capture in and removal from that country, demands that Israel restore him to their custody, with extradition to follow. In other quarters, it has been urged that Eichmann be tried by an international tribunal; some call for his trial by a German court. The Israel Government, however, refuses to yield Eichmann to any other authority, or to forego its announced plan to bring the Nazi leader to trial before an Israeli court.

Looking at the matter from the standpoint of legal precision, it might seem to the best interest of all that Eichmann be tried under circumstances free of any legal disputable aspects. But it is, ironically, questionable whether in fact such circumstances could be formulated. In terms of legal mandate, the crimes which Eichmann is known to have committed can be judged no more fitly under the jurisdiction of an international or a German court than an Israeli court. The essential is to assure that justice be served, that legal technicalities be not employed to defeat justice, that one of history’s vilest criminals be unfailingly confronted with his crime and brought to book. There is valid reason to fear that return of Eichmann to Argentine custody would imperil such assurance. And in view of the remarkable leniency with which courts of several powers have treated proven Nazi criminals, it is questionable whether an international tribunal would provide a trial untrammeled by political pressures.

With reference to this last point, the fact must not be ignored that leading Nazis have been tried before courts appointed by each of the several nations which fought or were occupied by Nazi Germany. The rightfulness of such trials has never been questioned. There is therefore no valid reason to dispute the rightfulness of Eichmann’s trial before a tribunal of that state which is the recognized moral heir to Eichmann’s victims. To the contrary, his trial before a court of the Jewish state, representing the very people which Eichmann sought to exterminate, the people which, out of the anguish which Eichmann and his fellows brought them, re-arose as a free nation—such a trial is an act of true, yes of poetic, justice.

The Larger Question

But more difficult than the question of what to do with Adolf Eichmann is the question of what to do about him. What is to be done about a situation in which veritable monsters in human form are bred and nurtured, brought to the summit of power, permitted to conquer and destroy on an unimaginable scale, to publicly plan the destruction of an entire people, to carry out, before the eyes of the entire world, the torture and murder of millions of innocent, helpless men, women, and children? The capture of Eichmann is the reminder to the world’s conscience that this fearful situation was not a passing aberration but one rooted in causes which still exist, and which can engulf mankind tomorrow.

Nazidom itself, as distinguished from individual Nazis, has yet to be brought before the bar of justice. The entire scope of this descent into the abyss has yet to be brought into the world’s view, and before a world body qualified and empowered to probe to the very roots of the evil and to formulate measures to redeem mankind from the ever-present threat of its recurrence. The capture of Adolf Eichmann has served to remind all that this need must be met; his trial should serve as the spur to action.