THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS — Friday, May 5, 1961
Eichmann's Counsel Asks Immunity ] Ghetto
for Nazi Witnesses; Plea Denied
Survivor at Trial Tells of Uprising
• (Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News)
JERUSALEM, (JTA) = Dr.
Robert Servatius put before the
court trying Adolf Eichmann a
formal request for the right to
call four former officials of the
Nazi regime to testify on behalf
of the former Gestapo colonel.
Attorney General Gideon Haus-
ner, the chief prosecutor, prompt-
ly replied to Eichmann's chief
defense counsel that the four ex-
Nazis would be granted Israeli
visas but would be detained as
criminals under the Israel law
for the punishment of Nazis as
soon as they arrived in Israel.
The four former officials in-
clude Prof. Franz Sis, who
headed Bureau 2 of the Reich
War Ministry, whom Servatius
wanted to testify on Eich-
mann's authority and rank,
and Dr. Max Mertens, former
Nazi military governor of Mace-
donia, who was convicted of
war crimes by a Greek military
tribunal and who, Servatius
said, sought from Eichmann a
decision which was referred to
a higher Nazi authority.
The other Nazis whom Eich-
mann's lawyer wants as witnesses
are General Hermann Krumay,
who was a deputy for Eichmann
in Hungary and who, the defense
attorney said, was prepared to
testify that Eichmann had no con-
nection with or responsibility for
the murder of 100 children from
the Czech town of Lidice; and
Eberhardt von Thadden, former
head of the German Foreign Min-
istry Jewish department, with the
same rank as Eichmann.
Servatius said he wanted to
call von Thadden to prove that
orders about Jews from Hitler
and Heydrich were under the
jurisdiction of the German army
and that Eichmann had not ex-
ceeded orders.
The West German attorney in-
dicated he would like to call four
or five others, but that this hope
faced, difficulties because they
were in Austria. Austrian laws
ban participation of both defense
and prosecution attorneys during
a hearing on a questionnaire - he
intended to submit to them for
'depositions, Servatius said.
Hausner backed up his declara-
tion that the four ex-Nazis would
be subject to xarrest with the
statement that the prosecution
had a file on each one. He cited
briefly from the past of ,each of
the four and submitted that, un-
der the circumstances, Servatius'
request for their appearance was
not practical.
He added that the prosecution
would accept sworn statements
made by the four before a West
German court or notary prov,ided
an Israeli representative could
attend for questioning.
Servathis continued to press
for admittance of such men as
witnesses and argued that Is-
raeli approval, presumably with
guarantees of immunity, would
create a "better impression."
However, when he was told by
the court that the Attorney Gen-
Possible Nazi Witness
at Eichmann Trial Is
Austrian School Head
VIENNA, (JTA)—Former SS
Captain Wilhelm Hoettl, who has
been mentioned as a possible
witness in the trial of Adolf
Eichmann, said he is willing to
appear as a witness in the Jeru-
salem trial if he is guaranteed
'safe conduct.
Hoettl, now a school director
in Bad Aussee, also said he is
willing to appear before an Aus-
trian court "to tell the truth
about Eichmann."
The Austrian Socialist news-
paper, Arbeiterzeitung, mean-
while charged editorially that the
school of which Hoettl is director
is a Nazi nest. The newspaper
protested against a former high
Gestapo official in that position
and said that the Austrian se-
curity and education offices
should maintain c on tr o 1 of
Hoettl's activities.
eral, as the legal adviser of the
Israel Government, was express-
ing an official view of the Gov-
ernment, Servatius agreed that no
witness would come if he knew
he faced arrest and prosecution.
He indicated a preference for
cross-examination of such wit-
nesses b e f ore West German
judges, rather than only their
sworn testimony.
Soon after, in Bonn, a spokes-
man for the Justice Ministry
promised full assistance in any
interrogation of witnesses in
West Germany for the trial.
The spokesman said that "we,
will grant all aid normally pro-
vided by the international legal
aid agreement".
Justice Minister Fritz Schaef-
fer told the Bundestag that the
Central War Crimes Commis-
sion in Ludwigsburg had received
new documents found in the
Washington archives on the Nazi
period. lie said that while the
Commission's study of the mate-
rial had not yet been completed,
the Commission expected the
documents to be a great aid in
its investigation of Nazi war
crimes.
JERUSALEM—One of the
few survivors in the incredible
revolt of the trapped hunger-
and disease-ridden Jews in the
Warsaw Ghetto in 1943 de-
scribed Wednesday as a witness
in the trial of Adolf Eich-
mann the details of the heroic
struggle.
Mrs. Zivia Lubotkin told how
the trapped Jews, using home-
made bombs fused by matches,
a few arms and a pitifully small
supply of ammunition, stood
off for weeks the thousands of
superbly trained and equipped
German troops ordered to round
them up for deportation to Nazi
death Camps.
"We did not have a fight-
ing chance," she said, speak-
ing softly but without falter-
ing. "It was quite clear to us
that we had no prospect of
winning in the military sense.
But we knew that despite
their strength we would be
the winners ultimately be-
cause we believed in a regime
of justice to man."
Mrs. Lubotkin testified that
after Yom Kippur in 1940, the
Nazis packed 350,000 Jews into
ings are
A wonderful feeling . . . to kn ii
di ns or market
safe regardless of business
• ured safe to
fluctuations. Your savin
ab
of the United
$10,000 by the F .L.I.C.,
the Warsaw Ghetto, an area
which she said "could barely
hold 150,000 at the most. For
days and nights on end Jewish
families stood in the streets
and there was now
them in."
o became
She said t G
which 12 to
"one vast • "
e crowded into a
15 peopl
la s swept through
room.
d area and "t -r
the
ssibility of
was o
th s'
and the
etimes there
ity of separating
g
om the dead."
Somehow the
youth
n the ghetto
e organ-
ed and "a
it of uprising
she said. "Not a
revo ion but a social upris-
ing—a movement to keep the
image of God which the Ger-
mans were trying to de-
stroy." When the youth move-
• ment learned that the Nazis
intended to annihilate every
Jew "they took arms."
On Yom Kippur, 1940, the
Nazis announced by radio plans
to set up "autonomous" Jewish
quarters where. Warsaw's Jews
would "enjoy educational and
social freedom," she said. The
Nazis transported thousands of
Jews to a new ghetto and illu-
sion ended when the "autono-
mous zone" was suddenly sealed
off and converted into a gigan-
tic prison.
he said in the new "one"
n only SS men but also Polish
ligans had free reign to do
a thing which satisfied their
istic impulses with impunity.
e said the objective of the
azis was to humiliate, demor-
alize and sap the last vestige
of energy before snuffing out
the life of every Jewish captive.
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