Eichmann Trial Was All About Politics

Holocaust-related politics, to be more precise. Hence, it was a purely political process – cut and dry, plain and simple, loud and clear.

The primary objective was to radically increase awareness of the Holocaust worldwide – in that Israeli government was very successful. Eichmann trial became the second most well-known war crimes trial after the IMT Nuremberg trial of top Nazi leaders and Adolf Eichmann became almost a household name.

The second objective was to force West German criminal justice system to (finally) get serious about prosecuting Holocaust-related war crimes. This objective was achieved with great success as well: in a few years after Eichmann trial mass murderers of Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Auschwitz Treblinka stood trial in West Germany.

Sentences were mostly lenient; many defendants were acquitted… but still it was much better than nothing which was the case before the Eichmann trial in 1961. Majdanek trial followed in 1975.

The third objective was to instill fear in hearts, minds and souls of Nazi war criminals that murdered Jews in the Second Great War by sending a loud and clear message: “We will find you, bring you to court, convict and hang you”. Although no more “Eichmann trials” followed, this objective was apparently achieved as well.

The final (and obvious) objective was to exact revenge (retribution) on Adolf Eichmann – one of the worst serial mass murderers in human history, who put together Wannsee Conference – a diabolical criminal conspiracy to murder 11 million Jews of Europe (Nazis ended up killing around 3 million).

He got what he richly deserved – hangman’s noose – however, this (obvious) success came at a steep price. Very steep price. For starters, it was revenge – pure and simple. Revenge, not justice, because the Israelis violated the fundamental principle of criminal justice: victims can not judge the criminal. Consequently, although de-facto Eichmann was guilty 3 million times, de-jure he was not guilty due to legal issues. Not innocent – just not guilty.

Second, by kidnapping Eichmann, Israeli agents committed a capital crime – and then violated its own laws – putting death penalty on the books specifically for Eichmann (and then abolishing it back). Which made Israel look like a terrorist state that will violate any laws – domestic and international – to get what it wants. Anti-Semitism went through the roof worldwide – hardly a desirable outcome for the State of Israel.