“TRAIL OF HANGMAN”

Press, Volume C, Issue 29488, 14 April 1961, Page 20

“TRAIL OF HANGMAN”

German TV Programme (N Z P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) BERLIN, April 12. All West German television stations screened an hourlong programme on the life of Adolf Eichmann last night, the Associated Press reported. Called “On the Trail of the Hangman,” it included scenes never shown before in West Germany. There were pictures of the destruction of the Czech town of Lidice, rotting corpses in concentration camps, German soldiers shooting prisoners In a ditch. Parents were warned that the scenes might be harmful to children. There was also a picture of the title page at the official commentary on the Nazi’s anti-Jewish laws. The camera lingered for a moment on the name of the co-author, Hans Globke, now a senior adviser to Chancellor Adenauer. "All this was done in the name of the German people.” the announcer repeated several times. In East Germany, Communist authorities said television stations would carry a programme today called “Adolf Eichmann and Others.”

In Britain, reports of the opening of the Eichmann trial dominated the morning newspapers, Reuter said. The "Daily Sketch” said that although Eichmann was being tried in a courtroom he would be “convicted by the silent witnesses from the charnel house.

“No court, in the land of Zion or elsewhere, could impose a punishment to fit the crime with which Adolf Eichmann is charged. Rebecca West told the “Daily Sketch” yesterday: “Legally, the Eichmann trial is absurd. I think one of the main reasons may be that the Israelis feel the need to convince the world of the necessity for the State of Israel.” The “Daily Herald’s” correspondent at the trial said that “the glasr cage gives him (Eichmann) the look of an unclean tiling, something less than human.”