Holocaust Eichmann claimed he was 'a mere instrument' in Holocaust, appeal reveals ‘I was not a responsible leader and do not feel myself guilty,’ writes Nazi war criminal in personal petition now publicly released Adolf Eichmann’s appeal for a pardon from Israel’s then president Yitzhak Ben-Zvi was refused and he was hanged two days later. Photograph: Brook Lapping/Kessler Prod/BBC 
 
 Israel has made public a decades-old handwritten plea for clemency from Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann for his role in the Holocaust, dated two days before he was executed. 
 
 In the request, written after he was brought to Israel in 1960, then tried, convicted and sentenced to death, Eichmann says the Israeli court overstated his role in organising the logistics of Hitler’s Final Solution, which involved the extermination of 6 million Jews. 
 
 
 
 President Reuven Rivlin presented the previously unreleased letter, which was written to then president Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, at a ceremony to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. 
 
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 “There is a need to draw a line between the leaders responsible and the people like me forced to serve as mere instruments in the hands of the leaders,” the presidency quoted Eichmann’s letter as saying. 
 
 “I was not a responsible leader, and as such do not feel myself guilty,” the German wrote. 
 
 “I am not able to recognise the court’s ruling as just, and I ask, Your Honour Mr President, to exercise your right to grant pardons, and order that the death penalty not be carried out.” 
 
 The letter was signed and dated: “Adolf Eichmann Jerusalem, May 29, 1962.” 
 
 He was hanged at about midnight on 31 May. 
 
 Eichmann, one of the main organisers of the Holocaust, escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp after the second world war and fled to Argentina in 1950, where he lived under a pseudonym until he was snatched by Mossad agents in Buenos Aires in May 1960 and smuggled into Israel. 
 
 The ability of the security services to bring him to justice was a source of pride for the Jewish state, and Rivlin referred to the trial as a momentous moment in Israel’s history. 
 
 “In the first years after the Holocaust, the people in Israel were busy rebuilding and founding an independent state,” he said. “The renewed Israeli society was not in the mindset to, or able to, remember. 
 
 “The Eichmann trial broke the dam of silence. The ability of the young Jewish state to capture the Nazi murderer afforded a basic sense of security to the survivors of the Holocaust.” 
 
 Dismissing Eichmann’s claims to be just a bureaucrat, Rivlin said: “The people who suffered from Eichmann’s weakness were not given a moment of grace.” 
 
 Israel and its allies have continued to use their resources across the globe to pursue those responsible for carrying out the Holocaust, even though the majority of perpetrators are now close to death. 
 
 On Tuesday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center – named after the famous Nazi hunter – produced a list of 10 alleged Nazis who could be prosecuted in 2016. Of the 10, four have trial dates already slated in Germany this year. Among them is Helma Kissner, who served as a radio operator in the Auschwitz death camp for four months in July 1944. 
 
 Efraim Zuroff, the Jerusalem director of the centre, said it would continue to chase every remaining perpetrator as “we owe it to the victims”. 
 
 “The passage of time in no way diminishes the guilt of the killers. Old age should not afford protection to people that committed such heinous crimes,” he told AFP. “The trials send a powerful message about the significance of the Holocaust.” 
 
 As the number of second world war Nazis alive diminishes, Zuroff said his centre was also seeking to focus on historical accuracy – with strands of different societies in Europe keen to play down their role in the killings. 
 
 The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, in a statement on Tuesday, warned that antisemitism was again growing in Europe. 
 
 “Even respected western opinion leaders have become afflicted with hatred for the Jewish people and the Jewish state,” Netanyahu said, without giving names. “The obsession with the Jews – the fixation on the Jewish state – defies any other rational explanation.” 
 
 Other documents presented at Wednesday’s commemoration, in the presence of Holocaust survivors, included requests for clemency from Eichmann’s wife Vera and his five brothers, along with Ben-Zvi’s letter to his justice minister rejecting the appeals. 
 
 Also in the collection, recently digitised by the presidential archives, are a transcript of Eichmann’s defence counsel’s supreme court appeal, the handwritten opinion of justice minister Dov Yosef, and a note by prosecutor Gideon Hausner for his opening address. 
 
 Israel marks its own Holocaust remembrance day, which this year will be held on 4-5 May. 
 
 
 
 ||||| President Reuven Rivlin was making public on Wednesday previously unreleased documents, including a handwritten request for clemency from Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. 
 
 Rivlin’s office said in a statement that the request to then president Yitzhak Ben-Zvi would be presented at a ceremony at Rivlin’s official Jerusalem residence to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. 
 
 Although found not guilty of personally murdering anyone, Eichmann was convicted of playing a key role in the genocide of the Jewish people and sentenced to death on December 15, 1961. 
 
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 In the petition, written after he was brought to Israel in 1960, then tried, convicted and sentenced to death the following year, Eichmann says that the Israeli court overstated his role in organizing the logistics of Hitler’s “Final Solution,” which involved the extermination of six million Jews. 
 
 “There is a need to draw a line between the leaders responsible and the people like me forced to serve as mere instruments in the hands of the leaders,” Rivlin’s office quotes the letter as saying. 
 
 “I was not a responsible leader, and as such do not feel myself guilty,” he adds. 
 
 “I am not able to recognize the court’s ruling as just, and I ask, Your Honour Mr President, to exercise your right to grant pardons, and order that the death penalty not be carried out.” 
 
 The letter was signed and dated: “Adolf Eichmann Jerusalem, May 29, 1962.” 
 
 He was hanged overnight May 31 and cremated hours later. His ashes were scattered outside the borders of the State of Israel in the Mediterranean Sea. He was the only person ever executed by the Jewish state. 
 
 Eichmann had escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp after World War II and fled to Argentina in 1950, where he lived under a pseudonym until he was snatched by Mossad agents in Buenos Aires in May 1960 and smuggled to Israel. 
 
 Other documents to be presented at Wednesday’s commemoration in the presence of Holocaust survivors, include requests for clemency from Eichmann’s wife Vera and his five brothers, and Ben-Zvi’s letter to his justice minister rejecting the appeals. 
 
 Former MK Rafi Eitan, who was in charge of the Mossad operation to capture Eichmann, will also attend the ceremony along with members of the family of the late Gideon Hausner who was prosecutor in the case. 
 
 Also in the collection, recently digitized by the presidential archives, are a transcript of Eichmann’s defense counsel’s Supreme Court appeal, the handwritten opinion of justice minister Dov Yosef, and a note by prosecutor Gideon Hausner for his opening address. 
 
 Below is the full text of Eichmann’s letter to Ben-Zvi in translation, provided by the Rivlin’s office in Jerusalem. 
 
 To: 
 
 Mr. President, 
 
 I add myself to the request of my defence counsel, and allow myself to state further the following matters. 
 
 In their judgement of me, the judges made a fundamental mistake in that they are not able to empathise with the time and situation in which I found myself during the war years. The mistake was caused by the fact that at the time of my judgement, I was presented with a number of documents which without being seen in connection with the general material of the orders, must give an incorrect picture. 
 
 It is not true that I was personally of such a high rank as to be able to persecute, or that I myself was a persecutor in the pursuit of the Jews, in the face of such an abundant rule it is clear the judges in their ruling ignored the fact that I never served in such a high position as required to be involved independently in such decisive responsibilities. Nor did I give any order in my own name, but only ever acted ‘by order of’. 
 
 Even had I been as the judges assessed the driving, zealous, force in the persecution of the Jews, such a thing would have been evident in my promotion and other awards. Yet I received no such advantages. 
 
 It is also incorrect that I was never influenced by human emotions. 
 
 Specifically under the impression of the unspeakable horrors which I witnessed, I immediately requested a transfer to a different post. Similarly, I revealed of my own will during the police investigation, horrors which had been till then unknown in order to help establish the undisputable truth. 
 
 I declare once again, as I did in the presence of the court: I detest as the greatest of crimes the horrors which were perpetrated against the Jews and think it right that the initiators of these terrible deeds will stand trial before the law now and in the future. 
 
 Notwithstanding there is a need to draw a line between the leaders responsible and the people like me forced to serve as mere instruments in the hands of the leaders. I was not a responsible leader, and as such do not feel myself guilty. 
 
 I am not able to recognise the court’s ruling as just, and I ask, Your Honour Mr. President, to exercise your right to grant pardons, and order that the death penalty not be carried out. 
 
 Adolf Eichmann 
 
 Jerusalem, 29.5.62 ||||| High-ranking Nazi Adolf Eichmann requested a pardon from Israel's president Yitzhak Ben-Zvi two days before was hanged to death, rare documents released in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day showed on Wednesday. 
 
 Eichmann made the request after being found guilty of 15 charges, including crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity and war crimes. 
 
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 The document is one of several released ahead of an event scheduled for Wednesday at the President's Residence. Among the other artifacts are Ben-Zvi's letter rejecting Eichmann's request and the pages on which chief prosecutor Gideon Hausner wrote the famous line invoking "six million accusers" in the trial. 
 
 
 
 Adolf Eichmann during his trial 
 
 
 
 "The judges made a critical mistake when assessing my personality, because they cannot place themselves in the time and situation I was in during the war years," Eichmann wrote to Israel's second president. "It is untrue that I was such an important personage that I could oversee or would independently oversee the persecution of the Jews." Eichmann argued that the judges ignored his claim that he "never served in such a high-ranking position that would have involved such decisive and independent authorities." 
 
 
 
 
 
 The war criminal, who was among those most involved in carrying out the Holocaust, further wrote: "I also never gave any orders in my name, but always operated according to orders. Had I been, as the judges assume, the fanatical driving force in the persecution of the Jews, this should have been reflected in a promotion and other rewards, but I was never granted any benefit. A line must be drawn between the leaders who are responsible and people like me, who were forced to be tools by the leadership. I was not in charge of things, and therefore I do not feel that I am guilty. And I ask of you, honorable president, to use your right of pardon and order that this death sentence not be carried out." 
 
 
 
 Presiding Judges Yitzhak Raveh, Benjamin Halevi, and Moshe Landau 
 
 Vera Eichmann, the notorious Nazi's wife, also wrote to Ben-Tzi with a request for a pardon "as a fire and mother to four children". A letter by Eichmann's five brothers was attached to Adolf's letter, which argued that the trial exposed the horrors of the past to the world. "If people thus attain tolerance and an understanding of brotherhood, the purpose of the trial was achieved. As a conclusion to this worldwide rebuke, an act of mercy would emphasize the altruism of the Jewish people and help it by means of advancing friendship between peoples and races." 
 
 Eichmann's German attorney, Dr. Robert Servatius, noted in the request that his client was "an unimportant person who was thrust by fate into political events." The lawyer added that the court had not taken into account the historical context of events, which he claimed were grounds for overturning the death sentence. "The condemned did not act out of a position of anti-Semitism, but because he was bound by the bureaucratic coercion system." 
 
 Ben-Zvi rejected the request in a concise letter. "After considering the parson requests submitted regarding the Adolf Eichmann case, and after I gave my attention to all the materials available to me, I reached the conclusion that there is no justification for giving Eichmann a pardon or mitigate the punishment passed down by the Jerusalem District Court on December 15, 1961, and which was approved by the Supreme Court on May 29, 1962," wrote Ben-Zvi. "Thus, I am informing you that I have decided to refuse the requests and not use my powers to pardon and reduce punishments in this case." 
 
 Also revealed was the handwritten text of then-attorney general Gideon Hausner's opening statement. "When I stand before you, judges of Israel, to lead the prosecution of Adolf Eichmann, I do not stand alone," Hausner said in the memorable statement. |With me here are six million accusers. But they cannot rise to their feet and point their finger at the man in the dock with the cry 'J'accuse!' on their lips. For they are now only ashes – ashes piled high on the hills of Auschwitz and the fields of Treblinka and strewn in the forests of Poland. Their graves are scattered throughout Europe. Their blood cries out, but their voice is stilled. Therefore will I be their spokesman. In their name will I unfold this terrible indictment."
– In all of Israeli history, only one man has been sentenced to death by a civilian court and then executed: Adolf Eichmann. On Wednesday, the country released the Nazi's handwritten plea for clemency, penned two days before he was hanged. The AFP reports the release coincides with International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and quotes, along with the BBC and Ynetnews, from the May 29, 1962, letter, in which Eichmann tries to make the case that he was merely following orders when he implemented the "Final Solution": "[The judges] made a fundamental mistake in that they are not able to empathize with the time and situation in which I found myself during the war years. There is a need to draw a line between the leaders responsible and the people like me forced to serve as mere instruments in the hands of the leaders. Had I been, as the judges assume, the fanatical driving force in the persecution of the Jews, this should have been reflected in a promotion and other rewards, but I was never granted any benefit. I am not able to recognize the court’s ruling as just, and I ask, Your Honor Mr. President, to exercise your right to grant pardons, and order that the death penalty not be carried out." The Times of Israel reports that Eichmann—who fled a POW camp after the war, made his way to Argentina, and was kidnapped by Israeli intelligence agents in 1960—was cremated hours after his May 31 hanging; his ashes were spread in the Mediterranean Sea. Wednesday's release includes related documents, including President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi's rejection of the request; the letter Eichmann’s wife, Vera, wrote to Ben-Zvi; and chief prosecutor Gideon Hausner's moving handwritten opening statement that referenced the "six million accusers" with him who "are now only ashes." (The dark details of France's WWII Vichy regime were exposed last month.)