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The Canadian English-Jewish Weekly
VOL XUY
GABDENVALE, QUEBEC, ^OVEMBER 24. 1961
OF WORLD'S PRESS REACTION TO JERUSALEM TRIAL SHOWED ISRAEL ACHIEVED ITS PURPOSE: TO PROVE EICHMANN GUILTY OF GENOCIDE CRIME; TO ESTABLISH FACTS OF HITLER'S MASSACRE OF JEWS; TO DEMONSTRATE TO THE WORLD THE ULTIMATE MEANING OF PREJUDICE; TO RECORD SOCIETY'S
GUILT IN THE CRIME OF ANTI-SEMITISM
When the Eichmann trial was about half over, says the A.D.L. Bulletin, of the Anti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith, T. 8. Matthews wrote in the Saturday Evening Post:
"A bomb has been exploded in Jerusalem: the Eichmann trial. Though at first the cloud it created seemed not much larger than one man's head, it soon mushroomed into enormous size, and has now begun to rain down on Europe the ashes of 6,000,000 martyred dead . . . However hard we try to wash pur hands of it, it is morally certain that none of us can ever be free of the Eichmann case. It hits directly home to every human bein^ now alive."
The novelist, Joseph Kessel, covering the trial for Paris Soir, was asked: "Do you think the Eichmann trial will have any lasting impact on the world?" He answered, "Yes, indeed. Everlasting, in fact.
Are these estimates correct? Has Israel succeeded in its stated pur-
pose � to prove Eichmann guilty of the crime of genocide, to establish the facts of Hitler's massacre of Jews, to demonstrate to the world the ultimate meaning of prejudice, and to record society's guilt in the crime of anti-Semitism?
To find out answers to these questions, the Anti-Defamation League undertook an extensive survey of press reaction throughout the course of the trial. The survey covered editorial opinion in the United States, Europe, the Soviet Union, the Middle East, and Latin America. The survey had this general conclusion:
Favorable press reaction to the conduct of the Eichmann trial has largely dispelled earlier criticism of the circumstances and legality of Eichmann's capture.
Supporting this conclusion was a breakdown of 1,033 editorials in American newspapers during the trial which showed that:
�Seven hundred and fifty-five
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(73.1%) were generally in favor of the trial.
�Two hundred and fifteen (20.8%), despite what they believed to be irregularities, still thought the trial should take place.
�Sixty-three (6.1%) opposed the trial or were unconvinced that Israel had a right to hold it.
The survey also found that as the trial, which started on April 11, began to unfold, the negative editorials began to disappear from the press. Not a single negative editorial could be found in the American press in. the months of June and July.
Before and in the week following the start of the trial, American magazines gave substantial amounts of space to the subject. A number of magazines were editorially opposed to the trial, among them The Reporter and U.S. News and World Report. Among those favorably inclined was Newsweek. However, after the trial began, editorial comment became slightly more favorable. Many magazines seemed to generalize and moralize about the situation, avoiding the hard facts of the case.
Generally, in the case of both newspapers and magazines, sympathy for. Israel was xxripMerabl more pronounced io t|j�.
The most consistent television coverage wajr.-�' half hour every week night to local stations within the New York City radius. It was put on by -the American Broadcasting Company, and was in a prime evening spot with a real estate corporation as a sponsor. The program featured tapes of the trial and attracted a wide audience.
ABC also put on a Sunday afternoon network program over 60 stations, thfc report continued. This did not attract a sponsor. In the first days of the trial the station asked its New York audience to request a copy of the full indictment. It received 10.000 responses the first week; 8,000 the second week; and 6,000 the third week.
Four weeks after the trial began the- National Broadcasting Company pave an hour, from 10 to 11 p.m. on a Monday, to a special trial broadcast. About 180 stations in the country picked up the program. XBC. in addition, carried a number of special programs.
Newscasts of all stations devoted spot coverage to the trial but TV officials seemed to feel that the public was either uninterested or unwilling to watch the resurrected horrors of the Nazi atrocities. Advertisers, by their response, were in accord. No one offered to sponsor a national network show on the trial.
Press coverage became more and more favorable abroad, too, as the trial progressed. However, there was a major exception: pre?s treatment in the Soviet Union consistently sought to embarrass the Bonn government. It often painted Eichmann as a symbol of Adenauer's Germany as well as Hitler's.
This is what the survey found, country by country:
Israel
Newspapers gave a considerable proportion of their total space to the trial. The Israel broadcasting service, Kol Yisrael, relayed the trial from the courtroom on opening day, and a surrey showed that 60 per cent of the population over the &ge of 14 listened in. A number of subsequent sessions were also broadcast, and each evening at the peak hoar, Kol Yisrael provided a 30-minute review.
The extensive coverage by the mass media appeared to produce a feeling of profound unity among the people � a unity not experienced since the establishment of the state. Equally significant was the impact on the youth of the country who for the first time learned what their parents had experienced in Hitler Europe.
Wett Germany
4�t Extensive coverage by the press spand mdtn none of UM detail*.
Twice & week' the West -
television network gave summaries and commentaries.
The barrage of press reports and comments together with the radio and TV coverage had a great initial shock effect on the youth of Germany.
A poll taken in West Germany showed that the trial elicited a strong interest among the West Gtrman people. It also showed that ''practically every German family had to concern itself with the past because of the extensive German press, television and radio coverage of the trial."
The majority of the press considered as the central issue the moral responsibility of the German people for the crimes of the Nazi regime which were symbolized in the figure of Eichmann. Practically without exception, they appealed to their readers' con-sciences to face the facts as they Wf>re revealed by the trial.
Up to the conclusion of the survey, the German press continued to do vote to the Eichmann trial much space and editorial comment. Fifty German journalists attended the proceedings, including ^ach highly qualified, MB-trvHok?* gg pr. Albert Wucber, who rrfpf U 1�* of-Munich.
'�"'- Leading periodicals and illustrated weeklies also published extensive studies of the Eichmann case.
The West German "nationalist" press, representing the views of neo-Nazis and Nazi apologists, attempted to play down the evidence and the impact of the trial. But the total circulation of these newspapers was under 80,000.
East Germany
The press used the trial to embarrass the West German government. They played up alleged former Nazis still in or back in the service of the Bonn government, particularly Dr. Hans Globke.
England
The reaction was similar to that of the American press. Extended and comprehensive coverage was given to the trial, and Icgalisms which had taken up considerable space before the trial, diminished and disappeared after it began. As the trial wore on, editorial comment dropped off. Television provided substantial coverage with one channel showing films flown from Jerusalem tw#or three time* a week.- One
Israel's seizure of Eichmann and the competence of the Israeli court to try him.
France
The reaction of the press was one of utter repugnance for Eichmann and the Nazis and the warmest sympathy for Israel in its effort to bring Eichmann to justice and to make the world once more aware of the Nazi system. The French press, from the time of Kichmann's capture, gave extensive coverage to the pretrial developments and to the trial itself.
Italy
Reports of the trial were given full distribution. The semi-official news agency and all leading newspapers assigned their best correspondents to Jerusalem. Condemnation of Eichmann was virtually unanimous in the Italian press.
Spain
Spanish press accounts were superficial, giving the impression that the Franco government (since the press was state controlled) did not want to wveal to Spaniards the full horror..pjfj&e Hitler era.
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