JUSTICE GABRIEL BACH, PROSECUTOR IN EICHMANN TRIAL, VISITS OMAHA
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 12:19PM Print Article Lizzy Gilbert
Plains States Region/ADL
Justice Gabriel Bach spoke at Creighton University on September 22nd and at Kutak Rock Law Offices on September 23rd. His visit marked 50 years since the Adolf Eichmann trial in Israel.
Justice Bach is widely known for his role as lead prosecutor in the trial of Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann was one of the top-ranking Nazi officials responsible for the Holocaust. After living in hiding for years following World War II, Eichmann was captured in Argentina and brought to Israel to stand trial for war crimes.
Addressing Creighton law students and the community on Thursday evening at the Harper Center, Justice Bach then spoke to Omaha-area attorneys at the law firm of Kutak Rock on Friday afternoon. He described the legal considerations and challenges the prosecution faced in the Eichmann trial, including his capture, the location for the trial, and considerations of international law and the previous Nuremburg trials.
Recalling testimony of a Holocaust survivor whose family perished at a concentration camp from the trial, Bach asked this man to recount his experiences. “The man told me,” said Bach, “when we arrived at the camp, Nazi soldiers ordered us into a single-file line. They then sorted us into two lines. I later learned that the people they sent to the left, soldiers marched directly into the gas chambers. Those on the right, they packed into the barracks destined for the work units.”