Legal Document with Reference to the Eichmann Trial and the Kastner Trial - Adv. Shmuel Tamir

"Copy of a reply I submitted regarding a complaint against me by the chairman of the council", a legal document by Adv. Shmuel Tamir, addressed to the Legal Council, Jerusalem, May 1961.
In early 1961, when Adolf Eichmann was imprisoned in Israel, interrogated and awaiting his trial, Adv.Shmuel Tamir, who was representing Malkiel Gruenwald in the Kastner trial, submitted a lawsuit to the District Court in Haifa against Eichmann. The lawsuit was submitted on behalf of Joseph Mandel, a Hungarian Jew, brother of George Mandel-Mantello. Mantello was a wealthy businessman whose connections led to his appointment as honorary consul of El Salvador in Switzerland. He took advantage of this position and issued many Salvadoran passports for Hungarian Jews, saving their lives. In addition, the Mandel brothers attempted to release Hungarian Jews in the "Train of the Privileged" or the "Bergen-Belsen Train" by bribing senior Nazi officials. Kastner was also involved in this affair.
Mandel's lawsuit, submitted in March 1961, concerned the retrieval of his family's property which was confiscated by the Nazis. Tamir turned the case into an indictment against the political Israeli establishment. Tamir requested to question Eichmann in order to clarify the lawsuit, and the judge asked the Attorney General for his opinion. A representative of the Attorney General, who was not interested in any interrogation other than by the Israel Police, asked to postpone the discussion until the police interrogation was completed. Tamir understood that as soon as the criminal trial starts he would no longer be able to question Eichmann and that by the end of the trial Eichmann would most probably be executed. Tamir asked the court to conduct the session and to let him question Eichmann prior to the commencement of the trial, claiming that the confiscation of Hungarian Jews property was not included in the criminal accusation against Eichmann, nor was he interrogated about this matter, and hinted that the reasons for that are irrelevant.
The Minister of Justice was in disagreement with the insinuation by Tamir regarding the motives of the Attorney General and his representatives, and complained against him to the "Legal Council" on the grounds of "inappropriate behavior, inadequate for the legal profession". The document presented here, is Tamir's reaction to the Legal Council's claim.
The representative of the Attorney General argued during an additional discussion of the lawsuit that Mandel preferred his personal economic affairs to the wellbeing of the Jewish people. He claimed that to summon Eichmann to testify will disable him from preparing himself for the criminal trial.
Tamir emphasizes the fact that Mandel asked for 1501 Israeli Pounds while the property confiscated from his family was worth 300,300 Swiss Francs and claimed that the refusal of the state to enable the interrogation, and its attempt to prevent listening to the prosecution stems from its concern that the Kastner affair will rise again above the surface, in view of the fact that Kastner and his people were involved with the "Bergen-Belsen Train", and since the Israeli Government promised the German Chancellor Adenaur that the Eichmann trial will not cause any deterioration of the relations between the two states, and not open a Pandoraג€™s box as far as information about Nazi war criminals who still hold positions in the West Germany administration is concerned.
According to Tamir, the Eichmann interrogation by the police was a "shameful scandal" and that there was no attempt to get the information that Eichmann had about other Nazi war criminals, or about the destiny of the murdered and survivorsג€™ property. According to the lawsuit the Committee for Hungarian Jews founded by the Mandel brothers paid Eichmann and his people 750,000 Swiss Francs through a Swiss mediator in return for releasing the "Train of the Privileged", while at the same time Kastner paid him a fortune in money and jewelry, which they did not know about. 300,000 Francs of that amount came from Mandel's private money. The reply document by Tamir is a fascinating and eloquent document, well-written, moderate in its wording but of a trenchant nature. The document contains as addenda, the original lawsuit and the request for a pre-trial session (6 pages) and 2 newspapers articles supporting his arguments. 40pp, 31.5 cm. Good condition. Damages to first page, no text omission. Minor damages to last page, no text omission.