Germany: justice refuses to open archives on Eichmann's escape

German administrative court refused Thursday, June 27 a total lifting of the secrecy surrounding the archives of the German secret services on the flight of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. The Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht), based in Leipzig, has dismissed a tabloid Bild reporter who had filed a request to that effect, after, thanks to a previous procedure, obtained a partial lifting of secrecy.

Based on the information obtained, the newspaper revealed in January 2011 that the German secret service knew in 1952 that Adolf Eichmann, one of the architects of the "Final Solution", had taken refuge after the war in Argentina. "Eichmann is not in Egypt, but he lives under the false name of Klement in Argentina," could be read on an information sheet of the German Intelligence Service (BND) since 1952 and partially reproduced by the newspaper with wide circulation .

"UNFORTUNATE"

Bild's lawyer, Mr. Christoph Partsch, raised the possibility of an appeal to the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, Germany's highest court. It is "regrettable that the work on the young history of the Federal Republic is thus hampered," he thought, believing that it could fuel the "speculation" about the reasons for such an attitude.

The lack of complete transparency can only be "harmful to Germany", also pleaded on his side Dieter Graumann, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.

The President of the German Association of Journalists (DJV), Michael Konken, quoted by Bild on its website, thought, too, "regrettable that we can not learn, half a century after the Eichmann trial, found in the records of federal secret services. "

Identified by the Mossad (Israeli secret service) Zvi Aharoni in 1960, Adolf Eichmann, a lieutenant-colonel in the SS and zealous technocrat responsible for organizing transport to the death camps, was then removed in Argentina these Israeli intelligence and tried in Jerusalem, from April 11 1961.Condamné to death in December 1961, Eichmann was hanged on 31 May 1962. His body was cremated and scattered outside the territorial waters of Israel ashes.