THE HOLOCAUST IS OVER WE MUST RISE FROM ITS ASHES

light to humanity. But they continued to debate whether to recommend to thepresident to grant clemency, to pardon Eichmann and publicize the reasons.Levi Eshkol : Is it possible to reduce his sentence with an announcement statingwhy?Ben-Gurion: It is possible.Eshkol: I would tend to this option.I always knew that Eshkol was the best prime minister Israel had ever had. Herewas the proof. He was a giant, a hero, brave and humane.Ben-Gurion: Does anyone else agree with Eshkol’s opinion?Dov Yosef: I want to speak against it.Forty-five years have passed since that cabinet session, and yet the anxiety anddistress can be felt in the old typewritten pages.Minister Haim Moshe Shapira, who met Eichmann in Vienna, pleads.Shapira: Can we break the meeting to think?The train has left the station. It is not possible to hold back the urge to continue to theend.Yosef Almogi : I have no doubt that even those who support execution do notdiscount the important arguments that we heard . . . I praise Eshkol’s courage,but I should say a few things. I became a Zionist at age ten for one reason. Inmy town, a sheigetz, a non-Jew, came and killed a young Jewish man for noreason. The Polish court did not sentence him to death. Not even to fifteenyears’ imprisonment. In another instance, a murderer was sentenced to death.Since then it became clear to me that Jewish blood is unworthy . . . We arefacing a symbol. True, the punishment is not enough, but there is not a moresevere punishment.Eshkol: He should die—in prison.Almogi: In prison he will be more comfortable than in Argentina. We are facing asymbol . . . We have no choice.Bar Yehuda: Eshkol, I disagree. Even though, in some way I would haveunderstood if you said release him. No form of punishment is enough. But if