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THE HOLOCAUST IS OVER WE MUST RISE FROM ITS ASHES

the holocaust is over; we must rise from its ashes - Welcome to ...

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suspended daily, and not just to evade a decision . . . I asked people every oncein a while for their opinions. Opinions are divided. It can be said that the moreDiasporic a person is, the greater his fear. When a person who left the Diasporaand settles in Israel, his fear decreases . . . I want to say my opinion. If he canbe left in this state, that any day his sentence may be executed, this is what Iwant, although it is cruel . . .Almogi: And what if not . . .Burg: Will there be a vote here? I don’t know if the cabinet should do it. BenGurion: The cabinet must do it. The president will ask for the opinion of thecabinet. It cannot be avoided.Eshkol: For me the question is not of conscience, not of misgivings . . . Fromthe first moment of his capture, I said to myself: If it is possible that after thetrial he will walk in the world with Cain’s mark and be treated accordingly—itis much more than the five minutes of an execution. I tried to talk with somepeople. I know it is not likely. Probably the matter will be over in the fiveminutes of the execution.Ben-Gurion: We should also decide on the official pardon. If it reaches thepresident, the president will ask the cabinet for its opinion. Burg’s proposal,according to the attorney general, is against the law.Burg: I propose we make an experimental vote on Eshkol’s proposal, and afterthe experimental vote, a final one.They vote. The whole cabinet is against Eshkol and my father. The minutes state:“Eshkol’s proposals get two votes.”Ben-Gurion: After the experimental vote—the final vote.Decision: (unanimously) Not to recommend to the president to commute thesentence of Adolf Eichmann.My father and Eshkol lost that battle. But the days did come, the days of myfather, when his astonishing Jewishness, morality, and wisdom will go hand in handand will be the column of fire that leads Israeli decision makers. Eichmann washanged and burned, my father is dead. As time passes I discover him more and misshim even much more. I have no words; I do not know how I would have voted thenand there. Thanks are due to Eichmann, under whose dark light I found my lost

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