「アイヒマン裁判」検事が死去、９４歳　イスラエル

【エルサレムＡＦＰ＝時事】ナチス・ドイツ親衛隊の幹部でホロコースト（ユダヤ人大虐殺）の実行責任者だったアドルフ・アイヒマンの戦争犯罪を追及したイスラエルの元検事、ガブリエル・バッハ氏が死去し、２０日に埋葬された。９４歳。（写真はナチス・ドイツによるホロコースト＜ユダヤ人大虐殺＞の実行責任者だったアドルフ・アイヒマンの裁判で検事を務めたガブリエル・バッハ氏。中東エルサレムにて）
　イスラエル司法当局によると、バッハ氏は１８日に死去した。死因は明らかにされていない。
　アイヒマンは、アドルフ・ヒトラーが指示した欧州のユダヤ人絶滅計画「最終解決」の実行を主導した一人。１９６０年、偽名で南米アルゼンチンに潜伏していたところを、イスラエルの対外特務機関モサドに強制連行された。
　当時、若き次長検事だったバッハ氏は、ピンカス・ローゼン法相から直々に電話を受け、アイヒマン裁判の捜査を担当するよう依頼されたという。
　１９６１年４月に始まった裁判ではギデオン・ハウスナー検事総長が主任検察官を務めたが、数か月に及んだ捜査を指揮したのはバッハ氏だった。同氏は、イスラエル北部の刑務所を空っぽにしてアイヒマンを拘束し、警官約４０人を率いて尋問と証拠収集に当たった。
　バッハ氏は後年、ユダヤ人大量虐殺の「大義」に固執するアイヒマンの姿が忘れられないと述べ、裁判の一場面や証拠などを「思い出さない日はなかった」と語っている。
　バッハ氏は独ベルリン生まれ。１９３８年に家族と共に国外に避難し、英委任統治下のパレスチナに移住した。１９８２年から定年退職するまでイスラエル最高裁判事を務めた。最高裁判所長官は、同国の最も優れた法律家の一人だったとバッハ氏をたたえた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/02/22-12:15）

Gabriel Bach, who as a young Israeli state attorney helped prosecute Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, was buried Sunday following his death at the weekend, aged 94.
Bach, who also served as a judge on Israel's top court, was eulogised by Supreme Court president Esther Hayut as one of the great jurists in the nation's history, according to a copy of her remarks released by the court.
The judicial authority had earlier confirmed Bach's death in a statement, without giving the cause.
Bach was Israel's deputy state attorney in 1960 when the world learned that a key architect of Adolf Hitler's Final Solution to exterminate Europe's Jews had been seized by Israeli secret agents.
Days after Eichmann was snatched on May 11 by a Mossad team in Argentina, where he had been living under an assumed name, the Germany-born Bach received a call from Israeli justice minister Pinchas Rosen.
In a 2020 interview with AFP, Bach recalled what Rosen asked.
He said: 'Mr. Bach, I imagine that you will be one of the prosecutors in the case, but I have a request to make. I would like you to be in charge of the whole investigation against Eichmann', Bach recounted.
At the trial, which opened in April 1961, attorney general Gideon Hausner was lead prosecutor, with Bach as his deputy.
But it was Bach who led the months-long pretrial investigation, relocating from Jerusalem to northern Israel, where an entire prison had been cleared for Eichmann's detention.
At the prison, renamed Camp Iyar, Bach coordinated a team of some 40 police officers who interrogated and compiled evidence against Eichmann.
Bach said he remained haunted by the man who was so committed to his genocidal cause that he reportedly chastised fellow Nazis who wavered when forcing Jewish children into gas chambers.
Not a day passes without me remembering some particular item, or some particular piece of evidence, or some particular moment from the Eichmann trial, said Bach.
Bach had grown up in Berlin, but his family fled in 1938, shortly after the area where his Zionist school was located had been renamed Adolf Hitler Square.
The family ultimately settled in British-mandate Palestine.
Bach became a judge on Israel's Supreme Court in 1982 and served 15 years before retiring.