Go back to The Eichmann Trial: Participants, Then & Now
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Zimet, Walli Malka
Witness to bureaucratic functions of Eichmann’s office of emigration and property confiscation in Prague
1961 Quote: 4/27/61: ZIMET: I remember an occasion when there were already no more people for emigration…
DEPUTY STATE ATTORNEY YA’ACOV BAROR: When was that, approximately?
ZIMET: In 1940. And a group of persons had to appear there every day.
BAROR: Do you remember the size of a normal group that had to appear?
ZIMET: I don’t know, but I do know that when it was known that Eichmann was about to come, there was fear throughout the building. There were no longer any people there who had visas for any country, and then Gunther made an urgent request to the community officials that, for this day when Eichmann was coming, they should bring along a large number of people, even with empty kits, so as to show that some kind of activity was in progress there. And then several hundred persons lined up before the Zentralstelle and Eichmann appeared and was most satisfied to see people there, even though they only had blank papers in their kits. This he did not check.
BAROR: That is to say – they were there just for show?
ZIMET: Yes.
1996 Quote: I definitely did not want to testify. I had a terrible feeling. On the one hand it was terrible that I saw him. On the other hand, it was good that I saw him in such a place as the courtroom. I was very relieved when the trial was over. I think all Jews were relieved after the trial. Many people were sick during that time.
