Aharon Hoter-Yishai
Encyclopedia
Aharon Hoter-Yishai Served as Israel's Military Advocate General
and testified in the Eichmann trial in 1961.
in the Second World War. He served in Italy
, Yugoslavia
and Austria
.
Hoter-Yishai was at the forefront of absolving Meir Tobianski
posthumously. Tobianski had been put on trial in June 1948 and executed for being a traitor. Hoter-Yishai presided over a retrial at which he was found not guilty. He was tased with coordinating the activities of the Brigade by Yehudah Arazi
of the Aliyah B Organization.. He visited several of the Nazi camps and places where Jewish survivors were including Freimann Flak-Kaserne and the St. Ottilien Archabbey
. In June 1945 he arrived at Theresienstadt
. He also visited the camps at Dachau, Bergen-Belsen
, and Mauthausen
.
. He testified regarding what he found at the concentration camps his brigade liberated:
Attorney General: Mr. Hoter-Yishai, in 1945, at the end of the Second World War, you were in Europe as an officer in the second battalion of the Jewish Brigade - is that correct?
Witness Hoter-Yishai: "Correct......I believe that if I were to try to confine myself to a few sentences, I could say: We found a collection of living people who, psychologically, were not very different from those corpses we found lying there without limbs and even heads. From the physical point of view, everything was done, to a certain extent, especially during the first stages, in order to put them back on their feet, as far as that was possible. If my memory serves me correctly, there were, at the time, in Bergen-Belsen, 52,000 refugees, of whom 27,000 died in the course of receiving medical treatment."
Military Advocate General
The Military Advocate General assists the Israel Defense Forces in imposing rules of conduct through legal advice, legal instruction, maintaining the mechanisms for military prosecution and legal defense, and fulfilling special legal tasks...
and testified in the Eichmann trial in 1961.
Jewish Brigade
In 1945 Hoter-Yishai was an officer of the Jewish BrigadeJewish Brigade
The Jewish Infantry Brigade Group was a military formation of the British Army that served in Europe during the Second World War. The brigade was formed in late 1944, and its personnel fought the Germans in Italy...
in the Second World War. He served in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
.
Hoter-Yishai was at the forefront of absolving Meir Tobianski
Meir Tobianski
Meir Tobianski also Tubianski was an officer in the Israel Defense Forces who was executed as a traitor on circumstantial evidence on the orders of Isser Be'eri, the first director of the IDF's intelligence branch...
posthumously. Tobianski had been put on trial in June 1948 and executed for being a traitor. Hoter-Yishai presided over a retrial at which he was found not guilty. He was tased with coordinating the activities of the Brigade by Yehudah Arazi
Yehudah Arazi
Yehuda Arazi , code name Alon, was a Polish Jew active in the Haganah paramilitary in Palestine and subsequently the Israeli Defense Force after the creation of Israel.-Biography:...
of the Aliyah B Organization.. He visited several of the Nazi camps and places where Jewish survivors were including Freimann Flak-Kaserne and the St. Ottilien Archabbey
St. Ottilien Archabbey
St. Ottilien Archabbey is a Benedictine monastery in Emming near Eresing and the Ammersee in the district of Landsberg, Oberbayern, Germany. It is the mother house of the St...
. In June 1945 he arrived at Theresienstadt
Theresienstadt concentration camp
Theresienstadt concentration camp was a Nazi German ghetto during World War II. It was established by the Gestapo in the fortress and garrison city of Terezín , located in what is now the Czech Republic.-History:The fortress of Terezín was constructed between the years 1780 and 1790 by the orders...
. He also visited the camps at Dachau, Bergen-Belsen
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle...
, and Mauthausen
Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp
Mauthausen Concentration Camp grew to become a large group of Nazi concentration camps that was built around the villages of Mauthausen and Gusen in Upper Austria, roughly east of the city of Linz.Initially a single camp at Mauthausen, it expanded over time and by the summer of 1940, the...
.
Eichmann trial
In 1961 Hoter-Yishai was called as witness in the trial of Adolf EichmannAdolf Eichmann
Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...
. He testified regarding what he found at the concentration camps his brigade liberated:
Attorney General: Mr. Hoter-Yishai, in 1945, at the end of the Second World War, you were in Europe as an officer in the second battalion of the Jewish Brigade - is that correct?
Witness Hoter-Yishai: "Correct......I believe that if I were to try to confine myself to a few sentences, I could say: We found a collection of living people who, psychologically, were not very different from those corpses we found lying there without limbs and even heads. From the physical point of view, everything was done, to a certain extent, especially during the first stages, in order to put them back on their feet, as far as that was possible. If my memory serves me correctly, there were, at the time, in Bergen-Belsen, 52,000 refugees, of whom 27,000 died in the course of receiving medical treatment."