Gabriel Bach (; 13 March 1927 – 18 February 2022) was a German-born Israeli jurist, who was a judge of the

Supreme Court of Israel The Supreme Court of Israel (, Hebrew acronym Bagatz; ) is the Supreme court, highest court in Israel. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all other courts, and in some cases original jurisdiction. The Supreme Court consists of 15 jud ...

and was the deputy prosecutor in the prosecution of

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ;"Eichmann"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 19 March 1906 – 1 Ju ...

Biography

Bach was born in

Halberstadt Halberstadt (; Eastphalian dialect, Eastphalian: ''Halverstidde'') is a town in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in central Germany, the capital of Harz (district), Harz district. Located north of the Harz mountain range, it is known for its old town ...

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, on 13 March 1927. He was the son of Victor Bach, who was the general manager of the Hirsch

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

and

brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

factory, and his wife Erna (née Benscher) Bach. He grew up in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Charlottenburg Charlottenburg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a German town law, town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Kingdom ...

, and attended Theodor Herzl School in what became the Adolf-Hitler-Platz. In October 1938 the Bach family emigrated from

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, where he continued to attend school. He was the only survivor of his Jewish classmates from this school. In 1940, a month before the invasion of the Netherlands by the German army, the family booked a passage to

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

and settled in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. He joined the

Haganah Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...

in 1943 and attended high school at the

Hebrew University Secondary School Hebrew University High School (), commonly known as ''Leyada'' (literally "next to"), is a semi-private high school in Jerusalem, established in 1935 by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The school is located next to the Givat Ram campus of th ...

, graduating in 1945. After a year of studies at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

, he received a scholarship to study

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. After graduating with honors in 1949, he interned in a law office before returning to Israel, where he did military service in the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

in the

Military Advocate General The Military Advocate General (MAG Corps') (, ''HaPraklitut HaTzva'it'') is responsible for implementing the rule of law within the Israel Defense Forces. The unit's objectives include integrating the rule of law amongst IDF commanders and soldie ...

's Corps from 1951 to 1953, and was discharged from active service with the rank of

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. In his military reserve duty he served as a

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

on the

Military Court of Appeals The Israeli Military Court of Appeals is the supreme military court of the Israel Defense Forces. It considers and judges over appeals submitted by the Military Advocate General which challenge decisions rendered by the district military tribunals ...

, reaching the rank of

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

. In 1953 Bach began working in the State Attorney's Office. In 1961 he was appointed Deputy Attorney General and as the second of the three prosecutors in the Eichmann trial. In 1969, he was appointed State Attorney. In 1982 he was appointed a judge of the

and retired in 1997. In 1984 he served as the precedent-breaking Chairman of the Central Elections Committee. He was subsequently appointed the chairman of several senior government committees and fact finding commissions. He subsequently represented Israel at international conferences. Bach was a long-term board member of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations. Bach married Ruth Arazi, the daughter of Yehuda Arazi, in 1955. The couple lived in Jerusalem. He died on 18 February 2022, at the age of 94. Eulogizing Bach, Professor

Dina Porat Dina Porat (Hebrew: דינה פורת; born 24 September 1943 in Buenos Aires) is an Israeli historian. She is professor emeritus of modern Jewish history at the Department of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University and the chief historian of Yad V ...

wrote:

Gaby was known for his liberal views and for his spirited defense of the rights of the accused. He was a tireless advocate of freedom of expression and women's rights. His rulings generally reflected those values, as did his work in a large number of investigative committees. Moreover, Gaby stressed the importance of treating everyone with respect and fairness, and was always true to his word... Gaby was involved in many trials, and his conduct and fair rulings garnered him much favor in the eyes of the public. Examples of this include the mitigation of the sentence of Carmela Bohbut, who killed her abusive husband; the defense of Mordechai Rahamim, an El Al security guard who shot and killed terrorists in Zurich; the arrest of Rabbi Meir Kahane and the restrictions imposed upon him; and the trial of Michael Rohan, who attempted to set the al-Aqsa Mosque ablaze.

Awards

*1949: Buchman Prize *Commander's Cross of the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

(10 October 1997) *Friend of Jerusalem *Honorary Member of the University of London *Lemkin Award, Los Angeles (2011) *Jülich Society Prize for Tolerance (2014) *Mensch International Foundation awarded to him as "Mensch" (2014)

Headings

*''Genocide trials in Israel'', in: Herbert Reginbogin and Christoph Safferling (eds.): '' The Nuremberg Trials.

International criminal law International criminal law (ICL) is a body of public international law designed to prohibit certain categories of conduct commonly viewed as serious atrocities and to make perpetrators of such conduct criminally accountable for their perpetrat ...

since 1945. International Conference on the 60th Anniversary - The Nuremberg Trials : International Criminal Law Since 1945. 60th Anniversary International Conference. '' KG Saur, Munich 2005 Bilingual. Post: pp. 216–223, in English, German summary

Movie

*''Gabriel Bach, The Prosecutor and the Eichmann trial'' by Wolfgang Schoen and Frank Gutermuth, TV Schoen film D 2010

Literature

*Peter Kasza : ''Purified he gave himself only from the gallows''

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest and most influential daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of ''SZ'' is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and ...

of 27 January 2007

References

External links

Biographical sketch by Gabriel Bach with photos
* ttp://www1.wdr.de/themen/politik/gabriel_bach102.html interview with Eichmann prosecutor Gabriel Bach(wdr.de 28 September 2010) *, interview with Gabriel Bach in the weekly

Jungle World ''Jungle World'' is a German left-wing weekly newspaper published in Berlin and in Austria. History Initially founded in 1997 by striking editors of the German left-wing daily '' Junge Welt'', it became independent after only a few issues. ...

, Jungle Supplement, part 1: No 14 of 7 April 2011 Part 2: No. 15
"50 Years of the Eichmann trial - A person with murderous instincts"
interview with Gabriel Bach, Spiegel Online, 11 April 2011.
Interview (2011): '' My father had the sixth sense''
(haGalil.com 2007) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flStjWrjSEE&list=PL81dt-KC2LhKH04CgnKokyS9QZzKttElV&index=3 Attorney, Judge & Gentleman: Video recording of Gabriel Bach Memorial Conference, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Jerusalem, 2023] {{DEFAULTSORT:Bach, Gabriel 1927 births 2022 deaths Adolf Eichmann Alumni of University College London Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the Netherlands Israeli jurists Israeli people of German-Jewish descent Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Mandatory Palestine Judges of the Supreme Court of Israel German Zionists People from Halberstadt Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany State attorneys of Israel Haganah members Members of Aliyah Bet Alumni of the UCL Faculty of Laws Hebrew University Secondary School alumni