Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive

Eichmann Trial

Adolf Eichmann Trial Collection

05/16/1961

Jerusalem, Israel

Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive & Israel State Archives

00:44:10

Session 86. Eichmann says that he was in charge of organizing things insofar as he would write down the decisions made by his superiors. At the beginning, he says, he wrote down orders and passed them along to the Ministry of the Interior or other departments. He talks about his typist having nothing to do because of this, and he will return to this topic later.

00:14:38 Session 81. Dr. Servatius is submitting a document concerning visits to camps. Eichmann talks about visits from the Head Office of Reich Security happening whenever there were issues that could affect the entire Reich. There were inspection tours and visits concerning personal requests from Himmler. He lists some sentences from police of Theresienstadt prior to his visit ordering the execution of certain people. He says none of these were because of his visit. He was also asked to relieve the ban on correspondence, and said he was not competent, asking other offices to take care of it. 00:26:22 Court adjourns for the day.

00:28:29 Session 41. Henrich Grueber is testifying. He says that he was never under the impression that Eichmann was waiting for a reply from his superiors, he seemed to be the man who made the decisions, but he didn't know if that was only the image Eichmann tried to project. Dr. Servatius asks about Eichmann referring to superior's orders in the "I" form. He says that this was rather common, but not as much as Eichmann did it.

00:34:14 Session 51. The Judges enter the court and open the 51st session of the trial. The Prosecution begins submitting a document concerning Hungarian Jewish children deported by the Czechoslovakian government.

00:38:38 Session 53. Dr. Alexander (Sandor) Brody, a Hungarian Jew, testifies. He says that Eichmann gave them the children for deportation and forced them out. He says, when questioned, that he only speaks the truth, he is under oath.

See official transcripts, published in "The Trial of Adolph Eichmann", Vol. I-V, State of Israel, Ministry of Justice, Jerusalem, 1994. Also available online at the Nizkor Project.

English
German
Hebrew

Unedited

No

Good

1999.A.0087 Capital Cities Broadcasting Corporation recorded the proceedings of the Adolf Eichmann trial in 1961. The original recording was made on two-inch format videotape. One set of videotapes contained selected portions of the trial for distribution to television stations. The "selected portions" version remained in Israel and was later turned over to the Israel State Archives. Capital Cities Broadcasting retained the set of videotapes containing the complete trial proceedings at offices in New York City until 1965, when they gave the videotapes to the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith. The Anti-Defamation League, in turn, gave the complete set to the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1972. With a grant from the Revson Foundation, Hebrew University transferred the two-inch videotapes to U-Matic format. During the transfer process, Hebrew University created three duplicate sets. One set was given to the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive, one to the Israel State Archives, and one set to the Jewish Museum in New York City. In 1995, the Israel State Archives transferred the trial footage to digital videoformat with a grant from the Israeli Prime Minister's Office. Three subsequent digital videotape copies resulted from this transfer of footage. The Israel State Archives retained one digital copy and a second set was deposited at the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum received the third set of digital videotapes in May 1999.

CHILDREN (JEWISH)
CONCENTRATION CAMPS
COURTS/COURTROOMS
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
DEPORTATION
EICHMANN TRIAL
EICHMANN, ADOLF
GRUEBER, HEINRICH
HUNGARY
JUDGE
THERESIENSTADT (TEREZIN)
TRIALS

Leo Hurwitz

Capital Cities Broadcasting Corporation

May 16-July 5, 1961

Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive (SSJFA), VTEI 152

2" Quad

DigiBeta; Betacam SP; VHS

00:00:36 - 00:44:46