SESSION CVII
ABOUT THIS SESSION
SESSION 107 of the trial of Adolf Eichmann took place in the morning of Monday, July 24, 1961. Following Eichmann’s questioning by Judges Raveh and Halevi the previous week, Presiding Judge Moshe Landau conducts his own examination. Topics discussed include: Eichmann’s visits to Nisko; his relationship with Dean Heinrich Grüber; his involvement in the disappearance of the children of Lidice; his presence when Jews were being loaded into freight cars; his involvement in the Wannsee Conference; whether he was anti-Semitic, and his opinion on the Nazi party’s anti-Semitic ideology; and his ability to voluntarily leave the Nazi party and/or the SS. Landau highlights a contradiction between Eichmann’s testimony in cross-examination that he remained a member of the SS and Nazi party of his own free will, and his testimony in this session that he was unable to leave.
Next, Attorney General Gideon Hausner asks additional questions in regard to those asked by the judges. Topics discussed include: Eichmann’s military decorations and the reasons they were awarded; a reprimand Eichmann received for his actions on the Hungarian-Romanian border; and passages from Eichmann’s transcribed interviews with Dutch journalist Willem Sassen. After a recess, Defense Counsel Dr. Robert Servatius submits into evidence a timetable, and he and Hausner question Eichmann about it. Once this short cross-examination is concluded, so too is Eichmann’s two-week-long testimony, which began in SESSION 88 (Eichmann will testify once more, briefly, in SESSION 109). With this, Servatius begins the process of submitting into evidence a series of transcripts of witness testimony in Eichmann’s defense, a process that will continue through SESSION 109. He begins with extracts from affidavits, taken abroad, of former Nazis Franz Six, Max Merten, Hermann Krumey and Richard Baer.
The majority of SESSION 107 is preserved, with three-and-a-half hours of surviving material presented here. There is a single, lengthy gap in the trial tapes during Eichmann’s testimony, portions of which survive via a contemporaneous news broadcast. These clips include a watermark, timecode and a simultaneous spoken English translation.
NOTABLE MOMENTS
0:00:00 - Court not in session
0:01:37 - Eichmann enters
0:04:57 - Judges enter
0:05:30 - Session 107 begins
0:06:48 - Examination of Eichmann by Judge Landau
0:07:03 - Eichmann on his visits to Nisko
0:12:41 - Eichmann on Dean Heinrich Grüber
0:24:46 - Eichmann on the children of Lidice
0:31:41 - Eichmann on his presence at the loading of Jews into freight cars
0:36:27 - Eichmann on the Wannsee Conference
0:52:42 - Eichmann on whether he was an anti-Semite
1:04:59 - Eichmann on his ability to leave the SS and Nazi party
1:17:49 - Judge expresses incredulity when Eichmann says Heinrich Mueller was not tough
1:29:10 - Judge points out a contradiction in Eichmann’s testimony
1:34:12 - Cross-Examination of Eichmann by Hausner
1:42:42 - Eichmann reads a transcript in which he says ‘time flew by’ when dealing with Jews
1:44:52 - Eichmann reads a transcript in which he says he carried out orders fanatically
1:48:42 - Recess
1:52:44 - Unusual angle showing stenographers’ balcony
1:53:23 - Eichmann re-enters
1:56:27 - Judges re-enter
1:56:51 - Submission of Timetable of Events by the Defense
2:00:32 - Direct Examination of Eichmann on Timetable of Events
2:08:59 - Cross-Examination of Eichmann on Timetable of Events
2:13:07 - Submission of the testimony of Franz Six
2:15:38 - In his affidavit, Six says the Final Solution was ‘based on a decision by Hitler’
2:15:56 - In his affidavit, Six says that in 1943 it became clear Jews were being killed
2:20:24 - In his affidavit, Six says that Eichmann never ‘exceeded’ his orders
2:27:23 - In his affidavit, Six says Eichmann had ‘wider powers than other section heads’
2:30:45 - Six says Eichmann followed Party doctrine ‘in its most extreme interpretation’
2:31:20 - Six says it was possible to be transferred away from an Operations Group
2:32:30 - Submission of the testimony of Max Merten
2:40:39 - Submission of the testimony of Hermann Krumey
3:05:11 - In his affidavit, Krumey says Eichmann wasn’t the type to do something without orders
3:24:40 - Submission of the testimony of Richard Baer
3:27:51 - Court is adjourned
TRANSCRIPT
Material highlighted green survives in video form.
Material highlighted pink has been lost.
Material highlighted blue survives via third-party material.