SESSION CXXI
ABOUT THIS SESSION
ABOUT THIS SESSION
SESSION 121 of the trial of Adolf Eichmann took place in the morning of Friday, December 15, 1961. In this final session, the Eichmann Trial concludes—eight months after it began—with the sentencing of Eichmann by the three judges of the Court. The Presiding Judge briefly cites some of the legal issues at play, before discussing the rationale behind the sentencing decision and finally issuing the death sentence on Eichmann.
Unlike the first 114 sessions of the trial, which were recorded onto videotape, the final sessions were recorded using film cameras. Because of the expense and complexity of procuring, developing and storing film, only about 6 minutes—or half—of the footage from SESSION 121 survives. However, the entirety of the session survives via audio. As none of the footage beyond SESSION 114 was preserved among the official trial tapes, the footage presented here has been cobbled together from a variety of sources. As such, video and audio quality varies significantly, and much of the material includes watermarks, timecode and edits made by those respective sources.
NOTABLE MOMENTS
0:00 - Judges enter, Session 121 begins
1:00 - Presiding Judge on the legality of the death penalty (no video)
3:56 - Presiding Judge on the rationale behind issuing the death penalty
8:29 - Eichmann sentenced to death
TRANSCRIPT
Material highlighted blue survives via third-party material.
Material highlighted orange is available only in audio form.