The Eichmann Trial

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 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 SESSION 121 survives. 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.

The beginning and end of the recording, during which Court is not in session, feature image but no audio. Conversely, a significant portion of the surviving material from SESSION 121 was preserved via a commemorative vinyl record, and does not feature any synced image. In some instances, images from elsewhere in the session have been used to cover this section, resulting in video that is not synced correctly with the audio.