The Eichmann Trial

SESSION 48 of the trial of Adolf Eichmann took place in the morning of Tuesday, May 23, 1961. The session focuses on Nazi actions in Romania during World War II. It begins with the testimony of Perla Mark, wife of the Chief Rabbi in Czernowitz during the war. After several sessions of examinations conducted by Assistant Prosecutor Jonathan Bar-Or, Mark is examined by his colleague, Gabriel Bach. After Mark’s testimony, documents on Romania are submitted into evidence by the prosecution. Theodor Löwenstein Lavi, a former Professor of Jewish History in Bucharest, then testifies in regard to the Nazi occupation of that city. More documents on Romania are submitted into evidence, including a sworn declaration by Chief Rabbi Dr. Safran. In one document, Eichmann is shown to have requested the prevention of a planned emigration of 1,000 Jewish children to Israel. In another document, which Bach describes as ‘crucial’, Eichmann halts another planned deportation of Jewish children, suggesting that instead they should be exchanged for German prisoners abroad at a rate of four prisoners per child. He notes that such a deal would have to be made quickly as such a trade would soon ‘no longer be technically possible.’ An excerpt from Eichmann’s police interrogation is read in which he is pressed on this statement, and he admits that it is a reference to mass killings of Jews by the Einsatzgruppen. After the submission of additional documents on Romania, the session is adjourned.

The majority of SESSION 48 has been lost. The roughly thirty minutes of surviving footage are presented here.