SESSION LXIII
ABOUT THIS SESSION
SESSION 63 of the trial of Adolf Eichmann took place in the morning of Friday, June 2, 1961. The session begins with the submission of documents into evidence by Attorney General Gideon Hausner. Among the documentation are records of collaboration between the Nazis and Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin al-Husseini to prevent the emigration of Jews from Eastern Europe to Israel. After some time, Avraham Levinson is brought to the witness stand to testify briefly in regard to his experience in Lublin and at the Belzec labor camp. Avraham Buchman then testifies about his experience in Lublin and his internment in a German stalag. More documents are submitted, including an address by Heinrich Himmler to senior SS officer in Posen, in which Himmler acknowledges the mass-murder of Jews and says that any Nazi not up to the task will be discharged with a pension. Finally, Yisrael Gutman testifies about his deportation from the Warsaw ghetto to the Majdanek concentration camp and later to Auschwitz.
The majority of SESSION 63 has been lost, including the entirety of Levinson and Buchman’s testimonies. The hour and fifteen minutes of surviving footage, including the last 50 minutes of the session and all of Gutman’s testimony, are presented here.
NOTABLE MOMENTS
0:00:00 - Submission of documents
0:02:59 - A letter from Jerusalem Grand Mufti Hajj Amin al-Husseini is read
0:07:46 - A letter from a-Husseini and former Iraqi Prime Minister Rashid Ali al-Gaylani is read
0:10:01 - al-Husseini’s diary appears to call Eichmann “the best of friends of the Arabs”
0:10:54 - Close-up of the aforementioned diary entry
0:23:47 - Hausner submits photographs of the Grand Mufti with Heinrich Himmler
0:25:41 - In a telegram, Himmler signals the Nazis’ support for Palestinian liberation
0:27:34 - Hausner submits excerpts from the Posen Speech into evidence
0:29:18 - In the Posen Speech, Himmler admits to the Jewish extermination program
0:32:56 - In the Posen Speech, Himmler discusses the consequences of disobedience
0:39:38 - Testimony of Yisrael Gutman
0:43:13 - Gutman describes his arrival at Majdanek
0:45:31 - Gutman describes life in Majdanek
0:53:44 - Gutman recalls witnessing a group being marched to the gas chambers
1:00:51 - Gutman describes his ‘escape’ from Majdanek to Auschwitz
1:03:21 - Gutman describes the underground at Auschwitz
1:05:56 - Gutman on the revolt of the Auschwitz Sonderkommando
1:15:56 - Court is adjourned, Eichmann exits
TRANSCRIPT
Material highlighted green survives in video form.
Material highlighted pink has been lost.