The Eichmann Trial

SESSION 69 of the trial of Adolf Eichmann took place in the afternoon of Wednesday, June 7, 1961. The session begins with the testimony of two anonymous witnesses on sterilization practices in Auschwitz, to which both of them were subjected. The first witness, identified only as Witness A, is cross-examined by Eichmann’s defense counsel, Dr. Robert Servatius. Due to the sensitive nature of their testimony, both witnesses testified ‘in camera’ (privately, in the judges’ chambers). Following this ‘in camera’ testimony, the session is moved to the courtroom, where Aharon Beilin testifies about his experience as a doctor in Auschwitz, including multiple run-ins with the notorious Dr. Josef Mengele. Beilin’s testimony is briefly interrupted by a protestor in the audience. Yehuda Bakon, who testified that morning in SESSION 68, returns for additional testimony in regard to a statement he had submitted to the Russian Compound in Jerusalem. That statement had been mentioned in the morning session but was not available for submission into evidence at the time.

Because the first two witnesses in this session testified anonymously ‘in camera’, no audio or visual recordings exist of their testimony. Their transcribed testimony is recorded in the official trial transcript (see below). Almost all of the filmed material from SESSION 69 survives, with the exception of the first couple of minutes of Beilin’s testimony. The first several minutes of Beilin’s surviving testimony suffer from degraded audio, occasionally rendering his words nearly inaudible. Nonetheless, his testimony can be followed using the subtitles.