The Eichmann Trial

SESSION 74 of the trial of Adolf Eichmann took place in the afternoon of Monday, June 12, 1961. In this session, the prosecution begins winding down its portion of the trial, which will conclude in SESSION 75. The session begins with the judges rendering their decision on the admissibility of the ‘Sassen documents’, transcripts of the audio recordings of conversations between Eichmann and Dutch journalist Willem Sassen that were conducted during Eichmann’s time in Argentina. The admissibility of these transcripts was argued by both the prosecution and defense at length in SESSIONS 72 and 73. The judges render a split decision, with two of the three agreeing that only Eichmann’s handwritten annotations on the transcript may be admitted, along with the parts of the transcript needed to understand them. One judge, Benjamin Halevi, dissents, contending that the entirety of the transcripts should be admissible. The prosecution then calls the last of their 100+ witnesses: Israeli police officer Avraham Hagag, who testifies as an expert Arabic translator to decipher handwritten Arabic-language documents submitted previously by the prosecution. Attorney General Gideon Hausner then submits a number of additional documents into evidence that he says he received only recently.

Although most of the footage from SESSION 74 has been lost, the first 30 minutes of the session survive, and are presented here.