SESSION VIII
ABOUT THIS SESSION
SESSION 8 of the trial of Adolf Eichmann took place in the morning of Tuesday, April 18, 1961. In this session, Prosecuting Attorney General Gideon Hausner completes his opening statement, which began in SESSION 6, specifically discussing the extermination of the Jews of Northern, Western and Southern Europe and activities against the Jews of the Hungary. Near the end of his opening statement, Hausner puts the number of estimated Jewish victims at six million, a number now widely associated with the Holocaust. Although the number had been cited previously at the Nuremberg trials, this marked the first time it had been invoked in such a public arena. That number would be mentioned again in Session 13 by witness Salo Baron in footage that has not survived.
While the majority of the footage from SESSION 8 has survived, several sections of varying lengths are missing. Part of the middle of the session has degraded audio, but the dialogue can be followed using the subtitles. The last several minutes of this session feature severely degraded video, though the audio survives.
NOTABLE MOMENTS
0:00:00 - Court Not in Session
0:06:11 - Defense Counsel Dr. Robert Servatius and Attorney General Gideon Hausner enter
0:07:24 - Eichmann enters
0:08:01 - Eichmann exchanges written notes with his legal team
0:10:06 - Session 8 begins
0:42:41 - Philosopher Hannah Arendt seen in audience
1:18:59 - ‘The Extermination of Hungarian Jewry’
1:38:15 - Hausner discusses Raoul Wallenberg
1:50:39 & 1:50:54 & 1:51:39 - Moshe Dayan in audience
1:53:11 - Recess
1:58:03 - Eichmann enters, speaks with Servatius via closed-circuit system
2:00:55 - ‘The Camps’
2:27:14 - Hausner discusses the Auschwitz concentration camp
2:41:23 - ‘A World That Has Vanished’
2:41:39 - The number ‘six million’ is invoked for the first time
2:57:03 - Hausner brings his Opening Statement to a conclusion
3:04:25 - Court adjourns
TRANSCRIPT
Material highlighted green survives in video form.
Material highlighted pink has been lost.
Material highlighted orange is available only in audio form.
Material highlighted black with red text appeared in the Attorney General's written opening statement, but was not spoken aloud in the courtroom.