Danzig Skeletons Full Album

[Tory Lattin]

AfterWorld War II, Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann fled from Austria and made his way to Argentina where he lived under the name Ricardo Klement. In May 1960, Israeli Security Service agents seized Eichmann in Argentina and took him to Jerusalem for trial in an Israeli court. Eichmann testified from a bulletproof glass booth.The Eichmann trial aroused international interest, bringing Nazi atrocities to the forefront of world news. Testimonies of Holocaust survivors, especially those of ghetto fighters such as Zivia Lubetkin, generated interest in Jewish resistance. The trial prompted a new openness in Israel; many Holocaust survivors felt able to share their experiences as the country confronted this traumatic chapter. Israeli attorney general Gideon Hausner signed a bill of indictment against Eichmann on 15 counts, including crimes against the Jewish people and crimes against humanity. Capital Cities Broadcasting Corporation recorded the proceedings of the Adolf Eichmann trial in 1961. The original recording was made on two-inch format videotape. One set of videotapes contained selected portions of the trial for distribution to television stations. The "selected portions" version remained in Israel and was later turned over to the Israel State Archives.

Defense lawyer Servatius is seated going through papers. He hands one of the papers to a man who passes by his table. Shot of the courtroom, Eichmann's booth; Eichmann is escorted in carrying documents. One of his guards delivers a note to Servatius. The camera focuses alternately on Eichmann and Servatius for several minutes. All rise as the judges enter court. Judge Landau announces the opening of Session 42 (00:05:41).Continuation of interrogation of Dr. Heinrich Grber, Protestant Dean of Berlin by defense attorney Robert Servatius. Grber describes his association with the Confessional Church. He notes that the Evangelical Church or Official Church separated from the Confessional Church because the Evangelical Church followed National Socialism (00:08:34). Servatius asks the witness about the Berlin Evangelical Sunday Paper and its welcome of Hitler following the Enabling Act in 1933. Grber states that this was a method of appeasing the regime, although he personally did not agree with this tactic. (00:12:05). Servatius reads from the aforementioned paper and tries to suggest that Eichmann was convinced that he was on the right path based on the anti-Semitic propaganda in the excerpt from this paper. Someone claps in the courtroom and Judge Landau attempts to remove the person from the courtroom (00:22:33). Servatius reads from another German newspaper from around the same time. Gruber talks about the blindness of the German people to the negativity of National Socialism and his belief that by November 1938 they had realized that it was the wrong path. Servatius turns his questions to a book by W. Poliakov-Wolff "The Thinkers of the Third Reich" (00:35:09) in which scholars and professors acclaimed Hitler's actions.Dr. Gruber gives testimony concerning the arrest of and deportation of clergymen to Dachau (00:39:40). Describes the frequency of mass arrests and transports of clergymen to Warthegau (00:46:35). Questions in this section are being asked by Judge Raveh.Judge Halevi asks about Gruber's role in the rescue of Jews (00:55:52) which Gruber states that it was an honor but that he did not want to divulge the name of the man that also helped and that he had in fact received hate mail for his actions. Halevi then asks about the difference between the reaction of ordinary people and scholars to the persecution of Jews (01:00:02) at which Gruber replies that it was very clear by the November pogrom that the working class was more sympathetic and willing to help.

Session 29. Court is adjourned. There are shots of the audience, frontals of the courtroom, and a conversation between Defense Attorney Dr. Robert Servatius and Adolf Eichmann. Following a blip at 00:05:21, excerpts from Tape 2040 with witness Avraham Aviel are repeated. He discusses the liquidation of the Radun ghetto, and his escape to the group of Jewish men being used for labor. After joining the second group, Aviel recounts the death of his mother and younger brother: "Only afterward did I learn that I had been the only one who somehow managed to escape from that situation." Aviel discusses the reactions of the labor group. He, his older brother, and the other Jewish men went back to the ghetto, and were registered as 'working Jews' by the Nazis. Aviel and his brother decided to escape, and fled into the forest bordering the Radun ghetto. In another repeat of Tape 2040, Hausner questions Aviel about the Jewish partisan movement against the Gestapo. Following a blip at 00:19:32, more repeated contents of Tape 2040 as Aviel discusses the assistance he received from gentiles-particulatrly a man named Ancilowitz, who housed many Jews despite Nazi interrogation and threat. Aviel describes Nazi actions against the displaced Jews.After a blip at 00:27:10, the Court discusses Defense Attorney Dr. Robert Servatius's ability to take evidence abroad. The Judges request that questions of the Court not be publicized prior to witness interrogation. Court officials argue further over whether to publish examination questions, and courtroom discussions prior to witness interrogation. After much deliberation, the Court submits Decision 15; the Court decides not to publish defense or prosecution questionnaires before relevant questions have been used. The Court discusses protocol for sending information abroad for the purpose of examining foreign witnesses. Hausner notes that all intended witnesses for the Defense are war criminals under the Nazi and Nazi Collaborators Punishment Law of 1950, and therefore may not enter Israel without threat of arrest and prosecution. However, Hausner agrees that the testimony of Eichmann's former colleagues is important to the trial.Following a blip at 00:51:10, Hausner questions witness Haim Behrendt, a Minsk ghetto survivor, about the conditions in the Minsk ghetto. Behrendt states: "They [the SS] killed about 30,000 Jews there..." The tape ends as he continues to describe the killings in Minsk.

Under questioning from the judges, the German theologian Dr. Heinrich Grueber testifies about his role in the rescue of Jews. He says that he receives hate mail and threats for his rescue work and for agreeing to come to Jerusalem to testify. He refuses to publicly state the name of a fellow rescuer for this reason. He quotes Leo Baeck as he describes the difference between the reactions of working people versus scholars to the persecution of the Jews. (Duplicate footage also found on Tape 2052 at 01:00:02 and Tape 2051 at 00:31:04). Judge Halevi asks Grueber what happened to Dr. Bernard Loesener, who testified at Nuremberg. After hearing about the 1941 massacre of Jews in Riga Loesener asked to be relieved of his position in the Ministry of the Interior. Judge Halevi then asks Grueber whether Losener had the same duties as Dr. Globke in the Ministry of the Interior and whether Grber received help from high authorities in the Catholic church in Germany, including Pope Pius XII. (Duplicate footage found on Tape 2051 at 00:34:07).A small part of the proceedings is missing from the video. Judge Halevi asks Grueber about the lack of moral courage in Germany that helped lead to the annihilation of the Jews. Grueber discusses Eichmann's character and his anti-Semitic beliefs. Grueber characterizes Eichmann not as a man consumed by hatred, but rather as a man who exhibits a "cold rejection" of humanity. Grueber leaves the witness stand and sits in the audience of the courtroom while the translation of his personal statement about his hope for forgiveness and for good relations between Germany and Israel is read in English. The woman sitting beside him (his wife?) wipes away tears as his statement is read.Assistant State Attorney Bar-Or speaks of a minor problem with the gathering of a witness's testimony in Rome. He then enters documents into evidence and states that Eichmann's department was responsible for the efforts to "politicize" the churches. He enters an affidavit by Bernard Loesener into evidence. Bar-Or summarizes part of the document in which Loesener discusses his duties to enforce the Nuremberg Laws, the massacre in Riga, and his efforts to leave the Interior Ministry (00:42:34). Bar-Or contends that it is clear that Eichmann's department was heavily involved in matters concerning Jews. Bar-Or reads part of this document in German, in which Loesener names Eichmann as an "especially fanatical Jew hater." Various shots of Eichmann taking notes.First part of testimony from witness Charlotte Salzberger (00:47:46). Mr. Bar-Or asks the witness about her arrival in Holland, how long she stayed there, and whether her family had to register as Jews. Salzberger shows items that she kept in an album, including the Jewish star she was forced to wear and the deportation order sent to her sister. (Identical footage found on Tape 2051 at 00:41:02). She is asked about the summons for deportation that she received in 1942 and she states that she did not report for deportation as ordered. Salzberger testifies that her nationality in 1941 was "stateless" and that her family received Ecuadoran passports but not exit visas.

Session 27. Witness Abba Kovner, Vilna Ghetto leader. Kovner was commander of the partisan underground organization, founder of the "Bricha" (escape), poet and writer, and activist in Israel's cultural and public life. Abba Kovner is standing in front of microphones, testifying to the court. He is midsentence when the tape begins. He talks of the various efforts to inform the world and the other ghettos of the purpose of their ghetto. He is stopped before he discusses too much.00:02:01 The court asks him about a German non-commissioned officer named Anton Schmid. Kovner responds that he was a non-fascist officer of the Wehrmacht sympathetic to the resistance. He was the one who first talked of Eichmann, but would not say more than he was the head organizer. Schmid was executed by the Gestapo two months later. Kovner attempted to get this information to Moscow and then the world by using couriers, but they failed. He tells their story, and then describes what various papers from the ghetto are.00:13:36 Kovner relates that he obviously cannot tell everything he knows, but he wants to relate one story. He tells, at first with difficulty, then with pride, of his wife, who lived outside the ghetto with Aryan papers for a time as a teacher of Catholic kids. She worked with the underground, becoming the first to destroy a train in Lithuania. He tells of the pain it caused to send her out, not knowing if she would ever return. He then explains the meaning behind their watchword of "Liza ruft" (Liza is calling).00:20:36 Kovner describes his fighting force within the ghetto, especially their elected commander Itzik Wittenberg. Wittenberg was given up by a man named Kozlowski, and the SS came looking for him. They got him, chained him, and began to remove him when resistance fighters ambushed the Gestapo and freed Wittenberg. The Germans decided to retreat to outside the ghetto, and then demanded Wittenberg be brought to them or they would destroy the entire ghetto.00:26:08 The ghetto erupted into panic at the news. Kovner wrote a leaflet saying that there was no sign that the Nazis would act, which he knew was a lie, and that they must mobilize and fight. Kovner tells the story of the struggle to contain the panic of the ghetto. He has much difficulty in telling this story as it goes on. Wittenberg then decided to turn himself in after appointing Kovner the new commander of the fighting force. He was tortured.00:34:10 Kovner affirms that everything he has said today is truth, but it is not the "whole truth" considering that he cannot say everything that happened. The Judges explain that it is the "whole truth" with respect to the questions asked, and he did just that. He explains the "three walls" that was discussed at some point in earlier testimony. He explains one more prior remark, describing the feeling of hope that perhaps you would not share the same fate as everyone else. Kovner is asked if the Nazis deliberately promoted this feeling, and he replies "Of course the Germans systematically" before being cut off by shots of the leaving crowd.00:39:03 Slate reading "Eichmann Trial 4.2.2. NTSC-PAL" followed by a repeat of the last two questions, and again the answer is cut off by footage of the crowd leaving. Kovner is shown smoking and talking to people. Fade to original slate of filmmakers.

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