Jankiel wiernik testimony about treblinka at the eichmann trial 1961 selected extracts jankiel wiernik arrived in treblinka death camp on the 23 august 1942 and he escaped during the revolt on the 2 august 1943. Testimony unlike the nuremberg trials, the eichmann trial included firstperson testimony from many holocaust survivors. A report on the banality of evil the year eichmann was published, the antidefamation league sent out a circular to rabbis to preach against her on rosh hashanah. Eichmann trialthe eichmann trial began on april 11, 1961, in the theater house beithaam in hebrew, house of the people in jerusalem. In his 2004 tome, the origins of the final solution, browning used the testimony of eichmann as an important piece of evidence for his thesis that adolf hitler and his national socialist government ordered the. This article takes as its focus the question, raised by shoshana felman and dori laub in their 1995 book testimony.
Ansbacher, mordechaiwitness to conditions in the theresienstadt concentration camp, czechoslovakia bach, gavrieldeputy state attorney and. The proceedings were one of the first trials widely televised, and brought nazi atrocities to a worldwide audience. Historian deborah lipstadts overview of the eichmann trial is a useful summary of an event that can offer some lessons for our own times, and newly declassified u. Eichmann trial article about eichmann trial by the free. This video contains eichmanns defense and is the reason for the age restriction on the video. The judges primary objective was to conduct a scrupulously fair legal proceeding that would win the respect of the world. The channel is a joint effort between yad vashem and t. Most people, both those in the courtroom and those beyond, expected eichmann to. The jerusalem post magazine scrupulously researched. My impression was that he was asking for a pure commercial environment, a. Record of proceedings in the district court of jerusalem testimony by noach zabludowicz born in ciechanow, 1919. Eichmann maintains that he was not present at this meeting and refers to the testimony of dr.
The eichmann trial presents the arguments of those who believe the trial was legally sound, and argues that the three judges were scrupulously fair pp. The eichmann trial aroused international interest, bringing nazi atrocities to the forefront of world news. In her testimony at eichmanns trial, hanzi brandt, kastners partner, testified. New york museum recreates scene of eichmanns jerusalem trial. He points out that eichmann was always very willing to talk, and through the course of the questioning. He was tried under a special israeli law, the nazis and nazi collaborators punishment law. An alien world at the limits of modernity representations. Nothing placed arendt in the storm center of public opinion more than her essays about the trial first published in february and march 1963 in the new yorker, which ultimately became eichmann in jerusalem. Christopher browning and the testimony of adolf eichmann. Interrogation of eichmann by avner less used at eichmann trial adolf eichmann just after he was brought to israel in 1961. The elder adolf moved to linz, austria, in 19 to take a position as commercial manager for the linz tramway and electrical company, and the rest of the. After being found and captured in argentina, nazi leader adolf eichmann, known as the architect of the final solution, was put on trial in israel in 1961.
On december, 1961 the court found eichmann guilty on most articles of the indictment, and on the 15th of. The trial of hannah arendt national endowment for the. Jankiel wiernik testimony about treblinka at the eichmann trial 1961 selected extracts jankiel wiernik arrived in treblinka death camp on the 23 august 1942 and he escaped during the revolt on the 2. Although the eichmann trial brought him to international attention.
The testimony that convicted adolf eichmann of holocaust atrocities more than half a century ago has lost none of its power to chill the heart. On numerous occasions eichmann told me that jews had no value except as labourers and that only 2025 per cent were able to work. Testimonies of holocaust survivors, especially those of ghetto fighters such as zivia lubetkin, generated interest in jewish resistance. At midnight between may 31 and june 1, 1962, eichmann was executed by hanging.
During the war, eichmann served as the transportation administrator of the final solution to the jewish question, meaning he coordinated all the trains that transported jews to their deaths in east european extermination camps. Arendt, a jew who fled germany during adolf hitlers rise to power, reported on adolf eichmanns trial for the new yorker. Servatius addresses the testimony of eichmann, saying that the accusations of the prosecution, and eichmanns testimony, is a bunch of lies. Hausners goal was to tell the story of the holocaust in all its detail, and in so doing, to capture the imagination not just of israels youth and world jewry, but of. Alfred six, noting that the witness would have stated that eichmann had been at the meeting.
Candidate in international law at the graduate institute of international and development studies iheid. The eichmann trial, page xx 4 likes the judges primary objective was to conduct a scrupulously fair legal proceeding that would win the respect of the world. In the literary world, however, we do know that hard cases make for many books. The israelis were unwilling to take him to trial based solely on the evidence in documents and witness testimony, so the prisoner was. For two thirds of the trial, the prosecution piled up evidence of the black hell which stretched from the urals to the pyrenees, from the baltic to the mediterranean, and was ruled by adolf eichmann. The net result of this tragic era in the middle of the twentieth century was the wholesale destruction of 6 million jewish lives.
I was present in budapest in june or july 1944 at a meeting between eichmann and hoess, commandant of auschwitz concentration camp, at which they talked specifically about the percentage of hungarian jews that would be strong enough for labour. The eichmann trial, which continued from april 11 to august 14, 1961, certainly qualifies as both a great case and a hard case. Judge who presided over the trial of adolf eichmann. Rethinking the life, crimes, and trial of a desk murderer deals with the eichmann trial in one of its chapters, but that is not the books main focus. On the 50th anniversary of nazi criminal adolf eichmanns trial, yad vashem. Nizkor would like to thank the trust for the publication of the proceedings of the eichmann trial for granting permission to place these files on the internet, and acknowledge the cooperation of rubin mass ltd. Photographs of witnesses in the eichmann trial, 196061. In fact, lipstadt argues that survivor testimony had the effect of shattering the zionist selfimage.
The trial of adolf eichmann trial participants then. Jim axelrod now on a silent artifact from the trial. Adolf, the son of karl eichmann, was charged with crimes against jews, gypsies, and others during the years of nazi reign in germany and in the nazioccupied areas. The eichmann trial nazi ss officer adolf eichmann was known as the architect of the holocaust for his role in organizing the roundups and transportation of. In 1937 went from vilna to paris to prepare for her doctorate degree. The eichmann trial channel contains over 200 hours of trial sessions and a compilation of testimonies.
Jewish conspiracy theory, the eichmann testimony and the. The excitement and interest surrounding the trial had little to do with questions about its outcome. He witnessed the nazi deportation of jews from his home town, and was himself sent to the czech ghetto theresienstadt in 1942, on the orders of adolf eichmann. The discussion centres on a reading of the moment yehiel dinoor, a writer also known as kzetnik and one of the few eyewitnesses at the 1961 eichmann trial in jerusalem, falls out of the stand and into a coma while attempting to provide his testimony. Crises of witnessing in literature, psychoanalysis and history, of what it means for an event to be constituted. I knew a lot about eichmann beforehand because of the kasztner case. Browning and witness to the holocaust adolf eichmann. May i now relate in short, captain, what i know, from what i remember. In 1960 adolph eichmann was captured in buenos aires, argentina by an elite group of 5. Hausners goal was to tell the story of the holocaust in all its detail, and in so doing, to capture the imagination not just of israels youth and world jewry, but of the entire world.
Why adolf eichmanns final message remains so profoundly. Barrie sander joins jic for this post on the eichmann trial and israels recent hostility towards the icc. Criminal case 4061 the attorney general versus adolf eichmann. In light of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz, last weeks premiere of the bbcs docudrama, the. G43 e57 1964 find in a library near you external link an analysis of the legal issues involved in the eichmann trial, written by the official observer for the international commission of jurists. The 500 films, selected for the virtual cinema, reflect the vast scope of documentary material collected in the spielberg archive. Otto adolf eichmann, the eldest of five children, was born in 1906 to a calvinist protestant family in solingen, germany. Fifty years later fifty years ago one of the chief operators of the mass execution of jews was tried for crimes against humanity. By contrast, the eichmann trial put survivor witness testimony front and centre in an effort to educate the world about the holocaust. Adolf eichmann testimony the fuhrer order witnessed. This wasnt the first time any survivors stories had been heard, but it was the first time they were heard in such detail by such a large international audience, and the first time the crimes against the jews were. Rezso kasztner was a leader of the zionist movement in hungary during the war, and negotiated with eichmann to save about 1,400 jews. Photographs the eichmann trial, held before a special tribunal of the jerusalem district court, began on april 11, 1961, and aroused international interest in the events of the holocaust. Hausner reads contrary evidence which proves that eichmann did attend the meeting 00.
The spielberg jewish film archive witnesses of the. But eichmanns testimony, says lipstadt, illustrated not only that he was guilty, but how enthusiastic he was about carrying out his orders. When hannah arendt came to jerusalem in 1961 to attend the eichmann trial she. His honour judge moshe landau presiding his honour judge benjamin halevi. Predictably, however, an account of eichmanns crimes was woven into their stories arising out of his various posts in the ss, as coordinator, organizer, and director of the deportation of jews to the ghettoes and annihilation camps. A report on the banality of evil is a 1963 book by political theorist hannah arendt.
This is the final 44 minutes of the 1997 nbc documentary narrated by david brinkley detailing the main points of the adolf eichmann trial in which a panel of three israeli judges listened to testimony, weighed evidence and came to the inevitable verdict. Since his trial in jerusalem in 1961, eichmann has become the subject of continued controversy much of it not so much about the man himself, but often more about the very nature of evil. Yehiel dinur katzetnik, a prosecution witness at the trial of nazi war criminal adolf eichmann, at beit haam in jerusalem. Victim testimony at nuremberg, the eichmann trial, and truth commissions. And their testimony was the reason the eichmann trial so shook the world. Memories of the eichmann trial from testimony to proof. Eichmann trial session 27 testimony of abba kovner. Eichmann trial sessions 64 and 65 testimonies of j. In memories of the eichmann trial, david perlov approaches the trial not as a formative event that brought the story of the holocaust into israeli consciousness, but as a formative event that turned into a memory itself a memory that continues to envelop the israeli. The eichmann trial is both riveting and nuanced, and should be required reading for anyone who does not wish to wade through eight volumes of trial transcripts. In fact, lipstadt avers, giving the lie to any notion that this was a show trial, throughout the proceedings the judges clashed with hausner p. Eichmanns trial a witness account jewish artist yehuda bacon was born in 1929 in moravska ostrava, czechoslovakia. A revised and enlarged edition was published in 1964. His honour judge yitzchak raveh, clerk of the court.
It is particularly poignant in this regard given lipstadts. The testimony of raya kaganincomplete testimony in hebrew p. The trial of adolph eichmann is a chilling first hand account of the trial of nazi germanys architect of the final solution. The panel of district court judges who considered the eichmann case as court of first resort comprised. The lurking, liberal, pseudorationalising evasion of reality figures conversely in her writing as a kind of sentimentalism which is a political survival from the pretotalitarian environment, and that subsequently proved to offer a useful ideological tool for the israeli state, which staged survivor testimony, in the case of the eichmann trial, as a kind of negative truththe pure. The films range from 1911 to the present and include home movies. After world war ii, nazi war criminal adolf eichmann fled from austria and made his way to argentina. Testimonies and statements taken abroad during the trial kurt becher, part 1 of 4 the testimony of kurt becher part 1 of 4 23 may 1961 the competent court of justice, bremen re. The eichmann trial united states holocaust memorial museum. Predictably, however, an account of eichmann s crimes was woven into their stories arising out of his various posts in the ss, as coordinator, organizer, and director of the deportation of jews to the ghettoes and annihilation camps.