1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:12,262 --> 00:00:16,683 [siren wailing] 4 00:00:23,357 --> 00:00:28,320 [wailing grows louder] 5 00:00:57,099 --> 00:01:02,104 [wailing continues] 6 00:01:15,701 --> 00:01:19,371 [radio static] 7 00:01:19,454 --> 00:01:22,541 [siren wailing] 8 00:01:33,010 --> 00:01:36,388 [city din] 9 00:01:41,518 --> 00:01:42,519 [knocking on door] 10 00:01:43,854 --> 00:01:45,856 [Colonel] Avner, How are you? 11 00:01:45,939 --> 00:01:47,774 Well, thanks, Colonel. Yourself? 12 00:01:47,858 --> 00:01:48,859 [Colonel] Good. Good. 13 00:01:49,443 --> 00:01:50,736 Would you like some coffee, 14 00:01:50,819 --> 00:01:52,362 -something to eat? -No, thank you. 15 00:01:52,446 --> 00:01:54,740 My wife makes sure I'm well-fed in the morning. 16 00:01:54,823 --> 00:01:56,325 And how is Vera? 17 00:01:56,408 --> 00:01:58,577 Uh, enjoying better health, thankfully. 18 00:01:58,660 --> 00:01:59,661 Glad to hear. 19 00:02:00,370 --> 00:02:01,330 So... 20 00:02:02,706 --> 00:02:04,958 Don't keep me in suspense. What's all the fuss? 21 00:02:05,876 --> 00:02:06,877 Eichmann. 22 00:02:08,712 --> 00:02:10,047 Eichmann? 23 00:02:10,130 --> 00:02:11,506 The architect of the Final Solution? 24 00:02:12,299 --> 00:02:14,051 So the press says. 25 00:02:14,134 --> 00:02:16,345 They say it, but you've got to prove it. 26 00:02:16,970 --> 00:02:18,180 Prove it? 27 00:02:18,263 --> 00:02:19,556 [Colonel] Yes. 28 00:02:19,640 --> 00:02:21,099 The government has entrusted the police 29 00:02:21,183 --> 00:02:23,226 with the Eichmann investigation. 30 00:02:23,852 --> 00:02:26,688 I'm putting together a team, a-- a group of officers, 31 00:02:26,772 --> 00:02:29,316 to-- to build a case aga-- against Eichmann. 32 00:02:29,399 --> 00:02:31,318 They will gather together whatever testimonies, 33 00:02:31,401 --> 00:02:34,946 depositions, documents, any evidence you need. 34 00:02:35,572 --> 00:02:36,948 Build a case? 35 00:02:37,032 --> 00:02:38,492 Surely there's a mountain of evidence 36 00:02:38,575 --> 00:02:40,077 against this man for a conviction. 37 00:02:40,744 --> 00:02:43,288 He was hiding like a mouse in Buenos Aires. 38 00:02:44,206 --> 00:02:47,584 Uh-- He even admitted to Mossad that he was, in fact, 39 00:02:47,668 --> 00:02:48,835 Adolf Eichmann. 40 00:02:49,419 --> 00:02:50,587 So, what more do you need? 41 00:02:51,129 --> 00:02:53,674 We need specifics. Details. 42 00:02:53,757 --> 00:02:56,593 We need to know what part he played in the SS 43 00:02:56,677 --> 00:02:59,554 and what hand he had in the Holocaust of our people. 44 00:03:01,431 --> 00:03:02,474 What do you need from me? 45 00:03:04,601 --> 00:03:06,353 You've got to interrogate him. 46 00:03:06,436 --> 00:03:08,480 You must make him confess his crimes. 47 00:03:08,563 --> 00:03:11,024 General Salinger signed off on you. 48 00:03:11,108 --> 00:03:12,901 You suggested me to Salinger? 49 00:03:12,984 --> 00:03:15,362 [Colonel] I-- No. I wouldn't do that to a friend. 50 00:03:15,445 --> 00:03:16,530 He selected you. 51 00:03:17,072 --> 00:03:19,700 He believes you are the best man for the job. 52 00:03:19,783 --> 00:03:21,118 You speak German 53 00:03:21,201 --> 00:03:22,494 and you're one of the most competent 54 00:03:22,577 --> 00:03:25,330 criminal investigators in Israel. 55 00:03:25,872 --> 00:03:27,582 It won't be an easy task, for sure. 56 00:03:27,666 --> 00:03:30,168 It'll probably take, uh, longer than three months. 57 00:03:30,252 --> 00:03:32,504 Uh, and you must be discreet. 58 00:03:32,587 --> 00:03:35,298 You mustn't tell your family, your friends, 59 00:03:35,382 --> 00:03:36,508 even your wife. 60 00:03:37,217 --> 00:03:38,635 You want me to spend three months 61 00:03:38,719 --> 00:03:41,096 in a room with Adolf Eichmann? 62 00:03:41,972 --> 00:03:44,391 My own personal concentration camp. 63 00:03:45,183 --> 00:03:46,643 And for what? What's the point? 64 00:03:47,269 --> 00:03:50,939 Why stir up all these years of pain and grief? 65 00:03:52,482 --> 00:03:54,484 It won't bring the murdered millions back. 66 00:03:55,902 --> 00:03:57,070 He needs a fair trial. 67 00:03:57,612 --> 00:03:59,114 And someone's got to do it. 68 00:04:06,747 --> 00:04:09,833 [street din] 69 00:04:42,032 --> 00:04:43,241 [screen door rattling] 70 00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:48,580 I am Captain Less. 71 00:04:49,122 --> 00:04:52,667 I am told that you are willing-- eager in fact-- 72 00:04:53,418 --> 00:04:56,588 To tell of your role in the Third Reich. 73 00:04:58,381 --> 00:04:59,424 Very much so. 74 00:05:00,383 --> 00:05:04,179 You are fully aware that you are not being coerced, 75 00:05:05,263 --> 00:05:08,183 that you testify of your own free will. 76 00:05:09,184 --> 00:05:13,230 And that the testimony can be used as evidence in court. 77 00:05:14,105 --> 00:05:15,148 Yes. Yes. 78 00:05:16,191 --> 00:05:18,485 I notice you're not wearing your badge. 79 00:05:19,236 --> 00:05:20,737 We're trying to be discreet. 80 00:05:21,488 --> 00:05:24,449 That's one of the reasons we've put you up in this motel. 81 00:05:25,700 --> 00:05:27,452 By the way, how do you find it? 82 00:05:28,203 --> 00:05:31,706 [Eichmann] There's a bed, a bathroom, shower, kitchen. 83 00:05:32,874 --> 00:05:34,835 There's no television, but I can't complain. 84 00:05:36,336 --> 00:05:39,840 Might I ask why all this cloak and dagger stuff? 85 00:05:39,923 --> 00:05:41,424 [Avner] It's for your own safety. 86 00:05:41,967 --> 00:05:43,260 There are lots of people out there 87 00:05:43,343 --> 00:05:45,387 who would just like us to hang you 88 00:05:45,470 --> 00:05:46,596 and be done with it. 89 00:05:47,389 --> 00:05:49,140 Well, I appreciate your frankness. 90 00:05:50,058 --> 00:05:52,602 I don't think any successful interrogation 91 00:05:52,686 --> 00:05:55,689 can be conducted without a certain level of trust. 92 00:05:57,983 --> 00:06:00,235 I understand that you and I are colleagues. 93 00:06:00,318 --> 00:06:02,070 I was once a policeman, myself. 94 00:06:02,153 --> 00:06:03,822 You were never a policeman. 95 00:06:04,489 --> 00:06:05,866 You were in the SS. 96 00:06:05,949 --> 00:06:06,908 [Eichmann] Is that so? 97 00:06:08,118 --> 00:06:09,661 Well, I'm not afraid of the police. 98 00:06:09,744 --> 00:06:10,745 I know them. 99 00:06:11,746 --> 00:06:13,790 The courts are something else, however. 100 00:06:15,166 --> 00:06:17,586 I've never been on trial before. 101 00:06:17,669 --> 00:06:19,921 Please. Sit down. 102 00:06:32,267 --> 00:06:35,103 [switches clicking] 103 00:06:39,983 --> 00:06:41,693 [Eichmann] Before we start, Captain, 104 00:06:41,776 --> 00:06:45,572 I would just like to say that my role in what happened 105 00:06:45,655 --> 00:06:50,327 between 1933 and 1945 was a passive one. 106 00:06:51,244 --> 00:06:52,996 The best way to put it would be to say 107 00:06:53,079 --> 00:06:56,708 that I was a small cog in the gigantic machine 108 00:06:56,791 --> 00:06:58,460 that was the Third Reich. 109 00:06:59,878 --> 00:07:02,172 Let's begin with your curriculum vitae. 110 00:07:04,299 --> 00:07:08,887 Well, I was born in March 19th, in 1906, 111 00:07:09,596 --> 00:07:11,723 at Solingen in the Rhineland. 112 00:07:11,806 --> 00:07:14,100 My father was a bookkeeper 113 00:07:14,184 --> 00:07:16,269 for the Solingen Light and Power company. 114 00:07:17,062 --> 00:07:18,647 That was the name, more or less. 115 00:07:19,397 --> 00:07:24,361 In 1913, he was transferred to the Linz Power and Light Company 116 00:07:24,444 --> 00:07:26,446 in Linz on the Danube. 117 00:07:27,405 --> 00:07:30,325 Probably in connection with the loan 118 00:07:30,408 --> 00:07:33,495 that the AEG had with an Austrian company 119 00:07:33,578 --> 00:07:37,499 that he was the commercial director of until 1924. 120 00:07:38,416 --> 00:07:42,420 In 1914, he moved his family to Austria. 121 00:07:43,296 --> 00:07:45,924 So, from 1914 on, 122 00:07:46,007 --> 00:07:49,928 I lived in Linz on the Danube in Upper Austria 123 00:07:50,011 --> 00:07:52,889 with my parents, my brothers and sisters. 124 00:07:53,974 --> 00:07:55,433 Suppose we go back a little. 125 00:07:56,101 --> 00:07:57,686 What was your father's name? 126 00:07:57,769 --> 00:08:01,147 My father's name was Adolf Karl Eichmann. 127 00:08:02,273 --> 00:08:04,484 Do you have any brothers or sisters, Captain? 128 00:08:05,026 --> 00:08:06,027 What? 129 00:08:06,903 --> 00:08:08,405 Are your parents still alive? 130 00:08:08,947 --> 00:08:11,449 I feel like I'm telling you all about myself. 131 00:08:11,533 --> 00:08:13,034 But I know nothing about you. 132 00:08:13,994 --> 00:08:15,161 Perhaps I'll tell you later. 133 00:08:15,954 --> 00:08:16,997 Oh, I hope so. 134 00:08:18,164 --> 00:08:22,335 Well, my mother's name was Maria Eichmann, nee Schefferling. 135 00:08:22,961 --> 00:08:26,297 But aside from economic considerations, 136 00:08:26,381 --> 00:08:29,217 I had other reasons for wanting to get away, 137 00:08:29,300 --> 00:08:31,428 to leave Austria and go to Germany. 138 00:08:32,387 --> 00:08:35,015 Even in my school days, we had political groups-- 139 00:08:35,098 --> 00:08:37,017 All perfectly harmless, of course. 140 00:08:37,767 --> 00:08:39,644 Nationalists, socialists, monarchists. 141 00:08:40,437 --> 00:08:42,897 The kind of things youngsters went in for 142 00:08:42,981 --> 00:08:44,733 without thinking about it very much. 143 00:08:45,358 --> 00:08:49,362 For instance, you'd join the monarchists or the nationalists 144 00:08:49,446 --> 00:08:52,323 just because you had a good friend in one of those groups. 145 00:08:53,366 --> 00:08:55,869 That was the first political talk I had heard. 146 00:08:56,619 --> 00:08:59,581 At home, the subject was never mentioned. 147 00:08:59,664 --> 00:09:02,459 My father had no interest in politics. 148 00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:05,712 I had an old friend in Linz. 149 00:09:05,795 --> 00:09:08,048 His name was Friedrich von Schmidt, 150 00:09:08,715 --> 00:09:10,884 son of Field Marshal von Schmidt, 151 00:09:10,967 --> 00:09:13,011 whom I never met because he died 152 00:09:13,094 --> 00:09:14,929 before I made friends with his son. 153 00:09:16,056 --> 00:09:18,558 The family was enormously proud of the father 154 00:09:18,641 --> 00:09:23,271 because he'd risen from private to field marshal lieutenant 155 00:09:23,354 --> 00:09:25,940 in the days of Emperor Franz Joseph. 156 00:09:26,566 --> 00:09:29,611 So, he must have been a very brave, fine, 157 00:09:29,694 --> 00:09:32,781 upstanding soldier, a-- and a fine, upstanding man. 158 00:09:34,115 --> 00:09:37,285 My friend's mother had been a countess so-and-so, 159 00:09:37,368 --> 00:09:39,537 a very distinguished family. 160 00:09:40,580 --> 00:09:42,415 They were still living with the old ideas. 161 00:09:42,499 --> 00:09:45,752 But when my friend, Friedrich, would forget his fine manners, 162 00:09:45,835 --> 00:09:47,712 then he was just a good fellow. 163 00:09:48,505 --> 00:09:51,299 Naturally, he associated mostly with military men. 164 00:09:51,966 --> 00:09:53,843 And one day, he persuaded me 165 00:09:53,927 --> 00:09:56,888 to join the Young Veterans Association, 166 00:09:56,971 --> 00:10:00,600 the youth section of the German Austrian Veterans Association. 167 00:10:01,351 --> 00:10:05,188 "Public need before public greed," was its slogan. 168 00:10:05,897 --> 00:10:09,692 It was the only organization that dared march the streets. 169 00:10:10,568 --> 00:10:12,320 Most of the members were monarchists, 170 00:10:12,403 --> 00:10:14,572 some Christian-orientated, 171 00:10:14,656 --> 00:10:17,659 and only a vanishing minority were nationalists. 172 00:10:18,576 --> 00:10:21,329 National socialism was still unheard of. 173 00:10:22,330 --> 00:10:25,083 [Avner] So, most of you were loyal to Austria? 174 00:10:26,543 --> 00:10:29,379 Around 1931, there was friction 175 00:10:29,462 --> 00:10:31,881 between the nationalists and the monarchists. 176 00:10:33,675 --> 00:10:35,760 You don't have any cigarettes, do you, Captain? 177 00:10:36,386 --> 00:10:39,305 The ones the guards give me simply aren't good enough. 178 00:10:40,140 --> 00:10:41,683 [Avner] You can't smoke in here. 179 00:10:42,976 --> 00:10:45,478 But if you like, I'll request 180 00:10:45,562 --> 00:10:47,981 your cigarette ration to be increased. 181 00:10:48,064 --> 00:10:49,065 Ah, thank you. 182 00:10:49,858 --> 00:10:52,360 Anyway, around that time, 183 00:10:52,443 --> 00:10:54,612 the SA were marching through the streets. 184 00:10:55,572 --> 00:10:57,824 The SS were trying to recruit members 185 00:10:57,907 --> 00:11:00,285 of the Young Veterans Association. 186 00:11:01,411 --> 00:11:03,580 One day, the Nazi Party, 187 00:11:03,663 --> 00:11:07,041 or NSDAP, as they called themselves, 188 00:11:08,084 --> 00:11:09,544 held a mass meeting 189 00:11:09,627 --> 00:11:12,755 in a large Bavarian-style beer hall. 190 00:11:14,299 --> 00:11:17,719 My friend, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, 191 00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:19,929 came straight up to me. 192 00:11:20,638 --> 00:11:23,558 His father was a lawyer in Linz. 193 00:11:23,641 --> 00:11:27,854 His father and my father had business dealings for decades. 194 00:11:27,937 --> 00:11:29,606 Ernst spoke to me straight. 195 00:11:30,565 --> 00:11:32,734 He said, "You will join us." 196 00:11:34,194 --> 00:11:35,904 I said, "All right." 197 00:11:36,529 --> 00:11:38,740 So, I just sort of fell into it. 198 00:11:39,616 --> 00:11:40,658 [Avner] Fell into it? 199 00:11:40,742 --> 00:11:42,076 I joined the SS. 200 00:11:42,160 --> 00:11:43,161 [Avner] Just like that? 201 00:11:44,454 --> 00:11:47,081 Well, that's the way it was done in those days. 202 00:11:47,165 --> 00:11:48,166 No fuss. 203 00:11:55,673 --> 00:11:56,925 I won't be home for dinner. 204 00:11:58,885 --> 00:12:00,929 It's the Colonel. He's got me on something big. 205 00:12:02,805 --> 00:12:04,057 No, I can't talk about it. 206 00:12:07,477 --> 00:12:08,728 All right. I love you, too. 207 00:12:12,273 --> 00:12:13,566 Kiss the kids good night for me. 208 00:12:20,907 --> 00:12:24,285 We've touched on the Final Solution of the Jewish Question. 209 00:12:24,369 --> 00:12:26,412 Would you like to speak about that now or... 210 00:12:27,538 --> 00:12:29,457 about the war with Russia, first? 211 00:12:30,041 --> 00:12:31,251 The Final Solution. 212 00:12:33,086 --> 00:12:34,629 Yes, well, it's mixed up 213 00:12:34,712 --> 00:12:36,256 with something that happened 214 00:12:36,923 --> 00:12:39,676 after the start of the German-Russian war. 215 00:12:40,635 --> 00:12:44,847 At the time, Reich Marshal Goering issued a document 216 00:12:44,931 --> 00:12:47,267 conferring a special title on the chief 217 00:12:47,350 --> 00:12:50,561 of the Reich main security office, Heydrich. 218 00:12:51,437 --> 00:12:53,648 The Reich main security officer's duties 219 00:12:53,731 --> 00:12:56,943 were to eliminate all enemies of the Reich, 220 00:12:57,026 --> 00:12:59,362 both domestic and abroad. 221 00:13:00,238 --> 00:13:04,158 I'm trying to remember the wording of the title. 222 00:13:04,242 --> 00:13:05,243 Was it... 223 00:13:06,661 --> 00:13:09,372 Depu-- Deputy Charge with the... 224 00:13:11,040 --> 00:13:12,500 Final Solution? 225 00:13:12,583 --> 00:13:16,838 Or with the solution of the Jewish problem? 226 00:13:18,423 --> 00:13:19,424 [sighs] 227 00:13:20,466 --> 00:13:22,635 Anyway, the war with the Soviet Union 228 00:13:22,719 --> 00:13:25,680 began in 1941, I believe. 229 00:13:25,763 --> 00:13:29,517 And I believe it was two or three months later 230 00:13:29,600 --> 00:13:31,102 that Heydrich sent for me. 231 00:13:31,686 --> 00:13:33,896 He began with a little speech. 232 00:13:35,398 --> 00:13:37,650 And then he said to me, 233 00:13:37,734 --> 00:13:41,696 "The Fuhrer has ordered physical extermination." 234 00:13:42,655 --> 00:13:45,241 These were his exact words. 235 00:13:46,200 --> 00:13:49,912 And as though wanting to test their effect on me... 236 00:13:51,789 --> 00:13:56,252 he made a long pause, which was not at all his way. 237 00:13:57,128 --> 00:13:58,338 I can still remember that. 238 00:13:59,505 --> 00:14:03,551 Initially, I didn't grasp the imc-- implications, 239 00:14:04,177 --> 00:14:07,680 because he chose his words so carefully. 240 00:14:07,764 --> 00:14:09,682 But then I understood. 241 00:14:10,725 --> 00:14:12,185 I didn't say anything. 242 00:14:12,268 --> 00:14:13,686 I mean, what could I say? 243 00:14:14,437 --> 00:14:16,689 Because I'd never thought of such a thing, 244 00:14:16,773 --> 00:14:19,150 such a violent solution. 245 00:14:19,734 --> 00:14:21,778 And then he said to me, "Eichmann... 246 00:14:23,029 --> 00:14:26,157 go and see Globocnik in Lublin." 247 00:14:26,240 --> 00:14:27,241 Who? 248 00:14:28,159 --> 00:14:31,120 He-- he was head of the SS and the police 249 00:14:31,204 --> 00:14:33,706 in the Lublin district in Poland. 250 00:14:33,790 --> 00:14:35,792 As ordered, I went to Lublin, 251 00:14:35,875 --> 00:14:39,045 located the headquarters of the SS and police, 252 00:14:39,128 --> 00:14:42,256 and I told Globocnik that Heydrich had sent me 253 00:14:42,340 --> 00:14:44,717 because the Fuhrer had ordered 254 00:14:44,801 --> 00:14:47,303 the physical extermination of the Jews. 255 00:14:48,679 --> 00:14:52,600 Globocnik sent me with one of his staff members. 256 00:14:53,267 --> 00:14:56,020 [sighs] I don't remember the place was called-- 257 00:14:56,104 --> 00:14:57,230 I get them mixed up. 258 00:14:58,106 --> 00:15:00,525 I couldn't say if it was Treblinka 259 00:15:00,608 --> 00:15:02,026 or somewhere else. 260 00:15:04,487 --> 00:15:07,824 There were patches of woods, uh, sort of. 261 00:15:07,907 --> 00:15:10,576 And the road passed through a Polish highway. 262 00:15:11,244 --> 00:15:14,622 On the right side of the road, there was an ordinary house 263 00:15:14,705 --> 00:15:16,332 where the workers lived. 264 00:15:17,375 --> 00:15:19,919 A captain of the regular police welcomed us. 265 00:15:20,878 --> 00:15:22,630 A few workmen were still there. 266 00:15:24,924 --> 00:15:27,927 The captain had taken off his jacket 267 00:15:28,010 --> 00:15:31,055 and rolled up his sleeves, which surprised me. 268 00:15:31,139 --> 00:15:35,101 Somehow he seemed to be joining in with the work. 269 00:15:36,227 --> 00:15:39,272 They were building little wooden shacks, 270 00:15:39,355 --> 00:15:41,315 two or maybe three of them. 271 00:15:42,942 --> 00:15:46,112 They looked like two- or three-room cottages. 272 00:15:47,280 --> 00:15:49,699 My escort told the police captain 273 00:15:49,782 --> 00:15:51,576 to explain the installation. 274 00:15:53,202 --> 00:15:56,372 He had a vulgar, uncultivated voice. 275 00:15:56,456 --> 00:15:57,874 Maybe-- maybe he drank. 276 00:15:59,292 --> 00:16:03,045 He told me how he had made everything airtight. 277 00:16:04,088 --> 00:16:05,798 It seemed they were going to hook up 278 00:16:05,882 --> 00:16:07,508 a Russian submarine engine 279 00:16:07,592 --> 00:16:10,511 and pipe the exhaust into the houses 280 00:16:10,595 --> 00:16:13,014 and the Jews inside would be poisoned. 281 00:16:13,848 --> 00:16:15,475 I-- I was horrified! 282 00:16:16,642 --> 00:16:18,853 My nerves aren't strong enough. 283 00:16:18,936 --> 00:16:20,521 I can't listen to such-- 284 00:16:21,189 --> 00:16:23,608 Such things without them affecting me. 285 00:16:25,234 --> 00:16:28,988 Even today, if I see someone with a large cut, 286 00:16:29,822 --> 00:16:31,282 I have to look away. 287 00:16:31,365 --> 00:16:33,075 I could never have been a doctor. 288 00:16:35,578 --> 00:16:38,247 I still remember how I visualized the scene 289 00:16:38,331 --> 00:16:39,999 and began to tremble, 290 00:16:40,082 --> 00:16:42,293 a-- as if I'd been through some 291 00:16:43,044 --> 00:16:44,295 terrible experience, 292 00:16:45,004 --> 00:16:46,589 the kind of thing that makes you... 293 00:16:47,965 --> 00:16:48,966 shake. 294 00:16:50,760 --> 00:16:54,472 Then I received orders to go to Lichmenstadt 295 00:16:55,598 --> 00:16:58,476 and report back what was going on there. 296 00:16:58,559 --> 00:17:03,231 So, I went to the Gestapo headquarters in Lichmenstadt 297 00:17:03,314 --> 00:17:07,485 and there I was told that it was a special team put in, 298 00:17:07,568 --> 00:17:09,403 bought by the Reich Fuhrer, 299 00:17:10,071 --> 00:17:11,072 Himmler. 300 00:17:12,907 --> 00:17:14,867 I saw a large room with Jews in it. 301 00:17:16,827 --> 00:17:19,872 They made them take off all their clothes. 302 00:17:21,916 --> 00:17:24,544 Then a sealed truck drove up 303 00:17:24,627 --> 00:17:26,879 and the naked Jews got in. 304 00:17:28,172 --> 00:17:30,633 The door was closed and the truck drove away. 305 00:17:31,300 --> 00:17:33,010 How many people did this truck hold? 306 00:17:33,803 --> 00:17:35,429 [Eichmann] I-- I don't know exactly. 307 00:17:35,513 --> 00:17:38,015 The whole time I was there, I never looked inside. 308 00:17:38,099 --> 00:17:39,517 I couldn't. Couldn't! 309 00:17:40,893 --> 00:17:43,604 What I had seen and heard was enough. 310 00:17:43,688 --> 00:17:44,689 The screaming. 311 00:17:46,023 --> 00:17:47,650 I was much too shaken. 312 00:17:48,442 --> 00:17:51,320 I drove after that truck and what I saw... 313 00:17:52,863 --> 00:17:55,241 what-- was the most horrific thing 314 00:17:55,324 --> 00:17:58,077 I had ever seen in my life. 315 00:18:00,371 --> 00:18:04,917 It drove up to a-- a rather long trench. 316 00:18:05,501 --> 00:18:07,211 The back doors were open 317 00:18:07,295 --> 00:18:10,298 and corpses were just thrown out. 318 00:18:11,424 --> 00:18:15,261 The-- Their limbs were supple as if they were being alive. 319 00:18:17,013 --> 00:18:19,098 Just thrown in! 320 00:18:19,849 --> 00:18:21,350 I can still see someone 321 00:18:21,434 --> 00:18:23,477 with a pair of pliers pulling out their teeth. 322 00:18:26,355 --> 00:18:28,899 And then I got into my car and drove off. 323 00:18:28,983 --> 00:18:31,235 I didn't say another word to my driver. 324 00:18:31,944 --> 00:18:33,946 I'd had enough. I was through. 325 00:18:34,989 --> 00:18:39,410 In Berlin, I reported to Gruppenfuhrer Muller. 326 00:18:40,119 --> 00:18:41,454 Not Heydrich? 327 00:18:41,537 --> 00:18:43,331 [Eichmann] I was working for Heydrich, 328 00:18:43,414 --> 00:18:46,459 but Muller was my direct superior. 329 00:18:46,542 --> 00:18:50,338 I told him the same as what I have told you now. 330 00:18:50,421 --> 00:18:52,298 It's terrible! I can't! It's-- it's-- 331 00:18:53,257 --> 00:18:55,760 "I can't do it!" I told him. 332 00:18:55,843 --> 00:18:57,261 What did Muller say? 333 00:18:57,345 --> 00:19:00,014 Muller never said anything. Never. 334 00:19:01,515 --> 00:19:04,393 Not about these things or anything else. 335 00:19:05,019 --> 00:19:08,189 He always was very unemotional 336 00:19:08,272 --> 00:19:11,609 and said only what was strictly necessary. 337 00:19:12,818 --> 00:19:16,197 He would have-- either say yes or he would say no. 338 00:19:16,280 --> 00:19:18,199 And if he didn't say yes or no, 339 00:19:18,282 --> 00:19:19,325 then he would say, 340 00:19:19,408 --> 00:19:20,868 "Eichmann, my friend, 341 00:19:20,951 --> 00:19:23,829 that's neither yes or no." 342 00:19:25,665 --> 00:19:28,125 Did you report on this in writing? 343 00:19:28,209 --> 00:19:29,710 [Eichmann] No, I couldn't do that. 344 00:19:29,794 --> 00:19:32,588 I wa-- I was expressly forbidden by Heydrich. 345 00:19:33,339 --> 00:19:36,634 Muller especially wanted to know how long it takes. 346 00:19:36,717 --> 00:19:39,387 I wasn't able to tell him that. I couldn't hear. 347 00:19:40,513 --> 00:19:42,431 I should have gone out there a second time, 348 00:19:42,515 --> 00:19:44,767 but naturally, I didn't volunteer. 349 00:19:46,894 --> 00:19:50,398 Did you see Jews being gassed by submarine engines, 350 00:19:50,481 --> 00:19:52,316 by Globocnik's outfit? 351 00:19:53,234 --> 00:19:54,944 [Eichmann] No, I never saw that. 352 00:19:56,570 --> 00:19:58,489 How many of these places were your sent to? 353 00:19:59,949 --> 00:20:03,411 [sighs] Let me think. The ones I've already mentioned. 354 00:20:03,494 --> 00:20:04,912 And Auschwitz. 355 00:20:05,621 --> 00:20:06,664 Minsk. 356 00:20:07,498 --> 00:20:08,499 Treblinka. 357 00:20:10,501 --> 00:20:12,086 That was all, I believe. 358 00:20:12,712 --> 00:20:14,714 Oh, yes. And Lemberg. 359 00:20:15,756 --> 00:20:18,384 Were these just information-gathering missions 360 00:20:18,467 --> 00:20:20,469 or did you have some special assignment? 361 00:20:21,595 --> 00:20:23,848 No, no assignment. I had no... 362 00:20:24,765 --> 00:20:26,267 special orders to give or anything. 363 00:20:26,350 --> 00:20:28,853 No instructions about who to gas 364 00:20:28,936 --> 00:20:31,397 or whether anyone was to be gassed, 365 00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:34,525 whether the gassing could or should be stopped, 366 00:20:34,608 --> 00:20:36,569 or started or intensified. 367 00:20:37,111 --> 00:20:39,905 I never had anything to do with all of that, Captain. 368 00:20:40,698 --> 00:20:42,575 And if the newspapers say I did, 369 00:20:42,658 --> 00:20:44,618 then I tell you, they are lies. 370 00:20:44,702 --> 00:20:45,995 I'm telling you the truth! 371 00:20:46,078 --> 00:20:47,747 What were your reports like 372 00:20:47,830 --> 00:20:49,999 about the extermination camps to Muller? 373 00:20:50,082 --> 00:20:51,417 [Eichmann] Muller said to me. 374 00:20:51,500 --> 00:20:53,836 "In Minsk, the Jews are being shot. 375 00:20:53,919 --> 00:20:55,212 I'd like a report on that." 376 00:20:55,838 --> 00:20:57,631 So, I went to Minsk... 377 00:20:58,924 --> 00:21:00,926 and asked for the commanding officer. 378 00:21:01,510 --> 00:21:02,928 He wasn't there. 379 00:21:03,012 --> 00:21:05,431 So, I spoke to someone else and told him 380 00:21:05,514 --> 00:21:07,892 I had orders to see what was going on. 381 00:21:08,809 --> 00:21:10,478 I spent the night in that town 382 00:21:10,561 --> 00:21:13,481 and the next day I went to the place. 383 00:21:13,564 --> 00:21:15,483 But I got there too late. 384 00:21:16,317 --> 00:21:18,194 The work for that morning was already done-- 385 00:21:18,277 --> 00:21:19,779 Almost done. 386 00:21:20,613 --> 00:21:22,114 And I was very glad for that. 387 00:21:24,492 --> 00:21:27,912 When I got there, I was just in time to see 388 00:21:27,995 --> 00:21:32,625 young riflemen with the Death's Head collar patch 389 00:21:33,459 --> 00:21:35,544 shooting into a pit. 390 00:21:37,087 --> 00:21:39,131 I can still see 391 00:21:40,007 --> 00:21:42,635 a woman with her arms behind her back 392 00:21:42,718 --> 00:21:44,804 and her knees crumpled. 393 00:21:47,056 --> 00:21:48,140 And then I cleared out. 394 00:21:50,726 --> 00:21:51,852 The pit was full of corpses? 395 00:21:51,936 --> 00:21:54,063 It was full, it was full! 396 00:21:54,146 --> 00:21:58,484 I went to my car, I got in and I drove back to Lemberg. 397 00:21:58,567 --> 00:22:02,029 I told the SS officer there, I said to him, 398 00:22:02,112 --> 00:22:04,532 "It's horrible what they're doing there. 399 00:22:05,241 --> 00:22:09,453 They're tr-- training men to be sadists! 400 00:22:12,748 --> 00:22:17,044 How can they stand there, firing on women and children? 401 00:22:17,127 --> 00:22:18,420 How is it possible? 402 00:22:19,421 --> 00:22:23,175 These men will either go mad or become sadists." 403 00:22:25,135 --> 00:22:26,428 He said to me, 404 00:22:26,512 --> 00:22:28,514 "They're doing the same thing here. 405 00:22:28,597 --> 00:22:29,598 You want to see?" 406 00:22:32,184 --> 00:22:33,894 I told him I didn't, but-- but... 407 00:22:35,604 --> 00:22:37,982 but we were driving past there anyway. 408 00:22:38,566 --> 00:22:39,692 There had been a pit there. 409 00:22:39,775 --> 00:22:41,110 It was already filled in 410 00:22:41,193 --> 00:22:43,821 and the blood was gushing out of it. 411 00:22:45,155 --> 00:22:46,156 How shall I say? 412 00:22:46,949 --> 00:22:48,075 Like a geyser. 413 00:22:49,827 --> 00:22:51,620 I'd never seen anything like it. 414 00:22:51,704 --> 00:22:52,997 I'd had enough of that mission. 415 00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:54,373 I went back to Berlin, 416 00:22:54,456 --> 00:22:56,166 reported what I'd seen to Muller. 417 00:22:56,250 --> 00:22:57,751 I said to him, 418 00:22:57,835 --> 00:23:01,505 "This is no solution to the Jewish question. 419 00:23:02,506 --> 00:23:06,427 And besides, we're training our young men to be sadists. 420 00:23:07,219 --> 00:23:10,639 We shouldn't be surprised if the-- the men turn out to be... 421 00:23:12,016 --> 00:23:13,851 criminals, all criminals." 422 00:23:15,853 --> 00:23:17,855 I still remember Muller looking at me 423 00:23:17,938 --> 00:23:19,106 with an expression that said, 424 00:23:19,189 --> 00:23:20,232 "Eichmann. 425 00:23:21,025 --> 00:23:21,984 You're right. 426 00:23:22,735 --> 00:23:24,069 That's no solution." 427 00:23:24,153 --> 00:23:26,113 But he didn't say anything. 428 00:23:26,196 --> 00:23:28,490 What could he do about it? 429 00:23:29,241 --> 00:23:30,993 Not a thing. Not a thing. 430 00:23:33,037 --> 00:23:36,081 And who gave the orders for such actions? 431 00:23:36,165 --> 00:23:37,917 The orders. The orders. 432 00:23:38,792 --> 00:23:40,628 Obviously, the orders must have come 433 00:23:40,711 --> 00:23:42,963 from the head of the security police 434 00:23:43,047 --> 00:23:44,840 and the SD, Heydrich. 435 00:23:45,799 --> 00:23:47,593 And he would have been given the orders 436 00:23:47,676 --> 00:23:49,929 from Reichsfuhrer Himmler. 437 00:23:50,012 --> 00:23:51,180 What about the Fuhrer? 438 00:23:52,139 --> 00:23:53,140 Sorry? 439 00:23:54,683 --> 00:23:57,394 Did Hitler not give the order to him? 440 00:24:00,564 --> 00:24:03,067 Yes. Well, I don't know. 441 00:24:03,150 --> 00:24:04,485 There isn't any evidence 442 00:24:04,568 --> 00:24:07,196 of any express orders, to my knowledge, 443 00:24:08,113 --> 00:24:12,117 but Himmler must have had express orders from Hitler. 444 00:24:12,201 --> 00:24:14,578 Otherwise he would have been out on his ear 445 00:24:14,662 --> 00:24:15,996 before he knew what hit him. 446 00:24:16,538 --> 00:24:17,748 That's my thinking, at least. 447 00:24:18,582 --> 00:24:21,835 [Avner] Did Himmler give written orders 448 00:24:22,544 --> 00:24:25,381 for the Final Solution of the Jewish Question? 449 00:24:28,842 --> 00:24:29,885 Written? 450 00:24:30,970 --> 00:24:33,806 For extermination? Physical extermination? 451 00:24:33,889 --> 00:24:34,974 [Avner] Yes. 452 00:24:37,309 --> 00:24:39,269 I never saw such orders, Captain. 453 00:24:41,146 --> 00:24:42,606 Wasn't like that. 454 00:24:42,690 --> 00:24:45,109 All I know is that Heydrich said to me, 455 00:24:45,192 --> 00:24:46,819 "The Fuhrer has ordered 456 00:24:46,902 --> 00:24:49,822 physical extermination of the Jews." 457 00:24:50,656 --> 00:24:52,700 He said it as clearly and as surely 458 00:24:52,783 --> 00:24:54,576 as I'm repeating it here now. 459 00:24:55,869 --> 00:24:57,413 I implored Muller. 460 00:24:58,247 --> 00:25:00,082 "Please, don't send me there. 461 00:25:00,165 --> 00:25:03,544 Send someone else. Someone with stronger nerves." 462 00:25:04,086 --> 00:25:05,462 They never sent me to the front. 463 00:25:05,546 --> 00:25:07,423 I was never a soldier. 464 00:25:08,507 --> 00:25:10,050 There are plenty of other people 465 00:25:10,134 --> 00:25:13,345 who could stand to see such things, 466 00:25:13,429 --> 00:25:14,972 who won't kneel over. 467 00:25:16,932 --> 00:25:20,102 "I can't stand it. I can't, Gruppenfuhrer.” 468 00:25:22,271 --> 00:25:23,939 But it never got me anywhere. 469 00:25:24,732 --> 00:25:25,899 We'll take a break now. 470 00:25:26,608 --> 00:25:28,318 We'll continue on this subject later. 471 00:25:30,362 --> 00:25:33,699 [Eichmann] I heard your wife's name is Vera, Captain. 472 00:25:33,782 --> 00:25:35,451 -[Avner] You heard? -Well... 473 00:25:36,410 --> 00:25:38,495 I overheard some of the guards. 474 00:25:39,413 --> 00:25:41,331 My wife's name is Vera, too. 475 00:25:42,583 --> 00:25:43,584 What are the chances? 476 00:25:48,839 --> 00:25:50,174 [Eichmann] Perhaps it was fate. 477 00:25:57,514 --> 00:25:58,515 [door thudding shut] 478 00:26:06,523 --> 00:26:08,609 What do you know about Zyklon B gas? 479 00:26:09,610 --> 00:26:11,653 [Eichmann] Nothing, apart from what I've heard. 480 00:26:12,488 --> 00:26:13,989 It's contained in beer. 481 00:26:15,115 --> 00:26:18,494 I only heard the name Zyklon B recently. 482 00:26:19,661 --> 00:26:21,830 I knew of it as prussic acid. 483 00:26:21,914 --> 00:26:22,915 Mm. 484 00:26:23,582 --> 00:26:26,627 Well, I'm now going to quote from the German edition 485 00:26:26,710 --> 00:26:29,755 of the Proceedings of the Trial of the Leading War Criminals 486 00:26:29,838 --> 00:26:33,467 Before the International Military Court in Nuremberg. 487 00:26:35,010 --> 00:26:38,097 "From the sworn testimony of Rudolf Hoss, 488 00:26:38,180 --> 00:26:40,307 who was camp commander at Auschwitz 489 00:26:40,390 --> 00:26:42,851 from 1914 to 1943." 490 00:26:43,560 --> 00:26:44,520 He said... 491 00:26:45,896 --> 00:26:48,649 "Eichmann was repeatedly in Auschwitz 492 00:26:48,732 --> 00:26:51,151 and knew exactly what was being done." 493 00:26:51,235 --> 00:26:54,530 Captain, I only knew what I had said. 494 00:26:55,697 --> 00:26:58,367 Neither in Auschwitz or anywhere else 495 00:26:58,450 --> 00:27:01,703 did I witness the extermination process. 496 00:27:02,996 --> 00:27:04,540 It was only in Minsk 497 00:27:04,623 --> 00:27:07,876 that I got there after the shooting had begun. 498 00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:11,964 Everywhere else, I refused, because I wasn't up to it. 499 00:27:12,756 --> 00:27:15,217 I knew nothing about the gas. 500 00:27:15,300 --> 00:27:18,095 When Rudolf Hoss was under arrest in Poland, 501 00:27:18,637 --> 00:27:21,348 he made some autobiographical notes. 502 00:27:24,768 --> 00:27:26,061 Here. 503 00:27:26,145 --> 00:27:28,689 I have, uh, an extract from his book, 504 00:27:28,772 --> 00:27:30,232 Commandant of Auschwitz. 505 00:27:30,983 --> 00:27:32,609 "Eichmann told me about the killing 506 00:27:32,693 --> 00:27:34,862 by exhaust fumes in trucks, 507 00:27:35,737 --> 00:27:38,115 as had been practiced in the east up until then. 508 00:27:39,032 --> 00:27:41,160 That, however, would not have been possible 509 00:27:41,243 --> 00:27:44,872 for the mass shipments that we-- that were to be expected. 510 00:27:46,123 --> 00:27:49,126 Killing by spraying with carbon monoxide in a bathroom 511 00:27:49,209 --> 00:27:51,086 as it had been done with the mentally ill 512 00:27:51,170 --> 00:27:52,629 in some places in the Reich, 513 00:27:53,255 --> 00:27:55,340 would have required too many buildings. 514 00:27:56,175 --> 00:27:57,843 Moreover, it was questionable 515 00:27:57,926 --> 00:28:00,888 whether sufficient gas could be procured 516 00:28:00,971 --> 00:28:02,931 for such a vast number of people. 517 00:28:04,308 --> 00:28:06,351 We left the matter unresolved. 518 00:28:07,311 --> 00:28:10,522 Eichmann undertook to find out about a gas 519 00:28:10,606 --> 00:28:12,649 that was easily obtainable 520 00:28:12,733 --> 00:28:15,360 and required no special installations. 521 00:28:16,403 --> 00:28:17,863 And report to me about it." 522 00:28:19,364 --> 00:28:20,449 Have you a comment to make? 523 00:28:21,033 --> 00:28:22,826 [Eichmann] Yes, sir, I have. 524 00:28:23,660 --> 00:28:26,246 The overwhelming majority of these assertions 525 00:28:26,330 --> 00:28:27,956 are pure invention. 526 00:28:28,874 --> 00:28:30,709 It is obvious to me 527 00:28:30,792 --> 00:28:34,546 that his only intention was to clear the name 528 00:28:34,630 --> 00:28:36,131 of his department: 529 00:28:37,007 --> 00:28:41,136 the SS Administration and Supply Headquarters. 530 00:28:41,220 --> 00:28:45,515 And why would he bother protecting his own department 531 00:28:45,599 --> 00:28:47,935 when he was on trial for war crimes? 532 00:28:48,018 --> 00:28:51,271 I haven't the faintest idea. His reasons are unknown to me. 533 00:28:52,272 --> 00:28:55,192 But I never, in any way-- and to this, Captain, 534 00:28:55,275 --> 00:28:59,488 I will take any oath-- discussed this matter with Hoss. 535 00:28:59,571 --> 00:29:01,490 I will now show you a document presented 536 00:29:01,573 --> 00:29:03,450 by the prosecution 537 00:29:03,533 --> 00:29:06,787 of the first Nuremberg War Crimes trial. 538 00:29:06,870 --> 00:29:09,623 It is a statement by Dr. Kurt Gerstein, 539 00:29:10,207 --> 00:29:12,668 former head of the Technical Disinfection Service 540 00:29:12,751 --> 00:29:15,045 in the SS Command headquarters. 541 00:29:17,422 --> 00:29:20,717 Now, it concerns the utilization of the poison gas 542 00:29:20,801 --> 00:29:24,721 that had been ordered from him in July 1942 543 00:29:25,389 --> 00:29:27,349 by Rolf Gunther. 544 00:29:28,392 --> 00:29:31,645 Your deputy, your representative. 545 00:29:31,728 --> 00:29:33,772 [Eichmann] I wasn't aware of Gunther ordering 546 00:29:33,855 --> 00:29:36,775 any prussic acid in 1942, 547 00:29:38,193 --> 00:29:40,404 I must say it's odd, very odd, 548 00:29:40,487 --> 00:29:43,365 that Gunther should be mixed up in this. 549 00:29:44,241 --> 00:29:46,618 I wasn't involved in this, Captain. 550 00:29:46,702 --> 00:29:50,330 I ask that you not attach any importance to this document. 551 00:29:51,123 --> 00:29:53,667 If I had anything to do with it, 552 00:29:53,750 --> 00:29:57,462 my name would be mentioned here, as per custom. 553 00:29:57,546 --> 00:30:00,007 But you gave Gunther the order. 554 00:30:00,590 --> 00:30:02,634 He certainly wouldn't have acted on his own accord. 555 00:30:02,718 --> 00:30:04,136 No, no, no. 556 00:30:04,678 --> 00:30:06,388 And this I must deny, Captain. 557 00:30:08,098 --> 00:30:12,477 Of course Gunther didn't think of this on his own. 558 00:30:12,561 --> 00:30:15,188 He must have received an order. That much is plain. 559 00:30:16,023 --> 00:30:18,191 But he didn't get it from me. 560 00:30:18,900 --> 00:30:20,068 I didn't know. 561 00:30:20,777 --> 00:30:22,821 A hundred kilos of prussic acid. 562 00:30:23,739 --> 00:30:25,115 I knew nothing about that. 563 00:30:26,658 --> 00:30:30,203 He must have got the order from Muller-- directly. 564 00:30:31,371 --> 00:30:33,165 I find that hard to believe, 565 00:30:33,915 --> 00:30:36,626 that Muller would go over your head 566 00:30:37,753 --> 00:30:40,172 in giving Gunther a special order? 567 00:30:41,089 --> 00:30:46,470 No. What Gerstein says here that suddenly, on June 8th, 1942, 568 00:30:46,553 --> 00:30:48,555 Gunther ordered the gas. 569 00:30:48,638 --> 00:30:50,557 With Hoss' statement about the preparations 570 00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:52,225 for the gassing 571 00:30:52,309 --> 00:30:54,978 and your telling him that you'd find out about a gas. 572 00:30:57,606 --> 00:30:59,399 Hangs together rather nicely, doesn't it? 573 00:30:59,483 --> 00:31:02,611 Oh, I'm sorry, Captain, but lots of things 574 00:31:02,694 --> 00:31:05,238 that have happened "hang together nicely." 575 00:31:05,322 --> 00:31:07,282 But if I had been involved in it, 576 00:31:07,366 --> 00:31:09,242 Gerstein would have mentioned me. 577 00:31:09,326 --> 00:31:12,621 And Gerstein never mentioned me. 578 00:31:12,704 --> 00:31:15,290 Do you remember The Wannsee Conference, 579 00:31:15,957 --> 00:31:20,212 where the implementation of the Final Solution 580 00:31:20,295 --> 00:31:22,297 was determined? 581 00:31:22,381 --> 00:31:24,132 [Eichmann] Yes, I was present. 582 00:31:24,674 --> 00:31:27,719 I wrote the invitations to the state secretaries. 583 00:31:27,803 --> 00:31:29,012 Is that all? 584 00:31:29,096 --> 00:31:30,389 Yes. 585 00:31:30,472 --> 00:31:31,723 [Avner] Well, why were you invited 586 00:31:31,807 --> 00:31:33,225 if you played such a... 587 00:31:34,851 --> 00:31:36,186 subordinate role? 588 00:31:36,269 --> 00:31:37,938 [Eichmann] I had to write the invitations, 589 00:31:38,605 --> 00:31:42,401 supply Heydrich with data for his speeches, 590 00:31:42,484 --> 00:31:44,569 the immigration information and so on. 591 00:31:45,278 --> 00:31:46,571 Was Muller there, too? 592 00:31:46,655 --> 00:31:47,697 [Eichmann] Yes. 593 00:31:48,657 --> 00:31:50,325 It was a high-level conference, 594 00:31:50,409 --> 00:31:54,121 as I said then. Nothing below state secretary. 595 00:31:54,996 --> 00:31:58,375 Then why bring little Eichmann in? 596 00:31:59,793 --> 00:32:03,547 Heydrich couldn't have been all that keen on 597 00:32:03,630 --> 00:32:05,132 having to keep asking 598 00:32:05,215 --> 00:32:07,717 during the conference, "Are my figures correct?" 599 00:32:07,801 --> 00:32:10,011 No, he did that beforehand. 600 00:32:11,054 --> 00:32:12,848 Things to do with emmigration. 601 00:32:14,015 --> 00:32:16,351 At the time of The Wannsee Conference, 602 00:32:16,435 --> 00:32:18,437 the killing had just begun. 603 00:32:19,312 --> 00:32:22,190 The gassing machines were already at work. 604 00:32:22,983 --> 00:32:24,609 And if the killing had started-- 605 00:32:24,693 --> 00:32:26,194 And it had started! 606 00:32:28,238 --> 00:32:31,783 It was probably to do with the organization of the program, 607 00:32:31,867 --> 00:32:34,494 something that I had nothing to do with. 608 00:32:34,578 --> 00:32:35,954 [Avner] Most would regard the fact 609 00:32:36,037 --> 00:32:39,166 that you were brought to the conference 610 00:32:39,249 --> 00:32:42,210 an indication that you played a much... 611 00:32:42,919 --> 00:32:45,964 bigger role in the Final Solution than you admit. 612 00:32:47,549 --> 00:32:49,634 No, no, Captain. 613 00:32:49,718 --> 00:32:52,262 If I had spoken up at The Wannsee Conference, 614 00:32:52,345 --> 00:32:55,140 it would have been purely to say, "Yes, sir." 615 00:32:57,309 --> 00:33:01,521 I-- I sat in the corner with the stenotypist 616 00:33:01,605 --> 00:33:03,231 and nobody bothered with me. 617 00:33:03,315 --> 00:33:04,566 Not even Heydrich. 618 00:33:05,609 --> 00:33:07,444 I was insignificant there. 619 00:33:10,322 --> 00:33:12,782 [Avner] Rudolf Hoss quotes you here. 620 00:33:14,034 --> 00:33:16,161 "I will leap into my grave laughing 621 00:33:16,244 --> 00:33:19,664 because the feeling that I have five million human beings 622 00:33:19,748 --> 00:33:20,957 on my conscience... 623 00:33:21,833 --> 00:33:25,337 is for me a source of extraordinary satisfaction. 624 00:33:27,172 --> 00:33:30,008 Yes, I believe I remember that. 625 00:33:31,551 --> 00:33:35,263 But I was referring to the enemies of the Reich-- 626 00:33:35,347 --> 00:33:37,974 The Soviets, not the Jews. 627 00:33:38,808 --> 00:33:40,852 There wasn't any mention of the Jews at all, 628 00:33:40,936 --> 00:33:42,270 no mention whatsoever. 629 00:33:52,531 --> 00:33:55,700 Here is a document presented by the prosecution 630 00:33:55,784 --> 00:33:58,995 of the 11th War Crimes Trial at Nuremberg. 631 00:33:59,704 --> 00:34:02,457 It comes from the Foreign Office 632 00:34:03,124 --> 00:34:05,418 and it concerns the shipment 633 00:34:05,502 --> 00:34:09,089 of 318 Hungarian Jews. 634 00:34:13,176 --> 00:34:14,636 Hmm. Yes. 635 00:34:14,719 --> 00:34:17,806 Well, it's to do with an illegal shipment. 636 00:34:18,557 --> 00:34:22,227 And in my opinion, it is a mistake 637 00:34:22,310 --> 00:34:23,853 where it says here 638 00:34:23,937 --> 00:34:26,398 that these things were arranged 639 00:34:26,481 --> 00:34:28,400 between Reich Fuhrer Himmler 640 00:34:28,483 --> 00:34:30,944 and Ostbahn Fuhrer Eichmann. 641 00:34:31,570 --> 00:34:32,821 That is wrong. 642 00:34:33,697 --> 00:34:35,532 Himmler organized these things with... 643 00:34:36,866 --> 00:34:39,119 Dr. Kasztner and Kurt Becker. 644 00:34:39,911 --> 00:34:40,954 Dr. Kasztner? 645 00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:43,582 As in the Kasztner train? 646 00:34:43,665 --> 00:34:44,708 The same one. 647 00:34:45,458 --> 00:34:48,128 He saved 1,700 Jews. 648 00:34:48,712 --> 00:34:49,879 More than Schindler. 649 00:34:50,714 --> 00:34:52,591 But Schindler wasn't assassinated 650 00:34:52,674 --> 00:34:54,718 by your countrymen three years ago. 651 00:34:54,801 --> 00:34:57,470 He wasn't assassinated by my countrymen. 652 00:34:58,263 --> 00:35:01,057 He was assassinated by extremists. 653 00:35:02,726 --> 00:35:06,104 And Schindler was responsible for saving Jews. 654 00:35:06,896 --> 00:35:07,981 Not killing them. 655 00:35:09,107 --> 00:35:11,026 He didn't pull any triggers. 656 00:35:11,109 --> 00:35:14,112 But don't you think that he is responsible, 657 00:35:14,195 --> 00:35:15,488 partly at least, 658 00:35:16,072 --> 00:35:17,949 for the Jews that he didn't save? 659 00:35:18,992 --> 00:35:22,454 Or for not alerting the world to the mass murder of Jews? 660 00:35:23,204 --> 00:35:26,541 [chuckles] Eichmann, if you really believed that, 661 00:35:27,334 --> 00:35:29,169 you'd consider yourself guilty. 662 00:35:29,252 --> 00:35:32,213 Ah, So, you see my point? 663 00:35:32,797 --> 00:35:34,883 No. No, I don't. 664 00:35:36,301 --> 00:35:40,930 I'm as guilty or innocent as Schindler. 665 00:35:41,973 --> 00:35:45,894 And I am certainly more innocent than Dr. Kasztner. 666 00:35:47,187 --> 00:35:48,188 And Becker? 667 00:35:49,898 --> 00:35:51,274 Becker was the commissaire 668 00:35:51,358 --> 00:35:54,027 of all the German concentration camps 669 00:35:54,110 --> 00:35:56,529 and the Economic Department in Hungary. 670 00:35:56,613 --> 00:35:58,615 What was the Economic Department? 671 00:35:59,949 --> 00:36:03,495 Their job was to extract all economic benefits 672 00:36:03,578 --> 00:36:05,038 from the Jews: 673 00:36:05,121 --> 00:36:07,415 steal their property and belongings, 674 00:36:07,499 --> 00:36:09,793 cut off their hair, pull out their teeth. 675 00:36:10,710 --> 00:36:13,129 Their hair was very profitable. 676 00:36:14,756 --> 00:36:16,633 He sold it to the Schaeffler Group 677 00:36:16,716 --> 00:36:19,052 for use in their automobile parts. 678 00:36:20,261 --> 00:36:22,222 Upholstery, I believe it was. 679 00:36:23,723 --> 00:36:26,726 Becker was very resourceful for Himmler. 680 00:36:26,810 --> 00:36:29,604 Yes, I see here that Becker was cleared at Nuremberg. 681 00:36:30,188 --> 00:36:31,690 Not just that, Captain, 682 00:36:32,357 --> 00:36:35,110 but he was never even on trial. 683 00:36:35,735 --> 00:36:38,947 He was there as a witness, not as a war criminal. 684 00:36:39,906 --> 00:36:42,283 That snake, Dr. Kasztner, 685 00:36:42,367 --> 00:36:45,245 testified before the Nuremberg Court 686 00:36:46,037 --> 00:36:50,291 that Becker opposed the annihilation of Jews. 687 00:36:51,126 --> 00:36:53,044 He did no such thing. 688 00:36:53,628 --> 00:36:58,299 And now he is one of the most wealthy men 689 00:36:58,383 --> 00:36:59,467 in Western Germany. 690 00:36:59,551 --> 00:37:00,593 A businessman. 691 00:37:00,677 --> 00:37:01,886 [scoffs] 692 00:37:02,554 --> 00:37:05,974 But I doubt your government would believe my accusations. 693 00:37:07,308 --> 00:37:09,102 Probably wasting my breath. 694 00:37:09,853 --> 00:37:12,647 Well, this communication makes no mention of Becker. 695 00:37:12,731 --> 00:37:16,818 It refers to a conversation between you and Himmler. 696 00:37:18,111 --> 00:37:19,696 Well, yes. 697 00:37:20,488 --> 00:37:22,741 That information is partly true. 698 00:37:22,824 --> 00:37:26,995 I did meet with Himmler with Becker, together. 699 00:37:28,204 --> 00:37:29,748 And later, 700 00:37:29,831 --> 00:37:33,293 Becker was ordered to report to Himmler by himself. 701 00:37:34,544 --> 00:37:36,296 What they decided, I don't know. 702 00:37:37,630 --> 00:37:40,383 I was only to put through the transaction 703 00:37:40,467 --> 00:37:42,010 for the transport. 704 00:37:42,093 --> 00:37:43,887 So, you're claiming you had... 705 00:37:44,971 --> 00:37:47,307 no part in the negotiation? 706 00:37:47,932 --> 00:37:48,975 [Eichmann] No. 707 00:37:50,101 --> 00:37:53,480 It was Himmler, Becker and Dr. Kasztner. 708 00:37:54,063 --> 00:37:56,524 The economic end wasn't my department. 709 00:37:57,150 --> 00:38:00,111 I was only interested in the police aspect. 710 00:38:00,904 --> 00:38:03,031 I made no deals for transport... 711 00:38:03,948 --> 00:38:05,742 no deals about anything. 712 00:38:06,785 --> 00:38:09,704 Hmm. So, you want me to believe 713 00:38:09,788 --> 00:38:11,414 that your department 714 00:38:12,332 --> 00:38:13,958 was so ignorant 715 00:38:14,918 --> 00:38:17,462 that it would tell the Foreign Office 716 00:38:17,545 --> 00:38:19,464 that the shipment of Jews 717 00:38:19,547 --> 00:38:21,382 was the product of... 718 00:38:22,342 --> 00:38:23,802 an oral agreement 719 00:38:23,885 --> 00:38:26,471 between Himmler and you? 720 00:38:28,264 --> 00:38:31,810 [Eichmann] Well, that information is half correct 721 00:38:31,893 --> 00:38:35,730 because I did meet with Himmler with Becker, 722 00:38:35,814 --> 00:38:38,942 but he also met with Himmler separately. 723 00:38:39,025 --> 00:38:41,736 We had two divisions of labor. 724 00:38:42,487 --> 00:38:44,447 One took care of certain things 725 00:38:44,531 --> 00:38:47,283 and one took care of certain other things. 726 00:38:48,409 --> 00:38:49,536 Becker, for instance, 727 00:38:50,203 --> 00:38:51,996 couldn't have transported the Jews 728 00:38:52,080 --> 00:38:53,873 across the border safely. 729 00:38:53,957 --> 00:38:56,626 That was in my province. 730 00:38:56,709 --> 00:38:59,003 And when did this, uh, conference 731 00:38:59,087 --> 00:39:00,713 with Himmler take place? 732 00:39:00,797 --> 00:39:02,173 1944. 733 00:39:02,715 --> 00:39:04,592 Late 1944. 734 00:39:07,053 --> 00:39:09,514 I remember Himmler 735 00:39:10,265 --> 00:39:13,268 had a train outside of a tunnel. 736 00:39:14,060 --> 00:39:17,397 And there was an air raid alarm. 737 00:39:18,314 --> 00:39:20,275 The train went into the tunnel. 738 00:39:22,652 --> 00:39:24,737 On the way there from Budapest, 739 00:39:24,821 --> 00:39:26,698 we went in two cars: 740 00:39:26,781 --> 00:39:29,409 Becker in Himmler's and I in mine. 741 00:39:29,993 --> 00:39:33,496 Earlier, Becker had shown me a gold necklace, 742 00:39:33,580 --> 00:39:36,291 which he'd meant to give him for his mistress, 743 00:39:36,374 --> 00:39:37,834 with whom he'd had a child. 744 00:39:39,460 --> 00:39:40,879 Then, 745 00:39:40,962 --> 00:39:45,049 he told me that he was optimistic 746 00:39:45,133 --> 00:39:46,801 about the outcome of the war. 747 00:39:49,762 --> 00:39:52,015 Yes. Yes, yes. 748 00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:54,225 Look, don't worry. I'm sure it's nothing. 749 00:39:56,102 --> 00:39:57,145 [scoffs] 750 00:39:57,896 --> 00:39:59,147 Has anything else been happening? 751 00:40:02,942 --> 00:40:03,943 Oh, that's great. 752 00:40:06,154 --> 00:40:08,489 Yes. Yes. I will come. I will come. 753 00:40:10,450 --> 00:40:12,911 No, no, no. I-- |- I promise, I won't wake him. 754 00:40:15,246 --> 00:40:16,831 Listen, tell him I'm proud of-- 755 00:40:31,346 --> 00:40:32,805 We're getting nowhere, Avner. 756 00:40:33,431 --> 00:40:36,935 He's not admitted to having more than an ancillary role 757 00:40:37,018 --> 00:40:38,728 in the Third Reich and the Final Solution. 758 00:40:38,811 --> 00:40:40,021 He's not stupid. 759 00:40:40,772 --> 00:40:43,524 His defense strategy follows Nuremberg to the letter. 760 00:40:43,608 --> 00:40:45,610 He distances himself from actions 761 00:40:45,693 --> 00:40:47,779 as far away as possible. 762 00:40:47,862 --> 00:40:51,449 And when I give him documentary proof, 763 00:40:51,532 --> 00:40:53,826 well, he starts blaming others-- 764 00:40:54,869 --> 00:40:57,789 Subordinates, superiors. Failing that, 765 00:40:57,872 --> 00:41:00,708 he just says, "I was following orders." 766 00:41:01,626 --> 00:41:02,961 [chuckles] 767 00:41:03,044 --> 00:41:04,337 Now, I don't know whether he's thinking 768 00:41:04,420 --> 00:41:05,838 he can save his own neck... 769 00:41:07,465 --> 00:41:08,967 but he's not doing a bad job. 770 00:41:10,051 --> 00:41:11,928 Eichmann is not going to tell us 771 00:41:12,011 --> 00:41:15,056 he had a decisive role in the Final Solution. 772 00:41:15,139 --> 00:41:17,475 And it seems you can't get him to confess it. 773 00:41:17,558 --> 00:41:18,768 I can. 774 00:41:18,851 --> 00:41:20,728 I just need more time. 775 00:41:22,271 --> 00:41:24,107 Eichmann trusts me in a way. 776 00:41:24,190 --> 00:41:27,110 I'm the closest thing that he has to a confidant, 777 00:41:27,193 --> 00:41:29,404 closest thing to a friend, 778 00:41:29,487 --> 00:41:31,155 at least someone who will listen. 779 00:41:31,239 --> 00:41:32,615 I can use that. 780 00:41:32,699 --> 00:41:33,950 We don't have all the time in the world 781 00:41:34,033 --> 00:41:35,660 for you two to bond. 782 00:41:35,743 --> 00:41:37,954 The whole of Israel is calling for his execution. 783 00:41:38,037 --> 00:41:39,247 We are not barbarians. 784 00:41:39,872 --> 00:41:43,334 He does deserve to die. Sooner is better than later. 785 00:41:43,418 --> 00:41:45,670 We are not Nazis. 786 00:41:45,753 --> 00:41:47,672 I'm getting pressure from the very top. 787 00:41:47,755 --> 00:41:50,174 If you don't get somewhere soon-- 788 00:41:50,258 --> 00:41:53,177 What? We're going to say he hanged himself in his cell? 789 00:41:53,261 --> 00:41:54,262 Who's going to believe that? 790 00:41:55,847 --> 00:41:59,100 If you repeat what I'm going to tell you now 791 00:41:59,183 --> 00:42:04,063 to anyone, ever, then you'll be charged with treason. 792 00:42:05,023 --> 00:42:08,317 If we can't get somewhere close to a confession, 793 00:42:08,401 --> 00:42:09,902 if after this process 794 00:42:09,986 --> 00:42:11,946 we're able to secure a conviction, 795 00:42:12,030 --> 00:42:14,949 then I have the authority to destroy the tapes. 796 00:42:15,033 --> 00:42:18,244 We'll say there was a fire or something along those lines. 797 00:42:18,327 --> 00:42:21,539 Uh, we-- we-- they will doctor the transcripts 798 00:42:21,622 --> 00:42:23,041 and make the transcribers swear 799 00:42:23,124 --> 00:42:25,209 that that's what they heard on the tapes. 800 00:42:25,293 --> 00:42:27,587 It may be only a few minor changes, 801 00:42:27,670 --> 00:42:29,922 a few words here and there that'll make the difference 802 00:42:30,006 --> 00:42:33,843 between Eichmann being convicted or acquitted. 803 00:42:33,926 --> 00:42:35,303 And the machine you're using, 804 00:42:35,386 --> 00:42:36,846 I believe, belongs to the Soviet. 805 00:42:36,929 --> 00:42:38,431 It shouldn't be too difficult 806 00:42:38,514 --> 00:42:40,808 to make people believe that it simply broke. 807 00:42:42,602 --> 00:42:43,770 Why am I being followed? 808 00:42:45,688 --> 00:42:48,232 Why are there strange cars outside my house? 809 00:42:50,109 --> 00:42:52,403 What does my wife tell me there are strange men 810 00:42:52,487 --> 00:42:54,155 when she picks the children up from school? 811 00:42:54,238 --> 00:42:55,239 Avner... 812 00:42:55,823 --> 00:42:57,033 Don't lie to me, Colonel. 813 00:42:58,117 --> 00:42:59,243 I know they're your men. 814 00:43:00,536 --> 00:43:02,163 It's just a precaution. 815 00:43:02,246 --> 00:43:03,956 We're getting death threats daily 816 00:43:04,040 --> 00:43:07,001 from lunatics, radical groups. 817 00:43:07,627 --> 00:43:10,046 It's just-- it's just a precaution. 818 00:43:10,129 --> 00:43:13,007 You're the one who didn't want 819 00:43:13,091 --> 00:43:16,010 this-- this investigation in the first place. 820 00:43:16,094 --> 00:43:17,386 Don't make things difficult. 821 00:43:18,805 --> 00:43:20,973 If Eichmann doesn't get a fair trial... 822 00:43:23,017 --> 00:43:24,727 we're turning our back on the past. 823 00:43:26,646 --> 00:43:28,147 Avner. 824 00:43:28,231 --> 00:43:30,233 If we don't get somewhere soon, 825 00:43:30,316 --> 00:43:32,360 you'll leave me no choice. 826 00:43:35,446 --> 00:43:36,906 [door slams shut] 827 00:43:38,574 --> 00:43:39,909 You've stated you... 828 00:43:40,743 --> 00:43:42,870 only act on orders. 829 00:43:46,207 --> 00:43:49,252 I'm going to show you some documents 830 00:43:50,545 --> 00:43:52,130 presented by the prosecution 831 00:43:52,213 --> 00:43:54,841 at the 11th War Crime Trials of Nuremberg. 832 00:43:57,343 --> 00:43:59,470 The first is a telegram... 833 00:44:02,265 --> 00:44:07,854 to the Foreign Office, dated March 13, 1943, 834 00:44:08,771 --> 00:44:10,731 dealing with the anti-Jewish measures 835 00:44:10,815 --> 00:44:12,733 planned by the Italian Foreign Ministry. 836 00:44:13,776 --> 00:44:15,403 Now, the second document, uh, 837 00:44:16,279 --> 00:44:19,615 is from Foreign Minister Ribbentrop, 838 00:44:19,699 --> 00:44:21,826 uh, asking your department 839 00:44:21,909 --> 00:44:25,496 to determine in consultation with Himmler 840 00:44:25,580 --> 00:44:28,166 whether the anti-Jewish measures decided 841 00:44:28,249 --> 00:44:32,044 in the Italian-occupied Greece 842 00:44:32,712 --> 00:44:33,713 were, um... 843 00:44:34,672 --> 00:44:35,673 adequate. 844 00:44:36,591 --> 00:44:38,718 And if so, whether these measures 845 00:44:38,801 --> 00:44:40,595 were actually being carried out. 846 00:44:42,513 --> 00:44:44,515 Now, here it claims 847 00:44:45,099 --> 00:44:49,020 you determined the anti-Jewish measures were inadequate. 848 00:44:49,854 --> 00:44:52,440 Because on the one hand they were identical 849 00:44:52,523 --> 00:44:57,528 with the likewise inadequate anti-Jewish measures 850 00:44:57,612 --> 00:44:58,696 current in Italy. 851 00:45:00,323 --> 00:45:02,533 And on the other hand, expertise, 852 00:45:02,617 --> 00:45:05,203 uh, or other experience, gave you ground for doubt 853 00:45:05,286 --> 00:45:09,790 that the measures were being honestly carried out. 854 00:45:11,417 --> 00:45:12,710 Well, yeah, 855 00:45:12,793 --> 00:45:15,087 I don't remember this particular case. 856 00:45:15,171 --> 00:45:18,007 I mean, it was a long time ago, you know? 857 00:45:18,549 --> 00:45:19,717 Another lifetime. 858 00:45:21,385 --> 00:45:23,846 Well, can it be inferred from this document 859 00:45:23,930 --> 00:45:25,723 that Ribbentrop gave instructions 860 00:45:25,806 --> 00:45:26,974 to consult your department 861 00:45:27,058 --> 00:45:29,227 so as to be sure... 862 00:45:30,519 --> 00:45:32,104 of proceeding... 863 00:45:33,564 --> 00:45:35,233 with your wishes and instructions? 864 00:45:37,026 --> 00:45:38,527 And I'm to take it 865 00:45:38,611 --> 00:45:40,446 that in fundamental questions of this kind, 866 00:45:40,529 --> 00:45:42,740 the Foreign Office couldn't make a decision 867 00:45:42,823 --> 00:45:46,744 without consulting your department. 868 00:45:47,495 --> 00:45:50,581 Well, I suppose my-- my department. 869 00:45:51,791 --> 00:45:55,461 I had to get my instructions from my superiors. 870 00:45:57,755 --> 00:46:02,176 Now, I'm going to show you another document 871 00:46:02,260 --> 00:46:03,928 presented by the prosecution 872 00:46:04,011 --> 00:46:07,098 at the 11th War Crime Trials in Nuremberg. 873 00:46:08,182 --> 00:46:12,603 Uh... it's a telegram, top secret, from Budapest, 874 00:46:12,687 --> 00:46:16,983 dated the 6th of July, 1944, 875 00:46:18,150 --> 00:46:19,986 It's a situation report 876 00:46:20,069 --> 00:46:22,947 sent directly by German minister in Budapest, 877 00:46:23,030 --> 00:46:24,573 Veesenmayer, 878 00:46:24,657 --> 00:46:26,784 to Foreign Minister Ribbentrop, 879 00:46:26,867 --> 00:46:29,161 regarding an interview with Hungarian Prime Minister, 880 00:46:30,121 --> 00:46:31,122 Sztojay. 881 00:46:32,498 --> 00:46:35,376 Now, Sztojay was upset about this order 882 00:46:35,459 --> 00:46:38,379 so he asked Veesenmayer for an interview. 883 00:46:39,505 --> 00:46:41,465 And in that interview, 884 00:46:42,174 --> 00:46:44,176 Sztojay spoke of difficulties 885 00:46:44,260 --> 00:46:45,803 that the handling of the Jewish Question 886 00:46:45,886 --> 00:46:48,180 was creating in Hungary. 887 00:46:49,181 --> 00:46:50,433 And now this report suggests 888 00:46:50,516 --> 00:46:52,184 that Hungarian auth-- authorities 889 00:46:52,810 --> 00:46:56,814 weren't the ones demanding deportation of the Jews. 890 00:46:57,732 --> 00:47:00,943 Yeah... The fact is, 891 00:47:01,944 --> 00:47:05,031 insofar as my own practice, 892 00:47:05,114 --> 00:47:09,493 that is, my own practical experience is concerned-- 893 00:47:10,161 --> 00:47:12,913 And I'm referring now to the lower echelons-- 894 00:47:15,583 --> 00:47:19,295 I couldn't help but observe the opposite. 895 00:47:21,297 --> 00:47:24,800 And I assure you, the whole course of events 896 00:47:24,884 --> 00:47:26,927 pointed in that direction. 897 00:47:28,054 --> 00:47:31,766 Without the help of the Hungarian military, 898 00:47:31,849 --> 00:47:35,686 the processing of Jews would not have been possible. 899 00:47:36,395 --> 00:47:40,649 And another indication is that I, at no time, 900 00:47:40,733 --> 00:47:44,320 attempted to influence the Hungarian government, 901 00:47:45,529 --> 00:47:48,324 as some people here are trying to suggest. 902 00:47:48,407 --> 00:47:49,658 On the contrary, 903 00:47:50,659 --> 00:47:53,412 this document clearly states 904 00:47:53,496 --> 00:47:56,248 that these things originated 905 00:47:56,332 --> 00:47:59,251 from the highest Reich authority, 906 00:48:00,169 --> 00:48:02,922 of which I played no part. 907 00:48:04,298 --> 00:48:07,259 But it clearly shows 908 00:48:07,843 --> 00:48:12,598 that the, uh, civilian Hungarian population 909 00:48:12,681 --> 00:48:17,395 were not, uh, enthusiastic about your anti-Jewish policy. 910 00:48:17,978 --> 00:48:22,942 Well, the interests of the Hungarian civilian population 911 00:48:23,025 --> 00:48:24,402 were none of my concern. 912 00:48:26,112 --> 00:48:28,197 That wasn't my job. 913 00:48:28,280 --> 00:48:29,448 My job, Captain, 914 00:48:29,532 --> 00:48:31,075 was to carry out the orders 915 00:48:31,158 --> 00:48:32,451 that were given to me. 916 00:48:32,535 --> 00:48:35,329 And these things were none of my concern. 917 00:48:36,580 --> 00:48:38,833 You can see here that... 918 00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:43,254 it clearly states that these were things 919 00:48:43,337 --> 00:48:47,883 that concerned the highest spheres of leadership. 920 00:48:49,927 --> 00:48:51,470 What did you do about the Jews 921 00:48:51,554 --> 00:48:54,306 who fled across the Hungarian borders 922 00:48:54,390 --> 00:48:56,016 to escape deportation? 923 00:48:56,100 --> 00:48:57,935 There must have been a lot of them. 924 00:48:58,811 --> 00:48:59,895 It depends. 925 00:49:00,521 --> 00:49:03,566 It-- it depended on the nature of the case 926 00:49:03,649 --> 00:49:05,484 and the nature of the terrain. 927 00:49:06,444 --> 00:49:09,488 No German headquarters were competent, 928 00:49:09,572 --> 00:49:12,158 because we had no personnel. 929 00:49:13,909 --> 00:49:18,247 The competent authority was the Hungarian military, 930 00:49:18,998 --> 00:49:21,709 who, among other things, 931 00:49:21,792 --> 00:49:25,254 did the same work as our border police. 932 00:49:26,088 --> 00:49:28,674 But weren't you, uh, interested 933 00:49:28,757 --> 00:49:31,760 in letting as few escape as possible, 934 00:49:31,844 --> 00:49:34,930 seeing that, uh, the aim was to deport 935 00:49:35,014 --> 00:49:37,266 as many as possible? 936 00:49:38,559 --> 00:49:40,186 According to my orders, yes. 937 00:49:41,353 --> 00:49:43,439 According to the orders that I had, 938 00:49:43,522 --> 00:49:45,649 of course it was within my interest 939 00:49:45,733 --> 00:49:48,235 that Jews residing in Hungary 940 00:49:48,319 --> 00:49:50,154 were to be deported 941 00:49:50,237 --> 00:49:52,990 and that they shouldn't all escape. 942 00:49:54,283 --> 00:49:56,327 In a formal sense, so to speak, 943 00:49:57,369 --> 00:49:58,662 I opposed it. 944 00:49:59,622 --> 00:50:00,789 But in practice, 945 00:50:01,874 --> 00:50:03,167 nothing was done. 946 00:50:05,377 --> 00:50:06,754 So, you're claiming 947 00:50:07,296 --> 00:50:10,841 that you allowed some Jews to escape 948 00:50:11,759 --> 00:50:13,093 and you did nothing 949 00:50:13,886 --> 00:50:14,929 to organize their capture? 950 00:50:16,805 --> 00:50:17,806 Yes. 951 00:50:18,390 --> 00:50:21,352 I did exactly as I was ordered to do. 952 00:50:21,894 --> 00:50:25,439 But beyond that, I was not an anti-Semite. 953 00:50:26,565 --> 00:50:28,734 I did nothing 954 00:50:28,817 --> 00:50:31,028 beyond the strict orders 955 00:50:31,111 --> 00:50:32,947 to deport Jews, 956 00:50:33,030 --> 00:50:35,991 as you can see by the large number 957 00:50:36,075 --> 00:50:37,743 who actually did escape. 958 00:50:39,411 --> 00:50:40,913 I'm going to show you 959 00:50:41,497 --> 00:50:44,500 some documents presented by the prosecution 960 00:50:44,583 --> 00:50:47,711 of the 11th War Crime Trials at Nuremberg. 961 00:50:48,629 --> 00:50:52,174 It's a telegram signed by Veesenmayer 962 00:50:52,258 --> 00:50:56,428 dated Budapest, June 14, 1944, 963 00:50:57,513 --> 00:51:01,141 And it concerns the flight of Jews to Slovakia. 964 00:51:02,059 --> 00:51:06,814 It's a telegram from Veesenmayer to Ribbentrop. 965 00:51:09,149 --> 00:51:12,278 It deals with the information 966 00:51:12,361 --> 00:51:14,947 that more and more Jews... 967 00:51:16,782 --> 00:51:20,369 residing in Hungary are crossing over to Slovakia. 968 00:51:21,120 --> 00:51:23,289 And a suggestion that if Ribbentrop agreed, 969 00:51:23,372 --> 00:51:26,083 Veesenmayer would meet with the German minister 970 00:51:26,166 --> 00:51:27,793 in Slovakia 971 00:51:27,876 --> 00:51:30,087 to work out joint practical measures. 972 00:51:30,879 --> 00:51:33,632 Since for political and military reasons, 973 00:51:33,716 --> 00:51:37,511 these escapes were most, uh, undesirable. 974 00:51:38,637 --> 00:51:42,016 Well, you see, it's as I said before: 975 00:51:42,099 --> 00:51:46,520 the border zones naturally tempted people to escape. 976 00:51:47,688 --> 00:51:49,773 The woods, the mountains. 977 00:51:50,524 --> 00:51:54,653 And undoubtedly, the initiator of this action 978 00:51:54,737 --> 00:51:56,739 was not me. 979 00:51:58,073 --> 00:52:01,952 It seems there was an uprising in East Slovakia. 980 00:52:02,036 --> 00:52:04,705 Yes. After reading this document, 981 00:52:04,788 --> 00:52:07,124 can you still maintain that the Hungarians 982 00:52:07,207 --> 00:52:08,626 were the driving force 983 00:52:08,709 --> 00:52:11,211 behind the extermination of Jews in Hungary? 984 00:52:13,047 --> 00:52:15,090 Captain, if in war time 985 00:52:15,758 --> 00:52:17,676 people try to escape, 986 00:52:17,760 --> 00:52:20,012 regardless of whether they're Jews, 987 00:52:20,095 --> 00:52:22,097 Hungarians, Germans-- 988 00:52:22,806 --> 00:52:24,016 Even Germans-- 989 00:52:24,683 --> 00:52:26,060 It stands to reason 990 00:52:26,143 --> 00:52:29,313 that steps must be taken to stop them. 991 00:52:31,732 --> 00:52:33,776 That was my position no-- then, 992 00:52:34,777 --> 00:52:36,779 and I cannot deny it today. 993 00:52:38,030 --> 00:52:41,116 When several Jews fled to Romania, 994 00:52:42,117 --> 00:52:45,287 did you not get in touch with, uh, von Killinger, 995 00:52:45,371 --> 00:52:47,164 the German minister in Bucharest, 996 00:52:47,998 --> 00:52:50,376 and demand that these escaped 997 00:52:51,001 --> 00:52:54,254 be brought back at all costs? 998 00:52:55,589 --> 00:52:58,842 At all costs? At all costs? 999 00:53:00,511 --> 00:53:02,388 In the first place, that-- 1000 00:53:04,264 --> 00:53:07,851 I could never had said those words. 1001 00:53:09,812 --> 00:53:13,440 It is possible that my associate, Krumi, 1002 00:53:14,024 --> 00:53:18,320 had drafted a-- a-- a formal warrant. 1003 00:53:19,488 --> 00:53:21,573 But at all costs? 1004 00:53:22,991 --> 00:53:25,828 Certainly no one said that 1005 00:53:25,911 --> 00:53:27,454 or anything like that. 1006 00:53:28,997 --> 00:53:31,041 Your guidelines for the shipment. 1007 00:53:33,752 --> 00:53:37,214 They include the order, "In cases of attempted escape, 1008 00:53:37,297 --> 00:53:40,300 firearms are to be used." 1009 00:53:41,343 --> 00:53:43,262 [Eichmann] No, I-- I've never heard of that. 1010 00:53:44,304 --> 00:53:45,305 In Hungary... 1011 00:53:47,057 --> 00:53:49,685 firearms definitely weren't the practice. 1012 00:53:50,686 --> 00:53:51,687 In Hungary, 1013 00:53:52,604 --> 00:53:56,275 I am absolutely sure that weapons were never used 1014 00:53:56,358 --> 00:53:59,319 in cases of attempted escape. 1015 00:54:00,821 --> 00:54:01,905 No. 1016 00:54:01,989 --> 00:54:03,198 I don't believe that. 1017 00:54:03,949 --> 00:54:05,033 I don't believe it. 1018 00:54:08,412 --> 00:54:11,206 In an isolated case or two, 1019 00:54:11,290 --> 00:54:14,793 it may have somehow come to that, 1020 00:54:14,877 --> 00:54:16,420 but I can't imagine it. 1021 00:54:17,296 --> 00:54:19,173 It would not have been necessary. 1022 00:54:20,257 --> 00:54:23,927 Had you told the Hungarian undersecretary 1023 00:54:24,011 --> 00:54:27,139 that the half million Jews deported 1024 00:54:28,265 --> 00:54:31,769 were sent to Auschwitz to be gassed? 1025 00:54:31,852 --> 00:54:33,020 [Eichmann] We-- Yes, I... 1026 00:54:34,062 --> 00:54:35,898 I personally believed, 1027 00:54:35,981 --> 00:54:37,816 and I still believe, 1028 00:54:37,900 --> 00:54:42,196 that the majority of the 450,000 Jews 1029 00:54:42,279 --> 00:54:45,699 who were sent to Auschwitz survived. 1030 00:54:47,785 --> 00:54:51,079 Because an order came through 1031 00:54:51,163 --> 00:54:53,123 almost immediately, as it were, 1032 00:54:54,583 --> 00:54:56,251 to stop the shipments. 1033 00:54:57,920 --> 00:54:58,921 From Himmler? 1034 00:54:59,588 --> 00:55:00,631 [Eichmann] Yes. 1035 00:55:02,883 --> 00:55:06,428 The-- the commander of the security police in Budapest 1036 00:55:06,512 --> 00:55:10,641 received a-- a suspension order. 1037 00:55:12,100 --> 00:55:16,104 There was not to be any more deportations. 1038 00:55:18,023 --> 00:55:21,401 Because Auschwitz had no more room. 1039 00:55:22,236 --> 00:55:25,113 That's why Himmler sent orders 1040 00:55:25,823 --> 00:55:27,241 for the killings to stop. 1041 00:55:28,283 --> 00:55:29,868 Auschwitz was full. 1042 00:55:29,952 --> 00:55:32,120 There was no room for any more people. 1043 00:55:33,872 --> 00:55:37,292 I believe there was a week's pause. 1044 00:55:39,086 --> 00:55:40,587 You mean it started up again? 1045 00:55:42,047 --> 00:55:44,174 It started up again after that? 1046 00:55:44,258 --> 00:55:45,259 Yes. 1047 00:55:47,344 --> 00:55:50,430 What is the meaning of, "Termination 1048 00:55:50,514 --> 00:55:54,017 of the entire action, including deportation,” 1049 00:55:54,101 --> 00:55:57,145 as your liaison in the Foreign Office writes here? 1050 00:55:58,313 --> 00:56:01,149 Well, Captain, it-- it means 1051 00:56:01,233 --> 00:56:04,486 total elimination of the Jews in Hungary. 1052 00:56:07,364 --> 00:56:09,449 Including babies, 1053 00:56:10,534 --> 00:56:11,493 children, 1054 00:56:12,244 --> 00:56:13,245 old people? 1055 00:56:14,746 --> 00:56:16,456 Well, in this case, yes. 1056 00:56:17,249 --> 00:56:19,334 But that wasn't my department. 1057 00:56:20,544 --> 00:56:22,379 This is the work 1058 00:56:22,462 --> 00:56:25,299 of the combined top brass: 1059 00:56:25,966 --> 00:56:28,677 Foreign Minister Ribbentrop 1060 00:56:28,760 --> 00:56:30,804 and Reichsfuhrer Himmler. 1061 00:56:36,727 --> 00:56:38,395 Excuse me, Captain Less. 1062 00:56:42,399 --> 00:56:45,360 Herr Eichmann has an appointment with the judge. 1063 00:56:49,281 --> 00:56:50,282 Oh-- 1064 00:56:51,158 --> 00:56:52,159 [stammers] 1065 00:56:57,039 --> 00:56:58,665 No. Captain, please! 1066 00:56:59,291 --> 00:57:01,501 I-- I haven't told you everything yet. 1067 00:57:01,585 --> 00:57:02,836 Don't take me away. Please! 1068 00:57:02,920 --> 00:57:03,962 Stop. 1069 00:57:04,922 --> 00:57:06,465 Don't worry. 1070 00:57:06,548 --> 00:57:09,468 You're being taken to the justice of the peace 1071 00:57:09,551 --> 00:57:12,304 who is going to renew your order for detention. 1072 00:57:13,180 --> 00:57:15,349 And then we'll continue our sessions. 1073 00:57:19,895 --> 00:57:21,605 [breathing shakily] 1074 00:57:37,496 --> 00:57:38,497 Captain. 1075 00:57:39,373 --> 00:57:42,626 May I make some personal remarks? 1076 00:57:44,544 --> 00:57:47,381 I have long been inwardly prepared 1077 00:57:47,923 --> 00:57:51,301 to make a general statement of this sort, 1078 00:57:51,385 --> 00:57:55,973 but I did not know where fate would call on me to make it. 1079 00:57:56,640 --> 00:57:58,266 Someone told me that... 1080 00:57:59,559 --> 00:58:02,062 I would appear in court before the year was out. 1081 00:58:03,689 --> 00:58:05,023 I was also told 1082 00:58:05,107 --> 00:58:08,485 that I would not survive my 56th birthday. 1083 00:58:11,029 --> 00:58:13,824 One of those prophecies has already come true. 1084 00:58:13,907 --> 00:58:14,908 And the other... 1085 00:58:15,784 --> 00:58:16,785 I believe... 1086 00:58:17,828 --> 00:58:18,829 is inexorable. 1087 00:58:22,541 --> 00:58:27,170 All my life, I have been accustomed to obedience, 1088 00:58:27,254 --> 00:58:32,217 from early childhood until May 8th, 1945. 1089 00:58:33,468 --> 00:58:36,430 An obedience, which during my years 1090 00:58:36,513 --> 00:58:38,306 of membership with the SS, 1091 00:58:39,016 --> 00:58:41,685 became blind and unconditional. 1092 00:58:43,437 --> 00:58:44,479 For that... 1093 00:58:45,772 --> 00:58:49,401 what would I have gained by disobedience, 1094 00:58:49,484 --> 00:58:50,902 and who would it have served? 1095 00:58:52,487 --> 00:58:56,366 For that, my rank and function 1096 00:58:56,450 --> 00:58:59,369 placed me in a-- too far a lower position. 1097 00:59:01,872 --> 00:59:02,873 Nevertheless, 1098 00:59:04,082 --> 00:59:06,710 though I have no blood on my hands... 1099 00:59:08,712 --> 00:59:11,882 I fully expect that the death penalty awaits me. 1100 00:59:14,968 --> 00:59:18,889 If as a greater act of atonement... 1101 00:59:21,808 --> 00:59:25,270 I am prepared as an example 1102 00:59:25,353 --> 00:59:28,231 and a deterrent to other anti-Semites of the world... 1103 00:59:30,358 --> 00:59:32,235 to hang myself in public. 1104 00:59:36,823 --> 00:59:39,868 We have no recourse. We must alter the records. 1105 00:59:39,951 --> 00:59:41,161 No. 1106 00:59:42,287 --> 00:59:43,413 Why? 1107 00:59:44,081 --> 00:59:46,124 Why-- why are you so insistent 1108 00:59:46,208 --> 00:59:48,043 in showing justice to a man 1109 00:59:48,126 --> 00:59:51,922 who showed no justice whatsoever to six million souls, 1110 00:59:52,005 --> 00:59:55,467 who me-- at the very least, aided in slaughtering? 1111 00:59:56,009 --> 00:59:59,429 He doesn't deserve it, but he needs a fair trial. 1112 00:59:59,971 --> 01:00:02,808 The world needs to see we are different. 1113 01:00:04,101 --> 01:00:06,853 It's been 15 years and some of the world has forgotten. 1114 01:00:06,937 --> 01:00:08,688 But we cannot. 1115 01:00:09,314 --> 01:00:10,941 If we do not learn from the past, 1116 01:00:11,525 --> 01:00:13,443 we are fated to repeat it. 1117 01:00:13,527 --> 01:00:14,820 I'd agree with you 1118 01:00:14,903 --> 01:00:16,279 if this was a perfect world, 1119 01:00:16,363 --> 01:00:18,240 but it isn't a perfect world. 1120 01:00:18,323 --> 01:00:20,117 And sometimes we are forced 1121 01:00:20,200 --> 01:00:21,910 to do unpleasant things 1122 01:00:21,993 --> 01:00:23,203 for the greater good. 1123 01:00:23,286 --> 01:00:24,996 Have you not read the transcripts? 1124 01:00:26,039 --> 01:00:27,541 This is how it starts. 1125 01:00:28,375 --> 01:00:30,919 Hitler didn't begin by gassing the Jews. 1126 01:00:32,754 --> 01:00:36,216 Captain Less, I'm ordering you to fabricate the transcripts. 1127 01:00:38,051 --> 01:00:39,261 You're ordering me? 1128 01:00:42,139 --> 01:00:43,181 No. 1129 01:00:44,474 --> 01:00:45,517 I refuse. 1130 01:00:46,143 --> 01:00:47,519 Excuse me? 1131 01:00:47,602 --> 01:00:50,397 If you continue to pursue this plan... 1132 01:00:51,481 --> 01:00:53,150 I will go to the press. 1133 01:00:54,818 --> 01:00:58,488 Look, if you don't care about your own life, 1134 01:00:58,572 --> 01:01:00,282 think about your family. 1135 01:01:00,365 --> 01:01:01,741 No! 1136 01:01:01,825 --> 01:01:04,661 I will not blindly follow orders, like him. 1137 01:01:05,829 --> 01:01:07,706 I will go to the press. 1138 01:01:07,789 --> 01:01:10,584 A-- Avner, if Eichmann is acquitted, 1139 01:01:11,710 --> 01:01:13,295 it'll be on your head. 1140 01:01:19,593 --> 01:01:21,803 [birds chirping] 1141 01:01:21,887 --> 01:01:24,723 [traffic din] 1142 01:01:47,704 --> 01:01:49,122 [Eichmann] I must commend you, Captain. 1143 01:01:49,915 --> 01:01:52,250 I'm well aware that throughout our sessions 1144 01:01:52,334 --> 01:01:56,922 you have not once attempted to obtain a confession 1145 01:01:57,005 --> 01:02:00,175 through means of a threat or promises. 1146 01:02:01,426 --> 01:02:03,178 I am grateful for your fairness. 1147 01:02:09,351 --> 01:02:11,436 We're nearly at the end of our interviews. 1148 01:02:12,646 --> 01:02:13,855 I'd like to show you something. 1149 01:02:19,069 --> 01:02:20,320 Play the picture, please. 1150 01:02:23,406 --> 01:02:25,992 [reel clicking] 1151 01:03:11,037 --> 01:03:14,165 [clicking continues] 1152 01:04:05,967 --> 01:04:09,054 [haunting piano music] 1153 01:04:30,742 --> 01:04:37,332 ♪ 1154 01:04:42,337 --> 01:04:44,214 Captain! Why are you showing me this? 1155 01:04:45,840 --> 01:04:51,930 ♪ 1156 01:05:12,242 --> 01:05:18,998 ♪ 1157 01:05:41,229 --> 01:05:48,194 ♪ 1158 01:05:55,743 --> 01:05:57,036 Enough, Captain. 1159 01:05:57,704 --> 01:05:59,622 You know I don't have the stomach for this. 1160 01:06:01,249 --> 01:06:07,547 ♪ 1161 01:06:32,530 --> 01:06:38,745 ♪ 1162 01:06:58,556 --> 01:07:05,188 ♪ 1163 01:07:27,710 --> 01:07:32,757 ♪ 1164 01:07:32,840 --> 01:07:37,053 [reel clicking] 1165 01:07:44,894 --> 01:07:45,895 Turn it off. 1166 01:07:46,479 --> 01:07:48,064 Please, Captain. Turn it off! 1167 01:07:48,147 --> 01:07:51,234 [clicking continues] 1168 01:07:55,572 --> 01:07:57,115 [clicking stops] 1169 01:07:59,284 --> 01:08:01,744 I was born in Germany. 1170 01:08:02,996 --> 01:08:04,747 I went to school in Germany. 1171 01:08:05,790 --> 01:08:07,875 I grew up in Germany. 1172 01:08:08,793 --> 01:08:11,004 I left when Hitler seized power. 1173 01:08:12,880 --> 01:08:14,299 You asked me when we first met, 1174 01:08:14,382 --> 01:08:15,550 "Were my parents still alive?" 1175 01:08:17,552 --> 01:08:19,137 My father was deported 1176 01:08:19,220 --> 01:08:21,055 by your organization 1177 01:08:21,806 --> 01:08:23,683 in January 1943. 1178 01:08:24,976 --> 01:08:28,146 It's horrible, Captain. It's horrible. 1179 01:08:33,693 --> 01:08:36,779 [receiver buttons clacking] 1180 01:09:11,105 --> 01:09:12,273 [sighs] 1181 01:09:14,651 --> 01:09:18,529 I'd like to read to you a few passages 1182 01:09:18,613 --> 01:09:20,740 from the German magazine, Stern. 1183 01:09:21,783 --> 01:09:24,827 The issue of July 9, 1960, 1184 01:09:24,911 --> 01:09:27,038 contains an article about you. 1185 01:09:27,789 --> 01:09:29,082 I'll read you only a few bits. 1186 01:09:30,124 --> 01:09:32,919 Here it says, "And so he writes"-- 1187 01:09:33,002 --> 01:09:34,087 meaning you-- 1188 01:09:34,796 --> 01:09:39,509 "On title page of Dr. Fritz Kahn's book, The Atom, 1189 01:09:40,218 --> 01:09:42,512 'I mentally digested this book 1190 01:09:42,595 --> 01:09:45,264 and found it to be a magnificent confirmation 1191 01:09:45,348 --> 01:09:49,477 of the National Socialist religion and theism. 1192 01:09:51,104 --> 01:09:53,815 And because this faith is remotely related 1193 01:09:53,898 --> 01:09:55,650 to the communist doctrine, 1194 01:09:55,733 --> 01:09:58,319 that is to Leninist materialism, 1195 01:09:58,403 --> 01:10:01,656 I warn my children not to lump them all together. 1196 01:10:02,615 --> 01:10:06,536 Leninist-Marxist doctrine teaches materialism. 1197 01:10:07,245 --> 01:10:09,455 It is cold and lifeless. 1198 01:10:10,373 --> 01:10:12,458 Theism, on the other hand, 1199 01:10:12,542 --> 01:10:16,212 is loving, natural and always alive. 1200 01:10:17,088 --> 01:10:18,840 But unfortunately, 1201 01:10:18,923 --> 01:10:22,552 I fear that considering the ignorance of my three sons, 1202 01:10:22,635 --> 01:10:26,472 all this will be no more than empty talk to them. 1203 01:10:28,516 --> 01:10:30,685 My house was searched. 1204 01:10:31,686 --> 01:10:34,063 Yes, I wrote that thing, 1205 01:10:34,147 --> 01:10:35,773 because my sons 1206 01:10:36,399 --> 01:10:39,819 were absolutely disinterested 1207 01:10:39,902 --> 01:10:42,363 in their-- their-- 1208 01:10:42,447 --> 01:10:46,826 let's say s-- uh, uh, faculties for spiritual development. 1209 01:10:47,910 --> 01:10:49,996 I wrote that as a warning to them. 1210 01:10:50,079 --> 01:10:51,372 I love my children! 1211 01:10:54,208 --> 01:10:56,502 The article goes on to say, 1212 01:10:57,503 --> 01:10:59,380 "He told them the excuse 1213 01:10:59,464 --> 01:11:02,341 or justification he had prepared for himself. 1214 01:11:02,884 --> 01:11:05,219 He said their father was wanted, 1215 01:11:05,303 --> 01:11:08,222 that he was accused of hideous crimes. 1216 01:11:08,306 --> 01:11:09,515 But it was not true. 1217 01:11:10,391 --> 01:11:13,227 He had only been a conscientious official 1218 01:11:13,311 --> 01:11:16,022 who had done what he was ordered to do, 1219 01:11:16,689 --> 01:11:18,316 but never killed anyone"-- 1220 01:11:18,399 --> 01:11:20,526 And that is the truth! 1221 01:11:22,779 --> 01:11:27,450 It continues, "With friends, he admits who he is, 1222 01:11:27,533 --> 01:11:30,328 engages in endless conversations, 1223 01:11:30,411 --> 01:11:32,914 reads everything that has been published 1224 01:11:32,997 --> 01:11:36,209 since the war about his field of activity, 1225 01:11:36,292 --> 01:11:37,877 the Jewish Question. 1226 01:11:38,878 --> 01:11:42,298 He clings desperately to the one remaining justification 1227 01:11:42,381 --> 01:11:43,424 for his actions: 1228 01:11:44,383 --> 01:11:47,678 his oath to the flag, his sense of duty... 1229 01:11:48,763 --> 01:11:50,348 and obedience. 1230 01:11:52,391 --> 01:11:55,061 And everyone who in the last hours 1231 01:11:55,144 --> 01:11:56,729 of the thousand-year Reich 1232 01:11:56,813 --> 01:12:00,149 put human feeling about unconditional obedience 1233 01:12:00,233 --> 01:12:04,570 is the object of Eichmann's irreconcilable hatred. 1234 01:12:06,030 --> 01:12:08,741 He has read Gerhard Boldt's book, 1235 01:12:08,825 --> 01:12:11,494 The Last Days of the Reich Chancellery, 1236 01:12:11,577 --> 01:12:15,039 and discovered that Boldt, the author, 1237 01:12:15,122 --> 01:12:19,085 was not obedient to his Fuhrer down to the last comma. 1238 01:12:20,336 --> 01:12:23,923 The description on the dust jacket begins with the words, 1239 01:12:24,006 --> 01:12:28,845 'In January 1945, a young front line officer...' 1240 01:12:30,346 --> 01:12:32,807 Eichmann crosses out 'front line officer' 1241 01:12:32,890 --> 01:12:35,226 and writes in 'scoundrel... 1242 01:12:36,185 --> 01:12:37,186 traitor... 1243 01:12:38,062 --> 01:12:39,063 skunk.' 1244 01:12:40,439 --> 01:12:42,650 Wherever Boldt's name appears in the book, 1245 01:12:42,733 --> 01:12:44,944 he adds, 'scoundrel... 1246 01:12:45,736 --> 01:12:46,737 traitor... 1247 01:12:47,321 --> 01:12:48,406 skunk." 1248 01:12:51,033 --> 01:12:52,994 [sighs] 1249 01:12:53,077 --> 01:12:54,829 "Where Boldt said, 1250 01:12:54,912 --> 01:12:57,707 'The last days of the National Socialist Reich, 1251 01:12:58,249 --> 01:13:00,001 high SS leaders 1252 01:13:00,084 --> 01:13:03,754 who had been haughty and arrogant up until then, 1253 01:13:03,838 --> 01:13:05,506 suddenly shriveled 1254 01:13:05,590 --> 01:13:08,885 and appealed for sympathy to anyone who would listen,' 1255 01:13:10,344 --> 01:13:12,722 Eichmann makes the marginal note, 1256 01:13:13,764 --> 01:13:17,310 'The author is a stupid asshole. 1257 01:13:19,979 --> 01:13:22,440 The swine's name is Boldt.' 1258 01:13:23,316 --> 01:13:25,902 In another passage, Eichmann writes, 1259 01:13:25,985 --> 01:13:29,155 'The author should be skinned alive for his treachery. 1260 01:13:30,197 --> 01:13:34,243 With scoundrels of his ilk, the war was bound to be lost.' 1261 01:13:35,870 --> 01:13:38,623 And finally, on the last pages of the book, 1262 01:13:38,706 --> 01:13:40,249 Eichmann's resume': 1263 01:13:40,917 --> 01:13:44,962 'One, every man is entitled to live as he pleases. 1264 01:13:45,671 --> 01:13:49,967 Two, but then he has no right to call himself an officer. 1265 01:13:50,968 --> 01:13:56,474 Because three, officer equals fulfillment of duty 1266 01:13:56,557 --> 01:13:59,352 as specified in the soldier's oath.' 1267 01:14:01,562 --> 01:14:02,730 There we have it again. 1268 01:14:04,106 --> 01:14:06,359 Fulfillment of duty, 1269 01:14:06,984 --> 01:14:09,320 that straw which he clings to 1270 01:14:09,403 --> 01:14:11,948 and in defense of which he develops a passion 1271 01:14:12,031 --> 01:14:13,574 and a vocabulary 1272 01:14:13,658 --> 01:14:15,409 he was not yet familiar with 1273 01:14:15,493 --> 01:14:17,620 in the days when he was coldly 1274 01:14:17,703 --> 01:14:19,497 and with murderous precision, 1275 01:14:19,580 --> 01:14:23,709 helping to solve the Jewish Question." 1276 01:14:26,087 --> 01:14:28,214 Did you make such notes? 1277 01:14:30,299 --> 01:14:34,178 I-- I did make those notes. 1278 01:14:35,096 --> 01:14:38,140 But it is disgusting-- disgusting-- 1279 01:14:38,224 --> 01:14:43,479 Of the man to speak of a-- a straw 1280 01:14:43,562 --> 01:14:46,607 with which I was not yet familiar at the time. 1281 01:14:47,900 --> 01:14:49,860 I was always familiar with it. 1282 01:14:50,611 --> 01:14:52,238 In fact, it was my norm. 1283 01:14:54,991 --> 01:14:56,993 I had taken Kant's... 1284 01:14:57,952 --> 01:15:02,206 categorical imperative as my norm. 1285 01:15:02,289 --> 01:15:04,458 I did. Long ago. 1286 01:15:05,084 --> 01:15:09,380 I had ordered my life by that imperative 1287 01:15:09,463 --> 01:15:13,426 and I had to continue to use it in my sermons to my sons 1288 01:15:13,968 --> 01:15:17,805 when I realized that they were letting themselves go. 1289 01:15:18,639 --> 01:15:21,058 I loved my sons more than anything. 1290 01:15:21,767 --> 01:15:24,854 But in view of their laziness, 1291 01:15:24,937 --> 01:15:28,691 their disinterest in their education, 1292 01:15:29,650 --> 01:15:32,611 I tried to use strong words. 1293 01:15:34,071 --> 01:15:35,740 [sighs] 1294 01:15:37,158 --> 01:15:39,201 Sometimes when I was reading a book, 1295 01:15:39,285 --> 01:15:43,039 I would be seized by righteous indignation. 1296 01:15:44,040 --> 01:15:46,375 And I would take up a pencil 1297 01:15:46,459 --> 01:15:49,045 and write what seemed significant to me 1298 01:15:49,128 --> 01:15:50,296 at that moment. 1299 01:15:54,216 --> 01:15:57,053 The Stern article goes on. 1300 01:15:58,095 --> 01:15:59,513 "Friends and acquaintances 1301 01:15:59,597 --> 01:16:02,433 who spoke with him in Argentina at that time 1302 01:16:02,516 --> 01:16:05,811 described him as a man who had gone to pieces, 1303 01:16:05,895 --> 01:16:08,898 who recognized his unspeakable guilt, 1304 01:16:08,981 --> 01:16:11,776 but who instead of confessing it to himself, 1305 01:16:12,610 --> 01:16:17,615 cast about with an obstinate rage for formal justification 1306 01:16:17,698 --> 01:16:21,660 to avoid having to condemn himself." 1307 01:16:21,744 --> 01:16:22,912 That's not true. 1308 01:16:23,537 --> 01:16:26,582 That-- that's journalistic rubbish. 1309 01:16:27,374 --> 01:16:28,709 And now this: 1310 01:16:29,251 --> 01:16:30,669 "Eichmann's conscience. 1311 01:16:30,753 --> 01:16:33,297 'I'm getting sick and tired,' he writes, 1312 01:16:33,380 --> 01:16:34,799 'of living the life 1313 01:16:34,882 --> 01:16:38,177 of an anonymous wanderer between two worlds. 1314 01:16:38,719 --> 01:16:41,764 The voice of my heart, which no man can escape, 1315 01:16:41,847 --> 01:16:45,893 has always whispered to me to look for peace. 1316 01:16:47,311 --> 01:16:51,107 I would also like to be at peace with my former enemies. 1317 01:16:51,190 --> 01:16:55,194 Maybe that is a part of the German character. 1318 01:16:57,905 --> 01:17:00,199 I would be only too glad to surrender 1319 01:17:00,282 --> 01:17:02,326 to the German authorities 1320 01:17:02,409 --> 01:17:04,495 if I were not obliged to consider 1321 01:17:04,578 --> 01:17:06,413 that people may still be too much interested 1322 01:17:06,497 --> 01:17:08,916 in the political aspect of the matter 1323 01:17:08,999 --> 01:17:13,629 to permit of a clear, objective outcome. 1324 01:17:15,548 --> 01:17:17,174 Far be it for me to doubt 1325 01:17:17,258 --> 01:17:18,801 that a German court 1326 01:17:18,884 --> 01:17:21,720 would arrive at a just verdict. 1327 01:17:22,429 --> 01:17:25,683 But I am not at all clear about the judicial status 1328 01:17:26,392 --> 01:17:28,018 that would be accorded today 1329 01:17:28,102 --> 01:17:30,437 to a former receiver of orders 1330 01:17:30,521 --> 01:17:34,191 whose duty it was to be loyal to his oath 1331 01:17:34,733 --> 01:17:37,486 and to carry out the orders and instructions given him. 1332 01:17:39,280 --> 01:17:41,031 I was no more 1333 01:17:41,115 --> 01:17:43,367 than a faithful, decent, 1334 01:17:44,160 --> 01:17:47,121 correct, conscientious 1335 01:17:47,204 --> 01:17:51,208 and enthusiastic member of the SS 1336 01:17:51,292 --> 01:17:54,170 and of Reich Security Headquarters, 1337 01:17:55,087 --> 01:17:58,924 inspired solely by idealistic feelings 1338 01:17:59,008 --> 01:18:02,344 toward the fatherland, to which I have the honor of belonging. 1339 01:18:04,138 --> 01:18:06,891 Despite conscientious self-examination, 1340 01:18:07,600 --> 01:18:10,477 I must-- I must find in my favor 1341 01:18:10,561 --> 01:18:12,646 that I was neither a murderer 1342 01:18:13,772 --> 01:18:15,900 nor a mass murderer. 1343 01:18:17,484 --> 01:18:20,154 But to be absolutely truthful, 1344 01:18:20,237 --> 01:18:23,699 I must accuse myself of complicity in killing 1345 01:18:23,782 --> 01:18:27,328 because I passed on the deportation orders I received 1346 01:18:27,411 --> 01:18:31,707 and because at least a fraction of the deportees were killed, 1347 01:18:31,790 --> 01:18:33,584 though by an entirely different unit. 1348 01:18:34,501 --> 01:18:37,880 I have said that I would have to accuse myself 1349 01:18:37,963 --> 01:18:40,341 of complicity in killing if... 1350 01:18:41,508 --> 01:18:44,136 I were to judge myself with merciless severity. 1351 01:18:44,220 --> 01:18:46,555 But I do not yet see clearly 1352 01:18:46,639 --> 01:18:48,641 whether I have the right to do this 1353 01:18:48,724 --> 01:18:51,310 vis-a-vis my immediate subordinates. 1354 01:18:52,102 --> 01:18:55,314 Therefore, I am still engaged in an inner struggle. 1355 01:18:56,190 --> 01:18:58,817 My subjective attitude towards the things that happened 1356 01:18:58,901 --> 01:19:01,654 was my belief in the necessity of a total war. 1357 01:19:02,363 --> 01:19:04,365 Because I could not help believing 1358 01:19:04,448 --> 01:19:07,743 in the constant proclamations issued by the leaders 1359 01:19:07,826 --> 01:19:09,995 of the then German Reich, such as, 1360 01:19:10,079 --> 01:19:12,289 "Victory in this total war 1361 01:19:12,373 --> 01:19:14,416 or the German nation will perish." 1362 01:19:15,793 --> 01:19:17,169 On the strength of that attitude, 1363 01:19:17,253 --> 01:19:19,755 I did my commander duty 1364 01:19:20,756 --> 01:19:22,258 with a clear conscience 1365 01:19:23,342 --> 01:19:25,177 and a faithful heart." 1366 01:19:25,261 --> 01:19:26,470 Exactly! 1367 01:19:27,846 --> 01:19:28,847 Hmm. 1368 01:19:29,556 --> 01:19:32,017 Did you write these things or... 1369 01:19:32,101 --> 01:19:35,271 I don't remember where, but the words are mine. 1370 01:19:35,980 --> 01:19:37,273 So, this part is true? 1371 01:19:37,356 --> 01:19:39,775 Yes, I recognize the words. 1372 01:19:39,858 --> 01:19:43,320 I'd like to read again from Rudolph Hoss' memories. 1373 01:19:43,404 --> 01:19:46,407 Oh, Captain, please. Hoss, again? 1374 01:19:46,949 --> 01:19:49,201 "I was acquainted with Eichmann 1375 01:19:49,285 --> 01:19:51,120 after I received orders 1376 01:19:51,787 --> 01:19:54,707 for the extermination of Jews 1377 01:19:54,790 --> 01:19:57,293 from Reichsfuhrer Himmler. 1378 01:19:58,794 --> 01:20:00,754 He came to see me in Auschwitz 1379 01:20:00,838 --> 01:20:04,049 to discuss the details of the extermination process. 1380 01:20:04,717 --> 01:20:08,220 Eichmann was a lively, active man in his thirties, 1381 01:20:08,304 --> 01:20:09,888 always bursting with energy. 1382 01:20:10,681 --> 01:20:12,683 He was always hatching new plans 1383 01:20:12,766 --> 01:20:15,853 and always in search of innovations and improvement. 1384 01:20:18,147 --> 01:20:19,231 He could never rest. 1385 01:20:20,149 --> 01:20:22,318 He was obsessed with the Jewish Question 1386 01:20:22,401 --> 01:20:26,947 and regularly gave Himmler direct oral reports 1387 01:20:27,031 --> 01:20:29,366 about the preparation and implementation 1388 01:20:29,450 --> 01:20:30,826 of the various actions. 1389 01:20:31,785 --> 01:20:34,705 Eichmann was obsessed with the goal 1390 01:20:34,788 --> 01:20:36,707 of destroying the biological foundation 1391 01:20:36,790 --> 01:20:38,667 of the Jew in the East. 1392 01:20:39,543 --> 01:20:41,795 When discussing the extermination process, 1393 01:20:41,879 --> 01:20:44,089 he encouraged the use of gas, 1394 01:20:44,882 --> 01:20:48,886 because to expect SS men to shoot women and children 1395 01:20:50,012 --> 01:20:53,265 would turn them into sadists." 1396 01:20:54,600 --> 01:20:58,187 I don't know why you are bringing Hoss up again. 1397 01:20:58,270 --> 01:21:02,066 As I said before, Captain, the man is a liar. 1398 01:21:03,108 --> 01:21:06,445 There are other people who have made similar statements 1399 01:21:06,528 --> 01:21:08,405 about you, Herr Eichmann. 1400 01:21:09,656 --> 01:21:12,618 The men on trial in Nuremberg 1401 01:21:12,701 --> 01:21:16,038 had no means of getting together to say, 1402 01:21:16,121 --> 01:21:19,166 "Let's get together to save our skins 1403 01:21:19,249 --> 01:21:21,251 and testify against Eichmann." 1404 01:21:22,753 --> 01:21:25,672 Every one of those men 1405 01:21:26,632 --> 01:21:28,175 knew what was in store for them. 1406 01:21:29,635 --> 01:21:33,389 What Hoss said was untrue. Totally untrue! 1407 01:21:34,556 --> 01:21:37,142 I never killed any Jews. 1408 01:21:38,310 --> 01:21:41,855 I am guilty of assisting with the evacuation of Jews, 1409 01:21:41,939 --> 01:21:44,858 under which I was under orders. 1410 01:21:46,568 --> 01:21:48,320 That's what gives me peace of mind. 1411 01:21:48,404 --> 01:21:50,989 Uh, an inner tranquilizer. 1412 01:21:52,825 --> 01:21:55,452 I never killed any Jews. 1413 01:21:55,536 --> 01:21:58,288 And for that matter, I never killed any non-Jews. 1414 01:21:58,956 --> 01:22:03,460 Nor did I order the killing of Jews or non-Jews. 1415 01:22:04,837 --> 01:22:07,881 I was simply a transportation officer. 1416 01:22:09,425 --> 01:22:11,009 All the evidence produced 1417 01:22:11,093 --> 01:22:13,971 has shown your duties went much further. 1418 01:22:16,140 --> 01:22:18,767 I will now read further from Stern magazine. 1419 01:22:20,018 --> 01:22:23,772 "This Eichmann was neither depraved nor unfeeling. 1420 01:22:24,606 --> 01:22:27,317 According to his own credible testimony, 1421 01:22:27,401 --> 01:22:28,902 he was rather sensitive, 1422 01:22:29,695 --> 01:22:33,740 and yet consciously and with open eyes, 1423 01:22:33,824 --> 01:22:36,827 this man signed the deportation orders, 1424 01:22:36,910 --> 01:22:39,455 which for many hundreds of thousands, meant death. 1425 01:22:40,372 --> 01:22:42,249 He was a bureaucrat of murder... 1426 01:22:43,083 --> 01:22:44,168 and he knew it. 1427 01:22:45,127 --> 01:22:47,421 At that time, he had neither inhibitions 1428 01:22:47,504 --> 01:22:50,799 nor any desire to plead orders from above. 1429 01:22:52,259 --> 01:22:55,637 He must bear full responsibility." 1430 01:22:56,472 --> 01:22:58,265 That is utter nonsense. 1431 01:22:58,891 --> 01:23:03,312 My attitude is that I should obey my oath. 1432 01:23:03,937 --> 01:23:07,316 That cannot be interpreted and it cannot be changed. 1433 01:23:08,609 --> 01:23:10,652 Journalists can throw away their oath, 1434 01:23:10,736 --> 01:23:12,279 but a soldier cannot. 1435 01:23:13,363 --> 01:23:15,574 Do you subscribe to the notations 1436 01:23:15,657 --> 01:23:16,825 you made in your books? 1437 01:23:17,367 --> 01:23:18,994 Yeah. |-- 1438 01:23:20,579 --> 01:23:21,955 No one has the right 1439 01:23:22,498 --> 01:23:23,832 to take an interest 1440 01:23:23,916 --> 01:23:26,460 in what I write in my private books, 1441 01:23:26,543 --> 01:23:28,545 unless I lend them my books. 1442 01:23:28,629 --> 01:23:31,548 And I never lent them my books. 1443 01:23:32,674 --> 01:23:35,385 Orders from above. That's what they were. 1444 01:23:36,053 --> 01:23:40,182 I obeyed. Regardless of what I was ordered to do, 1445 01:23:40,265 --> 01:23:41,475 I would have obeyed. 1446 01:23:42,226 --> 01:23:43,727 Certainly, I would have obeyed. 1447 01:23:44,478 --> 01:23:46,939 I obeyed. I obeyed! 1448 01:23:48,774 --> 01:23:50,526 [papers rustling] 1449 01:23:54,905 --> 01:23:57,241 Here is a statement from Kurt Becker. 1450 01:23:58,075 --> 01:23:59,785 Becker, Captain? 1451 01:23:59,868 --> 01:24:02,246 We've been through this, please! 1452 01:24:03,413 --> 01:24:07,459 From Kurt Becker at his hearing July 10, 1453 01:24:07,543 --> 01:24:09,211 1947, 1454 01:24:10,128 --> 01:24:14,508 about the meeting between you two and Himmler, 1455 01:24:16,093 --> 01:24:18,804 which we previously discussed. Um... 1456 01:24:19,721 --> 01:24:23,517 "Herr Himmler received Eichmann for ten minutes in my presence. 1457 01:24:23,600 --> 01:24:27,104 He ordered Eichmann to stop the shipments of Jews to Hungary 1458 01:24:27,187 --> 01:24:30,482 as we were already over capacity. 1459 01:24:31,191 --> 01:24:32,943 Eichmann did not. 1460 01:24:33,026 --> 01:24:35,362 He did not halt any transports 1461 01:24:35,445 --> 01:24:37,114 because he wanted to extinguish 1462 01:24:37,197 --> 01:24:39,575 any trace of the Jew from Germany. 1463 01:24:40,617 --> 01:24:43,954 He disobeyed Himmler's order." 1464 01:24:45,622 --> 01:24:46,873 Becker is a liar. 1465 01:24:47,499 --> 01:24:49,084 That is pure fiction. 1466 01:24:50,335 --> 01:24:54,131 Well, what was the substance of your conversation 1467 01:24:54,214 --> 01:24:55,632 with Himmler on that day? 1468 01:24:55,716 --> 01:24:57,426 [stammers] Oh, I don't remember, Captain. 1469 01:24:58,510 --> 01:25:02,639 But Himmler never gave me the order to stop the shipment. 1470 01:25:03,599 --> 01:25:05,309 Becker made this statement 1471 01:25:05,392 --> 01:25:07,686 so that he could wash his hands in innocence. 1472 01:25:08,562 --> 01:25:11,732 He tried to come out of the whole affair unscathed. 1473 01:25:12,816 --> 01:25:17,613 I'm surprised that he could have even been Standartenfuhrer. 1474 01:25:18,280 --> 01:25:19,364 Very amazed. 1475 01:25:20,449 --> 01:25:22,075 I'm also amazed 1476 01:25:22,159 --> 01:25:24,911 that I could have got away from Himmler scot-free. 1477 01:25:26,121 --> 01:25:29,458 When Himmler realized that I had disobeyed his orders, 1478 01:25:30,208 --> 01:25:32,544 I would have been arrested then and there, 1479 01:25:32,628 --> 01:25:33,629 on the spot, 1480 01:25:34,212 --> 01:25:35,964 and most likely shot. 1481 01:25:37,299 --> 01:25:41,094 By all accounts, that wasn't the process 1482 01:25:41,178 --> 01:25:44,723 to discipline someone of your... rank. 1483 01:25:46,016 --> 01:25:47,517 For lesser deeds, 1484 01:25:48,268 --> 01:25:50,270 men were heavily, heavily... 1485 01:25:52,230 --> 01:25:53,607 punished, let's say. 1486 01:25:54,941 --> 01:25:56,818 What-- what nonsense. 1487 01:25:57,611 --> 01:25:59,279 Here is the order 1488 01:26:00,322 --> 01:26:02,282 signed by Himmler himself. 1489 01:26:03,992 --> 01:26:08,163 And here is the log of Jewish shipments, 1490 01:26:09,164 --> 01:26:10,582 after the date of order. 1491 01:26:24,388 --> 01:26:25,472 Captain. 1492 01:26:27,891 --> 01:26:28,934 Captain. 1493 01:26:30,143 --> 01:26:33,438 I was just trying to do my duty for my country. 1494 01:26:34,564 --> 01:26:36,400 I was just trying to be a soldier. 1495 01:26:38,276 --> 01:26:39,945 I was an ordinary man. 1496 01:26:42,030 --> 01:26:45,242 The only crime I'm guilty of is apathy, that's all. 1497 01:26:47,619 --> 01:26:49,037 What did I do, Captain? 1498 01:26:49,663 --> 01:26:51,415 What did I do? 1499 01:26:52,999 --> 01:26:54,084 You did... 1500 01:26:55,210 --> 01:26:56,211 nothing. 1501 01:27:05,470 --> 01:27:06,471 [door thudding shut] 1502 01:27:11,810 --> 01:27:14,896 [solemn music] 1503 01:27:19,067 --> 01:27:24,823 ♪ 1504 01:27:41,548 --> 01:27:47,471 ♪ 1505 01:27:54,728 --> 01:27:55,854 [Colonel] Good job, Avner. 1506 01:27:56,563 --> 01:27:58,148 Well done. 1507 01:27:58,231 --> 01:28:00,901 I think this should set up your career quite nicely. 1508 01:28:01,651 --> 01:28:03,987 General Sallinger is quite happy. 1509 01:28:11,077 --> 01:28:12,162 Where are you going? 1510 01:28:16,666 --> 01:28:17,667 I've finished. 1511 01:28:18,460 --> 01:28:24,257 ♪ 1512 01:28:48,073 --> 01:28:54,579 ♪ 1513 01:29:15,350 --> 01:29:21,773 ♪ 1514 01:29:51,136 --> 01:29:58,101 ♪ 1515 01:30:08,069 --> 01:30:09,487 [music fades out]