CRIME STORIES: THE CAPTURE AND TRIAL OF ADOLF EICHMANN (TV)
Summary
One in this series of programs exploring true crimes and criminals. This episode, introduced by Richard Belzer, profiles the actions and subsequent trial of Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the so-called "Final Solution."
In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party worked to "Aryanize" Europe by gradually stripping Jews of their legal rights; when Eichmann, a former traveling salesman, joined the Schutzstaffel (SS), his "party-designated task" was to study Jewish history and culture in order to devise a way to exterminate the entire race. Hitler's soldiers began arresting, imprisoning and executing many Jewish citizens. When the Nazis requested a "cleaner method" than face-to-face murders, Eichmann gathered the top-ranking officers on Jan. 20, 1942 and, in a 90-minute meeting later known as the Wannsee Conference, explained his plan for rounding up and mass-executing Jews and other "undesirables" in secret extermination camps.
As the war escalated, Eichmann became obsessed with his "Final Solution," to the point of actively sabotaging the German war effort in order to prioritize his plans for the camps. The camps were discovered in early 1945, shortly before the war's end; when the Nuremberg Trials began in November, Hitler, Himmler and Heydrich were already dead – and Eichmann was missing. It was later determined that he had been arrested, but repeatedly escaped custody and fled the country under an assumed name. Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal tracked down Eichmann's wife Vera, who claimed that he was dead, but a mistress later identified photographs of "her Adolf." A decade later, in 1957, intelligence officers in the newly formed Israel received word that Eichmann, calling himself "Ricardo Klement," was possibly living in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mossad director Isser Harel sent agent Zvi Aharoni to South America to inspect "Klement," and they found that his home was registered under Vera's name. Up-close photos from a hidden camera confirmed that Klement was indeed Eichmann; in April 1960, Mossad leader Rafi Eitan assembled a team of experts and plotted to kidnap the Nazi fugitive.
After careful planning, the team grabbed Eichmann on May 11 as he returned home from a Mercedes-Benz manufacturing plant. Eichmann, afraid and "resigned to his fate," quickly admitted his true identity and signed a document agreeing to be placed on trial in Israel. The team took advantage of Argentina's 150th independence anniversary celebrations to smuggle Eichmann out of the country. On May 23, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion shocked the world by announcing his arrest. Eichmann was housed in a small cell and, over the course of eleven months of interrogations, refused to admit his guilt in the Holocaust atrocities. In April 1961, the world's first televised trial commenced in Jerusalem, with attorney Gabriel Bach describing the "six million prosecutors" who were unable to personally face Eichmann in the courtroom. Witnesses from all of the Nazi-occupied countries testified about the horrors of the Holocaust, though Eichmann, housed in a bulletproof booth, did not react when graphic film footage of the concentration camps was shown.
When he finally took the stand, the defense attempted to portray him as a "lowly bureaucrat" who was merely "following orders." However, transcripts of Eichmann's own boastful comments in an interview with Dutch journalist Willem Sassen undercut his claims of being forced to commit heinous acts. Eichmann claimed that the quotes were mere drunken ramblings. Convicted fellow Nazi Rudolf Hess testified that Eichmann specifically urged the murder of Jewish children, arguing that it was "logical" to exterminate the youngest members of an undesired group. The trial adjourned in August, and in December, Eichmann was found guilty of all 15 counts. He refused to "recognize" the verdict and offered an unapologetic final statement before he was hanged in June 1962. Mickey Goldmann-Gilead, who survived Auschwitz, recalls witnessing Eichmann's execution and subsequent cremation, recalling how Eichmann also reduced his victims to "a mountain of ash." His remains were scattered in the Mediterranean Sea, well outside of Israel's territory. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: Court TV
- DATE: November 30, 1999 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:45:40
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:65951
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Public affairs/Documentaries; Trials; Nazism; History; Israel; Argentina
- SERIES RUN: Court TV/TruTV - TV series, 1998-2010
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Jim Zarchin … Executive Producer
- Lynne Kirby … Executive Producer
- Robyn Hutt … Senior Producer
- Scott Galloway … Supervising Producer
- Kristian Berg … Producer, Writer
- Javier Diaz Caballero … Producer
- Florencia Perez Gaudio … Producer
- Maria Ines Montero … Producer
- Diego Castrillo … Producer
- Mick Caouette … Associate Producer
- Christine Courtney … Associate Producer
- Lucas Peon … Director
- Robert J. Resetar … Music by
- Joshua Sitron … Theme Music by
- Richard Belzer … Host
- James Naughton … Narrator
- Hans Koenig … Cast, Voice
- Fred de Sam Lazaro … Cast, Voice
- Kevin McAndrews … Cast, Voice
- Ido Oren … Cast, Voice
- Nurith Zmora … Cast, Voice
- Arie Zmora … Cast, Voice
- Zvi Aharoni … Interviewee
- Isser Harel … Interviewee
- Gabriel Bach … Inteviewee
- Mickey Goldmann-Gilead … Interviewee
- David Ben-Gurion
- Adolf Eichmann
- Rafi Eitan
- Reinhard Heydrich
- Rudolf Hess
- Heinrich Himmler
- Adolf Hitler
- Vera Liebl
- Willem Sassen
- Simon Wiesenthal