The Eichmann Show (2015) Movie Script
September 2nd 1945.
The war is over. 50 million dead
including six million murdered Jews.
As leading Nazis are captured
one name slowly rises to the top
of the most wanted list -
Adolf Eichmann
the SS officer accused of
planning the Final Solution
to the Jewish Question.
It will take the
Israeli secret service 15 years
to track him down to his
hiding place in Argentina.
On 11th May 1960, a man living under the
name Ricardo Klement
is kidnapped and taken
to a safe house in Buenos Aires
to be interrogated.
What is your name? Your name.
What is your SS number?
- Your name.
- Eichmann.
- Say it.
- Eichmann. Eichmann.
My name is Adolf Eichmann.
In capturing the man - in capturing the man
responsible - responsible for the...
execution of the Final Solution
of the Jewish problem
you have done something truly
extraordinary.
Eichmann will be judged in Israel.
Tell the world - no, show the world,
to show the world what the Nazis did
to show the world what the
Nazis did to the Jewish people.
Let's use television to do this.
Let's use television to do this.
Only television can do this.
In... in granting permission
for Capital Cities
to film the trial of Eichmann
on Israeli soil
you will become a part of the
most important television event in history
past, present and...
yeah, why not? Future.
The Prime Minister will see you now.
Prime Minister.
- Mr Hurwitz?
- Speaking.
I'm Milton Fruchtman.
I'd like to talk to you about a job.
- You do know no one's hiring me right now?
- Yes, but I'd like to change that.
Adolf Eichmann, it's going to be
the trial of the century.
How would you like to film it?
The papers call him a monster.
Sure. Because monsters sell more papers.
This says you're officially
off the blacklist.
Yeah, well... it's the unofficial ones
you need to worry about.
- You work on the trial?
- Yes.
We should have put a bullet in his head
in Buenos Aires and left him there.
- Welcome to Israel.
- Thank you.
Leo Hurwitz?
Well, you're holding a sign that says
'Leo Hurwitz, ' so I guess so.
- Pleasure to meet you, Mr Hurwitz.
- Leo.
- I'm Perry, as in Como.
- It's a pleasure to meet you, Perry.
How was the flight?
- I managed to get some work done.
- Lucky you.
Coming over was my first time
on a plane.
Puked so much they locked me
in a toilet till we touched down.
That's great, Perry.
Without cameras we can't film.
We have to find a way.
Of course I'm going to tell him.
We're working around the clock
to make sure that the -
He's arrived.
Yeah, I'm literally about to
offer him my hand to shake.
We'll talk later. Leo.
Milton.
Leo Hurwitz, I cannot tell you
how relieved I am to finally have you here!
- You have cases?
- In the car.
Drop them off at the
hotel, would you, Perry?
Sure.
I say 'hotel', it's not really a hotel
as we would know it
but it's clean, they have rooms,
serve food.
- Meet Judy, my secretary.
- Hi.
And Alan, my production assistant.
You join us from a kibbutz, right,
where you've been working on...
A small documentary.
And, if I'm being completely honest
a particularly beautiful girl.
But yeah, mainly the documentary.
It's a pleasure to meet you, Alan.
Alan, have the team meet us
in the courtroom in ten minutes.
Right.
How's that looking?
That's excellent. We
should talk about that.
Come and meet David.
Leo, I'd like you to meet
our lawyer, David Arad.
David, we finally
have our director.
- Mr Hurwitz.
- Leo, please.
It's wonderful to meet you at last.
You got a problem, David'll fix it.
In five different ways.
One of which may or may not
involve the use of a gun.
Most issues can generally be resolved by
understanding the position of the other.
The issue with the judges, however...
There's an issue?
Milton, there's an issue
with the judges?
As you know, we have a contract with the
Israeli government to film this trial.
But there is a condition.
The three trial judges
must give their permission.
And we don't have permission?
Yesterday they came to inspect the cameras.
And?
And they found them
too loud and too visible.
I flew five and a half thousand miles
and you don't have permission to film?
- Yet.
- 'Yet.' I find that so reassuring.
Look, I know this is a shock,
but right now we need to press on.
Come.
Leo, this is Ron and Roy, our terrific
Marconi engineers from England.
Terrific's perhaps overstating
the point, but...
We're well-trained
and at your disposal, Mr Hurwitz.
Leo, please.
We're having a bit of trouble
with the contrast.
Well, that's not really going to be an
issue unless we find invisible cameras.
Come on, I'll show you the courtroom.
Thank you, gentlemen, carry on.
Thanks.
The court will be connected
to the control room by cables
running between the two roofs.
So in addition to the trial being
relayed live to Israelis in the streets
there is also going to be
live coverage every day on the radio.
What about television, Milton?
We don't even know
if we're going to be able to film.
What alternative do we have?
- Well, I'm glad you're so positive.
- What else would I be?
The press room.
Phones, telex, typewriters
a direct feed to the courtroom
allowing hundreds of people
from reporters to philosophers,
to scrutinise, decipher
and judge every inch
of your footage as it unfolds.
If there is any footage.
There has to be footage, and there will be.
C'mon, let's meet your cameramen.
- My cameramen?
- Here we go.
Milton, I pick my own team.
Jesus, it's a theatre.
Ah.
Mr Hurwitz is here,
so I'll bring him over.
Leo.
I'd like to introduce you
to your camera operators.
This is Rolf, Yaakov, Millek and Fred.
On behalf of my colleagues
I'd like to welcome you to our country.
It's a great honour for
us to work with the
distinguished director
of such documentaries
as Native Land and the antifascist
masterpiece Strange Victory.
It's a pleasure to meet you gentlemen...
It's shameful that an artist
of your stature and humanity
should be blacklisted by the
House Un-American Activities Committee
It's frightening what these guys know.
They even knew that
I worked with Rita Hayworth.
These gentlemen are the crme
de la crme of the Israeli film industry
Yeah, well they're going to need to be.
- Milton, your taxi's here.
- Thank you. Excuse me.
It's a pleasure to meet you, gentlemen.
You'll like the Israeli press attach.
He's like the sphinx, only Jewish.
Thanks, Judy.
- We don't have time for PR, Milton.
- This isn't PR.
We have a contract with
the Israeli government.
They're concerned the judges
won't ever give us permission to film.
And what if they don't?
If they don't, Capital
Cities lose the half
million dollars they've
spent on the production
the thirty-seven countries
we promised the footage to
will never see the Eichmann trial
and, well, our names
become the punchline
to an industry joke
told for decades to come.
Why are we meeting the Israeli press
secretary at an Arab cafe?
Because the coffee is out of this world.
The newspapers describe this
as the trial of the century
but my superiors see it as
something far more important.
They see this trial as an opportunity
for a Jewish Nuremberg.
Survivors of the genocide very
often held in low regard here in Israel
as if they were complicit
in the crimes that they endured.
Israel and the world needs
to hear what happened to them
from the mouths of the survivors.
So we will broadcast it
live on Israeli radio
but it is essential that
the world must also see
it in their homes on their
television screens.
You said you could film this trial.
So the judges must give us their approval.
Your superiors couldn't quietly
insist the judges give it?
Unlike Nazi Germany,
Israel does not undermine
or compromise the
independence of its judiciary.
We've done all we can
to address the judges' concerns.
- Clearly not.
- Well, we're working on it.
In the meantime you leave us
in a very difficult position.
The decision to televise
was a very great gamble.
Now it must pay off.
Many necks are on the line.
Are you talking to other companies
about taking over the production?
We would be unwise not to have
a fall-back, would we not?
However you do it, the trial must
be filmed. You have three days.
Three?
- You told me five.
- Three days, gentlemen.
You should try the honey cake,
it is the best in Jerusalem.
In the control room, you said...
what - what did you say?
Milton, I'm so tired I
can't remember what I
said twenty seconds ago
let alone an hour ago.
No, you said something about a...
invisible camera...
Leo, that's it.
That is it. We - we
hide the cameras from view.
We make them part of
the fabric of the courtroom.
Put them in the wall?
Yeah, then put a window in the wall
so they can see through.
- Alright.
- You know, this could work.
- So the cameras need to be able to move.
- Ok, fine.
Jesus, we're going to need every carpenter
and plasterer in Jerusalem for this.
- And we've got three days to do it in.
- Just here on the left, please.
Leo. Get some sleep.
I may feel well enough to get
the first plane back to New York.
See you tomorrow.
- Yes?
- Hurwitz.
Ah yes, Mr Horowitz.
'Hurwitz'.
As I said.
- You are tired, yes?
- Very.
You are Jewish? All Jews sleep well
in Jerusalem, Mr Horowitz.
'Hurwitz'.
Gentlemen, as you know, the judges
will be returning in two days
and when they do,
we need to be working as a team.
Because if we fail to get permission,
well, we'll all be going home.
I believe that in my absence
you've been familiarised with the technical
aspects of our television cameras.
Those cameras must now become
extensions of your own eyes
so that you can become
extensions of mine.
Right, right, right. Ok, stop. Stop.
And we have three days to become a team.
To act, to act, to act as one.
Alright gentleman,
let's give this a shot shall we?
As you film, I will edit directly
onto a master tape.
I'm going to need 100 per cent
of your concentration.
Ready, camera two.
This is going to be mentally
and physically challenging.
And most likely the most
interesting thing you ever do.
Got it.
Take two.
Our objective is to use images
to reveal the events of that courtroom.
Ready on the auditorium. Thank you.
Take two. Take three. Good.
The camera bridges distance.
Better. Keep the rhythm.
- It will show detail.
- Take four.
- Eichmann's face. His hands.
- Take one.
The expressions of the judges,
the counsel.
Camera one on the judges' bench.
Thank you, nice and smooth.
Take two. Take two.
Take two! Ok, stop. Stop. Stop.
I need you to switch immediately.
I want shots of Eichmann
as he speaks and
reacts to things said
and done in the court.
Let's go again, gentlemen. Until we
get this running smooth like water.
Feelings that he may try and mask
emotionally may manifest themselves
in a way that he cannot
physically suppress.
You want us to climb into
the glass box with Eichmann and ask:
'What kind of man are you?'
- Exactly.
Gentlemen, I don't believe in monsters
but I do believe that men are
responsible for monstrous deeds.
What transformed this ordinary man
into someone who was capable of
sending hundreds and thousands
of children to their death
while going home every evening and
kissing his own children goodnight?
- A human being like any one of us.
- He is not like us.
I am not Eichmann, Mr Hurwitz.
Under the right circumstances,
anyone is capable of fascist behaviour.
Not I.
- Yaakov, anyone is capable.
- Not I.
- Fruchtman.
- Mr Fruchtman, listen carefully.
You will close production down
and leave Israel immediately.
Who is this?
The trial of Obersturmbannfhrer Eichmann
will not be allowed to take place.
If you don't leave, Mr Fruchtman, your
wife, your children, I will kill them all.
Hello?
Honey... I won't make it home
for supper tonight.
- I have some things to run through here.
- Ok.
- How are the kids?
- The kids? Fine.
How are things there?
How is Leo getting on?
He's putting them through their paces.
- How are you?
- Fine. We're good.
- The kids?
- Yeah, the kids are good.
- How's the apartment?
- The apartment? In what sense?
Generally.
I think the apartment's fine, Milton.
You want me to go and ask it?
- You have got these calls before?
- I received a few in New York
when it was announced that
I was to produce this show.
A couple of crank letters
to Capital Cities' office.
Nazi bullshit.
Should I warn my people?
It would alarm them unnecessarily.
I will add to the security presence
in your building.
And my family?
- I will take care of it.
- How?
By taking care of it.
I want to talk to you about
your cameraman, Millek.
Ok, gentlemen - and lady -
sssh - thank you.
As some of you may know
this afternoon we learned that the Israeli
authorities have revoked their permission
for Millek to
operate in the courtroom.
Why?
I am a member of the Israeli
Communist Party who
may, in their mind, wish
to attack Eichmann.
Who in their right mind wouldn't want to
attack the bastard? Doesn't mean they will.
I might jump from my box
with a knife between my teeth.
Alright, thank you,
thank you, thank you.
I have tried to explain
at great length that
Millek has no desire
to attack Eichmann
and every desire to see him
stand trial for his crimes.
But to no avail.
So tomorrow morning I start looking
for a replacement cameraman
and hope to find someone
by lunchtime tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Millek will work alongside Leo
in the control room. Excuse me.
Did he say 'control room'?
Leo?
You can't just accept this
stupid decision about Millek.
Their paranoia is through the roof,
as we know
so you and me, we bite several bullets
and get on with what we're here to do.
Want me to tell you
what it was like being
blacklisted for ten years
under McCarthy, Milton?
Oh, be my guest.
Then I can tell you how difficult it was
to hire you when everyone said don't
precisely because you'd been blacklisted.
Jesus, you kidding me?
Look, I know there were easier names
you could have gone to.
- Good names.
- Mhmm. But not the best name.
We'll talk to them about Millek
but right now our focus has to be
on the judges coming, first thing.
Without them we're screwed anyway.
I'm going to go back in.
Milton. When the judges come tomorrow,
bring them straight to the courtroom.
Don't mention the cameras.
We will sell this.
It's the judges.
They'll be here in two minutes.
- They're on their way. Ready?
- As ready as we'll ever be.
Right, gentlemen, as you know, the scale
of this operation is unprecedented.
But as I said to the Prime Minister,
this trial is a unique global event.
Work has clearly taken place.
We are here to re-examine the cameras.
But you do not appear
to have prepared for us.
The cameras are not present.
Gentlemen, would you follow me?
- Alan, could you run the VT please?
- Of course.
Gentlemen, as some of you may know...
we will be sending nightly video
packages to over thirty countries.
The scale of this operation is...
You were filming us? From where?
I don't understand.
We've taken the cameras
out of the court and hidden them.
But how they will see in?
We've rebuilt the walls of the courtroom
to create space to hide our cameras.
We've built slits into the walls
which the cameras can track along
giving a range of positions
from which to film.
The slits are covered with chicken wire
to reflect the courtroom lights.
This enables the camera to see
through the wire into the court
while still being masked from sight.
We hope that this has addressed
all of your concerns.
If the judges say no cameras
a second time?
There won't be a third.
Well, even to get this far -
No, there's no consolation prize, Eva.
I'll be the guy who dropped
the Eichmann show.
They'll hang me out to dry.
I'll have to send you out
to work on the streets to support us.
Get dressed. Wait with the children.
- What?
- Just do it.
Who is it?
Milton, what's happening?
- Who's there?
- David Landor.
I hope I'm not disturbing you.
Please...
Leo? If you're asleep - wake up. Leo!
- What's happening?
- Read.
'Where there is no publicity,
there is no justice.'
'It keeps the judge himself
while trying under trial.'
'The security of security is publicity.'
We did it. We're going to film the trial of
Obersturmbannfhrer Adolf Eichmann
Nazi Party number 889895.
SS number 45326.
Christ, Leo, this is really happening.
It's great.
I left Eva in the bath.
Right.
- See you later.
- Bye.
I'm standing in front
of the building where
in only a few hours' time
what has been described as the
trial of the century will begin.
And the eyes of the world
will fall upon Adolf Eichmann
the Nazi responsible for organising the
mass murder of six million European Jews.
It isn't only Eichmann who will be on trial
over the next few days and weeks
the state of Israel will also
be under intense scrutiny
as it attempts to mount
a fair trial of the
man tasked with destroying
the Jewish people.
This city, this country,
the entire world,
is under a state of
heightened anticipation.
The stakes could not be higher.
In televising this trial
the state of Israel hopes to show
many of its own people across the world
the full horror of what
befell those of their
faith who lived in Europe
through the Nazi era.
Israel hopes to impart
to a new generation
an understanding of the cunning cruelty
employed by the Nazis
to lure their people to their deaths
through the lie they were being
sent to work camps.
And it is also seeking to impress
on the consciousness of humanity
that these crimes, which have no precedent
in the entire history of man on earth
were committed in an enlightened age -
on Jews this time -
but could be committed
against others in the future.
To show the world that in the end this
is a crime that affects every one of us.
Alright, gentlemen.
This is it. Moment of truth.
What are you thinking
at this precise moment?
Of everything that could go wrong.
Alright, gentlemen,
rehearsal is over.
Camera three, ready. Take three.
Camera four, ready.
Stay on the bench with the judges.
Camera four, ready.
On Eichmann. Take four.
Adolf Eichmann, rise.
You are accused before this court
according to the indictment
which includes 15 counts...
Wide on the auditorium.
Adolf, son of Adolf Karl Eichmann
is accused here by the first count.
Nature of offence:
Crime against the Jewish people.
Particulars of the offence:
The accused together with others
during the period of 1936...
- Take two.
- ...to 1945
caused the killings of millions of Jews
in his capacity as the person responsible
for the execution of the Nazi plan
for the physical extermination of the Jews
known as the Final Solution
of the Jewish Problem.
Here ends the first count
brought against you.
Go close on Eichmann.
Adolf Eichmann, do you plead guilty or not
guilty to count one of the indictment?
In the spirit of
the indictment, not guilty.
And now the most important trial
of the 20th century begins.
In the spirit of the indictment,
I am not guilty.
Crime against humanity.
In the spirit of the indictment,
I am not guilty.
Take four. Take two.
Do you plead guilty or not guilty
to count 15 of the indictment?
In the spirit of the indictment,
not guilty.
At the conclusion of the afternoon's
sessions the important job begins
of distributing the tapes of the day's
proceedings around the world.
Copies of the tapes are
required by broadcasters
in New York, London,
Paris, Berlin, Sydney.
Then to the shipping,
not by ship but by air, of course.
It is sent by one of the many airplanes
departing daily from Lodz Airport
ninety minutes
fast driving from Jerusalem.
Then directly onto the
television screens in all our homes
in this exciting new age of mass media.
When I first arrived I had
doubts that we'd make
the beginning of this
day, let alone the end.
But thanks to your hard work we did it.
And I very much appreciate it.
Just how tired and
exhausted you feel right now
is an indicator of
how big the job in hand is.
We have a tremendous responsibility.
In showing this trial to the world
we invite them to ask not only
how Eichmann did it, but why.
Great work today
and a toast to good work.
- Yeah, to good work.
- Good work.
I know a song, it goes like this,
do you know it too?
Oh yes I do, yes I do,
it goes one, two, three four.
Whenever I see you outside of the
control room you're always looking around.
What are you looking for, Leo?
I'm just trying to understand this place.
It's one and a half million people
trying to stay alive.
Don't you think it's ironic that
if it wasn't for Eichmann and the Nazis
we wouldn't even be
having this conversation?
The idea of Israel existed long before
Eichmann and his associates.
The idea but not the reality.
I do not write history, Leo.
Before I came here
I went to see a friend in Brooklyn,
he edits the Jerusalem Post
and I talked to him about writing a weekly
editorial of the Eichmann trial
to try and promote conversation between
the Israelis about the nature of fascism.
It's an idea worth being vigilant about,
wouldn't you say?
And did your friend
take you up on your kind offer?
- He was embarrassed by it.
- Are you really so surprised?
There's too much to contend with
in the present to keep looking back.
But my point is fascism didn't die
when Hitler blew his brains out.
Wherever people set up house,
fascism can exist.
Israel is a new-born calf, Leo.
Still struggling to its feet.
All in good time.
You were in Auschwitz, weren't you?
Yes.
As a survivor, what do you think of
Eichmann when you look at him?
I should get back inside.
The wind is picking up.
One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight -
One more for the boss!
I know a song, it goes like this,
do you know it too?
Oh yes I do, yes I do,
it goes one, two, three, four.
Morning, guys.
Oh, aren't you grumpy?
They know where we live.
Ok. You two, go and play in your room.
Come on, go.
Thank you.
Eva, the police have
a security detail outside...
How good are they
if it didn't stop this?
What if it had been a bomb?
This isn't the first time, Milton.
They're just trying to frighten me
into pulling the production.
How can you be sure
it's just intended to frighten you
and not to warn against worse to come?
I can't. If you want me to stop, I'll stop.
And give the bastards the satisfaction?
I'll see you later.
I love you.
Go to work.
On behalf of us all, Attorney General,
do not fuck this up.
I'm nervous for him.
Does he seem nervous?
Well, he does have the eyes
of the world on him.
Start wide on Hausner, take three.
Zoom in as he begins.
- When I stand before you...
- Standby four.
Judges of Israel, in this court
to accuse Adolf Eichmann...
Take one.
I do not stand alone...
Shouldn't you go in tighter on Hausner?
We need to establish him
as a main character.
I'm not directing a soap opera, Milton.
It's evident that he's a main character.
Here with me at this moment
stand six million prosecutors.
But alas, they cannot rise
to level the finger of accusation
in the direction of the
glass dock and cry out
I accuse, ' against the
man who sits there.
Because their ashes have been piled up
in the mounds of Auschwitz
and the fields of Treblinka
or spilled into the rivers of Poland.
Their graves are scattered throughout
the length and breadth of Europe.
Their blood cries to heaven,
but their voice cannot be heard.
Thus it falls to me
to be their mouthpiece
and to deliver the heinous
accusation in their name.
Early this morning, Adolf Eichmann -
Whoever you are,
wherever you live, whatever you do,
remember April 1961.
The month the Cold War got hot in Cuba
and men finally defied gravity
to blast into space.
The solar system got a whole lot nearer
but the chance of peace
light years further away.
Contrary to what you believe,
we see real and widespread interest.
Thank you, friend, thank you.
How can Eichmann compare with,
say, Gagarin?
People bore of spectacles very quickly.
- It is ridiculous to compare the two.
- Really?
But, isn't your problem that people
may choose to watch one over the other?
Why would they?
They're entirely unrelated.
You don't think one represents the dark
past and the other our glittering future?
My wife is right.
Very little can compete as a spectacle
with the first man in space.
Although isn't it inherently ridiculous to
try one man for the deaths of six million?
- I'd be inclined to agree with that.
- Then why else should people watch?
To learn.
Excuse me.
Give me a sec.
- Goodnight, Leo.
- Goodnight.
Don't stay up too late.
See you tomorrow.
You're not letting them
get to you, are you?
I just don't need
the distraction.
- This is bullshit.
- Maybe.
What, you think they have a point?
We only have control over
how we film the trial
not how the network
sells it to the public.
Once the excitement of seeing
a real life Nazi on trial goes away
who's to say we won't
lose the audience? Mm?
- See you in the morning.
- Yeah.
Er, scotch, please.
Would not be used on the western front.
And accompanied by Bandi Grosz
on Eichmann's orders...
David.
- They can't all be watching Gagarin.
- No. He isn't and she isn't.
Most called away to cover Gagarin
have not returned.
And those that have are following
developments in Cuba.
Jesus. My children have
a longer attention span.
Journalists. They're like magpies,
Mr Fruchtman.
They're quickly drawn to the
shiniest object in their field of vision.
You promised the
Prime Minister an audience.
Hausner has just spent three days
delivering a dry-as-dust lecture
on Israel's right to put Eichmann on trial.
He's boring the shit out of me.
Are you surprised that people are going?
Is there nothing we can do
to make his oration more compelling?
Yeah, off the top of my head, just one -
tell him to stop.
Loaded 1,200 Jews into a deportation
train and sent it on its way.
Whatever you've got planned for the day,
scrap it and think of something better.
Shoot tighter, cut quicker,
whatever you do, add more pace.
Milton -
Gagarin and the Bay
of Pigs are killing us!
- We need to respond.
- We are responding, by holding our nerve.
We can die holding that, Leo.
No one's fucking watching.
Listen, you hired me
because of my experience.
That's what I'm
trying to give you.
That would be enough in a perfect world.
But it's not perfect, Leo.
It's a world with a Russian in space
and counter-revolutionaries
running amok on a Cuban beach.
- We need to compete with that.
- Well, we can't.
Not until the witness testimony
starts to come in.
What if we've lost everyone by then?
Milton, I need my producer
to be visibly calm.
We all know you're anxious,
and none of us needs to see it.
We've got your back, trust us.
When the witness testimony starts,
the audience will come back.
And what if they don't?
Then you hired the wrong guy.
In the building where
Eichmann is being tried
the Israelis are trying to place
before the conscience of the world
the full facts of how
the Nazis and Germany
tried literally to exterminate
millions of the Jewish people in Europe.
We heard how the people
were told to go to the bath house...
Take one.
They all passed through the door
into a long corridor.
We did not know exactly
what was happening.
We were in the basement,
in the cellar.
But there were SS men with great sticks
and they beat the people and
forced them to board the trucks.
But do you know now
what these trucks were?
Yes, now I know what they were.
They were trucks where people
were locked up inside
and then gas was piped into the trucks.
Gas was piped into the trucks.
Stay in close on Eichmann.
Copy.
What happened to you on the next day?
We, five of us, were taken from the cellar,
more people were put into the trucks
We heard the screams from the trucks
and the engine began working
and the gas flowed in.
Then the shouts died off.
Take three.
And on the following day
you yourself went to work
in the wood and saw what was
taking place with your own eyes.
There were 25 people there
and they were all digging pits.
- Ever seen anything like this?
- Never.
You dug graves and then the trucks -
a truck arrived, one of those trucks.
When the trucks arrived we still
were not permitted to approach them.
We had to wait until the truck
had stopped for a few moments
two or three minutes.
And fumes were coming out of
the trucks and we had to wait.
And then five or six people opened
the doors and...
take the bodies and place them
near the pits, right near the trenches.
Were the people dead?
All were completely dead.
No one was alive any more.
And in the third truck some
bodies arrived whom you knew?
This was after I had been
working there for some time
when all the people of my town came.
And who was amongst them?
My wife and my two children.
And you saw them whilst they
were being removed from the truck?
I lay near my wife and two children
and I wanted them to shoot me.
Have you ever heard anything like it?
We should eat.
Still bored?
No, it's tremendous that
it's having this impact.
It helps that Servatius
isn't going to cross examine.
Sorry, no. No. What's that?
I don't know what this is...
Idiot.
I don't think I'd have
the strength to do it.
Hey, identify yourself.
Hey!
He's just qualified.
I'll call you back.
- You are spreading lies to the world.
- Jesus!
Back inside! Close the door
and go under your desk!
- You received my letter?
- Back inside!
You fucking Jews, you have no right -
- You call this protection?
We could have been killed,
every single one of us.
- You let him come to my door? Jesus Christ.
- There will be others after me.
Heil Hitler.
Gentlemen.
Thank you all for staying behind
after yet another long day
when bars and restaurants
and beds are waiting.
I wanted to have us all
here to say two things.
The latest audience research reveals that
our films are being watched nightly by...
huge numbers of people. In the US,
South America, Europe, Australia
ordinary people are being moved and shocked
by what they're seeing
and hearing because of our work.
What was unknown, either wilfully
or by ignorance is becoming known.
What was unspoken is being
discussed and questioned.
Which brings me to my second point,
which will not surprise any of you.
Personal security. Do not take it lightly.
As we saw today, there are people out
there who would love to stop this trial.
Stop us.
Be vigilant. Check under the car,
when you're setting out in the morning.
Check you're not being followed.
If you've any issues, and I mean any,
contact our head of security.
Vigilance, please. Alright, sermon over.
Go and enjoy the rest of
your evening. Thank you.
Why didn't you tell me
you were being threatened?
- You had enough on your plate.
- We eat from the same plate, Milton.
- If it happens again, let me know.
- Sure.
There will be others after me.
- Hey. Hey, is it bedtime? Sleep well.
- Night, Dad.
- Goodnight, Daddy.
- Sleep well.
- Go on up to bed.
- Sorry, I fell asleep.
Don't worry.
- Ok?
- Yeah, are you ok?
I think so.
- Come to bed.
- Yeah, I'll be...
Mrs Landau?
I want to ask you a question.
My feet are too tired for questions.
- Just - just one.
- What?
- You were a refugee after the war?
- From Czechoslovakia. So?
- You like it here?
I would prefer to be
running the King David.
I - I didn't mean this hotel.
I meant Israel.
I fought in the war for independence -
against the British and then the Arabs.
Right, the Arabs.
But this was their country.
We wanted it more.
So Israel is your home?
The world gave it to us.
It is my country now.
What is it about it
that you love so much?
Here we breathe a free air.
You are a Jew, you must feel this.
- All done?
- Yeah. Thank you.
Some of the young people tried to run
but they were shot.
They were shot right there.
How did you survive through all this?
We... We were driven.
We were already undressed.
The clothes were removed, taken away.
Our father did not want to undress.
He remained in his underwear.
We were driven up to the...
Milton... I need to stop.
- Yaakov, are you ok?
- I cannot breathe.
Yaakov? Yaakov? Leo, Yaakov's in
trouble. I need to go get him out.
Yaakov, stay with the camera.
Milton's on his way.
I'm not so good, Leo.
Camera four ready.
Let's go close on Eichmann.
No, no, not the witness, Eichmann.
We were already facing the graves.
I felt him take the child from my arms.
The child cried out and was shot.
Get close on his eyes.
And then he aimed at me.
How can you sit
there and watch this?
He held onto my hair
and turned my head around.
Do something.
Get close on his eyes.
Get close on his eyes.
And he aimed the revolver at me.
And ordered me to watch
and then turned my
head around and shot at me.
Then I fell. I tried to move and felt
that I was alive and that I could rise.
I heard the shot
and I was praying for another
bullet to put an end to my suffering
But I felt that I was
choking, climbing
towards the top of the
grave above the bodies
I rose, and I felt bodies
pulling at me with their hands
- biting at my legs, pulling me down.
- How can you sit there day after day...
and listen to this?
With my last strength,
I came up on top of the grave.
So many bodies. I wanted to see
the end of this stretch of dead bodies
but I could not.
Yaakov?
The, er, the camp I was in provided
slave labour for a Messerschmitt factory.
How they expected us to work on the -
the rations we got, I - I do not know.
We were skeletons
covered with skin and...
with bruises from the beatings we were
given for the slightest mistake.
When I washed myself
I could not recognise my own body by touch.
My ribs were like the keys of a piano.
I - I don't think it's right
to expect him to continue this work.
No, it is, it's important. I want to do it.
But not at the expense of your health.
For the first time people who were there
feel they have permission to speak.
We see these witnesses
in the place called the witness stand
and for the very first time
they look into the audience
and they see people leaning forward
listening to what they have to say.
Not turning away.
Yaakov, in the control room we're all...
deeply affected by what
we're hearing and we're removed.
You don't have to do this to yourself.
I'm not going to let you
do this to yourself.
- I feel I am letting you down.
- It is us who'd be letting you down.
Mr Hausner showing the witness
a suit of striped clothes.
Is that what you used to
wear, wear at Auschwitz?
Yes. This is the garb of those
who lived on this planet called Auschwitz.
If I am able to stand here
in this court before you as we tell -
we tell the tale of this planet.
If I, fall-out of that planet,
am able to be here at this time then -
Is he ok?
- He's a poet.
I believe with perfect faith that this is
due to the oath I have sworn to them there
the oath I have sworn to them.
They gave me this strength.
They gave me the strength.
What's Eichmann doing?
Could I ask Mr Dinur a few questions,
with your consent?
Go close on Eichmann.
Please listen to Mr Hausner and hear...
- Did we get that?
- No, we were on Eichmann.
President of Court, I'll have to stop
this session unless the witness recovers.
Mr Hausner, I do not expect this of course
to happen and I think we cannot continue...
Did you get it?
We got almost everything,
but I think we missed the collapse.
You missed the collapse? Jesus, Leo.
We might have got a couple
of seconds of it, but
it's impossible to anticipate
something like that.
- I'd have put money on it.
- Fuck you, Alan. Get the fuck out.
Hey.
Gentlemen, would you
give us five minutes please?
Thank you.
Shut the door, Millek.
That was a stand-out moment, Leo.
Like someone crying out in the auditorium.
- Talking points, human drama.
- That's a real damaged life in there
- not a fucking TV show.
- And a fucking TV show. And. And.
I'm sorry if that doesn't sit
with your artistic sensibility
but while we're here on Israel's
dime that's exactly what it is.
Christ, you're supposed to
be filming the trial as a whole.
- But you're obsessed with Eichmann.
- I can't understand why you're not.
Don't patronise me.
Your job, your fucking job
is to film what happens in that courtroom
not to conduct a personal
investigation into the nature of evil.
- Why can't it be both?
- Because one gets in the way of the other.
And that's not going to happen,
not on my production.
- Well, I beg to differ.
- I don't give a fuck what you beg.
I'm paying your wages, Mr Hurwitz.
Differ in your own time.
In Paris they were all deported
in the second half of August
and the beginning of September,
in the space of about two weeks
in convoys consisting of
one thousand children
and five hundred adults
taken from Drancy.
I saw them. They arrived in four
transports of one thousand children.
This live cargo would
be taken off the
trucks rapidly to make
room for other buses.
This was done swiftly and the
unhappy children, mixed up and scared
came down in groups quietly.
There were small children
of two, three or
four years of age who did
not know their names
and it was impossible to identify them.
We found girls carrying
disks with boys' names
and boys with girls' names on their disks.
Let me just ask you this, Mr Wellers.
In 1944 when you came to Auschwitz
did you then see any one
of these children alive?
No, I did not. There were four
transports arriving every few days
one thousand people in each
transport, one thousand children
two hundred adults on each
transport, and in all four transports
four thousand children.
There were many who died,
some en route...
I estimate the number of suicides
at about one hundred.
Want me to switch away?
Stay on Eichmann.
- Leo.
- Stay on him.
Alan, switch to the witness.
Come on, do something.
Leo.
- Leo, there's some people to see you.
- I'm not expecting anyone. Tell them I'm busy.
- Well, they want to see you.
- Just tell them I'm busy.
- They said you'd say that.
- Leo, would you just go? I got this.
We wanted to surprise you.
- Right. Right. How was your journey?
- Good.
- Did you enjoy flying?
- Sure.
- What?
- You look old.
I am old.
We were working there with those
'Rollenwagen' which we were driving.
- You entered the crematorium?
- Yes, I entered the crematorium.
We had to go there in order to
take the wood which was...
- To the witness. Take one.
- ...to be used for burning.
- We had to take...
- Number four, stand by.
Some of the wood to the camps from the
crematorium, when there was still time
and when it was very cold.
The kapo of the Sonderkommando
took pity on us and said
'Children, it's very cold
outside, perhaps you
can warm yourselves
in the gas chambers.'
The gas chambers were not operating then.
And you would go into
the crematorium to warm yourselves?
- So sometimes...
- Tommy?
- We would go to the...
- I'm fine.
Crematorium, or even to the
gas chambers where it was much warmer...
Is this all true?
Sometimes it would happen that
when we arrived at the crematorium...
He was the same age as you.
They said, 'You can't possibly go in
because there are people inside. '
And Eichmann just sits.
And Eichmann just sits.
Camera two, stand by.
Did you use ashes of human beings to
spread it on the roads?
- Yes.
- What for?
So that people could walk
on the road and not slide.
- So they do not slip in the camp?
- Yes, in the camp.
What I want is that single
spotlight directly on Eichmann
as he's watching the camp footage.
The rest of the auditorium
is completely dark.
That allows the audience
to observe Eichmann
- as he reacts to what he's watching.
- The audience or you?
Leo -
Bringing him face to face with
the visual consequences of his actions
- will finally make him crack, it has to.
- Leo.
Eichmann attended mass shootings
for the SS elite to show
that you could stomach
the most brutal bloodshed.
It was a badge of
ideological superiority.
How likely is it he's
going to show weakness now
- before his Jewish captors?
- Sitting alone in that chair
watching the worst atrocities
known to mankind
it'll be impossible for him
to deny his participation.
- Leo? Leo!
- What?
I'm taking Tommy to Greece.
- Why?
- I don't want him here.
- Don't you think he should see this?
- I don't want him watching this 8 hours a day
day in, day out
for God knows how much longer.
Which is what he will do,
because that's what you're doing.
Am I doing the right thing?
You think I'll get him?
- Look after him, won't you?
- Uh-huh.
I want to be honest with you, Leo.
I'm under instruction from Milton
to not talk about Eichmann on this trip.
- It's to give you a rest from the trial.
- Yeah, I understand.
- To give you a rest from Eichmann.
- I understand.
- What are you thinking?
- About Eichmann.
- Where do these people come from?
- Wherever they want to.
The Bedouin do not perceive
borders or governments.
They side with no one, threaten no one.
And they're left alone to roam freely.
Where do I sign up?
When you watch him, Millek,
what do you think of him?
A dog refusing to betray his master.
Till people see him react the way they do
to this testimony
they'll not fully understand that men,
not monsters, create fascists.
Why must people see this?
So that they understand that
we're all capable of it.
And to resist the temptation.
If the witness testimony does not make
Eichmann crack, perhaps he never will.
When the prosecution
makes him sit and watch the film -
Auschwitz, Birkenau, Belsen
the actual documentary footage of
the atrocities, the shootings, the gassing
the mass murder, it'll just be impossible
for him to subvert his subconscious.
This is the unique power
of film, is it not?
This is what you believe.
This is what I have learned
in my years as a filmmaker.
While he watches, we'll be watching him.
Only then will we see the real Eichmann.
Close on Eichmann.
- Was that a smile?
- I don't think so.
I'm... afraid I'm going
to have to leave the room.
If anyone else has to step outside,
there's no permission required.
How can you just sit there?
How can you not turn away, not even flinch.
Where are you? Where the fuck are you!
They got a problem with the cable
to the press room. What's up?
I'm thinking of leaving.
- You go ahead. What are you talking about?
- I'm thinking of leaving.
Hausner's just about to
start his cross-examination.
It doesn't matter,
Hausner won't crack him.
- Then film Eichmann not cracking.
- You could do that. Or Millek.
This is a Milton Fruchtman production,
directed by Leo Hurwitz.
This is a Capital Cities production.
And without me they wouldn't be
within a million miles of this trial
and without you they wouldn't have
a tenth of the audience that they have.
You don't want to finish what you started?
You think you've failed, is that it?
Yes. By my standards, I think I've failed.
Why? Because you couldn't locate
the humanity in Adolf Eichmann?
Jesus, Leo, what if it's not there?
What if you
couldn't find it because
he doesn't have it?
- I'm sorry, I just can't believe that.
- That's too bad.
If Eichmann wants the world
to think that he was a small cog
in a vast machine of death, let him.
- Milton -
In trying to prove that, he'll allow
Hausner to dissect and expose that machine
and its legacy, and we will
have it all on record.
I really thought that
we would find him today.
I really thought that if nothing else,
we'd see a chink in his armour
we'd see the slightest
hint of humanity in the man.
Leo, it doesn't matter.
Because from this point until forever,
whenever anyone tries to deny
what happened to the Jews of Europe
under the Nazis, they can be sat down
and invited to watch
Obersturmbannfhrer Eichmann
describe in minute detail
how it was done.
Now, that is not nothing.
In fact that is... quite something.
Think about it. You're staying,
Leo. Walk with me.
Where are we going?
They're laying a cable
past Eichmann's cell.
- They allowed that?
- They had to, or no show.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Mr Fruchtman?
- Oh, give me a second.
Milton...
I never got the chance to thank for you
for going out on a limb and hiring me.
- You don't have to do that.
- Nevertheless, I'm glad you did.
Me too, Leo. Yeah, me too.
Shall we?
Give me two minutes, Leo.
Move on.
It was good?
Thank you.
We listened all day, on the radio.
When we first arrived, Mr Horowitz
- 'Hurwitz. '
we did not speak about
what had happened.
But people ask us, 'Who are you,
what happened to you?' And so we told.
And they say,
'It cannot be true. You invent this.
Such things are not possible. '
I say, 'If I could make up
such things I would be in Hollywood
not running a cheap hotel in Jerusalem. '
But they do not believe, and so
we stop speaking about what happened.
Except to whisper it in our sleep.
Since the trial begins,
I see them listen now.
On bus, in shops, in
cafeteria, they listen.
I go to market this morning and a
young girl asked me about my number.
And they watch, yes? All over the world.
So I'm told.
Because of you.
- Oh no, I...
- Because of you. Because of you.
Mrs Landau, I can't. Really.
- Please.
- Thank you.
Good morning. Finally Hausner
gets to go toe to toe with him.
Eichmann cross-examined
by a Jew in the heart
of the Jewish state.
It is a great day.
And we need to be at our
very best today, gentlemen.
I'm going to read what you said.
Listen to this.
Camera three stand by.
"And this is how it was with the Jews - "
Take three, close on Hausner.
"Who were like a new born baby,
unprepared.
I received the order to take
action against the 'guests'.
I thought about the question and when
I saw it was absolutely necessary
I carried out the orders
with the fanaticism one expects
from someone who has long been
a National Socialist
and also one who has been assigned
to do this job." Did you say that?
- I said I didn't know.
- Did you say that? Yes or no?
I don't know. Maybe I'd been drinking.
Maybe I didn't say it.
Maybe it was added afterwards.
Maybe you're full of shit.
Camera one, stand by. Take one.
Yes, because I consider oath-breaking
to be the worst possible crime
and offence a person can be guilty of.
A greater crime than the murder
of six million people
including one and a half million children?
No, of course not.
But I had nothing to do with that.
I did not deal with the extermination.
In your eyes, was someone
who was involved
with the extermination
of the Jews a criminal?
Such a person was an unhappy man.
- Stand by on two.
- Was he a criminal? Yes or no?
Close on Hausner.
I would not venture to
answer this question, as
I was never put or placed
in such a situation.
You saw Hoess doing this in Auschwitz.
- At that time did you consider him to be a criminal?
- Take one.
- A murderer?
- I told him that what he was ordered to do
I could never do.
But that is not my question.
My question is whether at heart
you saw him as a murderer?
If he answers yes,
he'll incriminate himself.
I have not answered this before,
I have no intention of answering today.
Because what my inner life
tells me is something I carry with me.
Whatever else he might be,
this is not a stupid man.
- Ready camera two.
- How did you regard Hoess...
when you saw him as a murderer of Jews? How
did you regard him? As a criminal or not?
- Answer.
- I pitied him and felt sorry for him.
Did you regard him as a criminal or not?
- Yes or no, it's a simple question.
- I shall not reveal my innermost feelings.
In other words, Hoess
was not a criminal in your eyes.
I did not say you ordered the foot march.
I know the Chief of the Security Police
ordered it, but I say you initiated it.
No, that was hardly possible, because when
the foot march took place I was in Berlin.
Alright, alright. No is quite good enough.
Now look at page 62 of your statement.
Go ahead and read it out loud.
'In order, so to speak,
to show my iron fist
to the Allies and also
to tell them at the same time
it is not going to change anything even
if you destroyed the lines of communication
to the Reich and bombed them
to pieces, we will still march.
I have ten thousand Jews from
some Eastern provinces or other.
In accordance with my
proposal, and since I was no
longer able to run a
transport by rail from there
I had them march from Budapest to the
lower Austrian border in a foot march.
I had the order from the
Chief of the Security
Police and the Security
Service to this effect.
It is true that I could never have issued
such an order myself. I did propose this.'
You did propose this, correct?
Hold on Eichmann.
I admit that much, yes.
- Hausner's got him.
- He's lost. He's lost.
Well done, everybody.
Great job.
In the courtroom at
Jerusalem, nearly four
months have passed since
the jurors retired...
Even if the defendant did
act out of blind obedience
a man who took part in crimes
of such magnitude for years
should endure the greatest
punishment known to law.
This court sentences
Adolf Eichmann to death.
We did it.
For each of us who has
ever felt that God
created us better than
any other human being
has stood on the threshold
where Eichmann once stood.
And each of us who has allowed
the shape of another person's nose
or the colour of their skin, or the
manner in which they worship their god
to poison our feelings toward them
has known the loss of reason
that led Eichmann to his madness
For this was how it all began,
with those who did these things.
The war is over. 50 million dead
including six million murdered Jews.
As leading Nazis are captured
one name slowly rises to the top
of the most wanted list -
Adolf Eichmann
the SS officer accused of
planning the Final Solution
to the Jewish Question.
It will take the
Israeli secret service 15 years
to track him down to his
hiding place in Argentina.
On 11th May 1960, a man living under the
name Ricardo Klement
is kidnapped and taken
to a safe house in Buenos Aires
to be interrogated.
What is your name? Your name.
What is your SS number?
- Your name.
- Eichmann.
- Say it.
- Eichmann. Eichmann.
My name is Adolf Eichmann.
In capturing the man - in capturing the man
responsible - responsible for the...
execution of the Final Solution
of the Jewish problem
you have done something truly
extraordinary.
Eichmann will be judged in Israel.
Tell the world - no, show the world,
to show the world what the Nazis did
to show the world what the
Nazis did to the Jewish people.
Let's use television to do this.
Let's use television to do this.
Only television can do this.
In... in granting permission
for Capital Cities
to film the trial of Eichmann
on Israeli soil
you will become a part of the
most important television event in history
past, present and...
yeah, why not? Future.
The Prime Minister will see you now.
Prime Minister.
- Mr Hurwitz?
- Speaking.
I'm Milton Fruchtman.
I'd like to talk to you about a job.
- You do know no one's hiring me right now?
- Yes, but I'd like to change that.
Adolf Eichmann, it's going to be
the trial of the century.
How would you like to film it?
The papers call him a monster.
Sure. Because monsters sell more papers.
This says you're officially
off the blacklist.
Yeah, well... it's the unofficial ones
you need to worry about.
- You work on the trial?
- Yes.
We should have put a bullet in his head
in Buenos Aires and left him there.
- Welcome to Israel.
- Thank you.
Leo Hurwitz?
Well, you're holding a sign that says
'Leo Hurwitz, ' so I guess so.
- Pleasure to meet you, Mr Hurwitz.
- Leo.
- I'm Perry, as in Como.
- It's a pleasure to meet you, Perry.
How was the flight?
- I managed to get some work done.
- Lucky you.
Coming over was my first time
on a plane.
Puked so much they locked me
in a toilet till we touched down.
That's great, Perry.
Without cameras we can't film.
We have to find a way.
Of course I'm going to tell him.
We're working around the clock
to make sure that the -
He's arrived.
Yeah, I'm literally about to
offer him my hand to shake.
We'll talk later. Leo.
Milton.
Leo Hurwitz, I cannot tell you
how relieved I am to finally have you here!
- You have cases?
- In the car.
Drop them off at the
hotel, would you, Perry?
Sure.
I say 'hotel', it's not really a hotel
as we would know it
but it's clean, they have rooms,
serve food.
- Meet Judy, my secretary.
- Hi.
And Alan, my production assistant.
You join us from a kibbutz, right,
where you've been working on...
A small documentary.
And, if I'm being completely honest
a particularly beautiful girl.
But yeah, mainly the documentary.
It's a pleasure to meet you, Alan.
Alan, have the team meet us
in the courtroom in ten minutes.
Right.
How's that looking?
That's excellent. We
should talk about that.
Come and meet David.
Leo, I'd like you to meet
our lawyer, David Arad.
David, we finally
have our director.
- Mr Hurwitz.
- Leo, please.
It's wonderful to meet you at last.
You got a problem, David'll fix it.
In five different ways.
One of which may or may not
involve the use of a gun.
Most issues can generally be resolved by
understanding the position of the other.
The issue with the judges, however...
There's an issue?
Milton, there's an issue
with the judges?
As you know, we have a contract with the
Israeli government to film this trial.
But there is a condition.
The three trial judges
must give their permission.
And we don't have permission?
Yesterday they came to inspect the cameras.
And?
And they found them
too loud and too visible.
I flew five and a half thousand miles
and you don't have permission to film?
- Yet.
- 'Yet.' I find that so reassuring.
Look, I know this is a shock,
but right now we need to press on.
Come.
Leo, this is Ron and Roy, our terrific
Marconi engineers from England.
Terrific's perhaps overstating
the point, but...
We're well-trained
and at your disposal, Mr Hurwitz.
Leo, please.
We're having a bit of trouble
with the contrast.
Well, that's not really going to be an
issue unless we find invisible cameras.
Come on, I'll show you the courtroom.
Thank you, gentlemen, carry on.
Thanks.
The court will be connected
to the control room by cables
running between the two roofs.
So in addition to the trial being
relayed live to Israelis in the streets
there is also going to be
live coverage every day on the radio.
What about television, Milton?
We don't even know
if we're going to be able to film.
What alternative do we have?
- Well, I'm glad you're so positive.
- What else would I be?
The press room.
Phones, telex, typewriters
a direct feed to the courtroom
allowing hundreds of people
from reporters to philosophers,
to scrutinise, decipher
and judge every inch
of your footage as it unfolds.
If there is any footage.
There has to be footage, and there will be.
C'mon, let's meet your cameramen.
- My cameramen?
- Here we go.
Milton, I pick my own team.
Jesus, it's a theatre.
Ah.
Mr Hurwitz is here,
so I'll bring him over.
Leo.
I'd like to introduce you
to your camera operators.
This is Rolf, Yaakov, Millek and Fred.
On behalf of my colleagues
I'd like to welcome you to our country.
It's a great honour for
us to work with the
distinguished director
of such documentaries
as Native Land and the antifascist
masterpiece Strange Victory.
It's a pleasure to meet you gentlemen...
It's shameful that an artist
of your stature and humanity
should be blacklisted by the
House Un-American Activities Committee
It's frightening what these guys know.
They even knew that
I worked with Rita Hayworth.
These gentlemen are the crme
de la crme of the Israeli film industry
Yeah, well they're going to need to be.
- Milton, your taxi's here.
- Thank you. Excuse me.
It's a pleasure to meet you, gentlemen.
You'll like the Israeli press attach.
He's like the sphinx, only Jewish.
Thanks, Judy.
- We don't have time for PR, Milton.
- This isn't PR.
We have a contract with
the Israeli government.
They're concerned the judges
won't ever give us permission to film.
And what if they don't?
If they don't, Capital
Cities lose the half
million dollars they've
spent on the production
the thirty-seven countries
we promised the footage to
will never see the Eichmann trial
and, well, our names
become the punchline
to an industry joke
told for decades to come.
Why are we meeting the Israeli press
secretary at an Arab cafe?
Because the coffee is out of this world.
The newspapers describe this
as the trial of the century
but my superiors see it as
something far more important.
They see this trial as an opportunity
for a Jewish Nuremberg.
Survivors of the genocide very
often held in low regard here in Israel
as if they were complicit
in the crimes that they endured.
Israel and the world needs
to hear what happened to them
from the mouths of the survivors.
So we will broadcast it
live on Israeli radio
but it is essential that
the world must also see
it in their homes on their
television screens.
You said you could film this trial.
So the judges must give us their approval.
Your superiors couldn't quietly
insist the judges give it?
Unlike Nazi Germany,
Israel does not undermine
or compromise the
independence of its judiciary.
We've done all we can
to address the judges' concerns.
- Clearly not.
- Well, we're working on it.
In the meantime you leave us
in a very difficult position.
The decision to televise
was a very great gamble.
Now it must pay off.
Many necks are on the line.
Are you talking to other companies
about taking over the production?
We would be unwise not to have
a fall-back, would we not?
However you do it, the trial must
be filmed. You have three days.
Three?
- You told me five.
- Three days, gentlemen.
You should try the honey cake,
it is the best in Jerusalem.
In the control room, you said...
what - what did you say?
Milton, I'm so tired I
can't remember what I
said twenty seconds ago
let alone an hour ago.
No, you said something about a...
invisible camera...
Leo, that's it.
That is it. We - we
hide the cameras from view.
We make them part of
the fabric of the courtroom.
Put them in the wall?
Yeah, then put a window in the wall
so they can see through.
- Alright.
- You know, this could work.
- So the cameras need to be able to move.
- Ok, fine.
Jesus, we're going to need every carpenter
and plasterer in Jerusalem for this.
- And we've got three days to do it in.
- Just here on the left, please.
Leo. Get some sleep.
I may feel well enough to get
the first plane back to New York.
See you tomorrow.
- Yes?
- Hurwitz.
Ah yes, Mr Horowitz.
'Hurwitz'.
As I said.
- You are tired, yes?
- Very.
You are Jewish? All Jews sleep well
in Jerusalem, Mr Horowitz.
'Hurwitz'.
Gentlemen, as you know, the judges
will be returning in two days
and when they do,
we need to be working as a team.
Because if we fail to get permission,
well, we'll all be going home.
I believe that in my absence
you've been familiarised with the technical
aspects of our television cameras.
Those cameras must now become
extensions of your own eyes
so that you can become
extensions of mine.
Right, right, right. Ok, stop. Stop.
And we have three days to become a team.
To act, to act, to act as one.
Alright gentleman,
let's give this a shot shall we?
As you film, I will edit directly
onto a master tape.
I'm going to need 100 per cent
of your concentration.
Ready, camera two.
This is going to be mentally
and physically challenging.
And most likely the most
interesting thing you ever do.
Got it.
Take two.
Our objective is to use images
to reveal the events of that courtroom.
Ready on the auditorium. Thank you.
Take two. Take three. Good.
The camera bridges distance.
Better. Keep the rhythm.
- It will show detail.
- Take four.
- Eichmann's face. His hands.
- Take one.
The expressions of the judges,
the counsel.
Camera one on the judges' bench.
Thank you, nice and smooth.
Take two. Take two.
Take two! Ok, stop. Stop. Stop.
I need you to switch immediately.
I want shots of Eichmann
as he speaks and
reacts to things said
and done in the court.
Let's go again, gentlemen. Until we
get this running smooth like water.
Feelings that he may try and mask
emotionally may manifest themselves
in a way that he cannot
physically suppress.
You want us to climb into
the glass box with Eichmann and ask:
'What kind of man are you?'
- Exactly.
Gentlemen, I don't believe in monsters
but I do believe that men are
responsible for monstrous deeds.
What transformed this ordinary man
into someone who was capable of
sending hundreds and thousands
of children to their death
while going home every evening and
kissing his own children goodnight?
- A human being like any one of us.
- He is not like us.
I am not Eichmann, Mr Hurwitz.
Under the right circumstances,
anyone is capable of fascist behaviour.
Not I.
- Yaakov, anyone is capable.
- Not I.
- Fruchtman.
- Mr Fruchtman, listen carefully.
You will close production down
and leave Israel immediately.
Who is this?
The trial of Obersturmbannfhrer Eichmann
will not be allowed to take place.
If you don't leave, Mr Fruchtman, your
wife, your children, I will kill them all.
Hello?
Honey... I won't make it home
for supper tonight.
- I have some things to run through here.
- Ok.
- How are the kids?
- The kids? Fine.
How are things there?
How is Leo getting on?
He's putting them through their paces.
- How are you?
- Fine. We're good.
- The kids?
- Yeah, the kids are good.
- How's the apartment?
- The apartment? In what sense?
Generally.
I think the apartment's fine, Milton.
You want me to go and ask it?
- You have got these calls before?
- I received a few in New York
when it was announced that
I was to produce this show.
A couple of crank letters
to Capital Cities' office.
Nazi bullshit.
Should I warn my people?
It would alarm them unnecessarily.
I will add to the security presence
in your building.
And my family?
- I will take care of it.
- How?
By taking care of it.
I want to talk to you about
your cameraman, Millek.
Ok, gentlemen - and lady -
sssh - thank you.
As some of you may know
this afternoon we learned that the Israeli
authorities have revoked their permission
for Millek to
operate in the courtroom.
Why?
I am a member of the Israeli
Communist Party who
may, in their mind, wish
to attack Eichmann.
Who in their right mind wouldn't want to
attack the bastard? Doesn't mean they will.
I might jump from my box
with a knife between my teeth.
Alright, thank you,
thank you, thank you.
I have tried to explain
at great length that
Millek has no desire
to attack Eichmann
and every desire to see him
stand trial for his crimes.
But to no avail.
So tomorrow morning I start looking
for a replacement cameraman
and hope to find someone
by lunchtime tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Millek will work alongside Leo
in the control room. Excuse me.
Did he say 'control room'?
Leo?
You can't just accept this
stupid decision about Millek.
Their paranoia is through the roof,
as we know
so you and me, we bite several bullets
and get on with what we're here to do.
Want me to tell you
what it was like being
blacklisted for ten years
under McCarthy, Milton?
Oh, be my guest.
Then I can tell you how difficult it was
to hire you when everyone said don't
precisely because you'd been blacklisted.
Jesus, you kidding me?
Look, I know there were easier names
you could have gone to.
- Good names.
- Mhmm. But not the best name.
We'll talk to them about Millek
but right now our focus has to be
on the judges coming, first thing.
Without them we're screwed anyway.
I'm going to go back in.
Milton. When the judges come tomorrow,
bring them straight to the courtroom.
Don't mention the cameras.
We will sell this.
It's the judges.
They'll be here in two minutes.
- They're on their way. Ready?
- As ready as we'll ever be.
Right, gentlemen, as you know, the scale
of this operation is unprecedented.
But as I said to the Prime Minister,
this trial is a unique global event.
Work has clearly taken place.
We are here to re-examine the cameras.
But you do not appear
to have prepared for us.
The cameras are not present.
Gentlemen, would you follow me?
- Alan, could you run the VT please?
- Of course.
Gentlemen, as some of you may know...
we will be sending nightly video
packages to over thirty countries.
The scale of this operation is...
You were filming us? From where?
I don't understand.
We've taken the cameras
out of the court and hidden them.
But how they will see in?
We've rebuilt the walls of the courtroom
to create space to hide our cameras.
We've built slits into the walls
which the cameras can track along
giving a range of positions
from which to film.
The slits are covered with chicken wire
to reflect the courtroom lights.
This enables the camera to see
through the wire into the court
while still being masked from sight.
We hope that this has addressed
all of your concerns.
If the judges say no cameras
a second time?
There won't be a third.
Well, even to get this far -
No, there's no consolation prize, Eva.
I'll be the guy who dropped
the Eichmann show.
They'll hang me out to dry.
I'll have to send you out
to work on the streets to support us.
Get dressed. Wait with the children.
- What?
- Just do it.
Who is it?
Milton, what's happening?
- Who's there?
- David Landor.
I hope I'm not disturbing you.
Please...
Leo? If you're asleep - wake up. Leo!
- What's happening?
- Read.
'Where there is no publicity,
there is no justice.'
'It keeps the judge himself
while trying under trial.'
'The security of security is publicity.'
We did it. We're going to film the trial of
Obersturmbannfhrer Adolf Eichmann
Nazi Party number 889895.
SS number 45326.
Christ, Leo, this is really happening.
It's great.
I left Eva in the bath.
Right.
- See you later.
- Bye.
I'm standing in front
of the building where
in only a few hours' time
what has been described as the
trial of the century will begin.
And the eyes of the world
will fall upon Adolf Eichmann
the Nazi responsible for organising the
mass murder of six million European Jews.
It isn't only Eichmann who will be on trial
over the next few days and weeks
the state of Israel will also
be under intense scrutiny
as it attempts to mount
a fair trial of the
man tasked with destroying
the Jewish people.
This city, this country,
the entire world,
is under a state of
heightened anticipation.
The stakes could not be higher.
In televising this trial
the state of Israel hopes to show
many of its own people across the world
the full horror of what
befell those of their
faith who lived in Europe
through the Nazi era.
Israel hopes to impart
to a new generation
an understanding of the cunning cruelty
employed by the Nazis
to lure their people to their deaths
through the lie they were being
sent to work camps.
And it is also seeking to impress
on the consciousness of humanity
that these crimes, which have no precedent
in the entire history of man on earth
were committed in an enlightened age -
on Jews this time -
but could be committed
against others in the future.
To show the world that in the end this
is a crime that affects every one of us.
Alright, gentlemen.
This is it. Moment of truth.
What are you thinking
at this precise moment?
Of everything that could go wrong.
Alright, gentlemen,
rehearsal is over.
Camera three, ready. Take three.
Camera four, ready.
Stay on the bench with the judges.
Camera four, ready.
On Eichmann. Take four.
Adolf Eichmann, rise.
You are accused before this court
according to the indictment
which includes 15 counts...
Wide on the auditorium.
Adolf, son of Adolf Karl Eichmann
is accused here by the first count.
Nature of offence:
Crime against the Jewish people.
Particulars of the offence:
The accused together with others
during the period of 1936...
- Take two.
- ...to 1945
caused the killings of millions of Jews
in his capacity as the person responsible
for the execution of the Nazi plan
for the physical extermination of the Jews
known as the Final Solution
of the Jewish Problem.
Here ends the first count
brought against you.
Go close on Eichmann.
Adolf Eichmann, do you plead guilty or not
guilty to count one of the indictment?
In the spirit of
the indictment, not guilty.
And now the most important trial
of the 20th century begins.
In the spirit of the indictment,
I am not guilty.
Crime against humanity.
In the spirit of the indictment,
I am not guilty.
Take four. Take two.
Do you plead guilty or not guilty
to count 15 of the indictment?
In the spirit of the indictment,
not guilty.
At the conclusion of the afternoon's
sessions the important job begins
of distributing the tapes of the day's
proceedings around the world.
Copies of the tapes are
required by broadcasters
in New York, London,
Paris, Berlin, Sydney.
Then to the shipping,
not by ship but by air, of course.
It is sent by one of the many airplanes
departing daily from Lodz Airport
ninety minutes
fast driving from Jerusalem.
Then directly onto the
television screens in all our homes
in this exciting new age of mass media.
When I first arrived I had
doubts that we'd make
the beginning of this
day, let alone the end.
But thanks to your hard work we did it.
And I very much appreciate it.
Just how tired and
exhausted you feel right now
is an indicator of
how big the job in hand is.
We have a tremendous responsibility.
In showing this trial to the world
we invite them to ask not only
how Eichmann did it, but why.
Great work today
and a toast to good work.
- Yeah, to good work.
- Good work.
I know a song, it goes like this,
do you know it too?
Oh yes I do, yes I do,
it goes one, two, three four.
Whenever I see you outside of the
control room you're always looking around.
What are you looking for, Leo?
I'm just trying to understand this place.
It's one and a half million people
trying to stay alive.
Don't you think it's ironic that
if it wasn't for Eichmann and the Nazis
we wouldn't even be
having this conversation?
The idea of Israel existed long before
Eichmann and his associates.
The idea but not the reality.
I do not write history, Leo.
Before I came here
I went to see a friend in Brooklyn,
he edits the Jerusalem Post
and I talked to him about writing a weekly
editorial of the Eichmann trial
to try and promote conversation between
the Israelis about the nature of fascism.
It's an idea worth being vigilant about,
wouldn't you say?
And did your friend
take you up on your kind offer?
- He was embarrassed by it.
- Are you really so surprised?
There's too much to contend with
in the present to keep looking back.
But my point is fascism didn't die
when Hitler blew his brains out.
Wherever people set up house,
fascism can exist.
Israel is a new-born calf, Leo.
Still struggling to its feet.
All in good time.
You were in Auschwitz, weren't you?
Yes.
As a survivor, what do you think of
Eichmann when you look at him?
I should get back inside.
The wind is picking up.
One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight -
One more for the boss!
I know a song, it goes like this,
do you know it too?
Oh yes I do, yes I do,
it goes one, two, three, four.
Morning, guys.
Oh, aren't you grumpy?
They know where we live.
Ok. You two, go and play in your room.
Come on, go.
Thank you.
Eva, the police have
a security detail outside...
How good are they
if it didn't stop this?
What if it had been a bomb?
This isn't the first time, Milton.
They're just trying to frighten me
into pulling the production.
How can you be sure
it's just intended to frighten you
and not to warn against worse to come?
I can't. If you want me to stop, I'll stop.
And give the bastards the satisfaction?
I'll see you later.
I love you.
Go to work.
On behalf of us all, Attorney General,
do not fuck this up.
I'm nervous for him.
Does he seem nervous?
Well, he does have the eyes
of the world on him.
Start wide on Hausner, take three.
Zoom in as he begins.
- When I stand before you...
- Standby four.
Judges of Israel, in this court
to accuse Adolf Eichmann...
Take one.
I do not stand alone...
Shouldn't you go in tighter on Hausner?
We need to establish him
as a main character.
I'm not directing a soap opera, Milton.
It's evident that he's a main character.
Here with me at this moment
stand six million prosecutors.
But alas, they cannot rise
to level the finger of accusation
in the direction of the
glass dock and cry out
I accuse, ' against the
man who sits there.
Because their ashes have been piled up
in the mounds of Auschwitz
and the fields of Treblinka
or spilled into the rivers of Poland.
Their graves are scattered throughout
the length and breadth of Europe.
Their blood cries to heaven,
but their voice cannot be heard.
Thus it falls to me
to be their mouthpiece
and to deliver the heinous
accusation in their name.
Early this morning, Adolf Eichmann -
Whoever you are,
wherever you live, whatever you do,
remember April 1961.
The month the Cold War got hot in Cuba
and men finally defied gravity
to blast into space.
The solar system got a whole lot nearer
but the chance of peace
light years further away.
Contrary to what you believe,
we see real and widespread interest.
Thank you, friend, thank you.
How can Eichmann compare with,
say, Gagarin?
People bore of spectacles very quickly.
- It is ridiculous to compare the two.
- Really?
But, isn't your problem that people
may choose to watch one over the other?
Why would they?
They're entirely unrelated.
You don't think one represents the dark
past and the other our glittering future?
My wife is right.
Very little can compete as a spectacle
with the first man in space.
Although isn't it inherently ridiculous to
try one man for the deaths of six million?
- I'd be inclined to agree with that.
- Then why else should people watch?
To learn.
Excuse me.
Give me a sec.
- Goodnight, Leo.
- Goodnight.
Don't stay up too late.
See you tomorrow.
You're not letting them
get to you, are you?
I just don't need
the distraction.
- This is bullshit.
- Maybe.
What, you think they have a point?
We only have control over
how we film the trial
not how the network
sells it to the public.
Once the excitement of seeing
a real life Nazi on trial goes away
who's to say we won't
lose the audience? Mm?
- See you in the morning.
- Yeah.
Er, scotch, please.
Would not be used on the western front.
And accompanied by Bandi Grosz
on Eichmann's orders...
David.
- They can't all be watching Gagarin.
- No. He isn't and she isn't.
Most called away to cover Gagarin
have not returned.
And those that have are following
developments in Cuba.
Jesus. My children have
a longer attention span.
Journalists. They're like magpies,
Mr Fruchtman.
They're quickly drawn to the
shiniest object in their field of vision.
You promised the
Prime Minister an audience.
Hausner has just spent three days
delivering a dry-as-dust lecture
on Israel's right to put Eichmann on trial.
He's boring the shit out of me.
Are you surprised that people are going?
Is there nothing we can do
to make his oration more compelling?
Yeah, off the top of my head, just one -
tell him to stop.
Loaded 1,200 Jews into a deportation
train and sent it on its way.
Whatever you've got planned for the day,
scrap it and think of something better.
Shoot tighter, cut quicker,
whatever you do, add more pace.
Milton -
Gagarin and the Bay
of Pigs are killing us!
- We need to respond.
- We are responding, by holding our nerve.
We can die holding that, Leo.
No one's fucking watching.
Listen, you hired me
because of my experience.
That's what I'm
trying to give you.
That would be enough in a perfect world.
But it's not perfect, Leo.
It's a world with a Russian in space
and counter-revolutionaries
running amok on a Cuban beach.
- We need to compete with that.
- Well, we can't.
Not until the witness testimony
starts to come in.
What if we've lost everyone by then?
Milton, I need my producer
to be visibly calm.
We all know you're anxious,
and none of us needs to see it.
We've got your back, trust us.
When the witness testimony starts,
the audience will come back.
And what if they don't?
Then you hired the wrong guy.
In the building where
Eichmann is being tried
the Israelis are trying to place
before the conscience of the world
the full facts of how
the Nazis and Germany
tried literally to exterminate
millions of the Jewish people in Europe.
We heard how the people
were told to go to the bath house...
Take one.
They all passed through the door
into a long corridor.
We did not know exactly
what was happening.
We were in the basement,
in the cellar.
But there were SS men with great sticks
and they beat the people and
forced them to board the trucks.
But do you know now
what these trucks were?
Yes, now I know what they were.
They were trucks where people
were locked up inside
and then gas was piped into the trucks.
Gas was piped into the trucks.
Stay in close on Eichmann.
Copy.
What happened to you on the next day?
We, five of us, were taken from the cellar,
more people were put into the trucks
We heard the screams from the trucks
and the engine began working
and the gas flowed in.
Then the shouts died off.
Take three.
And on the following day
you yourself went to work
in the wood and saw what was
taking place with your own eyes.
There were 25 people there
and they were all digging pits.
- Ever seen anything like this?
- Never.
You dug graves and then the trucks -
a truck arrived, one of those trucks.
When the trucks arrived we still
were not permitted to approach them.
We had to wait until the truck
had stopped for a few moments
two or three minutes.
And fumes were coming out of
the trucks and we had to wait.
And then five or six people opened
the doors and...
take the bodies and place them
near the pits, right near the trenches.
Were the people dead?
All were completely dead.
No one was alive any more.
And in the third truck some
bodies arrived whom you knew?
This was after I had been
working there for some time
when all the people of my town came.
And who was amongst them?
My wife and my two children.
And you saw them whilst they
were being removed from the truck?
I lay near my wife and two children
and I wanted them to shoot me.
Have you ever heard anything like it?
We should eat.
Still bored?
No, it's tremendous that
it's having this impact.
It helps that Servatius
isn't going to cross examine.
Sorry, no. No. What's that?
I don't know what this is...
Idiot.
I don't think I'd have
the strength to do it.
Hey, identify yourself.
Hey!
He's just qualified.
I'll call you back.
- You are spreading lies to the world.
- Jesus!
Back inside! Close the door
and go under your desk!
- You received my letter?
- Back inside!
You fucking Jews, you have no right -
- You call this protection?
We could have been killed,
every single one of us.
- You let him come to my door? Jesus Christ.
- There will be others after me.
Heil Hitler.
Gentlemen.
Thank you all for staying behind
after yet another long day
when bars and restaurants
and beds are waiting.
I wanted to have us all
here to say two things.
The latest audience research reveals that
our films are being watched nightly by...
huge numbers of people. In the US,
South America, Europe, Australia
ordinary people are being moved and shocked
by what they're seeing
and hearing because of our work.
What was unknown, either wilfully
or by ignorance is becoming known.
What was unspoken is being
discussed and questioned.
Which brings me to my second point,
which will not surprise any of you.
Personal security. Do not take it lightly.
As we saw today, there are people out
there who would love to stop this trial.
Stop us.
Be vigilant. Check under the car,
when you're setting out in the morning.
Check you're not being followed.
If you've any issues, and I mean any,
contact our head of security.
Vigilance, please. Alright, sermon over.
Go and enjoy the rest of
your evening. Thank you.
Why didn't you tell me
you were being threatened?
- You had enough on your plate.
- We eat from the same plate, Milton.
- If it happens again, let me know.
- Sure.
There will be others after me.
- Hey. Hey, is it bedtime? Sleep well.
- Night, Dad.
- Goodnight, Daddy.
- Sleep well.
- Go on up to bed.
- Sorry, I fell asleep.
Don't worry.
- Ok?
- Yeah, are you ok?
I think so.
- Come to bed.
- Yeah, I'll be...
Mrs Landau?
I want to ask you a question.
My feet are too tired for questions.
- Just - just one.
- What?
- You were a refugee after the war?
- From Czechoslovakia. So?
- You like it here?
I would prefer to be
running the King David.
I - I didn't mean this hotel.
I meant Israel.
I fought in the war for independence -
against the British and then the Arabs.
Right, the Arabs.
But this was their country.
We wanted it more.
So Israel is your home?
The world gave it to us.
It is my country now.
What is it about it
that you love so much?
Here we breathe a free air.
You are a Jew, you must feel this.
- All done?
- Yeah. Thank you.
Some of the young people tried to run
but they were shot.
They were shot right there.
How did you survive through all this?
We... We were driven.
We were already undressed.
The clothes were removed, taken away.
Our father did not want to undress.
He remained in his underwear.
We were driven up to the...
Milton... I need to stop.
- Yaakov, are you ok?
- I cannot breathe.
Yaakov? Yaakov? Leo, Yaakov's in
trouble. I need to go get him out.
Yaakov, stay with the camera.
Milton's on his way.
I'm not so good, Leo.
Camera four ready.
Let's go close on Eichmann.
No, no, not the witness, Eichmann.
We were already facing the graves.
I felt him take the child from my arms.
The child cried out and was shot.
Get close on his eyes.
And then he aimed at me.
How can you sit
there and watch this?
He held onto my hair
and turned my head around.
Do something.
Get close on his eyes.
Get close on his eyes.
And he aimed the revolver at me.
And ordered me to watch
and then turned my
head around and shot at me.
Then I fell. I tried to move and felt
that I was alive and that I could rise.
I heard the shot
and I was praying for another
bullet to put an end to my suffering
But I felt that I was
choking, climbing
towards the top of the
grave above the bodies
I rose, and I felt bodies
pulling at me with their hands
- biting at my legs, pulling me down.
- How can you sit there day after day...
and listen to this?
With my last strength,
I came up on top of the grave.
So many bodies. I wanted to see
the end of this stretch of dead bodies
but I could not.
Yaakov?
The, er, the camp I was in provided
slave labour for a Messerschmitt factory.
How they expected us to work on the -
the rations we got, I - I do not know.
We were skeletons
covered with skin and...
with bruises from the beatings we were
given for the slightest mistake.
When I washed myself
I could not recognise my own body by touch.
My ribs were like the keys of a piano.
I - I don't think it's right
to expect him to continue this work.
No, it is, it's important. I want to do it.
But not at the expense of your health.
For the first time people who were there
feel they have permission to speak.
We see these witnesses
in the place called the witness stand
and for the very first time
they look into the audience
and they see people leaning forward
listening to what they have to say.
Not turning away.
Yaakov, in the control room we're all...
deeply affected by what
we're hearing and we're removed.
You don't have to do this to yourself.
I'm not going to let you
do this to yourself.
- I feel I am letting you down.
- It is us who'd be letting you down.
Mr Hausner showing the witness
a suit of striped clothes.
Is that what you used to
wear, wear at Auschwitz?
Yes. This is the garb of those
who lived on this planet called Auschwitz.
If I am able to stand here
in this court before you as we tell -
we tell the tale of this planet.
If I, fall-out of that planet,
am able to be here at this time then -
Is he ok?
- He's a poet.
I believe with perfect faith that this is
due to the oath I have sworn to them there
the oath I have sworn to them.
They gave me this strength.
They gave me the strength.
What's Eichmann doing?
Could I ask Mr Dinur a few questions,
with your consent?
Go close on Eichmann.
Please listen to Mr Hausner and hear...
- Did we get that?
- No, we were on Eichmann.
President of Court, I'll have to stop
this session unless the witness recovers.
Mr Hausner, I do not expect this of course
to happen and I think we cannot continue...
Did you get it?
We got almost everything,
but I think we missed the collapse.
You missed the collapse? Jesus, Leo.
We might have got a couple
of seconds of it, but
it's impossible to anticipate
something like that.
- I'd have put money on it.
- Fuck you, Alan. Get the fuck out.
Hey.
Gentlemen, would you
give us five minutes please?
Thank you.
Shut the door, Millek.
That was a stand-out moment, Leo.
Like someone crying out in the auditorium.
- Talking points, human drama.
- That's a real damaged life in there
- not a fucking TV show.
- And a fucking TV show. And. And.
I'm sorry if that doesn't sit
with your artistic sensibility
but while we're here on Israel's
dime that's exactly what it is.
Christ, you're supposed to
be filming the trial as a whole.
- But you're obsessed with Eichmann.
- I can't understand why you're not.
Don't patronise me.
Your job, your fucking job
is to film what happens in that courtroom
not to conduct a personal
investigation into the nature of evil.
- Why can't it be both?
- Because one gets in the way of the other.
And that's not going to happen,
not on my production.
- Well, I beg to differ.
- I don't give a fuck what you beg.
I'm paying your wages, Mr Hurwitz.
Differ in your own time.
In Paris they were all deported
in the second half of August
and the beginning of September,
in the space of about two weeks
in convoys consisting of
one thousand children
and five hundred adults
taken from Drancy.
I saw them. They arrived in four
transports of one thousand children.
This live cargo would
be taken off the
trucks rapidly to make
room for other buses.
This was done swiftly and the
unhappy children, mixed up and scared
came down in groups quietly.
There were small children
of two, three or
four years of age who did
not know their names
and it was impossible to identify them.
We found girls carrying
disks with boys' names
and boys with girls' names on their disks.
Let me just ask you this, Mr Wellers.
In 1944 when you came to Auschwitz
did you then see any one
of these children alive?
No, I did not. There were four
transports arriving every few days
one thousand people in each
transport, one thousand children
two hundred adults on each
transport, and in all four transports
four thousand children.
There were many who died,
some en route...
I estimate the number of suicides
at about one hundred.
Want me to switch away?
Stay on Eichmann.
- Leo.
- Stay on him.
Alan, switch to the witness.
Come on, do something.
Leo.
- Leo, there's some people to see you.
- I'm not expecting anyone. Tell them I'm busy.
- Well, they want to see you.
- Just tell them I'm busy.
- They said you'd say that.
- Leo, would you just go? I got this.
We wanted to surprise you.
- Right. Right. How was your journey?
- Good.
- Did you enjoy flying?
- Sure.
- What?
- You look old.
I am old.
We were working there with those
'Rollenwagen' which we were driving.
- You entered the crematorium?
- Yes, I entered the crematorium.
We had to go there in order to
take the wood which was...
- To the witness. Take one.
- ...to be used for burning.
- We had to take...
- Number four, stand by.
Some of the wood to the camps from the
crematorium, when there was still time
and when it was very cold.
The kapo of the Sonderkommando
took pity on us and said
'Children, it's very cold
outside, perhaps you
can warm yourselves
in the gas chambers.'
The gas chambers were not operating then.
And you would go into
the crematorium to warm yourselves?
- So sometimes...
- Tommy?
- We would go to the...
- I'm fine.
Crematorium, or even to the
gas chambers where it was much warmer...
Is this all true?
Sometimes it would happen that
when we arrived at the crematorium...
He was the same age as you.
They said, 'You can't possibly go in
because there are people inside. '
And Eichmann just sits.
And Eichmann just sits.
Camera two, stand by.
Did you use ashes of human beings to
spread it on the roads?
- Yes.
- What for?
So that people could walk
on the road and not slide.
- So they do not slip in the camp?
- Yes, in the camp.
What I want is that single
spotlight directly on Eichmann
as he's watching the camp footage.
The rest of the auditorium
is completely dark.
That allows the audience
to observe Eichmann
- as he reacts to what he's watching.
- The audience or you?
Leo -
Bringing him face to face with
the visual consequences of his actions
- will finally make him crack, it has to.
- Leo.
Eichmann attended mass shootings
for the SS elite to show
that you could stomach
the most brutal bloodshed.
It was a badge of
ideological superiority.
How likely is it he's
going to show weakness now
- before his Jewish captors?
- Sitting alone in that chair
watching the worst atrocities
known to mankind
it'll be impossible for him
to deny his participation.
- Leo? Leo!
- What?
I'm taking Tommy to Greece.
- Why?
- I don't want him here.
- Don't you think he should see this?
- I don't want him watching this 8 hours a day
day in, day out
for God knows how much longer.
Which is what he will do,
because that's what you're doing.
Am I doing the right thing?
You think I'll get him?
- Look after him, won't you?
- Uh-huh.
I want to be honest with you, Leo.
I'm under instruction from Milton
to not talk about Eichmann on this trip.
- It's to give you a rest from the trial.
- Yeah, I understand.
- To give you a rest from Eichmann.
- I understand.
- What are you thinking?
- About Eichmann.
- Where do these people come from?
- Wherever they want to.
The Bedouin do not perceive
borders or governments.
They side with no one, threaten no one.
And they're left alone to roam freely.
Where do I sign up?
When you watch him, Millek,
what do you think of him?
A dog refusing to betray his master.
Till people see him react the way they do
to this testimony
they'll not fully understand that men,
not monsters, create fascists.
Why must people see this?
So that they understand that
we're all capable of it.
And to resist the temptation.
If the witness testimony does not make
Eichmann crack, perhaps he never will.
When the prosecution
makes him sit and watch the film -
Auschwitz, Birkenau, Belsen
the actual documentary footage of
the atrocities, the shootings, the gassing
the mass murder, it'll just be impossible
for him to subvert his subconscious.
This is the unique power
of film, is it not?
This is what you believe.
This is what I have learned
in my years as a filmmaker.
While he watches, we'll be watching him.
Only then will we see the real Eichmann.
Close on Eichmann.
- Was that a smile?
- I don't think so.
I'm... afraid I'm going
to have to leave the room.
If anyone else has to step outside,
there's no permission required.
How can you just sit there?
How can you not turn away, not even flinch.
Where are you? Where the fuck are you!
They got a problem with the cable
to the press room. What's up?
I'm thinking of leaving.
- You go ahead. What are you talking about?
- I'm thinking of leaving.
Hausner's just about to
start his cross-examination.
It doesn't matter,
Hausner won't crack him.
- Then film Eichmann not cracking.
- You could do that. Or Millek.
This is a Milton Fruchtman production,
directed by Leo Hurwitz.
This is a Capital Cities production.
And without me they wouldn't be
within a million miles of this trial
and without you they wouldn't have
a tenth of the audience that they have.
You don't want to finish what you started?
You think you've failed, is that it?
Yes. By my standards, I think I've failed.
Why? Because you couldn't locate
the humanity in Adolf Eichmann?
Jesus, Leo, what if it's not there?
What if you
couldn't find it because
he doesn't have it?
- I'm sorry, I just can't believe that.
- That's too bad.
If Eichmann wants the world
to think that he was a small cog
in a vast machine of death, let him.
- Milton -
In trying to prove that, he'll allow
Hausner to dissect and expose that machine
and its legacy, and we will
have it all on record.
I really thought that
we would find him today.
I really thought that if nothing else,
we'd see a chink in his armour
we'd see the slightest
hint of humanity in the man.
Leo, it doesn't matter.
Because from this point until forever,
whenever anyone tries to deny
what happened to the Jews of Europe
under the Nazis, they can be sat down
and invited to watch
Obersturmbannfhrer Eichmann
describe in minute detail
how it was done.
Now, that is not nothing.
In fact that is... quite something.
Think about it. You're staying,
Leo. Walk with me.
Where are we going?
They're laying a cable
past Eichmann's cell.
- They allowed that?
- They had to, or no show.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Mr Fruchtman?
- Oh, give me a second.
Milton...
I never got the chance to thank for you
for going out on a limb and hiring me.
- You don't have to do that.
- Nevertheless, I'm glad you did.
Me too, Leo. Yeah, me too.
Shall we?
Give me two minutes, Leo.
Move on.
It was good?
Thank you.
We listened all day, on the radio.
When we first arrived, Mr Horowitz
- 'Hurwitz. '
we did not speak about
what had happened.
But people ask us, 'Who are you,
what happened to you?' And so we told.
And they say,
'It cannot be true. You invent this.
Such things are not possible. '
I say, 'If I could make up
such things I would be in Hollywood
not running a cheap hotel in Jerusalem. '
But they do not believe, and so
we stop speaking about what happened.
Except to whisper it in our sleep.
Since the trial begins,
I see them listen now.
On bus, in shops, in
cafeteria, they listen.
I go to market this morning and a
young girl asked me about my number.
And they watch, yes? All over the world.
So I'm told.
Because of you.
- Oh no, I...
- Because of you. Because of you.
Mrs Landau, I can't. Really.
- Please.
- Thank you.
Good morning. Finally Hausner
gets to go toe to toe with him.
Eichmann cross-examined
by a Jew in the heart
of the Jewish state.
It is a great day.
And we need to be at our
very best today, gentlemen.
I'm going to read what you said.
Listen to this.
Camera three stand by.
"And this is how it was with the Jews - "
Take three, close on Hausner.
"Who were like a new born baby,
unprepared.
I received the order to take
action against the 'guests'.
I thought about the question and when
I saw it was absolutely necessary
I carried out the orders
with the fanaticism one expects
from someone who has long been
a National Socialist
and also one who has been assigned
to do this job." Did you say that?
- I said I didn't know.
- Did you say that? Yes or no?
I don't know. Maybe I'd been drinking.
Maybe I didn't say it.
Maybe it was added afterwards.
Maybe you're full of shit.
Camera one, stand by. Take one.
Yes, because I consider oath-breaking
to be the worst possible crime
and offence a person can be guilty of.
A greater crime than the murder
of six million people
including one and a half million children?
No, of course not.
But I had nothing to do with that.
I did not deal with the extermination.
In your eyes, was someone
who was involved
with the extermination
of the Jews a criminal?
Such a person was an unhappy man.
- Stand by on two.
- Was he a criminal? Yes or no?
Close on Hausner.
I would not venture to
answer this question, as
I was never put or placed
in such a situation.
You saw Hoess doing this in Auschwitz.
- At that time did you consider him to be a criminal?
- Take one.
- A murderer?
- I told him that what he was ordered to do
I could never do.
But that is not my question.
My question is whether at heart
you saw him as a murderer?
If he answers yes,
he'll incriminate himself.
I have not answered this before,
I have no intention of answering today.
Because what my inner life
tells me is something I carry with me.
Whatever else he might be,
this is not a stupid man.
- Ready camera two.
- How did you regard Hoess...
when you saw him as a murderer of Jews? How
did you regard him? As a criminal or not?
- Answer.
- I pitied him and felt sorry for him.
Did you regard him as a criminal or not?
- Yes or no, it's a simple question.
- I shall not reveal my innermost feelings.
In other words, Hoess
was not a criminal in your eyes.
I did not say you ordered the foot march.
I know the Chief of the Security Police
ordered it, but I say you initiated it.
No, that was hardly possible, because when
the foot march took place I was in Berlin.
Alright, alright. No is quite good enough.
Now look at page 62 of your statement.
Go ahead and read it out loud.
'In order, so to speak,
to show my iron fist
to the Allies and also
to tell them at the same time
it is not going to change anything even
if you destroyed the lines of communication
to the Reich and bombed them
to pieces, we will still march.
I have ten thousand Jews from
some Eastern provinces or other.
In accordance with my
proposal, and since I was no
longer able to run a
transport by rail from there
I had them march from Budapest to the
lower Austrian border in a foot march.
I had the order from the
Chief of the Security
Police and the Security
Service to this effect.
It is true that I could never have issued
such an order myself. I did propose this.'
You did propose this, correct?
Hold on Eichmann.
I admit that much, yes.
- Hausner's got him.
- He's lost. He's lost.
Well done, everybody.
Great job.
In the courtroom at
Jerusalem, nearly four
months have passed since
the jurors retired...
Even if the defendant did
act out of blind obedience
a man who took part in crimes
of such magnitude for years
should endure the greatest
punishment known to law.
This court sentences
Adolf Eichmann to death.
We did it.
For each of us who has
ever felt that God
created us better than
any other human being
has stood on the threshold
where Eichmann once stood.
And each of us who has allowed
the shape of another person's nose
or the colour of their skin, or the
manner in which they worship their god
to poison our feelings toward them
has known the loss of reason
that led Eichmann to his madness
For this was how it all began,
with those who did these things.