The Eichmann Show Page #7

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 f*** 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 sh*t.

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

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