Original subtitles

ADOLF EICHMANN [speaking German]

NARRATOR [in English]: Previously on

The Devil's Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes...

Adolf Eichmann evades capture by the Allies for 15 years,

fleeing to Argentina.

Following Eichmann's capture in 1960,

Nazi journalist Willem Sassen takes advantage of the media frenzy

and sells excerpts of the interviews toLife Magazine.

LAWRENCE DOUGLAS: The publication of the Life Magazineinterview

I think was an astonishing moment.

Almost worldwide sensation.

MAN [speaking German]

NARRATOR [in English]: This enrages Eichmann's family and supporters,

who demand Sassen turn over the tapes.

SASKIA SASSEN: When the Eichmann story blows into the public,

the Nazis who were still around in Argentina,

they moved against my father,

because my father betrayed, in their eyes.

NARRATOR: But fearing for his life, Sassen denies knowing their whereabouts.

MAN [speaking Hebrew]

NARRATOR: Nazis have always denied their role in the Holocaust.

[speaking German]

NARRATOR [in English]: After the war, many fled Europe,

including the architect of the Final Solution -

Adolf Eichmann.

UKI GOÑI: He's practically the last

important Nazi who arrived

in Argentina after the war.

NARRATOR: While hiding in Argentina,

Eichmann records a series of interviews

with Nazi journalist Willem Sassen,

admitting his role in the Holocaust.

Sassen came up with this crazy idea

that he would interview the mastermind of the Holocaust.

This is him boasting about what he did.

NARRATOR: The tapes are rediscovered, and now for the first time,

we'll hear Eichmann admitting his crimes,

a true Nazi confession.

With so many people seeking the tapes,

Sassen knows he needs a safe hiding place

and gives them to an old ally before fleeing to Paraguay.

UKI GOÑI: There was a former Luftwaffe officer

who had also escaped to Argentina after the war.

This man called Dieter Menge.

And Menge made a lot of money.

And Menge had a very large house outside Buenos Aires,

a meeting place for Nazis.

They actually had a flag post where they raised the Nazi flag,

they saw Nazi movies, they toasted to the Fuührer.

Maybe he made a deal with Sassen to sell the tapes to somebody

and they split the money.

You have to bear in mind, you know, these are Nazi adventurers, ex-SS men.

These are people who had no problem with lying

and they had no problem with lying to each other.

NARRATOR: Menge takes no risks and buries the tapes

in his backyard outside of Buenos Aires.

TIMOTHY NAFTALI: Eichmann's taped recollections were self incriminating.

And if accepted at the trial,

Eichmann admitted the charges against him.

NARRATOR: But Eichmann and Sassen aren't the only ones interested in the tapes.

Israeli Attorney General Gideon Hausner,

knows the tapes will prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt,

that Eichmann's repeated claims that he was simply following orders

are nothing more than lies.

The governments of Israel, West Germany and the US

also have a variety of interests that make the very existence

of the tapes problematic.

TIMOTHY NAFTALI: The BND, the West German foreign intelligence service,

had great concern about what Eichmann

had told Sassen and would tell the Israelis.

It wasn't simply the trial of the century.

It was the trial of the century

at the height of the Cold War.

NARRATOR: With the whereabouts of the recordings still in question,

Attorney General Hausner is forced to rely on the excerpts

published inLife Magazine

as evidence of Eichmann's guilt.

DEBORAH LIPSTADT: If I were Hausner, I would have been pleased.

Because it's showing the world who this man was.

It's sort of tilling the soil before we plant.

[speaking Hebrew]

LAWRENCE DOUGLAS [in English]: You could say it simplifies

some of the work of the prosecution

in that it complicates any kind of defense that Eichmann is going to mount,

because it sounds as if he is now acknowledging

his participation in this genocide,

and doing so without the remotest expression of regret.

[speaking Hebrew]

[speaking German]

[speaking Hebrew]

[speaking German]

[in English] Eichmann lied to 2.5 million Jews into their own death

and we seriously believe that we can tell

whether he is telling the truth or not?

Forget it.

[speaking Hebrew]

[speaking German]

[speaking Hebrew]

[speaking German]

BETTINA STANGNETH [in English]: Eichmann is used to being in such a situation.

He is fighting a war on several fronts.

He has the judges, the prosecution, the audience,

and he needs to figure out his role.

Of course he chose the role that he had already performed for Sassen, but in reverse.

To Sassen, he always said:

"I really wasn't a little bureaucrat!"

And it is precisely this role

of the annoyingly bureaucratic and petty-minded guy

that he chooses to play in court.

Eichmann in Jerusalem is a man without a uniform.

He is a man in a slightly oversized suit.

Eichmann knows how to appear different,

with attitude, posture, clothing,

glasses, and haircut.

He knows how to look harmless.

JOSE BRUNNER: Eichmann said he was a clerk who always cooperated

and did what he was told to do.

The psychiatrist who examined him said that it was all a mask.

He didn't really try to please people.

That was how he presented himself to the world.

NARRATOR: To determine his fitness for trial,

Hausner asks for Eichmann to be evaluated by a psychiatrist.

It was a tool, trying to figure out who these people are

who committed murder on such a scale, in such a way,

with such composure.

Maybe we can learn something that will be of relevance in the trial.

The psychiatrist recounts Eichmann's childhood as Eichmann had told him.

He said that his father was very strict. He would often slap him.

He was scared of his father and he learned from his father that he must not be weak.

He realized that he should never show weakness

and he did everything with such loyalty and precision

so that any inkling of the fear in his life wouldn't come out.

The childhood and youth of Adolf Eichmann lack any aura or glamour.

He has no profession until he enlists to the SS.

His senses tell him that there in the SS

he will have a significant career.

When you got this black uniform,

everyone was looking at you

with respect, also with fear,

and you were on the top

of the pyramid of the German people.

You were part of an elite even if you were a worker

or had no school,

no university study, and so on.

GIDEON GREIF: Eichmann becomes an important man.

He has an official car, he has a driver, he has secretaries,

and he must have dreamt about all of this his entire life.

His personal frustration was the reason for the zeal and passion

to achieve at least one big achievement.

And this big achievement is connected

to the persecution of European Jews.

NARRATOR: The Nazis were obsessed with their racial theories

about the inferiority of the Jewish people.

DEBORAH LIPSTADT: The Nazis had this insane belief

that a person's ethnic group or the national group you were part of

or the religious group you were part of were different,

this were the eugenics.

And he really believed

that Jews were inherently different

from Germans.

NARRATOR: In late 1934, Eichmann is appointed to the new department

responsible for Jewish affairs at the SS.

The agency is tasked with surveillance

and terrorizing enemies of the Nazi-German state.

DEBORAH LIPSTADT: Eichmann was devising systems

for identifying Jews,

for following Jews in their activities, for monitoring,

trying to work out for the SS

a systematic way of tracking Jews.

NARRATOR: During his conversations with Sassen,

Eichmann takes the liberty of disclosing

one of Adolf Hitler's biggest secrets.

[speaking German]

NARRATOR [in English]: Eichmann not only tracks the Jews,

but is also responsible for forcing them

to emigrate to different countries.

Looking for potential destinations,

he visits Palestine, then under British rule,

but is quickly detained and expelled.

In his report about the trip,

he describes his anti-Semitic views,

which he also expresses to Sassen.

[speaking German]

[speaking Hebrew]

[speaking German]

LAWRENCE DOUGLAS [in English]: Eichmann characterizes himself in all sorts of ways.

"Look, I was never anti-Semite

and I harbor no ill will towards the Jewish people."

The Sassen interviews

and the Sassen tapes gave a lie to that.

[speaking Hebrew]

[speaking German]

[speaking Hebrew]

[speaking German]

NARRATOR [in English]: Dr. Robert Servatius is chosen

by the family to defend Eichmann,

and in the interest of staging a fair trial,

the Israeli government agrees to pay his salary.

He is a well-known attorney in Germany after representing

a number of Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg Trials.

LAWRENCE DOUGLAS: Servatius was a respectful defense lawyer

at the same time that he tried to defend his client

and he tried to rely on the defense that his client himself supplied.

Namely, that he was just a cog in the machine.

BETTINA STANGNETH: Servatius has to defend his client

and that can only be done if you know what to expect.

And Eichmann, the idiot, doesn't tell his lawyer

that in Argentina he gave an interview

that was a thousand pages long.

Partially, Eichmann lied without end.

REPORTER: Attorney Robert Servatius has stated

that he will withdraw from the defense of Adolf Eichmann

if it turns out that the claims attributed to his client

byLife Magazine are genuine.

Servatius also added that he would check

the credibility of Eichmann's confession with his brother,

Dr. Robert Eichmann, in Linz, Austria.

Naturally, they all wanted their friend, husband, brother

to be properly defended.

And Eichmann's extended family was always ready to help.

They stayed in touch with him and still lived in Austria.

But here, too, it's unknown who

we are dealing with exactly.

The Eichmann family in Austria, at least in part,

benefited from their brother's career.

Eichmann's father, who joined the Nazi party on the same day as his son,

couldn't explain after the war why he owned several things

that formerly belonged to Jewish people.

And in this respect, the family was clearly a part of the inner circle.

NARRATOR: Despite his misgivings, Servatius is persuaded

by the Eichmann family to continue defending him

and in exchange, they agreed to cover his many expenses.

The family also passes encoded messages

through Servatius to Eichmann in Israel.

[Servatius speaking German on phone]

NARRATOR [in English]: Eichmann's personal conferences with his lawyer

lead to a secret meeting of Israeli cabinet members.

GADI WARSHA: The government session focuses on

whether or not to allow a meeting in private

between Servatius and Eichmann.

NARRATOR: At the meeting, it is decided that Eichmann and Servatius

should no longer be allowed to meet in private.

But, Isser Harel, Head of the Israeli Secret Service,

informs everyone that, in fact, the meetings are being secretly recorded

and confirms that Servatius is passing encrypted messages to his client.

[Eichmann speaking German on phone]

[Servatius speaking on phone]

[Eichmann speaking on phone]

GADI WARSHA [in English]: Isser just says, "We listened in on them

and they don't know it," and moves on.

[Servatius speaking German on phone]

NARRATOR [in English]: Hausner himself reassures Servatius

that his attorney-client meetings are not being listened to.

He knows the illegal wiretapping might allow him

to obtain vital information about Sassen's recordings.

[Isser speaking Hebrew on recording]

BETTINA STANGNETH [in English]: The "oak tree" we are talking about

is of great significance to Germans.

When one says that an oak tree won't fall,

it always means that the person shall stand straight,

that he will overcome what he faces,

that everything will be resolved.

With this code, Sassen was saying to Eichmann,

"Don't worry, I hid the tapes."

NARRATOR: With Hausner unable to locate the Sassen tapes,

the court's ultimate decision on whether or not to admit

the Life Magazine article into evidence

will be crucial to him proving Eichmann's guilt.

[speaking Hebrew]

HANNA YABLONKA [in English]: Eichmann is right, of course.

He claimed that what a journalist does

with his freedom of speech

does not apply to him.

LAWRENCE DOUGLAS: There was no way that Hausner

could actually verify

the truthfulness of the Life Magazine article

and the court is trying to demonstrate that look,

we are a court of law.

Even though it looks like highly probative evidence,

we don't really have the resources to authenticate it

and so unfortunately we can't accept it in as evidence.

[speaking Hebrew]

LAWRENCE DOUGLAS [in English]: Sassen was not about

to cooperate with the Israelis.

The contract that he signed with Life Magazine

permitted Lifeto supply some of the materials

to some other media organizations,

but specifically barred Life Magazine

from sharing anything with the Israelis.

So it raises the question of how do you get hold of this material?

[speaking Hebrew]

TIMOTHY NAFTALI [in English]: This is a document showing

that the assistant editor of Life Magazine

gave the CIA an advanced copy of the text

of their article on Eichmann.

What interests Americans

is the propaganda value

of what Eichmann is saying in Life Magazine.

They were worried about how the East Germans

and the Soviets would use this.

NARRATOR: With the battle lines of the Cold War

literally running through the middle of Germany,

many worried about what sensitive material

the Eichmann recordings contained.

TIMOTHY NAFTALI: This was not just about history.

It wasn't just about memory. It wasn't just about justice.

It was also about politics

and foreign policy and security matters,

and it was also about the climax of the Cold War.

To get a sense of where the Cold War was

at the moment of the trial,

keep in mind that the Berlin Wall goes up

while Eichmann is on trial.

[speaking German]

TIMOTHY NAFTALI [in English]: There were two Germanys warring

for the right to be Germany,

but also for the right to be the Germany

that came after Hitler.

Germans were very concerned

that this trial was going to be a source of all sorts of embarrassment,

demonstrating that there are a lot of Nazis

who remained in positions of high power within Germany itself.

REPORTER [speaking German]

TIMOTHY NAFTALI [in English]: The East Germans saw this

as an opportunity to remind the world

that, yeah, there's only one Eichmann,

but that doesn't mean there's only one bad Nazi left

who deserves justice.

And some of them worked for Konrad Adenauer.

NARRATOR: Konrad Adenauer is the first Chancellor of West Germany

after World War II, and is charged with leading his country

from the post-war chaos into the modern era.

The person with perhaps the most to lose

if the tapes are heard during Eichmann's trial

is Adenauer's right-hand man, Hans Globke,

who oversaw the plan for the enforcement

of the Nuremberg Race Laws later carried out by Eichmann.

Hans Globke is one of the most powerful men in West Germany.

He is the closest advisor to Adenauer.

TIMOTHY NAFTALI: Now we know that as a lawyer,

a bureaucrat in the Nazi system,

he helped draft the Nuremberg Laws,

which established the "legal basis"

for discrimination against German Jews.

BETTINA STANGNETH: Why would Adenauer employ someone like Globke?

It was an open offer to all German people:

We integrate all of you, even with a Nazi past.

We're not going to lock you all up.

You may continue working within our establishment.

Since Israel is trying Eichmann,

one cannot overlook the Nuremberg Laws,

because it's obvious that Eichmann will say,

"What do you want from me?

I applied the laws of the Third Reich."

And who made these laws? Hans Globke.

This was a major problem for Adenauer.

And just as East Germany went into overdrive

to start pumping out propaganda,

West Germany was worried about what Eichmann might say.

LAWRENCE DOUGLAS: The BND was very key

in trying to make sure that they had an ear on

what was going on in Israel,

tried to manipulate things a little under the table.

NARRATOR: Eichmann's connections to not only Globke,

but other former Nazi officials who were integrated

into the new West German government could be exposed

if Sassen's recordings are played in court.

Hausner knows that this is against the interest of the West German government

and therefore against the interest of his own government as well.

Hausner is aware that Ben-Gurion,

against strong opposition from within the country,

and despite protests and riots led by Holocaust survivors,

is negotiating with West Germany to support Israel.

HANNA YABLONKA: Three months before the trial took place,

Ben-Gurion met Adenauer in New York.

He had a clear interest for the sake of Israel

to establish relations with Germany.

RONI STAUBER: It was an encounter of vested interests -

Israel desperately needed support

and West Germany was in desperate need of rehabilitation.

For someone to say that West Germany is different,

that it is not Nazi Germany.

I said, in the Knesset,

in the Israeli parliament, last summer,

that Germany of today is not the Germany of yesterday.

The story of the Eichmann affair from the Israeli perspective

is a nostalgic, heroic, a very romantic story,

how David demanded justice from the already defeated Goliath.

But this is nothing but a shadow boxing,

a smoke screen that conceals the true story.

And the true story is the Israeli-German nuclear project.

Once a decision is made that Israel will launch a nuclear project,

there are things that have to be done.

It demands a certain technology,

certain materials,

and first and foremost,

a lot, a lot of money.

Money that the newly established State of Israel doesn't have.

Very quickly, David Ben-Gurion

and Shimon Peres, his political partner,

realize that the way to continue with the nuclear project

is by partnering with De Gaulle's France

and Adenauer's Germany.

Adenauer and Strauss, his defense minister,

put a gun on the table, so to say.

You want us to continue funding the nuclear project?

So do not mention the name Hans Globke at the trial.

LAWRENCE DOUGLAS: And that certainly was communicated

from Ben-Gurion to Gideon Hausner.

I don't think we should be entirely surprised

that there was some kind of, what we might say,

cross-fertilization between Ben-Gurion

and the Attorney General of Israel.

RONI STAUBER: Ben-Gurion tried to prevent the prosecutor

from submitting a document at trial

that shows that Globke took part

in a meeting with Eichmann's representative

where they're talking about seizing property.

This is a very important document.

Hausner comes to Ben-Gurion and says, "I have this document."

Ben-Gurion says, "Perhaps don't make it public."

And Hausner says, "I can't not make it public."

And Ben-Gurion has no choice.

Then they even decide to notify Adenauer

that such a document is going to be presented,

which is contrary to all legal logic.

Who does such a thing?

Ben-Gurion was well aware of Globke's part

in phrasing the Nuremberg Laws.

And yet, he has to take care

of the state he's responsible for - Israel.

A couple of days before the trial,

Hausner gives Ben-Gurion

the text of his opening speech.

GIDEON HAUSNER [speaking Hebrew]

DEBORAH LIPSTADT [in English]: I know many Israelis of a certain age

who can quote the opening paragraph

of that speech.

And Ben-Gurion makes very few comments about it,

but just the only thing he asks

is that wherever Hausner refers to Germany,

he refer to "Nazi Germany."

GIDEON HAUSNER [speaking Hebrew]

[in English] It is certainly the case that Ben-Gurion did exercise

some influence over the prosecution.

Ben-Gurion knew Israel needed arms.

Israel needed financial support of Germany.

He may have hated doing it, but he was a practical man.

RONI STAUBER: With this trial, Ben-Gurion also wanted to show

why Israel, why Jews, must have the bomb.

So there won't be another Holocaust.

NARRATOR: The story of the Holocaust is, in fact,

the story of Eichmann's career.

After establishing methods to identify the Jews,

he is promoted and sent to Austria,

which was annexed by the German Reich

and empowered with the task of ridding the country of Jews.

HANNA YABLONKA: Eichmann arrives in Austria, and immediately,

he is establishing his old idea

of creating a central emigration bureau for the Jews.

He took over the Rothschild Palais,

a famous place for Jews.

GIDEON GREIF: There he creates a pattern, how to get rid of the Jews

and to force them to leave at least some of their property

to the Third Reich.

Meaning, an official robbery

plus deportation.

DEBORAH LIPSTADT: One of those Jews came to the trial

and testified at the trial

that you walked into the Rothschild Palais

with a business, with a home,

with bank accounts, with possessions,

and as you went from desk to desk, you gave up these things

and you came out at the end with permission to leave Austria.

DR. FRANZ MAYER [speaking Hebrew]

RONI STAUBER [in English]: Eichmann gained power and control.

By now, he realized that this is the way

to promote his career and to gain achievements.

It's his success with the Jews that will be his test.

[speaking Hebrew]

[speaking German]

[in English] The German hierarchy was so impressed

by the way Eichmann handled this

that this sort of skyrocketed him into this organizational task.

ADOLF EICHMANN [speaking German]

GIDEON HAUSNER [speaking Hebrew]

[speaking German]

[speaking Hebrew]

[speaking German]

and they confirm what I just said.

GIDEON HAUSNER [speaking Hebrew]

HANNA YABLONKA [in English]: Within six months after his arrival to Austria,

Eichmann succeeds to expel more Jews from Austria

than Germany has succeeded in all the five years

since Hitler's rise to power.

This really caught the eyes of the Fuührer

and soon enough, in November of 1938, the Kristallnacht happened.

In January, Hitler will set up

a Central Authority for Jewish Emigration in Germany.

Eichmann was one of the key characters

leading to the "Final Solution" as we know it.

NARRATOR: Perhaps the most damning part of Eichmann's legacy

is his participation in the Wannsee Conference,

where the plan for the vicious extermination of all Jews in Europe

is meticulously laid out.

The Conference is led by Eichmann's commander, Reinhard Heydrich,

head of the Reich Security Main Office.

ELKE GRYGLEWSKI: On 20th January 1942,

15 high ranking members of the Nazi state

met here to discuss in 90 minutes the organization

for systematic mass murder of all Jews in Europe.

EIKE STEGEN: The house that we know as the house of the Wannsee Conference

was an SS hotel.

People come here to spend leisure time,

to take a swim in the lake that we know as Wannsee,

and then the house was also used

for talks and conferences.

We know that the men were invited here

to have the talk on the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question"

as they put it in the invitation,

accompanied by breakfast.

They had food. They had alcohol.

Eichmann refers to "cognac."

GIDEON GREIF: The session lasted 90 minutes.

It's astonishing to see a group of 15 people discussing the murder

of millions of Jews and nobody's concerned,

as if they're talking about moving a table

from one side of the room to the other side.

[speaking German]

[in English] The decision for systematic mass murder is closely related

to other decisions of dominating the whole world,

wanting to keep the world free of Jews.

The "Final Solution," or what most people call the "Holocaust,"

takes place only at the end of the Holocaust, from late 1941,

when Nazi Germany changes its policy

from forced emigration to a total annihilation.

ITAI BAR: Once the Nazis invade the USSR,

they realize that they have to tackle

huge numbers of Jews and Communists

and largely everything they hate.

They conclude that the solution must be immediate.

So they begin to murder.

And while murdering, they realize

that it creates difficulties

for their troops, mostly mentally.

The negative effect of the murdering on the soldiers

forced the Nazis to find another solution.

The new solution came in the form of organization and order.

There is a German proverb...

"There must be order."

GIDEON GREIF: It is a big operation, millions of Jews have to be transported

to the place of death. How do you organize it?

And here is the man who knows how to do it professionally.

[speaking German]

[speaking Hebrew]

[speaking German]

[in English] In most of the movies that were made on the Wannsee Conference,

you would rather see him sitting aside,

only taking notes.

That is what he himself claims.

The topic that is being talked about is his topic.

ELKE GRYGLEWSKI: Eichmann was in charge of organizing the deportations,

of coordinating activities.

He's the one preparing the numbers.

This very famous page six

of the minutes that summarizes

all European countries where the line is drawn

and 11 million European Jews are mentioned

that are going to be deported and killed.

So that is Eichmann's role.

Eichmann later ensures that explicit words

like "murder" or "execution" will not be mentioned

since he's very much aware of the need of secrecy.

One of the mechanisms that makes it easier

for the German society, for the German institutions

and even, in part, for the rest of the world,

not to be aware of what's going on.

There is a word

that is used in this document

and that is the word of "behandelt" - the treatment.

They would be suitably treated.

At that point of time, for most of the perpetrators,

to my knowledge, is clearly understood as killing.

Eichmann writes the protocol of the Conference

and sends it to the relevant offices.

Then he carries out the decisions of the Conference,

being sure that this is what the angel of history

has asked him to do.

[speaking German]

LAWRENCE DOUGLAS [in English]: Eichmann is something of a logistical mastermind

and he wants to make sure

that he is highly successful in the deportations,

and he does this with full awareness

that the result of deporting these Jewish persons

to these killing centers is that they're going to be killed.

[speaking Hebrew]

[speaking German]

GIDEON HAUSNER [speaking Hebrew]

GIDEON GREIF [in English]: Adolf Eichmann visited Auschwitz many times.

He went there to inspect and to be sure

that his instructions are being carried out.

He even had some improvement suggestions.

We know this from the camp commander, Rudolf Hoöss,

who welcomed him there each time.

[speaking German]

GIDEON GREIF [speaking English]: He was asked by some cabinet ministers

of the German Nazi government to make them a personal favor

and release some important Jews

who have made some important inventions

for Nazi Germany.

Nothing helped.

He always said, "I make no exceptions."

He was... there's a saying in Hebrew, "Meshuga ladavar."

He was crazed to kill

every Jew he could find.

GIDEON HAUSNER [speaking Hebrew]

[speaking German]

DEBORAH LIPSTADT [in English]: If Hausner had had access to the tapes,

that he could have played the tapes in the trial,

then the next question he would have asked Eichmann was,

were you lying then or are you lying now?

NARRATOR: With Hausner still unable to get his hands on the tapes,

he presses Eichmann to admit to his culpability

in the extermination of the Jewish people.

Here, on the tapes, Eichmann clearly admits

to the deceptive techniques used by the Nazis

to make the gas chambers appear like innocent shower rooms.

[speaking German]

NARRATOR [in English]: Still unable to get Eichmann

to admit his guilt in open court

or locate the whereabouts of the tapes,

Hausner finds another solution.

He drops a bombshell on the defense,

shocking everyone in the courtroom

by miraculously introducing copies of the actual transcripts

that Sassen has made of his interviews with Eichmann.

GIDEON HAUSNER [speaking Hebrew]

DEBORAH LIPSTADT [in English]: The transcripts of the tapes become available,

and not just the transcripts, but the transcripts

with corrections in Eichmann's handwriting.

Because Sassen transcribed the tapes,

gave them to Eichmann and said, "Go over them

and see if there's anything wrong."

And you have his corrections in his handwriting.

So this was firsthand evidence.

BETTINA STANGNETH: When you want to sell such a document around the world,

while everybody is talking about the issue of Nazis on the run,

it's not such a smart idea to put thousands of pages in a heavy suitcase

and take it for a trip.

It's heavy!

Nowadays, it can be a PDF file on our cellphones,

but in those days, it was several kilos of luggage.

Very noticeable, large, and heavy.

It could have been stolen.

So Sassen did what any smart person would do.

He made copies, backup copies.

That means he simply took pictures.

NARRATOR: One of these copies reaches Gideon Hausner,

who never reveals how he obtained

the transcripts of the Sassen recordings,

taking the secret to his grave.

But we do know that Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal

was in touch with Hausner during the trial

and may have assisted in procuring the evidence.

[speaking German]

RENEÉ BIENERT [in English]: Individuals like Simon Wiesenthal

made those former Nazi criminals

being concerned and not sleeping well,

fearing of being uncovered.

I heard this story that his landlady came

and saw over his shoulder

what documents he has on his desk

and there was the name "Eichmann."

And she said, "Oh, Eichmann, I know his parents.

They have their Electricity Store just around the corner."

NARRATOR: Wiesenthal reveals that the transcripts reached the Eichmann family in Linz.

BETTINA STANGNETH: So Eichmann was entitled to a copy,

and Sassen brought this copy to Linz, to Eichmann's brother.

And as far as we know, he kept it in his desk,

where it remained for quite some time

until it occurred to someone to break into Robert Eichmann's house

and steal the document.

There's a possibility that by this occasion

Wiesenthal received one of these copies

since, I mean, he was very well networked.

UKI GOÑI: You had Eichmann's handwritten notes.

You had 80 something pages,

so it was obvious that these were real.

We didn't need tapes to justify that they were real.

MOSHE LANDAU [speaking Hebrew]

NARRATOR [in English]: Hausner dodges the questions

about how he got the transcripts.

The evasiveness is calculated

As he begins to realize his trial strategy may be starting

to interfere with the secret Israeli nuclear agenda.

On the next episode of The Devil's Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes...

Can Eichmann and Servatsius find a way

to keep the transcripts out of the trial

or will the court allow them to be admitted as evidence?

BETTINA STANGNETH: Eichmann plays full risk and is 100 percent sure

that the tapes will never be heard.

Because he knows what else is on these tapes.

NARRATOR: In the meantime, Hausner makes the historic decision

to call to the witness stand Holocaust survivors...

So they can directly confront Eichmann

with the horrors he inflicted on them.

[speaking Hebrew]

NARRATOR [in English]: As Hausner presses to get the tapes, he suddenly is confronted

with the ghost of the Nuremberg trials.

And even more secrets that the Israeli government

would rather keep buried in the past.

RONI STAUBER: Gideon Hausner's great fear

was that quarrels amongst the Jews would enter into this trial.

NARRATOR: As the trial continues, will Hausner be able

to overcome these mounting obstacles?