Eichmann Trial -- Sessions 50 and 51 -- Lidice; Witness B. Steiner; Hungary documents

Footage begins early in the proceedings of Session 50 with State Attorney Gavriel Bach requesting the court to allow him to submit evidence of the murder of the children of Lidice. The inhabitants of Lidice were murdered in 1942 in retaliation for the assasination of Reinhard Heydrich. Footage resumes with testimony from witness Bedrich Steiner who gives approxmate statistics of the number of Jews deported from Slovakia in 1942, how many of them were children, the numbers that went to various camps, and the number killed by the Einstazgruppen. There are various shots of the judges and the translators but the camera mostly stays on Steiner. Steiner estimates that the total number of Slovakian Jews killed was about 71,000 or 80% of the population (00:15:27). He states the approximate total value of Jewish property plundered in Slovakia. Shot of Eichmann taking notes. Testimony from Dr. Steiner continues although a portion of the proceedings are missing. Steiner discusses the documentation album he edited, which contains information about the Holocaust in Slovakia. The album is admitted into evidence. Many photographs from this album are shown, including: the deportation of the Jews of Slovakia (00:20:40); Wisliceny and Ludin (00:21:23); a vandalized synagogue (00:22:45); desecrated Jewish gravestones (00:23:41); a diagram showing where certain transports came from and where they went (00:24:55); Abba Kovner (00:30:33); the list of names of people buried in a mass grave (00:32:22) The witness is questioned about certain photos of Auschwitz (they are not shown) and he tells how he acquired these pictures. Session 51. Shot of Eichmann sitting in the booth. The proceedings begin near the middle of Session 51, with Bach asking the court to look at the case of Hungary. The next section covers the submission of several documents pertaining to pre-March 1944 Hungary (00:35:46) Footage skips the remainder of the document submissions and resumes with witness Pinhas Freudiger walking up to the stand. Freudiger states that he is a native of Budapest and worked in a textile factory founded by his grandfather. A large part of Freudiger's testimony is missing and the proceedings resume with questions about when Freudiger first learned of the negotiations with Wisliceny, which consisted of an attempt by the Jewish community to stop the deportations. He states that he was aware of who Eichmann was in 1942 (00:45:03). Freudiger then gives an account of the events of March 19, 1944 (the day the Germans entered Hungary) and the days immediately following. He discusses his meetings with Wisliceny to determine how they were going to deal with Hungarian Jewry (00:49:00) and the formation of a Jewish central committee in which he participated (00:56:14). Freudiger then gives an account of the first arrests made by the Germans, noting that they were not limited to Jews but also included Social Democrats, anti-Nazis, and selected journalists (00:57:16). Footage ends with Freudiger describing his first direct conversations with Wisliceny (01:00:28)