All language subtitles for The.Devils.Confession.S01E01.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-CMRG

WOMAN:
Eichmann came once a week.

[dog barking in the distance]

The family had
to withdraw, you know,
from the living room etc.

because they were going
to have this conversation.

But we would open the door
and we would listen.

[door creaking]

[indistinct chattering]

My father recorded
all that stuff.

WILLEM SASSEN [speaking German]

ADOLF EICHMANN [speaking German]

[fly buzzing]

[thuds]

WOMAN [in English]:
My sister and I

detested the figure.

The persona was so weird.

Trouble.

Always darkness.

There was something
about him that...

the child could detect,

something very negative,
the child in me.

MAN [speaking Hebrew]

NARRATOR [in English]:
Nazis have always denied
their role in the Holocaust

ADOLF EICHMANN [speaking German]

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

including the architect
of the Final Solution,
Adolf Eichmann.

MAN: 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: But after
his capture by Israel,

Eichmann
denies everything...

[speaking German]

NARRATOR [in English]: Hoping
the tapes will never be heard

during his trial
in Jerusalem.

[speaking German]

MAN [in English]: The story
of the Eichmann Trial,

60 years later,

still not fully told.

NARRATOR: After mysteriously
disappearing for years,

the tapes are rediscovered

and now, for the first time

we'll hear Eichmann admitting
his crimes...

a true Nazi confession.

[speaking German]

REPORTER [in English]:
I am standing in front
of the courtroom

where Eichmann
is going to face his judges

and as you see,
there are a lot of people
already very interested.

People are coming
and waiting
outside this courtroom.

Eichmann is in
one of the rooms

on the fourth floor, we think,

and as you see,
it's very heavily guarded,
the building.

I don't think
there have ever been so many

correspondents and writers,
and observers

on any story since the war,
not even the Nuremberg Trial.

PROF. DEBORAH LIPSTADT:
This trial was of critical
importance.

It was the beginning
of the process

of the emergence
of the Holocaust

from the shadows of history.

[chattering]

DR. BETTINA STANGNETH: The trial
begins on the 11th of April.

This man is standing
before the court

and also before the many
expectations of the audience.

All they heard
about the crimes
he was accused of

was so extreme
that no image
of a human befitted them.

MAN [speaking Hebrew]

DEBORAH LIPSTADT
[in English]: Gideon Hausner
was a commercial lawyer.

He was chosen
to be Attorney General.

He comes into office

and he is relentless
to getting this story out.

GIDEON HAUSNER [speaking Hebrew]

[in English] "The prince
of darkness is a gentleman."

[speaking Hebrew]

[speaking German]

[speaking Hebrew]

MAN [in English]:
Eichmann, in many ways,

was the Chief
Logistical Officer

overseeing deportations
of Jewish persons,

largely from Western Europe,
to killing centers.

He does this
with full awareness

that the result of deporting

is that they're
going to be killed.

MOSHE LANDAU [speaking Hebrew]

[speaking German]

[murmuring]

WOMAN [in English]:
Eichmann refused to accept
any guilt on himself.

He was a civil servant,

the laws of Germany
are as they are

and he tried to detach
himself completely

from the ideological
dimension.

GIDEON HAUSNER [speaking Hebrew]

[in English]
Eichmann continually insisted

that he was simply
following orders.

[speaking German]

NARRATOR [in English]:
Eichmann's appearance
in court

and the crimes
attributed to him

catch the attention
of both the public
and the press.

Among the many journalists
who go to Israel
to cover the trial,

is the famous Jewish writer
and Holocaust survivor
Hannah Arendt,

who reports
on the proceedings
for the New Yorker magazine.

Arendt expects to find
a devilish killer

with a strong hatred of Jews,

but surprisingly
sees a man whose appearance

does not match the crimes
attributed to him.

She describes the moral gap
between his
bureaucratic demeanor

and the atrocities
he committed

with the term
"the banality of evil."

BETTINA STANGNETH:
I think Eichmann
tricked basically everyone.

We had 400 reporters
in the courtroom,
like Hannah Arendt,

and I didn't see
a single report
in which someone said,

"You can tell that he did it."

Instead, they said,
"Wow, who is this?"

NARRATOR [in English]:
So, who is the real Eichmann?

Is he simply a soldier
obeying orders

as he presents himself
in the Israeli court?

Or is he the fervent Nazi

that Hausner
is trying to prove him to be?

The missing evidence,
from four years earlier
in Buenos Aires,

as he boasts
to his fellow Nazis,

reveals the truth.

ADOLF EICHMANN
[speaking German, on recorder]

ADOLF EICHMANN

NARRATOR [in English]:
On the recordings, Eichmann
criticizes other Nazis

captured by the Allies
after the war

who deny responsibility
for their actions.

To understand
Eichmann's rationale

for participating
in these conversations,

one needs to examine
his character
and life after 1945.

MAN: In April-May 1945,

there was not much left
of the Third Reich.

The Nazis realize it's over

and they're trying
to figure out what to do next.

Eichmann must have understood,
because of what he did,

that he is wanted
by the Allies.

And so he tried
to get to an area

still controlled
by Nazi forces,

the last holdout, so to speak,

and particularly popular
were the mountains of Austria,

the Austrian Alps.

NARRATOR: Like many
of his fellow Nazis,

Eichmann flees
to his former home,

the last stronghold
of the Third Reich.

He feels protected there,

but very quickly discovers

he cannot escape
his involvement

in the crimes he committed
during the war.

GERALD STEINACHER: Even his
own comrades of the SS,
his own superiors,

wanted to get rid of him,

because he was so obviously
involved

in the mass murder
of the European Jews
and had blood on his hands.

NARRATOR: Eichmann secures
forged identity papers

with plans
to escape the country,

but is caught by the Allies.

MAN: Eichmann was arrested
by the Americans

and he was held
in a prisoner of war camp.

The Americans had about
3 million Nazis prisoners
at that time.

So Eichmann was just one more
among those many millions.

There was an incredible number
of soldiers imprisoned

and he pretended to have
a very low military rank.

At the time,
photos were not at all
as common as they are today,

so it was relatively easy
to remain unidentified.

ADOLF EICHMANN
[speaking German, on recorder]

WILLEM SASSEN [on recorder]

ADOLF EICHMANN [speaking German]

UKI GONI [in English]:
He managed to forge an ID
in the name of Otto Eckmann

while he was being held
by the Americans.

So he was fairly safe
at that moment.

No one was looking for him.

Until his name came up
in the Nuremberg Trials.

Attention! Tribunal!

REPORTER: Judges from Britain,
America, Russia and France

assembled
in Nuremberg's courthouse.

LAWRENCE DOUGLAS:
The Nuremberg Trial

that is the trial of the major
Nazi war criminals

that took place
between 1945 and 1946.

This was the first
international criminal trial
in human history

dealing
with spectacular crimes.

Eichmann is mentioned
surprisingly often
in the Nuremberg Trials.

We hear about
what he was involved with

and that he was the main
contact
for Hitler's favorite project,

the extermination of Jews.

[speaking German]

UKI GONI [in English]:
In the Nuremberg Trials
his name was mentioned.

That appeared
in the newspapers
the next day.

The next day he was gone.

He escaped from the American
prisoner of war camp.

Being held by the Americans
was much better

than being held
by the Russians.

So it was not
difficult to escape

from the American
prisoner of war camp.

Many Nazis did.

[clicking]

NARRATOR: Eichmann tells
Sassen in Argentina

the story of the strange
escape route

he used to avoid capture.

WILLEM SASSEN
[speaking German, on recorder]

ADOLF EICHMANN [speaking German,
on recorder]

[birds chirping]

UKI GONI [in English]:
Eichmann had thought

that if enough time went by,

his name would be forgotten

and he would be able
to live a normal life
in Germany.

NARRATOR: Eichmann believes
he will be able to stay
in hiding for years.

He is surprised to discover

that the genocide
of the Jewish people

continues to preoccupy
the world,
even in Germany

where the public
is slowly realizing

the scope of the crimes
committed

and hoping to put
the past behind them.

Eichmann looks
for a new hiding place

and decides to leave
his family behind

to take advantage
of the Nazis'

well-known
escape route to Argentina.

[slow music playing]

MAN: At the end of WWII,

Juan Peron
and Eva Duarte Peron
see an opportunity

to take in people
with scientific,

technological
and engineering training
from Germany,

people who supported
the Nazi regime
or served in the German army,

and at the end of the war

they want to get as far away
as they can

from the "crime scene."

GERALD STEINACHER:
And many asked
the same question,

why did the Allies
not just stop

this escape route?

It could have been easy.

They knew everything,
they knew the players,

they knew the structures,
they knew
the institutions involved.

I think at some point
they focused their energy

on the new enemy.

And the new enemy
was Communism
and the Soviet Union

and not the Nazis anymore.

RAANAN REIN:
If you're not a Communist,

who cares
if in the past you sinned?

So there was no one
internationally

that applied
any pressure on Argentina

or tried to prevent
the entry of people

who were involved
or at least
suspected of involvement

in war crimes.

GERALD STEINACHER:
Eichmann gets a new identity

by the name of Ricardo Klement

with the help of the Vatican
Aid Commission for Refugees.

We have proof
that in some cases

they know exactly
who these people were
and who they were helping.

And very often,
they did not have to hide
their backgrounds.

And when you look
at the application forms
of these various criminals,

they wouldn't say,
"I'm an expert
in torturing people,"

or "I'm a mass murderer,"

or "I'm an expert
for deporting people

to extermination camps."

Of course not.

BETTINA STANGNETH: He has the
ability to transform from a
rigid-looking SS man

to a somewhat
sloppy-looking bureaucrat.

UKI GONI:
Eichmann, when he arrived,

was received at the dock
by Carlos Fuldner,

who was another SS man.

So the idea
that these Nazis lived

in secrecy in Argentina
was not true.

I lived a couple of years
in Buenos Aires as a kid

and my neighbor
was Carlos Fuldner,

the SS officer
who helped Eichmann

and probably hundreds
of other Nazis escape.

[German music playing]

NARRATOR: Eichmann becomes
part of the ex-Nazi community
in Argentina.

He gets a job as an assistant
to an engineering crew
in the Andes.

Finally, he feels
that his life
is back on track.

UKI GONI: But at some point,

his luck seems to have taken
a turn for the worse

and he was left
without any real job
and he started...

He had a laundry firm,

he worked in a rabbit farm

until, towards the end

he managed to work
for a real company again,
which was for Mercedes Benz.

RAANAN REIN:
He is profoundly frustrated.

He feels like someone
whom history and destiny
have marginalized

and that this is something
he does not deserve.

Eichmann said
that he suffered most

from becoming anonymous.

This is unfathomable!

For him, it was horrible

not being able
to be "Eichmann."

IRMTRUD WOJAK:
So this was the time when he

connected with Sassen,
Willem Sassen,

who was a propaganda officer
from the Netherlands

um, who also lived
in Buenos Aires.

UKI GONI:
Now, the question is,
who is Willem Sassen?

And Willem Sassen,
he's an absolutely
Hollywood figure.

A Dutch journalist
at the time of the war.

Goöbbels, the Nazi
minister of propaganda,

sent him to the Russian front
where Willem Sassen
sent radio reports.

WILLEM SASSEN [speaking German]

[in English] After the war,
Willem Sassen was arrested
in Holland

for treason, of course,
because he'd become an SS.

He managed to escape
to Buenos Aires
on this tiny ship

and set himself up
as a journalist

and as a publisher
in Argentina,

publishing books
for other Nazis
who lived here.

BETTINA STANGNETH:
He had already been
in Argentina for three years.

He had close ties
with the Nazis

because he was a Nazi himself.

So if one
has a political agenda
like restoring Nazism,

then you need allies,
and in this regard
Eichmann was the jackpot.

UKI GONI: Eichmann met Sassen
at the ABC restaurant.

It was a German
community restaurant
in downtown Buenos Aires.

The waiters
clicked their heels
like in military fashion,

saluted the Nazis
who went for lunch there.

NARRATOR: The men meet
occasionally
until the mid-1950s

when a series
of groundbreaking books
are published

that reveal
for the first time

the original documents,
certificates and minutes

that catalog the Holocaust
inflicted on the Jewish
people in Europe.

Sassen manages
to locate copies of the books

and has them delivered
to him in Argentina.

Then these Nazis in Argentina
encountered a problem.

They wondered how it could be
that these crimes
actually took place.

They felt disturbed
when they were told

that little children
were sent to the gas chambers.

This crime took place
in front of everyone,

but the whole dimension of it
and the actual dirty work

weren't visible to everyone.

Sassen at first assumes

that the mass murder
of the Jews is a lie.

Then he looked for somebody
who knew about these things

and, in that respect,
Eichmann was a gift.

UKI GONI: Sassen came up
with this crazy idea

that he would interview
the mastermind
of the Holocaust

and in Sassen's mind

the idea was that Eichmann
would prove

that Hitler had nothing to do
with the extermination
of the Jews.

Unfortunately for Sassen
and his friends,

Eichmann insisted that,
of course, Hitler knew.
[laughs]

BETTINA STANGNETH:
The Nazis burned books,

but not because
they hated books.

They wanted to empty shelves
for their own books.

Eichmann dreamt very early,
in his 30s, of writing books.

He finds it meaningful.

It is part of his
understanding
of being cultured.

And in Argentina, he suddenly
gets the opportunity
through Sassen.

And also to earn
some money for the family.

They meet every weekend
and sit together for hours.

Five, six, seven hours.

The gentlemen sit together
and discuss.

This was kind
of a public event

where other Nazis went to.

Very high ranking Nazis.

[chattering]

BETTINA STANGNETH:
Eichmann was a celebrity.

People fought
to be close to him.

He was always being asked,
"Tell me, what happened
in Auschwitz?"

LAWRENCE DOUGLAS:
There's 67 reels of tape.

A lot of the tapes
were taped over.

At the time when Sassen
was conducting
these interviews,

these audiotapes
were somewhat expensive.

[voices on recorder]

[typewriter clacking]

BETTINA STANGNETH:
They recorded
the conversations

and then transcribed them
to paper,

then rerecorded more,
transcribed again.

And thus, they were left
with a few thousand pages.

Obviously, Eichmann
is flattered when he's told,

"We need you."

He is a specialist once again.

He again is "The Jew Expert."

MAN: This was the first
time anyone had taken
an interest in him.

"Herr Eichmann,
tell me what you did."

He's very happy anyone
even wants to listen.

So he blossoms. He flourishes.

He suddenly returns
to his good old days,

the most beautiful time
in his life,
as he himself defined it.

And thereafter, he loosens
all the restrictions
he imposed on himself

and he went with it.

BETTINA STANGNETH:
Eichmann says, "Yes,
this is all real. Wonderful,

I haven't seen this
in a long time.

This is Heydrich's signature,
it's all so nice."

It makes him happy
to see all his things again.

He even finds his signature,

which is obviously
very important to him.

And he also,
and this is the
biggest problem,

he is proud
of his life's work.

And the life work
of Mr. Eichmann

consists
of mass murder of Jews.

ADOLF EICHMANN [speaking German,
on recorder]

MAN [in English]:
It is just striking

that Sassen,
for whatever reason,

decided to continue
taping Eichmann

even once he understood

that Eichmann
was not about to deny

the nature of the Holocaust
and his role in it.

[suspenseful music playing]

ADOLF EICHMANN [speaking German]

WILLEM SASSEN [speaking German]

NARRATOR [in English]:
On the recordings,
Eichmann elaborates

about his work
during the war,

freely answering
the questions
asked by Sassen.

Four years later,
in the Israeli court,

he sounds
like a different man.

[speaking Hebrew]

[speaking German]

[speaking Hebrew]

[speaking German]

[speaking Hebrew]

[speaking German]

GIDEON HAUSNER [in English]:
I was aware

that he is following
the old line
of many other Nazi criminals

who didn't have the courage

to stand up in court
and admit their guilt.

So, in order somehow

to minimize the enormousness
of their deed,

they were trying by small lies

to hide

at least part
of the most hideous deeds.

MAN: Gideon Hausner
as Attorney General

was the prosecutor
in the Eichmann trial.

He got the job
as soon as he took
office as Attorney General.

He wanted it
to be the Nuremberg Trial

of the Jewish people,
for the Jewish people.

GIDEON HAUSNER: You see,
actually, I was aware
all the time

that there were two trials
going on-

one in Jerusalem

where we were trying Eichmann,

and the other
in the world's public opinion,

uh, with the proceedings

televised throughout
the world.

I was well aware of this,

that every word I say,
every movement I make,

is recorded and commented
upon the next day

in very many countries.

MAN: In the Eichmann Trial,
I was working as assistant

to the television director.

The trial had to be shown
to the world.

The trouble was,

there's no television
in Israel,

that was the crazy thing.

So they had brought over
a team from London

and decided to film the trial
with four cameras.

It then went out
all over the world.

Now remember,
we're talking of 1961

and there was very, very
little information out
at that stage.

So the purpose of the trial
was to show the world, "Look,

six million Jews died.

This is how it happened."

During the actual
filming of the trial,

well this
is the main question-

Who is the real
Adolf Eichmann?

What is he feeling?

Can we see
anything in his face?

You know, I keep coming in
for a closeup on him
to see what he's feeling.

In practice he showed nothing.

He showed no feelings at all.

NARRATOR: The speculation
about Eichmann's character
continues to this day.

Is he an evil idealist

or a simple bureaucrat
carrying out orders

in the service
of the Nazi regime,

as Hannah Arendt claimed?

HANNAH ARENDT [speaking German]

[in English] She thinks that
Eichmann believes
that what he's doing

is simply complying
with the law of the day,

and I think
that is unfortunate,

because I think
that is a misleading filter.

MAN 1: In terms of theory,
I think it is a good theory.

I think it explains
quite a few people
who were in the Nazi regime.

But her theory
did not fit Eichmann.

You cannot make
the distinction

between his war on the Jews
and his career.

It has become
basically one and the same.

MAN 2 [speaking German]

[in English] I suppose there's
a very interesting question
we can ask,

which is whether Hannah Arendt
would have changed her tune

if she had been able to,
um, hear the Sassen tapes.

NARRATOR: On the tapes,
Eichmann confirms his strong
belief in the Nazi cause.

He admits he was not only
a bureaucrat,
but also an idealist.

ADOLF EICHMANN [speaking German]

UKI GONI [in English]:
This was not done in hiding,

in a secret cave,
high up in the Andes,

or hidden away
in the Amazonian jungle.

This was done
in suburban Buenos Aires

in the full view
of all their neighbors.

In the tapes, you can hear
Sassen's daughter

playing in the background.

SASKIA SASSEN: My sister and I
were always singing.

You know how that is
with children.

My mother would say:
"Stop that singing!"

It was my weapon.

I used singing as a weapon,

because he interrupted
our fun life,

you know, my father
was really a lot of fun
as a father.

But when the meetings
happened,

my father was extracting
information.

[children singing]

SASKIA SASSEN:
He was a journalist

and he wanted to get
at the story.

How well did you know him?

-Whom?
-Eichmann.

I think I knew him completely.

What did you make of him?

A tragical figure,
a tragical figure.

Because he was really not...

it was not his business
in reality.

He would have liked to be
a common soldier on the front.

That was his dream.

NARRATOR: As time goes by,
Eichmann's
confidence increases

and he feels
comfortable enough

to bring his family
to Argentina.

DEBORAH LIPSTADT:
German parents in Argentina

came to the embassy
to register their children

for their German citizenship,
German passport.

And his children
were registered
under the name "Eichmann."

BETTINA STANGNETH: The kids
of German immigrants
still remember

that on Sundays,
they would meet to cook
orange marmalade

with the Eichmanns,
not the Klements,

not with that family
with the strange guy.

With the Eichmanns!

It was his only mistake

that he didn't want
to leave his family behind.

DEBORAH LIPSTADT:
This myth that grew up

that nobody knew
he was there...

the German ex-pats
who were loyal Nazis

knew he was there.
He met with them,
he talked to them.

And the Argentinian police,
they knew he was there.

The thing that was true
is that

the people who knew
he was there

did not care enough
to go and get him.

MAN [on TV]: Fritz Bauer
survived Hitler's death
camps...

NARRATOR: Even though the
Allies stop searching
for Nazi fugitives,

individuals like the German
Jewish lawyer Fritz Bauer,

continue to try to bring
the escaped criminals
to justice,

using information
they receive
from around the world.

GIDEON HAUSNER: If not
for private individuals,

Adolf Eichmann would have
never been captured
in Buenos Aires.

First and foremost,
Lothar Hermann,

a Holocaust survivor

who happened to be
Adolf Eichmann's neighbor.

UKI GONI: Lothar Hermann,
who was the survivor
who came to Argentina,

had a daughter called Sylvia

and his daughter made friends

with one of the Eichmann kids.

It was not unusual
for German Jews

to make friends
with German Nazi families,

because, in the end
they were all Germans
in Argentina.

Sylvia knew that her friend
was called "Eichmann."

And Lothar Hermann,
I can't say he was reading
the newspaper,

because he was blind,

but I think he was having
the newspaper read to him
by his daughter

and Eichmann's name appeared

and, of course,
Lothar Hermann realized,

"that must be the father
of your friend."

So Lothar Hermann went

and immediately wrote
to Bauer in Germany,

saying it's definitely him.

[typewriter clacking]

IRMTRUD WOJAK: For
Fritz Bauer, it was safer to
bring him on trial in Israel.

If the Germans would
ask in Argentina

to bring Eichmann to Germany,

he would have been warned.

And this would be
the possibility to escape.

I also think
there was no interest
in Germany

to capture Eichmann.

They didn't want to talk
about the past.

[telephone ringing]

DEBORAH LIPSTADT:
Bauer gave the information
to the Israelis

and nothing happened.

One has to remember
that this is the late 50s

and Israel is barely
a third-world country
at that time.

I think the feeling was that,

we have current enemies
in the Arab lands, etc.

Should we fight
our current enemies

who stand possibly
to destroy us now

or should we go
to settle scores from before?

HANNA YABLONKA:
Bauer insisted,

he threatened the authorities

that he will bring
the information

into the knowledge
of the public.

That there is a credible
source

that Eichmann is in Argentina

and this worked.

NARRATOR: Ben Gurion,
the country's founder,

is persuaded to bring
Eichmann to trial in Israel

and a secret mission
to capture the fugitive
is launched.

BETTINA STANGNETH:
When Eichmann was kidnapped,

he was no longer living
in Buenos Aires.

He was on the outskirts
in a kind of no man's land.

And one fine day
he arrives home on the bus.

He then had to walk
some distance
to get to his house.

There was no electricity,

It was an unprotected area.

It was easy
to pick him off the streets.

He walked
on the Garibaldi street

about 50 meters from his home

and I walked on that side.

We looked at each other,
I saw...

fear in his eyes, and I said,
"Uno momentito,"

and I didn't finish
the question

and he retreated.

I jumped on him.
We fell into a ditch there.

He then started howling
and screaming and shouting.

The three of them dragged him,
still howling, into the car

and the race was on.

[suspenseful music playing]

[speaking Hebrew]

MAN [speaking English]:
The Yagur base is a
detention facility

of the northern district

and until Eichmann's arrival,

there were dozens
of prisoners there.

They were removed

and the detention facility
was transformed
into a fortress.

Dozens of police officers
are guarding just Eichmann.

All this for only one inmate.

There are many risks
with such a detainee as this.

The primary risk
is that he could try
to harm himself.

Then there are also threats
that neo-Nazis
might try to break him free.

And the third scenario

is that someone
from within Israel,

either a Holocaust survivor
or someone connected
to the Holocaust

or even one of the policemen
close to him,

might try to settle a score.

[speaking German]

[clamoring]

REPORTER [speaking German]

MAN [in German]

NARRATOR [in English]:
During his interrogation
by the Israeli police,

Eichmann claims
that he was only
following orders.

But in Sassen's living room,

Eichmann is aware
that his words
could incriminate him,

so he asks
that the recordings never be
heard during his lifetime.

ADOLF EICHMANN [speaking German]

UKI GONI [in English]:
When Eichmann was kidnapped,

suddenly Sassen realized,

here I have a chance
to make a large
amount of money

by selling this.

Uh, and I'll finally be able
to make some money
out of this project

that I spent so much time on.

And at the same time,
he realized,

if I do that,
the other Nazis
are going to kill me,

because he's being
the worst traitor of all.

In the end,

the opportunist won the battle

over the more
cautious person inside him

and he sold the story
to Life Magazine
in the United States.

NARRATOR:
Four months before the trial,

Life Magazine
publishes sections
of the Eichmann recordings.

The confessions
shock the world.

Never before had
a Nazi officer
admitted publicly

that the Holocaust
was meticulously planned
and carried out.

LAWRENCE DOUGLAS:
The publication of the
Life Magazine interview

was an astonishing moment

in the international
community,
to have Eichmann's words

suddenly splashed
in front of Life Magazine,

which at the time
was one of the crucial
magazines in the U.S.

Obviously, it also had
kind of a world audience
as well.

DEBORAH LIPSTADT:
"Life" meant that this is
important to America.

It shocked people.

For many Jews

it meant the world was,

for the first time really,

taking notice
of what had happened.

Suddenly the world
was looking at the tragedy

that had destroyed
one out of every
three Jews alive

on the face of the earth.

Americans realized
that this man

who is being tried
is really a monster.

The article says,

there are tapes of this man
talking about what he did,

telling the stories
of what he did,
describing what he did.

Everyone at least
who has the least bit
of interest in this topic:

Where are these tapes?

YUVAL ELBASHAN:
This is the smoking gun.

If Eichmann says:
"I acted, I took action,

I wanted, I planned,"

he is no longer
just a bureaucrat

shifting papers
from one place to the other.

He changes things,

embellishes them

and sends them as a command.

In this sense
he becomes the leader.

MICHAEL GOLDMANN-GILEAD
[speaking German]

LAWRENCE DOUGLAS [in English]:
When Hausner read
this interview,

he immediately had to think,
"Oh my God,

"there's a whole wealth
of information out there

"that I don't yet
have access to

"and how do I get
my hands on it?"

Sassen, he bought himself
a fantastic car
with the money he made.

He bought a Mercedes Benz.

SASKIA SASSEN: The Nazis
were still around
in Argentina.

They moved against my father,

because my father betrayed,
in their eyes.

When the Eichmann story
blows into the public,

I was 13.

My mother decides to leave.

She couldn't take it.

And I suddenly was in charge
of the household.

At 13.

And my sister
was simply terrified.

Suddenly there were like
three or five people
in my house

with big guns
and I don't know what,

they were Nazi affiliates.

MAN [speaking German]

MAN 2

SASKIA SASSEN:
I wasn't afraid,

but it was another kind
of experience that I had.

It was more like...
closer to horror than to fear.

[arguing]

NARRATOR: Among the intruders

are the sons
of Adolf Eichmann.

they demand to know
why Sassen
betrayed their father?

Sassen shocks them,

claiming that he had
the permission

of their mother Vera
to sell the transcripts.

Knowing their father's
defense strategy
is reliant

on keeping the tapes
out of the hands
of Gideon Hausner,

they demand to know
the location
of the recordings.

Sassen denies knowing
their whereabouts.

[arguing continues]

Terrified, Sassen knows the
tapes could be the
prosecutor's smoking gun.

He hides them
in a safe place.

Can he keep the tapes away
from those looking
to use them against Eichmann?

On the next episode
ofThe Devils' Confession:

The Lost Eichmann Tapes

Hausner focuses
on obtaining the transcripts

used for the
Life Magazine article

as the smoking gun
that will prove Eichmann's
guilt to the world.

During a meeting
with his lawyer,

Eichmann is passed
an encrypted code

from the Nazi journalist
Willem Sassen

that emboldens his defense.

"Don't worry.
I've hidden the tapes."

NARRATOR: As the Berlin Wall
is being built

and sides are taken
in the Cold War,

West German officials fear
Eichmann's recordings

will reveal
that their new government
is riddled with Nazis.

LAWRENCE DOUGLAS: The Germans
were very concerned.

There were a lot of Nazis
who remained in positions

of high power
within Germany itself.

NARRATOR: And the fledgling
State of Israel

decides the security
of their country

far outweighs the importance

of Attorney General
Hausner's case

against Eichmann.

[closing theme music playing]