us-005578-irn1001078
type: RecordSet
biographical history: Emil Knebel was a cinematographer known for Andante (2010), Adam (1973), and Wild Is My Love (1963). He was one of the cameramen who recorded daily coverage of the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem (produced by Capital Cities Broadcasting Corp and later held academic positions in Israel and New York teaching filmmaking at universities. Refer to CV in file. Born in Sebastopol, Russia, in 1918, he was educated in the Hebrew high school in Vilna and in the school of the arts. At a very young age he became a trainee in the"Hashomer Hatzai" Youth Movement. In 1940-41 when Vilna wast the capital of the Soviet Republic of Lithuania, Kovner was a member of the undergorund organization. After the German occupation in June 1941, Kovner hid with a few friends temporarily in a Dominican convent in the city's suburb. After he returned to the ghetto and became aware of the killing of thousands of Jews, Kovner expressed the idea of revolt and began to build a Jewish force to fight against the Nazis. On the night of December 31, 1941, Kovner read before a meeting of delegates of all Jewsih Youth Movements the following public announcement:"Hitler is plotting to destroy all European Jews. Lithuanian Jews will be the first in line. Let us not be led like sheep to the slaughterhouse. It is right, we are weak and without defense, but the only answer to the enemy is resistance" It was the first time that Jews were called to defend themselves with arms. On January 21, 1942, the"United Organization of Partisan" was founded in Vilnus. This organization was comprised of memebers of the various youth movements in the Vilna Ghetto. Kovner was a leading member, and after the Chief commander was caught in July 1943, he became the head of the organization. In the days of the last deportation from the Ghetto to the extermination camps, Kovner supervised the escape of the organization fighters to the woods. In Rodniky woods he commanded the Jewish Unit composed of Ghetto fighters and the"Naka" squadron …
date: 1961 April 25-1961 May 04, 1961 April 25
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had identifier: 2
has or had some members with language: deu
has or had some members with language: eng
has or had some members with language: heb
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn1001078
note: See official transcripts, published in"The Trial of Adolf Eichman", Vol. I-V, State of Israel, Ministry of Justice, Jerusalem, 1994, pp. 207, 208, 324-326, 348, 349, 390, 461, 462. Also available online at the Nizkor Project.
scope and content: Sessions 14, 20, 21 and 27. Witness Zyndel Grynszpan describes October 28, 1938; the Nazis came to his house and arrested his entire family. They were taken to the precinct and forced to sign a certificate for deportation. He and his family were deported to Poland:"The misery was great. We had no food, we had not taken any food since Thursday, we had not wanted to eat German bread anymore and we were starving" Assistant State Attorney Ya'Akov Bar-Or questions Grynszpan on the conditions of the Zbaszyn camp. There is a blip at 00:16:35 and witness Ada Lichtman describes her father's arrest by the Nazis in Wielicza:"There were all Jews, whom they took, lying dead already... My father was also dead. And all were spread out in rows of five, one after another" Lichtman later escaped to Krakow. She moved to Mielec and was forced to do hard labor. Attorney General Gideon Hausner questions Lichtman on conditions in Mielec including forced payments to avoid deportations. He also asks her about conditions in Dubink:"they broke hands and heads of youths, and later they killed them all... I saw the mutilated bodies of the youths" Hausner requests that Lichtman's testimony be continued in the next session as she has primary accounts of the Sobibor concentration camp. During a blip at 00:45:28 to 00:45:39, there is an old movie clip of a couple embracing, and then the tape returns to the trial. Witness Judge Dr. Moshe Beisky discusses an incident in the Plaszow concentration camp:"The boy was hanged and... the rope broke. The boy... began to beg for mercy... and then he was raised a second time to the gallows, and hanged.." Hausner asks Beisky why the 15,000 observers did not charge and overtake the guards rather than just watching the hanging. Beisky replies that Hausner's question is difficult to answer; Beisky recounts his experiences, as well as the general morale among the Jews in 1943:"...After eighteen years I cannot describe this sensation of fear... this thing is ultimat…
title: Eichmann Trial -- Sessions 14, 20, 21 and 27 -- Testimonies of Z. Grynszpan, A. Lichtman, Dr. M. Beisky, A. Kovner, Dr. J. Buzminsky