Eichmann Trial -- Sessions 23 and 24 -- Testimony of L. Wells, H. Ross, and J. Buzminsky
See official transcripts, published in"The Trial of Adolf Eichman", Vol. I-V, State of Israel, Ministry of Justice, Jerusalem, 1994, pp. 411-419. Also available online at the Nizkor Project.
Session 23. Adolf Eichmann stands as the Presiding Judge enters and then sits down. WS of the courtroom. The Presiding Judge takes notes and declares the twenty-third Session of the trial open. He then confirms that applications submitted by Dr. Servatius will be discussed later on. Servatius states that the evidence given by the witness, Dr. Wells, is irrelevant and repetitive and thus should not be submitted. Attorney General Hausner responds by saying that Eichmann was appointed by Reinhard Heydrich, who was in charge of exterminating the Jews, and offers several other examples as well. The Presiding Judge deliberates then rules that the witness is indeed relevant and Dr. Wells is called to the stand. After he walks up to the podium and the microphone is adjusted, footage cuts out and part of the proceedings is missing. 00:12:28 Eichmann sits in the booth. The Attorney General asks Wells how he had the will to survive after seeing his entire family die and Wells answers,"It was the will of responsibility, that somebody had to remain to tell the world that it was the idea of the Nazis to kill all the Jews - so we had a responsibility somehow to withstand this idea and to be alive" Footage cuts out again, but nothing is skipped. Shots of Wells, Eichmann, people in the audience and the translator are shown as Wells describes his duties for the Death Brigade. 00:17:50 Part of the proceedings are missing and it picks up with Mr. Hausner asking about the supplies used to get rid of all the evidence of bodies. After Dr. Wells responds, the Presiding Judge asks for clarification of what a grinding machine was and the process is explained. 00:20:28 A large part of the proceedings is missing. Footage continues as Witness Wells describes the location, procedures and security of the Death Brigade. The Attorney General inquires about why the people didn't attempt to hurt the guards before they were murdered. Wells explains that they were broken up into groups and that those who attempted anything were tortured."At this time, in 1943, nobody cared anymore" he states. 00:27:06 The footage cuts out and a small part of the proceedings is missing. Wells describes how he escaped and those that refused to join him. He says that a few hundred thousand were burned by his brigade and about 30,000 were executed in front of the fires while he was there. 00:30:17 Footage begins a little ways into Session 24. The Attorney General looks over photographs as Witness Henryk Ross explains how he took the pictures through a hole in the wall of a cement storeroom. The Presiding Judge examines the photos then passes them to the men on either side of him. Part of the trial is missing. 00:32:57 Shot pans from Dr. Servatius to Adolf Eichmann. The Attorney General stands and discusses the Defense Counsel's applications and says that upon application, the witness would be given an entry visa and then arrested and brought to trial. People in the courtroom laugh and the Presiding Judge silences them. The Presiding Judge and Attorney General continue to discuss where the examination of the witness would take place and the importance of Dr. Six, Dr. Martin, and Hermann Krumey's testimonies. They confer that a German Court would be difficult due to the fact that there is no examination of witnesses and it is agreed that a mixed procedure would be the best way to carry out the trial. Shots of the courtroom vary throughout. The Judge addresses a request to strike two affidavits from the record. Mr. Hausner states that there is not a procedure to strike out anything, but the Court may choose whether or not to take the information into account. Dr. Servatius is then asked about the locations of two Austrians, Huppenkothen and Hoettl. Their applications are then discussed and the issue of arrest upon entering Israel is brought up again. Servatius states that the Attorney General should not decide the matter of the visas or the arrest on his own and it is explained to him that,"The Attorney General is not only in charge of matters of prosecution, but he is also - as his name indicates - the legal adviser to the Government" 00:50:26 The footage stops and skips far into the questioning of Dr. Buzminsky. The Attorney General, the witness, and various shots of the crowd and Eichmann are all shown. Buzminsky tells the Court that he and his brother deliberately faced the SS soldiers' guns to avoid being buried alive, but at the last minute they were ordered onto a train because a commander said,"These are fat Jews. All of them will be good for soap" He says that as an elderly woman was climbing onto the train, a dog belonging to an SS man bit her, causing her to scream. The Germans all laughed. Buzminsky goes on to describe how they could not resist entering the train because their morale was broken."It was a mass psychosis" he says, that made them shake whenever they heard the voices of the SS. Witness Buzminsky shares how he jumped out of the train, entered a bunker, and was taken into a Polish woman's home where he stayed until the liberation. He clarifies that before being liberated, he returned to the ghetto and saw a boy get lashed 80 times with a strap and identifies that boy as police officer Goldman, sitting on the right side of the Attorney General. Dr. Buzminsky describes a different event where an 18 year-old boy attacked a Gestapo man who was about to shoot him. The boy escaped only to be caught and hung the next day along with 25 hostages. It is confirmed that Buzminsky then hid in the bunker and was saved.
Leon Weliczker Wells was born in Stojanow near Lvov, Poland on March 10, 1925. At the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, Wells was in Lvov. In July 1941, the Ukrainian police who were working with the SS arrested Wells and his father. The police officers took Wells to the police station; they were severely beaten, and taken to Pelczynska Street, where other Jews were assembled. Wells and the other Jews were instructed to lay face down on the street; they remained facedown for the rest of the night as the SS men randomly chose Jews for physical abuse and death. This continued for two days; on the third day, the Nazis selected certain people for relocation, and the rest of the Jews returned home. Two days later, Nazis arrested Wells and forced him to work at the railroad, unloading ammunitions and weaponry. After returning home, Wells went into hiding; he remained in hiding until December 1941, and joined the Working Brigade on the railroad. In March 1942, Wells was transferred to the Janowska concentration camp. Wells health was poor due to horrible conditions in the camp. In May, the Nazis took a group of Jews including Wells on a death march; they were given shovels to dig their own graves. Just as Wells walked into the pit to be shot, the Nazis instructed him to return to camp and retrieve the body of an inmate who had died of sickness. On his way back to camp, Wells slipped away from his SS guard; the SS pronounced him dead, and this inattention allowed Wells to escape. Upon learning of his mother's death, Wells attempted to commit suicide, but a neighbor found him, and saved him from death. Soon thereafter, Wells traveled to Radziechow (Julag) Ghetto in an attempt to find his father and brothers. He eventually found his family, helped them to hide, and began working as a canal cleaner. The Nazis decided to liquidate the Julag Ghetto; during and after selection, Wells's father and brothers were shot, and Wells was taken back to the Janowska concentration camp. In June 1943, the Nazis gathered a group of Jews including Wells for road construction. However, instead of road-building, the Jews were placed in a Sonderkommando (Special Commando/death brigade), and instructed to cover all traces of Jewish extermination. Wells and the other Jews had to carry dead bodies to a trench and burn them; this continued for many days. In September, Wells was relocated to Krzywicki to continue covering up all traces of Jewish extermination on Pelczynska Street. In November 1943, after the liquidation of the Janowska concentration camp, Wells escaped and remained in hiding until liberation. Out of 76 immediate and extended family members, Wells is the sole survivor. He has a PhD in mechanical engineering and post-graduate work in physics. From 1950-1953, Wells worked as an associate researcher a New York University; in 1953-56, he worked as Research Director at Commerce International, an international tanker organization. In 1956-57, Wells worked as a Project Engineer at Curtis-Wright Aeronautics, and since 1957, Wells held the position of technical Director and Vice-President of Ark Projection Company. In 1961, Wells resided in New Jersey, United States of America with his wife and two children. 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.