Eichmann Trial -- Session 42 -- Cross-examination of Grueber by defense attorney Servatius

Eichmann Trial -- Session 42 -- Cross-examination of Grueber by defense attorney Servatius 

Eichmann Trial -- Session 42 -- Cross-examination of Grueber by defense attorney Servatius 

Defense lawyer Servatius is seated going through papers. He hands one of the papers to a man who passes by his table. Shot of the courtroom, Eichmann's booth; Eichmann is escorted in carrying documents. One of his guards delivers a note to Servatius. The camera focuses alternately on Eichmann and Servatius for several minutes. All rise as the judges enter court. Judge Landau announces the opening of Session 42 (00:05:41). Continuation of interrogation of Dr. Heinrich Grüber, Protestant Dean of Berlin by defense attorney Robert Servatius. Grüber describes his association with the Confessional Church. He notes that the Evangelical Church or Official Church separated from the Confessional Church because the Evangelical Church followed National Socialism (00:08:34). Servatius asks the witness about the Berlin Evangelical Sunday Paper and its welcome of Hitler following the Enabling Act in 1933. Grüber states that this was a method of appeasing the regime, although he personally did not agree with this tactic. (00:12:05). Servatius reads from the aforementioned paper and tries to suggest that Eichmann was convinced that he was on the right path based on the anti-Semitic propaganda in the excerpt from this paper. Someone claps in the courtroom and Judge Landau attempts to remove the person from the courtroom (00:22:33). Servatius reads from another German newspaper from around the same time. Gruber talks about the blindness of the German people to the negativity of National Socialism and his belief that by November 1938 they had realized that it was the wrong path. Servatius turns his questions to a book by W. Poliakov-Wolff"The Thinkers of the Third Reic" (00:35:09) in which scholars and professors acclaimed Hitler's actions. Dr. Gruber gives testimony concerning the arrest of and deportation of clergymen to Dachau (00:39:40). Describes the frequency of mass arrests and transports of clergymen to Warthegau (00:46:35). Questions in this section are being asked by Judge Raveh. Judge Halevi asks about Gruber's role in the rescue of Jews (00:55:52) which Gruber states that it was an honor but that he did not want to divulge the name of the man that also helped and that he had in fact received hate mail for his actions. Halevi then asks about the difference between the reaction of ordinary people and scholars to the persecution of Jews (01:00:02) at which Gruber replies that it was very clear by the November pogrom that the working class was more sympathetic and willing to help.