The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes on SBS – A few weeks before the opening of the Eichmann trial, transcripts of recorded conversations that Adolf Eichmann had had with a Dutch Nazi journalist, Willem Sassen, were mysteriously handed over to prosecutor Gideon Hausner.
The conversations were held a few years before Eichmann was brought to Israel by the Mossad. During the trial, Eichmann tried to convince the judges that he was only a bureaucrat who carried out orders, but in the transcripts, Eichmann was found boasting and proud of his significant role in planning and executing the Final Solution. For the first time, we will confront Eichmann with himself in full colour, revealing the hidden factors and motives that succeeded in hiding these recordings.
Series One, Episode Three: Dealing With The Devil
Even though the audio recordings themselves evade him, Gideon Hausner surprises Eichmann and the court by presenting a full transcript of the Sassen Tapes, complete with comments written in Eichmann’s own handwriting.
Hausner presses forward with the prosecution, painting a picture of the Holocaust by calling survivors of the atrocity to the stand. As Hausner continues the trial and dives deeper into the transcripts on hand, it becomes clear that the information within them might pose threat not only to West Germany but to those amongst Israeli society who seem to have corroborated with Nazi criminals like Eichmann.
The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes – Final Episode – Thursday, 6 July at 8.30pm on SBS and SBS on Demand (3 Parts)
TV Central SBS content HERE
