Amazon Prime Video announced that it has acquired the three-part docuseries “The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes,” which features excerpts from 28 hours of taped audio interviews with the notorious Nazi SS officer Adolf Eichmann that were long believed to be lost. Available for streaming on the service now, the series finds Eichmann detailing his role as one of the most monstrous perpetrators of Hitler’s “Final Solution” and the Holocaust that resulted in the deaths of more than six million Jews during World War II.
While Eichmann was captured and detained by the Allies in 1945 following Germany’s defeat and the full depth of the horror of the Holocaust was coming to light, he escaped from a detention camp and moved around Germany to avoid recapture. He lived in a small village in Lower Saxony until 1950, when he moved to Argentina using falsified papers and hid out until being captured and tried by the Israeli Mossad in 1960. He was ultimately found guilty and executed by hanging on June 1, 1962.
The recordings with Eichmann were made from interviews conducted by Nazi journalist Willem Sassen in Argentina in 1957. During those sessions, he pridefully and chillingly confesses to his own role in the genocide perpetrated against the Jewish population of Europe as one of the leading Holocaust architects. After Eichmann’s capture, written transcripts from the interviews were sold to Life magazine and published. In 1961, the District Court of Jerusalem tried Eichmann, with the tapes becoming a focus of the trial. Chief prosecutor Gideon Hausner presented the transcripts as evidence but was prevented from presenting the audio, offering Eichmann an opportunity to deny his role. He was convicted anyway.
The original tapes were recently rediscovered in Bundesarchiv, Germany’s national archives., and access was granted to make “The Devil’s Confession.” In addition to the interview footage, the docuseries features interviews with Holocaust survivors and key witnesses at the Eichmann trial, as well as historians and Holocaust experts. It’s presented by MGM Television and the Israeli entertainment studio SIPUR in association with Kan 11, Toluca Pictures and Alice Communications.
“We’re honored to work with MGM Television and SIPUR to bring ‘The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes’ to our U.S. Prime Video customers,” said Vernon Sanders, head of global television for Amazon Studios. “This riveting and important documentary series reminds us of how the atrocities of the past should never be forgotten.”
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