Draft 2023, Spring 2025

Born in 1954, I am a child of television, the first TV generation. Germane to late fifties and early sixties broadcasting was anything to do with World War II. The four broadcast networks saturated the airwaves with World War II movies, television series of war, and ultimately even ’service comedies’, parodies of war. I was raised on this programming, by the bombing campaign over Europe, ‘Victory at Sea’, the Battle of Britain, invasion of Normandy and less prominently the Russian and African campaigns. (Truth be told, I am still mesmerized by WWII footage, documentaries and docudramas.)

Growing up with such glorifying WWII movies, and heroic ‘war as entertainment’ programming, I became aware at my young age of a titanic struggle against “evil”, without an understanding of that terms meaning.

The year was 1961 when that term became clear, I was seven years old.

During a Saturday morning, likely after watching cartoons, I alone began viewing a courtroom scene that grabbed my attention. I knew that programs such as ‘Perry Mason’ were staged and courtroom drama was fake, yet this show was different. In this courtroom the pace was slower, deliberate; there was no change of scene, just continuous and riveting testimony. I watched for hours.

The testimony was horrifying, I could not believe my ears. I had never heard of the Holocaust prior to this television broadcast. World War II had always been about bombers, invasion and ‘bloodless’ television battles, where people just fell when shot and bombs were explosions without casualties.

That television trial haunted my thoughts for six decades until 2023, when I at long last realized what I had seen and heard that morning in 1961. I never forgot that broadcast. The memory never faded, but lingered on, something mentioned to others numerous times through the years: “I recall a broadcast when I was a child …”, “What was that?”, “I know I wasn’t seeing a TV drama …”.

The measured and unemotional words of a fifty something year old man captured my attention. The witness testimony spoke of a German officer, a ‘prison’ camp and the events that transpired within the camp amongst the imprisoned people. Most memorably, his testimony spoke of a child eating an apple and an officer’s conduct. The witness stated the officer carried a stick, or cane, and while walking past the child, abruptly struck the child with his weapon, knocking the child to the ground.

The officer then placed his stick across the neck of the child; with a foot on each end of the cane, rocked left and right, up and down, like a see-saw, across the neck of the child. Soon after, the child moved no more. Standing calmly over his victim, the officer then consumed the child’s apple.

My understanding of war and evil was no longer abstract. Prior to that testimony I had never considered such cruelty and abuse was possible, never heard of such unspeakable events. This was just one event of the Holocaust, a subject never touched by bloodless early television and movies. There was never mention of the Holocaust at that time on television, of the death camps or genocide; just heroic Allies ( except the Soviets, who were never mentioned during the Cold War ) and successful battles.

The broadcast was the actual trial, uninterrupted and shown virtually live on tape delay, of the senior Nazi commander Adolf Eichman. Eichman had been abducted from Argentina by Israeli agents and secreted off to Israel to stand trial. ( Clearly an illegal act, then and today. )

Not until 2023 while reading news did I chance upon a feature that commemorated this seminal television event: The Trial of Adolf Eichman. The ah-ha moment was immediate. At long last, I clarified that haunting memory which I had observed one Saturday morning over six decades previously, in 1961. May she rest in peace.