I didn't know it was so bad.
A couple of incendiaries, these old
buildings go up like Cellophane.
A wall separates the old section
of Nuremberg from the new.
It goes back to... How far
does it go back, Schmidt?
- 1219, sir.
- 1219.
This is where the Nazi party
held their rallies, isn't it?
They all came here. Hitler,
Goebbels, the whole crew.
Thousands of them,
from all over Germany.
Does he have to blow
that damn horn so much?
It's not necessary to blow
the horn so much, Schmidt.
- You both know your duties?
- Ja.
Well, here we are.
A little bit of old Germany.
- Senator Burkette.
- Captain Byers, this is Judge Haywood.
- Byers here will be your aide.
- My what?
Clerk, general guide, liaison.
Any capacity you wish to use me.
This will be your staff,
Mr and Mrs Halbestadt.
- Hello.
- Good afternoon.
Good afternoon, Your Honour.
- Welcome.
- You've met your driver, Schmidt.
I'm at your service any time
you need me. Day or night.
Thanks.
Let's show him around the
rest of the place. Dan.
We're in the reception room.
Living room. The study is in there.
There are two bedrooms on
this floor, three upstairs.
The furniture is part
antique, part US army.
The piano is showing signs of wear and
tear, but it's a genuine Bechstein.
- Quite a view, isn't it, sir?
- Yes.
Uh...
Senator, I really, really
don't need all this.
When the US government does
something, it does it right.
- Who used to live here?
- An important Nazi general and his wife.
Is there anything else Judge
Haywood ought to know?
- Sir, any questions?
- Yes, yes.
- You're West Point, aren't you?
- Yes.
- What's your first name?
- Harrison. Harry.
Well, Harry, look. I'm not West Point, and
all this formality kind of gets me down.
It puts me ill at ease. You think it would
be too much of an infraction of the rules
if you were to call me
Judge or Dan or something?
OK, Judge. We do all our
shopping at the army commissary.
There isn't enough food at the local
markets. The driver knows where it is.
Here's a copy of the
indictment of the case.
- Thanks.
- I hope you'll be comfortable here, sir.
Captain, I think the whole state of
Maine would be comfortable here.
My office is next to yours,
if you need anything.
- Thank you.
- Senator.
Do you think I need the three servants?
It kind of makes me feel like a damn fool.
Well, it helps them out as well
as you. You see, here they eat.
Oh.
Well, I need three servants.
It's good to have a man of
your stature here, Dan.
Sure. Sure. I was the only man
in America qualified for this job.
You know I wasn't the first
choice, nor even the tenth.
- You know it, I know it.
- What do you mean?
Let's face it. Hitler is gone, Goebbels is
gone, Gring is gone... committed suicide.
Now we're down to judging the
doctors, businessmen and judges.
- Some think they shouldn't be judged.
- So?
It makes for a lack of
candidates for the job.
You had to beat the backwoods of
Maine to come up with a hick like me.
- I hope you're not sorry you came.
- No, I'm not sorry I came.
I just wanted you to know I
know where the body is buried.
No, I think the
trials should go on.
Especially the trials of the German
judges. I hope I'm up to it.
You're up to it.
Well, relax. Enjoy this
place while you can.
- You're gonna be a pretty busy fellow.
- Thanks, Senator.
See you tomorrow, Judge.
Shall we, uh, take these upstairs?
Oh, yes, thank you.
- Here, I can take that one.
- No, let me take it. Please.
Here they come.
The tribunal is now in session.
God bless the United States
and this honourable tribunal.
The tribunal will now
arraign the defendants.
A microphone will be placed in
front of the defendant Emil Hahn.
Emil Hahn, are you represented
by counsel before this tribunal?
Not guilty.
The question was are you
represented by counsel?
I am represented.
How do you plead to the charges and
specifications in the indictment,
guilty or not guilty?
Not guilty on all counts.
Friedrich Hofstetter.
Are you represented by counsel
before this tribunal?
- I am represented.
- How do you plead, guilty or not guilty?
Nicht schuldig.
You may be seated.
Werner Lampe.
Are you represented by counsel
before this tribunal?
Counsel?
Yes, yes, of course,
I am represented.
How do you plead to the
charges, guilty or not guilty?
Nicht schuldig.
You may be seated.
Ernst Janning.
Ernst Janning, are you represented
by counsel before this tribunal?
Ernst Janning, are you represented
by counsel before this tribunal?
I represent the
defendant, Your Honour.
How do you plead to the
charges and specifications
set forth in the indictment against
you, guilty or not guilty?
Your Honour, may
I address the court?
The defendant does not recognise
the authority of this tribunal
and wishes to lodge
a formal protest.
A plea of not guilty
will be entered.
The prosecution will begin
its opening address.
Slow and easy, Junior.
The case is unusual, in that the
defendants are charged with crimes
committed in the name of the law.
These men, together with their
deceased or fugitive colleagues,
are the embodiment of what passed
for justice during the Third Reich.
The defendants served as judges
during the period of the Third Reich.
Therefore you, Your Honours,
as judges on the bench,
will be sitting in judgment
of judges in the dock.
And this is as it should be.
For only a judge knows how much
more a court is than a courtroom.
It is a process and a spirit.
It is the house of law.
The defendants knew this too.
They knew courtrooms well.
They sat in their black robes and
they distorted, they perverted,
they destroyed justice
and law in Germany.
The prosecution will
please watch the light.
- The interpreter cannot follow you.
- I'm sorry, Your Honour.
They distorted, they perverted,
they destroyed justice
and law in Germany.
This in itself is
undoubtedly a great crime.
But the prosecution is not calling
the defendants to account
for violating constitutional guaranties
or withholding due process of law.
The prosecution is calling
them to account for murder,
brutalities,
torture,
atrocities!
They share, with all the
leaders of the Third Reich,
responsibility for the most
malignant, the most calculated,
the most devastating crimes in
the history of all mankind.
They are perhaps more guilty
than some of the others,
for they had attained maturity long
before Hitler's rise to power.
Their minds weren't warped at
an early age by Nazi teachings.
They embraced the ideologies of the
Third Reich as educated adults,
when they, most of all,
should have valued justice.
Here they'll receive the
justice they denied others.
They'll be judged according to the
evidence presented in this courtroom.
The prosecution asks nothing more.
Herr Rolfe will make the opening
statement for the defence.
May it please the tribunal.
It is not only a great honour...
but also a great challenge...
for an advocate...
to aid this tribunal in its task.
The entire civilised world
will follow closely
what we do here.
For this is not an ordinary trial,
by any means of the
accepted parochial sense.
The avowed purpose of this tribunal
is broader than the visiting
of retribution on a few men.
It is dedicated to the reconsecration
of the temple of justice.
It is dedicated to finding a code of justice
the whole world will be responsible to.
How will this code be established?
It will be established
in a clear, honest evaluation of
the responsibility for the crimes
in the indictment stated
by the prosecution.
In the words of the great American
jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes,
"This responsibility will not
be found only in documents
that no one contests or denies. "
"it will be found in considerations
of a political or social nature. "
"it will be found, most of
all, in the character of men. "
What is the character
of Ernst Janning?
Let us examine his
life for a moment.
He was born in 1885.
Received the degree of
Doctor of Law in 1907.
Became a judge in
East Prussia in 1914.
Following World War I, he became
one of the Weimar Republic leaders
and one of the framers of its
democratic constitution.
In subsequent years, he
achieved international fame
not only for his work as a great jurist,
but also as the author of legal textbooks
which are still used in
universities all over the world.
He became Minister of
Justice in Germany in 1935.
If Ernst Janning is
to be found guilty,
certain implications must arise.
A judge does not make the laws.
He carries out the
laws of his country.
The statement "My
country, right or wrong"
was expressed by a great
American patriot.
It is no less true for
a German patriot.
Should Ernst Janning have carried
out the laws of his country?
Or should he have refused to carry
them out and become a traitor?
This is the crux of the issue
at the bottom of this trial.
The defence is as dedicated
to finding responsibility
as is the prosecution.
For it is not only Ernst
Janning who is on trial here.
It is the German people.
The tribunal will recess
until further notification.
Yeah.
If it's all right with you, Byers
can file these briefs later.
It was quite a damning speech
by Colonel Lawson, wasn't it?
I wonder if those men in the
dock can really be responsible
for the things he listed
in the indictment.
I've been here two years,
and after that long
you find that responsibility
is not a cut-and-dried thing.
What are you fellows
up to this weekend?
My wife and I are going to Lige.
There's nothing in Liege.
I've been there.
My son was in the 101 st.
He's buried in the American
cemetery outside Liege.
- I'm sorry.
- That's all right.
- See you Monday, Dan.
- Mm.
- Coming my way?
- No, I'm staying here for a moment.
I'm waiting for some
records from Byers.
Right.
- Here are the reports you asked for, sir.
- Thank you.
Captain, do you think you could get me a
copy of the books Ernst Janning wrote?
- There are quite a few of them.
- I'd like all of them.
And also a copy of the Weimar
constitution. Can you get that for me?
- Yes, of course.
- Thank you.
- How long have you been here, Captain?
- Two years.
- Two years, that's a long time.
- Yes, sir.
- Any friends?
- Sure.
- German friends?
- Yes.
- A girl?
- Yes.
Her parents were Nazis, but she
was eight when they came in.
- I didn't ask you that.
- Maybe you were thinking it.
It's natural to think about it.
I thought if anybody was going to
indoctrinate her, it might as well be me.
- Will there be anything else?
- No. I think I'll take a walk around town.
Try the old section for
a beer and a sausage.
Thank you.
Nicht mehr! Nicht mehr!
Auf Wiedersehen, Opa.
- Do you understand English?
- Yes, a little.
- What did she say?
- She said "Goodbye, Grandpa. "
Vor uns liegt Deutschland,
in uns marschiert Deutschland,
und hinter uns kommt Deutschland.
- Are they treating you all right?
- Yes. They are treating me all right.
We still have some friends who have
contact with the American authorities.
- I can tell them if they are not.
- They're treating me all right.
Doctor Janning...
we are both in an
embarrassing position.
I know you didn't want
me as your counsel.
I know you didn't want anyone.
But I must tell you something.
Will you listen to me?
Yes.
I intend to represent your
case with complete dignity.
There will be no
appeal to sentiment,
there will be no falling
at the mercy of the court.
The game will be played
according to their own rules.
We'll see whether they have the courage
to sit in judgment on a man like you.
The way I see it,
the most important elements in the
case are the sterilisation decrees
and the Feldenstein-Hoffman affair.
Doctor Janning,
I must tell you something.
I admired you since I was
a boy in the university.
It was because I thought I
might be able to achieve
some of the things you have done
that saw me through the war.
You have been somebody to
look up to for all of us.
Is that all, Herr Rolfe?
- Yes.
- Thank you.
Dr Wieck, do you know the
defendant Ernst Janning?
Yes, I know him.
Will you tell us in what capacity?
We served in the Ministry of Justice
together from 1929 till 1935.
- Did you know him before that?
- Yes. He was a law student of mine.
- Did you know him well?
- Yes.
- Was he a protg of yours?
- Yes.
Why?
He was always a man of
great intelligence.
He was a man born with the
qualities of a great legal mind.
Dr Wieck, would you, uh...
would you tell us, from
your own experience,
the position of the judge in Germany
prior to the advent of Adolf Hitler?
The position of the judge was
one of complete independence.
Mm-hm.
Now would you describe
the contrast, if any,
after the coming to power of
National Socialism in 1933?
Judges became subject to something
outside of objective justice.
They were subject to what was necessary
for the protection of the country.
- Would you explain this, please?
- The first consideration of the judge
became the punishment of
acts against the state,
rather than objective
consideration of the case.
And what other changes were there?
The right to appeal was eliminated.
The Supreme Court of the Reich was
replaced by peoples' and special courts.
The concept of race was made a
legal concept for the first time.
And what was the result of this?
The result?
The result was to hand over
the administration of justice
into the hands of the dictatorship.
- Dr Wieck...
- Colonel Lawson,
I'd like to ask a few questions.
Did the judiciary protest these
laws abridging their independence?
A few of them did. Those who did
resigned or were forced to resign.
Others...
adapted themselves to
the new situation.
Do you think the judiciary was
aware of the consequences to come?
At first, perhaps not.
Later it became clear to
anyone who had eyes and ears.
Thank you.
Now, would you please describe for
us the changes in criminal law.
Its characteristic was an ever-increasing
inflation of the death penalty.
Sentences were passed
against defendants
just because they were Poles or
Jews, or politically undesirable.
Novel National Socialist
measures were introduced,
among them sexual sterilisation for
those who were categorised as asocial.
Was it necessary for judges to wear any
distinctive mark on their robes in 1935?
The so-called "Fhrer's decree"
required judges to wear the insignia
of the swastika on their robes.
- Did you wear such an insignia?
- No.
I would have been
ashamed to wear it.
- Did you resign in 1935?
- Yes, sir.
Did Ernst Janning wear a
swastika on his robe?
Yes.
That's all. Thank you.
Herr Rolfe.
Herr Justizrat Dr Wieck.
You used the phrase "necessary for
the protection of the country. "
Would you explain the
conditions in Germany
at the time National
Socialism came to power?
What conditions?
Would you say there was
widespread hunger?
Yes.
Would you say there was
internal disunity?
Yes.
- Was there a Communist Party?
- Yes.
Was it the third largest
party in Germany?
Mm... yes.
Would you say that National Socialism
helped to cure some of these conditions?
Yes, but at a terrible
price, and...
Please, confine yourself to
answering the questions only.
Therefore, was it not possible
that a judge might wear a swastika
and yet work for what he thought
was best for his country?
No. It was not possible.
Dr Wieck,
you were not in the administration
from the years 1935 to 1943,
by your own admission.
Is it not possible that your view of
the administration might be distorted?
No, it is not.
How can you testify about events in the
administration if you were not there?
I had many friends in the
legal administration.
There were journals and books.
From journals and books?
I see.
Dr Wieck, you referred to "novel
National Socialist measures introduced,
among them sexual sterilisation. "
Are you aware that sexual sterilisation
was not invented by National Socialism,
but had been advanced for
years before as a weapon
in dealing with the mentally
incompetent and the criminal?
Yes, I am aware of that.
Are you aware it has advocates among
leading citizens in many countries?
I am not an expert on such laws.
Then permit me to read one to you.
This is a High Court opinion
upholding such laws in
existence in another country.
And I quote:
"We have seen more than once
that the public welfare
may call upon their best
citizens for their lives. "
"it would be strange indeed
if it could not call upon
those who already sap the strength of
the state for these lesser sacrifices
in order to prevent our being
swamped by incompetence. "
"it is better if, instead of waiting to
execute degenerate offspring for crime
or to let them starve
for their imbecility,
society can prevent their propagation
by medical means in the first place. "
"Three generations of
imbeciles are enough. "
- Do you recognise it now, Dr Wieck?
- No, sir, I don't.
Actually, there is no
particular reason you should,
since the opinion upholds the sterilisation
law in the state of Virginia,
of the United States,
and was written by that
great American jurist
Supreme Court Justice
Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Now, Dr Wieck,
in view of what you
have just learned,
can you still say that sexual sterilisation
was a "novel National Socialist measure"?
Yes, I can say it,
because it was never before used as a
weapon against political opponents.
Do you personally know of a case
where someone was sterilised
for political reasons?
- I know that such things were done.
- That's not the question.
Please answer the question.
Do you know of a case?
I don't know of any specific
case or specific date.
I am asking if you have any first-hand,
personal knowledge of such a case!
No, I have no such
personal knowledge.
Thank you.
Dr Wieck,
you are aware of the charges in the
indictment against Ernst Janning?
Yes, I am.
Can you honestly say he
is responsible for them?
Yes, I can.
Do you consider yourself
free of responsibility?
Yes, I do.
Dr Wieck, did you ever swear to the
Civil Servant Loyalty Oath of 1934?
Your Honour, I object.
The witness doesn't have to answer
that question. He's not on trial.
All Germany is on trial. This tribunal put
it on trial when it indicted Ernst Janning.
If responsibility is to be found, the
widest latitude is to be permitted.
Objection overruled.
Did you ever swear to the Civil
Servant Loyalty Oath of 1934?
- Everyone did.
- We are not interested in everyone.
We are interested in what you did.
Would you read the oath from the
Reich Law Gazette, March 1933.
"I swear that I shall obey the leader of
the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler,
that I shall be loyal to him,
that I will observe the laws
and that I will conscientiously
fulfil my duties, so help me God. "
Everyone swore to it.
It was mandatory.
Yes.
But you're such a perceptive man, Dr
Wieck. You could see what was coming.
You could see that National Socialism
was leading Germany to disaster.
"It was clear to anyone
who had eyes and ears. "
Didn't you realise what
it would have meant
if you, and men like you, would
have refused to swear to the oath?
It would have meant that Hitler could
never have come to absolute power!
Why didn't you?
Dr Wieck, why didn't you?
Can you give us an explanation?
Has it something to
do with your pension?
Did it mean more to you
than your country?
Your Honour, I object to the
entire line of questioning
and ask that it be
stricken from the record.
Prosecuting counsel's job
is to find responsibility.
Your Honour, I made an objection.
Prosecution does not want
to find responsibility?
There is responsibility for more here
than swearing to a loyalty oath!
There is indeed!
- Order.
- One thing even the German machine,
with its monumental efficiency,
has been unable to destroy!
- Order!
- All the victims!
More victims than the world has
ever known. They will walk in here...
Order! Order!
This tribunal will admonish both
counsels. It will not tolerate this again.
We're not here to listen to such
outbursts, but to serve justice.
- Your Honour, I made an objection.
- The objection is overruled.
The witness is excused.
- Ever read any books by Janning?
- No, I don't think so.
- The Meaning of the Law.
- How is it? Interesting?
All the books by Janning
are interesting.
They're a picture of an era,
its hopes, aspirations.
They weren't very
different from ours.
Listen to this, on the signing
of the Weimar constitution.
"Now we can look forward to a Germany
without guns and bloodshed. "
"A Germany of justice, where
men can live instead of die. "
"A Germany of purpose, of
freedom, of humanity. "
"A Germany that calls
for the best in man. "
How could a man who
wrote words like these
be part of sterilisations and murders?
How could he be?
Dan, there are a lot of things that
happened here that nobody understands.
I know.
But the prosecution is going to have
to prove every inch of its allegation
against a man like Janning if I'm
to pronounce sentence on him.
Gentlemen, I'm on my way.
- Coming, Ken?
- Right.
There's just this business on
the curtailment of rights.
Tomorrow.
Dan, my wife is planning a get-together
tomorrow at the Grand Hotel.
- She wants you to come.
- All right. Thank you.
And she'd like to provide you with
some kind of female companionship.
She thought you might
be lonely here.
No, thanks, Curtiss.
Thanks very much.
You know how these wives
love to play Cupid.
- I think I'll keep it stag.
- All right.
- How about you, Ken?
- Thanks. My wife and I are busy.
- Good night.
- Good night, Dan.
Mrs Halbestadt, could I...
Hello.
Hello.
Your Honour, this
is Madame Bertholt.
This is His Honour, Judge Haywood.
Madame Bertholt, this is her house.
She came to get some of her
belongings from the basement.
- I didn't know she was coming tonight.
- It's my responsibility, Mrs Halbestadt.
I've stored some of my things here until I
could get a room large enough for them.
- I hope you don't mind.
- No. Not at all.
You can examine what I
have here if you like.
- Of course not.
- Then I'll just take these out.
- Thank you, Mrs Halbestadt.
- Let me help you.
- I can manage.
- I'll just take it outside. Please.
Good night.
It's heavy. It's full of books and pictures
that mean nothing to anyone but me.
- Mr Schmidt!
- Your Honour.
- Would you drive Mrs Bertholt home?
- Yes, Your Honour.
- I hope you're comfortable here.
- Yes, I am. Very.
My favourite spot was
always the garden.
Remind Mr Halbestadt to take
good care of the rock garden.
You'll get a great deal of
pleasure out of it in summer.
I'll sit in front, thank you.
- Good night.
- Good night.
- Karolinenstrasse 115.
- Yes, madam.
Sit down, sit down.
Mrs Halbestadt, you worked for
Mrs Bertholt, didn't you?
- Yes, Your Honour.
- How long did she live here?
Madame Bertholt?
Oh, Madame Bertholt and her family
have lived here for many generations.
Thank you.
Your Honour, you came
in here for something?
Oh! Oh, yeah.
I'm just going to make
myself a sandwich.
We will make it. We will
make you anything you want.
No, it's nothing. I always
did it for myself back home.
What would you like? I have some
ham and cheese and liverwurst.
Cheese will be fine.
That's very kind of you.
Mr Halbestadt, what was it like,
living under National Socialism?
- What was it like?
- Yes. I mean, uh... day-to-day?
I know many people
at home like you.
You're good people. I believe that.
What was it like for you,
living under Hitler?
We were not political. Mr
Halbestadt and I are not political.
- Ein Glas fur die Milch, bitte.
- Ja.
No, but you must have been aware of
some of the events that were going on.
Many things were going
on, Mr Halbestadt.
There were parades.
Hitler and Goebbels
came here every year.
What was it like?
We never attended meetings. Never.
I'm not trying to put you
on trial. I'm just, uh...
I'm just curious. I'd like to know.
- Here's your sandwich, Your Honour.
- Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you.
For instance, there was a place called
Dachau not too many miles from here.
Did you ever know what
was going on there?
We knew nothing about it.
Nothing about it.
How can you ask if we
know anything about that?
I'm sorry.
Your Honour, we are
only little people.
We lost a son in the army
and our daughter in the bombing.
During the war we almost starved.
It was terrible for us.
I'm sure it was.
Hitler... Hitler did
some good things.
I won't say he didn't
do some good things.
He built the autobahn.
He gave more people work.
We won't say he didn't
do some good things.
But the other things...
The things they say he did to the Jews and
the rest, we knew nothing about that.
Very few Germans did.
And if we did know...
what could we do?
But Mrs Halbestadt
said you didn't know.
Mrs Bertholt, how did
she react to all this?
Ah, Madame Bertholt is a very
fine woman, Your Honour.
I'm sure she is.
What about her husband?
He was in the army.
What happened to him?
He was one of the defendants
in the Malmedy case.
General Bertholt. Karl Bertholt.
He was executed, Your Honour.
Yes, I know that.
The document then states that
the photographer Rudolf Lenz
is requested to present
himself within two weeks
at one of the hospitals mentioned
below for "medical treatment".
Next, prosecution presents
affidavit document no. 488,
which concerns the
seamstress Anni Mnch.
Document reads as follows:
"District court Frankfurt am
Main has decided the following:
the seamstress Anni Mnch, daughter of
Wilhelm Mnch, is to be sterilised. "
"She is requested to present
herself within two weeks
at one of the hospitals
mentioned below. "
"if she does not take herself
voluntarily, she will be taken by force. "
Next, document no. 449, interrogatories
in the German and English text,
concerning the farmer's
helper Meyer Eichinger.
- Your Honour.
- What?
Defence objects to introduction
of these repetitive documents.
According to the ruling
of the first tribunal,
such documents are
not even admissible
unless supported by independent
evidence of their authenticity.
Objection sustained.
Your Honour, may I ask
the defence a question?
Yes.
Would evidence on sterilisation be
admissible if there were a witness?
- Yes.
- Thank you.
Prosecution calls the
witness Rudolf Petersen.
Will you raise your right hand?
I swear by God the
Almighty and Omniscient
that I will speak the pure truth
and withhold and add nothing.
Yes, I do.
Will you please tell the court your
full name and place of residence.
Rudolf Petersen. Frankfurt am Main.
Gretweg, Nummer sieben.
When were you born, Mr Petersen?
May 20, 1914.
And what is your occupation?
Baker's helper.
I'm a baker's helper.
Are your parents living?
No.
What were the causes
of their deaths?
Mr Petersen, did they
die of natural causes?
Ja, ja. Ja. Natural.
Now, Mr Petersen, what political
party did your father belong to?
Communist. The Communist Party.
Uh-huh.
Now, think back.
Do you remember anything unusual that
happened to you and your family in 1933,
before the Nazis came to power?
I mean anything of
a violent nature.
Ja, ja.
- How old were you at the time?
- 19.
Would you please tell the
court what happened?
Uh... some...
Some SA men broke into
the house, our house,
and they broke the
windows and the door.
They called us traitors
and they tried to...
to beat up my father.
And what happened then?
My brothers and I,
we went to help him.
And there was a fight.
Finally we got them
outside in the street
and we beat them up,
and turned them over to the police.
- Did the police do anything about it?
- No.
Why not?
It was then at the time of
the national elections.
- The National Socialists came to power?
- Ja.
Now, Mr Petersen,
what happened after 1933, after
the Nazis came to power?
I got a job on a farm,
but for the work, to drive
a truck it was necessary.
I went to the city building
to apply for a license.
And what happened there?
They took me to an official.
Did you ever have any dealings
with this official before?
He was one of the men who broke
into our house that night.
What did he say to
your application?
He said an examination
there would have to be.
Where was the examination
to take place?
In the district court of Stuttgart.
Who was the presiding
justice in the court?
Justice Hofstetter.
Now, what happened
in the courtroom?
They asked me my full
name and so forth.
What else did they ask you?
They asked me when Adolf Hitler
and Dr Goebbels were born.
What did you reply?
I told them I didn't know,
and also that I didn't care.
Did they ask you any
more questions?
No. They told me that I would be
hearing from them in ten days.
I see.
Mr Petersen,
I'd like you to look at something.
- Do you recognise it?
- Ja.
Would you please read
it for the tribunal?
"District court of Stuttgart. "
"The baker Rudolf Petersen,
born May 20th 1914,
son of railway employee
Hans Petersen,
is to be sterilised. "
Would you read the last paragraph?
"It is therefore requested he
present himself within two weeks
to one of the hospitals
mentioned below. "
"if he does not betake
himself voluntarily,
he will be taken by force. "
Now please read the
signature at the bottom.
"Presiding Justice Hofstetter. "
Would you read what is
written below the signature?
- Below?
- Below.
"By authority of Ernst Janning,
Minister of Justice. "
Your Honour,
may the defence see the
file of Mr Petersen?
What did you do after you
received the letter, Mr Petersen?
I ran away. I stayed at the
farm of a friend I have.
And did you return?
- Did I what?
- Did you return?
Yes.
And what happened then?
The police came. The police came.
- Where did they take you?
- To the hospital.
Mr Petersen. Excuse me, I wonder if you
could speak a little louder, please.
To the hospital.
- What happened at the hospital?
- They kept me there.
The nurse who was...
Well, she came in anyway.
She was to prepare me
for the operation.
And she said she thought the
whole thing was terrible.
And then the doctor came in,
who was supposed to do the...
and he said he thought
it was awful.
Were you in fact sterilised?
Thank you very much, Mr Petersen.
That's all.
Herr Rolfe.
Mr Petersen,
you may take your earphones
off now, if you want to.
Mr Petersen, you say you work as a
baker's helper? Is that correct?
Yes, that is right.
What other occupations
have you held?
I have worked for my father.
- What did your father do?
- He was a railroad worker.
Yes, but what did he do?
He would raise and lower the barrier
at the crossing for traffic.
And you spoke about your brothers.
- How many brothers do you have?
- Five.
- And sisters?
- Four.
- Then you are a family of ten?
- Yes.
What occupations do
your brothers have?
Labourers.
All labourers?
I see.
Mr Petersen, you said the court at
Stuttgart asked you two questions,
the birth dates of
Hitler and Dr Goebbels.
- Is that correct?
- Yes. Correct.
What else did they ask you?
Uh...
Nothing else.
Are you sure?
Are you sure there were no
questions about your schooling?
Objection!
The witness has already
answered that question.
Objection sustained.
May I ask you, Mr Petersen...
may I ask you...
how long did you attend school?
- Six years.
- Six years. Why not longer?
I had to go to work.
Would you consider yourself a
very bright fellow at school?
School? It was...
It was a long while ago. I don't...
Perhaps you were not able
to keep up with the others
and that's why you
did not continue?
Objection, Your Honour.
The witness' school record has no
bearing on what happened to him.
It was the task of the health court to
sterilise the mentally incompetent.
Objection overruled.
Were you able or were you not
able to keep up with the others?
I would like to refer to the efficiency
report from the school about Mr Petersen.
He failed to be promoted and was placed
in a class of backward children.
You say your parents
died of natural causes.
Yes.
Would you describe in detail the
illness your mother died of?
She died of her heart.
In the last stages of her illness,
did your mother show any...
mental peculiarities?
Mental... No. No.
In the decision that
came from Stuttgart,
it is stated that your mother suffered
from hereditary feeble-mindedness.
That is not... That is not true.
Not true, not true.
Can you give us some
clarification as to how
the Hereditary Health Court in
Stuttgart arrived at that decision?
It was just something they said
to put me on the operating table.
- It was just something they said?
- Yes!
Mr Petersen, there was a simple test
that the Health Court used to ask
in all cases of
mental incompetence.
Since you say they did
not ask you then,
perhaps you can
answer it for us now?
Form a sentence out of the words
"hare", "hunter", "field".
Your Honour! Objection!
Mr Petersen,
was the court in Stuttgart
constituted like this one?
I don't understand what...
Was there an audience?
An audience? Yes, yes.
Thank you.
Objection overruled.
Hare, hunter, field, Mr Petersen.
Take your time.
Hare, hunter, field. Uh...
Hare,
hunter...
They had already made up...
When I walked into the court,
they had made up their minds.
They had made up their minds!
They put me in the
hospital, like a criminal.
I could not say anything,
I could not do anything. I...
I had to lie there.
My... my mother...
what you say about her.
She was a woman, a servant
woman, who worked hard.
She was a hardworking woman.
And it is not fair...
not fair... what you say.
I have it here.
I want to show you.
I have here her picture.
I would like you looked at it.
I would like you to judge.
I want that you tell me,
was she feeble-minded?
My mother!
Was she feeble-minded?
Was she?
I feel it is my duty to
point out to the tribunal
that the witness is not in
control of his mental processes.
I know I'm not.
Since that day,
I've been half I've ever been.
The tribunal does not
know how you were before.
It can never know.
It has only your word.
Court is adjourned.
That's one problem we have
with the prosecution...
it's filled with young
radicals like Lawson.
Is that what Lawson is?
A young radical?
Well, he was a personal
protg of FDR.
FDR had a few friends who
weren't radicals, didn't he?
Name one.
- Wendell Wilkie.
- Wilkie.
Is he your idea of a conservative?
As a matter of fact, Dan, I've
been wondering how you stand?
I'll clarify that for you, Curtiss.
I'm a rock-ribbed Republican
who thought that Franklin
Roosevelt was a great man.
Oh. One of those.
Max!
- Max Perkins. Do you know him?
- I don't think so.
He's with the United Press.
- Max, what are you doing here?
- I thought you might kick up a row.
I haven't had that much to drink.
- Oh, I'm sorry. This is Judge Ives.
- Hello.
- Mrs Ives.
- How do you do?
- How do you do?
- Judge Haywood, Mrs Bertholt.
- We have met.
- Yes, we have.
- Won't you join us for a drink?
- We would like to very much.
- Max, will you sit here?
- Thank you.
Incidentally, Max, I admired your
article on Mrs Bertholt very much.
It was straight reporting. Her defence
of her husband was quite eloquent.
Are you going to do a
story on these trials?
I'll tell you something
frankly, Judge.
At the moment I couldn't give a
story away on the Nuremberg trials.
- What do you mean, Mr Perkins?
- The American public isn't interested.
The war's only been over
two years, Mr Perkins.
That's right.
- May I take your order?
- Yes. See what the ladies will have.
- How about some more beer, Dan?
- No, I think I've had my fill of beer.
I'd like to try something
else, if I may.
Why don't you try some Sonnenberg
or Schwalbenwinkel? It's the local wine.
- Sonnenberg or...?
- Schwalbenwinkel.
Yes, I think I'd like that.
Some Schwalbenwinkel.
- Will you have some?
- Yes, thank you.
- Shall we stay with the beer, Max?
- Fine.
Thank you.
- You got home all right the other night?
- Yes, thank you.
I don't know what I would
have done without the car.
You speak English very
well, Mrs Bertholt.
Thank you.
My husband and I spent
two years in America.
I hope you've had a chance to
see something of Nuremberg.
I'm afraid mainly the road between
my house and the Palace of Justice.
And then some places that have to do
with the case, historical aspects.
The Nazi aspects. You should see some
of the other parts of Nuremberg.
There are many beautiful things
to see in the old part of town,
museums we're trying to rebuild.
And there's a concert, a piano concert,
next week at the old opera house.
Arthur Reiss. He was a refugee
from Hitler in the early days.
We've persuaded him to come back.
It ought to be quite an evening.
- Would you like to come?
- Yes, I would.
I'll have them leave a ticket for you at
the box office. I'm on the committee.
- Thank you very much, Mrs Bertholt.
- It's nothing.
I have a mission with the Americans,
as Mr Perkins can tell you.
Oh? What is that?
To convince you that
we're not all monsters.
- Good evening, Colonel.
- Colonel, Major Radnitz.
Good evening, Mrs Bertholt.
- I hope you'll excuse me.
- You've just come.
No, I must go. Please excuse me.
It was awfully nice meeting you.
There will be a concert ticket
for you at the box office.
Thank you.
- Good night.
- Good night.
- Good night.
- Good night, Mrs Bertholt.
Huh.
Mrs Bertholt doesn't hold
a burning passion for me.
I prosecuted her husband.
Many people think a death sentence
would not have been passed
against General Bertholt today.
I'm sure they do.
I'm sure there are people who think
all the prisoners in Nuremberg
should be free today.
All of them! Let's...
Excuse me.
I've had, uh...
I've had one or two too many, as might
be painfully obvious to you gentlemen.
The spectacle this afternoon with Mr
Petersen put me off my feed. I'm sorry.
Three beers and
Schwalbenwinkel, please.
Prosit. Prosit.
- Schwalbenwinkel.
- Schwalbenwinkel.
Yes, it's good beer. They
make it good in this country.
You know...
You know, there's one
thing about Americans.
We're not cut out to be occupiers.
We're new at it and we're
not very good at it.
We come over here,
and what do we see?
We see this beautiful country.
It is beautiful.
It's very beautiful.
We see the culture that goes
back for hundreds of years.
We see its gemtlich charm,
and the charm of people
like, uh... Mrs Bertholt.
We got a built-in
inferiority complex.
We forgive and forget easy.
We give the other guy the benefit of
the doubt... that's the American way.
We beat the greatest war machine
since Alexander the Great
and now the boy scouts take over.
The trouble with you, Colonel, is you'd
like to indict the whole country.
That might be emotionally
satisfying to you,
but it wouldn't be exactly
practical, and hardly fair.
Hardly fair?
"Hare",
"hunter",
"field".
That's right, let's be fair.
The hare was shot by the
hunter in the field.
It's really quite simple.
Uh...
Colonel, I think we
ought to be going.
Yes. We shouldn't
be discussing this.
Oh, no, Judge we're fair
Americans, and true blue.
We mustn't do anything
that's out of order.
We can't do anything
that's out of order.
There are no Nazis in Germany.
Didn't you know that, Judge?
The Eskimos invaded
Germany and took over.
That's how all those
terrible things happened.
It wasn't the fault of the Germans,
it was the fault of those damn Eskimos!
Excuse me. Excuse me.
- Good night, Colonel.
- Good night.
Can I have your attention?
Sorry to interrupt your dancing.
The following officers are requested
to report to their units.
Major McCarthy, Major
Citron, Major Cantor,
Captain Byers, Captain Connell,
Captain Douglas, Captain Wolfe,
Major Booth and Major Rice.
Thank you. You can
continue dancing.
- Harry! What is it?
- The Russians are in Czechoslovakia.
Masaryk may have committed suicide.
We're sending some units over.
What do you think will happen?
I don't know, sir.
Oh, Judge Haywood.
Elsa Scheffler.
Guten Abend.
Guten Abend.
"President Truman responded by calling
for an extension of military training. "
"He stated that he is deeply concerned
with the survival of the Western nations
in face of the threat
from the east. "
"Threat from the east. "
Herr Janning, did you hear
what is in the paper?
Exactly what Hitler said: "The clash
for survival between east and west. "
Ah, he knew. He knew!
They'll see that we knew exactly
what we were doing all the time.
They cannot call us criminals and at
the same time ask us to help them.
We must stand together now. The most
crucial part of this case is coming up.
We have fallen on happy
times, Herr Hahn.
In the old times it would
have made your day
if I deigned to say
"Good morning" to you.
Now that we are here in
this place together,
you feel obliged to tell me
what to do with my life.
Herr Janning, you
must stand with us.
It is not good for Germans to turn on one
another. We have a common ground now.
Listen to me, Herr Hahn.
Terrible things have
happened to me in my life.
But the worst thing
that has ever happened
is to find myself in the
company of men like you.
I have nothing in common with
you and the party hacks.
You have something in common...
you were part of the same regime.
You stood by that regime,
like the rest of us.
And there is something
else you have in common:
you are a German.
- Good evening. Did you like it?
- Yes, I did. Very much indeed.
- Can I drop you?
- I only live a few blocks from here.
I was going to walk. Would
you like to go for a walk?
Yes. Yes, I would.
I won't need the car now.
I'll walk with Mrs Bertholt.
- Shall I wait for you?
- No, no.
I'll wait for you, Your Honour.
Vor einem groen Tor
Steht' ne Laterne
Und steht sie noch davor
Da wollen wir uns wiederseh'n
Bei der Laterne woll'n wir steh'n
Wie einst Lili Marleen
Wie einst...
The German people love to sing,
no matter what the situation.
I've noticed that.
Do American people sing in
bars, too? I've forgotten.
No. We're apt to be
pretty sullen in bars.
Und alle Leute soll'n es seh'n
Wenn wir...
I wish you understood German.
The words are very beautiful.
Very sad.
Much sadder than the English words.
"The German soldier knows he's going
to lose his girl and his life. "
"The lantern burns every night. "
"it knows your steps
and the way you walk. "
"it burns every night, but
I've been long forgotten. "
"Should harm come to me,
who will stand with you
under the lantern with you,
Lili Marleen. "
Mit dir Lili Marleen
What is your life like in America?
- Do you have a family?
- Yes, I have a daughter,
- and she has four children.
- Four?
- You must be very proud of them.
- Yes, I am. I admit it.
- And where's your wife?
- She died a few years ago.
Zigaretten?
- How about you? Do you have children?
- No, I don't.
What is your position in America?
It must be important.
No, it isn't really.
I'm a district court judge.
I haven't even been
that for the last year.
- Are you retired?
- Forcibly, by the electorate.
You elect judges in
the United States?
- Yes, in some states.
- I didn't know that.
It's either a virtue or a
defect of our judiciary system.
I thought it was one of the virtues
until last year, when I was defeated.
I'm sure it was the fault of
the electorate, not yours.
There seems to be some difference
of opinion about that.
- This is where I live.
- Here?
Yes. It's not so bad inside.
Would you like to come up?
I could make some coffee.
Yes, thank you.
Things haven't been very
easy for you, have they?
I'm not used to them being easy.
I'm not fragile, Judge Haywood.
I'm a daughter of the military.
- You know what that means, don't you?
- No, I'm afraid I don't.
It means I was taught discipline.
A very special kind of discipline.
For instance, as a child we would go for
long rides into the country in the summer.
But I was never allowed to run to
the lemonade stand with the others.
I was told "Control your thirst. "
"Control hunger. "
"Control emotion. "
It has served me well.
And your husband?
Was he of that heritage, too?
My husband was a soldier. He was
brought up to do one thing...
to fight in the battle
and fight well.
- Is the coffee all right?
- Fine, thank you.
It's ersatz, but I always
try to make it strong.
It's fine.
I'm curious.
What do you think of Ernst Janning?
Mrs Bertholt, I'm not at liberty to discuss
the case outside of the courtroom.
Oh, yes. Of course.
I knew Ernst Janning a little. We
used to attend the same concerts.
There was a reception given
for Wagner's daughter-in-law.
Hitler was there.
Ernst Janning was
there with his wife.
She was very beautiful.
Very small, very delicate.
She's dead now.
Hitler was quite taken with her.
He made advances towards
her during the reception.
He used to do things like
that in a burst of emotion.
I will never forget the way
Ernst Janning cut him down.
I don't think anybody did
it to him quite that way.
He said "Chancellor, I do not object
so much that you are so ill-mannered. "
"I do not object to that so much. "
"I object that you are
such a bourgeois. "
Hitler whitened, stared at
Janning and walked out.
Is the coffee really all right?
Fine, thank you.
Men like Janning, my husband
and I, we hated Hitler.
I want you to know that.
And he hated us.
He hated my husband because
he was a real war hero,
and the little corporal
couldn't tolerate that.
And he hated him because he married
into nobility, which was my family.
Hitler was in awe of the
nobility, but he hated it.
That's why it's so
ironic, what happened.
You know what happened
to my husband?
Yes.
What did he know of the
crimes they cited him for?
He was placed on trial with
the other military leaders.
He was part of the revenge the victors
always take on the vanquished.
It was political murder.
You can see that, can't you?
Mrs Bertholt, I don't
know what I see.
I probably shouldn't be here talking
with you about this at all.
I want to understand.
I do want to understand.
I have to.
Would you like some more coffee?
Yes, thank you.
- Hi.
- Hi.
We found Irene Hoffman.
- Where?
- Berlin.
Berlin, eh?
She got married. Her name is Wallner
now. That's why we couldn't locate her.
- When is she coming?
- She's not coming.
- What do you mean, she's not coming?
- She doesn't want to come.
You know what it's like. None of
them want to testify any more.
If I catch the midnight, I can get to
Berlin and be back by tomorrow afternoon.
- Tad, you haven't slept...
- it will be worth it if I can get Hoffman.
Take over for me in court
in the morning, will you?
Colonel, please. I have told you
this before when you first came in.
I say it again now: we are
through with all this.
She does not have to go.
You have no right to order her to.
Mr Wallner, I'm not ordering her to go.
I have no authority to do that.
Do you think we get a medal
for appearing at these trials?
The people do not like them, they do not
want Germans to testify against Germans.
I haven't been prosecuting these cases for
the past two years without knowing that.
It is easy for you to say go.
After the trials you go back to America,
but we must live with these people.
Mr Wallner, don't you think
I realise what I'm asking?
How can you come in
like the Gestapo...
Because they must not be allowed
to get away with what they did!
Do you really think they won't
get away with it in the end?
I say the hell with them
and the hell with you.
Hugo.
Emil Hahn will be there?
Yes. In the dock.
Ernst Janning?
Yes.
You saw the store downstairs.
It's not much, but it's
a new start for us.
They will come if I
go to Nuremberg.
They will come and break
the windows of the store.
I'll place a guard in front
of the store 24 hours a day.
- You do not have to go, Irene...
- Irene, you do have to go.
You have to go for all the people who
can't get on the stand themselves.
- You do not owe it to anybody, Irene.
- Yes, you do!
You owe it to one person at least.
In the night...
every night...
we've known somehow it
would come to this.
Dr Geuter, do you
recognise that headline?
Yes, sir.
Would you read it to the tribunal?
"Death to the race defiler. "
- In what newspaper did it appear?
- Julius Streicher's Der Strmer.
What was it in connection with?
The Feldenstein case.
What was the Feldenstein case?
Your Honour! The defence objects to
introduction of the Feldenstein case.
It is a notorious case, perhaps
the most notorious of the period.
It has overtones and appeals to emotion
that would perhaps be best not raised.
There are no issues or overtones that
may not be raised in this courtroom.
The tribunal is interested in everything
that is relevant. Objection is overruled.
It's all right. I'll take it.
- May it please the tribunal?
- You may continue.
Thank you.
Now, what was the Feldenstein case?
The case of a man accused
of racial pollution.
Will you explain what is
meant by "racial pollution"?
This is the charge that is
referred to in the Nuremberg laws.
Any non-Aryan having sexual relations
with an Aryan may be punished by death.
When did you first become acquainted
with the Feldenstein case?
In September 1935 I was
contacted by the police.
They said that Mr
Feldenstein was being held
and that he requested that
I serve as his counsellor.
What position did he
hold in the community?
He was a very well-known merchant.
He was one of the heads of the
Jewish Congregation in Nuremberg.
What was the nature of
the charge against him?
He was accused of having
intimate relations
with a 16-year-old
girl, Irene Hoffman.
I see.
And what did he say to
you about the case?
He said it was false.
He said he knew the girl and
her family a long time.
He'd gone to visit
her since they died.
But there had never been anything
of the kind charged between them.
Doctor, would you please tell the
tribunal what happened then?
He was indicted before the
special court at Nuremberg.
Where was this special court?
It was right here. This building.
This very courtroom.
Dr Geuter, what were the
circumstances surrounding the trial?
It was used as a showplace
for National Socialism.
It was the time of the September
celebrations, the Nuremberg rallies.
The courtroom was crowded.
Back there, people
were standing up.
Julius Streicher was sitting
in one of the front seats.
And high officials of the
Nazi party were all over.
Doctor, would you please tell us
what were your expectations for
the trial in this climate?
I expected the worst
when I saw that Emil Hahn
was the public prosecutor.
He was a fanatic.
His trials were always
marked by extreme brutality.
But I had one hope for the outcome,
because sitting on the judge's
bench was Ernst Janning.
His reputation was known
throughout Germany.
He was known to have dedicated
his life to justice,
to the concept of justice.
Thank you. That's all.
Any questions?
Thank you. No questions.
The witness is excused.
The prosecution calls to the
stand Irene Hoffman Wallner.
Will you raise your right hand?
I swear by God the
Almighty and Omniscient
that I will speak the pure truth
and withhold and add nothing.
I do.
Will you please state your
name to the tribunal?
Irene Hoffman Wallner.
Mrs Wallner, did you
know Lehman Feldenstein?
Yes.
When did you first meet him?
It was 1925 or 1926.
I am not sure exactly.
- How old was he at this time?
- He was in his fifties.
And how old was he at
the time of his arrest?
- He was 65.
- I see.
What was the nature
of your relationship?
We were friends.
Did you continue to see him
after your parents died?
- Yes.
- Why?
We were friends. He owned the
building that I lived in.
His business took him
there quite often.
Now, what did you say to the police
when they questioned you about
having intimate relations with him?
I told them it was a lie.
Could you tell me who the
public prosecutor was?
Emil Hahn.
- Did Emil Hahn question you?
- Yes.
What did he say to you?
He... took me into a separate room
where we were alone.
He told me that it was no
use to repeat my story
because no one would believe me.
That there had been
race defilement,
and the only pardon for this
was to kill the violator.
He told me that if I
protected Mr Feldenstein,
that I would be held under
arrest for perjury.
What did you reply to him?
I told him what I had
said, again and again.
I told him that I could
not say anything else,
I could not lie about someone
who had been so kind to me.
Were you held under arrest?
Yes.
Mrs Wallner, tell us,
what was the manner in which Emil
Hahn conducted the prosecution?
He made a mockery
of everything Mr Feldenstein
tried to say in his own defence.
He held him up to ridicule
whenever possible.
What was the reaction
of the audience?
They laughed again and again.
How long did the trial last?
Mrs Wallner?
How long did the trial last?
Two days.
Was the verdict passed at
the end of the second day?
Yes.
- What was the verdict?
- Guilty.
And what was the sentence?
Mr Feldenstein was
sentenced to be executed.
I was sentenced to be in prison
for two years for perjury.
Who was the presiding judge?
Ernst Janning.
Were the sentences carried out?
Thank you very much, Mrs Wallner.
That's all.
Any questions?
Your Honour, I would like to request
that the witness be kept available.
We will present further evidence
on the Feldenstein matter
when it comes time for the
defence to present its case.
The witness will please
hold herself so available.
You may go. You're excused now.
Colonel Lawson.
Your Honours, I offer in evidence
a decree, signed by Adolf Hitler,
directing that all persons accused
or suspected of disloyalty
or resistance of any sort
might be arrested secretly,
with no notice to friends or relatives,
without any trial whatsoever,
and put into concentration camps.
I also offer a group of orders
issued under that decree,
each one signed by one
of the defendants,
by which hundreds of
persons were arrested
and placed in concentration camps.
Signed by Friedrich Hofstetter,
Werner Lampe,
Emil Hahn,
Ernst Janning.
Your Honours, the defendants
on trial here today
did not personally administer
the concentration camps.
They never had to beat victims,
or pull the lever that released
gas into the chambers.
But as the documents we have
introduced into this case have shown,
these defendants fashioned
and executed laws,
and rendered judgments
which sent millions of victims
to their destinations.
Major Radnitz.
Your Honours, I would like to request that
Colonel Lawson be sworn in as a witness.
- Granted.
- Thank you.
Will you raise your right hand?
I swear by God the
Almighty and Omniscient
that I will speak the pure truth
and withhold and add nothing.
I do.
Were you active in the United States
army in 1945 at the close of the war?
Yes, I was.
Were you in command of troops
liberating concentration camps?
I was.
- Were you in Dachau and Belsen?
- Yes.
Were you present when the films
we are about to see were taken?
Yes, I was.
OK.
The map shows the number of and
location of concentration camps
under the Third Reich.
Buchenwald concentration
camp was founded in 1933.
Its inmates numbered about 80,000.
There was a motto at Buchenwald:
"Break the body,
break the spirit,
break the heart. "
The ovens at Buchenwald,
evidence of last-minute
efforts to dispose of bodies.
The stoves were manufactured
by a well-known company
which also specialised
in baking ovens.
The name of the firm
is clearly inscribed.
An exhibit of by-products
of Buchenwald,
displayed for the local
townspeople by an Allied officer.
Brushes of every description.
Shoes... adults' and children's.
Spectacles.
Gold from teeth, melted down,
sent once a month to the medical
department of the Waffen SS.
A lampshade made from human skin.
Skin being used for paintings,
many having an obscene nature.
The heads of two Polish labourers,
shrunken to one-fifth
their normal size.
A human pelvis used as an ashtray.
Children who had been tattooed to
mark them for eventual extermination.
Sometimes mercy was
shown to the children.
They were injected with morphia
so they'd be unconscious
when hanged.
One of the doctors described how they'd
then place ropes around their necks,
and in the doctor's own words:
"Like pictures, they were then
hanged by hooks on the walls. "
The bodies of those who
had come in boxcars,
without food and without air,
who hadn't survived the
journey to Dachau.
Hundreds of inmates were
used as human guinea pigs
for atrocious medical experiments.
A witness at an execution at Dachau
gave the following description:
"inmates were made to leave
their clothing on a rack. "
"They were told they were
going to take baths. "
"Then the doors were locked. "
"Tins of Zyklon B were released through
the specially constructed apertures. "
"You could hear the groaning
and the whimpering inside. "
"After two or three
minutes, all was quiet. "
Death transports that had arrived
included 90,000 from Slovakia,
65,000 from Greece,
11,000 from France,
90,000 from Holland,
400,000 from Hungary,
250,000 from Poland
and Upper Silesia,
and 100,000 from Germany.
And this is what was filmed
when British troops liberated
Belsen concentration camp.
For sanitary reasons a British
bulldozer had to bury the bodies
as quickly as possible.
Who were the bodies?
Members of every occupied
country of Europe.
Two-thirds of the Jews
of Europe... exterminated.
More than six million,
according to reports from
the Nazis' own figures.
But the real figure...
no one knows.
How dare they show us
those films? How dare they?
We are not executioners!
We are judges.
You do not think it was
like that, do you?
There were executions, yes,
but nothing like that.
Nothing at all!
Pohl!
Pohl!
You ran those concentration
camps, you and Eichmann.
They say we killed
millions of people.
Millions of people!
How could it be possible?
Tell them!
How could it be possible?
It's possible.
How?
You mean technically?
It all depends on your facilities.
Say you have two chambers that
accommodate 2,000 people apiece.
Figure it out.
It's possible to get rid
of 10,000 in a half hour.
You don't even need
guards to do it.
You can tell them they are
going to take a shower,
and then instead of the
water, you tum on the gas.
It's not the killing that is the problem.
It's disposing of the bodies.
That's the problem.
Das ist schn
Wunderschn
Das tut gut
Was man alles im Liebesrausch tut
Und zur Nacht iegt
ein sterndes Fleh'n
"ach verweile,
du bist ja so schn"
Doch die Liebe bleibt
nur, wo sie ist
Wenn man immer aufs neue sich ksst
Und so lebt...
- I'm sorry I'm late.
- That's all right.
I was doing some work for
the rebuilding committee.
I brought you some folders so we can
decide what you should see next.
There's the Albrecht Durer house.
And the museum.
- When do you think you could make it?
- Any time.
- Would you like to order now?
- Can I help you with the menu?
I don't think I'll have
anything, thank you.
A glass of Moselle, please.
Moselle.
What is the matter?
Nothing. I'm just not
hungry, that's all.
You know...
the last few days have
meant a great deal to me.
How?
I don't think you realise what
a provincial man I really am.
I've been abroad just
exactly once before this.
That was when I was a
doughboy in World War I.
I used to pass places like this
and wonder what they were like.
- They've meant a great deal to me, too.
- How?
They gave me back the feeling
I had of the Americans.
The feeling I used to have
when I was in your country.
It's too bad this isn't
a magazine story.
Why?
If it were, two people like us,
the rapidly ageing jurist...
Oh, no.
The rapidly ageing jurist
and the beautiful widow
would transcend their difficulties and
travel places either by land or by sea.
I saw Mr Perkins today.
He told me they showed those
pictures in the courtroom,
Colonel Lawson's
favourite pictures.
He drags them out at any
pretext, doesn't he?
Colonel Lawson's private
chamber of horrors.
Is that what you think we are?
Do you think we knew of those things?
Do you think we wanted to
murder women and children?
Do you believe that? Do you?
Mrs Bertholt, I don't
know what to believe.
Good God.
We're sitting here drinking.
How could you think that we knew?
We did not know.
We did not know!
As far as I can make out,
no one in this country knew.
Mrs Bertholt, your husband was
one of the heads of the army.
And he did not know.
I tell you, he did not know.
It was Himmler. It was Goebbels.
The SS knew what happened.
We did not know.
Listen to me. There are things
that happened on both sides.
My husband was a military
man all his life.
He was entitled to a soldier's
death. He asked for that.
I tried to get that for him. Just that,
that he would die with some honour.
I went from official to official.
I begged for that!
That he should be permitted
the dignity of a firing squad.
You know what happened.
He was hanged with the others. And after
that, I knew what it was to hate.
I never left the house.
I never left the room. I drank.
I hated with every fibre of my being.
I hated every American I've ever known.
But one can't live
with hate. I know that.
Dan,
we have to forget if we
are to go on living.
Du darfst auf mich bauen
Weit ja, wie gut ich dir bin
Ja, ja, ja, ja
Weit doch, wie gut ich dir bin.
Und, und, wenn in der Ferne
Dir, dir, mein Bild erscheint
Dann, dann, wnscht' so gerne
Dass uns die Liebe vereint
Herr Rolfe.
May it please the tribunal.
Yesterday the tribunal
witnessed some films.
They were... shocking films.
Devastating films.
As a German,
I feel ashamed that such things could
have taken place in my country.
There can never be a
justification for them,
not in generations,
not in centuries.
But...
I do think it was wrong,
indecent
and terribly unfair
of the prosecution
to show such films in this case,
in this court, at this time
against these defendants!
And I cannot protest too
strongly against such tactics.
What is the prosecution
trying to prove?
That the German people as a whole
were responsible for these events?
Or that they were
even aware of them?
Because, if he is,
he's not stating facts
and he knows he's not.
The secrecy of the operations,
the geographical
location of the camps,
the breakdown of communications
in the last days of the war
when the exterminations
rose into the millions,
show only too clearly that
he is not telling the truth.
The truth is that these brutalities were
brought about by the few extremists.
The criminals.
Very few Germans knew
what was going on.
Very few.
None of us knew what was happening
in the places shown on these films.
None of us.
But the most ironic part of it
is that the prosecution showed these
films against these defendants,
men who stayed in power
for one reason only:
to prevent worse
things from happening.
Who is the braver man?
The man who escapes or
resigns in times of peril?
Or the man who stays on his post at
the risk of his own personal safety?
The defence will present witnesses
and letters and documents
from religious and political
refugees all over the world
telling how Ernst Janning
saved them from execution.
The defence will
show the many times
Ernst Janning was able to
effect mitigation of sentences,
when without his influence the
results would have been much worse.
The defence will show
that Ernst Janning's personal
physician was a non-Aryan.
A Jewish man who he kept in
attendance, much to his own peril.
The defence presents affidavits
from legal authorities and
famed jurists the world over,
pleading that special consideration
must be made in this case,
saying that the entire work of Ernst
Janning was inspired by one motive only:
the endeavour to preserve justice
and the concept of justice.
Now, what has the prosecution
to offer against this?
The prosecution, in fact, has presented
in the case of Ernst Janning
only one tangible
piece of evidence.
The Feldenstein case. A notorious
case, as the defence said.
A case which never should
have been reopened.
A case which the defence
is obliged to review now.
The defence calls Mrs Elsa Lindnow.
Will you raise your right hand?
I swear by God the
Almighty and Omniscient
that I will speak the pure truth
and withhold and add nothing.
I do.
Mrs Lindnow.
What is your occupation?
I am a cleaning woman.
Where are you employed?
4... 345 Grosseplatz.
- Did you know Lehman Feldenstein?
- Yes, I knew him.
- In what capacity?
- He was my employer in 1935.
Do you know Mrs Irene
Hoffman Wallner?
Yes.
- In what capacity?
- She was a tenant in the building.
Did you ever see Miss Hoffman
and Mr Feldenstein together?
- Yes.
- How did this happen?
Mr Feldenstein came to see
Miss Hoffman at her apartment.
- Often?
- Quite often.
Were there any occasions in which
you noticed anything unusual?
Yes.
I saw Miss Hoffman kissing Mr Feldenstein
at the door of her apartment.
- Was there any other occasion?
- Yes. There was one.
- What was it?
- I came to Miss Hoffman's apartment.
I wanted to clean up.
I thought it was empty.
I saw Miss Hoffman sitting
on Mr Feldenstein's lap.
Thank you, Mrs Lindnow. That's all.
Colonel Lawson?
Earphones, please.
Mrs Lindnow, what are your
political affiliations?
Political?
Objection, Your Honour.
This witness' political affiliations
have nothing to do with the testimony.
Colonel Lawson is again trying to
appeal to the emotion of the court.
Objection overruled.
Now would you answer
the question, please?
Were you a member of the
National Socialist party?
Yes, I was.
We were forced to be.
"We were forced to be. "
When did you become a
member of the Nazi party?
Were all German nationals forced to
become Nazi party members in 1933?
Please answer me, Mrs Lindnow!
Were you forced to become a
member of the Nazi party?
That's all.
Witness is excused.
Defence may continue.
The defence calls Irene
Hoffman Wallner to the stand.
Mrs Wallner,
you are still under oath.
Mrs Wallner, did you
come here voluntarily?
Did you report voluntarily
to speak as a witness?
Yes.
Is it not true that the prosecution
asked you to come here?
That it was very disagreeable
for you to come here?
It is always very disagreeable
to live over those times.
That would be in agreement
with the information I have,
that you did not want to come.
Thank you, Mrs Wallner.
Mrs Wallner,
the Nuremberg laws were
stated September 15th, 1935.
- Where were you at that time?
- In Nuremberg.
Did you know these laws?
That a physical relationship
with Jews was against the law?
Yes.
Were you aware that in Nuremberg,
and in Nuremberg in particular,
not only a physical relationship with Jews
was disdained, but every social contact?
Yes.
Were you aware that it might have
some danger for you personally?
Yes, I was aware of it.
But how can you discard a friendship
from day to day because of some...
That is another question, Mrs Wallner.
I did not ask you that question.
- Were you aware of it?
- Yes, I was aware.
Yet you still continued
to see each other?
Yes.
It was brought out that Mr Feldenstein
bought you candy and cigarettes.
Yes.
Remember that sometimes
he bought you flowers?
Yes, he bought me many things.
That was because he was kind.
He was the kindest man I ever knew.
Do you know the witness,
Mrs Elsa Lindnow?
Yes, I know her.
- Was she a cleaner at your apartment?
- Yes.
Did Mr Feldenstein come to
see you at your apartment?
- Yes.
- How many times?
I don't remember.
- Several times?
- Yes.
- Many times?
- Many times.
- Did you kiss him?
- Yes, I kissed him.
Was there more than one kiss?
Yes.
But it was not in the way you
are trying to make it sound.
He was like a father to me.
He was more than a father.
More than a father?!
Did you sit on his lap?
Objection! Counsel is
persecuting the witness
in the pretext of
gaining testimony.
Objection overruled.
The defence is re-enacting what was
a travesty of justice in the first place.
Colonel Lawson, the tribunal makes the
rulings in this case, not the prosecution.
- You may proceed.
- Did you sit on his lap?
Yes. But there was nothing
wrong or ugly about it.
Did you sit on his lap?
Yes. But...
You sat on his lap!
What else did you do?
There was nothing that you are
trying to say, nothing like that.
What else did you do, Mrs Wallner?
What are you trying to do?
Are you trying to...
Why do you not let
me speak the truth?
That's what we want, Mrs
Wallner, the truth. The truth!
You admitted that you
continued to see him.
You admitted that he
came to your apartment.
You admitted you kissed him.
You admitted you sat on his lap.
What else do you admit to?
What else?
Nothing! There was nothing like
you're trying to make it sound.
- What else?
- There was nothing! Nothing.
Stop it!
Stop it!
What else do you admit
to, Mrs Wallner?
Herr Rolfe!
Are we going to do this again?
Your Honour, the defendant has been under
such stress that he is not aware...
I am aware. I am aware.
Your Honour, the defendant
wishes to make a statement.
- I believe the defence has a right to...
- Order, order.
Order!
Does the defendant wish
to make a statement?
I wish to make a statement, yes.
Your Honour, the defence
has the right to request...
The defendant has the right
to make his statement now.
- I have to speak with my client.
- He has the right to make it now!
Tribunal is adjourned until
10.30 tomorrow morning.
What are you doing?
What do you think
you're trying to do?
They've had Gring, Frank,
Streicher... That's over.
Do you think I have enjoyed being
defence counsel during this trial?
There were things I had to do in
that courtroom that made me cringe.
Why did I do them?
Because I want to leave the
German people something.
I want to leave them
a shred of dignity.
I want to call a halt
to these proceedings.
If we allow them to discredit
every German like you,
we lose the right to
rule ourselves forever!
We have to look at the future.
We can't look back now.
Do you want the Americans
to stay here forever?
I could show you a picture
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Thousands and thousands
of burnt bodies.
Women and children.
Is that their superior morality?
Where do you think they take us?
Do they know?
Do you think they have any
concept of our problems?
What can I say to you?
What can I say to you
to make you see?
There is nothing you can say.
Nothing.
Nothing has happened
to alleviate the crisis.
The crisis reached a
head this afternoon
when all rail travel between western
zones and Berlin was stopped.
The blockade by land
is now complete.
What do you think we're going
to do, General? Withdraw?
We can't. If we withdraw
under pressure,
our prestige all over the
world is threatened.
The Communists will
move in on every front.
What about these trials, General?
How do you feel about them now?
We're committed to the trials,
but I think it would be realistic to
accelerate them as much as possible.
What would happen if they fired
on one of our planes, General?
We'll have to face that when it happens.
There is no other answer to that now.
You should try the strudel.
It's excellent here.
No, thanks.
Dan, I've just come back
from Berlin, as you know.
I don't think this is going to be it.
A lot of people do, but I don't.
But it is going to be a fight for survival...
for the next ten years, maybe the next 20.
Germany is the key
to that survival.
Any high-school student in
geography can tell you that.
Just what are you
trying to say, Senator?
What I'm trying to say is this:
while nobody's trying to
influence your decision,
it's important that you realise
this because it's a fact of life.
Let's face it, gentlemen,
the handwriting is on the wall.
We're going to need all
the help we can get.
We're going to need the
support of the German people.
More strudel, gentlemen?
Herr Janning, you may proceed.
I wish to testify about
the Feldenstein case
because it was the most
significant trial of the period.
It is important not only for
the tribunal to understand it,
but for the whole German people.
But in order to understand it,
one must understand the
period in which it happened.
There was a fever over the land.
A fever of disgrace,
of indignity, of hunger.
We had a democracy, yes,
but it was tom by elements within.
Above all, there was fear.
Fear of today, fear of tomorrow,
fear of our neighbours,
and fear of ourselves.
Only when you understand that
can you understand what
Hitler meant to us.
Because he said to us:
"Lift your heads.
Be proud to be German. "
"There are devils among us...
communists, liberals, Jews, Gypsies. "
"Once these devils will be destroyed,
your misery will be destroyed. "
It was the old, old story
of the sacrificial lamb.
What about those of
us who knew better?
We who knew the words were
lies and worse than lies?
Why did we sit silent?
Why did we take part?
Because we loved our country.
What difference does it make if a few
political extremists lose their rights?
What difference does it make if a few
racial minorities lose their rights?
It is only a passing phase.
It is only a stage we
are going through.
It will be discarded
sooner or later.
Hitler himself will be
discarded sooner or later.
"The country is in danger!
We will march out of the shadows. "
"We will go forward. "
"Forward" is the great password.
And history tells how well
we succeeded, Your Honour.
We succeeded beyond
our wildest dreams.
The very elements of hate and power
about Hitler that mesmerised Germany,
mesmerised the world!
We found ourselves with
sudden powerful allies.
Things that had been denied to us
as a democracy were open to us now.
The world said
"Go ahead. Take it. Take it!"
"Take Sudetenland.
Take the Rhineland. Remilitarise it. "
"Take all of Austria! Take it. "
And then one day we looked around
and found that we were in an
even more terrible danger.
The ritual began in this courtroom,
swept over the land like a
raging, roaring disease!
What was going to
be a passing phase
had become the way of life.
Your Honour,
I was content to sit
silent during this trial.
I was content to tend my roses.
I was even content to let
counsel try to save my name...
until I realised that
in order to save it
he would have to raise
the spectre again.
You have seen him do it.
He has done it here
in this courtroom.
He has suggested that the Third Reich
worked for the benefit of people.
He has suggested that we sterilised
men for the welfare of the country.
He suggested that perhaps the old Jew did
sleep with the 16-year-old girl after all.
Once more, it is being
done for love of country.
It is not easy to tell the truth.
But if there is to be any
salvation for Germany,
we who know our guilt
must admit it,
whatever the pain and humiliation.
I had reached my verdict
on the Feldenstein case
before I ever came
into the courtroom.
I would have found him guilty whatever
the evidence. It was not a trial at all.
It was a sacrificial ritual, and Feldenstein
the Jew was the helpless victim.
Your Honour, the defendant is
not aware of what he is saying.
He is not aware of
the implications.
I am aware. I am aware!
My counsel would have you believe
we were not aware of the
concentration camps.
Not aware.
Where were we?
Where were we when Hitler began
shrieking his hate in the Reichstag?
When our neighbours were dragged out
in the middle of the night to Dachau?
Where were we when every village
in Germany has a railroad terminal
where cattle cars were filled with children
being carried off to their extermination?
Where were we when they cried
out in the night to us?
Were we deaf? Dumb? Blind?
Your Honour, I must protest.
My counsel says we were not aware of
the extermination of the millions.
He would give you the excuse
we were only aware of the
extermination of the hundreds.
Does that make us any
the less guilty?
Maybe we didn't know the details,
but if we didn't know, it was
because we didn't want to know.
- Traitor! Traitor!
- Order. Order.
Order!
Put that man back in his
seat and keep him there.
I am going to tell them the truth.
I am going to tell them the truth if
the whole world conspires against it.
I am going to tell them the truth
about their Ministry of Justice.
Werner Lampe, an old man who
cries into his Bible now.
An old man who profited by
the property expropriation
of every man he sent to
a concentration camp.
Friedrich Hofstetter, the good German,
who knew how to take orders,
who sent men before him to be
sterilised, like so many digits.
Emil Hahn,
the decayed, corrupt bigot,
obsessed by the evil
within himself.
And Ernst Janning,
worse than any of them...
because he knew what they were,
and he went along with them.
Ernst Janning, who made his life...
excrement...
because he walked with them.
Your Honour,
it is my duty to
defend Ernst Janning,
and yet Ernst Janning
has said he is guilty.
There is no doubt
he feels his guilt.
He made a great error in going
along with the Nazi movement,
hoping it would be
good for his country.
But, if he is to be found guilty,
there are others who
also went along,
who also must be found guilty.
Ernst Janning said "We succeeded
beyond our wildest dreams".
Why did we succeed, Your Honour?
What about the rest of the world?
Did it not know the intentions
of the Third Reich?
Did it not hear the words of Hitler
broadcast all over the world?
Did it not read his
intentions in Mein Kampf,
published in every
corner of the world?
Where is the responsibility
of the Soviet Union,
who signed in 1939 the pact with
Hitler that enabled him to make war?
Are we now to find Russia guilty?
Where is the responsibility
of the Vatican,
who signed in 1933 the
concordat with Hitler,
giving him his first
tremendous prestige?
Are we now to find
the Vatican guilty?
Where is the responsibility of the
world leader Winston Churchill,
who said in an open letter to
the London Times in 1938...
1938, Your Honour...
"Were England to suffer national
disaster, I should pray to God
to send a man of the strength of
mind and will of an Adolf Hitler. "
Are we now to find Winston
Churchill guilty?
Where is the responsibility of
those American industrialists
who helped Hitler to
rebuild his armaments,
and profited by that rebuilding?
Are we now to find the American
industrialists guilty?
No, Your Honour. No.
Germany alone is not guilty.
The whole world is as responsible
for Hitler as Germany.
It is an easy thing to
condemn one man in the dock.
It is easy to speak of the "basic
flaw" in the German character
that allowed Hitler
to rise to power,
and at the same time ignore
the "basic flaw" of character
that made the Russians sign pacts with
him, Winston Churchill praise him,
American industrialists
profit by him!
Ernst Janning said he is guilty.
If he is, Ernst Janning's
guilt is the world's guilt.
No more and no less.
Major, we have to give the military
governor every help we can give him.
We have to get 700
tons in the air a day.
700 tons.
This is some operation.
Did you ever think we'd be flying
coal and tomatoes in these crates?
Tad, you and I have been
friends a long time.
That's why I called you here.
What are you going to
do in court tomorrow?
You know damn well
what I'm going to do.
I know what you want to do... put them
behind bars and throw away the key.
You know what's going on here now?
Yeah, I know what's going on.
You're an army man. You
know what we're up against.
The others may not, but you do.
I'll tell you the truth.
I don't know what's going to happen
if they fire on one of those planes.
I don't know what's
going to happen.
But if I do know this:
if Berlin goes, Germany goes.
If Germany goes, Europe goes.
That's the way things stand.
That's the way they stand.
Look, Matt. I'm going
to go the limit.
And not you, not the Pentagon,
not God on his throne is...
Who do you think you're talking to?
Who the hell do you think
you're talking to?
When you were marching into
Dachau, I was there too.
You think I'll ever forget it?
I'm not your commanding officer.
I can't and won't influence your decision.
But I want to give this to you,
and I want to give it to you straight.
We need the help of
the German people.
You don't get their help by sentencing
their leaders to stiff prison sentences.
Tad, the thing to do
is survive, isn't it?
Survive as best we
can, but survive.
Just for laughs, Matt.
What was the war all about?
What was it about?
That concludes presentation
of documentary evidence
against these defendants.
Your Honours,
during the three years that have passed
since the end of the war in Europe,
mankind has not crossed
over into Jordan.
In our own country, fear
of war has been revived
and we must look once
more to our defences.
There's talk of cold war while
men and women die in real wars,
and the echoes of persecution and
atrocities will not be stilled.
These events cannot help but colour
what happens in this courtroom.
But somewhere in the
midst of these events,
the responsibility for the crimes that
we brought forward during this trial
must be placed in true perspective.
And this is the decision
that faces Your Honours.
It is the dilemma of our times.
It is a dilemma that
rests with you.
The prosecution rests.
The defendants may now make
their final statements.
Defendant Emil Hahn may
address the tribunal.
Your Honours, I do not evade the
responsibility for my actions.
On the contrary, I stand by
them before the entire world.
But I will not follow
the policy of others.
I will not say of our policy
today that it was wrong
when yesterday I say it was right.
Germany was fighting for its life.
Certain measures were needed to
protect it from its enemies.
I cannot say that I am sorry
we applied those measures.
We were a bulwark
against Bolshevism.
We were a pillar of
Western culture.
A bulwark and a pillar the
West may yet wish to retain.
The defendant Friedrich Hofstetter
may address the tribunal.
I have served my country
throughout my life,
and in whatever position
I was assigned to,
in faithfulness, with a pure
heart and without malice.
I followed the concept that I believed
to be the highest in my profession,
the concept that says:
to sacrifice one's own sense of justice
to the authoritative legal order,
to ask only what the law is,
and not to ask whether or
not it is also justice.
As a judge, I could do no other.
I believe Your Honours will find me,
and millions of Germans like me,
who believed they were doing
their duty to their country,
to be not guilty.
The defendant Werner Lampe
may address the tribunal.
Your Honours...
Your Honours...
The defendant Ernst Janning
may address the tribunal.
I have nothing to add
to what I have said.
Testimony has been received,
final arguments have been heard.
There remains nothing now but the task
of the tribunal to render its decision.
The tribunal will recess
until further notification.
I've collected
precedents and arguments
that have a bearing on
the basis of the case,
which is the conflict between
allegiance to international law
and to the laws of
one's own country.
Dan, we have a mountain of
material to go over here.
- What are you looking at, Dan?
- Mm?
I was looking at some of these pictures
attached to the warrants for arrest.
What pictures?
There's Petersen before
they operated on him.
Here's Irene Hoffman.
She really was 16 once, wasn't she?
Feldenstein.
And here's a boy... he certainly
couldn't have been more than 14...
executed for saying things
against the Third Reich.
"By order of Justice
Friedrich Hofstetter. "
If I may say so, more pertinent
to the legal basis of the case,
I have the address of
the French prosecutor
before the international
military tribunal.
"It is obvious that, in the state
organised along modem lines,
responsibility is confined to those
who act directly for the state. "
"Since they alone are in a position to
judge the legitimacy of the given orders,
they alone can be prosecuted. "
I have another from
Professor Jahreiss...
"Legal aspects: trial of
the major war criminals".
On the basis of these, I don't
see where the prosecution
has put forth a really clear-cut
case against the defence
pertaining to the charges
in the indictment.
Regardless of the acts committed,
we cannot make the interpretation
that these defendants are really
responsible for crimes against humanity.
- What do you think, Dan?
- We've been going over this all day!
If it isn't clear now...
Aren't you going to look
at these precedents?
Aren't you interested at all?
I'm interested, Curtiss. You were
speaking of crimes against humanity,
saying the defendants were not
responsible for their acts.
I'd like you to explain that to me.
- I've just been explaining it.
- Maybe.
But all I've heard is a lot of legalistic
double talk and rationalisation.
You know, when I
first became a judge
I knew there were certain people in
town I wasn't supposed to touch.
I knew that if I was to
remain a judge, this was so.
But how in God's name do you
expect me to look the other way
at the murder of six
million people?
- I'm sure he didn't mean...
- I'm not asking you to look the other way.
I'm asking you what good is it
going to do to pursue this policy?
Curtiss, you were saying that the men
are not responsible for their acts.
You're going to have
to explain that to me.
You're going to have to
explain it very carefully.
The tribunal is now in session.
God bless the United States of America
and this honourable tribunal.
The trial conducted before this
tribunal began over eight months ago.
The record of evidence is
more than 10,000 pages long,
and final arguments of
counsel have been concluded.
Simple murders and atrocities
do not constitute the gravamen of
the charges in this indictment.
Rather, the charge is that
of conscious participation
in a nationwide, government-organised
system of cruelty and injustice,
in violation of every moral and legal
principle known to all civilised nations.
The tribunal has carefully
studied the record
and found therein abundant evidence
to support beyond a reasonable doubt
the charges against these defendants.
Herr Rolfe, in his
very skilful defence,
has asserted that there are others
who must share the
ultimate responsibility
for what happened here in Germany.
There is truth in this.
The real complaining party at the bar
in this courtroom is civilisation.
But the tribunal does say
that the men in the dock
are responsible for their actions.
Men who sat in black robes,
in judgment on other men.
Men who took part in the
enactment of laws and decrees,
the purpose of which was the
extermination of human beings.
Men who, in executive positions,
actively participated in the
enforcement of these laws,
illegal even under German law.
The principle of criminal law
in every civilised society
has this in common:
any person who sways
another to commit murder,
any person who furnishes the lethal
weapon for the purpose of the crime,
any person who is an
accessory to the crime,
is guilty.
Herr Rolfe further asserts
that the defendant Janning
was an extraordinary jurist
and acted in what he thought was
the best interest of his country.
There is truth in this also.
Janning, to be sure,
is a tragic figure.
We believe he loathed
the evil he did.
But compassion for the
present torture of his soul
must not beget forgetfulness
of the torture and the death of millions
by the government of which he was part.
Janning's record and his fate
illuminate the most shattering truth
that has emerged from this trial.
If he, and all of the other defendants,
had been degraded perverts,
if all of the leaders of the Third Reich
had been sadistic monsters and maniacs,
then these events would have
no more moral significance
than an earthquake, or any
other natural catastrophe.
But this trial has shown
that under a national crisis
ordinary, even able and
extraordinary men,
can delude themselves into
the commission of crimes
so vast and heinous that
they beggar the imagination.
No one who has sat through the
trial can ever forget them.
Men sterilised because
of political belief.
A mockery made of
friendship and faith.
The murder of children.
How easily it can happen.
There are those in
our own country too
who today speak of the protection
of country, of survival.
A decision must be made in
the life of every nation.
At the very moment when the grasp
of the enemy is at its throat,
then it seems that the only way to survive
is to use the means of the enemy,
to rest survival upon
what is expedient,
to look the other way.
Well, the answer to that is...
survival as what?
A country isn't a rock.
It's not an extension
of one's self.
It's what it stands for.
It's what it stands for when standing
for something is the most difficult.
Before the people of the world,
let it now be noted that here, in our
decision, this is what we stand for:
justice, truth...
and the value of a
single human being.
The marshal will produce before
the tribunal the defendant Hahn.
Emil Hahn,
the tribunal finds you guilty and
sentences you to life imprisonment.
Today you sentence me. Tomorrow
the Bolsheviks sentence you!
The marshal will produce the defendant
Hofstetter before the tribunal.
Fried rich Hofstetter,
the tribunal finds you guilty and
sentences you to life imprisonment.
The marshal will produce the
defendant Lampe before the tribunal.
Werner Lampe,
the tribunal finds you guilty and
sentences you to life imprisonment.
The marshal will produce the defendant
Ernst Janning before the tribunal.
Ernst Janning,
the tribunal finds you guilty and
sentences you to life imprisonment.
He doesn't understand.
He just doesn't understand.
He understands.
Justice Ives dissenting.
I wish to point out strongly my dissenting
vote from the decision of this tribunal
as stated by Justice Haywood, and
in which Justice Norris concurred.
The issue of the actions
of the defendants,
who believed they were acting in the
best interests of their country,
is an issue that cannot be
decided in a courtroom alone.
It can only be decided objectively,
in years to come, in the
true perspective of history.
Where shall I put these
books, Your Honour?
Put them in the
trunk, Mr Halbestadt.
Your Honour, here's something
for you to have on the plane.
Oh, no. If you give me any more food,
I won't have any room for anything else.
But it's strudel, the
way you like it.
- Thank you. Thank you for everything.
- Ja, ja.
- I'll put it in the car.
- Thanks.
Tickets, passport, immunisation. I'll
have your boarding pass at the airport.
See you there no later
than three o'clock.
Oh, and give my regards to Miss...
what was her name?
Scheffler. Elsa.
- That's one you owe me.
- What do you mean?
Americans aren't very popular
in Nuremberg this morning.
- Good afternoon, Your Honour.
- Good afternoon.
I came here at the request
of my client, Ernst Janning.
He wishes to see you.
I'm just leaving for the airport.
He says it would mean
a great deal to him.
Have you heard about the
verdict in the IG Farben case?
Most of them were acquitted.
The others received light sentences.
- The verdict came in today.
- No, I hadn't heard.
I will make you a wager.
I don't make wagers.
A gentlemen's wager.
In five years, the men you sentenced
to life imprisonment will be free.
Herr Rolfe, I have admired your work
in the courtroom for many months.
You are particularly brilliant
in your use of logic.
So, what you suggest
may very well happen.
It is logical, in view of
the times in which we live.
But to be logical
is not to be right.
And nothing on God's earth
could ever make it right.
Someone to see you.
Herr Janning.
Judge Haywood.
Please, sit down.
Thank you. You wanted to see me.
Yes. There is something
I want to give you.
A record.
A record of my cases,
the ones I remember.
I want to give them to
someone I can trust,
someone I felt I got to
know during the trial.
Thank you.
I'll take good care of them.
I know the pressures that
had been brought upon you.
You will be criticised greatly.
Your decision will not
be a popular one.
But, if it means anything to you,
you have the respect of at least
one of the men you convicted.
By all that is right in this world,
your verdict was a just one.
Thank you.
What you said in the courtroom,
it needed to be said.
Judge Haywood...
The reason I asked you to come...
Those people, those
millions of people,
I never knew it would come to that.
You must believe it.
You must believe it.
Herr Janning, it came to that
the first time you sentenced a man
to death you knew to be innocent.