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, Göring 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?
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 Liége.
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 protégé 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 "Führer'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.
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 Münch.
Document reads as follows:
"District court Frankfurt am Main has decided the following:
the seamstress Anni Münch, daughter of Wilhelm Münch, 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 protégé 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?
- 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, 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 gemütlich 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.
"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 großen 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 Stürmer.
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!
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 schön
♪ Wunderschön
♪ Das tut gut
♪ Was man alles im Liebesrausch tut
♪ Und zur Nacht ﬂiegt ein ﬂüsterndes Fleh'n
♪ "ach verweile, du bist ja so schön"
♪ Doch die Liebe bleibt nur, wo sie ist
♪ Wenn man immer aufs neue sich küsst
♪ 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
♪ Weißt ja, wie gut ich dir bin
♪ Ja, ja, ja, ja
♪ Weißt doch, wie gut ich dir bin.
♪ Und, und, wenn in der Ferne
♪ Dir, dir, mein Bild erscheint
♪ Dann, dann, wünscht' 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?
1933.
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 Göring, 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...
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.