Nuremberg Trial proceedings: summation and verdict
Creator(s)
- Pare Lorentz (Compiler)
- United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Motion Picture Reference
- Information Services Division, OMGUS (Producer)
- Stuart Schulberg (Compiler)
Scope and Content
Reel 8: Chief US prosecutor Robert Jackson delivers his summation. Courtroom scenes, showing defendants testifying and prisoners' dock, "...to say of these men that they are not guilty, it would be as true to say that there has been no war, there are no slain, there has been no crime." 08:10:04 Sir Hartley Shawcross delivers summation, "This trial must form a milestone in the history of our civilization..." 08:10:41 Gen. Rudenko delivers summation, "...their crimes have been proven...the truth cannot be challenged." 08:11:26 French prosecutor de Ribes delivers his summation, "...the fate of these men lies within your conscience..." The justices deliberate, shots of the conference room, narrator identifies judges as they discuss the verdict. 08:12:30 "1 October 1946" Judges deliver verdict. Flashbacks are shown as the sentences are read. Goering: guilty, scenes of 1933 boycott in Berlin, window painted with "Jude", Lvov massacre. Hess: guilty, scenes of Hess delivering lecture to Nazi crowd heiling. von Ribbentrop: guilty, shots of buildings on fire and German soldiers. Keitel: guilty, Keitel signing agreement, forced labor scenes. Kaltenbrunner: guilty, footage of survivors "dying" as "gas" is released into a gas chamber (see Reel 6 or Story 2417) Rosenberg: guilty, Rosenberg delivering speech into microphone, bookburning scenes. Frank: guilty, showing Mogilev gassing experiment of mental patients, including a brief additional shot of a naked boy being lead by a woman and man in white coats into a basement. The people in white coats (probably local Soviet doctors) are more clearly seen. There is a German uniformed man in background. (These scenes are clearer than the sequence in Reel 5.) Frick: guilty, survivors in hospital beds, Frick watching a military parade with Hitler in BG. Streicher: guilty, scene of a SS men dragging a Jew across cobblestones in the ghetto. Funk: guilty, shots of piles of gold extracted from victims' teeth. Schacht: not guilty. Karl Doenitz: guilty, showing German advance at harbor, speaking behind a podium. Raeder: guilty, seen talking to Hitler. Schirach: guilty, with Hitler Youth, speaking to youth. Sauckel: guilty, forced labor scenes, men with shovels. Jodl: guilty, scenes of military advances, fighting. von Papen: not guilty. Speer: guilty, scenes of German industry. Neurath: guilty, showing Nazis marching in the street. Seyss-Inquart: guilty, mob scenes in Austria after the Anschluss. Fritzsche: not guilty. Bormann: guilty in absentia. Prison where defendants await sentencing, showing various chambers, guards. Text superimposed on screen from Jackson: "This trial is part of the great effort to make the peace more secure. It constitutes juridical action of a kind to ensure that those who start a war will pay for it personally." Film ends with "Nuremberg stands as a warning to all those who plan and wage aggressive war." End Credit: This film was produced by the Documentary Film Unit / Information Services Division / OMGUS Followed by 3 logos: AFIFA / ZEIT IM FILM / FILMSTUDIO TEMPELHOF
Note(s)
See Stories 2413-2417, Film ID 67 and Stories 3007-3008, Film ID 2388 and Story 4326, Film ID 2794 and Film ID 2749-2758 for additional reels of this film. See Stories 4291 and 4302 duplicate footage of this reel. See departmental files for English language transcript of film narration for Reel 8.
Details from Dr. Albert Widmann's 1967 trial in Stuttgart include his personal description of actions corresponding to the scene of gassing by vehicle exhaust, in the company of Arthur Nebe, and the presence of one male Soviet doctor and two female Soviet doctors (in German-occupied territory in the vicinity of Mogilev, Belarus, mid-September 1941). Widmann also mentions the presence of a "Polizeigeneral" and several SS officers of varying ranks. See "Archives of the Holocaust: An International Collection of Selected Documents" Vol.22, edited by Henry Friedlander and Sybil Milton. Film Summary: This is a documentary about the war crimes trial administered by the International Military Court of Justice in Nuremberg against the main Nazi war criminals from November 14, 1945 to October 1, 1946. The film documents footage of the trial from the prosecutor's opening to the verdict. The dramaturgy includes a chronological account of the founding of the National Socialist state, the unleashing of the world war, and the Nazi crimes against humanity and is accompanied with historical footage. This material is occasionally only used for illustration and does not necessarily portray the facts being commented upon. The film is also called "Nuremberg."
Subjects
- RIBBENTROP, JOACHIM VON
- STREICHER, JULIUS
- SHOPS
- TRIALS
- EINSATZGRUPPEN
- NEURATH, CONSTANTIN VON
- GAS (POISON)
- SAUCKEL, FRITZ
- INDUSTRY (GERMAN)
- JACKSON, ROBERT
- HESS, RUDOLF
- MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS
- RAEDER, ERICH
- ANSCHLUSS (ANNEXATION OF AUSTRIA)
- JEWS
- PROSECUTORS
- SEYSS-INQUART, ARTHUR
- SPEER, ALBERT
- PAPEN, FRANZ VON
- WARSAW GHETTO
- SURVIVORS
- HOSPITALS
- KALTENBRUNNER, ERNST
- MILITARY ADVANCES
- VICTIMS' PROPERTY
- TEETH
- LABOR
- GAS VANS
- COBBLESTONES
- MASSACRES
- HITLER, ADOLF
- SOLDIERS/MILITARY (GERMAN)
- HITLER YOUTH
- SPEECHES
- DOCTORS
- FORCED LABOR
- STREETS
- HARBORS
- UNIFORMS
- GOERING, HERMANN
- FIRES
- MARCHING
- BELARUS (BELORUSSIA)
- NAZI OFFICIALS
- JUDGES
- SHOVELS
- AUSTRIA
- BOOK BURNINGS
- PARADES
- GOLD
- BORMANN, MARTIN
- WAR CRIMINALS/WAR CRIMES TRIALS
- BUSINESSES
- GERMANY
- KEITEL, WILHELM
- COURTS/COURTROOMS
- POLAND
- NUREMBERG (INTERNATIONAL MILITARY TRIBUNAL)
- PRISONS
- SS (SCHUTZSTAFFEL)
- STARS OF DAVID
- FRICK, WILHELM
- BOYCOTTS
- ROSENBERG, ALFRED
- RACIAL SCIENCE
- FRANK, HANS
- GAS CHAMBERS
- MEDICAL PERSONNEL
- EUTHANASIA
- CROWDS
- FRITZSCHE, HANS
Places
- , Austria
- , Ukraine
- Berlin, Germany
- Lviv (Lvov), Poland
- Mogilev, Belarus
- Nuremberg, Germany
Genre
- Documentary.
- Film