Film Review: Judgment at Nuremberg 9|9
MGM Pictures, 1961. 186 minutes.
Produced and Directed by Stanley Kramer
Written by Abby Mann
And here are all these things that pass in the night. Wouldn’t it be nice to have something beyond that? Just simply to help people. And to be remembered for that. You know, time humbles all of us, and all of us are defeated in one way or another in the end. And I wanted something that I wouldn’t be defeated at. And if I help people, if I help people change the world just a molecule, then that would be something worth having.
–Abby Mann, writer
The current President of Sudan, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, was charged by the International Criminal Court with crimes against humanity. How did this come to be? Nuremberg. Slobadan Milosevic, former president of Serbia? Nuremberg. Josheph Kony of the Lords Resistance Army in Uganda? Nuremberg? Saddam Hussein? Nuremberg.
Any serious advocate for international justice and human rights will eventually grow to appreciate the legacy of Nuremberg. These historic trials occurred immediately after the close of World War II and held Nazi officials accountable for their actions. Goering, Hess, Streicher, and over a dozen others were all tried under an international tribunal. The charges were conspiracy, waging aggressive war, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Some were found guilty and hanged. Others received milder sentences. But what was groundbreaking was the fact that a trial occurred at all. The Soviet Union, Winston Churchill, and American leaders wanted swift retribution: summary execution of the Nazi leaders. Only the forward thinking U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson prevented this from happening. After prolonged negotiations, he convinced the Allied powers to hold a fair trial at Nuremberg, Germany with the presumption of innocence for all charged. It would have been easier to execute indiscriminately, and it was desired by the survivors of millions of victims of the German war machine around the world. Justice Jackson ensured a fair trial, preserving the vital record of Nazi war time atrocities, and temporarily vacated his spot on the Supreme Court to serve as chief prosecutor in the first trial.
The film Judgment at Nuremberg takes up where Jackson left off. The first trial concluded and Jackson flew home to resume his duties on the U.S. Supreme Court, ushering in a new era of desegregation with landmark decisions. Many more perpetrators remained to be tried, this time not by an international tribunal of Allies but solely by Americans. Judgment at Nuremberg depicts the trial of Nazi judges in 1949. It is a layered, thoughtful work with moving performances and penetrating ruminations on the nature of justice — and the value of a single human life in a world of billions.
