''Nuremberg'' is a 2000
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
-
American television docudrama in 2 parts, based on the book ''Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial'' by
Joseph E. Persico, that tells the story of the
Nuremberg trials
The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II.
Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany invaded m ...
.
Plot
Part one
At the close of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
,
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1 ...
surrenders to the United-States and enjoys the hospitality of a
U.S. Army Air Force
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
base.
Samuel Rosenman
Samuel Irving Rosenman (February 13, 1896 – June 24, 1973) was an American lawyer, judge, Democratic Party activist and presidential speechwriter. He coined the term "New Deal", and helped articulate liberal policies during the heyday of the ...
, acting on the orders of
U.S. President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
, recruits
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
Justice
Robert H. Jackson to prepare a war crimes tribunal against Göring and the surviving
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
leadership. Göring,
Albert Speer and others are arrested for
war crimes and imprisoned in a
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
stockade at
Bad Mondorf in
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
. Jackson, his assistant Elsie Douglas, and his prosecution team fly to
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. Psychologist
Gustave Gilbert arrives at the stockade with prisoner
Hans Frank
Hans Michael Frank (23 May 1900 – 16 October 1946) was a German politician and lawyer who served as head of the General Government in Nazi-occupied Poland during the Second World War.
Frank was an early member of the German Workers' Party ...
, who has attempted
suicide.
Jackson negotiates with
Allied representatives
Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe
David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir, (29 May 1900 – 27 January 1967), known as Sir David Maxwell Fyfe from 1942 to 1954 and as Viscount Kilmuir from 1954 to 1962, was a British Conservative politician, lawyer and judge who combine ...
, General
Iona Nikitchenko
Major-General Iona Timofeevich Nikitchenko (Russian: Иона Тимофеевич Никитченко) (June 28, 1895 – April 22, 1967) was a judge of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union.
Early life and career
Iona was born to a peasant f ...
and
Henri Donnedieu de Vabres
Henri Donnedieu de Vabres (8 July 1880 – 14 February 1952) was a French jurist who took part in the Nuremberg trials after World War II. He was the primary French judge during the proceedings, with Robert Falco as his alternate.
Donnedieu was ...
to ensure a unified prosecution. Jackson selects the
Nuremberg Palace of Justice for the site of the trials and reconstruction work commences. Göring and the others are stripped of their rank and transferred to the prison in
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
, where they come into conflict with the guards under the command of the strict Colonel
Burton C. Andrus. Major
Airey Neave serves Göring, Speer and the others with their indictments. U.S. judge
Francis Biddle
Francis Beverley Biddle (May 9, 1886 – October 4, 1968) was an American lawyer and judge who was the United States Attorney General during World War II. He also served as the primary American judge during the postwar Nuremberg Trials as well a ...
arrives to take control of the court but reluctantly passes the honour at Jackson's insistence. Following the
suicide of prisoner
Robert Ley
Robert Ley (; 15 February 1890 – 25 October 1945) was a German politician and labour union leader during the Nazi era; Ley headed the German Labour Front from 1933 to 1945. He also held many other high positions in the Party, including ''Gaul ...
, round-the-clock watches are posted and Gilbert is appointed prisoner liaison.
Sir Geoffrey Lawrence opens the trial with all defendants pleading not guilty, and Jackson gives a stirring opening statement. At lunch a jovial Göring holds court over the other defendants while Speer begins to show signs of remorse. Maxwell-Fyfe puts forward an emotive eyewitness account of the Nazis'
genocidal
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...
policies toward
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
s and others, while Jackson reads out dry documentation. As the court begins to tire of Jackson's meticulous approach, Maxwell-Fyfe urges pushing on to the witness interviews, which reveal the horrors of the
concentration camps
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
. The court is shaken by documentary footage of the camps; even Göring appears unsettled.
Part two
Speer explains Göring's dominance to Gilbert and insists that his control over the others must be broken. Göring takes the stand and begins speaking to the
German people
, native_name_lang = de
, region1 =
, pop1 = 72,650,269
, region2 =
, pop2 = 534,000
, region3 =
, pop3 = 157,000
3,322,405
, region4 =
, pop4 = ...
. Jackson, at Gilbert's suggestion, has Göring isolated. Under
cross-examination
In law, cross-examination is the interrogation of a witness called by one's opponent. It is preceded by direct examination (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, South Africa, India and Pakistan known as examination-in-chief) and ...
, Göring outmaneuvers and humiliates Jackson, who later accuses Biddle of giving Göring free rein in court. Douglas talks Jackson out of tendering his resignation, and the two share a kiss. Under advice from Maxwell-Fyfe, Jackson returns to confront Göring with evidence of his crimes against the Jews and successfully dismisses the defendant’s denials.
At a
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...
party, the German housekeeper refuses to serve the
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
s, but Douglas rescues the situation before slipping away with Jackson. Gilbert visits the defendants and, under Jackson's advice, attempts to convince them to take responsibility for their crimes. Andrus relaxes the prison rules for Christmas, and Göring shares a friendly drink with his guard, Lt. Tex Wheelis. The cross-examination of the defendants intensifies and the defence calls
Rudolf Höss
Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höss (also Höß, Hoeß, or Hoess; 25 November 1901 – 16 April 1947) was a German SS officer during the Nazi era who, after the defeat of Nazi Germany, was convicted for war crimes. Höss was the longest-serving comm ...
, who casually reveals the horrors of
Auschwitz. Speer is implicated in the
enslavement of foreign workers by fellow defendant
Fritz Sauckel
Ernst Friedrich Christoph "Fritz" Sauckel (27 October 1894 – 16 October 1946) was a German Nazi politician, ''Gauleiter'' of Gau Thuringia from 1927 and the General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment (''Arbeitseinsatz'') from March 1942 unti ...
and in response accepts collective responsibility for the crimes of the Nazi regime.
Gilbert interviews Göring's wife
Emmy, who reveals that
Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
had ordered them all executed, which led to the family's surrender. Jackson is moved by Gilbert's
summation of his examinations — that the source of the evil behind
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
was a complete lack of
empathy
Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position. Definitions of empathy encompass a broad range of social, co ...
— to give an impassioned closing statement. Göring uses his final statement to condemn the trial, and is sentenced along with several others to death by
hanging
Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging ...
. Speer uses his final statement to commend the tribunal and is sentenced to 20 years in prison. Göring commits
suicide after his request to be executed by
firing squad
Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are ...
is denied. Andrus presides over the executions of the others while Jackson and Douglas head home.
Cast
*
Alec Baldwin as Supreme Court Justice
Robert H. Jackson
*
Brian Cox as
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1 ...
*
Christopher Plummer
Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage, and television. He received multiple accolades, inc ...
as Sir
David Maxwell Fyfe
*
Jill Hennessy
Jillian Noel Hennessy (born November 25, 1968) is a Canadian actress and singer. She is most known for her roles on the American television series '' Law & Order'', on which she played prosecutor Claire Kincaid for three seasons, and ''Crossin ...
as Elsie Douglas
*
Matt Craven
Matt may refer to:
*Matt (name), people with the given name ''Matt'' or Matthew, meaning "gift from God", or the surname Matt
*In British English, of a surface: having a non-glossy finish, see gloss (material appearance)
*Matt, Switzerland, a mu ...
as Capt.
Gustave Gilbert
*
Christopher Heyerdahl
Christopher Heyerdahl (born September 18, 1963) is a Canadian actor who portrayed Alastair in ''Supernatural,'' the Wraith Todd in ''Stargate Atlantis'', Sam in '' Van Helsing,'' "Swede" in ''Hell on Wheels,'' and Marcus in '' The Twilight Saga ...
as
Ernst Kaltenbrunner
*Roger Dunn as Col. Robert Storey
*
David McIlwraith
David McIlwraith is a Canadian actor who has appeared in numerous television series and in several films since the 1970s.
He co-starred in the 1993 television series ''White Fang'' and also had a prominent role as Dr. Reginald Murdoch in the 2001 ...
as Col.
John Amen
*
Christopher Shyer
Christopher Shyer (sometimes credited as Chris Shyer) is a Canadian-American actor who has appeared in over 50 film and television roles.
Acting career
Shyer has appeared in multiple guest roles on television since 1994, including: '' Viper'', ' ...
as Col.
Telford Taylor
Telford Taylor (February 24, 1908 – May 23, 1998) was an American lawyer and professor. Taylor was known for his role as lead counsel in the prosecution of war criminals after World War II, his opposition to McCarthyism in the 1950s, and his o ...
*
Hrothgar Mathews as
Thomas J. Dodd
*
Herbert Knaup
Herbert Knaup (born 23 March 1956) is a German film and television actor. He is perhaps best-known to international audiences for his supporting roles in '' Run Lola Run'' (1998) and ''The Lives of Others'' (2006).
Selected filmography
* ''Coda ...
as
Albert Speer
*
Frank Moore as
Hans Frank
Hans Michael Frank (23 May 1900 – 16 October 1946) was a German politician and lawyer who served as head of the General Government in Nazi-occupied Poland during the Second World War.
Frank was an early member of the German Workers' Party ...
*Frank Fontaine as
Wilhelm Keitel
Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel (; 22 September 188216 October 1946) was a German field marshal and war criminal who held office as chief of the '' Oberkommando der Wehrmacht'' (OKW), the high command of Nazi Germany's Armed Forces, duri ...
*Raymond Cloutier as
Karl Dönitz
*Bill Corday as
Alfred Jodl
*Ken Kramer as
Fritz Sauckel
Ernst Friedrich Christoph "Fritz" Sauckel (27 October 1894 – 16 October 1946) was a German Nazi politician, ''Gauleiter'' of Gau Thuringia from 1927 and the General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment (''Arbeitseinsatz'') from March 1942 unti ...
*
Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow ( , ; born Carl Adolf von Sydow; 10 April 1929 – 8 March 2020) was a Swedish-French actor. He had a 70-year career in European and American cinema, television, and theatre, appearing in more than 150 films and several television ...
as
Samuel Rosenman
Samuel Irving Rosenman (February 13, 1896 – June 24, 1973) was an American lawyer, judge, Democratic Party activist and presidential speechwriter. He coined the term "New Deal", and helped articulate liberal policies during the heyday of the ...
*Mark Walker as Gen.
Carl Spaatz
*Sam Stone as
Julius Streicher
Julius Streicher (12 February 1885 – 16 October 1946) was a member of the Nazi Party, the ''Gauleiter'' (regional leader) of Franconia and a member of the '' Reichstag'', the national legislature. He was the founder and publisher of the virul ...
*Douglas O'Keeffe as
Baldur von Schirach
*Benoit Girard as
Joachim von Ribbentrop
*James Bradford as
Hjalmar Schacht
Hjalmar Schacht (born Horace Greeley Hjalmar Schacht; 22 January 1877 – 3 June 1970, ) was a German economist, banker, centre-right politician, and co-founder in 1918 of the German Democratic Party. He served as the Currency Commissioner ...
*Frank Burns as
Wilhelm Frick
Wilhelm Frick (12 March 1877 – 16 October 1946) was a prominent German politician of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), who served as Reich Minister of the Interior in Adolf Hitler's cabinet from 1933 to 1943 and as the last governor of the Protectorate ...
*Erwin Potitt as
Walther Funk
Walther Funk (18 August 1890 – 31 May 1960) was a German economist and Nazi official who served as Reich Minister for Economic Affairs (1938–1945) and president of Reichsbank (1939–1945). During his incumbency, he oversaw the mobi ...
*
Tom Rack as
Hans Fritzsche
*Roc LaFortune as
Rudolf Hess
*
Colm Feore
Colm Joseph Feore (; born August 22, 1958) is a Canadian actor. A 15-year veteran of the Stratford Festival, he is known for his Gemini-winning turn as Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in the CBC miniseries '' Trudeau'' (2002), his portrayal of G ...
as
Rudolf Höß
*
Dennis St. John as
Franz von Papen
*Griffith Brewer as
Konstantin von Neurath
*
Gabriel Gascon
Gabriel Gascon (8 January 1927 – 30 May 2018) was a Canadian stage and film actor.
Born in Montreal, Quebec to parents Charles-Auguste Gascon and Marie-Rose Dubuc, Gascon began his acting career after joining the Compagnons de Saint-Laurent_with ...
as
Erich Raeder
Erich Johann Albert Raeder (24 April 1876 – 6 November 1960) was a German admiral who played a major role in the naval history of World War II. Raeder attained the highest possible naval rank, that of grand admiral, in 1939, becoming the f ...
*
Julien Poulin
Julien Poulin (born April 20, 1946) is Canadian actor, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He has portrayed numerous roles in several popular Quebec films and series.
Elvis Gratton films
His most memorable role was Elvis Gratton in whi ...
as Dr.
Robert Ley
Robert Ley (; 15 February 1890 – 25 October 1945) was a German politician and labour union leader during the Nazi era; Ley headed the German Labour Front from 1933 to 1945. He also held many other high positions in the Party, including ''Gaul ...
*Alain Fournier as
Alfred Rosenberg
Alfred Ernst Rosenberg ( – 16 October 1946) was a Baltic German Nazi theorist and ideologue. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart and he held several important posts in the Nazi government. He was the head o ...
*René Gagnon as
Arthur Seyss-Inquart
Arthur Seyss-Inquart (German: Seyß-Inquart, ; 22 July 1892 16 October 1946) was an Austrian Nazi politician who served as Chancellor of Austria in 1938 for two days before the ''Anschluss''. His positions in Nazi Germany included "deputy govern ...
*
Len Cariou
Leonard Joseph Cariou (; born September 30, 1939) is a Canadian actor and stage director, best known for his portrayal of Sweeney Todd in the original cast of '' Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'', for which he won the Tony Award ...
as
Francis Biddle
Francis Beverley Biddle (May 9, 1886 – October 4, 1968) was an American lawyer and judge who was the United States Attorney General during World War II. He also served as the primary American judge during the postwar Nuremberg Trials as well a ...
*David Francis as
Geoffrey Lawrence, 1st Baron Oaksey
Geoffrey Lawrence, 3rd Baron Trevethin, 1st Baron Oaksey, (2 December 1880 – 28 August 1971) was the main British judge during the Nuremberg trials after Second World War, and President of the Judicial group.
Biography
The Lawrence family ...
*Len Doncheff as Gen.
Iona Nikitchenko
Major-General Iona Timofeevich Nikitchenko (Russian: Иона Тимофеевич Никитченко) (June 28, 1895 – April 22, 1967) was a judge of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union.
Early life and career
Iona was born to a peasant f ...
*
Paul Hébert
Paul Hébert, OC, CQ (May 28, 1924 – April 20, 2017) was a French Canadian television and stage actor and director, and the founder of six theatres in Quebec. He is best known for his role as Siméon Desrosiers in '' Le Temps d’une paix'', ...
as
Henri Donnedieu de Vabres
Henri Donnedieu de Vabres (8 July 1880 – 14 February 1952) was a French jurist who took part in the Nuremberg trials after World War II. He was the primary French judge during the proceedings, with Robert Falco as his alternate.
Donnedieu was ...
*
Michael Ironside
Frederick Reginald Ironside (born February 12, 1950), known as Michael Ironside, is a Canadian actor, producer, director, and screenwriter. He is known for playing villains and "tough guy" heroes, and has also portrayed sympathetic characters.
E ...
as Col.
Burton C. Andrus
*
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg (; born 21 July 1971) is a British-French actress and singer. She is the daughter of English actress Jane Birkin and French musician Serge Gainsbourg. After making her musical debut with her father on the song " Lemo ...
as
Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier
*Geoffrey Pounsett as Maj.
Airey Neave
*Steve Adams as Brig. Gen.
Lucius D. Clay
General Lucius Dubignon Clay (April 23, 1898 – April 16, 1978) was a senior officer of the United States Army who was known for his administration of occupied Germany after World War II. He served as the deputy to General of the Army Dwight D ...
*
Paul Hopkins as Capt.
Dan Kiley
Daniel Urban Kiley (2 September 1912 – 21 February 2004) was an American landscape architect, who worked in the style of modern architecture. Kiley designed over one-thousand landscape projects including Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis ...
*
Susan Glover as
Emmy Göring
Emma Johanna Henny "Emmy" Göring (; 24 March 1893 – 8 June 1973) was a German actress and the second wife of ''Luftwaffe'' Commander-in-Chief Hermann Göring. She served as Adolf Hitler's hostess at many state functions and thereby staked a ...
*Scott Gibson as Lt. Tex Wheelis
Historical inaccuracies
In the film,
Göring, his
wife
A wife (plural, : wives) is a female in a marital relationship. A woman who has separated from her partner continues to be a wife until the marriage is legally Dissolution (law), dissolved with a divorce judgement. On the death of her partner, ...
, and
daughter
A daughter is a female offspring; a girl or a woman in relation to her parents. Daughterhood is the state of being someone's daughter. The male counterpart is a son. Analogously the name is used in several areas to show relations between group ...
drove and surrendered to an unnamed American air corps base in Germany on 12 May 1945. In reality, Göring, after sending an aide to Brigadier General Robert I. Stack in which he offered to surrender to
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
personally, was discovered and arrested in a traffic jam near
Radstadt
Radstadt (Central Bavarian: ''Rodstoud'' or ''Rodstod'') is a historic town in the district of St. Johann im Pongau in the Austrian state of Salzburg.
Geography
The town is part of the Salzburg Pongau region. It is located in the valley of the ...
by a detachment of the
Seventh United States Army, which was sent through the German lines to find him and bring him to a secure American position, on 6 May 1945.
Wilhelm Keitel
Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel (; 22 September 188216 October 1946) was a German field marshal and war criminal who held office as chief of the '' Oberkommando der Wehrmacht'' (OKW), the high command of Nazi Germany's Armed Forces, duri ...
was described in the film as an admiral during the defendants' sentencing. He was in fact a field marshal and would not have been identified with naval rank. However, he is correctly addressed as field marshal in other parts of the film.
In the film Jackson describes the Nuremberg's Justice Palace as "the same building where Nuremberg Laws were decreed to deprive all the German Jews all of their rights". In reality, the Nuremberg Laws were introduced by the Reichstag at a special meeting at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the NSDAP. Nuremberg's Justice Palace was, as it has always been, a regional court for the local area and the building had no association with the annual Party Rally during the Nazi era.
In the film Robert Ley was shown to have committed suicide before the trial even began, in the-real life Ley committed suicide three days after receiving the indictment, on October 24, 1945. However similar with what was depicted in the film, in the real-life Ley also committed suicide by strangling himself until death with a noose that was made by his towel and was fastened to the toilet pipe in his prison cell.
Justice Jackson is portrayed as initially failing in his cross-examination of Gӧring and emerging triumphant on the second day. In reality, the cross-examination was a disaster and severely damaged Jackson's reputation
itation needed This situation was recovered by Maxwell Fyfe.
The verdicts and sentences were pronounced together with all defendants present. In reality, verdicts and sentences were pronounced separately and the defendants were called one at a time into the courtroom to learn their sentence. Andrus was not present at the executions.
When the defendants were indicted by Major Neave they all made oral statements. In reality, these statements were collected by Captain
Gustave Gilbert. He asked the defendants to write their first reactions on a copy of the indictments.
In the film
Albert Speer was arrested when he was giving a lecture to American soldiers. In reality, Speer was arrested together with
Karl Dönitz and
Alfred Jodl in
Flensburg where they had set up a provisional government.
In the film Captain Gilbert is graciously given the right to talk to the prisoners by Col. Andrus in exchange for a library and an exercise field. In reality, Gilbert was specifically appointed to talk to the prisoners by the US military. The idea was that Andrus was to be informed by Gilbert about the state of mind of the prisoners.
[G.M. Gilbert, ''Nuremberg diaries'', (New York 1974) page 3.]
The tribunal is depicted as having four judges. In reality, there were eight, a senior and a junior from each of the four Allied powers.
In the film, Göring's wife and daughter visit him in prison together shortly before his death, but in reality, only his wife was present on this final visit. Also, Göring's suicide is discovered in the film when the guards come for Joachim von Ribbentrop, whereas, in real life, Göring himself was to go first. Ribbentrop only went first after Göring's suicide.
At the executions, the condemned state their names on the gallows and make their final statements in English. In reality, the condemned said their names at the bottom of the steps to the gallows and spoke in German, with an interpreter on the gallows. In addition, all executions appear to be carried out correctly. In real life, some of the hangings were reportedly botched as not all of the executed Nazis fell with enough force to break the neck, and the trap door was too small causing bleeding head injuries to some of the men, as shown in pictures of the bodies. Only one unpainted gallows is shown with two trap doors and nooses when in real life, three black-painted gallows were in the gymnasium. Two were used with one as a spare.
The executions happened in the depth of night - not in daylight as in the film - and press photographers were not allowed in to witness the hangings themselves. Hermann Göring is also seen killing himself minutes before the executions, rather than hours.
The executions of
Wilhelm Frick
Wilhelm Frick (12 March 1877 – 16 October 1946) was a prominent German politician of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), who served as Reich Minister of the Interior in Adolf Hitler's cabinet from 1933 to 1943 and as the last governor of the Protectorate ...
,
Alfred Rosenberg
Alfred Ernst Rosenberg ( – 16 October 1946) was a Baltic German Nazi theorist and ideologue. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart and he held several important posts in the Nazi government. He was the head o ...
, and
Arthur Seyss-Inquart
Arthur Seyss-Inquart (German: Seyß-Inquart, ; 22 July 1892 16 October 1946) was an Austrian Nazi politician who served as Chancellor of Austria in 1938 for two days before the ''Anschluss''. His positions in Nazi Germany included "deputy govern ...
were bypassed.
Reception
In the United States, the miniseries aired on the network
TNT
Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...
, where it received the highest-ever viewership ratings for a basic cable miniseries up to that poin
Awards
Streaming
As of 2017 part 1 & 2 was released online on Canada Media Fund's Encore+ YouTube channel.
See also
* ''
Judgment at Nuremberg
''Judgment at Nuremberg'' is a 1961 American epic courtroom drama film directed and produced by Stanley Kramer, written by Abby Mann and starring Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Werner Klemperer, Marlene D ...
''
References
External links
*
*
{{Nuremberg trials
2000s Canadian drama television series
2000s Canadian television miniseries
American biographical series
American television docudramas
Canadian television docudramas
Cultural depictions of Albert Speer
Cultural depictions of Hermann Göring
English-language Canadian films
Films about capital punishment
Gemini and Canadian Screen Award for Best Television Film or Miniseries winners
Nuremberg in fiction
Nuremberg trials
Primetime Emmy Award-winning television series
Television series about the aftermath of the Holocaust
Television shows directed by Yves Simoneau
Television shows set in Germany
World War II television drama series
Cultural depictions of Franz von Papen