After 62 years, Nuremberg documentary debuts

by Erica Mac Donald

Writer-director Stuart Schulberg (left) at Nuremberg’s 1948 premiere in Stuttgart, Germany. / Schulberg Family Archive

Sixty-two years after the production of “Nuremberg: Its Lessons for Today,” the documentary made its U.S. premier at the New York City Film Festival on Sept. 28.

The film, originally directed by Stuart Schulberg and completed in 1948 under the auspices of the Office of Strategic Services within the United States Army, documents the eleven-month trial of 22 Nazi leaders.

A compilation of courtroom footage shot during the Nuremberg trial and wartime footage shot by both Nazi and allied forces, the film is an invaluable historical document that provides not only a powerful glimpse into the hell that was World War II, but also serves as a reminder of the importance of the prevention and eradication of war and genocide.

The premier was followed by a discussion including panelists Benjamin Ferencz, chief prosecutor at the Einsatzgruppen Trial, Emilio DiPalma, a courtroom guard at Nuremberg, Aryeh Neier, president of the Open Society Institute, and Sandra Schulberg, the restorer of the film and daughter of the director, Stuart Schulberg.

Panelists discussed why the film was not released in the United States 62 years ago (although it was shown in Germany). While it is not clear exactly who suppressed the film, the production of the English-language version of the project was clearly abandoned for a number of political reasons.

At the time of the completion of the film in late 1949, the international arena and policies of the United States were shifting. Perhaps most notably, the United States was launching the Marshall Plan to foster the rebuilding of post-WWII Europe. There was strong concern expressed by both the U.S. military and government that the screening of the film in the United States would be, as Sandra Schulberg noted, “just another nail in the Nazi coffin” that would encourage anti-German sentiment in America and ultimately undercut the U.S. government’s domestic support for German reunification efforts.

Additionally, with the launch of the Cold War, sparked by the Berlin Blockade in the spring of 1948, the Soviet Union quickly morphed from an ally of the United States into the country’s primary enemy. It was thus not politically smart to release a film depicting allied relations between the U.S.S.R. and the United States at a time when Soviet communism was the United States’ major oppositional force.

Though it has been more than a six-decade wait, the English-language premier of “Nuremberg: Its Lessons For Today” provides messages that are still socially and politically relevant. However, as Ferencz powerfully noted, “We seem to have forgotten (the lessons of) Nuremberg today.”

Despite major progress that has been made in the promotion of international peace and justice, including the creation of the International Criminal Court and other tribunals, Ferencz stressed that until aggression is listed as a convictable crime, we will be unable to stop war-making and thus unable to fully protect human rights.

It goes without saying that the footage of the Nazi extermination of the Jews is horrific: countless scenes depicting stockpiled naked bodies, toddlers filing into gas chambers, torturous medical experiments and other atrocities. No matter how many times you see such images, they never become easier to stomach.

Which is exactly why we need to keep seeing them, according to Sandra Schulberg.

“We are not seeing enough of the horrors of war,” Schulberg emotionally proclaimed during the panel discussion, citing the war in Iraq as an instance in which horrific images have been classified or suppressed.

“The American public and the world need to see them,” she said. “We need to stop glorifying war!”

Published in RightsNews Volume 29, no. 1, October, 2010.
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