Judgment at Nuremberg

I have seen this 1961 movie many years before, on the recommendation of a friend when I was a student in the University.

I was too young, uninformed and immature to appreciate what it was all about.

I saw this again yesterday, in one sitting. Strange that it popped up suddenly on my list. Was it because I am waiting to watch the new movie, Nuremberg, I wonder?

I suspect this new movie will raise similar issues as the earlier movie. How did a corporal from a political party once considered a looney party, end up becoming Chancellor of such a powerful European country? The German people knew what he stood for and yet why did they go along with him? Why did all the intellectuals and judges in Germany administer such draconian laws and often render severe punishments when there was no evidence? Didn’t the German people see how the Jews and other minorities were persecuted? Why did they laugh and applaud at such happenings? Did they know of the existence of the concentration camps and the mass murders taking place there? And where should ultimate responsibility for such acts lie?

Even after reading the excellent book, Einstein in Berlin, I am still at a loss. The author of that book suggests various reasons why it happened. The movie doesn’t provide reasons. It only shows Germans saying either they didn’t know or even if they did, they couldn’t do anything. The underlying sentiment they express is that the German people are not killers.

I hope I will be more enlightened after watching the new movie but it is frightening to know that things like this have happened in the past. Within just 6 years of taking control, he led Germany into a war which killed millions of people. Even though so many people knew he was a fanatic, they let it happen.