Movie Speech: Judgment at Nuremburg

I previously posted Judge Haywood’s verdict from Judgment at Nuremburg. The movie has numerous dramatic moments and memorable quotations but one other speech stands out, the moment when Dr Ernst Janning, Germany’s leading jurist, speaks after having remained silent throughout the trial:

“I wish to testify about the Feldenstein case because it was the most significant trial of the period. It is important not only for the tribunal to understand it, but for the whole German people. But in order to understand it, one must understand the period in which it happened.

There was a fever over the land, a fever of disgrace, of indignity, of hunger. We had a democracy, yes, but it was torn by elements within. Above all there was fear, fear of today, fear of tomorrow, fear of our neighbours, and fear of ourselves. Only when you understand that can you understand what Hitler meant to us, because he said to us:

Movie Speech: Judgment at Nuremburg

Made in 1961 and originally written for television, the film depicts a trial at Nuremburg of certain judges who executed Nazi law. The film is based on a real trial and depicts real events in examining the issue of individual complicity in crimes committed by the state.

Burt Lancaster portrays Dr Ernst Janning, a renowned German champion of justice and judge who assisted in moulding the Ministry of Justice into an instrument of Nazism.

The trial takes place 3 years after the end of WW2, at a time when the strategic position of Berlin vis a vis the Russians makes it important for the US to have German support. Judge Haywood and the other judges receive pressure to deliver favourable verdicts and sentences for the defendants so as not to alienate German support for the US.