Nazis at Nuremberg: The Lost Testimony (2022)

[bunniefuu]

The first time I saw the audio
discs it was in the cellar.

They had been left in storage, unheard,
for many decades.

Listening to
them gave me the chills.

Attention!

The International m*llitary Tribunal
will now enter.

Will you state your full name?

Wilhelm Keitel.

Julius Streicher.

Karl Dönitz.

At end of World w*r II,
top n*zi leaders were put on trial.

For ten months, this
trial revealed unknown details

about major battles.

U-boats
were to sh**t up the lifeboats.

And wartime crimes.

How did you
tolerate all these men being m*rder*d?

Hello, recording.

Unknown to many, the
entire proceeding was recorded

on more than 2,000 audio discs.

While we were digitizing the
discs, we preferred to keep it a secret.

We had fears that someone would steal and
destroy the discs because they contain

really important
testimonies about the w*r.

Most of this audio has never
been heard. Until now.

The executions were carried
out in a m*llitary manner

a m*llitary manner by f*ring squads
under command.

Tell us about
preparations for gas warfare.

This proposal
came from Dr. Goebbels.

This is the
story of World w*r II.

That was an order which was given
to me by h*tler.

h*tler! Sieg!

Heil!

And the most
chilling criminals in history.

I stand up for
the things that I have done.

As you've never heard it before.

Is that your testimony?

This is the BBC Home Service.

The end of the w*r in Europe
was officially announced at

3:00 this afternoon.

The commanders of
the German forces have come to

this headquarters today to
make unconditional surrender.

At the end of the w*r,
the question of course emerges,

what to do with the
defeated n*zi leadership.

We have to remember that at
the time the public was just

absorbing the stories that were coming out
of the liberated Western camps.

And so, public opinion polls aggressively
supported the idea of summary execution.

But then, mainly
coming from the Americans,

there was the proposal to
actually have a legal response.

If the truth of n*zi
rule was not established in

a due process of law, then
it was very likely that someday

people would even deny that the
atrocities that the n*zi regime

had committed took place.

There was the idea that
a big case could be presented

publicly to help explain,
to help make sense of what had

just happened to the world.

But by the time a trial is a
possibility at all in the fall of 1945,

it's really a question of
who they can still catch.

This is London
calling. h*tler is dead.

The SS chief
Heinrich Himmler also ends his life.

With several top Nazis dead,
the Allies decide to hold a group trial of

the remaining German leaders.

Among the
more prominent Nazis seized are

Admiral Dönitz and Albert Speer,
Minister of Economics and Production.

They arrest and charge
just over 20 major officials,

who represent the full
scope of the n*zi system.

Keitel was chief
of the German armed forces.

Streicher was known
for his anti-Semitic propaganda.

Rudolf Hess had
been h*tler's stenographer as

h*tler was dictating Mein Kamp.

Göring was the number two
figure in the n*zi party.

During the w*r, he was the head of the
Luftwaffe, the head of the Four-Year Plan.

He is the biggest
n*zi w*r criminal still alive.

The trial will be
held in Nuremberg, Germany.

Sieg!

Heil!

As the former site of
h*tler's infamous party rallies,

it is considered to be the
symbolic birthplace of Nazism.

So Nuremberg is seen as the
perfect spot in which to punish the Nazis.

In the city's Palace of Justice,

the Nazis will face an
international tribunal made up

of judges and prosecutors
from four Allied nations.

It was Britain,
America, Russia, and the French

and so they all had their
own prosecuting counsels.

Although
they will work together,

the American and British
prosecutors will take the lead.

We have an opportunity
to bring to a just judgment

those who have thought it safe to wage
aggressive and ruthless w*r.

Robert H. Jackson is
the American chief prosecutor.

He had been Attorney General and
in 1941 U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

He really is America's leading lawyer.

It is the only
hope for Germany and the world that

our people realize and
repent for what has happened.

David Maxwell-Fyfe was the
leading prosecutor for the British.

He'd suffered from the bombing in London
and he hated the Nazis.

To prepare their case, Allied
investigators scour the countryside,

gathering witnesses and evidence.

The unconditional
surrender gave the Allies access

to all German records.
That was unprecedented.

And that really
strengthens the knowledge level

as they're heading for trial in Nuremberg.

This is Arthur Gaeth
in Nuremberg, Germany.

If the 43 pages of charges
prepared by the four capable

prosecutors are made to stick,
this trial will not only make history,

but also establish precedence
in international criminal law.

The atmosphere at the start of
the trial was incredibly electric.

Hello recording,
hello recording.

We have to bear in mind,

this is the first international
criminal trial in human history.

Test, one, two, three, four.

And we have heads
of state being accused of an

extraordinary range of horrific crimes.

Attention!

The International m*llitary Tribunal
will now enter.

They knew that
with this trial they would be

revealing information
that no one had known before.

That's why the
decision was made to capture

the full proceedings
in an audio recording.

Some of these
recordings will be played for

the first time in this film.

The
present defendants stand charged

here today, with Crimes Against Peace,

w*r Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity,

and of a Common Plan
or Conspiracy to commit those crimes.

I will now call upon the
defendants to plead guilty or

not guilty to the charges against them.

I declare myself not guilty.

Not guilty.

Not guilty.

When you
listen to the defendants…

No.

They speak with a
kind of bizarre confidence.

I declare myself not guilty.

And they all plead not guilty.

Not guilty.

None of them consider
themselves to be guilty.

I declare myself, in the
sense of the indictment, not guilty.

To establish the Nazis' guilt,

prosecutors intend to lay
out a wide range of crimes,

to reveal, exactly how the Nazis were able
to wage such a devastating w*r.

And they will seek to
prove that starting the w*r was

the Nazis' plan from the beginning.

The Tribunal
will hear the defendant Göring

in the witness box now.

As h*tler's
former right-hand man,

defendant Hermann Göring
was a high-ranking member of

the n*zi government and German m*llitary.

One of the many accusations
against him is that he took a

lead role in conspiring to wage
w*r almost immediately

after the Nazis came to power.

Now, as
early as 1933 after you came to

power you regarded it as
necessary to rearm Germany

regardless of any
treaty limitations, did you not?

It was, of course,
already discussed in 1933

because it was clear at
once that something different

needed to happen under our government.

At the end of the first World w*r,
the Versailles Treaty had forced

a large number of restrictions
on the German m*llitary.

h*tler was of the opinion that
Germany

must be freed from the
restrictions of Versailles.

Adolf h*tler and
the clique of professional

m*llitary soldiers that
followed him into office,

like Hermann Göring who was
an accomplished fighter pilot

during the First World w*r,
said if we don't rearm,

we're just going to be victimized by
other world powers.

It was not only Adolf h*tler.
Every German - every patriotic German -

had the same feeling.

But what emerges
during the Tribunal is that

German re-armament had a greater goal than
simply protecting Germany.

That they were secretly
preparing to take on the world.

Remember,
captured documents are just

incredibly powerful,
authentic smoking g*ns.

If you've got the right documents,
you've pretty much got magic evidence.

May it please the Tribunal.

One of the most striking and
revealing captured documents is

a document which we have come
to know as the Hossbach notes

of a conference on 5 November 1937.

Friedrich Hossbach had
been part of h*tler's personal staff.

And that memo
was prepared in the wake of a

meeting between h*tler and a small number
of members of the m*llitary.

I note the defendant
Hermann Wilhelm Göring was present.

In this conspiratorial meeting
Adolf h*tler posed the question;

"The question for Germany is

where the greatest possible conquest could
be made at the lowest cost."

It was very clear
from that memo that h*tler

wanted land and that land would come from

Austria, Czechoslovakia, possibly Poland.

It's a stunning revelation,

only according to Göring,
there's a simple explanation.

Hossbach was present at the
meeting and took notes.

Five days later, he prepared this record.

This is, therefore, a record
which contains mistakes.

But the prosecution is
about to reveal Göring's lie.

When n*zi Germany
starts taking over countries

like Austria and
Czechoslovakia, at the time,

the interpretation is that the people in
those countries wanted it.

Heil! Sieg!

Heil! Sieg!

Heil! Sieg!

Yet what captured documents
reveal is that the Nazis were

secretly putting pressure on
their governments to hand over

their countries to n*zi Germany.

I now offer in
evidence the actual events in Austria.

There's actually a
telephone conversation that's

introduced into the trial of how Göring
bullies Schuschnigg, the,

the Austrian chancellor.

I turn now to copies of the

telephone conversations, Top Secret.

Göring: "You go and
tell the Federal President"

that if the conditions are
not accepted immediately,

the troops who are already stationed at
the frontier, will march in tonight,

and Austria will cease to exist.”

The Nazis were actually able to secure
Austria by making a thr*at of force.

Göring refuses
to admit any wrongdoing.

Aggressive w*r is carried out
by sh**ting, throwing bombs, and so on.

But there was only one thing thrown
and that was flowers.

But the evidence
continues to mount.

I should
like now to offer in evidence

the conquest of Czechoslovakia.

In the second week of March 1939 in
response to the summons from h*tler,

Monsieur Hácha, the President of the
Czechoslovak Republic arrived in Berlin.

Hácha was ushered
into the Reich Chancellery.

He found there Adolf h*tler, Göring,
and other high n*zi officials.

They have
him in a lamp lit room.

It's like a scene straight out
to the Godfather, Godfather II.

This is
the captured Germans' account of

this infamous meeting.

They reminded him that in three hours the
German army would cross the border.

The defendant Göring boasted of
what his Luftwaffe would do

if the Czech forces dared to resist.

Göring
bullies him and says to him,

“If you don't give up and
allow our troops to march in,

we will b*mb Prague to the ground.”

He couldn't hardly deny it.

So he tried
to minimize and tried to lie.

I told him there would only be
unnecessary bloodshed.

And in that connection,
I made the statement

that I should be sorry if I had to b*mb
beautiful Prague.

But it's pretty clear
that this is criminal behavior.

Under this thr*at
the aged President of Czechoslovakia

signed the document with which
the n*zi conspirators confronted him.

What we basically have
is Germany holding a g*n up to

the head of the leaders of
Austria and Czechoslovakia.

And it's all part of this
aggressive policy,

which is inevitably going to lead
to the Second World w*r.

You'll go
on with the evidence tomorrow?

Yes, sir.

This is Arthur Gaeth
in Nuremberg Germany.

In the Nuremberg Palace of Justice,
the prosecution is well into its case.

At Nuremberg,
the prosecution demonstrates

that the annexation of Austria,

the seizure of Czechoslovakia

is all part of this aggressive
policy of the n*zi regime.

But none of that had really
led to direct m*llitary conflict.

It really isn't until
Germany's att*ck on Poland,

that we have the beginning
of the Second World w*r.

So, it was
important to prosecutors to

look at what happened
during the invasion of Poland.

Colonel Amen will
represent the United States this morning.

May it please the Tribunal,

I propose to call as
witness for the prosecution,

Major General Erwin von Lahousen.

Erwin von Lahousen
had been a high-ranking member

of the Nazis' m*llitary espionage group,
called the Abwehr.

Will you
stand in front of the microphone

there so you can be heard?

He has detailed
knowledge of top-secret events

leading up to the invasion of Poland.

The defendants were
not aware that he was going to

be testifying against them.

Was the
Abwehr ever asked to furnish

any assistance for the Polish campaign?

Yes.

Will you explain to the Tribunal

the nature of the assistance required?

The affair on which I am
now giving testimony

is one of the most mysterious
actions which took place…

Back in 1939, n*zi
leadership had claimed that

the fighting only
began after Polish troops

first att*cked German soldiers.

According to them, Poland is to
blame for the start of the w*r.

That's the way the story
was presented to the world,

it was Germany simply
defending its border.

But General Von Lahousen is
about to stun the world with the truth.

Will you please explain
exactly what took place?

My division,
Defense Division 2, received

the task of providing Polish
uniforms.

And what was the purpose?

That people
from concentration camps

were disguised in these uniforms and were
ordered to make a m*llitary att*ck

on the radio station at Gleiwitz.

And so what actually
happened was that the Germans

dressed some prisoners up in
Polish uniform and used that as

the pretext for invading
the western half of Poland.

What
happened to the men that wore

the Polish uniforms
and created this incident?

All of the people
who took part in

that were put out of the way, that is,
k*lled.

Is there any slighted
doubt in your mind about that?

No.

This is a bowl ‘em over moment.

Göring calls von Lahousen,
“Schwein,” meaning pig.

He says, “Verrat,” treason.
“Verrater,” uh, traitor.

Göring even says, “He
should have been gassed.”

Von Lahousen's testimony leaves
the courtroom, and the world, reeling.

Okay,
recording, that's all for now.

Adjourn ‘til tomorrow at 9:30.

But it won't stop
the Nazis from still attempting

to lie their way out of
responsibility for the w*r.

Criminals can
always find a way to deny.

What is your name?

Erhard Milch

Erhard Milch is
a witness for the defense.

During the w*r, he served directly under
Göring in the Luftwaffe.

To the gentlemen
who now stand accused

the whole question of the
w*r came as a great surprise.

You want
this Tribunal to understand you,

as an officer, as saying
that there was no preparation?

How long did it take to overrun Denmark?

Denmark, very short.

How long did it take
to overrun Holland and Belgium?

A few days.

How long did it take
to take possession of Norway?

Also a short time.

And how long did it
take to overrun France and take Paris?

Two months in all.

And those
were all surprise movements?

You were surprised at every one of them?
Is that your testimony?

Yes.

But it is not just
the conquest of nations that

prosecutors will show was pre-planned.

Heil, heil h*tler.

They will
soon reveal how propaganda was

used to not only gain
public support for the w*r,

but also to help pave the way for

one of the largest mass
murders of the 20th Century.

I think one of the
big problems with history is

that we look at the past
through the eyes of the present.

This is especially true of Nazism.

We would tend to see
Nazism through the prism of

the brutality and its antisemitism.

But what you've got to remember is;

that's not how the German
people saw h*tler at all.

Sieg!

Heil! Heil!

The appeal of Nazism was not
negative, it was Utopian.

“I'm going
to build a new Germany,

"and I'm going to make
Germany a great power."

It was a Utopian appeal.

And so, it was very important
for the Nuremberg process

to lay out how they
eventually induced people to

think that the evil that they
were being asked to participate in,

was virtue of some kind.

Now let us consider for a moment

the doctrinal techniques
of the n*zi conspirators.

The first was the,
“Master Race,” doctrine.

Calling anything, “Non-German,”
and you have a clear right,

indeed a duty, to cast it out.

Propaganda played a large role
in the prosecution's argument.

My German youth…

Because
indoctrination was perceived as

a driving force of bringing
along the German population

in the aggressive n*zi policies.

Will
you repeat this oath after me?

I think a
clear indicator for this is

the charges against Julius Streicher.

Julius Streicher had been an
elementary school teacher

before aspiring to politics.

I will speak the pure truth

You may sit down.

In the early
1920s he founded Der Stürmer,

a viciously r*cist newspaper.

It would eventually become a significant
part of n*zi propaganda,

and continue publication
until the end of the w*r.

We have an example of the really

remarkable lengths to which he went.

I quote, “One single
cohabitation of a Jew with an

Aryan woman is sufficient to
poison her blood forever.

The Aryan is impregnated
with an alien species.”

It had, you know,
wild allegations against Jews.

It equated them with
parasites and leeches and rats.

I have not attempted to have

translated all of the articles.

It is perhaps sufficient
to look at the pictures.

All of this is very
much unearthed at Nuremberg.

His newspapers
are crowded with them, week after week,

day after day.

It is impossible to pick up any copy
without finding the same kind of stuff.

That is very important
material because what the trial

revealed was the building up and
the creation of an enemy image.

After the seizure of
power the daily press was coordinated.

And orders were given by the Führer

that every newspaper should
provide enlightening articles

on the “Jewish question.”

Already before
h*tler comes to power,

there is certainly antisemitism and this
sort of vague sense amongst many

that there's a, “Jewish problem,”
that has to be solved somehow.

And, you know, hopefully this
government will get that done.

I did not intend to agitate
or to inflame, but to enlighten.

I never wrote, "burn Jewish houses
down; b*at them to death."

But you know, do you not,

that starting with the boycott
which you led yourself in 1933,

the Jews thereafter were
deprived of the right to vote,

they were forced to wear
a yellow star and they had

their houses and their
businesses taken away from them.

Do you call that enlightenment?

So the trial was
important for connecting dots

that had not previously been connected.

I'm suggesting that you set out

to incite the German people
to m*rder and to accept

the m*rder of the Jewish race.

That is not true.

I've no doubt
you'll say it isn't true, I just want to

make myself quite clear
to what I'm suggesting.

In many ways, Nuremberg was more
than the prosecution of the defendants.

It was also making Germans confront what
they had acquiesced to.

But there wasn't much appetite
for this in Germany at that at time.

To capture the
attention of the German public,

prosecutors turn to a
type of evidence that had

rarely been used in courtrooms before.

They actually
interrupt their case to suddenly

show a film in the courtroom.

Prosecution will at this

time present a documentary
film on concentration camps.

This is by no means the entire
proof which the prosecution will offer,

but this film represents what the words,
“Concentration camp,” imply.

At this concentration
camp the Germans starved, clubbed,

and b*rned to death more than 4,000
prisoners over a period of eight months.

On the table is a
lampshade made of human skin,

made at the request
of an SS Officer's wife.

At the time, the world really
hadn't seen footage like this.

This really had an
incredibly galvanizing effect.

Fyfe himself says
he was fighting back the tears.

"After that, I wasn't so much a
prosecutor," he says, "As a Terrier dog."

You know, "I wanted
these men to be convicted."

I call on General
Rudenko for the Soviet Union.

I will now describe the crimes

committed by the Hitlerite aggressors
against my own country.

On June 22, 1941, the U.S.S.R.

was deceitfully
att*cked by Hitlerite Germany.

What the Nuremberg Trial did was
pay quite a bit of attention

to the kind of German warfare
that was waged in the East.

It meant unheard
of terror, plundering, v*olence

and k*lling of prisoners
of w*r and peaceful citizens.

The estimate for casualties in
the Soviet Union was 26 million,

more than half of that is
estimated to be civilians.

And because of the
Nuremberg Trial we know now

that there wouldn't be a Holocaust without
the German invasion of the Soviet Union.

Then you
will call the defendant Keitel?

Wilhelm Keitel
had been the chief of

the high command of
the German Armed Forces.

Will
you repeat this oath after me?

A devout supporter of h*tler,

he participated in the planning of all
ground combat operations during the w*r.

You may sit down if you wish.

But it is the
planning for the invasion of

the Soviet Union that prosecutors want
to get to the bottom of.

I shall first of all
refer to a document entitled,

“Directive on m*llitary Jurisdiction
in the Region Barbarossa

in the Region Barbarossa and on the
Adoption of Special m*llitary Measures.”

Do you remember that document?

That was an order which was
given to me by h*tler.

It's discovered
that just a few months before

the invasion of the Soviet Union,

h*tler called together
various senior figures

and described how the w*r in
the East was to be conducted.

This meeting was translated
into a top-secret order,

called the Barbarossa Decree,

which Keitel signed and
issued to the German m*llitary.

This is the document Prosecutor Rudenko is
presenting to the court.

The Barbarossa Decree
was the first time that it was

explicitly stated that
this was a w*r of annihilation.

It was either Nazism or Bolshevism.
The world was not big enough for both.

So you planned the m*rder of
human beings ahead of time?

I merely passed on the order
received from the Führer.

For Keitel to
pass on an order that he knew

was illegal made him complicit.

He knew full well that it was going to
result in the deaths of many, many people.

And the Barbarossa Decree is
just one murderous directive

that the prosecution has uncovered.

This order was
by no means the end, was it?

Prosecutors reveal
a series of secret orders that

condone the k*lling of POW's and civilians,

as well as the ruthless pillaging of
food and vital resources.

These orders fed into
this whole narrative that this

is a conflict between
two different cultures,

two different races,
and only one can survive.

And by August 1941,
the evidence showed the start of

mass executions of women and children.
That is unprecedented.

I wish to call as a witness for

the prosecution Mr. Otto Ohlendorf.

Otto Ohlendorf has first-hand
knowledge of these early mass murders.

A former officer with the
n*zi Schutzstaffel, or SS,

he had commanded an Einsatzgruppen unit on
the Eastern Front.

Einsatzgruppen were
these mobile extermination units

who basically comb through towns
in conquered Eastern Europe and

engaged in mass executions.

The instructions was
given that in the operational areas

of the Einsatzgruppen
in the Russian territory

the Jews were to be liquidated.

As well as the Soviet political
commissars.

And when you say,
"Liquidated," do you mean, "k*ll?"

By
That I mean "k*ll."

Now will
you explain to the Tribunal

in detail how a mass
execution was carried out?

The rounding up took place
under the pretext of resettlement.

After the registration, the Jews were
collected in one place.

And from there they were transported
to the place of execution.

The executions were carried out in a
m*llitary manner,

by f*ring squads under command.

Being able to hear
this kind of banality of evil

in the audio recordings is shocking.

What was notable was
the straightforwardness and

sobriety of his, uh,
his recounting of things.

Now, will you continue?

They were transported to
the place of execution in trucks.

Only as many as could
be ex*cuted immediately.

In this way, it was attempted
to keep the span of time

from the moment the victims knew
what was about to happen to them

until their actual execution as short
as possible.

His testimony
was absolutely devastating.

This was a true manifestation
of n*zi racial policy and

their plans for domination.

And in a lot of ways,
Ohlendorf's testimony is a

preview of what's going to
be revealed later in the trial.

Hello sound recording,
hello sound recording.

What
I want to understand is this;

how did you tolerate all
these young men being m*rder*d,

one after the other,
without making any protests?

I want to understand what's in your mind.

During the trial,
people had intense interest in

the psychology of the defendants.

The Americans even retained
this psychologist, G.M. Gilbert,

to perform extensive psychological testing
on the Nazis.

Things like Rorschach exams, uh,
intelligence tests.

Because there was this general question;

are they just a bunch of psychopaths who
happened to hijack a regime?

There were a couple of
defendants who were not

necessarily in the
best psychological health.

One of them was Rudolf Hess.

Rudolf Hess was a
close confidant of h*tler during

the early days of the n*zi party.

He is accused of conspiring
with h*tler to wage w*r and

committing crimes against peace.

But during the trial, Hess
puts forth a surprising defense.

He claims he doesn't remember any
of it. He says, “I have amnesia.”

So they have a serious question about
whether he's mentally competent.

This is Leslie
Nichols speaking from Nuremberg, Germany.

For a long time now, the
International m*llitary Tribunal

at Nuremberg has been trying to
get an answer to the question;

“Is there a crazy man in the house?”

I call upon
counsel for the defendant Hess.

The defendant
Hess is unfit for trial.

Of course,
some think he's faking,

and others think he's mad as a hatter.

But then, Hess asks to testify.

Mr. President…

Henceforth, my memory will again
respond to the outside world.

The reasons for faking loss of memory
were of a tactical nature.

And he finally says,
“Oh everything I was saying was untrue,

I remember it all,
that was part of my strategy.”

There's just a
kind of stunned silence.

The Tribunal at that point
really has no choice but to take

his word for it and
certify him as competent.

But then, and I think ever since,

it's a serious question
whether that was accurate,

or whether that just
another piece of his craziness?

In the case
of the other defendants,

the psychological testing demonstrated
that these are terrifyingly normal people,

high IQ individuals.

And that raises very troubling
questions about the capacity of

all people to engage in acts
under similar circumstances.

May it please the Tribunal,

with the march of n*zi armies over Europe,

wholesale murders were disguised under the
name of, “Anti-partisan,” actions.

But not every undesirable
could be, “Liquidated.”

When the Germans had invaded
the Soviet Union in 1941,

the Germans gambled
by mobilizing far more troops

than they could actually
sustain for any length of time.

Because the intention was that the w*r
would be over by the end of 1941.

So when the w*r didn't end,
there was an enormous problem.

The problem was how
to produce enough weapons and

supplies to keep the
German w*r machine going.

And the n*zi's solution would
be revealed as a brutal one.

The evidence relating to
the n*zi sl*ve labor program

shall show that it was
a policy which compelled

foreign civilians and prisoners
of w*r to manufacture armaments

and to engage in other operations
where they were literally

worked to death in the course of the n*zi
program of, “Extermination through work.”

Foreign laborers became
the serfs of the, "Master race,"

and they were enslaved by the millions.

This document is a top-secret memorandum
from the files of the Defendant Rosenberg,

dated the 21st day of December 1942.

“They are now catching humans like
the dog-catchers used to catch dogs.”

According to the prosecution,

one of the masterminds behind
this immense sl*ve labor program

was defendant Albert Speer.

A trained architect who had
risen to prominence by designing

monumental buildings
for h*tler, he is far from

what many consider to be a,
“Stereotypical n*zi.”

Albert Speer came from a very
high-ranking upper-class background.

h*tler loved architecture, so
he became very close to h*tler.

During the w*r, h*tler tended to trust
him, thought he could do anything.

He made him the Minister of Armaments.

Will
you repeat this oath after me.

So Speer absolutely had
to know that the workers that

he was demanding to ramp up German
m*llitary production were not volunteers.

This was perhaps the
most horrible

slaving operation in history.

Who is responsible for these conditions?

Neither I, nor the Ministry,
was responsible for this.

There were efforts in Germany

to bring about increased productivity
through very severe compulsory measures.

These efforts did not
meet with my approval.

He's very intelligent.

It is quite out of the
question that 14 million workers

can be forced to produce satisfactory
work through coercion and terror.

And he's a
very careful manipulator.

As a matter of principle, I
represented the view

that a satisfactory work
output could only be achieved

through the good will
of the worker himself.

I am not attempting to say that

you were personally responsible.

I merely give you
what the regime was doing.

And he fools
them to a certain degree.

Even Maxwell-Fyfe
says he was taken in by him.

He said, at certain points, "I thought,
how can a man so cultured and so handsome,

be a monster?"

And Speer will not
be the only defendant to try to

blur the line between good and evil.

For the most part
history has abided by the idea

of the good German and the bad German,

the evil, sickening villain,
and the reluctant n*zi.

Because what we don't want is to
look at what happened to Germany

and say that could happen to anybody.

And so, this idea first takes shape
during the Nuremberg Trial.

And we have cast Karl Dönitz as
the reluctant Naval professional

that got caught up in things.

But the reality is, Karl Dönitz
unpacks this larger story about

the way that we are still attempting to
reconcile what the Third Reich was.

Adolf h*tler only ever saw me
as the first soldier of the Navy.

Karl Dönitz was a
highly regarded naval officer.

When h*tler first came into power,

Dönitz oversaw the secret re-building of
the U-boat, or submarine, fleet.

He then commanded it
with devastating effect

during the first three years of the w*r.

The
defendant rose steadily in rank

until he became Commander
in Chief of the German Navy.

Members of the Tribunal
will see it was not, however,

only his ability as a naval officer which
won the defendant these high honors;

These he owed to his capacity
for utter ruthlessness.

One of the accusations
against Dönitz is that in

the autumn of 1942 he
directed his U-boats to start

gunning down shipwrecked Allied sailors,

murdering them in their lifeboats.

In 1942, the Allies'
determination to strengthen

their transatlantic convoy
system was beginning to result

in a steadier flow of
weapons and soldiers to Europe.

And the defendant…

According to prosecutors,

Dönitz' murderous directive was
intended to stop these convoys.

The trial audio
reveals his vehement denial.

f*ring upon these men is a
matter concerned with the ethics of w*r.

No order on this subject has ever been
issued in any form whatsoever.

Well, the only
problem for Dönitz was that

there were a few U-boat messages that

suggest that Dönitz did indeed
provide some instructions

to machine-g*n survivors in the water.

Now this, is a
top-secret order sent

from the defendant's headquarters to all

commanding officers of
U-boats dated September 1942.

"Rescue runs counter to the
rudimentary demands of warfare

for the destruction of
enemy ships and crews."

"Be harsh."

Now, my lord, that is a
very carefully worded order.

But its intentions are made
very clear by the next document.

Prosecutors reveal a
copy of the secret conversation

that took place between h*tler and the
Japanese ambassador in early 1942.

The Führer pointed out that

however many ships
the United States built,

one of their main problems
would be the lack of personnel.

For that reason
U-boats were to surface and

sh**t up the lifeboats.

And on that, I shall call a witness.

What is your name?

My name is Peter Josef Heisig.

Peter Heisig is
a former German submariner.

He served under
Admiral Dönitz during the w*r.

Will you take your
mind back to the autumn of 1942?

Yes, sir.

I was a senior midshipman at
the 2nd U-boat Training Division.

Grossadmiral Dönitz
said in his speech,

“Crews for ships are as
much a target for U-boats

as the ships themselves.”

“Through this, it will become
impossible for the Allies

to outfit their newly built ships with
crews.”

It is compelling evidence.

But without a clearly written order,
Dönitz can still deny it.

He uses a very common defense,

and that defense is there may
have been outliers that chose to

machine-g*n people in the water,
but I never gave that order.

Everything else
Heisig said is so vague

that I do not attach
much credibility to him.

And so, Dönitz ended
up being in this position of

still possessing a little
bit of a moral high-ground.

But I believe that is partly because what
we want to see is the, “Good German.”

And prosecutors will soon show
that as the w*r dragged into 1943,

and then '44,

and victory began to
slip from the Nazis' grasp,

they were preparing to use any
means necessary to avoid defeat.

It may
well be said that h*tler started

the w*r without cause and
prolonged it without reason.

If he could not rule, he cared
not what happened to Germany.

As prosecutors
turn their attention to

the later stages of the w*r,
they raise the question of just

how far German leadership was
preparing to go to avoid defeat.

Defendant Göring, h*tler's
former number two in command,

is called back to the stand.

At what
time did you know that the w*r,

so far as achieving the objectives that
you had in mind, was a lost w*r?

It is extremely difficult to say.

At any rate, according to
my conviction, relatively late.

At that time, I was forced to realize

that defeat would probably set in slowly.

I also knew that h*tler
did not want to negotiate

under any circumstances.

And after that time,

the air att*cks which were
continued against England were

designed solely to affect a
prolongation of what you then

knew was a hopeless conflict?

I can only regret
that we did not have enough

of the V-1 and V-2 bombs.

Because the only way
we could have reduced

the att*cks on German cities

was if we could inflict equally
heavy losses on the enemy.

I would have continued fighting
whatever the circumstances.

Göring realizes he's going to
be ex*cuted. He knows this.

You know, he says to people around him,
"You know we're going to be k*lled."

He said, he said, "But
what's the point of this trial?

It's to give some kind of legacy."

And he's trying to
rally the other Nazis to say,

at least have a kind of last stand.
Stay true to Nazism.

But, of course, a lot of
them don't want to do that.

Albert Speer is one
defendant who has shown he would

rather cooperate with the prosecution and
try to save his life.

He's more than willing
to spill details about

the Nazis' secret plans
for the end of the w*r.

I want to
ask you about the proposal to

resort to poison gas warfare.

Who made those proposals?

This proposal
came from Dr. Goebbels.

Joseph Goebbels had been the
n*zi party's head of propaganda.

A trusted member of the inner circle, he
held considerable sway with Adolf h*tler,

right up to the end.

They were discussing the question
of using our two new combat gases -

Tabun and Sarin.

…That these gases, these two, were
of an extraordinary effectiveness.

…That no gas masks,
that is no protection

was available against them,
according to our knowledge.

At Nuremberg, we are
hearing for the first time that

Germany was beginning to
consider the possibility of

using poison gases on the b*ttlefield as
they had during the First World w*r.

Now will
you tell us about preparations

that were made for gas warfare?

For the manufacture of this gas

we had about three factories

all of which were undamaged and which
until November 1944

were working at full speed.

And so, we know now it's
just virtue of good fortune that

the w*r ended when it did,
because if it had stretched

into '46, and God forbid, '47,
which could have happened,

you could bet there
would have been poison gas.

It's a chilling confession.

But it will pale next to the
revelation of just how great

the suffering in Europe had already been.

May it please the Tribunal,

we propose to offer
additional evidence at this time

concerning the use of
the n*zi concentration camps

against the people of
Germany and allied nationals.

We wish to invite the
Tribunal's attention to a chart,

showing the n*zi system
of concentration camps as

they have become known since 1945.

The trial is
the first massive exposure of

the intricacies and
machinery of destruction.

I should
like to direct our attention to

the treatment in these camps.

The estimate at the time was
5.3 million Jewish victims.

Actually, quite close to what we know now
as the overall victim figure.

At this point,
my colleagues will present full evidence.

Will
you repeat this oath after me?

Witness Samuel Rajzman is a
Jewish man who had lived in Poland.

I hereby swear that I
will speak nothing but the truth…

He and his family were
confined to the Warsaw ghetto.

Before being taken to the
extermination camp at Treblinka.

Will you describe
this camp to the Tribunal?

On an average, I
believe they k*lled in Treblinka

from ten to twelve
thousand persons daily.

Transports arrived there every day.

They were all forced
to strip immediately.

And this process continued under the
lashes of the German guards' whips.

Then the people were obliged to walk naked
through the street to the gas chamber.

My work was to load the clothes of
the m*rder*d persons on the trains.

When I had been in the camp two days,

my mother, my sister, and two
brothers were brought to the camp.

I had to watch them being led away
to the gas chambers.

Several days later, my comrades
found my wife's documents

and a photograph
of my wife and child.

That is all I have left of my family.
Only a photograph.

A lot of the things
that we now take for granted

that we know about the Holocaust,

this was information that was really being
supplied for the first time.

As witnesses step forward,
they speak about the killings, beatings,

and sadistic treatment, that they had
suffered at the hands of the Nazis.

They reveal the truth
about unimaginable horrors.

I could tell about the children

who were brought to
the concentration camp.

When the greatest number
of Jews were exterminated

an order went out that the children

were to be thrown into the crematory
ovens or the crematory ditches

without previous asphyxiation with gas.

Were they
thrown into the ovens alive?

Or were they k*lled by other means
before they were b*rned?

The
children were thrown in alive.

Their cries could be heard
all over camp.

When concentration
camp victims gave testimony,

the defendants often looked away
or took off their headphones.

They wouldn't even
react to evidence unless it was

directed at them personally.

And then what else
could they do but lie and deny.

First of all, I want to say I did
not know anything about what took place

and what methods were used
in the concentration camps.

But
witness you've seen the films

since this trial started.

You know that there
were millions of garments,

millions of shoes,

20,952 kilograms of gold wedding rings.

All that which these people who were
exterminated left behind them.

Did nobody ever tell you all
these came from the effects

of these people who were m*rder*d?

No, and how can you imagine this?

I was laying down the broad outlines
for the German economy

and that certainly didn't include the
utilization of old shoes and clothes.

So, I'm asking
about the m*rder of five million people.

The Führer must have had
full knowledge, mustn't he?

It is my opinion that the Führer

was not informed about details in
concentration camps.

What the Nazis
don't know is that their lies

will be exposed by one
of their own witnesses.

My Lord, I have an application

on behalf of the Defendant Kaltenbrunner
for a witness called Höss.

Rudolf Höss was the
former commandant at Auschwitz.

And strangely enough, Höss
is called as a witness not by

the prosecution, but by the defense.

He's actually called by
Kaltenbrunner's lawyer.

Defendant
Ernst Kaltenbrunner had

been a high-ranking member of the SS.

With reference to
concentration camps…

Earlier in the trial,

evidence was presented showing
he was heavily involved in

the n*zi concentration camp system.

But he and his lawyer hope that
by calling Höss to the stand

they can distance him from
the murders at Auschwitz.

Is it true that in 1941 you were
ordered to Berlin to see Himmler?

Yes, sir.

In the summer of 1941

I was summoned to Berlin to
see Reichsführer-SS Himmler

to receive personal orders.

He told me that the Führer

had given the order for a final
solution of the Jewish question.

Did you ever talk with
Kaltenbrunner with reference to your task?

No, never.

So that little nugget
is helpful for Kaltenbrunner.

But, of course, that opens
the door on cross examination.

And on cross examination the prosecution
introduces an affidavit that Höss signed.

If you will follow along
with me as I read, please.

"I was ordered to establish extermination
facilities at Auschwitz in June of '41."

At that time, there were already
three other extermination camps.

I visited Treblinka to find out
how they carried out their exterminations.

The Camp Commandant told
me that he used monoxide gas,

and I did not think that
his methods were very efficient.

So when I set up the
extermination building

at Auschwitz, I used Zyklon B,

which we dropped into the death
chamber from a small opening.

Another improvement was
that we built our gas chamber

to accommodate 2,000 people at one time.”

It's one thing to kind
of know the planning abstractly.

But Höss is the first real
decision-making eyewitness.

It sort of proves the worst.

And it's unapologetic.

Now I ask you, Witness,

is everything which I have read to you
true to your own knowledge?

Yes, sir.

That
concludes my cross-examination.

Particularly, I think
Göring was appalled by someone

divulging information
that he could have withheld.

Once this was communicated
it had a massive impact.

People were just simply shocked.

They were shocked to believe that these
things could be done in a modern society.

Höss's
emotionless admission becomes

one of the most galvanizing
moments of the trial.

And in the summer of 1946, as
the proceedings draw to a close,

it is his words, and
the words of the survivors,

that resonate the loudest for prosecutors.

My lord, I am deeply conscious

that one of the greatest difficulties,

and not the least of
the dangers of this trial,

is that those of us who have
been engaged day in and day out

for over nine months have

reached the saturation point of horror.

It is
against such a background that

these defendants now ask
this Tribunal to say

that they are not guilty.

If you were to say of these
men that they are not guilty,

it would be as true to say
that there has been no w*r,

that there are no slain,
that there has been no crime.

I now call
defendant Hermann Wilhelm Göring.

The Prosecution has treated
the defendants and

their testimony as completely worthless.

I stand up for the things that I have
done.

Despite everything, there was
still an attitude amongst defendants

of total self-righteousness and
entitlement.

I was not in a position to prevent
what ought to have been prevented.

But it is Rudolf Hess,
who's not spoken since he

admitted to faking amnesia, who delivers
the most chilling of all final statements.

Even if I could,
I would not want

to erase this period
of time from my history.

I am happy to know

that I have done my duty as a
loyal follower of my Führer.

- h*tler! Sieg!
- Heil!

I regret nothing.

The Tribunal will now adjourn

in order to consider its judgment.

This
is Arthur Gaeth speaking from

the International
m*llitary Tribunal at Nuremberg.

After a month of deliberating,

the Nuremberg Tribunal reconvenes
to deliver verdicts and sentencing.

Attention! Tribunal!

The assembly is jam-packed.

There must be 600 people in the courtroom.

The newly
transferred audio reveals

the moment the sentences are read.

Hello sound recording,
start cutting, start cutting.

Defendant
Hermann Wilhelm Göring,

the International m*llitary Tribunal
sentences you to death by hanging.

Defendant Hess, the Tribunal sentences you
to imprisonment for life.

Julius Streicher, death by hanging.

At the pinnacle of their power,
they had seemed in-conquerable.

Wilhelm Keitel,
death by hanging.

Karl Dönitz, ten years' imprisonment.

Albert Speer, 20 years' imprisonment.

But the Nuremberg Trial reduced
people who claim superhuman status.

Ernst
Kaltenbrunner, death by hanging.

And they became no more than the
victims that they had done to death.

In the end, it's
18 guilty, three not guilty.

And so the Nuremberg prosecutors
are generally quite satisfied.

From a podium prosecutor to
a clerk in a documents room,

everybody who was a part of that was quite
proud to be part of that.

The Tribunal will now adjourn.

But not all of the condemned
will face their court-appointed fate.

Hermann Göring
escaped his fate of hanging by

committing su1c1de at 10:45 last night.

Everyone
was saying, "How the hell

does the major defendant end
up taking a cyanide capsule?"

He did it so cleverly
that the sentinel watching him

did not even see him
put his hand to his mouth.

Göring's su1c1de sparks an
extensive investigation.

But it fails to uncover
exactly how he got the poison.

For him,
it's a victory, isn't it?

It was a massive
humiliation for the Allies.

With heightened security,

the remaining executions are
carried out just hours later.

Only a handful of reporters are permitted
to witness as the Nazis are hanged,

one by one,

on gallows built inside
the Nuremberg prison.

I was an
eyewitness to the execution of

the wilted flower of Nazidom.

There was a silent, serious atmosphere.

Ten men d*ed here,

and the body of the other was brought in
to complete the picture.

Justice has been done.

The Nazis who are
sentenced to jail are taken to

Berlin's Spandau Prison
to serve their time.

Hess is gonna spend the rest of his
life in a prison in Germany.

He had actually sat out a lot of the w*r
in a British prison camp.

And I think that's what saved him from the
hangman's noose at the end of the trial.

He will eventually hang himself
in Spandau in the late 1980s.

Dönitz has an
interesting post-prison life.

He was, I don't want to say celebrated,
but he certainly wasn't hated in Germany.

At the time of his passing, thousands of
people flocked to his funeral.

But if there
is a star of this trial,

it's Albert Speer because
when he comes out of prison,

he writes his memoirs, the
biggest selling set of memoirs

around the world there's ever been,
in other words, he profits hugely.

Of course, since then,
history has discovered lots more

specific knowledge
of deportations, exterminations,

all of that stuff that
he distanced himself from.

He was as bad as anybody
who went to the gallows.

Is there any slightest
doubt in your mind about that?

The trial really did demonstrate

to the world the crimes
that the n*zi regime committed.

These came from
people who were m*rder*d?

And this notion that
heads of state could be held

criminally responsible established a very
powerful precedent moving forward.

After Rwanda,
after former Yugoslavia,

the precedent set at
Nuremberg is used again.

That brought the International
Criminal Court into being.

So Nuremberg showed that
when power and values unite,

the world can do these
kinds of rule-of-law projects.

And that's a legacy that will challenge us
evermore to live up to it.

Sound recording, it's over.