"It was such a nice day, laughing, joking and then they showed that horrid film." "Propaganda." "Anyone can do it." "A little of this, a little of that, and before you know it..." "Still..." "Those films..." "I've read any number of affidavits, reports, statistics." "But I didn't really understand until I saw those films." "I still don't understand." "I don't think I ever Will." "How could civilized human beings do that to other civilized human beings?" "Maybe civilization's overrated." "Good night, Leutnant." "Goodnight, Reichsmarschall." "Dr. Speer, help me understand what I witnessed today in the dining room." "Goring's ability to dominate and intimidate without possessing a real shred of power." "How do you explain that?" "Habit." "Instinct." "Something in the German character that responds to authority real or imagined." "That's all it is?" "Yeah." "What about the ideas he expressed?" "The words, thoughts, they had no impact?" "What ideas?" "What thoughts?" "There were only platitudes." "Nazi Germany was built on empty platitudes." "A man like you, you were seduced by empty platitudes?" "Of course." "Because you can hear in them any meaning you want." "You said earlier you wanted to tell me something." "I've been trying to encourage some of the other defendants to join with me in accepting guilt and expressing remorse." "I made progress with Frank, and I have had high hopes for young von Schirach." "But Goring means to bully them into joining him." "And I fear now, he will succeed." "Unless someone stops him." "I understand." "All rise." "Herr Goring, do you believe that the Nazi party came into power legally?" "I do." "And I am happy to explain in detail the history of those first elections." "But I will add that once we came to power, we were determined to hold onto it under all circumstances." "We did not want to leave this any longer to chance to elections and parliamentary majorities." "It had always been our plan once we came to power that we would eliminate the Reichstag dissolve the regional parliaments, end individual rights." "Where did the idea come from to combine the ceremonial head of state and the head of government in one person, Adolf Hitler?" "That's quite simple." "We took our example from the similar dual roles of the President of the United States." "And the idea for concentration camps?" "The idea was mine." "It Was a question of removing danger." "Only one course was available." "Protective custody." "How could the party rule until it had established order?" "And how could it maintain order with its deadly enemies particularly the Communists, running free?" "No further questions." "I don't get it." "He's tightening the noose around his own neck." "He doesn't care." "He has bigger fish to fry." "He's talking over the heads of the tribunal directly to the German people." "I suggest you isolate him from the others when they're not in the courtroom." "I don't understand." "Why are you doing this?" "Inside." "Me?" "I'm just following orders." "During cross hit Goring quick and hard." "Put him on the defensive right away." "Never let him breathe." "I see no point in that at all." "He's blatantly incriminating himself." "All I need to do is ask direct questions and let him answer them." "Be prepared with a tough line of questioning." "In case it's needed." "Thank you." "Sure." "Why am I being punished like a schoolboy?" "Speer?" "Speer's behind this." "He must have talked to Colonel Andrus, persuaded him into this line of action." "How do you know it wasn't me?" "Why Dr. Speer?" "Is there rivalry between the two of you?" "He is ashamed of being a Nazi." "I'm not." "He wishes to infect the others with his shame." "You have no shame?" "The world has now seen proof of the horrors committed by Nazi Germany." "You are comfortable defending it?" "I've seen so many horrors already." "The carnage of the First War thousands of my countrymen maimed, degraded, starved." "No, my dear doctor." "I am not an inhuman monster who has no regard for human life." "These atrocities are not indifferent to me." "You know, we are accused of so many appalling acts it is hard to keep track." "Did you try?" "My concern was war." "And in war, each nation has its own selfish interest." "You have to be practical." "I am a practical man." "And I'm a soldier." "And a soldier's code is obedience." "Obedience." "This amuses you?" "Blind obedience Without responsibility." "Is there nobody in this country that will take responsibility for anything?" "Nobody who can say no?" "Take a look at every cell in this block." "What do you see?" "Yes men." "All the no men are six feet underground." "What is this?" "You're not Jewish, are you?" "Yes." "I am." "I see." "This is a very interesting situation." "For both of us." "Good luck, old boy." "So, what's his plan?" "I haven't a clue." "Will the witness repeat this oath after me?" ""I swear by God the Almighty and Omniscient... "" "I swear by God the Almighty and Omniscient..." ""... that I will speak the pure truth..." ""... and will withhold and add nothing. "" "That I will speak the pure truth and will withhold and add nothing." "Mr. Chief Prosecutor?" "You are perhaps aware that you are the only living man who can expound to us the true purposes of the Nazi Party and the inner workings of its leadership." "I am perfectly aware of that." "You, from the very beginning together with those who you were associated with intended to overthrow, and later on did overthrow Germany's previous government, the Weimar Republic?" "That was my firm intention." "And upon coming to power you immediately abolished parliamentary democratic government in Germany." "We found it no longer to be necessary." "Is it not true that people were subsequently thrown into concentration camps without recourse from the courts?" "You must distinguish between two categories." "Those who had committed a treason against the new state were turned over to the courts." "Others, of whom one might expect such acts but who had not yet committed them such as functionaries of the Communist Party who were attacking us." "You answered the question." "I need to explain further." "You'll have the opportunity to explain under re-examination from your own counsel." "Did you prohibit all court review of the cause for taking people into what you were calling "protective custody"?" "That I answered very clearly, but I'd like to make an explanation about my answer." "Your counsel will see to that." "About the camps." "Mr. Justice Jackson." "The Tribunal thinks the witness must be allowed to make what explanation he thinks right in answer to this question." "The Tribunal thinks that you should be permitted to explain your answer now and it will listen to that explanation." "I want to say that I issued a decree that those who were turned over to the concentration camps should be informed after 24 hours of the reason and allowed an attorney after 48 hours." "This by no means rescinded my order that a court review of these measures was not permitted." "By "protective custody" you mean taking people in custody who had not yet committed a crime but you believed might commit a crime in the future?" "Yes, just as extensive protective measures are being taken in Germany today." "I didn't ask you about Germany today." "Mr. Justice Jackson." "This is poor preparation." "The witness may finish his explanation." "You say that you were against the attack on Soviet Russia." "Yet you gave no warning to the German people." "You brought no pressure to bear to prevent it." "You did not even resign to protect your place in history." "We were at war, and such differences of opinion could not be brought before the public during War." "This was the case in your own country." "Your second question." "That'll suffice." "I'm not finished." "Secondly..." "Your Honor, please." "The witness must be allowed to have his say." "As far as my resignation I do not Wish even to discuss that for I was an officer, a soldier." "I served my country." "I ask you." "Thirdly..." "Your Honor, please!" "Thirdly I Was not the man to forsake someone to whom I had given my oath of loyalty every time he was not to my way of thinking." "Your Honor!" "It never, ever occurred to me to leave the Fuhrer." "The witness is adopting a contemptuous attitude toward this Tribunal which is giving him trial that he never gave a living soul nor dead ones either!" "Objection, Your Honor." "I'm ready for the next question." "I think this is probably a good point to adjourn for the day." "Tough calls from the bench." "Well, it's only Round One." "If you think you need anything, don't forget, I'm here." "As the week ends, there's a consensus among all present that Hermann Goring now appears to be in control of the court." "Will Jackson?" "Will anyone be able to stop him?" "Yes, Bob?" "You know, Judge, I didn't leave the Supreme Court to come here and be thwarted by a fellow countrymen." "That sounds like sour grapes." "Very unbecoming." "To an outsider, it might appear like you were trying to sabotage me." "You gave Goring an open forum during direct examination." "I must be able to control him during cross." "Just accept the fact that you weren't at the top of your game today." "You have the weekend to prepare for the next round." "Make good use of it." "Not hungry, sir?" "I'm too excited to eat." "Did you hear what I said?" "My reply when he asked me why I did not resign?" "I lectured him about loyalty!" "You should have seen Jackson's face." "It Was a completely foreign concept to him." "If I didn't know better, I would say Jackson was a Jew." "No." "Keep it." "My initials, see?" "Engraved." "It's real nice." "I'll never forget this." "I know, Leutnant." "I know." "Sit down." "You know, my friends call me Tex." "All right, Tex." "Let me tell you something, Tex." "America will soon learn that they are backing the wrong philosophy." "We should both be together fighting the forces of Communism." "You think?" "Yeah." "You think?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "I think we both agree, no?" "Yeah." "I'd like to dictate a telegram." "President Truman, the White House." ""Please accept my resignation as Chief Prosecutor for the Nuremberg trials..." ""... and appoint a replacement at the earliest possible"" "I'm not writing this." "I won't." "You saw today that I'm not up to this task." "I could stay, out of pride, and unravel everything we've all worked so hard for." "Or I can step aside." "Bob, you are this trial." "Everything it is, everything it represents, is from inside you." "Your thoughts, your values." "I tasted failure today and realized what it would mean." "Not only to myself but to everyone connected with this." "The only way they can triumph over you is if their values are stronger than yours." "If they believe in their ideals more than you believe in yours." "Is that true, Bob?" "Does Hermann Goring actually believe in his ideals more than you believe in yours?" "You're right." "And thank you." "You're welcome." "Now, look here." "What happened wasn't entirely your fault." "God knows, I'd be hard-pressed to defeat a clever defendant who's allowed to say whatever he wants for as long as he wants." "Now that you've finished with the niceties, let's have the truth." "Well, it was very damaging, Robert." "You've introduced this trial from a position of moral superiority." "And as a result, you've become its chief symbol." "If you can't maintain that or if the balance shifts ever so slightly it could be a disaster." "Hermann Goring is using this trial to present himself as a philosopher-statesman on Hitler's level." "Do you see Goring as a statesman?" "No, I do not." "I see him as reprehensible." "As inhuman." "Then treat him as such." "Treat him as the vile, conniving bloody fascist bastard that he is." "Where the hell is he?" "He'll be here." "Mr. Chief Prosecutor, if you are ready." "From the very beginning, you regarded the elimination of the Jews from the economic life of Germany as under your jurisdiction, did you not?" "Yeah." "The elimination from economic life, that is partly correct." "Large industries, also armament industries under Jewish directors." "Was that the first of your legal measures against the Jews?" "I believe removal from office was first, in 1933." "Then, in 1936, you personally drafted an act making it punishable by death to transfer property abroad?" "That is correct." "And another that all damage caused to Jewish property by the anti-Jewish riots of 1938 must be repaired by Jews at their own expense with their insurance claims forfeited to the Reich." "I did sign a similar law." "Whether it was exactly the same, I..." "And did you not say about those riots..." "I show you this transcript." "Did you not say, "I wish you had killed 200 Jews..." ""... instead of destroying such valuables"?" "That was said in a moment of bad temper and extreme excitement." "Spontaneous sincerity, in other words." "Did you not also personally sign a decree in September, 1940 ordering seizure of all Jewish property in Poland?" "I assume so, if the decree is there." "And another, which provided that Jews receive no compensation for damages caused by enemy attacks or by German forces?" "If the law bears my name, then it must be so." "Is this your signature?" "It appears to be." "Is it, or is it not, your signature?" "It is." "Your signature on a decree dated July, 1941 asking Himmler and Heydrich and the SS to make plans for the "final solution" of the Jewish question." "That is not a proper translation." "I said "total" solution, not "final" solution." "These are your words to Himmler:" ""I charge you to send me before long an overall plan concerning..." ""... the organizational, factual and material measures necessary..." ""... for the desired solution of the Jewish question. "" "Is that an accurate translation of this order from you to Heydrich and Himmler?" "That had to do with emigration and evacuation of the Jews." "You ordered all government agencies to cooperate with the SS in the final solution of the Jewish question." "There's nothing in there about the SS." "This document states you personally ordered all government agencies to cooperate with the SS." "You sent this letter to SS Gruppenfuhrer Heydrich." "That doesn't mean that the SS had anything to do with the solution to the Jewish question." "Would you mind repeating that?" "I must say this clearly." "I did not know anything that took place or the methods that were used in the concentration camps later." "These things were kept secret from me." "And I might add that in my opinion even the Fuhrer did not know the extent of what was happening." "Witness, there is evidence before this court that nearly 10 million people have been exterminated." "Murdered in cold blood." "You mean to say that you did not, and in your opinion, Hitler did not know What took place in the concentration camps?" "Yeah." "Do you know that Hitler said in 1943 in a recorded meeting, I read you his words now." "Quote: "The Reich's Minister of Foreign Affairs..." ""... declared that the Jews should be exterminated..." ""... or taken to concentration camps." ""There is no other possibility. "" "The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ribbentrop talked with Hitler about extermination." "And you were above Ribbentrop." "You were Hitler's second-in-command." "You were in charge of the economic Four Year Plan so you knew all about the gold wedding rings the gold teeth and the gold eyeglasses that the victims left behind." "And you have heard that it took five extra minutes to kill the women because they had to cut their hair off to be used in making mattresses." "And nothing was told to you about this material that came from these people that had been murdered?" "No." "No!" "How can you imagine such a thing?" "I was laying down the broad outlines of the German economy." "The witness is excused." "I'm not finished!" "The witness is excused." "I am not finished!" "The witness is excused." "You know what would've been a great touch?" "Hermann Goring showing up in a Santa outfit." "He'd probably do it." "After all, he was the Third Reich's chief bon vivant." "Did you ever see pictures of him at Hitler's mountain retreat dressed like a Tyrollean chorus boy out of some grotesque operetta?" "Excuse me." "Leaving so soon?" "Some of the defendants asked me to come by tonight." "A little Christmas Eve chat with their rabbi." "You know the trial is about to enter a new phase, a very important one." "The defendants will have to choose between stonewalling and evading or taking responsibility for their actions." "Now, you are the best chance we have to influence that choice." "Frau Hassel?" "Is something wrong?" "Do not ask me to serve the Russians." "Please." "They're our guests." "My son was killed on the Russian front." "Okay." "I'll take care of this." "Go to the kitchen." "Try these little sausage things, General." "I forget what Frau Hassel calls them, but I hear they're mighty tasty." "Madame." "20 million of my people were killed by the Germans." "Do you think I could be offended by the snub of a Hausfrau?" "I don't know what to think, General." "Frankly, I can't keep track of all the politics in this room." "The Russians sure don't disappear in a crowd, do they?" "Politics." "They've suffered more in this war than any other country." "Must be doubly painful to attract such little sympathy for them." "And Jackson decreed no wives could come along." "Worked out quite nicely for him, wouldn't you say?" "Merry Christmas." "This was a very nice gesture." "I figured it's probably their last Christmas." "Merry Christmas, Colonel." "Field Marshal." "Doctor." "How are you?" "I'm so glad that you are here." "Please, sit." "You are the only one I can really talk to." "But you don't talk to me, Field Marshal." "Not really." "I tell you everything about my family." "Yes." "But not about you." "I would like to understand how a man like you a man of your background could have drafted an instrument like the Commando Order." "Allied soldiers found behind enemy lines were shot rather than captured?" "Or the Night and Fog Decree:" "suspected Resistance members were arrested in the middle of the night and secretly murdered." "Because of you." "I know." "I am dying of shame." "Don't you think it's time you admitted that to the rest of the world?" "I'm not in the mood, all right." "Get off of me." "Get off!" "You were signing orders that broke international laws and treaties." "How could you not question what you were doing?" "Does a lieutenant say to his captain, "Just a minute, sir, I have to consult..." ""... the Hague Convention to see if I am allowed to carry out your orders?"" "If we had disobeyed, we would have been arrested." "Rightly so." "You realize without the support of his generals, Herr Jodl Hitler could not have waged war." "It is a soldier's duty is to obey orders." "That is a code I have lived by all my life." "And that code extends to the people who ran the death camps?" "I'm sorry, sir." "Tex, my friend." "Come in." "Sit down." "Thank you." "It's good to see you." "I know that Christmastime can be a lonely thing away from home." "Merry Christmas, Reichsmarschall." "My dear Tex, what luxury." "Prost." "Cognac." "Yeah." "So what would you be doing now back in Texas?" "On Christmas morning, we'd open our presents and then go to church." "Then, we'd head over to Grandma and Grandpa's for a big roast turkey dinner." "After that, Dad, Grandpa and me we'd go out back hunting for pheasant, quail." "Hunting!" "Hunting was my passion!" "I was Germany's chief gamekeeper." "No kidding." "The shooting around my estates at Carinhall was wonderful." "Did Hitler ever go hunting with you?" "I shouldn't tell you this, but Hitler did not approve of hunting." "He felt that killing animals was immoral." "He was a vegetarian." "Yeah?" "Yes." "He was a vegetarian." "Yeah, but that did not stop him from being the most gracious host in Europe." "His dinner parties were legend." "Always the finest caviar and champagne." "Thought he did not partake, he was not intolerant." "He would dazzle his guests with every view under the sun until dawn." "I remember once we were celebrating the triumph of Compiegne where we savored the sweet revenge of the French having surrendered in the very same railway car that the Germans had capitulated in, in 1918." "That must've been something." "It was, believe me." "It Was." "You know I have made my career as a military man and I have to say you remind me of some of the finest young German soldiers who served under me." "Thank you." "Merry Christmas." "Hello, America." "As Christmas descends upon this sad and broken city I'm here, inside her great Palace of Justice." "And on this Christmas Eve, as we're filled with thoughts of peace on Earth it is here that the future of peace may well be determined." "Herr von Ribbentrop, would you agree that as Foreign Minister you forced Czechoslovakia to surrender its territory by the most intolerable threats of aggression?" "I do not agree." "You threatened to send your army in." "In overwhelming strength." "And also bomb Prague." "What further pressure could you possibly have put upon them?" "War, for instance." "War?" "What is that but war?" "Ribbentrop should be hanged for his stupidity." "That is the greatest crime of all." "In your newspaper, Herr Streicher you wrote that the Jews are "a nation of bloodsuckers and extortionists. "" "Do you think that's preaching race hatred?" "No." "I do not think it's preaching race hatred." "It is simply a statement of fact!" "Dr. Funk you were President of the Reichsbank during the war?" "I was, yes." "And you accepted unusual deposits into your bank, didn't you?" "I do not know what you refer to." "I am referring to deposits sent to you by the SS from concentration camps." "I have no knowledge of..." "Inside the Reichsbank vaults, there were literally piles of jewelry." "Gold watches, gold earrings, gold eyeglass frames." "And gold teeth!" "Many people deposit valuables in a bank and the bank is not required to look into them." "Prior to 1939, exactly how many of your customers deposited their teeth into your bank?" "You've heard a guard at Mauthausen concentration camp testify that you watched while the gas chamber was demonstrated on inmates." "I never set foot in Mauthausen!" "And we have heard eyewitness testimony from three people that you were at Mauthausen three times." "They are lying!" "And before he died the commandant at Mauthausen signed this statement that you ordered him to put 65,000 Jews in a tunnel and seal it off rather than allow them to be liberated by the Allies." "He is lying!" "Is it not a fact that you are lying to the Tribunal about this as you lied about everything else in your testimony?" "That is also a lie!" "Kaltenbrunner has asked the commandant of Auschwitz testify in his defense." "If that's a joke, I don't get it." "I don't get it either, but it's no joke." "The British have him in custody and agree to transfer him here to testify." "Maybe he just figures he'll look better by comparison." "We're not going to allow this, are we?" "Let the guy walk in, say God knows what on the stand, give Kaltenbrunner an alibi?" "Might be a cheap price to pay for the opportunity to cross-examine him." "During the entire time you were commandant of Auschwitz did Ernst Kaltenbrunner ever visit the camp?" "No." "Not once?" "Never." "Thank you." "One minute, please." "Mr. Hoess." "How long were you commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp?" "From the beginning." "And what was its purpose?" "At that time to house prisoners who were being held in protective custody." "And after that?" "I was called to Berlin by my boss Reichsfuhrer Himmler, in 1941." "And he informed me that the Fuhrer had ordered the final solution of the Jewish question." "I Was not sure What I Was supposed to do." "So Adolf Eichmann advised me to visit a camp at Treblinka to learn from its operation." "And what did you learn there?" "Actually, I was not impressed." "It was taking the commandant there six months to eliminate 80,000 Jews using monoxide gas." "I had a better idea." "One of my Auschwitz guards had accidentally sniffed a chemical disinfectant called Zyklon B and had passed out immediately." "It occurred to me, if a little of this chemical killed lice enough, perhaps, would kill a human." "I tested it on Soviet prisoners of war locked in a room, and it worked." "Within 3 to 15 minutes, they were dead." "And then?" "I built gas chambers to accommodate 2,000 inmates at a time..." "And I built four large ovens to cremate the remains." "It became possible to eliminate 10,000 people in 24 hours." "But that was at peak operation, which was exhausting for my staff." "On the average, we would dispatch 2,000 people a day." "How many men did it take to dispatch 2,000 people a day?" "I had a staff of approximately 3,000 men." "And during your tenure at Auschwitz how many people did you dispose of in this fashion?" "Approximately two and a half million." "No further questions." "I Wish to make this clear." "I did not tolerate gratuitous cruelty." "My men were there to exterminate people, not torment them." "Any misconduct by the guards was punished." "I can assure you." "The witness is excused." "Court is adjourned until 9:00 tomorrow morning." "My life was entirely normal." "Even while doing this extermination work I would say I led a perfectly normal family life." "How would you describe that life?" "I've always been happiest alone." "I never had any real intimacy with my parents, my sisters..." "Do you feel that the Jews you murdered deserved their fate?" "I have always been taught that the Jew was an enemy of Germany." "So when you were ordered to turn your prison camp into a death camp you never once thought what you were doing was wrong?" "I Was an SS man." "We were trained to obey orders without thinking." "Does a rat-catcher think it is wrong to kill rats?" "A rat catcher catching rats." "Is that the kind of thinking it takes to carry out state-sanctioned mass murder?" "Not just blind obedience, but also a belief that your victims are not human?" "Let me ask you this." "What was Hiroshima?" "Was it not your medical experiment?" "Would America have dropped bombs as easily on Germany as it did upon Japan, killing as many civilians as possible?" "I think not." "To an American's sensibility a Caucasian child is considerably more human than a Japanese child." "America was at war with Japan." "A country that had attacked it without provocation." "You murdered millions of your own citizens." "What about the American citizens of the Japanese race put into "protective custody" in your own concentration camps?" "That was wrong." "Why was this not done to Americans of Italian and German descent?" "I said it was wrong." "What about the Negro officers in your own army?" "Are they allowed to command troops in combat?" "Can they sit on the same buses as the whites?" "Segregation laws in your country and anti-Semitic laws in mine:" "Are they not just a difference of degree?" "Let me tell you, from the beginning of the century through the First War until the rise of Hitler the freemasonry of the Jewish merchants consistently undermined the German economy and the nationhood of the fatherland." "That is why we made anti-Semitic laws." "And why you, my friend, can never understand anti-Semitism." "Why?" "Because you are a Jew." "Is defense counsel ready to proceed?" "Ready, Your Honor." "Herr Sauckel, from March, 1942, you were in charge of procuring labor for the war effort." "Is that right?" "Ja." "You are aware that it was a crime under the Hague Convention to forcibly deport citizens of other countries to Germany as workers?" "Ja." "How many foreign workers came into Germany during your tenure?" "Approximately five million." "And how many of them came voluntarily?" "Perhaps 200,000." "Did you issue these directives calling for their decent treatment?" "I did." "I ask that these be marked as exhibits and accepted into evidence." "So ordered." "Herr Sauckel, who ordered you to procure these workers?" "Speer." "Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments." "He gave orders to you?" "Ja." "And you had to obey them?" "Ja." "Every worker you brought in, it was under Speer's orders?" "It Was." "No further questions." "I know this is unorthodox, Mr. Dodd, to request an audience with you the man assigned to cross-examine me." "There's nothing very orthodox about this whole trial, Dr. Speer." "My lawyer's trying to talk me out of confessing to war crimes that might incur the death penalty." "I do not wish to hide the truth just to save my life only to hate myself for the rest of that life." "I wish other defendants shared that view." "Some of them do." "Many are still under Goring's influence." "He's your chief rival for the souls of other defendants if I may put it so dramatically." "Goring was cross-examined by the chief prosecutor, Justice Jackson while I am to be questioned by you, a subordinate." "This difference was noticed by the other defendants." "In their eyes, it puts me in an inferior status to Goring." "That's a peculiar measure of status, Dr. Speer." "Not to a German War criminal." "I hope you don't have a problem With it." "No." "I've got no ego riding on this." "I'll present your request to my superior, Mr. Jackson." "Dr. Speer, did you disapprove of Sauckel's recruitment of labor?" "On the contrary." "I was grateful to Sauckel for every worker he provided." "When we failed to meet armament quotas because of shortage of workers, I would blame Sauckel." "Do you wish to limit your responsibility to your own particular sphere of work?" "No." "This war has brought an inconceivable catastrophe." "As an important member of the leadership of the Reich I share in the total responsibility for the disaster of the German people." "Dr. Speer, near the end of the war, did you not refuse to carry out Hitler's order to raze Germany to the ground?" "I've no intention of using my actions during that phase of the war to help me in my personal defense." "But I would like those who sit in judgment of me to understand that period." "In March of 1945, Hitler intended, deliberately to destroy the means of life for his own people if the war were lost." "He said, "Let the Allies conquer nothing but ashes. "" "But you resisted his wishes, sending him instead this memorandum." "Would you read it to the court, please?" ""Nobody has the right to destroy industrial plants..." ""... coal mines, electrical plants, and other facilities." ""We have no right to carry out destruction which might affect the life of the people." ""Signed, Speer. "" "We have heard here that people were shot for disagreeing with Hitler." "Is this true?" "That did happen." "And yet, not only did you disagree with him but early in 1945 you actually made a plan to assassinate Hitler." "He What?" "Is that not so?" "Yes, it is so." "Traitor!" "It is so because of what I viewed as his insane destructiveness." "What did you do?" "What was your plan?" "I knew of an air-intake shaft in the Reich Chancellery garden that ventilated the Fuhrerbunker below." "I went to the head of my munitions department and said:" ""There's only one way to end this war and asked him to get me a poison gas to drop into the ventilating system. "" "But the next time I went there, they had built a 12-foot chimney protecting the ventilator, and SS guards were patrolling there." "So it came to nothing." "Mr. Chief Prosecutor?" "You acknowledge responsibility for Germany's large policies but not for the details occurred in their execution." "Is that a fair statement of your position?" "Yes, sir." "Very fair." "May I ask the witness a question in order to clarify this answer, please?" "You may." "Do you want to acknowledge guilt under criminal law or do you wish to record a historical responsibility before your own people and before history?" "The question is a very difficult one to answer." "It is actually one which the Tribunal will decide in its verdict." "Cuffs off!" "You would assassinate the Fuhrer?" "I tell you this, coward." "If you get out alive, we'll put together our own court and execute you for treason!" "Lock them up!" "As a German officer, I consider it my duty to answer for all I have done." "It will not always be possible to separate guilt from the threads of destiny." "But the men in the front lines cannot be charged with guilt while the highest leaders reject responsibility." "That is wrong." "It was my guilt which I carry before God and the entire German nation that I educated the youth of Germany for a man who I considered to be an impeccable leader and head of state." "But I educated the youth of Germany for a man who committed murder a millionfold." "And this guilt of Germany will not yet be erased." "Good afternoon, Captain." "The prisoners aren't allowed visitors." "I am the wife of Reichsmarschall Goring." "This is his daughter." "No exceptions, ma'am." "Frau Goring." "My name is Captain Gilbert." "Hello." "Nice to meet you." "Would you have a moment to spend with me, to talk?" "Yes." "Very good." "This is Edda." "Hello, Edda." "I'm Captain Gilbert." "Do you like chocolate?" "It must have been very difficult for you these last few months." "Especially With your little girl." "It could have been worse, I suppose." "Hitler could have survived." "You've obviously come to terms with the truth." "I wish your husband could do the same." "But he persists in remaining loyal to Hitler's memory." "Yes, I cannot understand it, either." "Such loyalty to a man who wanted us dead." "I'mm sorry?" "Hitler ordered all of us to be shot." "Hermann, myself our precious child." "That is why we surrendered to the Americans." "Why else would we have done such a thing?" "I went through my notes last night." "I've spent all these months trying to find a way inside their minds." "Hoping to understand how those people could commit such atrocities against my people." "I believe there are a couple of factors that explain a lot of it." "First, Germany is a country where people do what they're told." "You obey your parents, teachers, clergymen, superior officers." "You're raised from childhood not to question authority." "When Hitler comes to power, he has an entire nation that believes it's perfectly natural to do whatever he says." "Second, propaganda." "For years, Germans have been bombarded with ideas like:" ""Jews are not real human beings" or "They're a corruption of the race. "" "When the government says it's permissible to deny Jews their rights and then says it's imperative to kill these inferior people they comply." "Even if they've been your friends or neighbors." "Anything else?" "I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil." "I think I've come close to defining it." "A lack of empathy." "It's the one characteristic that connects all the defendants." "A genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow man." "Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy." "I call on the chief prosecutor for his closing argument." "Mr. President and members of the tribunal." "It is impossible in summation to do more than outline with bold strokes the vitals of this trial's mad and melancholy record." "For no time has ever witnessed slaughter on such a grand scale." "Such cruelties and inhumanities, such wholesale deportations of peoples into slavery, such annihilations of minorities." "Events which will live as the historical text of the 20th century's shame and depravity." "Terror was the order of the day." "Civilians were arrested without charges, committed without counsel executed without hearing." "Villages were destroyed, the male inhabitants shot or sent to forced labor and the children scattered abroad." "The Nazi movement will be of evil memory because of its persecution of the Jews the most far-flung and terrible racial persecution of all time." "So thorough and uncompromising was this program that the Jews of Europe as a race, no longer exist." "Thus fulfilling the diabolic "prophesy" of Adolf Hitler at the beginning of the war." "Generations to come will remember this decade." "If We cannot eliminate the cause and prevent the repetition of these barbaric events this century may yet succeed in bringing the doom of civilization." "The time has come for final judgment and if the case I present seems hard and uncompromising then it is only because the evidence makes it so." "A glance at the dock will show that despite quarrels among themselves each defendant played a part that fitted in with every other and all advanced a common plan." "It was these men among millions of others, and it was these men leading millions of others, who built up Adolf Hitler." "They intoxicated him." "He, of the psychopathic personality with power and adulation." "They fed his hates, aroused his fears." "They put a loaded gun in his eager hands." "It was left to Hitler to pull the trigger." "When he did, they all at that time, applauded." "Hitler's guilt stands admitted by some defendants reluctantly by some, vindictively." "But Hitler's guilt is the guilt of the whole dock and of every man in it." "These defendants now ask this tribunal to say they are not guilty of planning, executing, or conspiring to commit this long list of crimes and wrongs." "They stand before the record of this Tribunal as bloodstained Gloucester stood by the body of his slain king." "He begged the widow, as they beg of you:" ""Say I slew them not. "" "And the Queen replied, "Then say they are not slain." ""But dead they are. "" "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 war." "There are no slain." "There has been no crime." "Captain." ""Jews escalate fight for homeland. " It's ironic." "After all that's happened over the past 10 years I don't blame the Jews for wanting a homeland." "One of the many ripples we'll see from this war and from this trial." "Shall we?" "Yeah." "The defendants may now make their final statements." "Defendant Hermann Goring." "This has been a poor excuse for a trial." "But firstly, I must reiterate my lack of knowledge for these terrible mass murders, which I cannot begin to understand and furthermore, I condemn wholeheartedly." "As to the trial, the statements of the defendants were accepted as true only when they supported the prosecution." "They were treated as perjury when they refuted the indictment." "This is not a basis of proof." "Why am I in the dock being treated as a common criminal?" "I say to my judges, have no illusions." "Since the three greatest powers on earth, together with other nations fought us we finally were conquered by tremendous enemy superiority." "Justice has absolutely nothing to do with this trial." "Defendant Albert Speer." "How could so advanced, so cultured so sophisticated a nation as Germany have fallen under Hitler's demonic sway?" "The explanation is modern communications." "No longer does a leader have to delegate authority afar to subordinates exercising independent judgment." "Given modern communications, a Hitler can rule directly and personally." "Thus, the more technical the world becomes the more individual freedom and the self-rule of mankind becomes essential." "This war has ended on the note of radio-controlled rockets." "Aircraft approaching the speed of sound." "Submarines and torpedoes which can find their own targets." "Atom bombs and the horrible prospect of chemical warfare." "In five to ten years, this kind of warfare will offer the possibility of firing rockets from continent to continent with uncanny precision." "Through the smashing of the atom it will be possible to kill 1 million people in New York City in a matter of seconds with a rocket serviced by perhaps ten men." "A new large-scale war will end with the destruction of human culture and civilization." "That is why this trial must contribute to the prevention of such wars in the future." "A nation believing in its future will never perish." "May God protect Germany and the culture of the West." "We are agreed." "Three of four votes will be required for the finding of guilty." "Agreed." "Agreed." "Now, if the judgment is death, might we not consider the firing squad for the military defendants?" "I disagree most strongly." "The bullet is for the honorable adversary, not for butchers." "I say hanging." "I agree." "I agree." "We will take the defendants in the order they were indicted." "Goring." "Bravo." "Go on, have some of the lovely food." "There is talk that you will all be hanged." "I won't be hanged." "That I assure you." "That I pledge." "Perhaps the court will send you to an island, like Elba." "We could join you there." "Go on, eat." "Do you think that we would be allowed to take some of the food home with us?" "I don't see why not." "The Charter clearly states that following orders "may be considered in mitigation of punishment. "" ""May be," not must be." "You have become such beautiful young ladies." "When are they going to shoot you, Papa?" "Hans Frank is a most tragic figure in my view." "His penitence is obviously real." "It would be a meaningful gesture for us to spare his life." "No." "He should hang." "Atten-hut!" "All rise." "Each defendant will stand as his name is called to hear the judgments on the four counts applicable to him and the sentence, if found guilty on any of the counts." "The counts, numbered one through four, are:" "Conspiracy to commit aggression." "The commission of aggression." "Crimes in the conduct of warfare and crimes against humanity." "Defendant Hermann Goring." "The Tribunal finds you guilty on all four counts and sentences you to death by hanging." "Rudolf Hess." "On the charges of crimes against humanity the Tribunal finds you not guilty." "But we find you guilty on counts one and two and thereby sentence you to imprisonment for life." "Admiral Wilhelm Keitel." "Guilty on all four counts." "The Tribunal sentences you to death by hanging." "Defendant Hans Frank." "The Tribunal finds you guilty on counts three and four and sentences you to death by hanging." "Julius Streicher." "Guilty on count four, crimes against humanity." "Death by hanging." "Defendant Schacht." "The Tribunal has come to the conclusion that evidence against Hjalmar Schacht has not been established beyond a reasonable doubt and therefore finds that Schacht is not guilty on this indictment." "Quiet, please." "The Defendant Karl Donitz." "Guilty on counts two and three." "The Tribunal sentences you to ten years imprisonment." "Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop." "Guilty on all four counts." "The Tribunal sentences you to death by hanging." "Ernst Kaltenbrunner." "Guilty on counts three and four." "The Tribunal sentences you to death by hanging." "Balder von Schirach." "Guilty on count four." "Twenty years in prison." "Alfred Jodl." "On all four counts, guilty." "Death by hanging." "Hans Fritzsche." "Not guilty." "Franz von Papen." "Not guilty." "Walter Funk." "Guilty on counts two, three and four." "The Tribunal sentences you to imprisonment for life." "Defendant Fritz Sauckel." "Guilty on counts three and four." "Death by hanging." "Defendant Albert Speer." "The Tribunal finds you not guilty on counts one and two." "But you have been found guilty on counts three and four." "Albert Speer, the Court sentences you to 20 years imprisonment." "The work of this Tribunal is now complete." "Lock them up!" "Leutnant, my dear Tex, why this long face?" "Have I not told you there's a special place in Valhalla waiting for me?" "I don't know." "I thought things might have turned out differently." "Well, you know, they might have done, if it wasn't a very unfortunate thing." "Those mass murders." "I must tell you, I could not see their purpose." "They were absolutely unnecessary." "They made no sense from a nationalistic point of view." "Our legacy has been forever tainted." "But make no mistake." "Everything Hitler did before the war was right." "The German people knew it." "One day, they'll remember it." "And you must remember it too, my dear Tex." "When you remember me, remember that." "Yeah." "Now, to practical matters." "There are a few things I want to give you." "No, sir!" "Please." "Where I'm going, I must travel light." "It's inscribed, see, with my name." "Take it." "Take it." "The few valuables I have, they are in my blue briefcase in the baggage room." "Can you retrieve that for me, my dear Tex?" "Yes, sir." "Where are they building those gallows?" "Down in the back." "Third building on the right." "I have only one question to ask you." "Is there absolutely no possibility that I may be allowed to face a firing squad and die a soldier's death?" "None." "Just as well." "I hear the Americans are very poor shots." "Now, if you'll excuse me, I must write a letter." "For the rest of my life, Herr Reichsmarschall people will ask me what your final thoughts were." "I'll have nothing to tell them." "You can tell them this:" "I say, for now and all time:" "The foreigners who have imposed this sentence upon me may murder me but they have no right to judge me." "That I deny them." "Now, you must excuse me, I do have to write this letter." "Thank you." "My one and only sweetheart." "My life came to an end when I bade you farewell for the last time." "Do not grieve, my dearest one." "Since then I have felt at peace with myself, and consider my death a deliverance." "All my thoughts are with you and our own dear, sweet child." "My last heartbeats, of our great and eternal love." "Colonel, may I?" "You got what you want?" "I got it, sir." "Gentlemen, follow me." "Mein Gott." "Get dressed." "Get a doctor!" "Somebody get a doctor!" "Cyanide." "Son of a bitch." "State your name." "Joachim von Ribbentrop." "Do you have anything to say?" "My last wish is that Germany realize its destiny." "I Wish peace to the World." "Do you have anything to say?" "I now join my sons." "Deutschland uber alles!" "Three." "I'm dying an innocent man." "I ask God to accept me With my sin." "Heil Hitler." "Heil Hitler!" "Seven." "All cleaned out." "Everything." "The cells are to be scrubbed clean." "Nothing's to be left." "Nothing." "Danke schon." "Thanks." "You know, when we get home, we've got some decisions to make." "Some personal decisions." "Let's just wait till we get home." "Hello, you two." "You know it may sound strange but I can't help feeling a touch sentimental about all this." "I understand." "I got a letter from a friend today saying that because of what we've done none of it can ever happen again." "What do you think?" "Well..." "We can hope, cant we?" "Bye."