Judgment at Nuremburg
I happened to watch Judgment at Nuremburg last night for the first time since it was released back in 1961. It's an absolutely fascinating movie with a great cast, including Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, Maximilian Schell, Judy Garland (believe it or not), and Montgomery Clift. You'll even find a young William Shatner in a minor role.
If you don't recall, it's the story of the war crimes trial of four German judges, who were accused of enabling and abetting the holocaust by going along with and enforcing the "illegal" laws promulgated by the NAZIs.
But, what I hadn't counted on when I tuned in was how eerily like America today the depiction of the Germans' justification for their crimes sounded. National security, patriotism, fear of enemies both within and without, love of a STRONG leader in the face of those fears, denial -- the "we didn't know how bad it was" syndrom, and the way in which seemingly insignificant compromises with justice grew into the massive atrocities of the holocaust.
I never really did believe there was some unique flaw in the German charcter that led to the holocaust, but I also never believed I would see my own country falling into the same despicable patterns of behavior.
No, we aren't yet doing it on the scale the Germans achieved. But, near the end of the movie, the German judge Ernst Janning, played by Burt Lancaster, begs the American judge, played by Spencer Tracy, to believe him that he didn't know the scope of the atrocities. Spencer Tracy replies that it doesn't matter, "The first time you sentenced a man you knew to be innocent to death, you participated in the killing of all those millions." [Badly paraphrased]
The fact that we aren't doing it on the same scale as the Germans is irrelevant. It's the fact that we're doing it that counts. And, we're all complicit in the atrocities if we don't stand up and fight them in whatever way we can.
If you don't recall, it's the story of the war crimes trial of four German judges, who were accused of enabling and abetting the holocaust by going along with and enforcing the "illegal" laws promulgated by the NAZIs.
But, what I hadn't counted on when I tuned in was how eerily like America today the depiction of the Germans' justification for their crimes sounded. National security, patriotism, fear of enemies both within and without, love of a STRONG leader in the face of those fears, denial -- the "we didn't know how bad it was" syndrom, and the way in which seemingly insignificant compromises with justice grew into the massive atrocities of the holocaust.
I never really did believe there was some unique flaw in the German charcter that led to the holocaust, but I also never believed I would see my own country falling into the same despicable patterns of behavior.
No, we aren't yet doing it on the scale the Germans achieved. But, near the end of the movie, the German judge Ernst Janning, played by Burt Lancaster, begs the American judge, played by Spencer Tracy, to believe him that he didn't know the scope of the atrocities. Spencer Tracy replies that it doesn't matter, "The first time you sentenced a man you knew to be innocent to death, you participated in the killing of all those millions." [Badly paraphrased]
The fact that we aren't doing it on the same scale as the Germans is irrelevant. It's the fact that we're doing it that counts. And, we're all complicit in the atrocities if we don't stand up and fight them in whatever way we can.
posted by walldon | 10:36 AM
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