I searched for the old thread to see what you guys had to say about this film.  I watched it last night.  I'm not sure I've ever seen a film quite like that before,... disturbing.

Are there any good films or documentaries on the Nuremburg trials.

I enjoyed the movie, and the many parody youtube videos afterwards

Nuremberg (2000 film)

The TV mini-series with Alec Baldwin?

Another good movie in this vein is "The Bunker".

Never mind, Downfall is the movie I was thinking of. Derr!

I watched a DVD version of PBS's American Experience - The Nuremberg Trials.  It was interesting but when finished I felt unsatisfied.  It seemed to be a drama rather than a documentary (I wanted a documentary).  Perhaps I should search for a good book on the subject - something factual but short of a trial transcript.

Yeah. I'm sure it's factually deficient but is interesting anyway.

I watched a related movie called, Nuremberg: The Nazis Facing Their Crimes.

This was a much more documentary approach to the Nuremberg trials but is inherently abbreviated (the actual trials lasted about a year).  I found this version to be superior to the PBS production - more factual.  This film is probably worth re-watching and even studying.  There are many, many interesting and important points made.

One part shown in this film, not covered at all in the others, was testimony by two of the victims - a Jewish poet and a French woman.  His tale is bizarre, hers was terrifying.  MARIE CLAUDE VAILLANT-COUTURIER* was imprisoned in Auschwitz/Birkenau and housed near the railroad terminal.  From her location it was just a short walk from the train cars to the "showers" and to the ovens.  

"One night we were awakened by agonizing screams. We learned the next morning, from the men working in the Sonderkommando - the 'Gas Chamber Command Unit' - that the night before, supplies of gas were low and that they had, therefore, thrown the children into the ovens alive."  

Marie's testimony was all in French.  This is my triple-checked, verbatim transcript of the words spoken by the court translator as heard on the film.   It is interesting that the translator's words differ slightly from the court reporter's written transcript (see link below).  At least, they differ in the wording but not in the facts or the horror.

I don't exactly recall why I watched any of these movies.  I've seen a lot of the courtroom footage before.  I know the story.  I know the facts.  I know the outcomes.  This was just terrible.

And to think, these same types of atrocities are going on even today,...



*  Link to full court transcript of Marie's testimony

From what I understand, it was based on Traudl Junge's memoirs, so I'd think it would be.