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Promoting International Criminal Law: the Nuremberg Trial Film Project Historical Origins of International Criminal Law: Volume 1 Morten Bergsmo, CHEAH Wui Ling and YI Ping (editors) PURL: http://www.legal-tools.org/doc/fc32b1/ E-Offprint: Axel Fischer, “Promoting International Criminal Law: The Nuremberg Trial Film Project and US Information Policy after the Second World War”, in Morten Bergsmo, CHEAH Wui Ling and YI Ping (editors), Historical Origins of International Criminal Law: Volume 1, FICHL Publication Series No. 20 (2014), Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, Brussels, ISBN 978-82-93081-11-1. First published on 12 December 2014. This publication and other TOAEP publications may be openly accessed and downloaded through the website www.fichl.org. This site uses Persistent URLs (PURL) for all publications it makes available. The URLs of these publications will not be changed. Printed copies may be ordered through online distributors such as www.amazon.co.uk. © Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, 2014. All rights are reserved. PURL: http://www.legal-tools.org/doc/fc32b1/ 20 ______ Promoting International Criminal Law: The Nuremberg Trial Film Project and US Information Policy after the Second World War Axel Fischer* 20.1. Introduction From 1943 onwards – by implementing the United Nations War Crimes Commission (‘UNWCC’) and issuing the Declaration of the Four Nations on General Security (‘Moscow Declaration’) – the will to deal juridically with the Nazi crimes was put into action by the Allies of the Second World War. The prospect of the punishment of the major European Axis war criminals by an International Military Tribunal (‘IMT’)1 confronted the United States (‘US’) not only with the consolidation of legal and diplomatic questions but also a realisation of the need for an acceptance of such dealings with mass crimes. US officials recognised more far- reaching perspectives in the internationally co-ordinated prosecution and punishment of war crimes as part of a new post-war world than the immediate punishment of some 20 accused persons. They saw the possibility of creating a system of stability and peace by banning aggressive warfare and by establishing a lawful and constitutional method of dealing with state, mass and war crimes. The US authorities therefore decided to disseminate the forward-looking idea of international criminal law that was to be implemented by the IMT. Gordon Dean, the public relations officer of the Office of the US Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality (‘OCCPAC’), put it this way: “to tell the * Axel Fischer specialises in media and literary studies, after being employed in the fields of marketing, public relations and culture management. He became a Research Fellow at the universities of Wuppertal und Marburg, Germany. As a member of the International Research and Documentation Centre for War Crimes Trials (‘ICWC’) at the University of Marburg he has been engaged for the last four years with the film footage produced on the occasion of the International Military Tribunal (‘IMT’) in Nuremberg. Since February 2012 he has been responsible for the research project “The US American Film Project on the Nuremberg Trials: A Contribution to the Political Culture of Post-War Germany”. 1 The IMT, actually situated in Berlin, was in session in the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg from 14 November 1945 to 1 October 1946. FICHL Publication Series No. 20 (2014) – page 623 PURL: http://www.legal-tools.org/doc/fc32b1/ Historical Origins of International Criminal Law: Volume 1 story of why we are trying the major war criminals rather than shooting them without trial”.2 For that purpose, an information campaign was launched, using all available mass media and addressing different target groups. The campaign paid special attention to the German public, which was – given the framework of the occupation – an audience that could be reached via an information policy of maximum control. In addition, both American and international audiences were considered important and, with regards to these target groups, US officials wanted to gain as much control as possible. Various US military agencies therefore were involved in film- making for the IMT, leading to the production and distribution of a total of four films and more than 20 issues of a newsreel covering the trial. This chapter focuses on this use of film for the dissemination and visual design of the IMT. It highlights the specific approach of the US as a key actor at Nuremberg in relation to the film campaign and draws out some conclusions on long-term effects of the films within debates on legal politics in Germany after 1990, when international criminal law underwent a revival. 20.2. The Output of the US Film Project for the IMT There were two main purposes for the production of films: convincing the IMT and convincing the public. For the first purpose two films – Nazi Concentration and Prison Camps, 60 minutes, 29 November 1945 and The Nazi Plan, 195 minutes, 11 December 19453 – were produced, later put forward in evidence (and screened in the courtroom) by the US prosecution team. For the second purpose two further films, one short – That Justice Be Done, 11 minutes, 18 October 1945 – and another long documentary film – Nürnberg und seine Lehre (Nuremberg: Its Lessons for Today) 75 minutes, November 19484 – and 24 newsreel issues – Welt 2 Memorandum, 30 July 1945, RG238, entry PI-21 51/26, folder Motion Picture, National Archives and Records Administration, Maryland (‘NARA’). 3 The dates are the day of the first release. 4 Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today is the title that was first used for an English version of the film that was never released for a US audience at the time. The film was only screened for the Army television in the 1950s. The title also served as the label during the work on the film. The title was later used for a restored version of the film in 2009. FICHL Publication Series No. 20 (2014) – page 624 PURL: http://www.legal-tools.org/doc/fc32b1/ Promoting International Criminal Law: The Nuremberg Trial Film Project and US Information Policy after the Second World War im Film [World in Film], 7 September 1945–22 December 19465 – were produced, as well as a total of about 32 hours of footage of the proceedings in Courtroom 600 in the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg.6 During the IMT, film and photographic evidence was presented. This was conceived not only to convince the IMT but also to have a mass impact on a worldwide audience. The impressions from the films would be carried into the world through the public and especially via the representatives of the world’s press present in the courtroom. This can be concluded from the fact that the Office of Strategic Services (‘OSS’) clearly paid special attention to the ability of the courtroom design to create an impressive presentation of the evidence when planning its rebuilding.7 These photographic and film exhibits have become icons of Nazi crimes and National Socialist German society. The OSS was charged with the task of providing photographic evidence – both stills and films – for the IMT. The OSS did so, among other ways, by producing two films. The films represent an innovative approach to the medium and the evidence gathered of Nazi war crimes, either by compiling meaningful extracts of Nazi newsreels, as in The Nazi Plan, or of atrocity material shot on the occasion of the liberation of concentration camps and other crime scenes, as in Nazi Concentration and Prison Camps. The latter film was screened at the IMT on 29 November 1945 as Exhibit 2430-PS8 and the former on 11 December 1945 as Exhibit 3054-PS9. 5 Welt im Film, nos. 17, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 36, 38, 40, 41, 43, 44, 45, 46, 49, 50, 51, 58, 60, 63, 67, 71 and 82. 6 This footage also served the newsreel reporting of American and international newsreel companies, both governmental and commercial. It was passed on to them, on demand. As this coverage was not produced by official US agencies it is not focused on in the discussion here. 7 See RG226, entry NM54-85, boxes 39 and 42, especially Schwurgerichtssaal– Erweiterung, 16 August 1945; RG226, entry NM54-85/39, folder 648, letter, 12 June 1945; RG226, entry NM54-85 /42, folder “Plan of Court Room” (NARA). 8 International Military Tribunal, Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal, IMT, Nuremberg, 1947 (“Trial of Major War Criminals”), pp. 431–434. See also Nuremberg Military Tribunal, The International Military Tribunal in Session at Nuremberg, Germany, Judgment, 1 October 1946 (“Judgment”) (http://www.legal- tools.org/en/go-to-database/record/45f18e/). 9 Trial of the Major War Criminals pp. 400–1, see supra note 8. For the scripts of both films see RG238, entry PI-21 51/26, folder Photographic Evidence, Document No. 3054-PS and Document No. 2430-PS (NARA). FICHL Publication Series No. 20 (2014) – page 625 PURL: http://www.legal-tools.org/doc/fc32b1/ Historical Origins of International Criminal Law: Volume 1 The other group of films, produced mainly for publicity purposes, addressed the world, US and German audiences. The specific interest in targeting these groups, and the diverse nature of the films, was based on the US foreign and occupation policy. The first film to promote the IMT was That Justice Be Done. This film basically idealises American self- understanding and establishes a connection between the IMT and American founding myths. A key argument promotes the notion that fair trials corresponded with the ideas of the Founding Fathers and the US Constitution. The IMT was presented as a manifestation of the spirit of the US and its higher morality. The film is – especially in the early part – based on a montage that establishes very quickly a meaningful contrast between Nazism and America’s founding myths, on the one hand, and a connection between US history and the need for fair trials, on the other.
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