The Memory of Justice
Director Marcel Ophuls
Countries Germany, France, United Kingdom, United States
Duration 278 min
Synopsis
The film examines the Nuremberg trials, which the allies conducted against the leading Nazis after the war, and their validity and their effect on Germans and the world. It derives from the book "Nuremberg and Vietnam, an American Tragedy" published in 1970 by his friend, Telford Taylor, at the time senior US adviser in Nuremberg. In this film, Professor Taylor is narrator and at the same time Ophuls’ most important interview partner. With the help of his conversations with Taylor, with film recordings some of which have never been shown, and with original sounds from the court room, Ophuls has the Nuremberg Process played over once again. Ex-Grand Admiral Dönitz is questioned in detail by Ophuls: is Dönitz, as Hitler’s successor, innocent? "The consciousness of guilt is essential in a case of moral responsibility." But the old man denies having any such awareness of guilt.
The film examines the Nuremberg trials, which the allies conducted against the leading Nazis after the war, and their validity and their effect on Germans and the world. It derives from the book "Nuremberg and Vietnam, an American Tragedy" published in 1970 by his friend, Telford Taylor, at the time senior US adviser in Nuremberg. In this film, Professor Taylor is narrator and at the same time Ophuls’ most important interview partner. With the help of his conversations with Taylor, with film recordings some of which have never been shown, and with original sounds from the court room, Ophuls has the Nuremberg Process played over once again. Ex-Grand Admiral Dönitz is questioned in detail by Ophuls: is Dönitz, as Hitler’s successor, innocent? "The consciousness of guilt is essential in a case of moral responsibility." But the old man denies having any such awareness of guilt.