{"id":62265,"date":"2025-12-06T06:55:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T05:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=62265"},"modified":"2025-12-09T06:55:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T05:55:04","slug":"nuremberg-and-the-terrible-evidence-of-the-evil-behind-the-nazi-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/12\/06\/nuremberg-and-the-terrible-evidence-of-the-evil-behind-the-nazi-crimes\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuremberg and the terrible evidence of the evil behind the nazi crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week I had the opportunity to see the American film \"Nuremberg\", directed by James Vanderbilt and based on real events.<\/p>\n

'The future awaits': The story of a Polish Jewish family in occupied Paris<\/a><\/rel>
\n'One Life', a film for times when history repeats itself<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n

The film addresses the famous Nuremberg Trials against the leading nazi war criminals<\/strong>, including Hermann G\u00f6ring, President of the Reichstag and one of the highest-ranking officials of the Third Reich, portrayed by Russell Crowe, who delivers an excellent performance. Additionally, Rami Malek plays Douglas Kelley, one of the psychiatrists who examined these nazi criminals<\/strong> during the trials to determine their fitness to stand trial.<\/p>\n

The film is excellent<\/strong>, with a very good atmosphere and a premise that invites much reflection on important issues, which speaks volumes for a cinematic work. Vanderbilt has taken some dramatic liberties and introduced some episodes that did not occur<\/strong>, such as the interview between the American judge Robert Jackson and Pope Pius XII, a fabricated encounter that also overlooks the fact that this Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church played a prominent role in the drafting of the encyclical \"Mit brennender Sorge\"<\/a> of 1937, criticizing the practices of the Nazi regime, in addition to his efforts to save thousands of Jews during the Holocaust<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Javier Rubio has published a detailed video on Academia Play<\/a> about the historical aspects of this film and its fidelity to the facts. I recommend watching it. I share his opinion that it is an excellent film and well worth watching<\/strong>, not only for its high cinematic quality, but also because it can make us reflect on terrible things happening today<\/strong>, such as the strong resurgence of antisemitism in the West or the abominable Russian crimes against the people of Ukraine. But beyond these specific events, this film can serve as a warning for all of society, although in this sense I more strongly recommend another film that also addresses these trials: \"Judgment at Nuremberg\" (1961)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Esa magn\u00edfica pel\u00edcula, dirigida por Stanley Kramer, estaba protagonizada por Spencer Tracy en el papel uno de los jueces aliados que juzgadon a jueces nazis<\/strong>. En la lectura del veredicto, hac\u00eda una reflexi\u00f3n que es, sin duda, uno de los mejores discursos que he escuchado en una pel\u00edcula. En \u00e9l abordaba la terrible evidencia sobre el mal que hab\u00eda detr\u00e1s de los cr\u00edmenes nazis<\/strong>, refiri\u00e9ndose a Ernst Janning, uno de los acusados, visiblemente arrepentido y muy bien interpretado por Burt Lancaster:<\/p>\n

That magnificent film, directed by Stanley Kramer, starred Spencer Tracy as one of the Allied judges who tried nazi judges<\/strong>. In reading the verdict, he delivered a reflection that is, without a doubt, one of the best speeches I have ever heard in a film. In it, he addressed the terrible evidence of the evil behind the nazi crimes<\/strong>, referring to Ernst Janning, one of the accused, visibly remorseful and brilliantly portrayed by Burt Lancaster:<\/p>\n

\"Janning, to be sure, is a tragic figure.<\/strong> We believe he loathed the evil he did. But compassion for the present torture of his soul must not beget forgetfulness of the torture and the death of millions by the Government of which he was a part. Janning's record and his fate illuminate the most shattering truth that has emerged from this trial:<\/strong> If he and all of the other defendants had been degraded perverts, if all of the leaders of the Third Reich had been sadistic monsters and maniacs, then these events would have no more moral significance<\/strong> than an earthquake, or any other natural catastrophe. But this trial has shown that under a national crisis, ordinary -- even able and extraordinary -- men can delude themselves into the commission of crimes so vast and heinous that they beggar the imagination<\/strong>. No one who has sat through the trial can ever forget them: men sterilized because of political belief; a mockery made of friendship and faith; the murder of children. How easily it can happen.<\/strong>\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This new film about the Nuremberg trials is based on the book \"The Nazi and the Psychiatrist\"<\/a> by American journalist Jack El-Hai, published in 2013. That work includes statements by psychiatrist Douglas Kelley<\/strong>, written after interviewing these Nazi war criminals: \"Insanity is no explanation for the Nazis<\/strong>\"<\/em> (...) \"They were simply creatures of their environment<\/strong>, as all humans are; and they were also\u2014to a greater degree than most humans are\u2014the makers of their environment.\"<\/em>. (...) \"Their personality patterns indicate that<\/strong>, while they are not socially desirable individuals, their like could very easily be found in America or elsewhere.<\/strong>\"<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the evidence about Nazism that some people simply fail to grasp. Our society believes that nazi crimes are confined to an ultranationalist, violent, and openly anti-democratic ideology<\/strong>, and that outside of those political frameworks, it would be unthinkable for something like that to happen again. However, for decades we have seen people who call themselves \"democrats\" justifying all kinds of abuses, aggressions, and attacks against freedoms<\/strong>, simply because they suit their \"progressive\" agendas. Among them are politicians, journalists, and activists who today are fueling the greatest resurgence of antisemitism since the Holocaust<\/strong>, with attacks on synagogues, Jewish homes, and businesses, and calls for a boycott against the only Jewish state \u2014a boycott that these antisemites never call for against communist and Islamist dictatorships.<\/p>\n

Therefore, I believe that films like this are necessary to warn us of the danger looming over us<\/strong>, a danger that should remind us how fragile our democracy and freedoms are, an environment we often don't give enough importance to because many of us haven't known anything else. But all of that can be lost very easily. Just look at examples like Russia, Venezuela, or Nicaragua<\/strong> to see how easily a society can end up behind the bars of authoritarianism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week I had the opportunity to see the American film \u00abNuremberg\u00bb, directed by James Vanderbilt and based on real events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[11953],"tags":[25903,25902,25900,11405,25899,16136,10872,25901,1200,703,1499,11950],"class_list":["post-62265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cinema-and-tv","tag-burt-lancaster","tag-douglas-kelley","tag-hermann-goring","tag-holocaust","tag-james-vanderbilt","tag-nuremberg-trials","tag-national-socialism","tag-rami-malek","tag-russell-crowe","tag-spencer-tracy","tag-stanley-kramer","tag-third-reich"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62265"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}