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PBS Documentary: The Nuremberg Trials & AE's Flight 93


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It's on DirecTV right now! 9:00 p.m. Pacific Coast Time, awesome show "The Nuremberg Trials", Biography, Documentary, History, (2006) The International Military Tribunal tries former leaders of Hitler's Third Reich and convicts them of war crimes and crimes aginst humanity.

Don't miss it!

Coming up after is "Flight 93" on A&E.

[ January 30, 2006, 11:38 PM: Message edited by: jon_j_rambo ]

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Yes. It was excellent. I was surprised they got so much of it into the allotted time.

They didn't really focus on anyone other than Goering and Jackson, but really that was what the trial was about. All the others either maintained that they were only obeying orders right up to the final step, or turned on their cronnies, the way Speer did, getting off with a long prison sentence by saying he repented.

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That sounds good too, Brother Rambo. I tend to nod off after an hour or so of tv watching. It helped that there were no commercials during Nuremberg.

The classic book on the trials came out in 1954, Tyranny On Trial: The Evidence at Nuremberg by Whitney R. Harris.

A lot of the crimes detailed have had further revelations since that time, but it's still a very comprehensive and great book that doesn't bury the reader in endless wordage -- it's under 600 pages, which is pretty managable considering the subject.

Goering was something else. The man had more blood on his hands than anyone else and he really did expect to be treated like a celebrity and allowed to retire in some Tropical paradise -- will all of his stolen loot! What balls! :D

On our PBS channel out here a good documentary about Simon Wiesenthal followed Nuremberg. Unfortunately I fell asleep in the middle of it even though I was very interested in watching the whole thing. That's why I pretty much stay away from the tube.

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:D Sounds like an excellent game plan. ;)

Speaking of which, My Friend, it is now almost 3:00 a.m. on the east coast and it's off to watch some more of the tube and, hopefully, it will do it's job and put me under till daybreak.

Have a good one, Brother Rambo. smile.gif

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A GREAT book on the trials is "Justice at Nuremberg" by Robert Conot. Not only is it beautifully written, but it has some interesting details of the behind-the-scenes stories, including the deliberations and the horse-trading that went on to finally acquit Schacht along with Fritzsche and Neurath.

I'm sorry to have missed the show.

Did that say anything at all about N.D. Zorya? He was one of the ass't. Russian proscecutors who shot himself--apparently in despair over the Katyn forest fiasco. But I've always wondered why he wound up taking the fall on that one.

Thanks to Rambo for the heads-up!

SB

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I don't recall them mentioning it at all.

The Soviets were mentioned briefly in the opening, discussing how they wanted show trials consisting mainly of indictments and sentencing; no voice to the defendant. Churchill favored an extensive list of known criminals sentenced to death in advance. From there it went to how the dying Roosevelt convinced them to make the trials legitimate, mainly on the strength of the United States holding most of the nazi accused, along with most of the evidence.

Jackson advised Truman that, if he wanted real trials he had to be prepared for the chance of real aquittals.

In the time given to the program crimes were treated in the broadest possible way, it couldn't go into specific episodes like the Katyn Forest, or less than prominent personalities like N. D. Zorya. It concentrated on the prosecution strategy and how it adapted to changing circumstances. The only two individuals focused on were Goering and Jackson.

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