- Self - Former Director, Office of Special Investigation against War Crimes (US Justice Department): The strategy of the Prosecutors was to convict the defendants using their own words and their own recording of their criminal deeds.
- Self - Historian: The written word was absolutely inadequate to describing what had happened. An ordinary criminal situation, you know, you're walking down the street and someone puts a gun to your chest and demands your money. We can all imagine that. But, you couldn't imagine what happened in the Nazi reign of terror. And the only compelling way to do that, I think, really, was through film.
- Budd Schulberg: Someone asked me what was almost like the most horrifying moment of all the horrifying moments. And I said I think it may be in the - in that German film on - on Warsaw. They show just where the poor emaciated bodies are being buried. And they have a cameraman, a German cameraman, right down deep in the pit shooting up as these emaciated, naked bodies are being flung past him. They are actually doing - they are not exposing from the other side - this is them, photographing what they were doing, including the most unbelievable, I mean, women with infants were being thrown down past the cameraman.
- Self - Assistant to the French Judge at Nuremberg: I was 21 or 22 years old. It was extremely disturbing. These horrific images were being shown at the very beginning of the trial, and they provoked considerable emotion, even among the defendants, who could no longer say that it hadn't happened. The vision of corpses being pushed by bulldozers - it was an abomination.
- Self - Memorium Nürnberger Prozesse: [referencing "The Nazi Plan", second film shown at the Nuremberg Trial] Both Schulbergs, I would say, were very much responsible for shaping our image. Even today, most documentaries made about the so-called Third Reich, go back to footage that was systemized and gathered for that film. Everyone is going to that source and uses it.
- Self - Assistant to the French Judge at Nuremberg: It created a terrible shock. Even the defendants who had been saying, "We didn't know about it" - even they were forced to confront the horror. That was a clever move by Jackson, to show these horrific images so early in the trial.
- Self - Specialist for visual German Propaganda in Word War II: At the very least, it's a remarkable coincidence that we have all these film fires for a period of time. It's likely that there was a systematic policy to destroy incriminating film.
- Budd Schulberg: Major Avenarius, I'll never forget him, and he says, "I don't understand why is it a young naval officer coming into Soviet-controlled Germany. I just don't understand what you're doing?" So, I said, "Look, it's a long story, Major, but, we're part of the - of the - of Commander John Ford's..." I kind of got that far and he said, "John Ford!" In one word, he said, "John Ford!" He said, "You know John Ford?" And I said, "Yeah, we work - he's our boss." Well, he says, like, "I have written two books about John Ford." He - it turns out that this man is the biggest expert on John Ford in the world. He wants to know movie by movie by movie - every single one. He got so excited, he said, "Remember that shot in 'Young Abe Lincoln,' when Henry Ford has his foot put up on a desk and they're shooting it - remember the angle?" Now, he's our friend. He'd really do anything for us. He said, "Come on." He's got all the negatives of films that we'd been looking for. And he actually said, like, "Bring a truck. You can take anything you want."
- Self - Former Director, Office of Special Investigation against War Crimes (US Justice Department): That's why I think they made this film. They wanted to make sure the world didn't forget and that the world would learn these lessons. Unfortunately, we still have a lot to learn.
- Self - Memorium Nürnberger Prozesse: During the Marshall Plan, millions of millions of dollars were invested in, not only in Germany but in the whole of Europe, but also in Germany to help them recover their economy, to bring them forth. And this, of course, collides with the idea of punishing war criminals. Bulldozers pushing the dead bodies in mass graves, that would clearly - yeah - that would clearly harm the idea of helping these people.
- Self - Daughter of Stuart Schulberg: It wasn't just an accident that this film was not released in American theaters, it was a government decision.
- Self - Former Director, Office of Special Investigation against War Crimes (US Justice Department): The same Cold War that brought, for the most part, an end to post-war allied enthusiasm for prosecuting Nazi war criminals, that caused the trials to basically petered out by 1950, that same Cold War, in which now, of course, Germany was - or, at least, Western Germany was our ally and our former ally, the Soviet Union, was now our enemy. Not at all the story portrayed in the film. The film conflicted with that - that narrative. And so a great opportunity was lost to educate Americans - and to remind them of what we fought for.
- Narrator: Drawing on "The Nazi's Plan" meticulous chronology, the hearings continue. Weeks and months of questioning and cross examinations ensue. The Americans and their allies want to show the world that despite the enormity of the crimes, Justice can be impartial. The founding principals of international justice are at stake - as Stuart Schulberg embarks on the official documentary about the trial. The new mission is fraught with obstacles.
- Budd Schulberg: The SS had its own film unit and that they made what they called reports, we would call it atrocities, but, it was work that they were very proud of - killing all these Jews and doing all this all, from their point of view, purifying, cleansing Germany - and eventually all of Europe. They told me that these films, they were often 2-reel films would be shown at the homes of the Nazi leaders, like Goebbels and Himmler, Hitler, and the rest of them. And they called them, "Desserts." Because they showed them as a sort of entertainment, after dinner.
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By what name was Filmmakers for the Prosecution (2021) officially released in Canada in English?
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