Judgment at Nuremberg Page #15

A witness at one of the executions

at Dachau gave the following description:

"Inmates were made to leave

their clothing on a rack.

"They were told they were going

to take baths.

"Then the doors were locked.

"Tins of Zyklon B...

"were released through

the specially constructed apertures.

"You could hear the groaning

and the whimpering inside.

"After two or three minutes...

"all was quiet."

Death transports that had arrived

included from Slovakia...

from Greece...

from France...

from Holland...

from Hungary...

from Poland and Upper Silesia...

and from Germany.

And this is what was filmed when...

British troops liberated

Belsen concentration camp.

For sanitary reasons...

a British bulldozer had to bury the bodies

as quickly as possible.

Who were the bodies?

Members of every occupied country

of Europe.

Two-thirds of the Jews of Europe...

exterminated.

More than six million...

according to reports

from the Nazis' own figures.

But the real figure...

no one knows.

How dare they show us those films?

How dare they?

We are not executioners. We are judges.

You do not think it was like that, do you?

There were executions, yes.

But nothing like that. Nothing at all.

Pohl!

You ran those concentration camps.

You and Eichmann.

They say we killed millions of people.

Millions of people.

How could it be possible?

Tell them. How could it be possible?

It's possible.

How?

You mean, technically?

It all depends on your facilities.

Say you have two chambers

that accommodate people apiece.

Figure it out.

It's possible to get rid of

in a half-hour.

You don't even need guards to do it.

You can tell them

they are going to take a shower...

and then instead of the water,

you turn on the gas.

It's not the killing that is the problem.

It's disposing of the bodies.

That's the problem.

- I'm sorry I'm late.

- That's all right.

I was doing some work

for the rebuilding committee.

And I brought you some folders,

so we can decide what you should see next.

There's the Albrecht Durer house,

and the museum.

When do you think you could make it?

Anytime.

Would you like to order now?

What would you like?

Can I help you with the menu?

No. I don't think I'll have anything.

Thank you.

A glass of Moselle for me, please.

The same.

What's the matter?

Nothing. I'm just not hungry, that's all.

The last few days

have meant a great deal to me.

How?

I don't think you realize

what a provincial man I really am.

I've been abroad

just exactly once before this...

and that was when I was a doughboy

in WWI.

I used to pass places like this

and wonder what they were like.

- They've meant a great deal to me, too.

- How?

They gave me back the feeling

I had of the Americans.

The feeling I used to have

when I was in your country.

- Too bad this isn't a magazine story.

- Why?

If it were a magazine story,

two people like us, the rapidly aging jurist...

The rapidly aging jurist

and the beautiful widow...

would transcend their difficulties

and travel places...

either by land or by sea.

I saw Mr. Perkins today.

He told me they'd showed those pictures

in the courtroom.

Col. Lawson's favorite pictures.

He drags them out at any pretext,

doesn't he?

Col. Lawson's private chamber of horrors.

Is that what you think we are?

Do you think we knew of those things?

Do you think

we wanted to murder women and children?

Do you believe that?

Do you?

Mrs. Bertholt, I don't know what to believe.

Good God. We're sitting here drinking.

How could you think that we knew?

We did not know.

We did not know.

As far as I can make out,

no one in this country knew.

Your husband was one of the heads

of the army.

And he did not know.

I tell you, he did not know.

It was Himmler. It was Goebbels.

The SS knew what happened.

We did not know.

Listen to me.

There are things that happened

on both sides.

My husband was a military man all his life.

He was entitled to a soldier's death.

He asked for that.

I tried to get that for him, just that,

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