Left: Alec Baldwin as Chief Justice
Robert Jackson, the American prosecutor;
Jill Hennessy as Elsie Douglas, Jackson's
assistant; and Christopher Plummer
as Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe, the British
prosecutor, in TNT's "Nuremberg."

On the cover: In "Nuremberg,"
Alec Baldwin portrays Chief Justice
Robert Jackson, whose 11-month
prosecution of 22•Nazi defendants
before a four-man international
tribunal of American, British,
French and Russian judges helped
lead to the death penalty for 12
and prison sentences for six. Two
defendants were acquitted and two
committed suicide while in custody.

History Lesson

TNT miniseries chronicles "trials of the century"

NAOMI PFEFFERMAN
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles

T

1}4

7/14

2000

80

he esteemed actor Christopher Plummer was bewildered by the
response to his monologue on the set of Nuremberg, the four-
hour TNT miniseries about the war crimes trials of 22 members
of the Nazi high command which debuts in two parts, Sunday
and Monday, July 16-17.
In the series about the Allied prosecution of the elite of Germany's polit-
ical, military and economic leadership — save for Adolph Hitler,
Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and SS Chief Heinrich Himmler, all
of whom had committed suicide — Plummer is Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe,
the British prosecutor.
In his monologue, he simply and elegantly describes the last moments of
the Polish Jews of Dubno, who comforted one another before they were
shot into pits.
As he spoke of an elderly woman, a cooing baby, a 10-year-old boy, Alec
Baldwin, the movie star who had agreed to make a rare TV appearance in
Nuremberg, as U.S. Chief Justice Robert Jackson, looked on with wet eyes.
And by the end of the first take, the entire cast and crew could not hold
back their approval. "We were not only in tears but we applauded, which
is very rare on a set," said actress Jill Hennessy, who portrays Elsie Douglas,
the assistant to Jackson.
Then again, nothing about the Nuremberg project was ordinary, accord-
ing to its actors and filmmakers.
Screenwriter David W. Rintels, for example, was selected in part
because his father was a prosecutor at Nuremberg and because he had
lived for a time as a boy in that ravaged city. Casting Director Vera
Miller, charged with finding actors who resembled the Nazi defendants,
survived the Nazis by posing, along with her twin sister, as Chiistian in
a small town near Bratislava.
The memories came flooding back, she says, during the audition
process, when she worried she would break down as she listened to the

Compelling docudrama is a must-see.

"Our task is to make sure that this is
not the triumph of superior might but
the triumph of superior morality. We're in
a position to fashion a future in which aggressive war will be
dealt with as a crime."
These words, uttered by. Justice Robert H. Jackson (Alec
Baldwin), chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, assume a
prophetic tone in the original TNT television special
Nuremberg, premiering July 16-17.
Based on Joseph E. Persico's book Nuremberg: Infamy on
Trial, this compelling, largely factual miniseries resonates
more than 50 years after the actual landmark trials of Nazi
war criminals took place at Nuremberg after World War
The first part of the two-part series begins with the deci-
sion and agreement by the four victorious Allies to conduct a
war crimes tribunal. Such a trial, suggests Truman presiden-
tial aide Samuel Rosenman (Max von Sydow), could estab-.
lish a basis for conduct among nations that would alter histo-
ry for generations to come.
Twenty-two men, each a cog on Hitler's killing machine,
are to stand trial. All declare themselves not guilty, ranging
from outright denial or professed ignorance to "I was just
following orders."
A subplot of the courtroom drama is the contest of wills
between two of the prisoners, Hermann Wilhelm Goering,
(Brian Cox), an arrogant bully who sees no criminality in his
acts, and a repentant Albert Speer (Herbert Knaup).
Testimonies from witnesses include a letter read by British
prosecutor Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe (Christopher Plummer)

c