actors delivering their lines over and
over again in character.
Then there was actor Sam Stone,
who portrays Julius Streicher, the pub-
lisher of the antisemitic newspaper
Der Sturmer. The real-life son of death
camp survivors, Stone was so over-
come during one scene that he could
barely stay in character.
The set, meticulously re-created from
vintage photographs, was so eerily real-
istic, according to Baldwin, that "it was
harrowing for the first couple of days."
And there was the script, closely
based on historian Joseph Persico's
bestseller Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial,
with every word of courtroom dia-
logue gleaned from trial transcripts.
Persico's book, which is being re-
issued in paperback (Penguin; $15.95)
to accompany the miniseries, began
with an image that was seared into the
author's brain: the wire service photo-
graph of Nazi leader Hermann
Goering, his face contorted in death,
just after he had cheated the
Nuremberg hanging by swallowing a
cyanide capsule in 1946.
The then-15-year-old Persico,
whose five uncles had served in World
War II, found that the dead Goering
represented a deeply satisfyirig closure

to the war, a triumph of good over
evil. But it was not until Saddam
Hussein put war crimes on the front
burner once more in the early 1990s
that Persico secured a book contract to
write about his boyhood obsession.
If serendipity is the historian's silent
partner, Persico had more than his
share. While chatting at a cocktail
party in an artist's colony in Mexico in
1991, a friend revealed a surprising
fact about their hostess, a stately
Scotswoman: "Katy was at Nuremberg,
you know," the woman said.
In fact, Persico discovered, she had
been a researcher for the prosecution
and had carried large portions of the
trial transcript — which she promptly
placed at his disposal — half way
around the world.
Back in the States, Persico secured a
directory of Nuremberg alumni and set
off to interview prosecutors, researchers
and prison guards who had never
before spoken of the trials. "I didn't
want to tell the story as legal history,"
he explains. "I wanted to tell it as the
human drama it had to have been."
The human drama is exactly what
drew in Executive Producer Peter
Sussman and the other television folk
who were brainstorming about poten-

and each prisoner's fate
is given full dramatic
weight; it is the Jewish
psychologist's revela-
tions about the nature
of evil and the German
mindset that provide
the docudrama with its
object lesson.
Despite the graphic
content, this makes
Nuremberg an invaluable
teaching device for pre-
sent and future genera-
tions.
The film spares noth-
ing in its evocation of
past atrocities. But for
all its grim reality, this
Alec Baldwin as lead prosecutor Robert Jackson:
blueprint of human evil
"We're in a position to fashion a future in which
also serves as a guideline
aggressive war will be dealt with as a crime.'
for a better future. The
sound of children laugh-
from a Polish construction worker
ing at the movie's end makes the
who saw firsthand the notorious
caveat "never agaid a moral impera-
death pits which turned his village of
tive.
5,000 Jews into a charnel of human
-- Reviewed by Fran Heller
flesh.
If Part I can be called the film's
Educators interested in incorporating
emotional heart, Part II, in its efforts
Nuremberg in their curriculum should
to place events of the first segment
call (800) 344-6219 or visit the Web
in a larger perspective, is its intellec-
site at www.turnerlearning.com .
tual core. While the trials' outcome

TRY OUR NEW MENU ITEM

We offer complete
catering for all your private
or corporate special events.

• Service

staff available

WHOLE POACHED SALMON

Stuffed with house smoked
whitefish mousse, Boursin
cheese, cucumber dill sauce

Ready to serve

*ALL NEW
LUNCH MENU!
9 SANDWICHES $C50
TO CHOOSE FROM

Includes: Homemade Chips
Cup of Soup or
20 oz. Coke Product

TAKE OUT • DELIVERY • CATERING

•72-Hour notice on all catering please

(248) 788-2500 • Fax: (248) 788-4302
5540 Drake Rd. West Bloomfield

I= 7.71

"1

(Corner of Drake & Walnut Lake Road) Closed Mondays

WANTED

The Jewil Co muaity Center's
49th A al Jewish Book Fair

is looking for

icipate in the

LOCAL AUTHOR FAIR

Sunday, November 5 • 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

D. Dan & Betty Kahn Building
Eugene & Marcia Applebaum Jewish Community Campus

Books must be published between November 1999 and November 2000
and be written by a Jewish author or have Jewish content. Deadline for
submission is Thursday, August 31. Send or fax submissions to:

Jewish Community Center • Attn. Book Fair

6600 West Maple Road • West Bloomfield, MI 48322 • FAX: (248) 661-7711

For additional information, call (248) 661-7648.

CATERING

WE CAN DO
SOMETHING
FABULOUS
FOR THAT
SPECIAL
EVENT
DELIVERY
SERVICE
AVAILABLE

A Little Bit Of New York
Right Here In Bloomfield Hills

LET US TAKE
CARE OF
THE FOOD!
HOME OR
OFFICE,
ANY
OCCASIONS,
SHWAS,
NO
NOTICE
NEEDED!

6646 Telegraph at Maple • Bloomfield Plaza • 248-932-0800