The film came about because U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, who was the American judicial representative for the trials at Nuremberg, wanted to have Nazi footage to use as evidence against the Nazis. Although much Allied footage had been shot during the liberation of the camps, Jackson knew that it was important to use Nazi shot footage as no one could claim that the footage had been prejudiced against the Nazis by what was shown since it was shot by the Nazis themselves. One of the Nazis most prominent filmmakers, Leni Riefenstahl, had filmed so much that the majority shown ended up being footage shot by her. Of course, since it was shot by the Nazis, that also meant that there were no convenient subtitles or captions under each Nazi appearing to let us know what they were saying or who they were. Budd Schulberg and his brother Stuart headed up a special OSS team (OSS Field Photographic Branch/War Crimes) tasked with getting the footage and making it work. That team, under Budd Schulberg's leadership, took Leni Riefenstahl into custody and used her to identify who was who and what they were saying. Other translators would verify (after all, Riefenstahl could have simply lied) and Schulberg went to work providing the translations for the film and identifying the ghastly players.
George Stevens was brought in to put it all together, with the help of Schulberg and principal editor Robert Parrish. The footage was extensive and the version finally edited together for Nuremberg was almost two hours longer than the version released to the public later. The complete documentary, with narration written by Schulberg, was presented as evidence on December 13, 1945, and helped in the effort to convict Nazi war criminals.
After the war, both Schulberg and Stevens would return to their work at the studios. Schulberg became known for his thoughtful and emotionally powerful writing, including two of the greatest movies of the fifties, On the Waterfront (1954) and A Face in the Crowd (1957). He would win the Oscar for Best Screenplay for On the Waterfront, amazingly his one and only nomination.
George Stevens came to prominence before the war directing Katharine Hepburn in Alice Adams (1935), Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Swing Time (1936), and Cary Grant in the adventure classic Gunga Din (1939). During and after the war he directed Woman of the Year (1942), I Remember Mama (1948), Shane (1953), A Place in the Sun (1951), and Giant (1956), winning the Oscar for Best Director for the last two. Aside from The Nazi Plan, Stevens also filmed the landings at Normandy during the D-Day assault and the liberation of Dachau, footage which was also used against Nazi war criminals on trial. Stevens made a name for himself during the war as a director unafraid to take his camera where it needed to be and show what had to be shown.
The Nazi Plan isn't an easy watch, as it deals with the unblinking truth about the Nazis, but it's an important one nonetheless. Few directors and writers in Hollywood, much less any film industry, can claim they played a vital role in the conviction of Nazi war criminals from World War II. Writer Budd Schulberg and director George Stevens could but, to their credit, never made much of a big deal about it. They did their part and weren't looking for any reward or any long lasting fame as war heroes. But they were, and their work helped bring some of the worst figures in world history to justice.
Source: The Nuremberg Film Resource, www.nurembergfilm.org
By Greg Ferrara
