I can’t be the only Jew who’s ever daydreamed about what they’d do if they somehow got their hands on Hitler or another leading Nazi. Rough them up? Shoot them? Rough them up then shoot them? The morality of my choices concerned me less than whether or not I actually had the ability to carry them out. It’s also sadly revealing it never even occurred to me to hand them over for trial. But listening to Radio 4’s new historical drama Nuremberg, whilst the intricate practicalities of such an undertaking are examined, larger questions such as to how best deal with and punish evil, without tainting yourself, remain mostly unanswered.
The problem is that both the format, and the medium it’s presented on, aren’t necessarily a natural fit for exploring the scope of the subject matter. This is no fault of writer director Jonathan Myerson, and his decision to meticulously sift through the archives and extricate revealing details through the real accounts of those involved, throws up some gems as to the how of what happened. But unfortunately, too broad a narrative lens, from the logistics of capturing and housing the prisoners, up to their judgement and fate, doesn’t provide the necessary through-line characters to hang drama on, and doesn’t leave much space for the why.
When the film Judgement at Nuremberg came out in 1961, WWII and the Holocaust were still lived experiences for most; the who, the where and the when embedded in public consciousness. Every year now, that era is consigned more and more into the history books, and with this series trapped so much in the micro rather than macro, a younger listener’s ability to place everything in context is diminished. As a co-production with BBC Sounds, being simultaneously put out as a podcast series, appealing to that audience is obviously part of the show’s remit.
There’s an episode Too Much Paper where the prosecution is bogging down the proceedings in documents and minutiae and risk losing sight of the big picture, until a film of the concentration camps brings the results of the Nazi crimes back into focus. That this incident occurs in episode ten of 16, with previous episodes dedicated to the prisoners living conditions, getting the courtroom ready and the problems of translation, is illustrative of the same issue.
Being an audio production only exacerbates these concerns. A hundred episodes talking about the piles of dead will never be more powerful than one image.
And no voice actor can illustrate the banality of evil better than footage of the suited defendants lined in rows. For me, the BBC Two documentary film series Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial remains the definitive exploration and dramatisation of events, leaving the question as to whether this is worth your time? It’s made well and any further light shone on that era is obviously a good thing. Those already familiar with what happened may appreciate the tsunami of detail and new perspectives. Others may get swamped by it.
