Nuremberg: Nazis On Trial

Storyline

In the first episode, Nathaniel Parker plays the most inscrutable Nazi on trial at Nuremberg, Hitler's architect and armaments minister Albert Speer. He was the only defendant who unreservedly accepted responsibility for the Nazis' crimes. But was Speer's remorse genuine or just a clever defense strategy to get off the hook? The film tells the intriguing behind-the scenes-story of Speer's trial and his showdown with unrepentant rival, Hermann Goering. The second episode tells the story of the trial of Hermann Goering, Hitler's charismatic and ruthless second-in-command. On trial for his life at Nuremberg, the unrepentant Reich Marshal turned the tables on the Allies. So much so that Chief Prosecutor Justice Robert Jackson began to wish the Allies had followed Churchill's suggestion and shot the leading Nazis out of hand. This documentary drama traces the behind-the-scenes story of Goering's attempt to re-ignite Nazism from the courtroom and reveals the role that Jewish psychologist, Gustave Gilbert played in Goering's final defeat. In the third and final episode, Ben Cross delivers a compelling performance as Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess. After his bizarre flight to Scotland in 1941 to offer peace to Britain, the Fuehrer had Hess declared insane. At Nuremberg, Hess's fitness for trial was at the center of his case. He claimed not to remember his Nazi past and seemingly suffered from paranoid delusions. American psychiatrist Douglas Kelley and prison psychologist Gustave Gilbert sought to unlock the mystery of Hess's state of mind. What they found offers revealing insights into the psychology of Nazism.