The Top Secret Trial of the Third Reich

2009

Director Jochen Bauer

Producer Bengt von Zer Muehlen

Chronos Film Production

First Run Features

R1 DVD

Reviewer: Bob Estreich

English narration; much of the film is in German with clear subtitles

This film is another of First Run’s collection of rare and unusual World War 2 German documentaries. The history of the military part of the War has generally been well documented, but First Run is filling in the gaps and revealing a lot of background that has been previously unpublished, become lost or is out of print. In this film we look at the men who tried, on a number of occasions, to kill Hitler. They were unsuccessful but the punishment meted out to them was brutal and their trials were a farce.

The first attempt was in Munich’s Burgerbraukellar. A bomb planted in a pillar of the beer hall went off only a few minutes after Hitler prematurely left the building. The final attempt was by a group of Germans in which a military officer, Claus von Stauffenberg, planted a bomb under a conference table. Hitler was injured but not killed and the retribution was savage.

The show trials of the conspirators in this last case were secretly filmed, and it is this film which makes up the bulk of the footage. The trial judge of the Special Peoples Tribunal, Roland Freisler, obviously believes it is his mission to kill every conspirator who appears before him. His performance in the court is insane – he postures for the cameras, he screams, bangs on his desk, abuses the suspects and humiliates them.

“You ought to be ashamed – this talk about conditions in Germany. Our Fuehrer IS Germany”

Few escaped the death sentence. The Peoples Tribunal was established by Hitler in 1934 to root out and punish “Enemies of the State”. Even inaction, failure to report suspicions of anti-Nazi actions, constituted treason. This excuse was used to order the deaths of nearly 1000 priests who had received confession from conspirators. It was also used against Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, who was given the choice of suicide or a show trial and the death of his family.

Joseph Goebbels arranged to have the film released to the public, but instead of the hoped-for reaction, people actually sympathized with some of the victims. Perhaps it was the first time they realised just how far the Nazis had taken over their country when such a farcical trial was presented to them as justice?

The film was withdrawn and destroyed. This documentary is compiled from the one remaining copy. Quality is poor but it is enough to convey the style of the trial and Freisler’s posturing. The victims / suspects face a kangaroo court, not even allowed belts to hold up their trousers. They were once important influential men, now they are just minor performers in a show trial that will end in their slow painful death.

The film is particularly poignant because it shows the last home-grown resistance to Hitler. Without anyone left to face Hitler, the Allies assumed the country was all pro-Nazi. They proceeded to do dreadful damage to Germany that may have been reduced if Hitler could have been assassinated. Although the conspiracies against Hitler did not play a significant part in the War, this film is important in that it shows that there was some internal resistance, but that resistance was in the end futile.

This review will appear in Volume 2 No.4 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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