Herman Goerring sits in the witness box at Nuremburg as two U.S. soldiers stand guard.

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Nuremburg Trial Documentary Revival Involves Two Bay City Soldiers

Restored 1945 Film Now Playing in New York City, Reveals Crucial Details

October 3, 2010
By: Dave Rogers

As the world turns and the fates align, among the U.S. soldiers assigned to guard Nazi prisoners at the Nuremburg Trials, two were from Bay City, Michigan.

One soldier, James Anderson, who once lived at 1306 Fourth St. and worked at Buick Motors in Flint, is dead. The other closely guards his identity, his work at the trial and his close association by necessity with such war criminals as Herman Goerring.

Now, after 65 years, the faces of the two Bay City soldiers appear in a documentary almost miraculously revived by the daughter of one of the original filmmakers, Budd and Stuart Schulberg.

An unreleased documentary about the Nuremberg war crimes trial made its North American premiere at a film festival in Toronto and is now playing in New York City.

"Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today" was screened during the Toronto Jewish Film Festival.

Sandra Schulberg, daughter of the film's director Stuart Schulberg, speculates Cold War intrigue may have blocked her father's film from distribution in American theaters. The 78-minute official Nuremberg trial documentary was screened only in Germany in 1948 and 1949 as part of American denazification efforts in that country.

"We're still unraveling this mystery," said Ms. Schulberg, who oversaw the restoration with Josh Waletzky.

The original post-war production of "Nuremberg: Its Lesson For Today" followed Stuart Schulberg and older brother Budd (screenwriter of "On The Waterfront") on a trip to Europe in 1945 as part of a special unit commanded by Hollywood director John Ford. In a four-month hunt the pair uncovered incriminating German film footage and photo materials that were eventually used to prosecute top Nazi officials at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg.

Budd Schulberg brought noted Nazi photographers/filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl from Austria to their Nuremberg editing suite to help identify Nazis shown in the film footage.

The brothers' war crimes unit completed a four-hour film "The Nazi Plan," included concentration camp footage and other incriminating evidence, which was shown in the Nuremberg courtroom in December 1945 to back the prosecution's case.

During the trial, squads of U.S. "honor guard" soldiers, including Anderson and the anonymous Bay Cityan, were arrayed with white helmets and parade gear in back of the prisoners. Many still photographs show the soldiers and, of course, they are featured in the documentary.

The local men were among those assigned to guard "The Big 21," as the Nazi contingent was called, and take them for daily exercise. One surviving guard, Jack Carver from Seattle, suspects that a Lt. Jack "Tex" Wheelis was instrumental in delivering a cyanide capsule to Goering. Wheelis allegedly had been given a gold watch and a pen by Goerring, which would have given him access to the Nazi's locker. The high Nazi criminal committed suicide the night before his scheduled execution. Wheelis later died in Korea.

The Bay Cityan who survives also has mentioned suspicious activities on the part of one of the U.S. officers in connection with the Goerring suicide.

Sandra Schulberg said the original film negative and sound, long in U.S. military cold storage in Kansas, was too many generations removed from the original negative. With help from the German archive's original 35mm "lavender print," a new 35mm negative was created.

The restoration's sound track next required radical reconstruction, including sync hing the original trial recording with courtroom players depicted in the original.

"You heard none of the prosecutors' voices in the original German version, and almost none of the defendants," Schulberg recalled. "Voice-over narration was used instead. While this was deemed suitable for German audiences at the time, I felt it was crucial for contemporary audiences to hear the actual voices of the courtroom players."

The restoration team also had to recreate the film's original score, and insert actor Liev Schreiber's narration. ###