Nuremberg: The Trial of the Nazi War Criminals

From the producers of Nuremberg, the story of how in just 13 years, Adolf Hitler led a fringe sect with less than a hundred members and outlandish ideas to be the dominant force in German politics.

It is also about the forgotten players from these early years who played crucial roles in the Nazi Party's rise to power. This new scripted podcast takes listeners into the intrigues, the personalities, the knife-edge decisions which would ultimately lead to forty million dead in the world’s greatest catastrophe.

Starring Sir Derek Jacobi as President Hindenberg, Tom Mothersdale as Adolf Hitler and Alexander Vlahos as Joseph Goebbels. With Toby Stephens, Nancy Carroll, Laura Donnelly and Juliet Stevenson as the Narrator. Written and directed by Jonathan Myerson. Producer - Nicholas Newton. A Promenade production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

On 30th September 1946, the Judges announce their verdicts. And the sentences to be imposed – death or imprisonment or freedom. But come the night of the executions, Hermann Goering has one last surprise.

And now it’s time for the verdicts: 11 will be hanged, 7 are given prison sentences and 3 are set free. Everyone is surprised by the acquittals and at a hasty press conference, the free men trade autographs for chocolate (but are re-arrested by German authorities as soon as they leave the building). Meanwhile Sergeant Woods, the US Army’s hangman, is on site, building the gallows. The night comes but Goering has managed to hide one last cyanide capsule to evade the noose. Starring Nicholas Woodeson as Sir Geoffrey Lawrence and featuring Nathan Wiley as Master Sergeant Woods, the US Army’s executioner.

Emma Schwabenland - NATALIE DORMER

Sound Designer - ADAM WOODHAMS

A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

After 216 days in the courtroom, the judges must arrive at their verdicts – the debate will be fierce. Outside, some expect all the Nazis to hang, others predict prison or even acquittal. And while they wait, the Accused are allowed visitors for the first time. And maybe the last time.

As the judges argue, the prisoners are allowed visitors for the first time. Emma Schwabenland, an American translator, is given the job of organising the Visitors Room, and Pastor Gerecke, an American Lutheran, is under-employed tending to their spiritual needs. And upstairs the eight judges (two from each country) debate the appropriate sentences – the Russians want everyone found guilty and hanged, the other judges take a more nuanced view...Starring Natalie Dormer as Emma Schwabenland and featuring Ilan Goodman as Pastor Henry Gerecke.

Emma Schwabenland - NATALIE DORMER

Sound Designer - ADAM WOODHAMS

A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

As more evidence emerges of Nazi Crimes – the camps, the slave labour ministry, the euthanasia programme – all Germans must come to terms with their own individual guilt. They can no longer pretend they didn’t know.

The Accused Men employ a range of limp excuses for their behaviour, claiming they knew nothing, that it was all done by Himmler (now conveniently dead), that they had no choice. But the testimony of Hermann Graebe, a German engineer working in occupied Ukraine, who stumbled across a mass shooting, silences the courtroom and brings home to Christa, a German civilian working at the Court, the enormity of the Nazi crimes. (Graebe was later named one of the Righteous Among Nations at the Yad Vashem Memorial). Starring Rosie Sheehy as Christa and featuring Henry Goodman as Hermann Graebe, witness to a mass execution.

Madeleine Jacob - ALEX KINGSTON

Sound Designer - ADAM WOODHAMS

A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

April 1946, the trial continues but the German people either don’t believe the evidence or just ignore it. Is it because or in spite of the horrific evidence? But they have to start paying attention – only then can the healing begin.

Trial fatigue is setting in: British and American newspapers only want the gruesome stories, and the Germans are doggedly uninterested – it’s either lies or they should just get on and execute them. Even Otto Ohlendorf, who led an SS Einsatzkommando which cold-bloodedly shot 90,000 Jews, talks like an accountant. Starring Alex Kingston as Madeleine Jacob, French foreign correspondent and featuring Jonathan Cullen as Otto Ohlendorf, called to give testimony of his own soldiers’ barbarism.

Madeleine Jacob - ALEX KINGSTON

Sound Designer - ADAM WOODHAMS

A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

March 1946 and it’s time to hear the Defence Case. Goering is first into the witness box but he seems unashamed, proud of what the Nazis achieved. His duel with the prosecutors begins and they have to outwit him, have to find a way to demolish his attempt at martyrdom.

Once in the witness box, Hermann Goering, unlike the other defendants, doesn’t pretend to be ignorant of what went on or claim that his signature was faked. He is proud of what the Nazi Regime achieved for Germany and intends to go down in a blaze of Wagnerian martyrdom. This wrong-foots Jackson during his cross-examination but when Maxwell-Fyfe takes over, he forces Goering to admit to the shabby, gangsterism of the Nazi machine. Starring Nigel Lindsay as Hermann Goering and Forbes Masson as Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe.

Gustav Gilbert - ED STOPPARD

Sound Designer - ADAM WOODHAMS

A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

January 1946, the army psychologist assigned to look after the Accused has a never-to-be-repeated chance to examine evil, close-up, day-by-day. What made these 22 men capable of such horrific acts? He spends time with them, he runs tests: just what will it reveal?

Gustav Gilbert, a German-speaking US Army Psychologist, is assigned to Nuremberg Prison to examine and watch over the defendants. The defendants value the chance to speak to him and he lets them – he writes up daily, copious notes of his conversations. Will he find the mystery of human evil? Starring Ed Stoppard as Gustav Gilbert, a New York psychologist, and featuring Jasper Britton as Joachim von Ribbentrop, once Hitler’s Foreign Minister.

Gustav Gilbert - ED STOPPARD

Sound Designer - ADAM WOODHAMS

A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

The trial is underway but the accused men in the dock seem almost proud of what they did. Some of the Nazi documents are chilling but there are simply too many of them. It will need something much more real to show the world the enormity of their crimes.

And soon it’s clear there’s a danger of the American team relying too heavily on documents alone – the trial is becoming bogged down. The Defendants are even starting to feel they’re winning...until the American Prosecutors change tack and show a 60-minute film of footage taken at the Concentration Camps. Nobody has seen anything like it. The courtroom is reduced to silence, the defendants finally cowed. Featuring Hari Dhillon as Colonel Robert Storey, Deputy American Prosecutor, and Andrew Woodall as Adolf Hitler.

Tatiana Sablikova - AMANDA RYAN

Sound Designer - ADAM WOODHAMS

A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

20th November 1945 and the Defendants take their place in the dock – 22 of the most senior Nazis, representing each component of Hitler’s machine. But without simultaneous translation the trial will be unworkable – are the interpreters ready? Can they manage 100 words-per-minute? This has never been done before.

Nuremberg was the first ever use of simultaneous translation of every spoken word, into at least three other languages...they said it couldn’t be done. But it was. And the trial would have been impossible without it. And once the indictments have been read, Robert Jackson, Chief US Prosecutor stands to make the opening speech. Starring Amanda Ryan as Tatiana Sablikova, a Russian translator and Joseph Mydell as Robert H Jackson.

Tatiana Sablikova - AMANDA RYAN

Sound Designer - ADAM WOODHAMS

A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

October 1945 and the trial starts in less than a month – but do the Russians genuinely want it to happen? They seem to be employing delaying tactics – is it because they can also be accused of war crimes? Or is it just another regular SNAFU?

Each day brings a new problem: first, to find enough German lawyers to represent the 22 defendants (but access to American PX supplies closes the deal for most of them)...can Russia provide translations of its documents (Stalin had executed most people in Russia who could speak a foreign language)?...the rivalry between the judges (Biddle expected to be appointed President of the Court, but Truman conceded it should be the British judge)...and yet, somehow, they manage to start on time. Starring Nicholas Woodeson as Sir Geoffrey Lawrence, the President of the Court and Nathan Wiley as Judge Parker.

Major Airey Neave - FREDDIE FOX

Sound Designer - ADAM WOODHAMS

A Promenade Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds