The Nuremberg lever
The film Nuremberg, watched at the cinema, becomes a study in how evil defends itself. It follows the psychologist who interviewed the imprisoned Nazi commanders to understand what led them to their actions, the 'I was only following orders' question. Juan reports it carefully, without endorsing anyone. The tribunal's purpose was to set a precedent: define good and evil for future wars, and refuse to let the accused become martyrs. Göring nearly talked his way out, 'I said handle the Jews, not exterminate them', 'you mistranslated', and the stakes were that if the second-in-command walked, everyone walked. The lever that broke him was his own narcissism: asked, with his comrades watching, whether he'd still be loyal to Hitler now that Hitler was dead and no one could punish him, he said yes, and condemned himself. The bittersweet coda: some cheated the gallows with cyanide, and the psychologist, who broke confidentiality to hand the judges Göring's secret prison memoir, turned bitter and later killed himself when his own book flopped, badmouthing the very country he needed to buy it.
// trace: where this idea came from
- ↳ video diary @ 54:50 (el psicólogo entrevistaba a los presos para entender qué los llevó a esas acciones)
- ↳ video diary @ 59:53 (el tribunal quería sentar un precedente, definir bueno y malo, no dejarlos ser mártires)
- ↳ video diary @ 1:05:33 (lo quebraron por el narcisismo, con sus compañeros mirando dijo que seguía fiel a Hitler)
- ↳ Entry 226-4: Meaning is a moving target (la misma pregunta de si el mal es inherente o construido)
The film Nuremberg, watched at the cinema, turns into a study of how evil defends itself, and Juan reports it carefully, endorsing nothing. It follows the psychologist assigned to interview the imprisoned Nazi commanders, at first just to understand what led them to their actions, the “I was only following orders” question, while for much of the film nobody yet grasps the full scale of the Holocaust ▸ 54:50. The tribunal’s purpose, unlike the vanished-into-nothing aftermath of the First World War, was to set a precedent: to define good and evil for future wars, on the record, and to refuse to let the accused become martyrs later mistaken for heroes ▸ 59:53.
lo quebraron por el narcisismo: con sus hombres mirando, no pudo renegar de Hitler →
Göring nearly talked his way out. He’d turned himself in with a prepared argument, calculating and vain: “I said handle the Jews, I didn’t say exterminate them”, “you mistranslated that” ▸ 1:03:53. The stakes were structural, because if Hitler’s second-in-command slipped free, so did everyone behind him. The lever that broke him was his own narcissism: asked, with his comrades watching him as the face of the movement, whether he’d still be loyal to Hitler now that Hitler was dead and no one could punish him, he said yes, and condemned himself on the spot ▸ 1:05:33. The coda is bitter: some cheated the gallows with cyanide, and the psychologist, who broke confidentiality to hand the judges Göring’s secret prison memoir, turned sour and years later killed himself when his own book flopped, having badmouthed the very country he needed to buy it ▸ 1:08:11…