Justice Robert H. Jackson (standing, center) served as chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg trial.

HARTFORD – The official U.S. government’s film about the Nuremberg trial will be screened in West Hartford on Monday, Oct. 24 and in Bridgeport on Tuesday, Oct.  Both events are hosted by Voices of Hope, an organization created by the descendants of Holocaust survivors to preserve and share the experiences of survivors for future generations.
Made for the War Department and U.S. Military Government by Stuart Schulberg, a verteran of John Ford’s OSS War Crimes film team, “Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today” was distributed in Germany in 1948 and 1949 as part of the U.S. de-Nazification campaign.  Its release to American theaters as well as those in other countries was canceled due to political concerns.
Over the years, the original picture negative and sound elements were lost or destroyed.  Filmmakers Sandra Schulberg and Josh Waletzky made a new 35mm negative, struck from the best quality extant print, borrowed from the German National Film Archive.  Not one picture frame was removed or changed as a result of this process.  The restoration team also re-constructed the soundtrack using original sound from the trial.  The restoration allows audiences to hear Justice Robert H. Jackson’s famous opening and closing statements to the Tribunal, and the testimony from the German defendants and their defense attorneys – all in their own voices – as well as bits of the English, Russian and French prosecutors.
The film ends with Jackson’s stirring words: “let Nuremberg stand as a warning to all who plan and wage aggressive war.”
“Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today” will be screened on Oct. 24 at the Mandell JCC, 335 Bloomfield Ave. at 7 p.m.  For more information call (860) 727-5701; and on Oct. 25 at the JCC of Eastern Fairfield County, 4200 Park Ave.  For more information call (203) 372-6567.  Admission to each screening is $10.