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TV SERIES · 2000– · CANADA

Nuremberg

16 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026

All facts (16)

  1. #001

    Brian Cox said the sequence in which a film showing the Nazi concentration camps was screened in the courtroom required a large number of takes. During the actual screening of the film, crew members who could no longer bear to watch it effectively went on strike on set.

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  2. #002

    During a Christmas party, the Russian judge Major General Iona T. Nikitchenko states that 20 million Russians died during the war. Three months later, in March 1946, in an official interview with the Russian newspaper "Pravda", Joseph Stalin stated that the official death toll was only seven million. The figure of 20 million dead was not accepted until 1956, when Premier Nikita Khrushchev gave that total at a Communist Party congress meeting in Moscow. In 1989, during Mikhail Gorbachev's "Glasnost" period, total deaths were reported to be 27 million. In 1991, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, state archives were opened to research by private historians: the death toll was stated to be between 35 and 42 million, but this was not recognized by the state. The research of private scholars caused the state to close the archives again.

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  3. #003

    Sam Stone, who plays Julius Streicher, is a Jew whose father survived the Holocaust. In the scene where films of the Nazi concentration camps are shown in the courtroom, he kept his face expressionless with great difficulty. Immediately after the scene was completed, he burst into tears.

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  4. #004

    Prison psychologist Captain Gustave M. Gilbert (Matt Craven) wrote a book titled 'Nuremberg Diary' about his experiences during the trial. He later emigrated to Israel.

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  5. #005

    Most of the actors playing the defendants are Canadian, the country where the miniseries was shot. Herbert Knaup, who plays Albert Speer, is one of the few actual Germans in the cast. Knaup said the producers initially hoped to get German co-financing and that German actors, including himself, auditioned for roles. When the funding did not come through, he was the only one cast.

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  6. #006

    While awaiting his trial, Hermann Göring actually followed a strict weight-loss diet and in real life lost 60 kilos.

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  7. #007

    According to Brian Cox, the producers wanted the miniseries to be the first in an anthology of Second World War epics and were interested in having him return to play Winston Churchill. Although the project was never made, Cox would go on to play Winston Churchill in Churchill (2017).

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  8. #008

    As depicted in the miniseries, Albert Speer tried to distance himself from his fellow defendants and present himself as a remorseful Nazi with no knowledge of the Holocaust. Evidence that has emerged since the trial shows that he lied about both his lack of knowledge and his participation in the Holocaust and his support for the Nazi party. Herbert Knaup said that throughout his performance he played Speer as a liar.

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  9. #009

    In reality David Maxwell Fyfe was 46 years old and was younger than Judge Robert Jackson (53), whom the film introduces as a considerably older mentor figure. Christopher Plummer, who plays Fyfe, was 69-70 years old during filming.

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  10. #010

    In the series, Joachim von Ribbentrop is played by an elderly actor. In fact, Ribbentrop was only 52-53 years old during the trial.

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  11. #011

    In real life Captain Gilbert spoke fluent German, so throughout the series he is depicted speaking comfortably and privately with defendants such as Rudolph Höss, Emma Göring and others.

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  12. #012

    In real life, after testifying at Nuremberg, Rudolph Hoess was found guilty of murder, sentenced to death and executed by hanging on a special gallows built near the crematorium of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

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  13. #013

    Christopher Plummer is 28 years older than Alec Baldwin. However, the person he plays (David Maxwell Fyfe) was seven years younger than the person Baldwin plays (Robert Jackson).

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  14. #014

    Although Hermann Göring testified in German at his trial, in real life he could speak English.

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  15. #015

    Christopher Plummer, who was 70 years old when he shot the role, was older not only than the real David Maxwell Fyfe (who was 46 during the trial) but also than Fyfe was when he died in 1967 at the age of 66.

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  16. #016

    The Nuremberg trials had previously been dramatized in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), in which William Shatner played a supporting role. Shatner and Christopher Plummer appeared together in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). Both are Canadian and attended acting school together. They were lifelong friends.

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Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

  • IMDb Cast, crew and release details

Sources for the entries on this page

  1. IMDb IMDb kaydıDatabase

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