How the Americans fought a battle of images against the Russians, in the most famous trial in History, of Nazi leaders.  

In late 1944, the Allies decided to hold a major, exemplary trial of Nazi war criminals, which would begin in Nuremberg in October 1945. The Americans, who intended to turn it into a media show, quickly took over orchestrating it. The Field Photographic Branch of the OSS (the future CIA), run by John Ford, was put in charge of gathering images bearing witness to the Nazi’s invasion plans and to the genocide of the Jews Budd Schulberg, the author of What Makes Sammy Run?, crisscrossed Europe in search of the precious footage, while his brother, Stuart Schulberg, who would become a film and TV producer, arranged the courtroom at the Palace of Justice for filming a trial that would last 10 months and where the Allies’ different film crews would have conflictual relationships.

The story of the staging and the image-making, the Americans’ wild but disappointed ambitions, and their losing battle of images against the Russians is told here for the first time.