“Judgment at Nuremberg” (1961) is a highly complex film, widely regarded by critics and scholars as one of the finest of the mid 20th century. This film deals with many issues of ethics and morality. This prompt addresses merely one of them, brought up near the end of the film. In one of the final scenes, Judge Heywood (Spencer Tracy) and one of the defendants, former Nazi Judge Ernst Janning (Burt Lancaster), are shown conversing. Janning admits that the guilty verdict is just. Then he says, “I never knew it would come to that.”
Judge Heywood’s response is both powerful and full of enormous implications for the present, because it deals with the implications of moral compromise with evil: “It came to that the first time you sentenced a man to death…”
Imagine the following hypothetical scenario: One of your closest friends, from early childhood and a recent alumni graduate, is an aspiring teacher. She has wanted to be an educator since early childhood and you and she have had many discussions about her professional aspirations. She wants to build a career as a high school teacher in social studies and history, making that a focus of her commitment to public service. Recently, while at school in her first job, she observed a senior teacher pushing and shoving a student of color into a classroom wall, calling him a racial slur. Your friend witnessed everything during that encounter but had nothing to do with it at all. Afterwards, she encountered the student who showed her a few minor bruises on his arm and face.
The victim complained to the Principal, who said that he would “consider the matter.” Meanwhile, she found the teacher, who was her mentor during your student teaching days, in the teachers’ lounge. She asked him about the incident. He told her to just say “she didn’t see anything” if the Principal asked her about what happened. He said, “This is no big deal and you shouldn’t rock the boat. Besides, you do want to get ahead here in the school, don’t you?” Because she was confused and upset, she went to another teacher who also mentored her during her training and asked her what she should do. She told her to do what her conscience demanded, but added, “Look, sometimes you just need to keep your mouth shut. You gotta go along to get along. Isn’t that what your parents told you? You’re a teacher now, and you’re gonna see a lotta
. . . . during your service. That’s how life works.”
So, your friend decides to ask you for advice. As it happens, you’ve just seen and discussed “Judgment at Nuremberg.” You tell her that you understand her dilemma. You recognize her need to advance in her career and you realize that this incident is fairly minor and far from Nazi Germany and genocide. But at the same time, her silence or even a lie would be a moral compromise to some degree. What is your advice? She trusts and values your judgment. Make an argument, with any position that makes sense to you, drawing on the film, discussions, and your own capacity for reasoning. How much, if any, compromise on this issue should you advise her to pursue and why?
