MovieChat Forums > Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) Discussion > Irene Hoffman Case

Irene Hoffman Case

posted 8 years ago by bomboogie
3 replies | jump to latest

I have seen this movie several times but am still confused by the Irene Hoffman case. In his cross examination of her, the defense attorney tried to get her to admit that she had had sex with her Jewish landlord when she was about 15. The Nuremberg Laws came out in the questioning, but those laws prohibited sex between Jews and Germans, not between two Jews. So what was the defense attorney trying to prove, and how did it relate to the charges against the Nazi judges on trial?

[–] Cairo-5 8 years ago

Some background information to your question.

The movie trial is based on the actual Judges Trial conducted in 1947. If you are interested a year ago I posted a detailed analysis of the way the movie constructs its fictional trial on that basis of the historical trial. The link where that analysis begins is

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055031/board/thread/247762096

The fictional Feldenstein case in the movie is based on an actual case, the Katzenberger trial, which was a blatant misuse of judicial power to persecute and execute an innocent Jewish man. So blatant that even many German officials at the time were troubled by it. The details of that whole case can easily be Googled, again if you are interested.

In the historical trial the judge who presided in that trial was one of the defendants and one of the charges the prosecution brought against him was regarding his conduct in this case. The prosecution claimed he was guilty of criminal actions in what he had done. The defense of course had to challenge that claim.

To answer your question, in the movie trial Irene Hoffman was not Jewish but what the Nazis regarded as Aryan. That was the basis of their unsubstantiated accusation against the elderly Jewish Feldenstein. The same situation occurred in the historical Katzenberger case.

***
It's easier to be an individual than a god.

[–] doug65oh 8 years ago

The woman in question, incidentally, was an adult at the time of her alleged "offense" and not the teenager as has been suggested here at times. She has actually been dead only about 32 years or so.

[–] bomboogie 8 years ago

Thank you for replying; you provided a good answer to my question. I will check out your link. As a sidebar, I might add that the Nazis had trouble defining just what and who were Aryans and who were Jews. I had thought this was one such case.