DOCUMENTARY FILM AS EVIDENCE AT THE INTERNATIONAL MILITARY TRIBUNAL

The article explores the role of documentary film as evidence at the Nuremberg Trials through the lens of legal realism and behaviorism. It addresses the problem of the insufficient emotional dimension in international law and the limitations of legal positivism when confronted with heinous crimes. The author analyzes how footage of concentration camps, despite doubts about its objectivity from the standpoint of legal positivism, became a powerful tool for emotional impact and the shaping of historical memory. Particular attention is given to the differing ideological narratives underlying such documentary material, using as examples the American film Nazi Concentration Camps and the Soviet Film Document on the Atrocities of the German-Fascist Invaders. The article examines the mechanisms by which these documentary films influenced trial participants, analyzing the behavioral reactions of the defendants, as recorded in trial transcripts and eyewitness accounts, as well as the artistic techniques of editing and narrative construction. The conclusion argues that the emotional dimension introduced by visual evidence helps compensate for the shortcomings of a purely formal legal approach by reinforcing the moral evaluation of unprecedented crimes and expanding the tools available to international justice.