‘…..I am now completely satisfied that you are
Making History
in a real way …..’
Sylvia Maxwell Fyfe to David Maxwell Fyfe following her visit to Nuremberg in February 1946
Making History – scenes for the stage adapted by Tom Blackmore from letters exchanged between David & Sylvia Maxwell Fyfe during the trial of Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg 1945 – 46,
the verbatim record of the trial, reports from newspapers & extracts from ‘The Wishing Doll’, a series of stories written at that time by David Maxwell Fyfe for his daughter Miranda.
© Pamela Blackmore, Miranda Cormack 2002 (Draft 8)
Making History
Intimate Impressions of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials
Scenes for the stage
Cast of characters
The play should be performed by three actors, with parts played cast in the following way:
Actor 1
David Maxwell Fyfe
Actor 2
The Singer
Sylvia Maxwell Fyfe
Margaret Roberts
Actor 3
The Projectionist
An Adjutant
An American in the Wishing Doll
A GI soldier in the Wishing Doll
A Russian in the Wishing Doll
Robert Jackson
A Russian Translator
Kesselring
Hermann Goering
Joachim Von Ribbentrop
Karl Doenitz
Franz Von Papen
Actor 4
The Musician
The 4th Estate
Monty Lacey, reporter for the Daily Express
Notes
On the performance of letters
Letters are a form of dialogue. Whilst it is important to establish the fact in the minds of the audience that letters are being exchanged, once that is established, the play should be viewed as conversation between David and Sylvia Maxwell Fyfe, and not become tied to the literalism of letter writing.
On performing cross examination
The cross examinations are taken from the English transcripts of the trial. All parties therefore speak English
On music
Much of this play should be underscored by music – a full score, written by the Brannick Academy is available on request – as are details of songs written by Sue Casson and the Brannick Academy.
On supporting images
A CD Rom of images and technical script will available to those who wish to perform the play.
Act 1
The setting is an attic. It is cluttered with old furniture, including a couple of tables and chairs & a single bed, and boxes, including a trunk and red government despatch box. An old sheet is hanging in one corner of the stage. As the action progresses the actors use the clutter to create the rooms of DMF & SMF, the Oxford Union, other spaces, and the court of International Military in Nuremberg. As the audience enters, an actor (the projectionist) is rifling through the boxes – and finds a laptop and projector – he turns the presentation. This consists of pictures of David and Sylvia Maxwell Fyfe. The Musician finds a piano, some sheet music and encourages the singer to sing.
Song :There’ll come a time, when this is just a memory
There’ll come a time, when we’ve moved on
Our hopes and fears vanished into history
Familiar faces gone
There’ll come a time, when winter turns to spring again
There’ll come a warmth to thaw this icy chill
The seeds that we sow, wither and grow
As they will
And some day we’ll live life differently
As the years behind us show
There’ll come a time, we’ll never know
When the house light dims the following letter has been discovered:
Actor 1(reading) Zyrndorf…. Friday 2nd August at 2.20 1946 from David Maxwell Fyfe to his wife Sylvia…. My dearest sweetheart….. I do hope that you have by now arrived at the Highlands Hotel. I hope you will be able to sink into a coma in a deck chair in the garden for reasonable periods each day. It seems my idea of Heaven if I could do so in your company.
It would be rather nice to go to Oxford "with a mission" during Pam's first term. The date is Friday 25th October.
Actor 2October 20th 1946 from Pamela Maxwell Fyfe to her parents David and Sylvia in London….. I am absolutely longing for next Friday. I think Daddy’s meeting will be very crowded as everyone sounds interested – as far as I gathered from the applause that greeted the announcement at the meeting last Friday and the independent reactions of various people… By the way I had a letter from Margaret Roberts (the Conservative president) asking me to come to the formal dinner beforehand at the Randolph. I accepted. That I presume was right.
They pull around a table and line up behind it. They dig out a speech from the box. Actor 3 hands it over to Margaret Roberts. Throughout the speech she sits as chairman beside David Maxwell Fyfe.
Actor 3 An introduction……by Margaret Roberts…..didn’t she become Thatcher?
Margaret RobertsI am sure you will agree that we are most fortunate in having with us this evening Sir David Maxwell Fyfe. Recently I met an Army officer who arrived at Nuremberg the day after certain interrogations had taken place between Marshal Goering and the Allied Nations, and the American officer there, who was taking my friend round, said: “You arrived one day too late. You missed what is undoubtedly the most interesting and masterly episode of the Trial.” My friend asked what that was, and the American officer replied: ‘The interrogation of Marshal Goering by Sir David Maxwell Fyfe.’….I know you are waiting to listen to him and I am sure that we are very lucky to have him here (Hands the speech to Actor 1, who digs out and puts on a suit jacket)
Actor 1(He begins to read, but shortly loses the need for his script as he becomes David Maxwell Fyfe, delivering the speech in Oxford) Thank you…No modern war has been free from accusations of atrocities allegedly committed by the other side, and the lurid Allied propaganda of the First World War had undoubtedly created a certain amount of cynicism when these charges began to be hurled against the Germans almost on the brink of the second. But the evidence of Nazi brutality which began to stream to the West after the occupation of Europe was so overwhelming and appalling that the demand for retribution upon those guilty of those outrages became widespread. Within a day or two of my appointment as Attorney-General on May 28th, 1945, I went to Claridges to have my first conversation with Mr Justice Jackson, who had been commissioned by President Truman to deal with the problem of what to do with major war criminals on behalf of the United States.
Actor 3It was no simple problem that faced us in our early talks. A number of choices were open to us – one was to select the defendants and give them a hearing. In such event, natural justice demanded that we should inform them clearly what charges were against them, produce to them the evidence in which these charges were based, and give them a full opportunity of answering them.
Actor 1This was the view strongly advocated by Jackson and myself. The four powers, the United States, Britain, France and Russia went into conference which drew up a Charter under which the following crimes fell under the jurisdiction of the Tribunal:
Actor 2Crimes against peace
Actor 3Crimes against humanity and
Actor 4War Crimes
Actor 1 The work of the conference was shortly disturbed by an electoral interruption. The wartime Coalition had broken up and Winston, having formed the ‘Caretaker Government’ decided to go to the country. In the meantime the conference continued: there was discussion as to where the seat of the Tribunal should be, and where the trials should be held. I tentatively suggested Munich, but Jackson, after a preliminary tour was strongly of the opinion that Nuremberg was the most suitable place. He very fairly invited us all to come in his plane on July 21st.
Actor 3For our purpose the Provincial Court House in Nuremberg, with numerous rooms in addition to the Court itself, and the adjacent prison was obviously suitable. On practical grounds, as well as from the ideological standpoint of being the place where the Nazis had held their party rallies, Nuremberg seemed a good choice.
Actor 1It was at this point, as we were nearing the end of our labours, that it was announced that an ungrateful country had kicked out the Churchill Government. The result was a Labour majority of 200 and I was lucky to hold my seat in West Derby in Liverpool with a majority of 3,428. At this point having worked on the subject for three years, I thought that my work in connection to war criminals was finished. I was glad to think that the Charter and plans for the trial were in good shape and began to look for chambers. That, however was postponed for a year. Mr Attlee chose Hartley Shawcross as Attorney General, and Hartley asked me whether I would continue the work as Deputy Chief Prosecutor. I accepted. My change of title made no difference to my position as head of the British prosecuting team, since Hartley left almost everything up to me. The main work that had now to be done was the selection of defendants. In the end we identified twenty-four, one of whom died before the trial began, one committed suicide, and one was tried in absentia. (The projectionist projects pictures of the defendants as they are mentioned) Tonight I will share with you some brief impressions of my time in Nuremberg and some thoughts about four of these cases: those of Goering,
Actor 3
Actor 1Ribbentrop,
Actor 3
Actor 1Doenitz
Actor 3…Commander in Chief of U-Boats and Hitler’s successor…
DMF…and von Papen…
Actor 3…Vice Chancellor under Hitler and Hitler’s Ambassador to Austria…
DMFWith me in the British prosecuting team were (once again pictures are projected) Khaki Roberts, Mervyn Griffith-Jones, Harry Phillimore, Elwyn Jones and John Barrington. In addition we had an admirable collection of secretaries, including Miss Kentish, who looked after me. On October 24th I flew to Nuremberg. I did not think it would be nearly a year before I finally returned.
Scene 1 Setting out (The Wishing Doll)
Song :There’ll come a time, when this is just a memory
There’ll come a time, when we’ve moved on
Our hopes and fears vanished into history
Familiar faces gone
The actors create two ‘rooms.’ Each contain a desk, a chair, and share access to the bed, which is made up of a trestle table. SMF is in her room at a small desk, DMF in his room.
SMFFriday, October 1945. Darling, I shall write a little to-day and finish over the weekend & take it down to Church House on Monday in the hopes that this will reach you & that I will hear from you soon. I do hope you felt fairly well & that Kentish did not pass out on you
DMFBritish War Crimes Executive, Palace of Justice, Nuremberg….Sunday….
SMFSunday
DMFMy dearest Angel, Now that three days are over I realise and hate the thought of how long three months will be. It is horrible being without you, and, although I try and stand by our old ability to take it, the prospect is vile.
SMFReally - these first 3 days have been so long that I hope sincerely that they will pass more quickly by & by.
DMFI shall try and give you a picture of what has happened. We had, unfortunately for Miss Kentish, a bad flight to Brussels. The pilot said it was one of the worst he had had. I am so used to flying that it did not worry me at all, but Miss Kentish was rather rumbled although the weather improved between Brussels and Nuremberg. Counting the judges staff there are now 168 British personnel. I am responsible for over 100 and have to approve billeting, transport, messing and the like. The billets are quite good. My room, in which I am writing this, is a large square one with another twin bed waiting for you. The weather today is wonderful. We worked this morning but now the sunlight is pouring into the bedroom.
SMF I know you must be working like mad & I hope & pray you are comfortable & well & not too bored.
DMFWe are in Zyrndorf, a village about 5 miles out. It is pleasant fine wood country and looks lovely today. The only snag at night is the Americans who shoot hares with carbines that they then skin in the headlights of their jeeps which is slightly irritating when one is going off to sleep.
SMFAll love to you as ever…..Sylvia
DMF(refers to list) I forgot, a sponge, my German phrase book which must be in my Chambers. I thought it was in my briefcase. Other towels of which there are none here, elastoplasts if they are obtainable, a torch. If you could get these and at your convenience ask Vernon Sinclair ("SINK") at Church House, to put them in the courier plane it would be a great help. Tell Mo I shall try and send her a story next week. More love. D
SMF(Puts on her coat, talking while walking from Church House)
Monday ….. I have now discovered the rather pleasant thing that a plane for correspondence goes out on Tuesday & Friday so your letter which I took to Church House to-day, should reach you to-morrow. Isn’t it extraordinary with nobody to talk to? I should never have believed that we talk so much!
(An adjutant is reporting to DMF)
AdjutantLord Justice Lawrence has no top sheet and 1 straw pillow; Mr Justice Birkett has no separate house; billeting …. if the military officers are billeted separately from the civilian counsel the delegation will fall into 2 camps, if they remain mixed…..
DMF Lt. Col.Turrall will get on Mr. Elwyn Jones sensitive socialist nerves.
Adjutant Miss Kentish's billet's bathroom has no curtains and none of the female staff can have a bath for fear of being overlooked. And is it all right if I borrow your jeep to get to the courthouse, sir?
SMF(In her room) Tuesday….I got your letter - with the greatest joy & relief - at teatime. I hope so much you got mine. It seems less remote when I know the details of what you are doing ( I have never been away from them in 20 years) & when you describe the room with ‘my’ bed in it. I will send all you ask for on the next plane. I hope your new overcoat can come at the same time. I really must stop writing to you. It will drive you raving mad to even see such a long letter! Good-night, my darling. Write when you can but I shall not worry now when I do not hear. I know you are up to your eyes in work & quite comfy …
DMFThursday 1st November…My dearest love… How are you? I feel as if I had been transported into a cage of grey glass because I hear nothing except official telegrams from the outside world. I hope all is well with you, Pam & Mo. It is an extremely interesting experience from the point of view of my own psychology. My job is partly conducting a seemingly unending international conference, partly running a small department, partly commanding a military unit, and lastly getting a case up for trial. Everyone has something wrong…. and for someone like myself who has studiously left every unpleasant arrangement that he could for his wife to deal with, it is a very good thing to have to deal with it himself. Actually these are mainly teething troubles and I think everyone is working hard and reasonably harmoniously. (A letter is delivered by the Adjutant ) As I was writing these words your sweet letter came which cheered me up enormously. Darling it is miserable without you and I sometimes wonder how I came to take on the job. Having done so it has got to be done. Eisenhower has made an order forbidding wives even of judges so you may have to qualify as a private secretary with Lady Birkett.
SMF(Finishing a parcel) Friday… I have done up your parcel of towels, torch & elastoplasts also the sermon book, with the letter I finished last night & it goes on the courier plane. Also a letter & painting from Mo with her special love.(SMF walks across and presents DMF with letters and parcels)
DMFSunday…..This morning to my great delight I got two letters and three parcels. Its terribly good of you to have taken so much trouble to have sent everything out. Once again a thousand. I fully agree that the depression which descends upon me is largely caused by not having you to talk things over with. I miss you specially at bed-time and before dinner. I think that all this hoo-hah of Eisenhower about no wives in the American zone will be cleared away before the date we fixed on. We shall lay on the visit somehow. Keep ringing up Sinclair and asking for mail.
SMFMonday… Thank you for your lovely letter & Mo’s perfectly wonderful story. . You are so terribly clever, & I do miss it all so much. I could kill all the ruddy people who are being such a bore, it may be excellent for your psychology but it makes me mad! If you don’t complain I know I mustn’t but time goes very slowly. I have made friends with O’Niell at Church House & he is very helpful about getting your things out to you. I hope to God he will get your wife out to you in spite of the order! He seemed optimistic the other day.