Even though World War II was officially brought to an end over 50 years ago, the physical and mental scars of the German occupation remain as a painful reminder. The collective psyche of the world still recoils in horror whenever the topic arises. Enter Sandra Schulberg, a movie producer, and Josh Waletzky, a documentary director/writer, who decided together to reconstruct 'Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today,' a film originally made by Schulberg's father during the Nuremberg trials and released in 1949.

The first Nuremberg trial was convened November 20, 1945, in Nuremberg, Germany, to try the top Nazi leaders for their atrocious crimes. The verdict was rendered October 1, 1946. The lead U.S. prosecutor and the driving force behind the organization of the trial was U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson. During preparation for the trial, Jackson made the bold and historic decision to use film and photo evidence to convict the Nazis.

Writer/director Stuart Schulberg and editor Joseph Zigman were commissioned to create a documentary about the trial. Schulberg and Zigman found themselves terribly constrained. Crucial coverage simply did not exist. On the other hand, a complete sound recording of the trial had been made, but it was not synchronized to the motion picture record. Obviously, Mr. Schulberg faced immense challenges, but still managed to assemble a poignant representation of the trials and their outcome.

Now his daughter and her partner have taken the original recording and remastered it, and are screening their work for the first time in North America -- ever -- at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival. Even though World War II was officially brought to an end over 50 years ago, the physical and mental scars of the German occupation remain as a painful reminder. The collective psyche of the world still recoils in horror whenever the topic arises. Enter Sandra Schulberg, a movie producer, and Josh Waletzky, a documentary director/writer, who decided together to reconstruct 'Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today,' a film originally made by Schulberg's father during the Nuremberg trials and released in 1949.

The first Nuremberg trial was convened November 20, 1945, in Nuremberg, Germany, to try the top Nazi leaders for their atrocious crimes. The verdict was rendered October 1, 1946. The lead U.S. prosecutor and the driving force behind the organization of the trial was U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson. During preparation for the trial, Jackson made the bold and historic decision to use film and photo evidence to convict the Nazis.

Writer/director Stuart Schulberg and editor Joseph Zigman were commissioned to create a documentary about the trial. Schulberg and Zigman found themselves terribly constrained. Crucial coverage simply did not exist. On the other hand, a complete sound recording of the trial had been made, but it was not synchronized to the motion picture record. Obviously, Mr. Schulberg faced immense challenges, but still managed to assemble a poignant representation of the trials and their outcome.

Now his daughter and her partner have taken the original recording and remastered it, and are screening their work for the first time in North America -- ever -- at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival.

The original film was slated to be released in North America, but for various speculative reasons was never distributed. Some blame the post-WWII Soviet expansion, others blame an uptight American point-of-view, and still others claim the world at large was not ready for it. Regardless of why, Schulberg felt it was her personal responsibility to re-jig the film and allow North American audiences to see it.

"When I found out that the English language version was not released in the United States or North America, I thought that it had to be done," says Schulberg. "The challenge was the picture size... find a good enough print from which to make a good negative. There were no American prints that were suitable for this, but it turned out the German archives had a very high-quality print, so we used that."

She and Waletzky faced many challenges as they began the process.

"The original had printed-in dirt, it had splice marks, it had scratches, all sorts of things, which you see in the restored film," she says. "From a picture point-of-view it was relatively simple from there. The sound was a whole other challenge, since the original soundtrack for the movie had disappeared, along with the negative and the original music tracks. This was the toughest part."

All the effort put in by Schulberg and Waletzky is well worth it. The restored film is jarring, and at times I had to look away. Having not been exposed to the footage on any grand scale, it is disconcerting (to say the least) to witness Nazi soldiers throwing bodies in pits without any concern whatsoever. They may as well have been carrying sandbags. With such footage juxtaposed with the trial testimonies, even a layperson can grasp the level of monstrosity that occurred in Nazi Europe -- and this is precisely the reaction the pair wanted to achieve.

"I have to say I've been surprised at reactions," says Schulberg. I've been having some private screenings, and it's amazing. People just want to stay and talk. We've had to kick people out after an hour-and-a-half, two hours. In Berlin, it got an incredible response. We had two packed screenings, the second one for 450 German high school students. They were really blown away by the film. I said to them, 'This film is not about you. You mustn't think for one minute that you are guilty in any way for what happened here in Germany 70 years ago. You are the hope of Germany and of the world, as are your young counterparts, whether they're in Iraq, Afghanistan, the U.S., or Canada. We're looking to you young people to lead us out of this. We want people to settle their disagreements in peaceful ways instead of killing each other.'"

Ironically, while showing some of the most vile human behaviour in history, we're taught a lesson in civility and peace. Schulberg agrees that one of the reasons this film is so unsettling is because these war crimes are still occurring the world over, almost as if we've learned nothing.

"The film is meant to inspire us all, teach us all. We have to do everything we can to make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen again," she says. "I want people to see this as an anti-war film. My father chose to end the film with Justice Jackson's own words. The last line of the film is: 'Let Nuremberg stand as a lesson to all who plan and wage aggressive war.' It's really an anti-war statement."

'Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today' has its North American premiere in Toronto at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival. It screens one night only, at 7 pm at the Bloor Cinema in Toronto on Sunday, April 18.

For more information on this movie and issues surrounding Nuremberg, visit the movie's website.

The Toronto Jewish Film Festival runs from April 17-25 in Toronto.