Need help writing a 5 page paper using this prompt:
“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 UCLA 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?
**Knowledge of the movie Judgement at Nuremberg (1961) by Stanley Kramer is needed for this to be written well. Also please write about why the scenario that was observed is wrong and should be confronted as so. As a white person, I recognize what the teacher did was racist and she should be held responsible for such actions.