Their Final Means by Sofia Schartner

In 1945, black Polaroid glasses were issued to Nazi defendants at the Nuremberg Trials to protect them from the harsh lighting required for filmed documentation.

Under the harsh glare of film lights in Courtroom 600, the U.S. military issued dark sunglasses to several Nazi defendants at the Nuremberg Trials, an object that would become one of the most striking visual symbols of postwar justice. Intended as a practical response to the intense lighting required for photographic and cinematic documentation, the glasses – often mistakenly described as specially made “Nuremberg goggles”– were in fact ordinary Polaroid sunglasses used in the courtroom.

Yet it is believed that their function extended beyond comfort. By obscuring the defendants’ eyes, the glasses mediated how they were perceived by judges, journalists, and the public, contributing to an enduring image of emotional detachment and moral opacity.

As filmed evidence of concentration camps was screened and testimonies detailed the statistics and conditions of mass murder, the defendants retained the luxury of not being confronted with eye contact, shielded from the abhorrence for which they were responsible.

All images have been sourced from filmed documentation of the Nuremberg Trials.