Music Box

Mr. Burke. 563 00:40:35,754 --> 00:40:38,632 The issue in this case is simple. 564 00:40:39,194 --> 00:40:42,630 The evidence will show that Michael J. Laszlo... 565 00:40:42,834 --> 00:40:46,031 ...lied on his application for American citizenship... 566 00:40:46,234 --> 00:40:49,670 ...and was granted that citizenship under false pretences. 567 00:40:49,874 --> 00:40:53,150 His citizenship, consequently, must be taken away. 568 00:40:53,634 --> 00:40:56,194 He lied in order to hide the fact... 569 00:40:56,394 --> 00:41:01,991 ...that in the latter months of 1 944 and the early months of 1 945... 570 00:41:02,194 --> 00:41:07,552 ...he served as a member of an SS-organized Hungarian death squad... 571 00:41:07,754 --> 00:41:09,346 ...known as Arrow Cross. 572 00:41:09,554 --> 00:41:11,784 Also called the Special Section... 573 00:41:12,714 --> 00:41:15,626 ...a unit of the Hungarian gendarmes. 574 00:41:16,154 --> 00:41:19,908 Mr. Laszlo committed crimes so heinous that the mind boggles... 575 00:41:20,114 --> 00:41:21,627 ...trying to comprehend them. 576 00:41:21,834 --> 00:41:25,065 We are not speaking here of the banality of evil... 577 00:41:25,274 --> 00:41:30,792 ...of an anonymous bureaucrat sitting in an office giving orders... 578 00:41:31,194 --> 00:41:34,470 ...or a gendarme executing orders. 579 00:41:34,914 --> 00:41:37,508 We are speaking of a man... 580 00:41:37,714 --> 00:41:41,866 ...who committed these heinous crimes with his own hands. 581 00:41:42,074 --> 00:41:45,032 We are speaking of evil incarnate. 582 00:41:46,034 --> 00:41:47,945 Thank you, Your Honour. 583 00:41:50,754 --> 00:41:53,473 -Your Honour, if it please the court. -Mrs. Talbot. 584 00:41:53,674 --> 00:41:55,904 -Counsel. -Mrs. Talbot. 585 00:41:56,115 --> 00:41:57,548 Your Honour... 586 00:41:57,755 --> 00:42:00,747 ...the issue here is not whether my father lied... 587 00:42:00,955 --> 00:42:03,833 ...on his application for American citizenship. 588 00:42:04,035 --> 00:42:05,912 That is a smoke screen. 589 00:42:06,115 --> 00:42:08,026 Yes. My father did lie. 590 00:42:08,235 --> 00:42:11,227 But he did so because he did not want to be repatriated... 591 00:42:11,435 --> 00:42:13,824 ...by a Communist government that either executed... 592 00:42:14,035 --> 00:42:17,744 ...or sent to work camps all those who opposed it. 593 00:42:17,955 --> 00:42:19,911 My father was a gendarme. 594 00:42:20,115 --> 00:42:23,073 But he was not a member of the Special Section. 595 00:42:23,275 --> 00:42:25,425 My father worked as a clerk in an office. 596 00:42:25,635 --> 00:42:28,468 He requested that assignment because he could not tolerate... 597 00:42:28,675 --> 00:42:32,793 ...the brutalities that he witnessed his fellow gendarmes commit. 598 00:42:33,035 --> 00:42:37,233 My father is simply an innocent man who is unjustly accused. 599 00:42:37,755 --> 00:42:39,985 He is a man who is being punished by proxy... 600 00:42:40,195 --> 00:42:42,789 ...by a Communist government for an action he committed... 601 00:42:42,995 --> 00:42:46,465 ...against representatives of that government five years ago. 602 00:42:46,675 --> 00:42:48,870 -Your Honour, with your permission. -You may. 603 00:42:49,075 --> 00:42:50,827 Would you please? 604 00:42:56,875 --> 00:43:00,185 At an appearance here of the Hungarian National Folk Dancers... 605 00:43:00,395 --> 00:43:03,114 ...a group belonging to the Communist government... 606 00:43:03,395 --> 00:43:06,228 ...my father forced the performance to halt. 607 00:43:06,675 --> 00:43:09,792 The tour was cancelled, my father was arrested. 608 00:43:09,995 --> 00:43:12,555 Charges were later dismissed. 609 00:43:12,755 --> 00:43:15,667 The Hungarian government lodged an official protest... 610 00:43:15,875 --> 00:43:18,469 ...over the dismissal of those charges. 611 00:43:18,675 --> 00:43:21,587 The State Department rejected that protest. 612 00:43:21,795 --> 00:43:24,753 His action was a demonstration against the repressive policies... 613 00:43:24,955 --> 00:43:27,549 ...of the Communist government. Policies which resulted... 614 00:43:27,755 --> 00:43:33,432 ...in the deaths of 1 5,000 people during the Hungarian revolution of 1 956. 615 00:43:33,755 --> 00:43:36,144 My father is a good man. 616 00:43:36,355 --> 00:43:40,314 He's the kind of man who is willing to put himself at risk against injustice. 617 00:43:40,515 --> 00:43:42,073 l know that, Your Honour. 618 00:43:42,275 --> 00:43:45,347 And before this trial is over, l will prove it to you. 619 00:43:45,555 --> 00:43:47,034 Thank you. 620 00:43:47,435 --> 00:43:48,504 Yeah. 621 00:43:48,715 --> 00:43:51,707 You may call your first witness, Mr. Burke. 622 00:43:52,075 --> 00:43:54,669 l'm employed by the United States Department of Jus