History Film / GodOnTrial

* YouHaveFailedMe: The whispering Rabbi reveals in the scriptures God/Adonai ''hates'' us overriding him, by choosing compassion over wholesale slaughter. He gave King Saul as an example, since he was under God's command [[KillEmAll to utterly destroy the people of Amalek, and spare no one]]. He met the Kanites, who weren't even the Amalekites, thus he urged them to flee and be spared from the ensuing carnage. God was ''pissed'' by Saul's mercy, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness and denounced him as king]]. Thus Samuel brought forth king Agag, and hacked him to pieces to appease Adonai, restoring the Jews to his favor.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:The Jews conclude that God has abandoned them]], the film ends with several of the prisoners being led to the gas chambers, and no one is confirmed to have escaped or survived[[note]]until the liberation by Allied forces.[[/note]], with the trial itself fading into near-obscurity.
* EveryoneHasStandards: The Kapo running the block is a self admitted criminal who will do whatever it takes to survive ultimately allows an old man to volunteer in place of his son, even bribing another kapo to look the other way.

* HistoryRepeats: The whispering Rabbi realizes this much. The Jews were now experiencing the horror of genocide that was inflicted on their historical enemies from the scriptures.

* MultinationalTeam: The prisoners include Germans, Poles, and two Frenchmen. The German capo don't hesitate to call the newcomers Polacks. But to the Nazis they're all Jews and lumped together.

* ThisIsUnforgivable: For the Rabbi, it's genocide and [[EvilIsHammy murdering children to make an example of others]]. No being, [[OrangeAndBlueMorality however powerful or incomprehensible]], however beloved by the masses, [[MoralEventHorizon can ever justify doing this]]. It is ''not'' good.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The French Astrophysicist says the Jewish invention of monotheism caused it to be culturally more narrow and embrace the idea of one King with Hitler now moving to the idea that he is the one God. He contrasts this with the openness of Egypt. A society where the one Pharaoh ruled with absolute power and was actually worshipped as a God.

* FrenchJerk: The HollywoodAtheist who dismisses the other Jews as babies for their belief in God is from Paris.
* {{Ghostapo}}: It's suggested during the final monologue that the Nazis owe their success due to having made a covenant with the God who abandoned the Jews.
* GodIsEvil: Subverted. The Jews were not discussing God's ''character'' - such banter was irrelevant to the trial, and stripped from the record. The jury ultimately decides God is in breach of contract, although whether they find him evil is not stated. The final monologue, however, features a man who is unequivocally of this position.

* HistoryRepeats: The whispering Rabbi realizes this much. The Jews were now experiencing the horror of genocide that was inflicted on the Amalekites. He then concludes, to his horror, the Nazis will suffer a similar miserable end when God inevitably abandons them too, and so on and so on.

* MultinationalTeam: The prisoners include Germans, Poles, and at least one French guy. The German prisoners don't hesitate to call the newcomers Polacks. But to the Nazis they're all Jews and lumped together.

* FrenchJerk: The HollywoodAthiest who dismisses the other Jews as babies for their belief in God is from Paris.

HopeSpot: Lieble, a man who was forced into an impossible SadisticChoice, talks about feeling the sun's warmth makng him feel the presence of God. He begins praying, making it seem like the trial will exonerate God afterall. Then the SS barge in and drag the new arrivals to be processed. That brings the mood all the way down.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory:

* MultinationalTeam: The prisoners include Germans, Poles, and at least one French guy. To the Nazis they're all Jews and lumped together.

* HeelFaithTurn: A complicated example if there ever was one. [[spoiler: One of the judges reveals he used to be a [[Boomerange Bigot "good jew hating German"]] whose kids were in the Hitler Youth before the Nazis sent him to Auschwitz because of his father being Jewish. He says he didn't know a word of the Torah before arriving. He ultimately tells the other judges that since the Nazis have stripped everything else that made the inmates men, they should keep hold onto "our God" even if he's daft.]]

* HeelFaithTurn: A complicated example if there ever was one. [[spoiler: One of the judges reveals he used to be a "good jew hating German" whose kids were in the Hitler Youth before the Nazis sent him to Auschwitz because of his father being Jewish. He says he didn't know a word of the Torah before arriving. He ultimately tells the other judges that since the Nazis have stripped everything else that made the inmates men, they should keep hold onto "our God" even if he's daft.]]

* TakeMeInstead: The old prisoner successfully begs to replace his son in the gas chambers. This after his faith had been shaken by the trial and his public criticism of his son as "bad jew" during the trial. [[note]] Coming right after the Whispering Rabbi's denunciation of God, it can be interpreted either as showcasing the goodness in men's hearts that should have caused Abraham to reject God's orders to sacrifice Isaac or as example of Judaism surviving another generation through sacrifice, if only for 1 more day, as it always has. [[/note]]

* GodIsEvil: Subverted. The Jews ''were not'' discussing God's character - such banter was irrelevant to the trial, and stripped from the record. The jury ultimately decides God is in breach of contract, although whether they find him evil is not stated. The final monologue, however, features a man who is unequivocally of this position.

* EvilStoleMyFaith: The holocaust and concentration camps broke the faith of many of its victims. While many (but not all) of the Jews hold on to their belief in God, the trial accuses that their covenant with god - the belief that god loves them and will protect them - is breached.