Presented in co-operation with the Goethe-Institut Irland
Quote: “a fascinating account of how a dense fog of nationwide amnesia was dissipated by the
relentless pursuit of justice.” - Variety
With artfully muted measures of amazement and outrage, actor-turned-feature-filmmaker Giulio
Ricciarelli and co-scripter Elisabeth Bartel illuminate a relatively obscure chapter of German
history, the campaign to identify, locate, and bring to trial some 22 “very normal Germans” who had
actively facilitated the Final Solution at Auschwitz, but remained unpunished, and largely forgotten,
long after the war ended. After so many decades of exposure to books, novels, films and TV miniseries
that have graphically catalogued the horrors of the Holocaust, contemporary audiences may find it
difficult if not impossible to believe that, well into the 1950s, most Germans of Radmann’s (Alexander
Fehling) generation knew nothing of what transpired at Auschwitz. And their elders were not of a mind to educate them.
Lensers Martin Langer and Roman Osin and production designer Manfred Doring are impressively adept
at evoking the look and feel of a West Germany that is evolving into an economically miraculous place
where, quite understandably, many people don’t want to rock the boat.
Joe Leydan
Variety