The Children of Kalmenhof - Murdered and Forgotten (1990)

In his first feature film KALMENHOFKINDER - MURDERED AND FORGOTTEN Nikolaus Tscheschner brings a subject to the public which, as the director states, has been suppressed for forty years. Using the example of Kalmenhof, originally founded as a healing and care facility in Idstein, Hesse, the film deals with the National Socialist ›Euthanasia Campaign‹: the murder of patients with intellectual or physical disabilities by the Nazi regime in accordance with the so-called ›Act on Offspring Contraception‹ of July 14, 1933. The reports of fourteen contemporary witnesses form the central narrative of the documentary. The witness reports are illustrated with archive materials, including photographs and original documents from the Kalmenhof area, read out by the director. The demand formulated in 1989 to recognize and remember these long forgotten victims is still relevant today.