Dieter Witting

The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.

The film presents the political events surrounding the Anschluss in March of 1938 through the lives of Carola Hell, a popular young actress at the prestigious Theater in der Josefstadt, and Martin Hofmann, the Jewish journalist she plans to marry. When we encounter the couple in the lovely springtime weather their future is full of promise. They are determined to stay clear of politics. Yet in the climate of the time, nobody of her prominence or his religion can remain apolitical. Although Martin's journalist friend, Drechsler, calls to inform them that the Nazis plan to take over Austria soon, they concentrate on their work and their private happiness and dismiss the warnings.

Walter Harrer, an engineer, is on the night shift and returns home in the morning to find his wife lying unsconscious in the garden. She is sent to hospital were a loss of memory is observed. Dr. Bogner, a young psychiatrist, is interested in the case and tries to help Mercedes. He talks to her husband, her former lover and her friends to see if he can get some clue as to why she can't remember who she is. She confesses that she killed Lona Logan, her rival. But Dr. Bogner isn't sure that she's telling the truth. Did she really do it or is it pure fantasy?