The Nuremberg Einsatzgruppen trial of 1947/1948 is considered the largest murder trial in history against members of four death squads from the security police and SD (the security service of the SS). During World War II, six million Jews were murdered. Four million died in the extermination camps, but two million people were killed in systematic mass shootings. The perpetrators came face to face with their victims. They shot at men, women, children - day after day, obediently and assiduously, as if it were normal work. Tens of thousands of Germans belonged to the mobile commandos of the task forces and police battalions. Who were these men, how could they commit such murders? What did the few survivors tell, how were they able to escape the mass extinction and live on with the horrific experience? Based on written traditions, original documents, film footage and photos as well as expert statements, the documentary traces the path of one of these murder battalions.
A completely black background and, before it, a microphone; during this film a total of ten women and men will step up to this microphone. In December 2011, Berlin venue Haus der Kulturen der Welt held a symposium on the topic of the current state of our democracy. The speakers’ appraisal is shocking: the Euro crisis and so-called best alternative to ‘save the markets’ means that the poker game over our common currency has taken precedence over visionary politics and institutions and parliamentarians are reduced to playing extras in a hectic race against time. Professing themselves to being at the mercy of practical constraints, politicians are at the same time using this line of argument to legitimise the dismantling of justice, freedom and solidarity.
