One of the first major efforts to confront the German public with the monstrosity of the crime against humanity they were involved in, either actively by betraying people or working/serving in the camps, or passively by turning a blind eye, accepting things as inevitable (maybe even not bad at all…). You could call it a cinematic version of those visits to nearby concentration camps that Germans in some parts of the territory were forced to undertake, which we also get a glimpse at here – and look at the hatred in some of these faces. Originally envisaged as a feature-length mix of fiction and documentary, the production was for reasons of political expediency re-conceived as a straightforward re-education short – easier to use, and more immediate. We’re screening the work’s rarest version: the one in Yiddish.

Olaf Möller