- The prestigious politician and large-scale farmer Franz Murer, responsible for the Ghetto of Vilnius as SS leader and NSDAP functionary from 1941-1943, stands trial in Graz, Austria. Survivors of the mass murder arrive to testify and obtain justice: to no avail.
- At the film's beginning, we see US journalist Rosa Segev (the film's only fictitious character) interviewing Simon Wiesenthal. In 1960, Wiesenthal followed up on a report that Eichmann was living in an alpine village in Austria under a false name - and instead of Eichmann he found Franz Murer, the Butcher of Vilnius, who was responsible for the Vilnius ghetto from 1941 to '43. Of the 80,000 Jews who lived in pre-war Vilnius, which was known as the Jerusalem of the East, no more than 600 survived. Wiesenthal's stubborn and painstaking efforts led to Murer's 1963 trial in Graz. The film portrays this trial from various perspectives.
The most space is given to the victims' testimony, which gradually reveals the true extent of the crime, for example, that of LEON SCHMIGEL (63), who came from the USA to exact revenge. Because Murer murdered Leon's son in the ghetto before his very eyes, Schmigel wants to stab Murer in the courtroom, in the presence of the other man's children. A very different perspective is that of the Minster of justice. Christian Broda, a social democrat, was an active member of the anti-fascist resistance and at the same time a wholehearted believer in realpolitik. He is aware that a guilty verdict for Murer could cost his party the upcoming election. The 200,000 former members of the National Socialist party who lived in Austria after the war could tip the scales, and for that reason, they were courted by every party. Broda, against his personal convictions, does everything he can to prevent a guilty verdict. Julius Koiber, one of the jurors, was involved in the executions of prisoners of war when a teenager, and the trial confronts him with this traumatic experience. He intends to vote for a verdict of guilty, but is pressured until he declares himself biased. He is then replaced by an alternate juror, who votes for acquittal. This action, which could easily have been disputed legally, as is shown by the records, was decisive for the final verdict of not guilty. The Murer family pulls the strings behind the scenes. They neither display remorse nor acknowledge that escaping punishment is the sole objective. Together with ex-Nazis, they manipulate witnesses and intervene with the press and the political elite. Star defense attorney Dr. Böck slickly employs all the mechanisms available to him to destroy the credibility of the Jewish witnesses. Every gap in memory or case of mistaken identity, no matter how minor, are exploited to call entire testimonies into question. Since there is so much evidence for Murer's guilt, he relies on cheap demagoguery. Prosecuting Attorney Schuhmann, in contrast to Dr. Böck, is apparently a conscientious, though not especially eloquent, and rather provincial. He is under a great deal of pressure, as the majority of the Austrian public supports Murer. As a result, it seems understandable that he makes a number of mistakes. At the trial's end, Schuhmann employs a legal maneuver that calls the credibility of most of his witnesses who testified against Murer into question. After the trial ends, defense attorney Böck and Prosecuting Attorney Schuhmann run into each other, and Böck realizes not only that Schuhmann was incompetent, his actions were ordered from above. Murer's acquittal was politically motivated. And it had a tragic effect. After this trial, there were no noteworthy legal cases involving Nazi mass murderers in Austria. Rosa Segev observes the entire chain of events. When she arrives from New York, she is almost cynical, and above all distanced. But then her view point of view changes. Firstly, after contact with a witness, she is confronted with her Jewish and Eastern European roots, which her parents never taught her about, and secondly, she identifies so closely with the victims who were denied justice that she is about to carry out Leon's plan for vengeance. It is unsuccessful. Franz Murer lived until 1994 with his family, as a free man.
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