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In this two-part documentary, Eberhard Fechner reconstructs the story of a class of pupils who passed their A-levels at Berlin's Lessing-Gymnasium in 1937. The starting point for the research is the class photo that gives the film its title. The conversations with the men, which revolve around their lives, bring back memories. However, it becomes clear how many of them have repressed the events of the Nazi era. Apologies, excuses and trivialization of the violence and crimes come out of many mouths.
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Original Language
DE
When Allied forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps in 1944-45, their terrible discoveries were recorded by army and newsreel cameramen, revealing for the first time the full horror of what had happened. Making use of British, Soviet and American footage, the Ministry of Information’s Sidney Bernstein (later founder of Granada Television) aimed to create a documentary that would provide lasting, undeniable evidence of the Nazis’ unspeakable crimes. He commissioned a wealth of British talent, including editor Stewart McAllister, writer and future cabinet minister Richard Crossman – and, as treatment advisor, his friend Alfred Hitchcock. Yet, despite initial support from the British and US Governments, the film was shelved, and only now, 70 years on, has it been restored and completed by Imperial War Museums under its original title "German Concentration Camps Factual Survey".
