KILLING JEWS FOR GERMAN HEALTH

Synopsis

Robert Jay Lifton a prominent Jewish psychiatrist and author visited 80 Auschwitz survivors and 40 Holocaust perpetrators, mainly former Nazi physicians. He describes as a second generation eye witness how ordinary doctors change from healers to killers.The film's aim is to bring to life things which were embedded deep in the psyche of people. The pictures and the shocking truth Lifton evokes in the minds of the audience turned out to be more moving and impressive than all the historical material which mostly discriminate against the victims.

The "Frankfurter Rundschau" wrote "this remarkable film succeed the work of Claude Lanzmann. It leads to the spiritual world of the killing doctors only by cautious, pensive views of the landscape behind Lifton's study and only by the power of words."

The filmmaker, well known for their awarded portraits of the trade unionist Willi Bleicher, who saved the Child of Buchenwald and Pastor Martin Niemoeller, the Man who defied Hitler, present an amazing interview-film about the research of the US-psychiatrist and author Robert Jay Lifton. ... (Andreas Wirwatski / Filmecho/Filmwoche)

... Lifton is a fascinating and emphatic narrator and in spite of the cruelty of his research it is a pleasure to listen to his dramatic analysis of meeting perpetrators and victims. ... (Peter Steinhart / Rheinische Post)

... Talking Heads documentaries are usually almost unbearable. But in this film the long and precise close-up or medium shots create a favourable impression and make it possible to learn how Lifton's thoughts develop ... (Wilhelm Roth / epd Film)

Festivals/awards

Martin Luther King Award
Nuclear Psychology Ressearch Award
American National Book Award

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