Six million Jews died during World War II, both in the extermination camps and murdered by the mobile commandos of the Einsatzgruppen and police battalions, whose members shot men, women and children, day after day, obediently, as if it were a normal job, a fact that is hardly known today. Who were these men and how could they commit such crimes?

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.

The documentary focuses on the German Wehrmacht’s invasion of Poland and the Soviet Union during World War II and its consequences for the German military. On June 22, 1941, “Operation Barbarossa” marked the start of a war of annihilation that claimed millions of lives. Hitler and his generals planned the destruction of the Soviet Union and its population. The Wehrmacht supported SS Einsatzgruppen in mass shootings and committed numerous war crimes. The anticipated quick victory failed to materialize due to a lack of reserves and alternative strategies, leading to the operation’s failure. Spiegel-TV author Nina Adler presents these events using previously unseen amateur footage from German soldiers and rare archival material from Russia. Expert interviews, including with military historian Rolf-Dieter Müller and authors Sönke Neitzel and Harald Welzer, round out the documentary and shed light on a war that forever changed the image of the Germans.