Le labyrinthe du silence

Nowadays, the word Auschwitz has become a synonym for the worst kind of human evil. But there was a time when, at least in Germany, nobody knew the word, let alone what happened there. In the years after the war, German society wanted to forget everything about this terrible period, including the atrocities committed.

'Im Labyrinth des Schweigens' (In the Labyrinth of Silence) shows how this period came to an end. A journalist presses charges against a former Auschwitz camp commander, who is now a school teacher. A prosecutor starts an investigation, but his efforts are obstructed by all kinds of procedures. It is clear that most Germans don't want to be confronted with the mass murders committed by their fellow compatriots. In one scene, the prosecutor asks his young colleagues what the word Auschwitz means to them. None of them come up with an answer.

The film clearly shows how complex the past was for post-war Germany. Lots of people had been a member of the National Socialist Party, without being a nazi by conviction. Some became a nazi because it was convenient to be part of the ruling power-base. The prosecutor learns that even some people who are very close to him, were on the wrong side of history. Still, he is convinced that the men who committed war crimes should be punished.

This is an interesting story about an unknown period in the German history. Unfortunately, the film maker decided to include a cheesy love story in the script. The prosecutor's love affair is distracting, unnecessary and predictable. Towards the end, there are too many side stories and subplots, and the film starts dragging on. At the same time, there are some very nice creative scenes. I particularly liked the scene without words, when the prosecutor starts interviewing the witnesses from the concentration camps. Small gestures and facial expressions show, better than any dialogue, the horror these people must have gone through.

Holocaust stories from Schindler's List (1993) to Son of Saul (2015) penetrate our emotional defences by dragging us right into the horror zone. In Labyrinth of Lies (2014) we are spared this entirely because the horror is of a different kind. The focus is on a nation in denial, desperate to block the collective memories of the generation responsible and prevent the following one from ever knowing. The historical timeframe depicted is critical to grasping the power of this story. Set in 1958 Germany, thirteen years after the war, the economy is booming but the nation's older generation struggle with guilt and anger while the young have not even heard of Auschwitz. Produced in Germany, this film is an illuminating piece of the historical puzzle and part of a nation's prolonged self-atonement.

The storyline is linear and uncomplicated. A journalist recognises a former Nazi commander of Auschwitz now working as a schoolteacher, but he cannot elicit any interest from public prosecutors. He befriends young lawyer Johann Radmann who processes parking fines but is desperate to take on serious cases. Despite ridicule from colleagues he is made lead investigator and gradually learns about the secret killing factories of Auschwitz. The labyrinth he encounters is one of silence and lies, as large numbers of public servants and others in positions of power were former members of the Nazi Party and many were morally complicit in Hitler's Final Solution. Along the way, he becomes the obsessive hunter as the investigation keeps getting bigger until it is all- consuming. A romantic sub-story is awkwardly woven into the plot both to humanise Radmann and show the destructive impact that the investigation has on his life. The filming and sets convey the period with authenticity, and the directing is tight although the script is heavy. It takes almost the entire film to expose the full-scale truth, and the results of the investigations are dealt with swiftly as a cinematic necessity.

No doubt some people watch Holocaust films for entertainment, but many more do so searching for understanding of this extraordinary period of history. Labyrinth of Lies is important because it fills the gap between war's end in 1945 and the world's slow awakening to what happened at Auschwitz. In particular, it explains how the truth was kept from young Germans oblivious to what their parents did in the war and shows powerful hands on the blanket of silence. Like Spotlight (2015), the story starts by looking at the tip of an iceberg that grew until it overwhelmed a nation and it maintains an engaging thriller quality to the end.

For years I've been watching films from the "Allies" point of view and I never thought of the German point of view or I just assumed German people knew of the atrocities committed by their fellow men.

Its amazing and heartbreaking to know that Germans actually didn't know or chose to not believe what the Nazis were doing to the Jews during WWII.

We were made to believe also that all the Nazis were living in hiding after WWII, when some of them were actually living in relative comfort and free from scrutiny, among some of the people they tortured.

Labyrinth of Lies is the film that gives us a look of how the Germans were actually living in denial for years after the war and how some of the Nazis that committed war crimes were living their normal lives as if nothing had happened.

Very interesting film and very easy to understand if you know the history.

Based on the true story of a young Public Prosecutor from Frankfurt named Johann Radmann (Alexander Fehling – 'Inglorious Basterds'). He encounters a survivor of Auschwitz and a journalist who want to bring the perpetrators of the atrocities that took place there to trial. The problem is that Germany seems to not want to rake over the coals of the past and there are former Nazi's everywhere who just don't care.

What follows are the travails he and his friends go through in order to do something, try to build a case and wake the German people from their wilful apathy towards the war. We also have his personal life and that of those around him and who are swept up in the investigation.

This is an extremely well made film, the story is completely gripping and I loved the period detail too. It does not sugar coat what took place but is also not horrific in terms of the graphic abuse that sadly occurred, especially at the hands of Mengele and co. It is very moving in places and features some truly excellent performances especially Fehling and his love interest Friedrike Becht ('Hannah Arendt')who plays Marlene – it is in German with very good subtitles and runs for 123 minutes and is one that is very easy to recommend indeed.

This is definitely one of the more powerful holocaust films. It doesn't have any visual images of the holocaust. It's about the aftermath. To bring the perpetrators on trial, the effects on a Germany (or West Germany) in total denial, of the children of the Nazi era and their latent guilt of what their parents may have done or did. One feels what it was to grow up German during this period of the late 1950's.

It's very emotional performance by Alexander Fehling. We feel his anguish as he learns the scale of his country's complicity of what happened – and his anger and frustration at the lies to circumvent it all. And this is told at the personal level – it is individuals whose lives were shattered and it is individuals who did the destroying.

Unique and impressive.