Labyrinth of Lies

               It’s hard to think that there was a time after World War II where people did not know about Auschwitz.  They did not know what happened there, nor did they know what the place really was.  If someone were to ask them about Auschwitz, they would simply shake their head and say they did not know anything.  At least that is what happened to Johann Radmann (Alexander Fehling) in the film Labyrinth of Lies.  Based on a true story from 1950s Germany, Radmann is one of those people who knew little to nothing about Auschwitz.  Then, because of a simple chance encounter by another, all that changed.

                Johann Radmann is a young lawyer.  A prosecutor, it is his job to find justice for those who have had crimes done against them.  At first this only involves traffic related offenses, but it becomes much more when a journalist by the name of Thomas Gnielka (André Szymanski) arrives at the Attorney General’s office.  A friend of his, Simon (Johannes Krisch), has recognized a local school teacher as one of the commanding officers at Auschwitz.  Abhorred at the thought that this man is permitted to teach children, Gnielka comes to the Attorney General’s office to put a stop to it.  He is met with disinterest.  Only Radmann is willing to give what Gnielka is saying a second look.  He researches the man in question, finds the truth, and gets him suspended.  Thinking this is the end of the matter, Radmann proudly reports back to Gnielka what he has done.  Gnielka, however, sees that Radmann has missed the point.  He did not come to the Attorney General’s office for this one man.  What he came for was to open everyone’s eyes to the atrocities at Auschwitz.  He came to let them know that if there is one man out there who needs to be punished for his crimes, there will be numerous more waiting to be found.  All someone has to do is take the time to truly look at what happened at Auschwitz.  Hear the stories of those who survived.  Then everyone will truly know that these men do not deserve to remain free.

                Despite all that Gnielka tells him, Radmann still isn’t sure there is more to be done than he already has.  Then he discovers that the teacher who was supposed to be suspended is still teaching.  Nothing he did made any difference because people did want it to make a difference.  By actually suspending the teacher they would be officially recognizing what happened at Auschwitz, which is the last thing they want to do.  Radmann now realizes that in order for anything to change, he himself must learn all he can about Auschwitz.

                Determined to prosecute the teacher and all those like him, Radmann presents the idea of him looking into the crimes of Auschwitz to those he works with.  He is met with a lot of resistance.  Everyone laughs him off; pretty much telling Radmann what he is doing is pointless.  Even the secretary (Hansi Jochmann) is irritated at having to help by sitting in on the survivor interviews.  Then she hears the story of one of the survivors.  From that moment on, she is dedicated to working with Radmann to bring all those who committed crimes at Auschwitz to justice.

                Backed by his boss, Attorney General Fritz Bauer (Gert Voss), Radmann sets out to prosecute every person who served at Auschwitz.  While he wants to find and prosecute everyone, Radmann becomes particularly obsessed with capturing Dr. Josef Mengele.  Simon told him what Mengele did to his twin daughters.  Once he hears the story, Radmann promises he will find Mengele and make him pay for what he did.  Determined to follow through on his promise, Radmann begins to ignore the other cases.  He misses interviews and leaves most of the work to the secretary and the one additional man they have convinced to help.  His relationships start to fall apart, both personal and professional, and he inadvertently thwarts more organized plans to catch Mengele.  With each near miss in capturing Mengele, Radmann becomes more obsessed.  Everything else around him is falling apart, but he doesn’t see it.  That is until he is confronted with some truths he never knew.  One of them is about his own father.  It is at this point that Radmann breaks, putting all the work he has done in jeopardy. 

                 This is such a good film. It is subtitled, so unless you are very fluent in German, you do have to constantly watch the screen. I don’t have a problem with subtitles, but if you’re not used to them, let me tell you, this film is worth it. The story is really great. I found myself constantly cheering for history to be different than it actually was in Radmann’s search for Mengele. Then I felt so badly when Radmann pretty much came apart when he learned the truth about his father. That was hard to watch, but as I said before, definitely worth it. This is a film I feel people really need to see. It shows a huge part of the Holocaust story that hardly ever gets talked about.  The film also shows that even though it has been years, someone will listen, and while only a few may get tried, some sort of justice can be done.