Conversation With Lars Kraume — Director Of ‘The People Vs. Fritz Bauer’
August 19, 2016
By Masha Leon
I was blown away by German director Lars Kraumes riveting and revelatory film The People vs. Fritz Bauer starring Burghart Klaussner in a brilliant portrayal of indomitable Nazi hunter Bauer. A based-on-fact thriller, the film chronicles the travails and obstacles faced by Fritz Bauera German attorney general whoin the 1960s was unrelenting in his search for Adolf Eichmann eventually helping the Mossad [an act of treason!] find him and bring him to justice in Israel. In his film notes Kraume posits that Bauer wanted to teach the Germans to be a better people, to fundamentally change the country during the Adenauer era.
Bauer, a Jew, was born in Stuttgart in 1903. An atheist, he became the youngest district judge in Germany in 1930, was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933, fled to Denmark, then Sweden, returned to Germany in1949 to become attorney general of Hesse in Frankfurt-am Main [till his death in 1968].
I called Lars Kraume in Germany:
ML: How did you come to do the film?
LK: My co-writer, a [French-Jewish] journalist wrote a book
described the Auschwitz trials in the 1960s. I grew up in Frankfurtnever heard of Bauer, he was just a short chapter
in the 50s he was unknown.
ML: What was the reaction about opening this can of worms.
LK: It was well received in Germany
a big success
. It irritated people that in the 50s and 60s no one knew about the German atrocities. He died in 1968
. When you show the film to younger people its difficult for them to understand so many people at the top of society had jobs during the Nazi regime
http://forward.com/the-assimilator/348106/conversation-with-lars-kraume-director-of-the-people-vs-fritz-bauer/
Full movie (with registration):
http://playing4k.filminstan.pw/4193400