Germany has made impressive strides in attempting to make up for its horrendous past, but the road has not been easy due to those who would rather bury the past, especially ex-Nazis installed in key positions after Germany’s defeat in World War II. “The People vs. Fritz Bauer,” penetratingly directed by Lars Kraume and smartly scripted by Kraume and Olivier Guez, is a gripping, intricate portrait of a real-life attorney general determined to bring Nazi war criminals to trial, especially the notorious Adolph Eichmann. It is one of the best films I have seen this year.
Of course, the story has its fictionalized elements, but at the core is the truth as reflected in the portrait of the Jewish Bauer, who as the attorney general of Hesse is credited with having tipped off the Israeli Mossad as to where Eichmann was living under an assumed name in Argentina. The film gains in credibility via the extraordinary complex and moving performance by Burghart Klaussner as Bauer. We get to know this man in all his determination, cleverness, weariness and his fight against those who oppose him in order to protect tainted officials from exposure. Bauer carries on his fight in the face of death threats and conspiracy against him. (He was also a major force in bringing about the Auschwitz trial held in Frankfurt. )
The film, beginning in 1957, takes the form of a thriller, one that involves political intrigue, secret maneuvering, blackmail and relationship intricacies that come across with clarity and primes the audience to root for Bauer in the mission that defines his life. But this is a movie, not a documentary, and there is the leeway to mix fact and fiction, the latter apparently including Bauer’s sexually vulnerable assistant, Karl Angermann, very effectively played by imposing Ronald Zehrfeld.
Bauer’s secret meetings with Mossad officials, depicted as treason under German law, are intense and exciting. Also in secret, Bauer relies on a sleazy informer to nail down Eichmann’s whereabouts. Bauer is depicted as desperately wanting Eichmann to be tried in Germany, not in Israel, as a symbol of getting Germany to face its past and expose and bring to justice other Nazi perpetrators. It is his passion.
(How true this is is debatable. In a fascinating and perceptive book, “Forgotten Trials of the Holocaust” by Michael J. Bazyler and Frank M. Tuerkheimer, Bauer’s being credited with aiding in Eichmann’s capture is acknowledged. But the authors write that Bauer tried to persuade the Israelis “not to proceed with formal extradition” because of “his lack of trust in the German bureaucracy.” They also report that Bauer “made clear that the German embassy in Argentina could not be relied on for the kind of cooperation necessary to get Eichmann to Israel.”)
I’ll leave it to historians to get the fully accurate facts, but as a movie “The People vs. Fritz Bauer” lays bare the big picture of post-war Germany grappling with its past while many responsible for atrocities were still in important positions and scheming to hide their background.
On a personal note, when I began attending the Berlin Film Festival, I was filled with mixed-feelings about going to Germany in light of the Holocaust. But I soon found comfort in making friends with members of a new generation despising the past and striving to make amends. Seeing “The People vs. Fritz Bauer” brings back such memories, as it dramatically captures one of the great issues of our time and celebrates a hero who understood the importance of seeking the truth and punishing those who committed crimes against humanity. For the record, Fritz Bauer died in 1968 at the age of 64. A Cohen Media Group release. Reviewed August 22, 2016.