Amen.

original title:
Amen.
other titles:
Amen, Eyewitness, Der Stellvertreter, Le Vicaire
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original length:
132 min. , black/white
premiere:
D: 13 February 2002, Berlin International Film Festival
based on:
Rolf Hochhuth. Der Stellvertreter: Ein christliches Trauerspiel. Reinbek b. Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1967, 295 S.
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plot synopsis:
Two systems: the Nazi machine versus the Vatican and Allied diplomacy. Two men struggling from the inside. On one side, Kurt Gerstein, a real-life chemist and SS officer, supplied the death camps with zyklon B while he tirelessly denounced the crimes and alerted the Allies, the Pope, the Germans and their churches at his family's and his own risk. On the other, Ricardo Fontana, a young Jesuit, a fictitious character who represents all the priests who had the heart to struggle against savagery, often paying for their courage with their lives. Countless priests, some known, others anonymous, who simply were not content to live with the silence of their church's hierarchy.

literature:
Pierre Blet: Papst Pius XII und der Zweite Weltkrieg: Aus den Akten des Vatikans. Paderborn: Schöningh, 2000. ISBN: 3-506-71903-3

Gerhard Besier: Der Heilige Stuhl und Hitler-Deutschland: Die Faszination des Totalitären. München: Dt. Verl.-Anst., 2004. ISBN: 3-421-05814-8

Anthony Rhodes: Der Papst und die Diktatoren: Der Vatikan zwischen Revolution und Faschismus. Wien: Böhlau, 1980. ISBN: 3-205-08811-5
remarks:
availability:
DVD