Cinema Can Do History: Der Prozeß. Eine Darstellung des Majdanek-Verfahrens in Düsseldorf

In 1975, the members of the SS who formed the watchmen at the Concentration and Extermination Camp Lublin-Majdanek were tried at the State Court in Dusseldorf. The trial lasted five years and seven months, was the last major court judgment relating to a concentration camp and made legal history in West Germany as the longest and most arduous proceedings ever to be conducted. Eberhard Fechner, one of German television’s most significant directors, filmed more than 300 hours of interviews with 70 witnesses, defendants, investigators, detectives, state lawyers, judges, defense counsels, lay judges and trial observers. From 150,000 meters of film and 8000 pages of interview texts supplemented with news reports and newspaper articles, he edited together the four-and-a-half-hour film DER PROZESS. EINE DARSTELLUNG DES MAJDANEK-­VERFAHRENS IN DÜSSELDORF over several years, structured into three parts: Part 1 - Accusation, Part 2 - Gathering Evidence and Part 3 - Judgements. Fechner viewed DER PROZESS as the most important film of his life, the quintessence of his work. (hjf)