ABSTRACT
Themes of retribution, guilt and atonement for Nazi atrocities were articulated within popular culture as early as 1946, with the release of the very first post-war German film, Wolfgang Staudte’s Die Mörder sind unter uns (The Murderers Are Among Us). First screened just two weeks after the conclusion of the IMT at Nuremberg, the film told the tale of former surgeon Dr. Mertens who returns to a ruined Berlin after the war, traumatised by his experiences on the Eastern Front. Suffering from depression and unable to rebuild his shattered life, Mertens proceeds to track down his former commander, Captain Brückner, who was responsible for the massacre of over a hundred Polish civilians on Christmas Eve, 1942. The protagonist’s aim is simple: to kill the man responsible for his continued nightmares. At the last minute, however, he is interrupted by Susanne, a former concentration camp prisoner who persuades him that the pursuit of justice before the courts is the better means of overcoming the horrors of the recent past.
